RePurpose Art Show

What do you do with all of your extra stuff? I have always felt, while other developing countries struggle to obtain some basic needs, American’s are challenged with the opposite: how to get away from all the stuff that we accumulate in order to live a more simple life, free of clutter. I must admit, I even have a draw in my kitchen named the “odds and end drawer” designated to stuff that doesn’t really have a place to go. One of the simplest and most effective steps one can do for the green movement, that is, even more valuable than recycling, is RE-USING, finding a new purpose for the item you no longer need to transform it somehow into something that serves you. An old door can be used as a tabletop or a headboard. Left over tiles can be made into decorative stepping-stones, use salvaged windows to make a small green house. It takes a bit of creativity, but is also very rewarding. And this is why, in the spirit of Reusing, EcoSpaces Green Building Design Showroom is having a RE-PURPOSE art show that has inspired artists to create art for art sake with green building material extras.

Mosaic artists, sculptors, art teachers, jewelry makers and kids have pillaged a mountain of outdated samples. Cut-offs, already made from recycled materials such as glass countertops, beautiful exotic cork and bamboo flooring samples, recycled porcelain tiles and hand died silk fabrics, were taken back to studios and given yet another life as art. “We are constantly being exposed to the latest and greatest green building materials. And, therefore, we have gathered an excess of beautiful samples that we no longer need.” Says Joanna Kanow, founder or EcoSpaces. “We also wanted an excuse to throw a party to celebrate three years in business serving the community by supplying sustainable green building materials to architects, contractors and home owners and new greener building in our area.” Local artists of all ages will be displaying mosaics, sculptures, elaborate hot plates, window coverings, mobile, Zen floor mats, hard wood boxes, recycled class and concrete planters, and more. There will be a silent auction for most of the student art, to raise money for the Telluride School Art Department in order to purchase more supplies to make art. Prizes from EcoCleaners, The Garden Store, Cindy Bread, China Rose Tomboy Coffee and Counter Culture will be awarded for: most functional, most recycled, most original and other door prizes for those attending this reception. The RePurpose art show takes place Thursday, September 23, at 4:00pm at the EcoSpaces Green Building Design showroom in Lawson Hill Business Center. Call 970-728-1973 for more info.

Catch Your Water from the Sky

Colorado’s first Legal Rain Catchment System Built on Hastings Mesa

By Joanna Kanow

Last fall, one of the most litigious cases found in Colorado courts made legal the act of catching rain from the sky. What was once considered criminal in Colorado, (stealing water that was rightfully owned by someone else before it made it to earth), is now free for all residents to harness. A home being built on Hastings Mesa, just outside of Telluride, is the first in the State of Colorado to be issued a legal permit for a rain catchment system.

Kelli Petersen, currently of Mill Valley, California, is finally building her green dream home, and feels privileged to have found a spot and a community supportive of a sustainable life style. It was the 2008 MountainFilm Festival, she reflects, with its focus on water, which inspired her to realize her catchment opportunities. Petersen began working with Stewart Goforth, of Montrose Water Factory, in the fall of 2009 to design her home with a cutting edge rain catchment system. In order to design a successful system, careful calculations and intimate collaboration between architect Sundra Hines, of Hines Designs, and Eric Dickerson of DCI Construction, had to be established in order to create a successful whole house rain catchment system. They had to estimate the water needs for the household, average yearly precipitation for that particular microclimate and equate in possible drought years. Using this precipitation data, they figured the maximum surface area of catchment available to determine the amount of water that can reach storage. The two full time residents will live solely off the water harvested.

For this home, rain and snow is diverted into gutters off of the surface of the oxidizing metal roof. It is then fed into five 1,500 gallon storage tanks engineered into the foundation of the home, which is highly insulated with styrofoam blocks. The house is plumbed with non-reactive piping that will not be harmed by the acidity of rainwater, and low flow fixtures are implemented wherever possible. Finally, Stewart Goforth has designed the filtration and disinfection process that will then make the water safe for drinking without the use of chemicals. The water will be tested for bacteria per state mandates to maintain a high-standard of drinking water free of any threat of water-borne contaminates. This filtration process is designed to offer safe, friendly high quality water in a self-contained low maintenance environment.

