The largest JW Marriott resort in the world / All photos by author

Last month, my wife and I spent two nights at the recently opened (as of late January this year) JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa. Our lodging and meal costs were comped.

This place is massive. There are 1,002 rooms, 85 of which are suites.

Big, empty event room

The “executive suite” we stayed in had as much square footage as our house, I’m pretty sure, and featured a giant dead space in the sitting room that could’ve served as a mini square dance area.

Add to that a couple 40,000sqft “ballrooms,” some 20 smaller (but still enormous) meeting/conference rooms, three wedding/event venues, a 26,000sqft spa, a waterpark, half a dozen restaurants, hallways of shops and cafes, and two 18-hole golf courses.

It is the largest JW Marriott resort in the world.

So when I saw them also proudly pushing their “Greenitiatives” (an unfortunate neologism I hope doesn’t catch on elsewhere) on their website, I knew what my junket would focus on. I mean, all else aside, the idea that a golf course of any size, one hole or 36, could be “green” is bullshit.

What I found during my stay, however, was that not all of these — okay, fine — “Greenitiatives” were totally contrived. And, given the land development alternatives in the region, signing off on the resort might have been the city council’s way of making the best out of an inevitably bad situation.

The centerpiece “Greenitiative”

Golf is what it’s about. The resort’s two 18-hole courses make up the private TPC San Antonio club and will host PGA Tour tournaments. I don’t know what that means.

But I do know golf greens are on par with Superfund sites in terms of toxicity, a result of all the chemicals used to keep the grass nice and pretty and green.

And these courses I’m sure are no exception. In fact, we saw signs along the greens warning of pesticide contamination.

But TPC San Antonio’s 36-hole complex does differ from the standard golf course in other ways. It’s built over a shield of 75,000 cubic yards of impervious clay that largely keeps the contaminated water from seeping into the earth below.

It features a closed-loop irrigation system that captures irrigation and rainwater runoff, preventing it from leaving the course and recycling it for future irrigation use.

And there are monitoring stations at the entrance and exit of the local watershed to measure how much contamination is escaping the system via water that manages to pass through.

All this kinda puts TPC San Antonio out in front of golf “greenery,” if there is such a movement:

Scott Halty, director of resource protection for the San Antonio Water System, said he’s been unable to find another system like it anywhere in the country. Vernon Kelly, president of PGA Tour Golf Course Properties, said the system…goes far beyond anything the tour has installed at its 26 other Tournament Players Clubs.
Source: San Antonio Express News

Great. They’re trying. Why?

Author enjoying one of the heated pools

Green by necessity

San Antonio tap water is delicious. The bulk of it is pumped from the Edwards Aquifer, a subterranean network of porous limestone that traps and stores enough water to supply two million people.

The recharge zone for this aquifer — the area where water from precipitation and creek systems enters the ground — is spread over 1,500 square miles of the Texas Hill Country. And the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa, golf courses and all, sits on top of a sliver of that recharge zone.

The aquifer is an abundant but fragile artesian water source:

In most places, rain passes through layers of sand or gravel that act as natural filters before it enters the underground water supply. But over San Antonio’s recharge zone, a thin layer of grass and dirt has less ability to filter impurities.
Source: San Antonio Express News

This is why previous development proposals brought by the land’s owners, the Austin-based Lumbermen’s Investment Corp., were rejected by the city. They failed to provide adequate protection for one of San Antonio’s most essential natural resources.

The investment in the clay shield, closed-loop irrigation, and monitoring system, then, can be seen as a concession, the absence of which would have scuttled the entire project. You could call it an “Involuntary-Greenitiative” (amalgamate that!).

Another fundamental of Lumbermen’s proposal was that the entire 2,847-acre Cibolo Canyons Development (which includes the resort and golf courses as well as residential properties) cannot exceed 15% impervious cover.

This figure comes from studies showing that “the recharge zone’s natural ability to filter pollutants is compromised when the area covered by streets and houses exceeds 15 percent of the land’s surface.”

Additionally, 758 acres adjoining the golf course are to remain untouched, within which is a 100-acre bird sanctuary. It has walking trails, but they’re closed March–October to protect the endangered golden-cheeked warbler.

(Also included in the deal was a living wage commitment to resort and golf-course workers, something on which Marriott generally has a good track record.)

