Fresh Green Start

fresh green steps at home

2008-11-13T14:15:00.004-06:00

So, we are finally getting settled in here in Winston-Salem and I have decided the best way to find all the fabulous "green" people in our new town is to give our own home a fresh green start! Now, we aren't talking major renovation (like what I want to do in the project), But, the house was built in 1924, it has single paned windows and I don't even want to know what isn't caulked!! To this end, I have just scheduled a home energy audit. It is the first step to finding out where our house is loosing efficiency (and as it gets colder, there are some major issues with this house, my toes can tell!) It is also the first step that I outline in the fresh green start project! The gentleman coming to the house is a building scientist (v. facinating) so I hope to learn a lot about our house and green building practices in general.

Something that we have done in our time here is to install "Safe Home Filters" in both of our air intakes. I met the couple, Sam and Liz McLamb, who invented and make these fabulous filters at the green building conference. Our youngest son has been termed "pre-asthmatic" and so I wanted to do all that I could to improve his air quality. These really are revolutionary, as this type of filtering hasn't available before without spending thousands of dollars! It is a dual filtration system that not only filters particles from the air (like the normal filters we use on our systems) but also filters out chemicals from cleaning products, furniture offgassing , paint fumes, etc! I really feel like it has made my house a healthier environment and wanted to share this great company with y'all!! Visit www.safehomefilters.com for more information.

I will report back about the audit. Until then have green days and as always contact me if you have any questions or comments: freshgreenstart@yahoo.com

inspiration abound

2008-06-30T08:38:00.004-05:00

What a time I had at the conference! I was moved in many different ways and by different people than I imagined, isn't that always the case. The most exciting part was simply that there were 240 people on the campus of this small, progressive college in Asheville, NC all thinking and learning and hoping for better ways to build and cleaner habits to adopt.

As a lover of the aesthetic, I was grateful to see that there is no loss of beauty in these builders/designers objectives and projects, if anything, along with this move to "green building" there is a renewed devotion to the beauty and grace of the designs. If we are doing this to maintain the earth's inherent beauty, then aren't we missing the point if what we create isn't beautiful! If it doesn't give those living/working within a sense of pride and reflection of their own beauty, have we made the earth better?

A wise woman that I met talked with me about the book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, he writes about when Guiliani decided to clean up the subway and his idea was as soon as a subway car became vandalized it was immediately taken off the line and repaired and then place back good as new. His reasoning: it is far easier to further degrade something that is already degraded. This action was a tipping point because it caused a ripple effect that lifted the entire subway system to a cleaner, safer place to travel. There were far less cases of vandalizm of the cars themselves as well as the subway stations, litter lightened, etc. This is the effect the "Fresh Green Start" is hoping to have. We lift one house at a time in the same area, people start to have a renewed pride in their own homes just by it's proximity, then we give the park a fresh green start, then the school, and so on... making the entire neighborhood a cleaner, safer place to live and work. Less litter, less vandalizm, more hope, more empowerment...

ponder on that...
more conference specific posts to come...

Mountain Green Sustainability Conference

2008-06-23T19:39:00.004-05:00

I am off tomorrow to the Mountain Green Sustainability Conference in Asheville, NC http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~ELC/New_ELC_Website_/officialconferencebrochure.pdf. I am excited to hear all the fabulous speakers and shake the hands of others in the southeast interested in "green" building and sustainable living. I wish I could be in all the rooms at once because there are some great speakers, but among those I am most interested to see are (1) an architect named Rick Reinhardt speaking directly on the challenges and opportunities in affordable housing! and (2) a group from Habitat for Humanity speaking on making green building affordable. There are speeches planned on New Urbanism and the Katrina Cottage, it is going to be a great day. I will post upon my return...

until then, be happy, be green!

press play!

2008-04-14T22:48:00.003-05:00

Well I have been thinking and dreaming about this project a TON lately and it feels like time to start the exploration and work again. We found out we are moving to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and are really excited about this move. I have been researching green goings-on in the area and think it's going to be a fantastic area for such a project.

