Kermit lied: It isn’t so hard being green
November 14, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende is going green. As the city’s first conference and exposition focusing on the environment, Sustainable San Miguel, closes this Sunday, Atención San Miguel presents a series of articles on green living in San Miguel

Jesús Ibarra speaks with locals who are already using sustainable technologies: Ben Ptashnik on solar energy, Rick Wendling and André Baltimore on self-sufficient rural living and developer Francesca Fisher on environmentally sound residential development

Krishna Villena looks at the future of San Miguel’s trash. Will we be separating our trash soon? See pages 48 and 49.

Atención San Miguel reader Barbara Rogers discusses her positive experience with alternative energy.

Concerned citizens work to make San Miguel Sustainable 
By Jesús Ibarra

Conference
San Miguel Sustentable
Continues thru Sun, Nov 16
Instituto Allende, Hotel Real de Minas,
Bellas Artes, Jardín esplanade

Concern for the environment led a group of citizens and officials from the Tourism, Economic Development and International Relations Department to organize San Miguel Sustentable (Sustainable San Miguel), a series of conferences, workshops and exhibits related to ecology and sustainability.

 “Every human activity should be thought out or planned considering the care of the environment,” said Francisco Peyret, head of the organizing department. Atención spoke with some of the exhibitors promoting new ecological technology and residents who are already using these sustainable technologies in San Miguel. 

Abundant sunshine

Ben Ptashnik, a retired sate senator from Vermont and permanent resident of San Miguel, coordinates the exhibitors for San Miguel Sustentable. He says that the city is an ideal site for ecological technology.

One such innovation is the thermosiphon hot water system, which heats water with solar power. Fluid (essentially distilled water combined with antifreeze) circulates through collectors without the use of pumps. A storage tank surrounded by a water jacket functions as a heat exchanger. When sunlight strikes the solar collectors, the heated fluid rises into the exchanger surrounding the storage tank, transferring heat into the tank, and then returns to the collectors to repeat the process.

Ptashnik also promotes producing electricity with solar panels constructed of silicon photovoltaic cells. “Silicon is the most abundant element in the earth’s crust,” said Ptashnik, who explained that electrons in the silicon are excited by the light and then move out of the silicon.

This is known as the photovoltaic effect and results in direct current (DC) electricity. A converter transforms the energy into alternating current (AC) for domestic use. 

Ptashnik said that “the system also has the capacity to send some of the generated power back to the CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) and turn the meter backwards. By law CFE has to accept power from solar producers and let it go back into the grid, so people can store the extra energy produced and provide it to their neighbors.”

The amount of energy produced depends on the number of panels. At night or on cloudy days, energy is produced by batteries previously charged by solar power. “All the household energy could be produced by the sun, by the batteries and by CFE. This would reduce the cost of CFE energy.” 

Ptashnik presented local authorities with a budget for using solar power to light the Parroquia. “They need 30 kilowatts an hour to light up the Parroquia. With the proposal I made, they would produce part of the energy required with solar power and reduce CFE energy consumption to 18 kilowatts an hour. It would be a long-term investment because of the high cost of the system, but the cost per kilowatt-hour from solar energy would remain constant for 25 years, whereas over the same time period CFE’s rates would increase 900 percent,” he noted. 

A sustainable home

Rick Wendling and André Baltimore have lived in an ecologically designed house on the outskirts of San Miguel for three years. Built of straw bales, the dwelling “is cool during the summer and warm in winter. We only use a little heat during the very cold mornings,” said Baltimore, who added, “We have a rainwater collection system and a solar-powered electricity production system.

Our house is self-sufficient; we only use rainwater and energy produced from solar power.”

Wendling and Baltimore use 115,000 liters of water a year, and each year they expect to collect between 100,000 and 150,000 liters.

 “We have two underground cisterns, one with a capacity of 50,000 and the other with a 100,000-liter capacity. This year we have already collected 146,000 liters,” noted Wendling. 

The couple spent US$12,000 on the solar panel system. “We did not have another option since there is no CFE service where we live,” they said.

 During a regular day, they use less than 4 kilowatt-hours of power, half of which is for the refrigerator. “During a sunny day, we can produce 8 kilowatt-hours; we use the rest of the energy to charge the batteries that supply power during the night or on cloudy days, when we produce less energy.”

Wendling and Baltimore’s house is equipped with the normal electric appliances used in any home. “We are only two people, but the system could supply a complete family.” They also cultivate organic vegetables, grow chickens and tend bees.

Baltimore and Wendling, as a service to the community, have developed a website that is a guide to sustainable living in San Miguel. See www.greenmap.smamap.com  for English and www.mapaverde.smamapa.com  for Spanish versions.

A sustainable development 

Los Senderos, located on the Salida a Dolores, has been planned as an ecologically sustainable development. The developer, Francesa Fisher, said that when she bought the land she noticed the terrible damage to the environment that people from the neighboring communities were inflicting on the site.

