News

New client: FHI 360

Wednesday, 16 November 2011 11:15

Plethora Design Concrete5 Article in Web Designer Magazine, UK

Friday, 06 May 2011 22:19

Web Designer, a leading professional magazine in U.K. for the web development industry, is publishing an article in its current issue (#182) on Concrete5 written by Casper Voogt, Director of Plethora Design, a Division of The Garnet Group.  Concrete5 is a content management system similar to Drupal and Joomla.  The Web Designer article provides readers with an introduction to Concrete5, and compares it with Joomla and other content management systems, weighing the pro's and cons.  (A link to the online version of this article will be included here when it is available.)

The Garnet Group's web developers have demonstrated expertise in using Concrete5 for client sites.  More information on the Concrete5 CMS can be found at the Plethora Design blog posts, http://www.plethoradesign.com/search?ordering=&searchphrase=all&searchword=concrete5.

Lands and Waters and The Garnet Group join to help promote a healthier Chesapeake Bay

Monday, 10 January 2011 12:08

The Garnet Group and Lands and Waters, Inc. have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding to partner on initiatives related to the environmental health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In particular, the two organizations are working to plan, develop, and implement targeted programs and projects related to: 1) watershed management, 2) green roofs, 3) education/ public awareness initiatives, and 4) environmental studies.

Lands and Waters, based in Fairfax, Virginia, is a grassroots 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to watershed protection and education. It has implemented many projects including stream-bed stabilization, rain and sponge gardens, riparian buffers, and green roofs. It has also conducted many hands-on environmental educational programs at public schools in Washington, D.C. and Fairfax County, Virginia. It’s Executive Director, Ms. Jeanette Stewart designed a storm-water management plan for Yorktowne Square Condominiums in Merrifield, Virginia in 2003 that included the construction of the first retrofitted green roof in Virginia, an engineered bio-retention area, and natural landscaping techniques to reduce and filter storm-water runoff. She is also a noted author and educator on environmental issues.

The Garnet Group and Lands and Waters are focusing on green roofs as an effective storm-water runoff control and filtration technology for application in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan region as their first initiative.

The Garnet Group and the Sustainable Haiti Coalition Announce a Strategic Partnership

Monday, 10 January 2011 11:48

The Garnet Group and the Sustainable Haiti Coalition have signed an agreement to become ”Strategic Partners” in developing and implementing joint porjects. While The Garnet Group has been a member of the Coalition for some time now and has taken a leadership role in the Coalition’s Outreach and Investment committees, this corporate relationship brings a new level of collaboration on programs and projects to support the development and rebuilding of Haiti on a long-term sustainable basis. The Sustainable Haiti Coalition [sustainablehaiticoalition.org], a 501(c) 3 coalition of businesses and non-profits with sustainable solutions, is in part an outgrowth of the Working Group for a Sustainable Future for Haiti convened at Fairleigh Dickinson University in February 2010. With over 250 active business, non-profit, academic, activist, and private citizen members, the Coalition seeks to bring a suite of sustainable solutions to Haiti. It supports capacity building in all sectors, but focus principally on the private sector and the development of community-scale programs that increase self-sufficiency and local control. The Garnet Group’s proven staff expertise in sustainable environmental, renewable energy, and water resource development programs are a natural complement to these efforts.

• Actively search & collect timely, relevant information on funding for projects/programs in Haiti
• Aggregate, analyze, condense, key information into useable formats for the business community
• Actively contact and disseminate the information in a timely manner to key constituents
• Facilitate collaborative efforts between large and small businesses (especially Haitian Diaspora)

The two organizations have started the scoping and design phase of the effort and are currently in discussions with key funding organizations and collaborative partners, including Haitian Diaspora businesses and organizations, Haiti-based businesses, and U.S. businesses interested in development projects in Haiti.

For more details of this initiative, take a look at the Press Announcement.

Organizations and individuals interested in collaborating with the Haiti Business Portal are encouraged to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Put “Haiti Business Portal” in the subject line.

Announcing Konekte

Thursday, 19 August 2010 12:53

Konekte (Haitian Creole for “Connect”) is a web-based application that allows multiple organizations to geographically map projects, events, and/or activities using either GPS coordinates or street-level map locators. Resulting map views are scalable from country-level down to street level using built-in Google Map overlays. Visual map representations of these points on a map are supported by linked, printable tabular data of any type. Users can see co-locations, proximities, and geographic densities of projects, events, and/or activities. User-selected sorting filters allow visualization by single or multiple organizations and/or specified project categories.

Find out more about Konekte »

OOSKA News Feature: "No Substantial Repairs to Haiti Water, Sanitation Network Since Earthquake"

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 00:00

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (OOSKAnews)

Four months after the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, there have been no substantial repairs to the water and sanitation systems, Deepak Kenkeremath, a consulting engineer with NGO International Action, told OOSKAnews on May 7. 

International Action (www.haitiwater.org) is dedicated to the use of chlorination technology in Haiti to improve the quality of drinking water supplies. The NGO has been around since before the earthquake and has played a key role in relief efforts.

“According to International Action’s survey and assessment, the earthquake of January 12 damaged approximately 60 percent of the water delivery and distribution systems in the greater metropolitan Port-au-Prince area. This assessment is corroborated by independent analysis by CAMEP (Centrale Autonome Métropolitaine d’Eau Potable), the Haitian government agency that has traditionally been in charge of Port au Prince’s water system. This means that over 250,000 people that used to get clean drinking water now have to either buy expensive bottled water or drink water contaminated with disease-causing bacteria,” Kenkeremath said.

“A significant portion of neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince are still not getting water -- clean or contaminated. Stop-gap measures have been focused on the refugee camps and primarily involve trucked water (some treated, some not),” he added. 

 Full article (page 3)

Deepak Kenkeremath discusses Haiti disaster relief on NPR's Kojo Nnamdi Show

Monday, 26 April 2010 00:00

The Garnet Group's Deepak Kenkeremath on NPR's "Planning for Haiti's Future":

MONDAY, APR 26, 2010 AT 1:06 P.M. in DISASTER, ECONOMY, INTERNATIONAL

The international community has pledged more than $5 billion to help rebuild earthquake-ravaged Haiti. But there are already major disagreements about how that reconstruction should proceed -- and who should be in charge of it. We look at what's needed to revitalize a nation with virtually no infrastructure, and consider some of the ideas for lifting Haiti out of poverty. Deepak Kenkeremath discusses the earthquake damage to the community water system in Port au Prince and the clean drinking water situation three months after the January 2010 earthquake. He had just returned from an engineering mission to assess issues related to the repair/rehabilitation of the public water distribution systems in Haiti.

http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-04-26/planning-haitis-future