The argument made to me by Mike Kass, the resort’s Director of Sales and Marketing, was that all of this is “better than the alternative”: an extension of the tract housing that uglies up the rest of north San Antonio. Streets and roofs and driveways that collect and channel motor oil, paint, and other everyday toxins into the recharge zone. Totally unmonitored.

It’s the same argument Jim Mayor, chairman of the board for the San Antonio Water System, made back in late 2007:

I truly believe that this is the best environmental plan that any organization could put together with a private property owner over a most-sensitive part of our aquifer… It’s the maximum that could be achieved short of taking somebody’s property.
Source: San Antonio Express News

Voluntary or not, these “Greenitiatives” seem to be better than nothing.

Lunch plate at 18 Oaks

Green by choice

Of course, the JW Marriott, like most other mainstream hotel/resort chains these days, knows consumers like “green.” And they’ve adopted some policies I’m assuming weren’t arm-twisted out of them.

The most impressive is their participation in the Windtricity program, a service offered by South Texas’s CPS Energy. Residences and businesses pay a premium to help fund the capture and transmission of energy from wind farms in west and northwest Texas to the state’s electric grid.

Marriott isn’t feeding off renewable energy directly (such as they would if they had turbines on their property, for example), but their annual premium supposedly pays for 70% of their power. So, in the abstract, the resort gets 70% of its electricity from a renewable source. It’s the largest single user in the Windtricity program.

The list of smaller green initiatives is long and includes a few from Julie Schwietert’s 10 Steps Hotels Can Take to Go Greener. Here’s a sampling:

• Recycled steel studs and low-VOC (volatile organic compound) glues and paints were used in the resort’s construction.
• Rooms feature “smart” heating and cooling systems that shut off when exterior doors are opened.
• Plumbing in guest bathrooms is supposedly low-flow. Our “executive suite” shower definitely wasn’t, though.
• Guest literature advertises the standard “linen reuse” program. However, there were no instructions in our room on how to participate.
• The clubhouse restaurant, 18 Oaks, features menu ingredients sourced from within a radius of 150 miles.
• A planned on-site greenhouse will provide fresh produce for the restaurants.

I was even given a “green” press kit — a little cartridge with a USB interface. Sweet. For some reason, though, it was accompanied by an attractive but ultimately wasteful cardboard-bound photo brochure.

Executive suite bedroom

My case study conclusion

Is the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa “green”? No.

It is a behemoth, it is sprawl, it devours energy and natural resources. Plus, there’s no guarantee all the fancy clay cover, closed-loop business on the golf course is going to work.

In the words of Graciela Sanchez, director of San Antonio’s Esperanza Peace and Justice Center:

“What they presented us was the best that they thought they can do, but they have no history with this. We don’t know for a fact that it is not going to leak. It’s just going to be, ‘Try it and see how it goes.’”
Source: San Antonio Express News

I can think of dozens of “greener” uses to which this land could have been put. But the truth is that no one was going to make a park, or a 2,800-acre bird sanctuary, or a giant disc golf course (still golf, but none of the chemicals!) on this prime piece of real estate.

If it hadn’t been the resort, it almost certainly would’ve been something worse. Something much less controversial and thus much less scrutinized and monitored.

It’s a “lesser of two evils,” “opportunity cost” scenario. But maybe this is how we baby step towards true sustainability in the hotel industry.

What do you think? Would you ever consider a resort like this one to be “green”? Been to a resort that does it better? Speak up in the comments.

Community Connection

Over at BNT, Jennifer Bernstein looks at The Inconvenient Truth About Green Travel. And Nights has profiled The 9 Best-Designed Hotels Worldwide.

Voluntario Global

Voluntario Global works in conjunction with community leaders and grassroots organizations to aid community centers and local businesses. At the community centers, street children and teenagers are provided a safe place to learn and play. Long-term volunteer opportunities range from 2 weeks to 12 weeks and require basic to intermediate Spanish language skills.

If you don’t have time to volunteer, but want to learn about the work of volunteers, Voluntario Global offers half-day tours to shantytowns and impoverished areas of Buenos Aires. The tour provides a close-up view of the community centers’ ongoing work and an understanding of the residents fighting for socio-political and economic equality.

