"Green" Camp Sites

Blue Sink in Ocala National Forest (Courtesy of Author)

Restroom/Shower Facility (Courtesy of ReserveAmerica)

During my Spring Break I went on a camping and four-wheeling trip with my boyfriend to Big Scrub Campground in Ocala National Forest. Typically, we go to Lake Delancy campground in Ocala but decided to try a new place for a change.

The Big Scrub campground is meant for both tent campers and RV campers. The site offers a few amenities such as picnic tables, actual flushing toilets, and even showers but the reason we went was for the access to the four-wheeling trails and to see Blue Sink. However, getting to my point, as an Urban Planner it is important to think about all types of sites and buildings, including those for recreational activities such as camping and four-wheeling. When I looked inside the restroom/shower facility I realized that the only windows present where the ones on the front facade (as pictured). There are no skylights in the building and the lights inside seemed to be running both day and night....Here's where my, "I'm-camping-but-yet-I'm-still-thinking-about-school-thought," came to me. Why aren't there any solar panels on the building to take advantage of the abundant sunlight and low-lighting needs of this recreational facility?

Cache Creek Solar Roof (Courtesy of Project Green A-Z)

I couldn't find any information about this for any of the campgrounds in Ocala National Forest. However, I did find a few interesting camping sites that incorporate sustainable ideas such as solar panels, natural ventilation, and limited impact to the environment, both plants and animals. No surprise, one of the solar-powered campground sites I found was in California. In the 1980's, the Cache Creek campground in Yolo County was generating all of its electricity needs from generators, costing nearly $15,000 a year to run. And, this wasn't even providing 24/7 electricity. So in 1985, the solar panels were installed and saved taxpayers nearly $13,000 (that number is probably much higher now).

Paperbark Camp (Courtesy of CNN Travel)

I found some other sustainable and glamorous camping ("glamping") sites while researching for more information. The article describes seven sites that are quite breath-taking while at the same time very sustainable. *Hint Hint, Future Vacation Possibilities?* Most of the sites described are in Africa and Australia. Some of the camping locations are even Word-Heritage sites. As mentioned previously, the sites use sustainable practices and technologies such as solar panels, monitoring waste water, providing eco-friendly shampoos/soaps, biodegradable products (Paperbark Camp), grey water treatment facilities, and even worm farms to deal with waste. Prices for these sustainable "glamping" sites starts at around $260 and goes as high as $2,070. So start saving your money now if you want to stay at any of these places.

After finding so many recreational camping places that are incorporating sustainable practices into their sites, I am hopeful that maybe in the near future Ocala will begin to do the same. Maybe I need to drop them a few hints in their suggestion boxes next time I'm there. If any of you know of any sustainable initiatives going on in the camping world, particularly in Florida, I would love to hear about them.

First Net Zero Energy Retail Store

Proposed Walgreens Design (Courtesy of Forbes)

While researching information on net zero energy buildings (NZEBs), I came upon some very recent articles that talked about how Walgreens has plans to build the United States' first net zero energy retail building. The company has already taken steps at other store locations to be more sustainable such as using solar panels at 150 stores and providing electric charging stations at over 400 locations. And a few years ago they began a pilot test for electric fleet delivery vehicles. The company has made a chain-wide commitment to reduce their energy consumption by 20% by the year 2020 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge.

Walgreens Electric Station (Courtesy of GRD)

 I thought it would be interested to read more about this new project, their second entry into the Better Buildings Challenge, since corner pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS are very commonplace in communities all across the United States. And hey, if we can make one of them a net zero energy building, than why can't work we work to make the rest of them this way as well?

The new Walgreens building will be located in Evanston, Illinois. The new building is expected to generate approximately 256,000 kWh yearly while only using approximately 200,000 kWh. Power for the building will be generated from over 800 solar roof-mounted panels, two wind turbines, and geothermal wells. In addition, the store will use LED lighting and energy efficient building materials. Walgreens hopes to achieve LEED certification with this building.

Sounds great, right? Well, the only problem I have with this project is that it is going to replace an already built Walgreens on this exact same parcel of land. The articles I read do not give much detail about the existing Walgreens and why it might be being demolished and replaced. I could understand if the existing store was in a completely dilapidated state and there was no chance in saving it but, to demolish an already existing store seems very wasteful of resources and time. Why not just give the existing store a sustainable make-over?  Sure, it will not be net zero but, isn't the first rule of sustainability to "reduce," as in, reduce the amount of resources used? I might feel a little bit better about this project if I knew some of the existing materials such as the bricks will be reused and incorporated into the new net zero building. However, as I mentioned earlier, there really are no details on the existing site or any mention of reuse.

Since the articles on this project have been published, I imagine that CVS and other similar corner pharmacy stores are already in the works to build their own net zero energy buildings so that they can keep up with their competitors. From what I've read on CVS' current sustainability efforts they have implemented LED lighting in stores and have plans to reduce storm water pollution but a lot of the descriptions seems very general on their website.Hopefully, they have a lot more efforts in the works that I just wanted able to find online.