Season 2
SEASON 2 EPISODE 9
In this episode of Land Language, host Brit Sastrawidjaya sits down with Mark Woolbright, founder of Verdtech, maker of Varden, a line of lightweight, plantable retaining wall systems. Together, they trace his path from inventing one of the first plantable concrete retaining wall blocks in America to rebuilding that idea as Varden, an all-plastic system sized for backyards, covering wall engineering, drainage, soil science, and the public bidding rules that kept his original invention off the market for years.“ There's just so many givebacks by making a very simple plastic block that we actually perform environmentally way better than any concrete retaining wall block.”
—Mark Woolbright
We explore:
The Swiss retaining wall that started it all
Batter as an engineering advantage
A drainage system he invented decades ago and still builds into every Varden block today
How composted growing media turned his walls into a carbon sink
The water-filtration and plant-growth testing he ran at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's green roof program
How a public bidding rule pushed his original plantable wall off highway and streetscape projects for years
The pivot to an injection-molded, recycled-plastic block built for backyard-scale walls
This episode is a technical, wide-ranging conversation for anyone who is looking to spec, design, or build retaining walls, tracing four decades of trial and error that led to Varden: a wall that can hold back a slope and grow something at the same time.
Mark Woolbright, founder of Verdtech, is an inventor and innovator of living walls with over 30 years in design, manufacture, marketing, and installation of plantable, living wall systems. Mark graduated from Eastern Illinois University and is currently Managing Member of Greenwall Ventures, LLC, and most recently, CEO/Founder of Verdtech, Inc. Throughout his career, he has been awarded twenty patents, with more applications pending. Mark has served on the Board of the St. Louis USGBC, as a member of the Green Wall Committee of GRHC which develops course curriculum for its Green Walls 101 course and has been a certified Biophilic Design trainer through GPGB. He is passionate about educating the building community on the environmental benefits of Living Walls and best practices for their use.
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