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We are dedicated to providing media with the most current and accurate information about the Wildflower Center. Below you will find recent media announcements and fact sheets to help you with your story or writing assignment. If you need more information, would like to interview a member of the Wildflower Center staff or need photography, please contact us directly.
| Communications Director Saralee Tiede 512.232.0104 stiede@wildflower.org | Media Manager Barbra Rodriguez 512.232.0105 brodriguez@wildflower.org |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation works with governments and businesses to address climate change by looking for ways to increase energy efficiency in cities, to catalyze sources of clean energy, and to prevent deforestation.
Simmons is the lead researcher on a number of projects aimed at improving the environmental quality of urban landscapes such as the effectiveness of manufactured green roofs at cooling buildings and providing other environmental benefits. He is also studying a mixture of grasses native to the Southwest that require less watering, mowing and other maintenance approaches than traditional lawns made of grasses such as St. Augustine.
In addition, he leads Wildflower Center landscape restoration projects at government, commercial and residential sites in Austin and San Antonio. These projects involve the re-establishment of low-maintenance native landscapes that include features such as prairie, whose deep root systems sequester global warming-related carbon dioxide better than other forms of vegetation.
Among his colleagues on the Climate Positive Technical Resource Group are the director of Arup, a global firm helping lead the planning and building of China's first eco-cities; and the president of Mithun, a leading architecture firm focused on sustainable design and urbanism. In 2007, Simmons and Wildflower Center colleagues worked with Mithun to design an online calculator for determining the carbon footprint of construction steps to improve the design of buildings.
Information about the Clinton Climate Initiative is available at: http://www.clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-climate-initiative/. To learn more about Simmons' research, go to: http://www.wildflower.org/greenroof/ and http://www.wildflower.org/nativelawns/. The carbon calculator and carbon footprint is described at: http://www.wildflower.org/carbon/. A photo of Simmons is available upon request to: brodriguez@wildflower.org.
