Our New Non Profit Branch

We are happy to announce that EcoSpaces now has a non-profit educational branch to our business thanks to The New Community Coalition. It only make sense for our socially and environmentally conscious business to have a component that reaches out to the public in ways to help educate the masses about the benefits of green building and green living in a way that is healthy for the home owner, the home, and the environment.  After being on sabbatical from a career in environmental education, and classroom teaching, my "teacher" gears are starting to turn again and I am very excited about the opportunity to help educate my community about green buildings and the options that are now available to them. 

EcoSpaces Educational MIssion:

The mission of EcoSpaces Educational is to make alternative green building materials the "main steam" We will do this by providing the  public with free education about green building materials that are now readily available to them in their community.  We will  introduce and expose consumers to the sustainable, renewable, non-toxic, recycled and recyclable choices materials that are healthy for the individual, their home as well as the environment. 

We plan to provide our community with workshops, lectures, demonstrations, films, and festivals that will give our community access and empowerment to greening our homes and thus our community.


Listed is our wish list for EcoSpaces Educational events that we would like to sponsor:

Tabling: bring our educational tabling display to conferences, workshops, schools, festivals, etc.  as a way to expose the masses to readily available green building materials in a hands on display.
•    Weekly presence at farmers market
•    Presence at Blue Grass Festival
•    4corners green building festival


Monthly articles will be submitted for publishing in the Daily Planet as well as our web site blog related to living Green associated with green building .

Organize a green home tour
•    one afternoon in summer, meet on bikes
•    tour 6-10 homes in town that have used a green building material.  Tour invited to see these materials in a finished form.
•    ride to picnic on valley floor

Promote alternative energy with the human powered smoothie maker
•    An exercise  bike that powers a blender
•    Will accompany our educational table
•    Enjoy an organic fruit smoothie while learning about alternative energy and green building

Green movie series at the library
•    Sponsor green movie night in conjunction with the Wilkinson Library
•    Invite the community to share in free showings of films (documentaries) that highlight green living and green building

Internship position
•    Offer summer internship position to student passionate about the world of green building
•    We would expose a student to many angels of the green building world in order to empower him/her to many aspects of our business to  inspire the student to find a direction they are interested in through their exposure to the field.

Non Profit Web Site:  Construction Material New life
•    Create a website where local builders can post extra building materials that would other wise end up in the landfill. People interested in salvaging materials for building can look here, too. This would not be a brokered deal, rather a free service to swap goods and reclaim materials.
•    The EcoSpaces Green Community web site will help keep the community connected to green events, workshops, etc. available to them in their community
•    A Green Blog will also be available
•   

Provide Workshops:
•    women's carpentry workshop with Rodney Porsche (book shelves)
•    Do it yourself workshops: Flor carpet install, clay walls, denim insulation,  or cork floors

Revitalize Green Bucks (small scale)
•    Partner with Koto to conduct community greening activities (cock and seal, trash pick up, restoration projects, valley floor etc) 5 hours of volunteer work in exchange for concert ticket. 
•    Mountain Film, Film Fest etc. could get involved

Kinetic Sculptures powered by Alternative Parade and Race
•    A call to contestants to build (out of recycled material) a vehicle that uses energy only from alternative energy (no automobile engines allowed)
•    Parade down main street and race to the mine (or down the bike path)

Donate Green Building Materials at cost
•    Obtain funding so that we can offer green building materials at a considerable lower price to schools, hospitals, Habitat for Humanity, non profits etc as show pieces to encourage others to use green building materials and build healthy build environments for our community.

2009 Green Build Conference in Arizona
•    Help to make this conference available to others in our community by offering discounted registration fees (through group rates)
•    Offer an essay contest or application for entrance into this event.

EcoSpaces Solar Panel
•    Obtain grants to acquire solar panels for in front of our store in order to off set our coal powered energy that runs our showroom currently.   Grid tie by creating our own power from the sun.


Long Term Projects
Green Building Conference in Mountain Village Conference Center
•    Obtain $10,000 sponsorship money to host a Green Conference
•     guest lecturers, workshops, LEED classes, education
•    A arena to expose local people working in the field of greening our community
•    Telluride as model sustainable community
•    A green weekend, events all weekend long around the theme of sustainability.



--
Be Well,

Daniel Kanow
EcoSpaces  "Green Building Solutions"
Telluride, CO  USA
(O) 970-728-1973   (F) 970-728-8007

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