California is no stranger to drought cycles. According to the California Department of Water Resources, droughts since 2012 have been more frequent and severe, with the droughts of the past two years breaking records set nearly half a century ago. With atmospheric conditions severely affected by climate change, it appears California may well continue to suffer shrinking water supplies and increased fire danger.

While private citizens face tightening water restrictions, companies and industries

– including construction, are learning to adapt their projects and methods to a wide range of drought-induced changes.

BuildingCodes

In 2015, after four years of drought, California approved new state building codes restricting water-greedy landscaping around new construction including homes, schools, and businesses. The new codes cut by 20% the amount of water landscaping could use and required developers to plant more drought-friendly foliage and less turf. These codes are still in effect.

SwimmingPoolRestrictions

The swimming pool construction industry was an integral part of California life for decades. However, some pool companies were forced to close their doors due to hardline restrictions on installation and water usage during the first several years of the drought. Some areas such as Montecito banned new pool construction completely. Where pool construction is permitted, companies have adapted by now offering the option of a shallow pool with no diving board to conserve water.

WaterResilienceInfrastructure2022

The 2021-22 Governor’s Budget has allotted funds to state agencies for improvements in water security infrastructure, promising a host of new construction jobs. Areas to be addressed include water efficiency projects to assist in improving over-drafted groundwater basins and flood risk reduction across the state. In addition, funding has been approved for levee improvements and emergency preparedness in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Amidst these challenges, restrictions, and surprising new opportunities, the California construction industry has managed to thrive by embracing increased

water and energy efficiency and conservation. After a two-year decline, California construction reported a 20% surge in single-family residences during the first half of 2021 over the same period in 2020 and a 21% increase in multi-family housing.

When it comes to sustainability and urban planning, not everyone understands the importance of caring for urban forests. However, they play a major role in improving people’s physical and mental health as well as bringing many other benefits to cities. 

What Is An Urban Forest?

Urban forests are a collection of trees that share the same space as cities, towns, and suburbs. Examples of urban green-spaces and ecosystems include parks, wetlands, river corridors, and street trees. Sometimes the trees that form an urban forest grow from remnants of past forests, but they can also be planted and cared by city planners. In fact, the demand for urban green-space professionals is growing fast because people are more conscious of the environment.

Benefits Of Urban Forests

Several studies have found that urban forests can provide many benefits that are not strictly related to environmental issues. While it’s true that trees can reduce flood risk and purify the air of urban centers, they can also lower stress and boost happiness. Green spaces are an excellent way to promote a healthier lifestyle because they encourage people to go outside and walk more often. Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there’s an economic benefit, too: Trees can cool cities and lower heating energy use, which leads to savings on energy bills.   

The Importance Of Being Environmentally Conscious

It’s hard to protect urban forests without the support of the population that lives in the same region. When people forget the importance of promoting environmental consciousness, governments turn a blind eye to unsustainable practices such as when construction companies decide to kill trees to create parking lots, and erect tall buildings without carrying out an environmental impact assessment. It doesn’t end well for the environment.

Do you want to help us create a greener future? Let’s build a better world together!

CREED LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA online or at (877) 810-7473.

Stormwater Management Projects

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s immortal song has had its meaning interpreted a number of different ways over the years, but it can be said with great certainty that they weren’t singing about stormwater management projects!

Stormwater refers to water which flows into drains from a myriad of surfaces such as roadways and parking lots as a result of storms. Unlike the water from toilets and sinks within our homes and businesses, stormwater is not treated at a wastewater treatment facility. Instead, this water flows directly into local waterways whereby pollutants of any form – including pesticides, fertilizers, and oils – enter them completely unabated.

As a result, engineering firms and construction companies have undertaken the task of creating stormwater management projects meant to absorb, contain, and filter this water rather than have it do harm. Examples include retention basins and detention ponds, both of which allow stormwater to slowly absorb into the ground, filtering pollutants in the process.

The Coalition for Responsible Equitable Economic Development (CREED LA) proudly supports environmentally-responsible construction projects throughout Los Angeles that not only have a positive impact on the local community, but support LA’s working families as well.

Creed LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA at (877) 810-7473.

