Sustainability Science

How is the golf industry responding to short term drought and a longer term compelling need to reduce its water footprint? Can golf courses help us capture and clean storm water? Can they act as a filter for petrochemicals, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals? What are the game’s leaders and partnering organizations doing to take the state’s 866 golf courses off the potable grid, and what’s next on the game’s agenda for even more sustainable design and management? And how can the golf industry’s experiences inform the management of other large landscapes?

Join us on Tuesday, February 3 for a sustainable landscape seminar showcasing innovations in efficient irrigation, turf reduction, recycled water, water reuse, and stormwater infiltration in this era of dwindling water resources. This program will bring together municipal officials, landscape architects, golf course superintendents and water efficiency professionals to examine existing programs, highlight case studies and determine the future for sustainable golf course design and management.

A San Ramon homeowner is up in arms over being punished for her efforts to conserve during California's severe drought.

There's only so many acre-feet of water jargon the public can absorb during a drought. Here's a primer that avoids wading into cubic-feet-per-second, appropriative water rights, overdraft, conjunct...

Biggest projectAt any rate, all those other commissions threw him behind schedule for his biggest project to date - he promised to have eight urinals ready for the annual Pacific Orchid Exposition, which opens Thursday at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The other afternoon, Sorensen grabbed a handful of wet porcelain clay and began enlarging one of the orchid petals on a half-finished urinal that, when completed, will resemble a giant pink cattleya orchid. Every so often, a urinal cracks in the process and Sorensen must toss several months' work into the trash bin and start over. The hate mail he got after word of that project leaked suggested that not everyone shares his vision of free expression. Sorensen spent his early years designing costumes and video games, and admits to being personally responsible for giving the world a video game depicting a Barbie doll doing gymnastics. [...] I thought I would try something new. High-end European nurseries seem to be his No. 1 customers although millionaires with senses of humor are a close second. The Chronicle selected the orchid that looked like a high school prom corsage. The silver handle on the fixture responded instantly to the touch, like the steering wheel on a European touring sedan. No splashAn unexpected bonus, Sorensen said, is that the natural design of the orchid prevents any splashing. A prospective customer or a newsman may have a reason to test a urinal but the room is foremost an artist's studio, not a lavatory.

Americans renew their relationship with paper, ditching the cheap stuff for reading news and record-keeping to buy expensive stock for photo-based cards and albums from online juggernauts like Shutterfly.com.

When someone says that there are two Californias, the reference these days is usually to the political differences between coastal and inland residents rather than the historical split between north and south.But there is a third and even more...