I asked Petersen, who lives comfortably in the Bay Area and works with biotech companies studying cancer treatments, why she decided to build a green home that will actually take more effort to live in. She will have to monitor her solar and water storage systems frequently, as well as reduce her natural resource use, and even may have to hike or ski into access her front door. She responded, “It will be a very comfortable way to live, and we are willing to work at our lifestyle to make it happen.” She added, as if these sentiments were the consensus “It is currently a trend for everyone, at the moment, to think about what we can do differently to give back to society somehow. It’s what we can do right now to be more sustainable.”
When this type of thinking becomes the norm, and this kind of building is no longer considered “Alternative,” implementing sustainable designs into our built environment will then attribute to significant positive environmental shifts in the current unsustainable “norm.” And as Goforth likes to remind us, “It’s water. It’s life. Without water, that’s it.” Imagine the satisfaction now, when it rains; money saved, independence, and to those who reside in the home...a house warming gift from the sky.

Joanna Kanow is the owner of EcoSpaces: Green Building Solutions: Telluride’s source for Green Building Materials. Providing non- toxic, sustainable, renewable and recycled products to the community. EcoSpaces’ Green Design showroom is located at the Society Turn Business Center in Telluride, and also serves the greater US on www.EcoBuildingMaterials.com. Call 970-728-1973 to arrange an appointment.

EcoSpaces and Earth Day

Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays: it is non-denominational, not consumer driven, and isn't based around a fictitious cartoon character that I have to convince my children is real and comes in the night.

Earth Day is a real day, and should be celebrated or honored every day of the year, though, none the less, it is still quite honorable that this holiday is recognized on April 20 around the globe each year to acknowledge the vibrant, delicate, and natural resources that supports our very existence.

This year is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson democrat from Wisconsin in 1970. "Our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not," reflects Senator Nelson in 1969. Ironically, this sounds disturbingly familiar to the political situation of today. This was 40 stated forty years ago, before scientific evidence of a devastating climate crisis were defined like the precarious environmental predicament we find ourselves in now.

Earth Day was born riding the wave of anti-Vietnam war protests, teach-ins, and activism, as a nationwide grassroots demonstration was organized on behalf of the environment. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. The fight has not stopped, after all of these years, and the movement is still gaining momentum. Are you yet a part of it?

Now more than ever is it imperative that the masses of people inhabiting the globe take the time to acknowledge the earth, it's natural resources that we use ever day, and our relationship to it, so that maybe we can say on earth day, 40 years from now, we turned this climate crisis around, thanks for all of you who are making the environmental difference in your life on this Earth Day and every other day of the year. Building with green building materials is one of the ways people can make a difference and make choices that help the planet. Visit http://www.EcoSpaces.net to see the latest in Green Building Materials that are healthy for you, your home, and the environment.

green+building

Many Houses

It is great to get away, travel, and step out of this reality that I have made for myself here in Telluride, CO, running a design, supply, green building showroom and trying my damnedest to distribute Green Building Materials to construction projects around the country. I always laugh that I started my business and now all of the hours, meetings, screen time, worries, inspirations and challenges that arise from this entity called "EcoSpaces" are all my inventions. We are trying to offer the "alternative" Green Building Material for almost every commercial building product out there. Though we only are interested in distributing building materials that are non-toxic, sustainable, renewable, recycled and recyclable in an attempt to address and take action on the global warming crisis. Sometimes, it gets frustrating trying to convert the old-timer contractors to choose counter tops made from recycled glass instead of granite, paints that are non-toxic, or carpeting that can be recycled before the homes next remodel. Fortunately, there is already a culture out there who do not need to be sold on this stuff and come seeking us out. But, this last trip to San Diego, leaving my small exclusive ski town behind, I realized the potential of what we are doing. There were houses every where, as far as the eye could see. Modern, stylish, artistic ocean front beach houses to villages of tract homes on the other side of the highway. Everyone lives in a house, an apartment, a structure! Everywhere, around the globe. So, even if each house used one of our energy star windows in it, or one sono tube sky light, or even one water aerator on their faucet, or a rain catchment barrel off their gutter to water their garden with, not only could we, EcoSpaces be making a great living, but also, we, the human population on the globe, could also be making a significant impact in turning this climate crisis around. The sprawl of Southern California did give me hope that there is still a great potential for change. I just need to figure out how to get these products out there. Visit http://ecospaces.net/ if you happen to be one of those already sold on the idea. Here's how you can contact us info@EcoSpaces.net 877-727-1973