Much focus has been given in the last decade about the need for citizens of developed countries to reduce the carbon footprint of their citizens in order to meet CO₂ emission goals that climatology experts believe will mitigate the damage of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change.

What Are Carbon Footprints?

Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of CO₂ directly & indirectly produced by humans as a result of our daily activities, expressed in units of tons per year. These activities include everything we commonly do in modern society: driving, flying, using computers/other electronics, and the production of electricity. But many people are also shocked to learn that carbon footprint is also impacted by activities we rarely consider such as producing beef or making plastic bottles.

There are many calculators available to help homeowners and businesses track their carbon footprint allowing us all to see how small changes in our lifestyle today can have a big impact on tomorrow.

The Coalition for Responsible Equitable Economic Development (CREED LA) proudly supports environmentally-responsible construction projects throughout Los Angeles that not only have a positive impact on the local community, but support LA’s working families as well.

Creed LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA at (877) 810-7473.

Mankind has known that sea water is undrinkable due to its excessive salinity, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to find ways to desalt the sea.

Since ancient times, distillation has been utilized to remove salt from the water, making it drinkable. Today, the process of removing salt and other unwanted molecules from seawater is better known as desalination and it typically relies on more advanced and energy efficient methods than distillation alone. Called reverse osmosis, it involves the use of synthetic, semi-permeable membranes in which the pores are only large enough for water molecules to pass through. The water is pressed, under very high pressures, through the membrane, leaving fresh water on one side & a salty brine on the other… Nothing else, including salt molecules, microorganisms, or pollutants pass through! Reverse osmosis is one of the most commercially viable options to bring fresh water to areas of the world that would normally be without.

The Coalition for Responsible Equitable Economic Development (CREED LA) proudly supports environmentally-responsible construction projects throughout Los Angeles that not only have a positive impact on the local community, but support LA’s working families as well.

Creed LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA at (877) 810-7473.

By now, most Americans have become familiar with those ubiquitous objects being placed on countless rooftops & utility poles around the country. Called photovoltaic solar panels (PV), these units use sunlight to create electricity through the use of a semiconductor such as silicon.

As with many technologies we now take for granted, PV’s were too expensive to be a commercially viable way of generating renewable energy shortly after their creation in the 1950’s. Widespread use by the aerospace industry and the military helped the manufacture of such materials become more economical, thus making them increasingly affordable for businesses and homeowners alike to capitalize upon.

Today, continued development has made photovoltaics more efficient and economical than ever.

Panels continue to cross the 20% efficiency threshold while delivering power for well under $0.70 per watt. With the Sun expected to last another 5 billion years, solar power will remain popular for quite some time!

The Coalition for Responsible Equitable Economic Development (CREED LA) proudly supports environmentally-responsible construction projects throughout Los Angeles that not only have a positive impact on the local community, but support LA’s working families as well.

Creed LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA at (877) 810-7473.

Our quest to erect great cities, and the buildings within, as self-righteous pantheons to our dominance over nature, caused us to learn something… It’s that we can’t dominate nature at all. As a result, modern societies the world over have been coming up with creative ways to mitigate the damage we have done with the hopes of improving the world for the as-yet-unborn.

What Does Having A Green Rooftop Offer

As is often the case, simple, elegant solutions we once dismissed as primitive & dated are finding new uses thanks to the talents of many. One such concept is a construction trend known as a green roof which involves the use of living plant matter situated over engineered watertight membranes, making an otherwise wasted area into something useful and beneficial for the environment. Below are some of the many benefits green rooftops provide:

• Moderates the urban heat island effect
• Filters pollutants from the air & rainwater
• Help provide insulative properties for the building

The Coalition for Responsible Equitable Economic Development (CREED LA) proudly supports environmentally-responsible construction projects throughout Los Angeles that not only have a positive impact on the local community, but support LA’s working families as well.

Creed LA fights to ensure that developers pay fair wages to all the hard working construction professionals throughout the industry while simultaneously providing them with quality health care, continued training, and trustworthy retirement plans. To learn more about how our non-profit organization supports those building a better, greener world for us all, contact CREED LA at (877) 810-7473.