Also, I have written to Oprah's Big Give Contest about it and hope that she will help jumpstart the process. The winner gets $5,000 toward their idea, but even more exciting is a panel of experts to help work out the kinks!!! Wow, I would love to brainstorm with a panel of experts!

I will be posting new findings and as always please feel free to give me your input!!

take good care and on to a fresh green start!

press pause

2007-12-16T23:33:00.000-06:00

I am going to have to take a moment here to press pause and reorganize.

We have recently found out we will be moving in June to a new city (where exactly we don't quite know yet) and baby #2 is really, quite honestly, a lot more work that I could have imagined when I set out on this journey when he was a mere 4 wks old (well I can't tell if he is more work or his older brother is more work). Regardless, I am just keeping my head above water with those two sweet, wonderful boys.

In the meantime, I am going to do a bit of volunteering with the new Rebuild program here with Nashville Habitat for Humanity to help finetune what I hope our efforts will be. As well as continuing to research and learn and keep my ear out for the most fabulous and practical green home innovations and do promise to pick this up just as soon as I can. I still believe very strongly in this project and look eagerly on the time when I can bring it to fruition.

to be continued...

my own fresh green start

2007-10-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

As I do this research and think constantly about green living, it is only natural that it would work it's way into my life as well. I wanted to tell y'all about a couple of my favorite things that we are doing here at my house...

the g diaper...

this is a very cool hybrid between cloth diapers and disposable. The outer shell is cotton and there is an inner waterproof liner that holds a flushable insert that catches the "business"! So you don't have to fill bin after bin of diapers to be tossed out into the landfill, but you don't have to put poo in your washing machine either!!!

http://www.gaiam.com/ is where I purchased mine. They come in really cute colors, blue, lime green, orange, etc. check it out for your little one.

This bag is so cool... you take it to the grocery, it expands to clip to the sides of the cart and you load it up with your selections and then unload and reload at the cashier and then simply unclip and put them in your car!! They hold 40 lbs and in my experience 2 of them fills the space of the average shopping cart and can hold a weeks worth of groceries. Did I mention they are $7 a piece!!! www.reusablebags.com under grocery gear, you won't regret it!

Be happy, be green!

many steps

2007-10-12T16:22:00.000-05:00

SO, it turns out there are many steps to take before should even consider overcoming the inertia that was hanging me up in the last post! I met with a couple that have their hand deep in the nashville "green" cookie jar so to speak and although they were enthusiastic, they pointed out several things that needed to be done before any hammers are swung...

1) establish Fresh Green Start as a non-profit organization with the state
2) along with that goes a business plan, a set of by-laws and a board of directors (seriously, I thought I would find a nice family, give them a hug, say, "we're here to help you", overhaul their home and another hug and move on to the next house... now I'm writing by-laws!)
3) Trademark "Fresh Green Start"
4) get together marketing materials complete with bullet points
5) use those materials to network like hell

All those things, even though I hadn't considered them, are valid and important. I am so ready to see this thing happen, but I need to slow down and make sure the ducks are in a row, that I have good advisors and supporters around me, that I can do what I am promising. So, I am off to think and write.

As always, please feel free to comment and/or write me at freshgreenstart@yahoo.com

overcoming inertia

2007-10-10T17:14:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, sigh, I find myself in stuck in a "chicken vs. egg" cycle. Which comes first: the house or the fundraising? I feel hesitant to get a family psyched up if there is no funding/donations set up and feel hesitant to go to potential donors without a house lined up.
So, I started making phone calls to feel out my options. I spoke to a lovely woman at The Housing Fund, an organization that finances affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization projects, and she gave me some good ideas and folks to call and speak with. I heard from one about MDHA's Adopt a House program (sounds perfect!) but can't confirm it's existance with anyone at MDHA. The Habitat for Humanity people are starting up a very similar initiative of rehabing homes but are not far enough along to be actually signing up families. The gentleman I spoke to there was excited about Fresh Green Start so we are going to be talking more as I go along, I could see some sort of partnership happening there.
I am off to a meeting now with a fundraising superwoman! I am so excited that she is taking the time to sit down with me and talk through things so hopefully I will have a plan in mind upon my return. I'll keep you posted. I hope your days are brilliant!!

