Project Construction
What Is It That Makes The Santa Cruz Gardens Development Special?
Is it because it is surrounded by the Galapagos National Park, with the awe-inspiring delight of wild giant tortoises roaming freely? Or is it the eco-credentials and attention to detail that makes SCG stand out as a unique development?
We're told, not least amongst the many factors that make Santa Cruz Gardens such an exceptional place, is its sense of community. The place stirs such a sense of reverence that it inspires staff, and even lot owners, to go beyond the call of duty.
One such lot owner is Eric Meyers. Eric originally bought 10 lots at SCG, sight unseen when he realized a house in the Galapagos Islands would be the ultimate eco-vacation villa for naturalists and scuba divers alike.
As well as having a BSc. Degree in Biology, Eric also happens to own and run two construction companies, in northern California. His affinity for the life sciences coupled with his expertise in the building industry, means that Santa Cruz Gardens benefits greatly from his combination of passion, enthusiasm and skills. Eric makes regular onsite inspections and is so excited by the progress that he has now acquired an 11th lot.
What impresses a seasoned investor and land-developer like Eric? He says, "apart from the “mega-brand” of Galapagos being so unique, what makes SCG compelling, is the extra effort taken in all aspects, to become a standard-setting eco-development."
SCG is the first to effectively use solar power and treat waste water, as well as use the treated waste water for irrigation. This has set the highest standard as a benchmark, to reduce environmental pollution and natural resource depletion of the irreplaceable Galapagos.
Eric supports the continual conscious effort to use local products and services whenever possible, that bolster the Islands’ multi-faceted eco-tourism economy. He believes many of SCG’s lot owners will eventually become involved in the local community or in conservation projects in some way. "Simply spending time in this unique place will make virtually anyone desire to provide some help towards preserving Charles Darwin’s natural laboratory".
What Makes Santa Cruz Gardens An ‘Eco-development’ As Opposed To Just Another Classic Housing Subdivision?
It takes more than just running the power grid underground instead of overhead, to say the least. Although admittedly, not having power lines draped across the sky also greatly improves SCG’s scenery. An eco-development must be “environmentally friendly,” and that means it must make extraordinarily concerted efforts to not adversely affect the ecosystem. SCG achieves this by significantly reducing pollution and resource depletion.
Going Solely Solar
It is extremely difficult to build a modern home, with all the energy needs met, and have it operating on only solar generated electricity. The main issue lies not with the
solar technology generating the electricity per se, but rather with the multitude of inefficient household devices consuming the electricity. Fortunately, there is a growing demand to be more cost effective, energy efficient, and eco-friendly. Although some of the upfront costs to consume less are more expensive, the savings realized over time more than offset those initial costs. Not to mention that the environmental benefits are priceless.
It is this new demand for more energy efficient home appliances and equipment that has made it possible to have SCG villas’ electricity solely provided by a photovoltaic system. Admittedly, the list of allowable electrical equipment and their use is slightly curtailed, but the house-owners have found that the obtained savings and eco-friendliness outweigh the very minor inconveniences. Here are some of the advancements in lowering the villas' power consumption:
Energy Efficient Appliances are an obvious place to start. All appliances like refrigerator, microwave, TV, etc. are at the very least "Star Energy" compliant. This is the same with the light bulbs, which are be CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps).
These bulbs last 10 to 20 times longer, and use only one quarter to one fifth of the energy of an equivalent incandescent bulb. These appliances cost more than their less efficient counterparts, but the energy they save over the years more than compensates this original higher price.
Water Matters
The Water Pump is also one of those tricky issues. The pump needs to be able to pressurize the villas’ water tanks to 38 PSI, thus demanding a significant amount of energy to do so. Also, a large amount of expended energy is used to bring the pump up to operational speed every time it starts. Ordinary pumps would deplete the photovoltaic system's batteries at an unsustainable rate, therefore a specially imported pump has been used, which is four times the cost but makes up for it as it needs only a fraction of the electricity. The tradeoff is well worth the price.
Images of Lot 16's specialized water pump and the photovoltaic inverter and batteries (below), Mar. '08
Cool Stuff
Being in an equatorial region, temperature control is obviously one of the biggest concerns. The climate on the island is relatively mild, but there are a few very sunny months when the temperature can exceed 35 degrees Celsius. A practical photovoltaic system cannot sustain enough electricity to actively cool the living space with air conditioners, therefore an innovative passively thermal barrier solution has been deployed in the attics to keep the heat from migrating through the gypsum ceiling and entering the living area in the first place.
Essentially, two simultaneous processes of radiant reflection and air convection are incorporated into this light weight thermal barrier system. A specially imported 0.15 mm thin aluminum foil scrim, capable of reflecting 97% of the undesired radiant heat, is suspended several centimeters below the metal roof, completely encapsulating the attic.
This shows just a few of the considerations that have gone into making SCG such an eco-conscious development. One that not only “talks the talk”, but also more than “walks the walk”. At the same time, modern requirements and comforts have also been met through compromise and innovation.
The following are a few further examples of the extraordinary care being taken in every detail of the construction process too.
Traditionally, trees are removed for straight trenching, but here ditches curve around trees, whenever possible.
Normally, road and utility infrastructure is installed with massive heavy equipment and aggressive rock demolition with dynamite, all of which can indiscriminately and drastically tear up land and vegetation. Even though, some heavy equipment and blasting has to be used, a far less invasive approach is being taken and great efforts are taken to preserve habitat.
However, not all vegetation is protected in the project. There is an ongoing program to rid the subdivision of all plant species foreign to not only the Galapagos in general, but to the specific bio-region within Santa Cruz Island’s eco-zone where the development is located. This will help eliminate further contamination of the original natural habitat in and around SCG.
Also, the irrigation for the landscaping is very environmentally friendly. The ground maintenance for the two large communal areas and front entrance with guardhouse use water from the development’s water treatment plant. This substantially lowers the dependency on the Island’s main water resource supplied by the municipality.
The water treatment system ensures all water consumed by the subdivision is safely reintroduced back into the environment. SCG does not use any septic systems, which are commonly used elsewhere and are potentially harmful to the island’s ecosystem.
In a way, the same can be said of the use of solar power within the project. The solar energy strategy is designed to not only alliviate the demands that a non-solar housing project would have had on the Island’s electrical grid, but actually increase this power resource. The extra electricity produced via SCG’s solar array reduces the amount needing to be generated by the utility company’s diesel power plant, thus decreasing air pollution.
This allows home-owners to sell the excess electricity to the grid. All proceeds will be used to replace worn-out batteries and collector panels, as well as export the spent batteries to the continent for proper disposal, once again eliminating potential harm to the ecosystem. Covering the solar maintenance cost for each lot owner ensures the ongoing full potential of this renewable energy resource will always benefit the Island as a whole.
The following pages show details of construction and other details of the making of this flagship eco-development.