((PKG)) GREEN BUS STOPS
((TRT: 5:40))
((Topic Banner: Green Bus Stops))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: June Soh))
((Video Editor: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: College Park, Maryland))
((Main characters: 0 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 0 female; 2 male))
((Blurb: David Tilley is Environmental Science and Technology Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland. He is also an entrepreneur. Through his company, Living Canopies, Tilly turns to nature to create useful inventions, from the Green Umbrella and the Green Wall to his latest innovation, the Cool Green Bus Shelter.))
((NATS/SOTs))
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
All right. Afternoon, guys.
((NATS/SOTs))
Dave.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
What’s going on? Are the electrical systems looking pretty good?
((NATS/SOTs))
Yeah, just trying to tighten a little bit of wire right now.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
We got a lot of mileage out of that Hyattsville rendering.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
My name is David Tilley. I'm an associate professor of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland in College Park. I'm also the CEO and co-founder of Living Canopies, which is a startup that came out of my research in my lab at the university.
((NATS/SOTs))
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
So Keegan, how's the water pump working these days?
((Keegan
Researcher))
We're just going to connect this to the box again, and it should be working.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
That’s going to work with those fuses?
((NATS/SOTs))
Yeah.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
Living Canopies wouldn't exist without all the student interns that I’ve have had work for me over the last several years. I think the last count I've had about 20 students usually work during the summer or through the semester. So right now, we have a small group of about five students, and some that just graduated in architecture, landscape architecture, environmental science and technology, as well as engineering.
((NATS/SOTs))
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
What's going to happen with the controller there, Kyle?
((Kyle
Researcher))
We're going to connect this up to the fuse box in there, and then this should be able to charge the battery with the solar panel. .
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
I try to infect as many of the students I can with entrepreneurship, and they're really seeing that as a way to scale technologies and to have, you know, good impact across the world, and across the state, and across the region, because it gives you this opportunity to take an idea and to really turn it into something that's very large and can affect and improve the lives of a lot of people. Deep down, our inspiration for all of our living technologies is to make people love nature.
This is the living umbrella. So, this was our first invention. So, the green umbrella is really, it's your patio umbrella, but instead of having the plastic nylon canopy that you typically have on top of them that protects you from the sun and the rain, remove that and it has just a canopy of live plants. Typically use very flowering plants like Mandevilla.
It has its own solar powered irrigation system, so you can keep the plants healthy and alive. And then it provides this really kind of wow factor for restaurants and hotels that want to impress their customers. It also makes for a much more comfortable space and it can provide habitat, if that's something that you want to do as well.
((NATS))
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
This is a green wall that I installed with my students several years ago. It protects the building from heat, and it provides habitat for birds and pollinators.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
So, if you ever walk by a brick building, it's very hot because it's like 140 degrees Fahrenheit [60 degrees Celsius]. So, the vegetation of the plants protect the brick from getting so hot. So they act as a cooling factor, and they actually can reduce the temperature even of the micro environment that's around the wall. So, maybe it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit [27 degrees Celsius] outside in the air temperature, but just close to the plants themselves, it might only be 85 degrees Fahrenheit [29 degrees Celsius], because the plants have ability to use water. And when they use the water, they're basically acting like little misters, and that misting action reduces the temperature of the air in the immediate environment.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
So, this is the prototype of the cool green shelter for bus stops. So what we have is a typical bus shelter in form, but what we've done is turned it into a green roof.
((Courtesy: David Tilley))
So you have four feet [1.2 meters] by 10 feet [3 meters] of green roof that's planted with living live plants.
((end Courtesy))
And then on the ends of the of the roof, you have our living canopies that extend out
((Courtesy: David Tilley))
about three or four feet, so you get some extra shade from the plants.
((end Courtesy))
And then in the back side of the bus shelter, you have the solar panels. So, we have 300 watts of solar panels. Those panels provide enough power
((Courtesy: David Tilley))
to light the bus stop at night, as well as provide power to charge a phone or your personal device.
((end Courtesy))
And then we also have an advertising or we call it environmental sponsorship panel that's available for corporations and foundations to sponsor bus shelters that are needed in certain types of communities.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
Okay, a key feature of making this work is our technology that allows us to capture rainwater that falls on the green roof and the solar panels. That water is directed down through the leg of the bus shelter and then stored in the water cistern or rain barrel that sits underneath the seat. And then we have an electronic and control systems.
It's a smart control system, meaning that it knows how much water is in the soil itself. So, when the soil dries out, the device knows to turn the pump on and to irrigate or water the plants.
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
So someone sitting under a vegetated, planed canopy is going to feel quite a bit cooler, maybe 10 degrees cooler than they would if they were just sitting under a regular bus shelter that's made of a hard, metal surface. So, we see there's a lot of potential.
Just in the United States, there are 500,000 bus stops, but there's only 100,000 bus shelters.
((NATS))
((David Tilley
Environmental Scientist, Entrepreneur))
So what's really important for a green roof is for the soil to be lightweight. So, this is an engineered soil. It's actually shale rock. It's crushed up and then it's cooked at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit [1093 degrees Celsius]. And when that happens it expands, and when it expands it becomes less dense. So therefore, it's lighter weight. So when you have this up on top of the shelter, it's not as heavy, and it acts really well as a good drainage medium and growing medium for the plants.
((Courtesy: David Tilley))
So, we want people to really think about nature and how it can
((end Courtesy))
provide benefit to them in a lot of different ways
((Courtesy: David Tilley))
and make their lives better, healthier and have a more prosperous future.
((end Courtesy))
