Teams participating in this year’s tournament included local businesses, civic groups, and several Town departments. Many local businesses also donated goods and services for a tournament raffle, with proceeds to benefit the fund.

PARE entered three 5-member teams. This is the third year that one of the Pare teams showed that they are as adept at bowling as they are at performing engineering services for the town, as they took home first-place!

Bobby Sykes, Engineer at PARE, enthusiastically warms up for play.

George Palmisciano (pictured at center of back row), Senior Vice President at PARE, participated on the Smithfield Rotary Club’s team.

The post Pare Helps Raise Money for Smithfield Welfare Holiday Fund appeared first on Pare Corporation.

The contents of the box change with the seasons to ensure that only the freshest produce is selected – you can taste the difference! A box earlier this summer included seasonal greens, such as Swiss chard and arugula, carrots, celery, several ears of corn, and large, juicy blueberries. A weekly newsletter identifies the farm from which each item was harvested and shares several recipe ideas to make using your produce easy.

(Only vegetables harvested at the peak of their freshness make it into the box)

Veggie Box is a great way to support area farms while ensuring that your family gets fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables. Buying from local farmers helps preserve open space and means your food doesn’t travel as far to get to you. Farm Fresh schedules their drop-offs as efficiently as possible to minimize delivery trips throughout the State.

Visit the Farm Fresh website or their Veggie Box page to learn more, including ways that you can enroll in the program. There are public drop-off locations all over Rhode Island, including some in your hometown!

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“A sign that creating a sustainable community is easier than you think is observed in Sprouting Boardwalk photographed at Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI.  Mother Nature leaves hints of innovation throughout our daily lives; it is just a matter of discovering these hidden elements.  An organic planter lines the boardwalk in a decaying wooden structural element filled with wind-blown sand and just the right mixture of light and nutrients to support these budding spires of grass.”

Shane will receive a gift card to Chipotle, consistently regarded as one of the greenest restaurant chains. Not only do they source “food with integrity“, they are constructing new restaurants to USGBC LEED Platinum standards.

You can check out all of the entries here.

Special thanks to all who entered the contest this year. This year’s entrants were:

Photo 1: ”Sprouting Boardwalk” by Shane Driscoll

Photo 2: “Climbing to the Future” by Allen Orsi

Photo 3: “Settling Down in the Suburbs” by Lauren Hastings

Photo 4: “Cape Town” by Victoria Howland

Photo 5: “Piece of Nature” by Jay Gaudette

Photo 6: “High Line” by Brandon Blanchard

Photo 7: “Water Taxi” by Dave Easterbrooks

Photo 8: “Vegetation” by Cari Orsi

Photo 9: “Container Gardening” by Tim Thies

Photo 10: “A Walk on Wood” by Scott Lindgren

The post Sprouting Boardwalk wins PARE’s 4th Annual Earth Day Photo Contest appeared first on Pare Corporation.

This year’s theme for Earth Day is Green Cities. We asked Pare employees to submit photographs and a brief summary of why they thought it best represented this theme. Like in year’s past, we received some great entries. Take a look below and choose your favorite!

#1 – Sprouting Boardwalk

A sign that creating a sustainable community is easier than you think is observed in “Sprouting Boardwalk” photographed at Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI.  Mother Nature leaves hints of innovation throughout our daily lives; it is just a matter of discovering these hidden elements.  An organic planter lines the boardwalk in a decaying wooden structural element filled with wind-blown sand and just the right mixture of light and nutrients to support these budding spires of grass.

#2 Climbing to the Future

As host of the 2013 USGBC Green Build Conference, the City of Philadelphia is a leader in the implementation and advancement of “green technology”. This photograph, taken at the foot of the iconic Philadelphia Art Museum steps, embodies the future of green initiative. While our generation has taken the first step to help future generations achieve this monumental design standard, there remains much work ahead to ensure that we as the human race continue to strive to reach our goal of a sustainable future.

#3 Settling Down in the Suburbs

A city or town is only truly “green” when all its inhabitants are accounted for! I was lucky enough to witness this pair of Osprey building their nest only a short distance from a busy state highway in a suburb of Providence. Manmade platforms like the one pictured here allow these fish-eating birds of prey to thrive in developed coastal areas.

 #4 Cape Town

A city surrounded by mountains.

#5 Piece of Nature

I took this photo in October on a hike in New Hampshire.  It is looking at Mt. Chicora from the middle sister mountain.  Getting people out into beautiful places like this is becoming more and more popular, and each time we bring a little piece of nature back with us that inspires us to make our cities better.