Morgan Park Place Tour

2007-09-19T11:06:00.001-05:00

Hey Y'all! I took a fabulous tour today of the "Morgan Park Place" homes that are being built here in Nashville by Lawrence Bros. LLC (click on the post's title to see their website). Bill Lawrence walked me around and they are all gloriously green inside and out. Let me show you what I learned...

On top of being cool to look at, the outer structures were built in very durable way (another key to sustainability is durability) They don't use wood on the outside because the wood is harvested too young now and doesn't hold up. On that same note, they use high quality materials and fixtures so there isn't a need to replace them and toss the old ones in the landfill. Most windows are north and south facing. The gutters all run the rain water into the gardens. Even the runoff from the driveways soaks into a permeable parking pad and seeps back into the earth. I wasn't tall enough to get a photo, but the roofs are a white reflective material to reflect the sunlight, v. cool.

Bill reiterated what I already thought was true, insulation plays the biggest role in energy efficiency. These homes have blown in open-cell foam insulation throughout, are wrapped in insulation, even the garage door is insulated. For our remodel home, re-insulating the attic and crawl space will play a big role in what we do. For older homes, he said insulating the roof rafters instead of the ceiling is key.

The second biggest role is played by the HVAC unit. I have a lot more to learn about that! The interesting point he made was they put a fresh air intake to their HVAC units. Most are using the air from the crawl space (which might be moldy) or the attic (which usually has loose fiberglass particles floating around in it) and lower the air quality in the home.

Something that I totally want to give this family is a tankless water heater! Here's a good one. Bill said this was an easy switch from an existing tank hot water heater if the home's water was heated with gas (this makes me want one for my own home!!) The hot water tank is responsible for as much as 25% of the homes energy usage!! With tankless you never run out of hot water because it makes the hot water as you need it and never stores more than a quart. Also, think of the extra space you would have in that closet or utility room for your brooms and such without that big ol' ugly tank there!

this is the beautiful kitchen (sorry for the blur). The appliances are all energy star, the cabinets contain no formaldehyde & under foot is beautiful bamboo flooring.

The surprise for me was the granite, which doesn't seem inherently green to me, but it is a solid surface, contains no glue or resins and is incredibly durable so there ya go... granite=green, who knew!

Some other highlights of the tour were the 100% recycled sheetrock, carpets made of recycled plastic bottles, front loading washing machine (which are SO much better than top loaders at water and energy efficiency they sell their units with one already in place!) gorgeous stained concrete floors (i was too captured by their beauty to remember to take a picture, duh), triple paned low-e windows, composite decking, low-VOC paints, etc., etc.

What a great tour and a wealth of information!! Thanks so much Bill Lawrence!

Eco-mmunity

2007-09-11T14:37:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all, I was just browsing the Sundance Channel's "the green" website (because I love their green programming) and joined the eco-mmunity! So now The Fresh Green Start Project is officially on the map. It is so cool, anywhere you are in the country, you can find others who are like minded or who are starting up a project of their own that you may want to help with. And others can find us! What a great thing...
Just click the title of this post to go straight there. Check it out.

the plan

2007-09-06T23:11:00.000-05:00

I have gotten some great responses so far and feel even more energized than yesterday! I wanted to give y'all some more details of the plan and timeline of the project as I hope it plays out.

Once a property is secured, I am going to get an energy audit inspection to see exactly what changes will make the greatest impact to the home and tailor the plan to fit those specific needs. I have talked to the folks at CHEAP (Community Home Energy Audit Project) in the past about doing this, but just tried them again today and the number was cutoff. I will do some more digging, I hope they are still out there, what a great program.

