Miles of beautiful beaches on this rare island property

Vertical Green 2: A Fantasy or Our Future?

August 12th, 2010 by Frances

Last year I wrote a blog post about vertical farming and its futuristic promises of cities peppered with green-sided skyscrapers. It’s an intoxicating idea. You can see that post here. Last week, The Guardian published an article on the same subject. Here’s a quote: “So it’s easy to see the appeal of a system which, [...]

Press Release – Beyond Green: Taking the Long View Toward a Truly Sustainable Resort

April 19th, 2010 by Frances

CHICAGO, April 19, 2010 — Many luxury resorts and hotels are currently touting their green initiatives: recycling, laundering towels less often, or using compact fluorescent bulbs. While these are important efforts, some are embracing a concept bigger than green: sustainability. Alex Pettitt, host of TV’s “Mainstream Green,” contends that sustainability must be ingrained in a [...]

Bamboozled

November 12th, 2009 by Ben

The WSJ journal has an article today about the sustainability of bamboo clothing; as it turns out, bamboo clothing really isn’t sustainable once you factor in all the chemicals and processing involved in its production, and claims that it is are probably close to fraudulent.  One of these days I might get around to blogging [...]

Sustainable Forestry Solutions

October 1st, 2009 by David

Last week I discussed some of the deforestation that is happening throughout Panama. The depletion of rainforest is a very real problem with powerful socioeconomic repercussions. For instance, the deforestation of the Darien Jungle would open passage by land from Colombia, and all of South America, through Panama all the way to Alaska via the [...]

Deforestation

September 23rd, 2009 by David

The provinces of Los Santos and Herrera are considered the heartland of Panama.  Many Panamanians trace their roots to these strongholds of Spanish settlement.  It is in these areas where ranchers and cowboys tend to their cattle, where the best tipico music and food originate, where some of the greatest sense of national pride is [...]

Vertical Green

September 22nd, 2009 by Frances

Recently I read about a very interesting vision of the future. One that sees traditional “soil-based” farming as unsustainable long-term, and puts forth the idea of urban “vertical” farming, or Sky Farms. Take a look at this op-ed piece by Dr. Dickson D. Despommier in the online New York Times here. Despommier has a book [...]

Orchard, Beachgoers, and Sea Turtles…Oh My! Notes From the Island

September 10th, 2009 by Jerrod

Three days on Palenque have quickly come to an end as I get ready to pack up and head back to “civilization.” My days were mostly filled with the typical pre-construction on-site task: walking property. I was deciding the ideal location for a potential model villa and making sure the area where we will have [...]

A “British gentleman farmer” in Boca Chica

December 17th, 2008 by Ben

On my last visit to the site, I paid a visit to John Spragge, a farmer on Boca Brava: it’s a fascinating group of people hanging out in this unknown little corner of the world. I don’t know if he’d like the term, but the best way I can think of to describe John Spragge [...]