Profile on: Urban Enviroscapes

GREENandSAVE.com Team
Posted on Monday 29th June 2009

Location: Schaumburg, IL

Website: www.urbanenviroscapes.com

Email: andyc@urbanenviroscapes.com

Mission: Urban Enviroscapes is a company dedicated to innovative green roofing and urban farming applications. We supply products that promote saving energy while improving the environment and organic “just add water” modular farming applications for use on rooftops, balconies, or anywhere with sunlight!

For Urban Enviroscapes®, 'Green' is not just a buzz word referring to an environmentally friendly product. We offer products that are literally green. Rooftop garden, vegetated roof, urban farming, green roof; however you refer to it, it means the same thing: growing vegetation on top of a roof in order to make the environment healthier, lower a building’s energy costs, and improve urban areas aesthetically. We provide unique products, modular green roofing systems, which utilize the commonly over-looked rooftop space of buildings. Green roofs will no longer be an option only for those with large amounts of capital, or exceptionally strong rooftops, or for the extremely environmentally conscientious.

We created 4 different products, ranging from inexpensive modules for green roofing, up to a more expensive household unit that has the ability to grow agriculture just by adding water. Our products address the shortcomings of current solutions to green roofs and urban farming. Furthermore, we will create more jobs locally and have a focus on sustainability and pushing cities to support green efforts. Urban Enviroscapes® will bring green roofs and urban gardens to the masses and show the world how everyone can save money while also saving the environment.

Event Highlights: We attended The National Summit to showcase our modules and our ideas.

The Leadership:

Andy Camp and James Young

Andy Camp: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

James Young: Co-Founder and Chief Engineering Officer

Since: January 2009

Biographical highlights: Mr. Camp has been the main contact for establishing many of the resources and competitions that the company is currently engaged in, while also pushing the company to new avenues for success. Taking lead roles on and off campus as the President of the Technology and Management Executive Board at The University of Illinois, and a winner of the “50 for the Future” of Illinois’ future leaders, Mr. Camp is using the skills he has obtained to move the company forward. With a background in chemical engineering, and a minor in Technology and Management, Mr. Camp has learned to use his engineering, analytical and problem solving skills towards business situations to innovatively start the company and address all issues.

With a background in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as a member of The Hoeft Technology and Management Program, Mr. Young has combined his skills with a strong interest in agriculture to give the company an edge on its competitors. Mr. Young continues to find new ways to keep Urban Enviroscapes® in the frontlines of technology and make sure that no resources are going unused. Mr. Camp and Mr. Young have traveled to China and South Korea on business trips to become more accustomed to doing business internationally, and Mr. Young to India on his own, further showing that they have a very unique set of skills and connections to bring Urban Enviroscapes® to the frontlines of the green revolution in the United States and around the globe.

GREEN Questions:

  1. What are the smart, green or eco-friendly features of your business or product?
    We offer a range of eco-friendly products. Our green roofing products make the process of installing a green roof more sustainable and cost effective, so more people can have green roofs that will last with a wider variety of plants. Our consumer products offer the ability to grow vegetables by simply adding water. Whether the soil you have is incapable of growing agriculture, or you live in a high rise apartment, if you have access to water and sunlight you can grow your own organic crops with our easy-to-maintain system.


  2. What inspired your business or product?
    James Young and I (Andy Camp) traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the C40 Cities International Case Competition to create a product or service that will make the city of Seoul more sustainable. From this, we used the technology we created to produce a more sustainable and viable green roof system, and our just-add-water agricultural product allows anyone to grow their own produce.


  3. How do you envision customers using your services or product?
    Customers will use our green roofs to save on energy bills and improve their surroundings. Our green roofing system can be supported by the majority of low slope rooftops. Our household unit will be used as an easy home gardening area. Customers will buy the main unit to grow the plants, then each season they will buy pods that snap in to the unit to grow their own organic produce such as tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and more! The units can be used in backyards, on balconies, or really wherever someone has access to sunlight or water. Furthermore, these units could be of essential use in third-world countries where growing crops is becoming more difficult.


  4. How do you see your business or product fitting in to the green movement?
    Our product is the essence of the green movement. Our product will literally transform the horizon of cities into a beautiful green landscape. We offer products that stick true to their cause. Our products are one of the few that will allow people to go green while saving green.


  5. What would you change about your community, country or world to make it more eco-friendly?
    The main thing that needs to be done around the world is collaboration. Instead of cities and countries acting on their own to be the “most” green, they need to see the larger picture of what is going on around the world and help each other achieve the goals that have been set before us. We are only as strong as our weakest member, and until we realize that, we will continue to work against each other for a cause that is supposed to unite the world in an effort to improve the place where we all live.

test image for this block