Why did you ultimately decide to go green?

My wife and I were inspired to “go green” for 3 main reasons: to save money, to save energy and to save the environment.  We felt the best place to start was here in our home.  Together, we wanted to find ways we could quickly reduce our energy costs without having to spend a lot of money up front.  So we focused on simple, affordable solutions that would save us the most money and show a quick return on our investment.  Realizing the amount of money we saved and how affordable it was, we decided to create a business called EnergyFit Living, so we could help others reap the same benefits and savings.

What’s tough about helping others adopt a green lifestyle?

We faced several challenges along the way.  Most, as you might expect, were the same barriers that typically hold people back from going green, such as:

• People think they can’t afford it.
• That it’s someone else’s problem.
• People don’t have the time.
• It’s too big of a problem for me to make a difference.
• Concern about return on investment.

Our business is built around the notion that all homeowners want to reduce their energy usage but don’t because they lack the time, the knowledge, or the money to do so – or have developed some bad habits that increase energy usage.  Our services have been designed to overcome these barriers and help clients achieve meaningful reductions in energy consumption by offering quick, affordable solutions.

We want to let others know that they can afford to go green, by educating them on how easy and affordable it is, and that going green will save them money in the short term (as well as long term!).

Tell us about one of your favorite sustainable projects (innovation, creative use of design/materials, etc.)

One of our favorite sustainable projects was going green in our own home, because that is where it all started.  This allowed us to try different products to see what works best and what saves us the most money.  We practice what we preach to our clients!

In our own home, we made these changes, and they made a huge difference!

1. Changed all light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs.
2. Installed a programmable thermostat.
3. Sealed all exterior doors and windows to minimize energy loss.
4. Installed low-flow showerheads to save water.
5. Installed low-flow aerators on all faucets to save water.
6. Recycling program for our business.

What advice can you give to homeowners that want to start making their homes sustainable?

• You can afford it!
• There are solutions that save money in the short term.
• There are solutions that will help you eliminate wasted energy.
• We have solutions that don’t cost a lot of money up front.
• EnergyFit takes the guesswork out of conserving energy and water.
• “Going green” is a process of change, not just an end goal.
• Each of us who decide to go green ceases to be part of the problem, and truly becomes a part of the solution.

CalEarth

So imagine my glee when a newly-minted computer millionaire replete with ponytail, tie-dyed shirt and old pickup purchased an empty parcel right in the middle of The Estates and began to build a huge domed eco-compound that looked like a cross between a Zuni Indian village and Fred Flintstone’s house. As you can imagine, the reaction of the blue-bloods was to raise holy hell, sighting everything from zoning laws and real estate values to Satan worship.

But alas, it was too late; the main structures were up and occupied before the ink on the first petition was dry. Hippies, dogs, lowlanders like myself, and various other strays now had a “dome away from home” right in the middle of the well-heeled gentry, and my friends and I soon learned brand-new words like “organic gardening,” “tofu” and “Shiva.”

Build Your Own Eco-Dome

If you’ve always wanted to go off the grid and thumb your nose at society like my ponytailed guru, but you’ve been shackled with a conventional home and not much space to build, take heart, fellow traveler! Here’s a chance to scale down your counter-culture dream home and still piss off your neighbors by building a small, efficient, 400-square foot Eco-Dome on a relatively small patch of homestead. The kind folks at Cal-Earth even offer workshops and tutorials to teach you how to build your own eco-home.

Using a simple plan utilizing earth-filled “Superadobe” coils, you and three or four of your comrades can easily build a small main dome with four “niches” that can function as a small guest home or studio apartment.  Use the main dome as a living room and the niches as an entrance hall, kitchen and bathroom, or convert the whole structure into something the website calls a “Bed-womb,” which I’m not sure I want to know about.

Once built, you can leave as is, or make it the first step in a cluster design of connecting vaults and domes that could lead to a backyard commune, a divorce, banishment from the Homeowners Association or all of the above. But remember, take it slow, because to paraphrase the old adage…Dome wasn’t built in a day.

Hemp. It’s one of those wonders of the world that every generation finds a new use for. Naturally, we don’t advise inhaling, but the many uses of hemp have widened from rope-making and clothing fibers to this newest usage, which has been making quite a splash in the U.K. construction industry.

Lhoist UK just released a new product called Hemcrete, an intriguing blend of hemp, water and lime. Hemcrete is an alternative to traditional concrete and has surprising (or maybe not so surprising) benefits over its conventional counterpart.

Sustainability
Like other plants, hemp collects carbon from the air and stores it within, while releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. The bonus here is that hemp takes in more carbon than the manufacturing of Hemcrete gives off, making it a carbon-neutral product.

Energy Efficient
Hemcrete, when installed as a wall fill-in, creates a large thermal mass which serves as advanced insulation. This means that when used properly in wall construction, no additional insulation needs to be added—which also means less labor and materials have to go into the project.

Superior Building Material
Hemcrete is just as beneficial to the contractor as it is to the homeowner over time. Since the product is lighter than traditional concrete, it makes projects run smoother and faster, reducing time and costs on any given jobsite.

Additionally, Hemcrete is vapor-permeable, so it will continually dry the wood that surrounds it, assuming it’s used in timber frame construction. By keeping moisture from penetrating the wood, Hemcrete essentially keeps the structure’s frame from rotting and deteriorating due to the elements, lengthening its longevity.