Viriditas
"Viriditas" is a company which may potentially develop out of Green Steel Homes. It would provide permaculture and native plant gardening services, and land rehabilitation services.
These activities will naturally form part of ecovillage development, and originally they were included as part of GSH. However, their inclusion was diluting the focus of that business, which would have needed a more general name. In the early stages I would prefer to focus on construction of ecovillage and sustainable houses, then offer the services described here down the track if appropriate.
Gardening and Landscaping Services
This includes design and creation services for both permaculture and native plant gardens for single-house lots, ecovillages, eco-resorts or other developments.
The types of gardens we create will be highly practical - not the sort with garden gnomes, pebbled pathways or marble fountains. Other people do that. Our gardens are designed to create a positive benefit for the environment.
There are two main types of gardens we will provide. A development may include one of these or a combination of both.
Permaculture
A well-designed permaculture garden can greatly increase the value of a property, because it then becomes able to produce food for the residents. While this comes with a small labour cost, it does reduce the residents' weekly expenses. It will also contribute to their health, since the food produced by the garden will be both fresh and organic (chemical-free).
Food grown in a permaculture garden also does not carry any embodied energy, since no fuel is needed to transport it. Plus you have the added security of knowing that, no matter what happens, at least you will still be able to eat!
Native Plants
The second type of garden we will build for people are native plant gardens with a high food value to local wildlife. This benefits the environment because local wildlife, especially birds, are excellent agents for plant propagation, and if there's one thing the world needs more of right now it's more plants (and, possibly, love). Our native plant gardens will also be full of colourful flowers, which is good for humans, as well as bees who are also good plant propagators.
Land Rehabilitation and Reforestation
The function of this component of the business is to replant thousands of trees on previously-cleared land, which forms part of a wider strategy aimed at removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Carbon removal strategy
(This is just a brief explanation of AscensionTek's atmospheric carbon removal strategy until a more detailed article is added to the website.)
The most important global environmental project right now is the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, hence the existence of Branson's Earth Challenge Prize.
The best technology we have for removing carbon from the atmosphere is vegetation. It has been said that the cycling carbon through the biosphere is very slow, as compared with just burying it (carbon sequestration). However, this only applies if the planet is in a steady state. Our goal is to significantly increase the mass of the biosphere, effectively converting atmospheric carbon into plants and animals. This is a much safer and much more beneficial outcome. Trees and other plants provide food, medicines, shelter and building materials for all kinds of animals including humans.
Our strategy for lowering carbon levels in the atmosphere is deceptively simple. We need to do two main things:
- Plant millions of trees.
- Stop cutting down trees.
Services
There are several elements to this component of the business:
- Mass production of native plant species. This may be achieved with automated farming techniques currently in development for the agricultural industry, including automated greenhouses.
- Land rehabilitation via mass planting of native plant species. This may be achieved using purpose-built robots.
- Ecosystem research and modelling. Regional ecosystems need to be well-understood, as well as the effects of mass plantings on existing ecosystems, before major land rehabilitation can be commenced. Computers can be used to model complex ecosystems and to investigate effects.
In the first stage of this aspect of the business, land rehab services would be provided to the usual customers such as quarries, mines, and land developers. Eventually we would also like to be rehabilitating old sheep and cattle properties, expired farmland, etc. Our major goal would be to institute global mass replanting programs.