A GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
Spring/Summer 2012 Volume 1 Issue 1
Santa Fe and Taos
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features 24 BY THE BOOK: Santa Fe Community College puts green jobs training front and center. By Nancy Zimmerman
Kerry Sherck
38 SANTA FE AU NATURAL: New Mexico’s capital city steps up its commitment to sustainability. By April Reese Photos by Kerry Sherck
departments 16
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Community gardens produce food and neighborly goodwill. By Lynn Cline
48
THE ECO-HOME: How to put your house
54
SUNBEAMS: Taos brewery taps solar energy to make
20
Special Advertising Section: Sustainable Eldorado
on an energy and water diet. By Lynn Cline
“green” beer. By Lyn Bleiler
60
GREEN LIVING: Looking good with environmentally
64
LAST IMPRESSIONS: New Mexico Experimental Glass
responsible cosmetics made in Taos. By Lyn Bleiler
Workshops turn recycled glass into works of art.
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On the cover: Fran Hardy’s Flower of the Fruit, oil over egg tempera, graphite over acrylic and acrylic on panel.
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A GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
PUBLISHER
Santa Fe and Taos
ecotrendsource.com
Cynthia Marie Canyon
EDITOR ART DIRECTOR COPY CHIEF
April Reese Janine Lehmann Cyndi Wood
WEBMASTER
Lyric Kali
WEBSITE CONTENT MANAGER ACCOUNTING
Lynn Cline
Danna Cooper
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Lyn Bleiler, Lynn Cline, April Reese, Nancy Zimmerman CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ARTISTS
Jeffrey Atwell, Fran Hardy, George Hencke, Insight Photo, Matt O Photo, Kerry Sherck SALES RESPRESENTATIVE
Lange Burnett, 505-988-5007 NORTHERN NEW MEXICO DISTRIBUTION
Andy Otterstrom, 505-920-6370 PRINTING
Publication Printers, Denver, Colorado Manufactured and printed in the United States. Copyright 2012 by Source, LLC. All rights reserved. EcoSource: A Guide to Sustanability in Action, is published two times in 2012, with Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues (circulation 10,000 per issue). Editorial inquiries may be directed to editor@ecotrendsource.com. No part of EcoSource may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent from the publisher. For reprint information, please call 505-988-5007 or send an email to Cynthia@ecotrendsource.com. To subscribe and become a member of our cooperative, send $15.99 per year to EcoSource, P.O. Box 1951, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1951.
ecotrendsource.com Scan the QR code to reach our comprehensive EcoSource website. Check in often for additional stories, exclusive web content, sources for sustainable companies, forums with up-to-the-minute trends and advice, and more! 8 ecotrendsource.com
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Kerry Sherck
Editor’s Letter
T
he other day I was on the phone making a hotel reservation for an upcoming trip to Arizona. When I gave the receptionist my address, she said, “Oh, you live in Santa Fe! Aren’t you lucky?” I encounter that kind of enthusiasm about my hometown wherever I go—from the person sitting next to me on the plane to the bartender at the hotel bar. Their envy is understandable. Those of us who live in northern New Mexico are surrounded by unsurpassed natural beauty, rich biological diversity, abundant sunshine, and vibrant communities where Anglo, Hispanic, Native American, and Mexican cultural traditions coexist. But living in this special place comes with a certain responsibility. This is the high desert, after all, where water is scarce and ecosystems are easily damaged. Wagon ruts from more than a century ago are still visible in some parts of the desert.
Sustainability is the key to preserving our way of life here. In fact, the survival of our cities may depend on it. As the population continues to grow and climate change shrinks already limited water resources, the pressure is on to get the most out of every last drop. Greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise, too, and development continues to encroach into wildlife habitat. Here’s the good news: Northern New Mexico is brimming with creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, artists, and policy-makers who are taking on that challenge. We here at EcoSource like to call it “sustainability in action”—designing, building, creating, and formulating ways to bring the way we live in closer alignment with the natural environment of which we’re a part. What exactly is sustainability? There are differing perspectives on what it means, but the most widely accepted definition comes from the United Nations, which defines it simply as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” All of the eco-minded hubbub here makes me even prouder to call Northern New Mexico home. The next time I travel out of state, I’ll be sure to take a few copies of EcoSource with me to share. April Reese, Editor
Publisher’s Letter
Brooke Christopher
A
fter watching the movie Thrive (thrivemovement.com) on November 11, 2011, I was inspired to create a publication that promotes sustainable actions within my own community. Having published fine magazines like Performance de Santa Fe, Arte Contemporary, and Trend art + architecture + design for the past 20 years—magazines based in Santa Fe but with a global reach—I am confident that EcoSource will likewise resonate with readers seeking upto-the-minute information that is beautifully written and designed. I chose a well-rounded team to manifest both the publication and the website. Our goal is to connect you to the wealth of information and resources available in Northern New
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Mexico that will inspire you to live a more sustainable life. We are also building this brand as a cooperative business structure, a new paradigm that follows an economically sacred way of serving all of humanity. I am grateful that you have picked up this publication. When you are finished reading it, please pass it on or return it to the place you found it so others may read it and pass it on as well. You will always be able to find our magazine’s resources, contact information, and in depth feature stories online at ecotrendsource.com. Please share this information with your friends, family, and colleagues, so that together we may create a network of sustainable action and thought. Like a proud mother of a new child, I give you EcoSource to manifest graceful gifts for walking the path of sustainability in Santa Fe, Taos, and points in between and beyond. Cynthia Canyon Publisher and Founder
contributors Photographer Kerry Sherck moved to Santa Fe two years ago from the New York City metropolitan area after falling in love with the desert landscape. She specializes in portrait and documentary work and has covered a wide variety of assignments and people, from presidential visits to the everyday lives of immigrant laborers. She studied photography at L’Ecole Technique Privée de Photographie in Toulouse, France, on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. When not working, she can be found outdoors, hiking in the mountains or desert.
Lynn Cline is an award-winning Santa Fe author and editor who has written about literature, art, film, music, history, travel and food for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Sunset, Publisher’s Weekly, and Trend. She writes a weekly food blog, Gourmet Girl, on SantaFe.com and is the owner of Writer’s Ink, which provides social media marketing as well as writing services for local businesses. Lynn is the author of Literary Pilgrims: The Santa Fe and Taos Writers’ Colonies, 1917–1950 (University of New Mexico Press) and Romantic Days and Nights in Santa Fe (Globe Pequot Press).
