Hi Everyone Just met
Gary Duncan at our Earthship talk here in Santa Barbara Ca last week, I
think the work and effort he is doing in Colorado should be share around.
He has said he would come and talk about the cutting edge of green
building in Cororado in Santa Barbara in the fall or early net year. He
is helping foster an interaction with people pushing the parameters of
green building thru his Smart Shelter Network. wes http://www.smartshelter.com/
Smart Shelter Network
What Does Smart Shelter Do? The Smart Shelter Network studies Natural, Sustainable and Green Building structures only
in South Western Colorado. It documents those buildings' performance through case studies (appx 200 as of Nov 1999). It provides consulting and resource information for people wanting to build environmentally responsible buildings in this area as well as slide shows, courses, workshops, lectures and advocacy work with building officials, bankers, insurance companies, appraisers,politicians and builders
. How Can The Network Help Me? **It can answer your questions about alternative building subjects such as strawbale, toxic materials, adobe, passive solar design, Feng Shui, solar electricity, etc.
** It can provide you with in-depth education about natural building practices which have proven effective in this area through its course series or consultation.
** It can help you meet people who share your interest in environmentally responsible building.
** It can provide a way for you to support a sustainablebuilding economy in this region.
** It can provide you with an avenue and network to help you find work in this field.
What Does the Network Do? ** It tracks working systems and structures as well as the people who build them in Western Colorado from Aspen to Pagosa Springs.
** It photographs and case studies successful buildings. This information is placed in a resource pool.
** It publishes reports on key natural building systems along with who uses or builds them.
** It promotes regional businesses offering services in natural building through business memberships, including distributing your business flyers at events.
** It creates a communication network between people practicing or interested in Green Building.
** It provides advocacy and education to builders, inspectors, politicians, insurers and banks about natural building.
** It produces courses, seminars,school programs and home tours of regional buildings.
** It networks with national and international organizations to bring the region up to date.
** It provides assistance to people selling or looking for land or homes as well as land planning.
** It produces a touring slide show for public education and awareness.
** It has equipment such as straw moisture meters, solar mappers, etc. available for rent.
** It maintains a library on sustainable building
What Kind of Information Can I Get Through the Network? The network's resource file covers strawbale building, passive solar design, adobe, cob, pressed earth, earthships, environmental illness, electromagnetic fields, Feng Shui, water catchment, biological waste water treatment, remodeling, solar electric, solar hot water, pressed block, permaculture, green houses, green building, finance, insurance, Russian Stoves, timber frame, green power....and more.
What Does It Cost?
The Network's information is only available to people who support the Network. **Corporate Memberships are $150/year and carry same entitlements as businesses
**Business Memberships are $60'Year-we will present your business flyers @ events
**Individual Memberships are $30/ year and include 1/2 hour of free consultation
and notification of all Smart Shelter Events ($40/yr includes 1 hr consultation)
**Couples Memberships are $40/year-extend to both parties and include 1/2 hr consultation
** Reciprocal memberships are offered to other environmental and building non-profits.
** Low income Membership are available for very interested, very constrained fans-contact the network
( Research/ Consultation time over the first hour is billed by arrangement ...usually $50/hr)
"The only reliable way of being notified of all courses and events is to be a Network member"
How Do I Get Started??
Download and Print the Smart Shelter Membership application form on this site and send it to the address
on the homepage with a check. We will contact you when we receive the application to determine
what you need and get the ball rolling to provide you with it.
Thank You For Supporting Natural Building in Western Colorado.
What is Natural Building..???
As we watch our forests disappear to clearcut logging, our rivers torn up to stockpile gravel and our atmosphere clog with pollution and global warming effect...many of us see the writing on the wall...things have got to change.
"Demand Side Environmentalism" poses the only real long-term solution for these problems. Why?
To answer those questions, we need to understand why the logging, river degradation and pollution are happening. Much of the logging is done to produce dimensional framing lumber. The gravel from the rivers is used to make concrete.
Coal-fired electrical generation is the single largest contributor to pollution and global warming on the planet.
There's an underlying thread here. The framing lumber is used in building. Concrete is used in building. 60% of all the electricity we produce is consumed by our buildings. Cumulatively, our buildings...our homes, schools, workplaces and governmental structures...carry the largest single wallop for environmental destruction of anything we do as humans.
Environmental efforts to control logging, ban in-stream gravel excavation or clean up our energy production machinery...while well intended and necessary ...are stop-gap measures. Why? The money that fuels the mega-corporations like Louisiana Pacific, Boise-Cascade, Weyerhauser, Tri-State Generation, Public Service Company...etc...is huge. Sooner or later, they will have their way.
The irony is that that money comes from us...the consumers. It's our homes, offices and schools which consume these products and license their destructive impacts. Isn't it a little hypocritical to live in a stick frame house and fight to keep logging out of our National Forests?
We create the demand, and in the long run, changing that demand is the only thing that will change the destruction and corporate behavior.
The responsibility lies with us. If we find ways to build our structures out of materials that don't destroy the environment and in ways that are so energy efficient that coal-fired electricity is unnecessary or minimized...the problem will solve itself.
That building system is called Natural Building. It focuses on building materials which come from the building site itself (earth, clay, adobe) or from nearby agricultural sources (straw) or from sustainably harvested timber(standing dead trees). It also maximizes insulation values and the use of passive solar heating.
Smart Shelter Network exists to document, analyze, promote and educate the citizens of South Western Colorado about Natural Building in this area...what works, what doesn't, how and why...along with what it cost.
What Does the Network Provide???
Membership in the network allows you introductory access to information on project case studies in this region as well as assuring you of notification for all Smart Shelter events. Courses/ Workshops & Slideshows are offered through the network..often one per month which bring the best instructors available to the area as a way for you to learn the specifics of subjects like water catchment, Feng Shui design, strawbale building, environmental illness, non-toxic construction, etc. Home tours are the only way you can see how a certain building mode will feel...and they all have different feels. Smart Shelter does single residence tours...where you will spend 4-6 hours in a home, talk extensively with the owners and builders, see a slide show on the construction and meet others interested in the same kinds of projects. Smart Shelter Reports, which summarize the contacts and projects for strawbale buildings, financial institutions, insurance agencies, environmental illness, adobe-pressed block...etc are published and available through the network. Task Forces are loosely structured groups of people working together on specific subject areas such as water catchment, non-toxic building, ferro-cement. Involvement with them is a great way to meet new friends and move the technology forward for yourself and the community. Business Membership is available to those offering design, consulting, building, sub-contracting, financial, insurance or material supply services to the sustainable building community. The membership entitles you to be referred to potential clients who contact the network for help...your business graphics are also presented at the Smart Shelter Booth at 25-30 events and presentations each year. Consulting on a one to one basis about your project or needs is available through the network to get you headed in a positive direction, review your plans, help you budget, or get you connected to the right sources of help and experience. Rental equipment is available through the network for pressed block adobe machines, strawbale moisture testers and scales, etc...expensive pieces of equipment you may not need to buy. Networking is probably the biggest single benefit of the organization because it invariably leads to meeting very special people you would never find any other way. The result is a steady and healthy growth in our regional capacities to build more environmentally sustainable buildings and enjoy them and the process that brings them into being.