If interested in volunteering, complete the Voluntario Global contact form or e-mail them at: info@voluntarioglobal.com.ar.

Centro Conviven

Centro Conviven is a small after-school community center for the street children of the impoverished Ciudad Oculta (the Hidden City). Volunteers can teach English, music, dance, and art or work with fundraising and web development. Volunteers are also encouraged to share their interests and develop new classes for the center.

Basic Spanish is strongly recommended, but not required. The center is always grateful for for any amount of volunteer time and doesn’t charge a fee to volunteer, a rarity in Argentina.

Visit Centro Conviven’s blog and website for more information. E-mail Bella Koerfer at volunteersconviven@gmail.com, if interested in volunteering.

Buenos Aires Volunteer

Buenos Aires Volunteer places volunteers in 14 areas of social work projects. As a fee-based voluntourism program, they also offer 20 hours of continuing Spanish language instruction in addition to volunteer support such as accommodation recommendations, airport pick-up, and organized social activities.

A minimum commitment of three months and a basic knowledge of Spanish are required. The social-based volunteer work includes aiding education, child services, health, and sustainability organizations. Volunteers can also contribute to local economic development by working with micro-enterprises.

For more information visit Buenos Aires Volunteer’s website or contact them at info@bavolunteer.org.ar.

Road2Argentina

Road2Argentina, a Spanish immersion program, allows volunteers to create their own service programs. Depending on degree of Spanish proficiency, volunteers have the opportunity to teach English to children and adults, participate in community and social service projects, and work with local NGOs.

As a fee-based immersion program, Road2Argentina offers participant support and activities. Stays from two weeks to six month are available. Visit Road2Argentina’s website, blog, twitter, and facebook page for more information.

Community Connection:

Learn more about Buenos Aires on Matador’s Buenos Aires Focus Page, with articles like 5 Unforgettable Days in Buenos Aires by Eve Hyman and  How to Take the Bus in Buenos Aires Like You Know What’s Going On by Kate Sedgwick.

Ah, life’s simple pleasures. Photo: Kecko

While the rest of the world’s populations are flocking toward their nation’s metropolitan hotspots, a 2001 British census shows that Brits have been forgoing the fast-pace of the city for slower country living, a trend that has only gotten worse in recent years.

Not okay, says University College London research associate and author P.D. Smith in an article published in Wired UK magazine’s January issue.

Smith cites data revealing rural households emitting higher carbon dioxide than their urban counterparts due to larger residences, longer commutes, and multiple cars. Turns out, the regions with the largest carbon footprints in the UK are in the rural northeast, not the famed cities of London or Glasgow. London, interestingly enough, has the lowest per capita emissions. Who would have thought?

Smith argues that city living creates a low carbon economy and those who opt for country living should be taxed for the luxury.

“British people need to be cured of the insidious fantasy of leaving the city and owning a house in the country…. We tax cigarettes to reflect the harm they do to our health: we need to tax lifestyles that are damaging the health of the planet – and that means targeting people who choose to live in the countryside.”

Making exceptions for agricultural workers and those who are employed in rural areas, Smith wants to institute a “Rural Living Tax” for all other country residents, such as rich people with two houses.

But other than tax the pants off country dwellers, isn’t a better solution to aggressively promote greener living for all citizens?

Rather than punish people for choosing to live with cows and chickens, we should be encouraging the habitual acts that contribute to sustainability. The Earth is everyone’s responsibility and finding more reasons to tax certain demographics doesn’t exactly carry that message across.

Sound reasonable enough? Let those opinions fly free in the comments below.

Photo by author

The idea behind this new series is to show off cool projects from around the world that can be adapted and implemented in your own city. We kick off the series in New York City.

Project Name:

Rooftop Films

The Big Idea:

Rooftop Films partners with 15 venues–from museums and high schools to old factories–to show “underground movies outdoors” during the summer months. For just $9.00 USD, New Yorkers can enjoy films from around the world each weekend–as well as a view of the city most people never see. Most of the films are shown on the venues’ rooftops– hence the name Rooftop Films.

The films selected for each event are organized around a theme that’s customized to appeal to the neighborhood where the venue is located. And each screening is preceded by live music and followed by a filmmaker Q&A and/or after-party (with free drinks!).