From the research I've done there are a few biggies that we will definately need to address and others that will make the home fabulous and fresh.

1) Insulation: the single greatest energy saver... This means attic, pipes, crawlspace, etc.
2) Windows: depending on the state of the current windows this will be either recaulking and low-e window film application or brand-new windows
3) Resealing or replacing doors
4) Upgraded Hot Water System (hopefully tankless or solar, still researching the benefits of each)
5) Fresh interior Low VOC paint and exterior (depending on exterior material)
6) Sustainable flooring (bamboo would be my first choice)
7) New Energy Star Appliances (kitchen, w/d, furnace, etc.)
8) Native landscaping

a few things that will be the cherry on this sundae are:
1) new roof
2) new walkways and driveways with water friendly pavers
3) a rain catching irrigation system
4) solar energy panels
5) shade shutters for the most sun-vunerable windows
6) some furnishings and extras for the family

Of course this is all hypothetical not knowing what shape the house is in, but a good jumping off point.

I hope to have a property lined up by the end of October so the fundraising and donation getting can be in full swing throughout the winter with the actual remodel taking place in April/May of 2008. YAY!

first steps

2007-09-05T10:52:00.000-05:00

The first step as I can see is to find a house or a small apartment building to do this remodel to! I live in East Nashville (an area of the city just over the river from downtown nashville) in the neighborhood of Edgefield (http://historicedgefield.org/ if you are interested).

East Nashville is not short on low-income options, but most of them are managed by Metro Housing and they have so far been hard to reach. I don't think, from what I have heard, that Government housing is the way to go, I would much rather find a private landlord that is interested in this project and who's heart is in it. I must start talking to people in East Nashville about this and see what I can come up with. Feel free to make suggestions!

My other first step is to find a group of people that want to help this project get off the ground. Wanna help?! I will keep you posted on the fabulous people who join me.

If you have any questions or comments please email me at freshgreenstart@yahoo.com

here goes!

2007-09-05T10:04:00.000-05:00

I've been talking about this project for over a year and have only gotten more and more excited and sure that it is a great plan and needs to come to life. So, here goes... first steps... and I wanted to document it here for you. The project is called "Fresh Green Start" and what I aim to do is remodel low-income housing in an environmentally sound way to do two very important things. One, benefit the family living there by lowering their energy costs as much as possible and allowing them to spend thier wages in more productive ways. And two, benefit the earth by lowering that homes carbon emmissions. It is a perfectly balanced cycle for the families who need it most: lower the energy output, lower the cost of living!
I named it "Fresh Green Start" because I hope to give that family the feeling of a fresh start by moving into an affordable, yet newly remodeled home. One that will allow them to feel pride in thier home, and inturn renew pride in themselves. It is my hope that the children living in this home will feel empowered learn more and to share thier knowledge.

a little about me:
I was raised in West Virginia by a mother who was a counselor and a father who was an engineer and an environmentalist. From these two lovely people, I have a very strong sense of the importance of service to other people as well as the earth. The idea that what I do effects not only myself but everyone living on this earth today and for generations to come. I am so grateful to have had this education as a young person. For years I was best at the service to other people, especially children, until the need for environmental action hit me right upside the head, literally. We were living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Watching our sweet city wash away was one of the hardest and most helpless moments of my life. I was sent an email days later warning, with chilling accuracy, about the environmental events that had begun to unfold. I dug deeper and learned more about the recent effects of the global climate change and the role that humans are having in effecting the earth so severely. And closer to home I now see the great need for affordable housing and not the stereotypical Projects that keep those living there in a cycle of poverty and despair, but a new kind of affordable housing. I wanted to build a house or apartment that a family could feel proud to come home to and that moves in a direction toward the well-balanced relationship we should all have with the planet we live on. Letting it help us with solar energy and rain water, and us helping it by not carelessly using more energy than is necessary.
Helping people and helping the earth, ah, a fresh green start...

If you have any questions or comments please email me at freshgreenstart@yahoo.com