Jennifer Esperanza
Lynn Cline
Nancy Zimmerman
Nancy Zimmerman, a former editor of Trend, is a freelance writer, editor, and translator based in Tesuque, N.M., who writes frequently on art, architecture, and design. Her national magazine work includes stints as editor-in-chief/associate publisher of Islands, Southwest editor for Sunset, and executive editor for Outside’s twice-yearly travel issues. She is particularly interested in the topics of health and sustainability as they pertain to the built environment.
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Kerry Sherck
Lynn Bleiler
Lyn Bleiler is a freelance writer and symposium coordinator. Her art and architecture background includes work with Michael Graves Architect, Frank O. Gehry & Associates, Harwood Museum of Art, Newcomb Art Gallery, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She is recipient of two Emily Harvey Foundation writing residencies in Venice, Italy, a PenTales Hemingway Fellowship in Berlin, Germany, and is the author of a book on Taos, N.M., for Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America Series.
featured artist FRAN HARDY is an environmental artist, educator, and filmmaker. She is co-producer of the Earth Chronicles Project, an educational documentary series on the intersection of art, ecology, and culture. The series aired on PBS stations and has shown at museums.
franhardy.com earthchroniclesproject.com earthchroniclesproject.blogspot.com
Her work includes multimedia installations, drawings of ancient trees in graphite and colored pencil, and paintings of native plants using the early Renaissance technique of oil over egg tempura. Fran has had six solo museum shows across the United States.
ecotrendsource.com 13
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Community Gardens Take Root in Santa Fe BY LYNN CLINE
T
he high desert may seem like an unlikely place to plant a garden, but in Santa Fe at least a dozen community gardens have taken root—part of a national trend toward local food production. In response to concerns about rising food costs and genetically modified foods, and an increasing awareness of the benefits of growing your own food, more people are claiming space in these communal gardens, where a single piece of land—typically city-owned—is divided into individual and group plots. The gardens produce vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, and more. For homeowners who don’t have room for a garden in their own backyard, or renters who are not allowed to plant a garden, the gardens offer a chance to indulge their green thumb in a shared space with like-minded neighbors. The City of Santa Fe has its own program, Santa Fe Community Gardens, that oversees several growing sites on cityowned lands. Those include Frenchy’s Garden within Frenchy’s Park in the Osage neighborhood, the Railyard community garden in the Guadalupe Street area, Maclovia Park Garden on the south side, and Sunny Slope in the West Alameda neighborhood. The idea, says Fabian Chavez, director of the city’s parks division, is to promote local gardening and food production by providing garden space to Santa Fe residents, along with the knowledge and resources to become successful gardeners. By the end of the growing season, the gardens will have produced a cornucopia of food, including chiles, corn, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries, and herbs. The program also hosts an annual potluck gathering to share the feast and offers a garden tour every year.
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Students from Eldorado Community School explore the community garden next door to the school.
Planting seeds or seedlings, carefully tending them, and reaping the harvest gives people who participate in the gardens a greater connection to their food and the land, as well as to each other. Some of the food also goes to feed the hungry and the homeless. The gardens not only strengthen the sense of community in a neighborhood, they also provide opportunities for families to share the experience of growing their own food and for kids to learn about the source of their food, Chavez says. “The community garden is an activity that is family-oriented, for the littlest kid up to grandma and grandpa,” says Chavez, who launched the program to create community gardens in city parks a few years ago. The gardens also help realize the vision laid out in the City of Santa Fe’s sustainability plan, which calls for sustainable food systems for the community (see page 38). Santa Fe
sprawling layout, where homes are spaced far apart. “We have 70 or 75 gardeners who’ve become fast friends, and most of them didn’t know each other before. So it’s become a cause, and people are proud of growing their own food,” says George Henke, who led efforts to establish the garden in 2009. “People are showing their kids how to grow their own food and they are getting outside, enjoying the fresh air, and getting exercise.” The garden administrators host free gardening workshops, he adds.
Kerry Sherck
Illustration by Fran Hardy
Community Gardens emphasizes the use of organic methods, water-efficient systems, and techniques that promote the long-term health of the soil. Recently, the group planted an orchard at Frenchy’s Park with 12 varieties of standard fruit trees and is helping to create a 45-tree orchard at the Adam Gabriel Armijo Park off Cerro Gordo Road. An added benefit of the gardens, Chavez says, is that they bring people into the city parks in the early morning and evening hours, providing additional security to protect against vandalism, graffiti, and other problems. One of the largest gardens lies just outside Santa Fe in Eldorado. The Eldorado School Community Garden is a thriving organic garden tended by about 75 gardeners and groups of students from the adjacent Eldorado Community School. Occupying almost two acres of raised and in-ground beds, the garden produces chiles, tomatoes, lettuce, beets, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, John Oberhausen radishes, kale, rutabaga, okra, beans, snow peas, herbs, and more. Throughout the Eldorado School Community Garden, garden gnomes peek out from behind plants and rocks and a scarecrow stands guard to keep away the birds. Bamboo curtains provide shelter from the wind and colorful murals remind visitors that this is a place where children and adults come together to celebrate the benefits of growing food together. The garden—a collaboration among Eldorado residents, the school, Santa Fe County Master Gardeners, Youth Conservation Corps, and Earth Works Institute—has become one of the most elaborate. It now has cold frames, hoop houses, composting, picnic area, new greenhouse, and perennial and cactus gardens. It even has a labyrinth that offers a meditative place for gardeners to relax and for kids to have a time-out. And the garden has brought together neighbors that otherwise may have never met, particularly given Eldorado’s
Eldorado School Community Garden
ecotrendsource.com 17
Kerry Sherck
The garden is an outdoor classroom as well. Teachers from the Eldorado Community School next door bring their students to the garden to learn about growing food, and many students tend their own plots. They also paint murals, rocks, and birdhouses, adding an artistic flair to the garden. Working the soil provides the students with a lesson they’re likely to carry with them throughout their lives, Henke says. “It’s a whole circle of life—of growing, of eating, of seeing how things work together,” he says. “It’s intergenerational. We talk to the kids about what’s going on here. We put together lesson plans that integrate classroom experience with real world experience. You get to plant things, see how they grow and then you get to eat food that is really healthy for you.” Many of the students are surprised to learn that the food they eat once grew out of the ground, he adds. “Most kids have no idea where their food comes from,” Henke says. “They think it comes from a grocery store or a bag of chips.” The gardeners pay a one-time fee of $30 to join the garden and then $30 a year for an individual plot or for use of the communal plots. Those who sign up for the communal garden decide as a group what seeds to plant and then work out a schedule for planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Any surplus food is donated to the nearby Eldorado Senior Center. In the middle of Santa Fe lies another garden with an 18 ecotrendsource.com
Kerry Sherck
The Railyard Park Community Garden in Santa Fe’s Guadalupe district
Gardeners work their plots in the Eldorado School Community Garden (top and bottom) and the Milagro Community Garden (center).