But Rooftop Films is a lot more than a summer festival that brings together people to enjoy films they’d be unlikely to see elsewhere.

The organization also contributes $1.00 from every ticket sold to fund filmmakers’ new productions and teaches film appreciation and production classes to high school students.

History:

Rooftop has been showing films in New York City since 1997 under the direction of filmmaker Mark Elijah Rosenberg. From Rooftop’s website:

“[Rosenberg] was looking for an innovative way to get people together for screenings of new short films. … [I]nstead of trying to rent a small dingy theater, Rosenberg got out his 16MM projector, a cheap sound system and a big white sheet and invited everyone he could find up to the roof above his little apartment. Hundreds came out, many with their films in tow, and the movies were screened deep into the night amidst the water towers and pigeon coops of the East Village skyline.”

When his landlord got wind of the rooftop film fest, Rosenberg had to scout for alternative locations, which wasn’t a bad thing. Rooftop’s gone from a gathering of friends and artists to a city-wide event that’s open to the whole film-loving public.

Logistics:

Sure, Rooftop has fancy projectors and screens now, but it got its humble start with a bed sheet tied up between two poles. You can do the same. Scout your local thrift store for a projector or see if a local non-profit wants to partner up with you– they loan you a projector; you give them some exposure.

And you don’t need a roof– a little patch of lawn will do just fine.

For More Information:

For more information about Rooftop Films, visit the organization’s website.

Community Connection:

Love movies? Check out our guide to the world’s best film festivals.

Feature photo: artefatica; Photo: ubrayj02

One night last April, Diana Oppenheim committed a peculiar act of vandalism. Dressed in black clothing and bandannas, Oppenheim and three of her friends sneaked into the playground of Darwin Elementary near Logan Square. Their target sat in one corner of the lot, a wooden bench flanked by two empty planters.

Armed with trowels and bags of potting soil, the four set to work. After 10 minutes of digging and transplanting, the formerly barren planters sported clumps of bright yellow daffodils. It was Oppenheim’s first experience with guerrilla gardening.

Originally popularized in British gardener Richard Reynolds’ manifesto On Guerrilla Gardening, the guerrilla gardening movement is taking root in Chicago. Informal groups with names like Trowels on the Prowl and SOIL are taking horticulture to the streets, covertly planting flower and vegetable gardens in public lots and neglected planters around the city and its suburbs. Bit by bit, these Green Age graffiti artists aim to reinvent Chicagoland’s landscape, while making us take another look at how we use urban space.

As might be expected, guerrilla gardeners don’t face the kind of opposition that their spray can cousins do. While Oppenheim does all of her gardening under cover of night, the 23 year old graduate student says she’s not worried about being caught (Oppenheim claims to have received “only positive reactions” from passersby). Instead, she says, she gardens at night to leave a morning surprise for neighbors.

“For me, it’s a statement,” said Oppenheim. “You walk by this ugly plot every day, you don’t notice it. Then one day you wake up and notice something beautiful that came here overnight.”

Charlotte Briggs, a.k.a. GenkiTango375, talked about guerrilla gardening’s fun factor. After discovering Reynolds’ book last year, Briggs, an academic administrator, banded together with neighbors Carla Hayden and James Moeler under the name Trowels on the Prowl. Since then, the three have planted on street corners and alleyways all around their neighborhood in the near north suburb of Evanston, announcing upcoming actions and taking credit for strikes under code names online.

“A lot of people who are interested in [guerrilla gardening] haven’t quite caught yet that it doesn’t need to be organized,” said Briggs. “It’s all tongue in cheek. You play it up, it makes it more fun.”

Photo: ecodallaluna

But Trowels on the Prowl’s actions do have a serious side. Briggs, Hayden, and Moeler practice guerrilla gardening as a type of community activism, planting in broad daylight in hopes of inspiring local residents to take ownership of their community by taking action. According to Moeler, as the trio continued to garden together, they began to realize that more passersby had started picking up litter in spots where the group had planted.

“If you look at an urban wasteland, it’s almost like the beer cans belong there,” said Moeler. “If you’ve taken the step of beautifying it, people go ‘Oh, that plastic bag, I should pick that up’.”

