Smart Shelter Network

Wed May 3 07:05:14 PDT 2000

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 

684 6530 Rd., Montrose, Colo. 81401 (970)249-2396

Email Gary Duncan at:<<mailto:gd at smartshelter.com>gd at smartshelter.com>

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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 sustainable building 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.

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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. 

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