Illustration by Fran Hardy
educational element. The Railyard Park Community Garden, located in the downtown Railyard area, offers a series of workshops to teach residents all about gardening. Organized by the Railyard Stewards, a nonprofit organization that models itself after New York’s Central Park Conservancy, the food garden is used by organizations, student groups, and individual residents. The gardens rely on water drawn from a 400-year-old acequia and employ a “waffle garden” design based on traditional Pueblo gardens. Waffle gardens are sunken beds surrounded by ground-level berms; depressions catch the rainwater and keep the water close to plant roots. At the end of the growing season, the harvest is donated to local food banks or schools that use the garden. The Milagro Community Garden, located on the south side of Santa Fe off Rodeo Road, also helps residents learn gardening techniques as part of its program. Founded by a group of volunteers more than a dozen years ago, the garden offers classes, seeds, and soil improvement materials to its members. Currently, 34 plots are in use. Scholarships are available to help cover the cost of city water, tools, gardening materials, and other expenses. Monthly garden classes are open to the public during growing season. The Santa Fe Community Farm, in the village of Agua Fria, has a different focus: feeding those who have difficulty feeding themselves. It donates its harvest to local groups that feed the homeless, poor, and disabled. The harvest of vegetables and fruits is donated to Kitchen Angels, The Food Depot, St. John’s Soup Kitchen, St. Elizabeth Shelter, and other charitable groups. Founded by John Thompson, the nonprofit farm—which has been practicing sustainable agriculture for more than 60 years—is a working model of small-scale urban food production. Volunteers tend the 12.5-acre farm, planting, harvesting, and learning about sustainable, organic agriculture techniques. Heading north to Tesuque, Tessa’s Garden stands as a living memorial to Tessa Horan, a young Santa Fe woman who was killed in a shark attack while volunteering for the Peace Corps on the island of Vava‘u in the Kingdom of Tonga. Each week, the garden produces nearly 30 pounds of food, which is donated to Kitchen Angels and The Food Depot to help feed the hungry. The Hopewell Community Garden, sponsored by the
youth-oriented, community-building group Earth Care, offers an excellent example of how to make good use of abandoned city land. Planted on a once-vacant lot on Hopewell Street at Third Street, the project is a collaboration between the neighborhood and nonprofit Earth Care, which provides funding, staff support, and a mobile tool shed. Santa Fe’s community gardens continue a long tradition of local people communally growing their own food. Community gardens can be traced back thousands of years to America’s indigenous people, who used a collaborative approach to growing food. Another early example of community gardening involves a group of Moravians who, in the 18th century, planted a community garden near Winston-Salem, N.C., that remains open to visitors today. The modern community garden movement dates to the birth of the environmental movement in the 1960s, when more people started appreciating the benefits of growing their own food. Today community gardens are thriving. Boston, for example, has more than 180 and Denver more than 100. Seattle’s program, which began in the 1970s when a student started a plot to support a local food bank, has grown to more than 1,900 plots in 68 locations, encompassing 23 acres and yielding 12.3 tons of food in a single year. As Santa Fe’s community gardens gear up for this year’s growing season, gardeners are readying their beds, improving the soil, and choosing seeds and selecting where they will be planted. The groups—which are already planning potlucks and lectures on topics such as Fruit Trees and Bees, Watcher Catchment, and Garden Design—are continuing the longstanding tradition of working the land to produce homegrown food, all the while strengthening the fabric of neighborhoods and helping nourish those in need.
RESOURCES Santa Fe Community Gardens santafecommunitygardens.org
Eldorado School Community Garden eldoradoschoolcommunitygarden.com
Santa Fe Community Farm santafecommunityfarm.org
Tessa’s Garden tessahoran.com
ecotrendsource.com 19
Special Advertising Section: Sustainable
Eldorado
One Community at the Crossroads Pause for a moment. Take a deep breath, look out to our uniquely spectacular horizon, and consider the big picture. What really matters? Isn’t it the health and happiness of each of us, our families and friends, our livelihoods, our communities, and the natural systems that are the bigger economy that we all depend upon? Every time we encounter the news, we can’t help but wonder “what difference can I make in the seemingly immense landscape of political, economic, social, and environmental issues?” In the small community of Eldorado, hundreds of citizens have decided that plugging into local practices of sustainability is a meaningful path to empowerment, health, and satisfaction. Let’s look at just some of the forms this takes. • An amazing consortium of students, teachers, and community gardeners have created an oasis of learning, food production, and intergenerational relationships in the clean and green environment of the Eldorado School Community Garden. • On both sides of the street, intrepid business people have created a cornucopia of cafes, restaurants, spas, fitness centers, investment agencies, and other sources of goods and services that allow us to circulate our dollars locally and work and shop where we live.
Photos by Dana Richards
• We have a Farmers Market and many people belong to a Community Supported Agriculture program, both of which connect local sources of healthy food to local, consumers who know “you are what you eat.” • Over 100 residents have made the commitment to go solar, saving precious dollars, keeping those dollars local and leading by example in the energy revolution so essential to our long term well being. • Hundreds of residents harvest water and some use natural systems to treat and reuse even the water from their septic systems, recognizing that “agua es vida,” especially in our xeric climate zone. • Individuals and families hike, bike, and even participate in trail maintenance, ecological restoration, and bioregional educational activities within our greenbelts and our 4,200 acre community preserve.
Eldorado at Santa Fe
New Mexico 87508
Take I-25 N, Exit 290. Right onto HWY 285 S. Right on Avenida Vista Grande.
Sustainable Eldorado
Dana Richards
Special Advertising Section
The consequences of these simple activities are the very things that hold the most promise for addressing our deepest yearnings and our gravest problems, and they are especially relevant for a “subrural” community like ours: • We create community and social capital • We lower our carbon footprint • We engage the multiplier-effect and stimulate our local economy • We model for our children and give them hope • We reconnect with our natural systems and re-learn ecological balance • We are happier and healthier and remember more often what matters most
Janine Lehmann
So please, continue with or jump into the movement for a sustainable Eldorado. Eat local, shop local, invest local, power local, recycle, educate for the long haul, save water . . . and tell a friend!