Last year, Briggs, Hayden, and Moeler discovered what has since become their biggest battlefield, a vacant lot on the corner of Chicago and Main in Evanston. The lot was originally planned for development, the future site of a luxury condominium and retail complex.

Late last summer, however, Cole Taylor Bank foreclosed on the land and stopped construction, leaving a bare field surrounded by a tall chain link fence. When Briggs and Hayden found out, they decided that the lot would be the perfect place to do some gardening.

To get past the problem of the fence, they turned to one of the signature weapons of the guerrilla gardener: the seed bomb, a meatball-sized ball of compost, seeds, clay powder, and water that gardeners can throw over walls, fences, or other obstacles, enabling them to sow seeds in otherwise off-limits areas.

In September, Trowels on the Prowl held a public workshop at Brothers K coffee house in Evanston, where community members helped to make over 700 seed bombs using donated seeds and scavenged flower heads. The following weekend, they met at Brothers K again before marching together to the lot and hurling the seed bombs over the fence using lacrosse sticks and slingshots. By spring, the lot was speckled with daisies, black-eyed Susans, Queen Anne’s lace and other wildflowers.

When Briggs returned to photograph the lot this June, she found it freshly mowed. The flowers were gone, stripped out with the grass.

Then, a few days later, a word appeared on the fence, the letters woven through the chain links in red and green ribbon: “Park.” For Briggs, it was a sign of a community mobilizing for action.

“People are unhappy about the sight of that lot, but they’re also starting to look at all the things that it could be,” she said. “They’re all talking about, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have some benches there? or ‘It would be really fun to have community gardens’.”

As far as Trowels on the Prowl is concerned, the mowing was nothing more than a temporary setback. On July 8, the trio struck back, seed bombing the lot again and posting signs with anti-mowing messages like ‘Who’s killing the flowers?’ and ‘Let the prairie grow!’.

With the group’s actions now garnering more attention, formerly uninterested Evanston officials have begun to speak up. On July 20, Evanston Alderwoman Melissa Wynne, who represents the ward containing the lot, told the Chicago Tribune that she thinks the guerrilla gardeners’ goals may be “unrealistic.” “I really don’t want to say, ‘Don’t mow the lot,’ because I don’t want it to look neglected,” Wynne told the paper.

For her part, Briggs refuses to admit the possibility of defeat.

“I think that when we see areas with dirt and weeds, it’s a healthy impulse that we have, that we’re disturbed by that,” said Briggs. “I think we must be hard-wired to care.”

Community Connection:

You don’t have to be a guerrilla gardener to beautify your own patch of the city. Check out Ted Scott’s “Four Easy Apartment Garden Projects.”

When I moved to New York City 10 years ago, the Meatpacking District was a sketchy, marginal neighborhood frequented by prostitutes and drug users.

Today, it’s a neighborhood populated by trendy, expensive boutiques, name-dropper restaurants, and some of the city’s edgiest, most exciting architecture.

It’s also the location of New York City’s newest park: the High Line.

So named because the park is built atop an abandoned rail line that was originally constructed in the 1930s, the High Line was an urban eyesore from 1980 until this summer, when a 10 year old dream of the Friends of the High Line was finally realized.

Back in 1999, the city had slated the elevated rail for demolition. But some folks didn’t want to see this part of New York City history destroyed, and they effectively rallied to turn the space into an ambitious and unique urban park. Construction began in 2006 and the first part of what will be a mile and a half long park opened last month.

1. The wood used on the benches and decking was harvested from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. It was selected for its longevity and durability.

2. If you’re lucky enough to snag one of these seats at sunset, you’re all but guaranteed a spectacular light show on the Hudson River.

3. This IS an urban park, after all. These benches offer a view of a New York City street, but insulate park visitors from car noise.

4. Most of the plants and grasses on the High Line are native species, “inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the out-of-use elevated rail tracks during the 25 years after the trains stopped running.”

5. The popularity of the High Line has attracted all sorts of new businesses to the neighborhood, including Van Leeuwen, which scoops up artisanal ice cream. They’re “green,” too: their cups, spoons, and straws are all made from corn husks.

6. View of the Meatpacking District from the High Line, now attracting the less criminal element.

All photos by Francisco Collazo.

Community Connection:

Planning a visit to New York City? Be sure to consult our Green Guide to New York City first!