Tour Descriptions

Living Desert Morning Tour & Hike

Monday, August 3, 2009 @ 6:30 - 8:45 a.m.

Take a short ride to the Living Desert. Upon arrival at The Living Desert's Chase Gallery and Reception Garden attendees will enjoy a tour of our Californian and North American plein air art collection, along with a small orange juice and muffins available in the Tennity Board Room. Chilled water will also be offered for their upcoming tour. The garden is elegant, organic and inspired by nature. A vast collection of plein air paintings donated by a local philanthropist is highlighted by modern, earth-friendly design and desert landscaping. At 8:00 am attendees will have a guided walking tour of The Living Desert, including a special look at indigenous plants of Africa and an exclusive visit to The District Commissioner's House, home to our endangered Amur Leopards. Currently ranked as one of the most endangered cats in the world, there are less than 200 Amur Leopards in captivity. Both venues celebrate the mission of desert conservation through preservation, education and appreciation.

Food Waste - Cradle to Cradle Tour

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 @ 6:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Don't miss this opportunity to see the full cycle of food collection, processing and end use, on this cradle to cradle tour, sponsored by Burrtec Industries. Wake up bright and early on Tuesday and start your day with coffee and muffins. The tour will start with a behind the scenes look at Rancho Las Palmas and explain the set-up process for the current program in the Executive Chef kitchen, including restaurant, banquet and room service food preparation. The tour will look at the types of containers used and discuss the challenges that came with program implementation. Following the hotel tour, jump on a bus to visit California BioMass, located in Thermal, one of California's premier composting facilities, with the bus trip narrated by composting experts.

California Bio-Mass is a fully permitted composting facility. The company registers its compost products with and adheres to the quality standards, disclosures and composting procedures prescribed by the California Compost Quality Council and CCOF OMRI guidelienes. Tour the facility to see how collected food waste enters the facility, is sorted, cleaned and processed before being send to local farms and stores for commercial use.

The last stop will be at a local farm to see the use of the finished product. More details to follow.

Coachella Valley Leads the Way in LEED Certified Design

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 1:15 - 5:15 p.m.

Be the FIRST EVER to tour the Coachella Valley LEED projects!! Never toured before, currently there are over 25 buildings in certification phase of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) with one Silver Certified building in Palm Desert (Palm Desert Visitor's Center) which was actually the first LEED building of any level certified in the Valley. Directly next door to the Visitor's Center is the Henderson Building which houses the Chamber of Commerce and is slated for LEED Silver certification also. These two building's will be the launching point to begin the tour of Valley certified projects.

There are currently over 30 LEED Accredited Professionals registered in the Coachella Valley which has recently kicked off a Coachella Valley Branch. This tour with the CRRA will be the first opportunity to show off the Coachella Valley's regionally specific building challenges and how we use LEED to quantify those changes in the way that we move forward into more sustainable building behaviors.

Second stop we will go to La Quinta where we will cover the Valley's first sustainable community Polo Square. The tour leader will share aspects of this development that will actually make it a USGBC dream. From there attendees will travel along the 10 Freeway and discuss the renewable energy models that are developing in the community...solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Final stop will be in Palm Springs were you will witness an anomaly in the LEED program and that is a LEED Platinum residential property built by one of the Valley's most prolifically "green" architects Mr. Lance O'Donnell of O2 Architecture. He has a magnificent home that attests to all that can be done in the world of certified building. As you head back to the hotel you will drive by the College of the Desert to see both the Nursing Building and the Public Safety building that exemplify green design integrated into public buildings.

Lamb Canyon Landfill & Burrtec Waste Industries MRF Tour

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 1:15 - 5:00 p.m. (tour ends at Ontario Airport)

First stop, Lamb Canyon Landfill. Owned by Riverside County, this landfill currently accepts 1950 tons per day of refuse. The landfill has implemented numerous waste conservation steps to increase the lifespan of the landfill and save natural resources. Attendees will tour the landfill Waste Recycle Park and learn about how materials disposed of at the landfill are being salvaged through a "state of the art" recycle park. Learn how the landfill is helping keep hazardous waste, CRT's, electronics and appliances from being buried. Also, the landfill, while permitted to use ADC for cover is expanding the life of the landfill by using plastic tarps for cover.

The second stop on the tour is to visit the Burrtec Waste Industries, Inc. MRF. Burrtec operates a Material Recovery Facilities utilizing the latest, state-of-the-art technology to provide recyclable material sorting services to communities throughout Southern California. As part of this tour you will see how we process residential curbside and commercial recycling material for highest recovery and diversion