“Is it OK of I take some of these radishes home? …and some beans? …and some corn?” ‘Drew (my son who enjoys food as much as I do) asked Jared Crisculo, President of Rising Tide Partners. “Sure, no problem.” replied Jared. ‘Drew wasted no time obtaining those items, and continued to ask questions about other choice produce he might be able to score on our visit to the PureGreen Demonstration Garden. -a project implemented by Rising Tide Partners, at the Encina Wastewater Authority (EWA). Yes. -the Encina Wastewater Authority.

The PureGreen Demonstration Garden includes a variety of vegetables, vines, and fruit trees. It’s irrigated with micro-sprinkler and drip systems and fertilized with the PureGreen fertilizer product that’s manufactured at the EWA facility and marketed to nurseries, golf courses, etc. The EWA facility also runs its own energy recovery plant and generates over 5 million gallons per day of recycled water onsite for industrial requirements and landscaping. Considering these multiple value streams and innovations, is “wastewater” too broad a label for this facility? ‘Drew and I were thinking there are probably people who’ll choke on the idea (please excuse the pun) of produce grown at a “wastewater” plant.

Do you have ideas for innovative built environments improvements that can extract value from "wastewater"? Validating, planning, and developing project concepts make for good Project Based Learning experiences. They also help to better inform the eventual design, modelling, and actual construction efforts. The Built Environment Innovation Cooperative partners professionals, educators, and students on project based learning experiences. These are learning activities that investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex questions, problems, or challenges in the built environment. Students make their results and findings public by explaining, displaying and/or presenting it online and in real stakeholder meetings for the potential project.

"Steem" power from this post and others by this author support project based learning activities for students interested in the learning the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) of built environment innovations.