In all the hustle and bustle of editing feature articles,  posting news stories, upcoming events, industry news and project profiles, amid other publisher duties, I sometimes forget to acknowledge the outside accomplishments (from Greenroofs.com) of our contributing editors…   This oversight will be addressed as one of my upcoming New Year’s resolutions, but for now let’s start with George Irwin, our Green Wall Editor:

George Irwin, C.E.O. of Green Living Technologies, discusses the design of an A-frame planter his company makes.

George was recently interviewed for  the “Business of Green” article by Ken Belson titled “The Rooftop Garden Climbs Down a Wall” that appeared in the Energy & Environment section on nytimes.com of November 18 and the New York Times print version on November 19, 2009.   One of his Green Living Technologies’ living wall products was featured when NYC  architect Brad Zizmor had an edible wall installed on the backyard deck  of his first-floor Manhattan apartment.  

The article really delves into the “Business of Green” – costs are included and Barthelmes Manufacturing Company, the sheet metal fabricator, was also  highlighted as well as Kari Elwell Katzander,  a landscape designer who designed the  3-panel green wall.    Although the author points out that these small greening solutions can be costly, he refers to another of George’s collaborations, the Urban Farming Food Chain green wall project in Los Angeles, and  says:

“Mr. Irwin has shown that edible walls can work on a larger scale. At four locations in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, there are walls with more than 4,000 plants growing: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, spinach, leeks, even baby watermelon. At one location, a homeless shelter, residents tend to a six-foot-high, 30-foot-long wall, eating some food they harvest and selling the rest.

The project, urban farming advocates say, is just the start of something larger.”

Make sure to also click on the slide show “Edible Walls of Green” – there are 12 awesome photos of the Zizmor wall, a living wall at the College of Applied Sciences and Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, and cool manufacturing shots, with just a few below:

Oh yeah, while I’m am it, I should tell you that George Irwin won the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Award of Excellence in the Green Walls category this year.   Presented on June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, he won for his involvement  and contribution to the Urban Farming Food Chain green walls, truly a dedicated community affair of residents, manufacturers, students, professors, activists, and designers.   We were very proud of him, of course, and I should have blogged about this very prestigious accomplishment after the conference, but somehow didn’t.

You can read more about this  award from the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities website, and see each of the initial four  green wall sites of the Urban Farming Food Chain in The Greenroof Projects Database:   Skid Row Housing Trust’s ‘The Rainbow’; The Weingart Center Association; Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Green Wall.

I should also probably mention that because of his work with this project, George has also been on Good Morning America and invited to the White House, too.   I am a forgetful editor, indeed!   George writes about this exciting, worthy,  and humbling experience in his upcoming Green Walls column, which should be up very soon.   Kudos, George!

~ Linda V.