#6 High Line

What was once an abandoned elevated freight line is now one of Manhattan’s most loved new attractions: The High Line. Rather than demolishing the historic rail line, the City of New York preserved it, transforming it into a linear park complete with a walking path, landscape areas, food vendors and outdoor art displays. Great Cities like New York embrace their parks and green spaces as important public gathering spots. Green Cities do the same.

 #7 Water Taxi

Our cities and urban centers offer a multitude of opportunities for living, working, and playing. More and more they also offer a multitude of sustainable transportation options, from subways and light rail to zip cars, bike share, and waterborne taxis and ferries.

 #8 Vegetation

This photo seems to suggest vegetation can grow just about anywhere naturally, city or country.  However, it also reminds us that this is the type of vegetation that we will be left with if we don’t take the time to preserve the natural open spaces of the natural landscapes and provide ample room for other flora to grow and flourish.

#9 Container Gardening

Many people think living in a city means you can’t enjoy gardening or growing your own food. Container gardens can allow you to grow your own vegetables in a relatively small footprint, which can make City living both more attractive and more sustainable.

Celery Haiku

Celery in cups

Grow it on your deck or porch

Ants on a log, yum.

#10 A Walk on Wood

In Portland Oregon you will find a unique experience, a wooden sidewalk that spans four downtown blocks connecting Jamison Square Park and Tanner Springs Park in Portland’s Pearl District.  The wooden walkway and parks were planned as a way to reconnect this part of downtown Portland to the Willamette River.  The parks and surrounding area within the Pearl District have many sustainable design elements to enjoy.  Besides utilizing wood as a renewable resource material for the walkway, there is a fountain that simulates a shallow tidal pool, and the recreation of a natural wetland and pond in an urban setting.

I found it to be a very relaxing experience while walking the four blocks as the sound of the wood below your feet seems to transport you out of the urban environment.  I would recommend the journey if you are in Portland.

Please vote for your favorite photo/message by sending an email to dpoulos@parecorp.com.  Simply indicate your choice of Photos 1 – 10.

Thanks for participating!

The post Voting Begins for PARE’s 4th Annual Earth Day Photo Contest appeared first on Pare Corporation.

Mark Dowdell and Shane Driscoll presented water filtration to the children, demonstrating how sponges and coffee filters can remove solids from water, much like a more sophisticated water filtration system.

Mark Dowdell explains the experiment.

Mark Dowdell and a Future Engineer Perform the Demonstration

Shane Driscoll Performs Another Demonstration…

…to Amazing Results!

Eric Silva ran the geotechnical station, demonstrating how settlement can differ in various types of soil, from sand to potting soil.

Eric Silva Preparing a Geotechnical Demonstration

Other stations demonstrated building construction using marshmallows and toothpicks, bridge construction using cardboard, and how stormwater (or rain) runoff can create erosion problems around riverbanks.

– Written by Shane Driscoll

The post PARE Engineers Help Demonstrate Engineering Concepts to Area Children appeared first on Pare Corporation.

Here is a gallery showing some of our projects at URI.

The post URI – The Greenest College in Rhode Island appeared first on Pare Corporation.

I searched for Rhode Island and clicked on the University Dining Hall at URI in South Kingstown, a project PARE worked on with Vision III Architects. The website shows that it received LEED Silver in June 2008, earning points over a number of categories including water efficiency, sustainable sites, and indoor air quality. Check it out here and while you’re there, search for other projects in our area.

The post Green Building Information Gateway appeared first on Pare Corporation.

Many communities look to their closed landfills for solar farms and these sites promise to be very attractive. While closed landfills present their challenges, the benefits are numerous. First, landfills are cleared of vegetation and offer direct exposure to sunlight over a large area. Landfills are also often located in isolated areas, where the impacts to neighboring property owners are far less likely. Finally, it provides a potential revenue source on a property that otherwise has little economic value.

If you would like to see an aerial view of this facility during construction, fly to these coordinates in Google Earth:

               41 40.8′ N

               71 02.0′ W

The post Solar Farms a Viable Renewable Energy Resource in New England appeared first on Pare Corporation.

The High Line is a high-profile example of adaptive reuse, taking old infrastructure and converting it into something completely new and functional instead of tearing it down. A similar project was undertaken by RIDOT in Providence. Construction of the Washington Pedestrian Bridge, converting former lanes of Interstate 195 Eastbound into a public park was completed. This park includes a trail connecting to the East Bay Bike Path, designed by Pare.

– Brandon Blanchard

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