Earth Shelter, builder unknown taken from http://conted.colorado.edu/programs/independent-learning/sustainable-practices/

Get ready for a woowoo post!

With each passing year, I’m becoming crunchier.  It’s sort of a weird awakening, but that’s exactly what I feel is happening to me.  I’m waking up to the world around me and realizing that each individual is responsible for the earth’s safekeeping so that future generations of people will thrive. I had an epiphany this morning – talking about the environment is for some people like talking about religion or politics.  It can get heated or ignored all together. My apologies in advance if you are tired of hearing about the environment – fair warning to read no further.

I have some really big ideas right now – I would love to build an earth shelter somewhere in Colorado in about 3 – 4 years time frame.  After talking with an architect friend of mine, the trick would be to find a county with an open minded building zoning commission.  Here in Colorado, I would think that would include many mountain communities or Boulder.  Some parts of Colorado do embrace alternative building techniques including geo-domes, straw bale homes, cob structures, earth shelters and more.  I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and have a stack of books piled high on my coffee table, including several written by Dan Chiras who happens to have built his own earth shelter nestled in the hills of Evergreen, CO just 40 minutes from downtown Denver.  He has a gray water reclamation system, native plant landscaping, uses passive and active solar energy, grows some of his food, installed a composting toilet, geothermal energy, and used recycled tires and straw bales to construct part of the home.  His annual energy bill?  Practically $0.00.  Can you imagine?  I think the only thing I would need to pay for that I consider a utility would be for my internet connection!  Is there satellite internet technology that’s widely available yet?

Why build an earth shelter? These homes are incredibly sustainable (save for the fact that virgin land might be built upon), and can be owner built off the grid.  I have visions of a passive & active solar earth sheltered home with adjoining pottery studio, kiln shed, a posse of small farm animals and veggie garden all fueled by solar panels, wind, geothermal energy and homemade biodiesel.  I know – sounds Utopian.

I can just hear the laughter bubbling up now from your side of the computer monitor!  But, that’s okay…roll your eyes all you want to.

The upside is that earth sheltered homes are incredibly weather safe & naturally climate controlled since a portion of the home is sheltered by the earth.  Even in the winter, many homes only use supplemental heat such as a pellet or wood stove, and since the earth’s temperature below ground is a relatively stable 50°F or so, summer remains cool with no need for AC and the passive solar design heats in winter. There are natural precautions when building this type of home such as consideration for water drainage & water proofing, air flow ventilation and radon for obvious reasons.

I’ve been so excited about the possibilities that I almost pushed my husband  (former real estate appraiser) over the edge a few weeks ago.  Suffice it to say, he’s not on board yet – not even luke warm, but I keep trying…  I think so many people consider this type of building a foreign concept, despite the fact that people have lived like this since ancient times.  I suppose aesthetics and some conflated notion of resale values has something to do with it, but I kind of like the idea of having a sod roof over my head and no utility bill.

I’m not sure if my husband and I will ever get to the point where we move to a more rural area, and when I think about it, this might not be the most environmentally wise choice for us either, especially if he has to commute by car to an urban area to work.  Although, if we had our own biodiesel refueling station at home….  I asked my architect friend if there are brownfields in the Denver metro area that would be possibilities for building an alternative structure.  His response, “Brownfields? Definitely!  Being able to build on one?  Maybe, but it will be difficult getting plans approved, let alone getting past the NIMBYs.”  Building on a brownfield also depends on the level of pollution, though there are plenty of remediation techniques available including plant life that remove certain chemicals through their root systems.

There are a ton of links out in cyberspace to learn more about alternative home building methods, but one place to get started is architect Malcolm Well’s website – he has links to books, discussions, other websites and more.  He even designed and built an earth sheltered art gallery for his artist wife on Cape Cod.

In the meantime, I’ve been wondering if there is such as thing as a green pottery.  I don’t think there truly can be one, even if you’re using solar panels or biodiesel or methane gas or farmed wood to fuel your kilns, you’re still mining the earth for the raw materials.  With that said, I do think making a ceramic cup is a better choice environmentally than producing disposable cups, even if they are made from recycled materials.  Additionally, buying a handmade cup from a potter is much better than buying cheap mass produced work from off shore with questionable environmental production practices.

I was also thinking about carbon offsets this morning too.  Can buying carbon offsets assuage a potter’s practices of using fuel and raw materials to produce work?  I sort of think buying carbon offsets is like buying indulgences during the 1400-1500′s.  I think a better solution is to try to green your life in other ways which goes back to thinking about the home I live in.  I may be off the mark here though.

I’ve decided to start small and have been making conscious changes at home – buying organic food, local when possible, switching my cleaning products to environmentally friendly ones, looking at solar panels, selling one car, biking or taking light rail when possible, growing a small vegetable garden.  I can do these things easily, though the change over hasn’t come naturally because it takes awhile for old habits to die, and new ones to form.  A funny thing happened the other day – I was out an about and ran into a conventional grocery store and after I made dinner, I didn’t think the food tasted as good as the food that I purchase at my local natural grocers where I’ve been shopping since July this year.  At first it was the other way around.

In other news, I haven’t tried constructing my test diy solar heaters yet, but have all the materials (all recycled courtesy of the dumpsters in the alley behind my home) ready to go now.  Now that the Potters Guild sale is over, I have a lot more time to play.  Recently, I have also enjoyed listening to Green Talk Radio podcasts while I work in my studio.  The host, Sean Daily, has had some terrific guests on his show and his mantra is start slow – every little change makes a difference.

What do you think in regards to sustainability and the environment – are you doing anything differently?  Are you even concerned about it?  If you’re a potter, do you think there can be a green pottery?  I’m not one of the sky is falling type of people, but by being proactive, I feel a whole lot better.

Just curious,

~Cynthia