SFCC
GREEN
Santa Fe Community College moves the green revolution out of the laboratories and into real life
BY NANCY ZIMMERMAN
S
anta Fe may sometimes seem like a quaint outpost where the past is frozen in time. But out along the windswept expanses southwest of downtown, miles from the picturesque huddle of adobe structures that give the city its historic flavor, cuttingedge developments are afoot. At Santa Fe Community College, a greener, more sustainable approach to living and working has taken root, propelling the city to the forefront of 21st-century innovation. The seeds were planted back in 2000, when Santa Fe County created the Community College Planning District with the goal of incorporating sustainability into all future development in the area surrounding SFCC. The idea was to build respect for the environment while promoting community, connectedness, and economic development. In 2004, SFCC created its Center for Community Sustainability, offering classes in renewable energy, water conservation, and environmental technologies. That same year, the City of Santa Fe adopted an economic development plan with
Kerry Sherck
“I can see the jobs of the future being born right here!”—Nancy Sutley, Chair, White House Council on Environmental Quality the aim of establishing the city as a leader in renewable energy. Community response was enthusiastic, and things progressed quickly. By 2006, the college had created an Associate in Applied Science degree program and a certification program in Environmental Technologies. It also hired a new president, Dr. Sheila Ortego, who built on the existing infrastructure to realize a far-reaching vision of sustainable technologies. “My plan was to train students for high-skill, high-wage jobs,” says Ortego. “Going green wasn’t part of my original thinking, although I was certainly interested in attracting clean industry for our workforce. But there was a big push from employees and students for green programs, so we blended our visions.” Ortego embraced the idea of promoting environmentally sound building practices and ramped up efforts to supply the marketplace with skilled workers trained in all aspects of green technology. “The community has been very supportive, passing two bond measure to finance our efforts,” she says. “It’s really a perfect fit for Santa Fe, a kind of collision of like values and common goals that we can reach by working together.” “Sheila deserves a lot of credit,” says Randy Grissom, dean of Economic and Workforce Solutions and director of the college’s Sustainable ecotrendsource.com 25
Students Patrick Ellquist and Angela Arriaga install a solar panel at SFCC.
Left: Jeffrey Atwell. Right: Insight Photo
Top right and bottom left: Kerry Sherck Top left and bottom right: Jeffrey Atwell
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (left) with Randy Grissom on a tour of the Trades and Technology Center. Santa Fe Community College President Sheila Ortego in front of the biowall, part of the Gold LEED-certified Health and Sciences Center.
Technologies Center. “She had the idea early on to make SFCC a leader, and she set an example. She was one of the original signatories and the first college president in New Mexico to join the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and she led the way in developing a five-year strategic plan that included a commitment that all the college’s actions would follow the principles of sustainability.” To that end, a number of initiatives to reduce the institution’s carbon footprint are underway, including: • A campus-wide recycling program • Installation of campus-wide low-consumption LED lighting • Installation of a biomass training unit, housed at the Early Childhood Development Center • Installation of an automated biomass heating system that heats the entire campus • Recycling of wastewater for campus irrigation • Installation of a computerized control system to maximize the efficiency of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems • Installation of solar thermal collectors to heat the campus swimming pool • Installation of a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system • Campus-wide use of recycled copy paper • Free filtered water to reduce the use of plastic bottles • Food-service utensils made from biodegradable material • Establishment of a Green Task Force made up of faculty, students, staff, and community members These initiatives are succeeding in ways both subtle and
striking. The LED lighting has reduced electricity consumption by about 54 percent, and since the installation of the biomass heating system, which burns waste wood from area forests in low-emission furnaces, campus heating costs have plunged dramatically. “We actually got a call from PNM asking if our meters were broken because our consumption had dropped to almost nothing,” laughs Ortego. The Sustainable Technologies Center encompasses the School of Trades and Technology, housed in the new state-of-the-art Trades and Advanced Technology Building, which began in 2008 and is continuously undergoing improvement. “The building is intended to be a symbol of sustainability,” says Grissom. “We’ll be applying for LEED certification when it’s completed, but in the meantime we’re already at the Gold level, and hope to achieve a Platinum rating by the time we’re finished.” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is the process by which the U.S. Green Building Council solicits independent verification that buildings, homes, or communities are designed and built using strategies for achieving high performance in areas such as sustainable site development, efficiency in water and energy use, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Ratings are based on a 110-point scale ranging from basic certification to Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels. The Trades and Advanced Technology Building is already a model of energy frugality: even in a total blackout, its 17,000-gallon solar tank can heat the building for up to three ecotrendsource.com 27
days. “In fact, during the 2011 outage when the area’s natural gas supply was interrupted during extremely cold weather and public buildings were being shut down, we were designated to become a shelter,” says Grissom. “It turned out that wasn’t needed, fortunately, but we were ready to help if necessary.” With the entire campus now increasingly walking the walk as well as talking the talk, the curriculum for training students to work in the green economy has taken center stage. Far-reaching in scope, it incorporates both theoretical and practical elements in project-based learning situations. With a major in Environmental Technology, students can be certified to fill such positions as green building project manager, green energy foundation project manager, energy auditor and analyst, environmental planner, public utility regulations analyst, and environmental risk management assistant, among others. Those who obtain a certificate in the Solar Energy Program can seek careers in solar industry sales and technical support, solar photovoltaic systems installation, solar hot water installation, solar software design engineering, and solar construction project management. Another certificate program, Water Treatment Operations, trains students to operate water or wastewater treatment facilities and to obtain certification from the New Mexico Environment Department. Additional programs in Green Building Systems and Green Building Skills train students as home-improvement retrofitters to install energy-efficient appliances and insulation, and to work as green carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and construction managers.