“People were cutting down the large, old mesquites to burn as firewood; they also dumped their garbage and used the site as a bathroom, since they did not have water and sewage service,” said Fisher. For two years Fisher cleaned up the land and stopped the harvesting of trees.

Los Senderos has already begun development.

“We have built two main buildings (the Vineyard Gallery, which is a space for events, and a horse stable) with ecological material such as local stone, compacted soil and tepocreto, which is mix of 85 percent tepetate (rocklike subsoil) and 15 percent cement,” noted Fisher, who added that the horse stable is operated on solar power. “We do not only have the horses there, but also two offices and the irrigating pumps, which are completely off the grid and supplied 100 percent by solar power. This is an experiment to see how solar power functions here, since we are planning to build a village with small apartments for artists and singles, as well as more luxurious residences, which would be completely ecological, supplied completely by solar and wind power.

Fisher said that the village would have LEED Platinum certification (the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices).

Los Senderos also has an agreement with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to open a campus on the site for fine arts, architecture and history as well as a center for cinematographic studies. 

Los Senderos: Sustainability pioneer
By Luc Menzies

San Miguel de Allende’s many talented professionals understand the urgency of becoming more sustainable in their lifestyles, jobs and housing.

All share in their desire and dedication to make San Miguel a unique place of heritage, culture and most pertinent of all this week, Sustainability!

Los Senderos founder Francesca Fisher stands out as a sincere believer in the cause of sustainability. San Miguel should embrace her efforts to steward, with a “green conscience,” one of the last undeveloped pieces of land close to Centro. Unlike many idealists, she “walks the talk” in her daily efforts to make her project an example for all of Latin America.

Though still in its infancy, Fisher’s remarkable initiative is poised to embody the best of sustainable development practices. To be truly sustainable, the developer needs to consider much more than the simple aesthetic of finished buildings and landscapes.

A paradigm shift in the way developers usually conduct business will be tough, since their primary motivation is personal financial gain.

As stewards of the land and out of sincere belief that there is more to consider than personal gain, Los Senderos is about leadership, education and integrity. As a sustainability pioneer, Los Senderos is committed to training all of its team members in specific areas that, if ignored—as they have been through conventional development in the industrial era—cause widespread, unnecessary and dangerous global environmental problems.

The multifaceted challenge is to master energy efficiency, natural and low impact building, wildlife stewardship and organic farming practices while addressing the daily responsibilities of a development. This is not made easier by recent global economic problems. Yet, Los Senderos is steadfast in its pursuit of sustainability.

Fisher recently secured a partnership in “green architecture” with the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create a sustainability plan starting in June 2009. The university’s summer programs in architecture and design start at Los Senderos in 2010. Fisher already works with architects accredited by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Projects of this magnitude require time and planning, but as the seasons unfold in this picturesque valley, we will witness innovative ideas blossom into tangible realities. We can hope this desire to create a better environment might inspire other developers to aspire to more than money.

For now, conventional industrial development methods are still the norm, but as “necessity is the mother of invention,” we might soon witness the necessity of being more thrifty and inventive in the way we use the finite resources of our children’s planet.

When the notion that resources are limitless is revealed as an absurdity, we will be grateful to benefit from the knowledge of Los Senderos, which will have been putting to practice a less wasteful way of living.

Whether you want to join these noble efforts by living or working at Los Senderos, or simply want to satisfy your curiosity with an afternoon visit, you are always warmly welcome to sample some organic veggies from Bistro garden, or make reservations for a sunny horseback ride through the preserved wildlife sanctuary. On site, you can indulge your senses in the simple yet elegant lines of their modern natural earth-built winery, or their solar-powered stables.

Luc Menzies is an independent consultant in sustainability currently residing in San Miguel. He brings expertise from the US and Europe and can be reached at (415) 103-6493 or lucmonzies@gmail.com.  

My solar system
By Barbara Rogers

For two years, my 1.5-kilowatt-hour solar system has provided almost all the electricity for my house. Twelve solar panels were installed on my roof, and the control system in the garage is an impressive-looking power plant that makes everything work. My solar system has been a source of joy and pride for me, and of electric bills of 200 pesos every two months; before, my bimonthly bill was 10 times as much, around 2,000 pesos. When I was fortunate to receive some extra money, it propelled me to make an investment that I know will help protect the environment for many years to come as well as pay itself off through savings on electric bills.

I was impressed by the professional expertise and excellent care that Ben Ptashnik and his workers dedicated to installing the system as well as a hot water solar system. They used only the best materials; they made and carefully checked all necessary connections to the house wiring and for my Miele electric washer and dryer, which need 220 volts. They worked productively together with my great electrician and plumber, José Louis Chavez, to bring the electric system up to date. Ben even discovered some structural problems with my house, which he not only showed to me but also generously fixed.

