Going Radically Green
Understandably, most literature about energy efficiency focuses on the little things we can do to make our lives more carbon neutral. There are people and various organizations out there, though, who are going further than just that extra step and have chosen to lead a radically green lifestyle. Want to get a peek at what it means to be “radically green”? Read on.
The Earth-Sheltered Home
In Wales, you can find a home that is greener than nearly any other we’ve encountered. It’s earth-friendly, and it encompasses the do-it-yourself ethic that underlies many of the new green efforts. After all, how you can be sure that the home you’re living in is as sustainable as possible, unless you literally build it yourself?
If that sounds crazy to you, you’re not alone. But the young couple that built the house claim it wasn’t that hard—the two didn’t have much building experience when they began, and they were driven largely out of a need for affordable housing. They did some research, gathered their friends to help, and put up a cute little home in four months that cost less than $5,000.
And, the home itself is green from the inside out and the bottom up. The house is earth sheltered: built into the side of a hill, and with earth on top. The earth helps insulate the home and keeps it cool in summer and warm in winter. The home’s foundation was constructed from collected stones, and the frame from fallen wood collected from the forest. Straw insulates the walls, and was packed in with clay and mud. A compost toilet takes care of the couple’s bathroom needs, and a solar panel on the roof powers the Internet and a few lights. Nearly all of the materials that went into building this home are highly sustainable, and the home itself is designed to be green over the long term.
A Net-Zero Carbon College
Even though more and more young people are pursuing a career in environmental activism, most people don’t consider college a time of quiet reflection on how to get one’s carbon footprint to net zero. At the College of the Atlantic though, things are a bit different. This tiny Maine institution is the first college in the world to have reduced its carbon footprint to zero. And it makes sense: At College of the Atlantic, there is only one major, human ecology. All students spend years studying the human’s relationship to the natural environment. And, the college itself walks the talk.
They get to net zero through a number of means. The energy for the school comes from hydropower, which has no harmful emissions. The newest buildings, which make up 20 percent of the campus, were designed with energy efficiency in mind, including super-insulation and wood pellet boilers that are a sustainable source of heat. This is one campus where you’ll see those curly CFL bulbs in every socket, not to mention a wind turbine on the lawn.
The school has found it impossible to get to net zero solely through its own efforts, due to all those pesky students traveling around the world for study-abroad sessions and internships. The school purchases carbon offsets to cancel out the remaining carbon footprint from its world-traveling student body.