“It’s really a perfect fit for Santa Fe, a kind of collision of like values and common goals that we can reach by working together.” SFCC is also the base for the New Mexico Energy$mart Academy, where students and industry professionals learn energy-saving techniques for weatherization, HVAC auditing, infrared thermography, and other specialties. Through a grant from the Department of Energy, free green-jobs training is offered throughout the state via a mobile training lab that includes a pressure cabin, combustion training lab, attic demonstration unit, and insulation training wall. Project manager Amanda Evans says that the classes are geared to conform to EPA and OSHA requirements for health and safety, with attention paid to hazardous materials like lead and asbestos. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity for contractors, architects, appraisers, and government officials to update their skills,” says Evans. “This is important because existing buildings were constructed under whatever codes were in effect at the time, and there are health and safety consequences for homeowners and companies if the contractors they hire to do the retrofitting don’t understand how the new systems work.” “Most businesses and homeowners are now beginning to see that there are economic reasons to build green and to retrofit existing buildings,” points out 28 ecotrendsource.com
Matt O Photo
Rooftop Classroom with Gathering Space Skylight
Grissom. “It’s gone from being primarily an environmental movement to an economic one. Buildings cost a little more initially, but those costs are recouped in energy savings over time, so it makes economic sense to go green. “We’re not only training people in specific skills,” he adds, “but also in entrepreneurship and creative thinking. In our community, green businesses are well received, and we encourage our graduates to start businesses of their own.” Luke Spangenburg, who in 2010 became the first graduate of the Environmental Technology Program in Applied Science/Solar, has done just that. In addition to working at SFCC as an instructor and director of its Biofuels Centers of Excellence Grant, he is CEO of New Solutions Energy Corporation, a Santa Fe–based company creating algae growing systems and providing technical support to promote the use of algae in food production and sustainable energy projects. “SFCC’s hands-on approach is about applied knowledge in the real world,” he says. “In biofuels we have about 80 years of academic research but only a couple of years of applied research. I chose to work with algae because of its promise as a fuel and also as a nutrient. Algae creates more than 50 percent of the world’s oxygen, and for every ton it produces, it absorbs 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide, so it’s effective in combating global warming. You can use it as a soil remediator, fly airplanes on it, make plastic and even high-grade pharmaceuticals with it.” Spangenburg’s enthusiasm for his chosen field and the college’s program stems from recognizing the need for real-time skills and products that make use of the knowledge yielded by high-level research. “It’s one thing to make a beautiful Ferrari, and another thing to drive it,” he notes. “SFCC trains people to put their knowledge to work, and ecotrendsource.com 29
Jeffrey Atwell
Student Ivan Red in the plumbing lab
Get Involved You don’t have to be enrolled in credit classes to support and participate in SFCC’s green revolution. Here are some ways to join the effort: • Continue supporting bond issues to fund the college’s building and retrofit initiatives. “The community support for our bond elections has been key to our ability to move these programs forward,” says Randy Grissom, director of the School of Trades and Technology. “We’re very grateful for it.”
mattophoto
• Take a class. In addition to the credit courses and certification/degree programs, a number of classes are offered to the public through the Continuing Education Program. The Home Building and Design Series includes Introduction to Green Building, Great Southwest Design in an Energy-Efficient Home, EnergyEfficient Remodeling, and Renewable Energy Systems. There are also classes in water harvesting and recycling.
30 ecotrendsource.com
• Attend a lecture. The college hosts a Let’s Talk Green lecture series and intensive hands-on events covering everything from zero-waste to sustainable agriculture to composting. Included is a series of sustanability educational seminars by nonprofit Carbon Economy Series, an organization that has partnered with the college to feature renowned speakers on topics such as safe food systems and waste-to-revenue streams. carboneconomyseries.com
Kerry Sherck
“We’re not only training people in specific skills but also in entrepreneurship and creative thinking.”
Luke Spangenburg in the biofuels lab
the positive environment is contagious; there’s a lot of energy and excitement, and they’ve got the most impressive lab in the state.” The overall sustainability project remains a work in progress. “We have a sustainability steering community, which works as a centralized repository for ideas—we’re constantly looking at new initiatives like composting projects, setting up a community garden that can supply our culinary arts program and our cafeteria, and putting lights on timers to reduce waste,” says Grissom. The committee is seeking to minimize the impact of the college’s commuters, working with the county to improve trails
so students can hike and bike to campus and encouraging carpooling by designating carpool parking closer to the front door. They’re also looking into buying small buses and vans that run on biofuels, supplied in part by the college, to pick up commuters at train stations and bus stops, and hope to provide free or low-cost plug-ins for electric cars. All of this activity has put the college, and Santa Fe County, on the map as a leader in the movement toward economic and environmental sustainability. Visitors have come from around the country and as far away as North Korea to view the operations, and the National Wildlife Federation brought SFCC officials to a conference in Washington, D.C., to share information about their programs and projects. The college’s work dovetails with federal efforts to stimulate job creation through green initiatives that reduce energy consumption, explore alternative energy sources, and promote environmental health. As the federal government works to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy through sustainable building and energy policies, the college has emerged as a prime example of how that can be done. In July 2011, when Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, toured the facilities, she said, “I can see the jobs of the future being born right here!” Perhaps the most surprising—and encouraging—aspect of SFCC’s green accomplishments is the fact that they’ve been facilitated by an uncommon collaboration among federal, county, city, business, and nonprofit entities working in cooperation with the college. “Santa Fe is very receptive to green efforts,” says Ortego. “We’re lucky to live in a place that has that mindset. This kind of cooperation makes so many things possible.”