Ben and I talked about the necessity and prospects of developing and using alternative energy sources, which I see as the central task of our time. Inspired by his outstanding work and the quality of the lasting, excellent materials that he uses, I decided to become invest in Solar San Miguel. The system has been working well. Every year, Leon and Hector Bustamante, two fine workmen from Solar San Miguel, come to check it, fill up the distilled water for the solar water system and the batteries in the garage, and check and clean the panels and the control system. The rest of the year, my caring gardener, Jorge Jaime Morales, cleans the panels every two weeks so they work most efficiently.

I use my electric washer and dryer during midday when the sun is shining and my solar system provides a lot of power. The batteries in a box below the control system store enough energy to provide electricity throughout most nights. Even on cloudy days, some power is being produced, depending on the thickness of the cloud cover. Every day that my system provides electricity not only for me but for my guests, too, I feel delighted, grateful and proud to have this wonderful source of alternative energy. It is my wish and hope that many people in San Miguel and all over the world will install solar and wind power to reduce, or even stop, the output of carbon dioxide. As we learn that carbon dioxide is accumulating much faster in the atmosphere than previously predicted, we must take this information as a wake-up call to do everything we can to save our planet in the interest of all our children and grandchildren.

Barbara Rogers lives in San Miguel as a therapist and writer. You can contact her at screamsfromchildhood@mac.com.

Living green in San Miguel
By Krishna Villena

According to a 2005 statistic from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, each person in San Miguel de Allende produces 880 grams (two pounds) of trash per day.

 That garbage is collected by trucks that run 15 routes throughout the municipality: 12 residential routes, 2 that collect rubbish from public trash containers and 1 that contracts with commercial establishments to haul away refuse.

The Office of Sanitary Services is in charge of trash pickup and its crews serve 112 of the 530 communities in the municipality of Allende. Unfortunately, residents of the 418 communities without trash service usually burn their garbage or throw it in a ravine or waterway. José Gilberto González Valero, who heads the office, said that the challenge is “to generate a culture of looking after our environment, starting in our homes, which means being responsible for the trash we produce.”

The separation of inorganic and organic waste in San Miguel is not a regular practice because “there are only 32 workers, including sweepers, garbage truck crews and support and special service staff. We don’t have the capacity to handle the large amount of trash that we produce, and we have to cover many areas,” explained González Valero.

Under pilot programs, two or three days a week will be set aside for collecting inorganic or recyclable trash and the other two days for organic waste. The first neighborhoods will be Los Frailes, Fracc. El Mirador and Mesa del Malanquin and “we are also planning to do a route parallel to the regular one and we will be informing people in order to extend these programs to the entire city,” said González Valero. The programs start in two weeks.

In some neighborhoods, parked garbage trucks serve as overnight trash receptacles. “We are about to present a proposal for improving the system to make this service more efficient and widespread,” said González Valero. 

He added that San Miguel is making progress in caring for the environment and for that reason “it is a priority to be conscious that we all produce trash and we all must be involved in this process, from generation to disposal.”

Sustainable development of a city means to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” according to the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987).

Recycling, reuse and composting sites

Green Map San Miguel provided the following information on recycling, reuse and composting.

Recycling
Small alkaline batteries
Art Print
San Francisco 11, Centro 
Mon–Fri, 10am–2pm, 152-1575, 154-9568


PET plastic containers, No.1 or No. 2, clean and compacted 
Escuela José Vasconcelos 
Barrio del Obraje, El Obraje
Mon–Fri, 8am–2pm, Sat 9am–noon, 152-1869 


PET plastic containers in clear colors, No.1 or No. 2, clean and compacted
Escuela Nigromante
Las Moras, Colonia Allende
Mon–Fri, 8am–1pm, 152-0648 


Clear glass bottles, whole or in pieces
Guajuye 
Lupita 2, Estación de Ferrocarril
Mon–Fri, 9am–2pm, 4pm–7pm, 152-7030 


Cardboard, car batteries, scrap metal, aluminum, copper, bronze
Recicladora de San Miguel
Libramiento a Dolores 6, Colonia Olimpo
Mon-Fri, 9:30am–5pm, Sat 9:30am–6:30pm, 150-7200

Reuse
Wine bottles, ceramic tiles and dishes whole or broken
Anado McLauchlin/Chapel of Jimmy Ray 
Casa Las Ranas, La Cieneguita


White, black or clear plastic bags
The Mattress Project
St. Paul’s Church, 
Cardo 6, Col. Guadiana
Mon–Fri, 9am–2pm, Sat 9am–1pm, 152-0387 
The Mattress Project reuses plastic bags to make mattresses for local children. Bags must be clean (no bubble wrap). Alternative drop-off locations: La Conexión, Solutions, The Bagel Café.

Composting Composting equipment and information FAI-PEASMA Hidalgo 13, Centro Mon–Fri, 10am–2pm, 152-3686

Compost
Mushroom Factory Compost 
Carretera a Dr. Mora, 2.3 miles north of Blvd. de la Conspiración

Oganic compost
Toyan
Carretera a Querétaro, 3.25 miles east of Dr. Mora exit