RESOURCES Santa Fe Community College sfcc.edu
School of Trades and Technology sfcc.edu/school_of_trades_and_technology
New Mexico Energy Smart Academy sfcc.edu/NM_energySmart_academy
ecotrendsource.com 31
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Sustainable Santa Fe The “City Different” Aims to Become the “City Greenest,” One Step at a Time BY APRIL REESE
PHOTOS BY KERRY SHERCK
anta Fe is drenched in sunshine most of the year, there’s a river running through it, and it’s inhabited by a populace that, compared to other cities of its size, is fairly well-informed about environmental issues. And yet, 99 percent of the city’s electricity still comes from coal, the Santa Fe River runs dry much of the year, and only a fraction of the population recycles. But in the last few years, city officials, with considerable help from local non-profit organizations and residents, have set out to shrink the city’s ecological footprint and live in greater alignment with the desert ecosystem from which it was carved 400 years ago. First, as part of its Economic Development Strategy, the city set the lofty goal of turning Santa Fe into the “clean energy capital of the U.S.” Then, building on that promise, the city council adopted the Sustainable Santa Fe plan in 2008, which lays out a detailed blueprint for how the city will reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, ramp up water conservation, restore the city’s namesake river, get more people to recycle, and generally do a better job of living within the natural limits that come with setting up residence in the high desert. Sustainability—which the city’s website defines as “taking care of the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations” through a combination of environmental stewardship, economic health, and social justice—is important not only to conserve the natural resources of the Santa Fe area but also to ensure its continued existence as we know it, city officials say. As the Southwest’s arid climate becomes even drier and hotter with the onset of climate change, the region is quickly becoming ground zero for two of the country’s biggest and most intractable challenges: energy and water. Santa Fe needs to do its part to respond to those challenges—sooner rather than later, says Santa Fe Mayor David Coss. “I think it’s just good planning to figure out how you’re gonna deal with the issues we can all see, whether its 38 ecotrendsource.com
Ponderosa Pine, colored pencil on acrylic ground on panel
Fran Hardy
global climate change—I think that’s the biggest one—or how we use natural resources, whether it’s water, land or the air,” he says. “The society knows enough to say what we’ve been doing the last 100 years isn’t gonna work for the next 100.” he centerpiece of the city’s sustainability efforts is the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan. Developed in response to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which he City adopted in 2006, the plan primarily focuses on slashing greenhouse gas emissions but also addresses water conservation, recycling, river restoration, and food production. Considering that 99 percent of the city’s power comes from coal-fired power plants, diversifying Santa Fe’s energy portfolio is a top priority in the plan. It calls for cutting emissions through efficiency to reduce demand and through the development of clean, renewable forms of energy, such as solar, wind, and geothermal. Vehicles account for about 17 percent of the greenhouse gases produced in New Mexico—a smaller percentage than in other, more populous states but still significant. To try to get that percentage down, the plan calls for encouraging more people to leave their cars at home and take the bus, bike to work, carpool, or, for those who commute to Albuquerque, take the Rail Runner Express train. Water also receives a lot of attention in the plan. Noting that Northern New
Mexico will become even drier than it already is as climate change worsens, strapping already limited water supplies, the plan outlines 12 different water-related actions, including development of a water conservation strategic plan, expanding incentive programs to encourage people to use less water, figuring out ways to better track water use and identify leaks, stepping up enforcement of water violations, and increasing the use of treated effluent. Acknowledging the city’s lackluster recycling rates, the plan also sets several goals for keeping more trash out of the landfill. Those include encouraging more people to take advantage of the city’s curbside recycling program, expand that program to include electronic waste, and provide incentives for businesses to recycle more. The city can slash its own waste by changing purchasing policies to favor suppliers that have “take back” programs for their recyclable products, the plan notes. A fairly strong local food movement has evolved in Santa Fe in recent years, and the growing interest in sustainable food production is reflected in the plan. It calls for creating a “City Harvest” program to provide more opportunities for growing, processing, storing, and selling food locally; to map and inventory productive land that could be used for sustainable small-scale farming; and develop guidelines for how to grow food in the high desert. One of the plan’s most innovative ideas is to create a program that would match people who have space to grow ecotrendsource.com 39
food with people who want to grow it but don’t have the space. Such “temporary occupancy programs” would “allow people to earn tens of thousands of dollars using other people’s land, including backyards,” according to the plan. The document is designed to change over time to reflect the progress the city makes, the emergence of new technology, lessons learned, and evolving conditions. Several other cities around the country have also adopted sustainability plans, including Santa Monica, Calif., New York City, Fort Collins, Colo., and El Paso, Texas. But Santa Fe’s blueprint is one of the most ambitious. Putting the plan into action requires the commitment of local government officials and citizens alike, Coss points out. For instance, the city has expanded its bike trail system and converted its bus fleet to compressed natural gas, but it’s up to residents to take advantage of those options. The city has taken several steps toward implementing the 40 ecotrendsource.com
plan, including: adopting a green building code for residential housing; replacing incadescent traffic signal bulbs with LED bulbs; replacing the city’s vehicle fleet with highly efficient, alternative-fuel models; and offering tax breaks to homeowners who install solar systems (see page 48). It also has undertaken projects to restore sections of the Santa Fe River, and recently, the city council adopted a “Living River” ordinance that will allow more water to be released from the city’s reservoirs to boost flows. There’s also a pilot program to install permeable pavement to reduce stormwater runoff by allowing the water to seep into the ground, which helps raise the water table. And to advance food security goals, the city has established a Food Policy Council and set up community gardens in city parks (see page 16). So far, many of those efforts appear to be paying off. For example, the city’s water conservation efforts, such as encouraging residents to switch out water-hogging toilets for low-flow
models and use drought-tolerant plants in landscaping, have resulted in per capita water consumption dropping from 137 gallons per person per day to 103 gallons a day over a seven-year period. And the city’s new convention center is LEED-certified, meaning it meets energy efficiency standards and other requirements established for new buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. But in other areas, the plans’ goals remain elusive. For instance, while the plan set a goal of increasing participation in the city’s curbside recycling program to 85 percent by 2010, participation remains woefully low: Only about 10 percent of Santa Feans recycle. Measuring the city’s overall progress can be tricky given all the different pieces of the plan and the various parties involved in implementing it, says Camilla Bustamante, former chair of the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission and director of the Sostanga Center for Sustainable Food, Agriculture and Environment. “It’s hard to ascertain how well the actual implementation is going, because as you read the plan it’s really reliant on grassroots initiatives, and those initiatives don’t get communicated as well as they should,” says Bustamante, who also serves as the dean of the Workforce, Community, and Career Technology Education Department at Northern New Mexico College. The Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, which is charged with implementing the plan, is working on changing that, she adds. While the city’s gradual transformation may not be that apparent to most residents, its sustainability efforts are beginning to attract national attention: Just last month, Travel & Leisure magazine named Santa Fe the 10th greenest city in the U.S. out of a total of 22. But many say the City Different still has a long way to go to truly set itself apart as one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible cities.
Workers sort recyclables at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station.
ecotrendsource.com 41
A two-wheeled commuter bikes across the Santa Fe River. The city recently expanded its bike trail system and agreed to release 1,000 acre-feet of water each year from its reservoirs to increase flows in the river. Left: Matt Romero of Romero Farms inspects crops in Alcalde, N.M. Expanding sustainable agriculture is part of the city's plan to lessen its environmental impacts. 42 ecotrendsource.com
Locally grown produce at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market
Mayor Coss remains optimistic. He says he believes the city is poised to become a leader in renewable energy. “I hope to see a rapid increase in the use of solar energy in Santa Fe homes and businesses,” he says. The mayor is also excited about the prospect of adopting a commercial green building code—but not until the economy recovers, so that the new requirements will be easier for builders to absorb. “I think we’ll be very proactive on that and energy,” he says. Bustamante, for one, is confident that Santa Fe eventually will reach the deeper shade of green it’s striving for. “I think that with everything in there, the objectives are doable,” she says. “It’s good to shoot high. But we have to start small, so we don’t get overwhelmed.” ecotrendsource.com 43
2012
The Eco-Home
48 ecotrendsource.com
Illustration by Stephen Lucero
eco
Greening Your Home Doesn’t Have to Cost a Lot of Green BY LYNN CLINE hese days, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to turn even the oldest, draftiest house into a green home, humming with solar-powered electricity and chock full of energy-efficient appliances and water-saving features. Tax credits and other incentives can help reduce the cost of big projects, such as installing a solar system, and even small, inexpensive upgrades can make a big difference. There are plenty of good reasons to make those green retrofits. Replacing fossil-fuel-based electricity and heating systems reduces your contribution to climate change, lowers utility bills, and raises home equity. Northern New Mexico gets most of its power from two coal-fired power plants: San Juan Generating Station and Four Corners Power Plant, both west of Farmington, N.M. Nationwide, coal generates more than half of the electricity in the U.S., contributing significantly to the country’s air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Randy Mulkey of Bella Solar, a Santa Fe company that installs solar power systems, says that’s a very good reason to go solar. “We burn more than one billion tons a year, which makes coal a major cause of global warming, smog, sludge, and countless chemicals,” Mulkey says. In New Mexico, power plants contribute 84.6 percent to the state’s direct greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. Consequently, switching from coal to solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, or other alternative energy sources will help reduce pollution and greatly decrease your carbon footprint. At 7,000 feet in the high desert, Santa Fe receives an abundance of sun and wind,
making it a prime spot for alternative energy production. In fact, New Mexico ranks second only behind Arizona for solar power potential in the country. Solar is even capable of providing more energy than the state currently uses, according to the New Mexico Energy Conservation and Management Division. It makes sense, then, to power up with a solar system, which converts sunlight into electricity. While harnessing the sun’s energy to generate power is not cheap, tax credits and financial incentives can help you earn back some of the investment. For instance, Public Service of New Mexico (PNM) offers Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to residents who install solar power systems that generate more power than the household uses, which is common. PNM buys RECs for 6 cents per kWh. Essentially, RECs amount to compensation for the power you send back to the grid. About 2,400 customers currently participate in the grid-tied solar power system credit program, according to Susan Sponsar, a spokesperson for the utility. PNM also offers customers a way to support the company’s voluntary wind power generation program. When you sign up for the PNM Sky Blue Program, you are purchasing renewable energy generated by New Mexico’s winds, either by buying “blocks” of 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity at 52 cents per month, or subscribing for 90 percent of your monthly electric consumption. New Mexico has ramped up its commitment to solar power in recent years. The state has pledged that by 2020, 20 percent of its energy will be produced by renewable sources, and 20 percent of
ecotrendsource.com 49
that renewable energy must be solar. To help remove impediments to reaching that goal, the New Mexico legislature passed an amendment to the Solar Rights Act in 2007 that prohibits homeowner associations and cities from banning the installation of solar panels. As an incentive to get more people to go solar, the state has created the New Mexico Solar Market Development Tax Credit, which provides a 10 percent personal income tax credit, with a cap at $9,000, if you purchase and install a certified solar power system. On top of that, the federal government offers a 30 percent federal tax credit. The average solar system costs between $10,000 and $30,000, but with the savings you get from no longer having to purchase electricity, you can see an immediate return on investment within the first month, although it can take eight to 10 years for the system to actually pay for itself, says John Gwynn of Bella Solar. Furthermore, going solar can increase the value of your home by $12,000 or more. If you want to install a solar energy system but don’t have the cash on hand, you can take advantage of a low-interest loan from Homewise, a Santa Fe nonprofit that helps working New Mexicans purchase a home or finance home improvement projects. “You can actually see a positive cash flow—the tax credit and free electricity plus the REC payments may generate $100 a month, which will easily cover the interest on your loan payment to Homewise,” says Mulkey. But if the finances still don’t work to install a solar system right now, there are plenty of other steps you can take to reduce your home’s energy use that require less of a financial commitment. Amanda Evans, project manager for Santa Fe Community College’s New Mexico Energy$mart Academy, advises undertaking smaller green projects that will give you considerable bang for your buck on a modest budget. For instance, you can wrap your hot water heater and pipes with insulation, switch to energy-efficient light bulbs, and weather-strip your doors, she says. “And make sure your water is not too hot and your refrigerator is not too cold, because that’s wasting energy,” she adds. You can also make your home more environmentally sustainable by installing a graywater treatment system, which recycles wastewater from baths, washing machines, dishwashers, and other household sources to be used for gardens, landscape irrigation systems, and toilets. 50 ecotrendsource.com
A typical graywater treatment system filters, stores, and disinfects the water for reuse. You can collect the water simply by removing the trap from the drainpipe of a sink and then placing a bucket beneath the pipe. Another method is to connect a hose to your washing machine and run it to your septic tank. But a more professional system involves the septic tank, filter, and water purifier. You can apply the treated water to lawns, gardens, and trees, but not on seedlings, root vegetables, or plants that need acidic soil. There are many kinds of systems on the market at varying prices ranging from less than $1,000 to more than $10,000. When it comes to heating your home, consider replacing your natural gas or oil furnace with a biomass energy system, which turns organic matter such as wood pellets, chips, or small logs into energy sources. Depending on your system, you can power a single room or an entire building as well as your hot water boiler. Biomass energy systems cost between $1,000 and $4,000, depending on the type of system. Geothermal energy offers yet another potential green energy source for your home. Geothermal heat pumps use the stable, even heat of the earth to provide air conditioning, heating, and hot water. They don’t generate heat by burning fuel, like a furnace, but rather tap the earth’s natural heat through a series of fluid-filled pipes installed underground or submersed in a pond or lake. The pipes carry the heated fluid inside the house, where a compressor and heat exchanger concentrate the energy and release it through the ductwork. During winter, the pump carries the underground heat into the home, and in summer the pump draws the heat from the house and transfers it to the ground. The constant temperature of the earth makes geothermal heat pumps one of the most energy-efficient technologies currently available, although they are not cheap, costing between $11,000 and $33,000. Much of the cost involves installation, an elaborate process that can include drilling and infrastructure. But the payoff is considerable: Geothermal heat pumps can lower your energy bills by as much as 30 to 40 percent, according to the EPA, which now offers ratings of geothermal heat pumps in its Energy Star program. And because some parts of the system are located below ground, protected from extreme weather, the maintenance costs usually are lower as well. Here are some other easy, low-cost ways to go green around the house: • Use a programmable thermostat. For each degree that you lower
your thermostat during an eight-hour period, energy use drops by 1 percent. If you lower it by 10 degrees at night, for example, you’ll save 10 percent of your energy use. • Switch to energy-efficient LED and compact fluorescent light bulbs. • Install dual flush or other types of water-wise toilets and ultra low flow showerheads and faucet heads. • Install energy-efficient windows. • Choose energy-efficient Energy Star appliances and equipment. • Insulate the attic, basement, and hot water heater. • Insulate hot water pipes with rubber or polyethylene tubes that prevent the heat from dissipating. • Conduct a home energy audit to identify air leaks and other inefficiencies. • Use eco-friendly roofing materials made of recycled rubber and plastics in roof replacements. • Install doorsweeps and weather-stripping to prevent air leakage. • Dry clothes on a clothesline. • Prevent appliances, electronics, and computers from drawing power in standby mode. When not in use, turn them off with power strips, light timers, or simply unplug them. Even just a few retrofits can go a long way in reducing the ecological footprint of your home. Whether you’re willing to invest in a sophisticated solar power system, a graywater treatment system, and energy efficient windows, or take smaller steps such as insulating your pipes, installing a programmable thermostat, and using power strips, you’ll decrease your emissions of greenhouse gases, save money, and increase the value of your home.
RESOURCES PNM Sky Blue Program pnm.com/customers/sky_blue.htm
Homewise homewise.org
Energy Star energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index
Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency dsireusa.org
Solar Bella solarbella.net
New Mexico Energy$mart Academy sfcc.edu/NM_energySmart_academy
ecotrendsource.com 51
Attainable Zero Energy Homes The dream is now reality
Cost-effective homes with small or even net-zero annual utility bills have been wishful thinking‌until now. On Saturday, March 17, Natural Homes Marketing Group and Trend Magazine hosted the premiere of a new line of Zero Energy Solar Homes by Renaissance Builders of Santa Fe, N.M. These solar homes have taken a big step forward with the support of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, expanding the federal LEED program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with crucial research. Zero Energy Solar Homes are competitive in price and quality with conventional homes, offer substantial energy savings, have a reduced carbon footprint, and include significant state and federal tax credits. Zero Energy Solar Homes include custom features like high, beamed ceilings, solid stone countertops, and covered portals. They are being built for a lower cost than some conventional custom homes and include—for no additional cost—state-of-the-art super-insulated walls, ceilings, and floors; extra-efficient boilers, lighting, and appliances; whole-house heat recovery ventilation; and solar panels on the roof. These features can provide enough energy savings and solar electric generation to attain close to a net-zero annual utility bill. Alan Hoffman is the director of Natural Homes, an environmental marketing group within Logic Real Estate, with more than 30 years experience in designing, building, and marketing solar homes. Natural Homes is offering these Zero Energy Solar Homes at prices starting under $300,000, including lot, in many communities in the Santa Fe area. There are a number of Zero Energy Solar Homes complete and available for viewing, and more are under construction. Visit NewVillage.com to see plans and pricing and learn how you can attain a home that will serve you and your family for years to come.
For information contact Alan Hoffman, 505-316-0449, village@newvillage.com, newvillage.com 52 ecotrendsource.com
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These supporters of the recent Zero Energy Home premiere are dedicated to achieving a cleaner, healthier, energy-independent nation by promoting a sustainable, healthy lifestyle and providing innovative equipment and materials to reduce America’s carbon footprint.
A GUIDE TO SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
Santa Fe and Taos
ecotrendsource.com
Trend Magazine, a national magazine on art, design, and living well in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos, available on newsstands locally and throughout the U.S. trendmagazineglobal.com EcoSource, a new guide to sustainability in action and living well in Santa Fe and Taos. ecotrendsource.com Green Fire Times, presenting up-to-date information and news on green policies and technology. greenfiretimes.com Bella Solar, furnishing cost-effective solar electric equipment in the Santa Fe area. bellasolar.net Bright Solutions, supplying the next generation of super-efficient LED lighting solutions for homes and businesses. brightsolutionsleds.com Amenergy, providing solar thermal and solar electric equipment for homes and businesses in New Mexico. amenergynm.com Coronado Paint and Decorating, a locally-owned company offering paints, plasters, and floor coverings with low toxicity. coronadodecorating.com Capitol Ford, offering state-of-the-art, American-made vehicles with fuel efficiency of up to 41 miles per gallon in the city. chalmerscapitolford.com EverGreen Building Solutions, providing Home Energy Rating services and certifications for state and federal tax credit programs. evergreenbuildingsolutions.com Advertisement
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eco
sunbeams
GREEN BEER ON
Taos Mesa Brewing & Rock Garden Amphitheater Bring Environmental Sustainability to the World of Microbrews
I
BY LYN BLEILER
In 2007, a few good friends with a shared appreciation for lively music, micro-brewed beer, and environmentally responsible living joined forces to create the Taos Mesa Brewing and Rock Garden Amphitheater. Located on Highway 64 near the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the complex includes one of the largest solar greenhouse collectors in the brewing industry, an indoor stage and dance floor, and two outdoor stages—an amphitheater and a smaller, more intimate deck. With opening scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, partners Dan Irion, Gary Feurerman, Peter Kolshorn, and Jayson Wylie will give the Taos community locally produced beer, a first-rate performance venue, and a green gathering place to, as Gary Feurerman says, “let go of your worries and enjoy the astounding views.” “Right from the start our whole ethos was to create a building and business that was as environmentally sustainable as possible using limited resources,” Peter Kolshorn added. “While of course good for the planet, it is even better from a business standpoint. Brewing beer is very energy intensive.” Builder/developer Kolshorn took the reins in designing the facility. He knew from previous projects that hybrid buildings combining lightweight pumice concrete and Quonset hut-type structures are simple and costeffective and add design elements unachievable with any other construction method. He worked with architects Douglas Patterson and brother Johannes Kolshorn of the Living Design Group Architects, as well as Scott MacHardy, local general contractor for Pumice-Crete® of New Mexico, on ways to create an inviting space. “The arch shape of the Quonset is really great for framing the landscape we have in Taos, so a glass wall of the brewery has been designed to capture magnificent mountain views and is a pleasing architectural detail that can be seen from the highway,” Kolshorn explains. “It turns the simple shape of the Quonset arch into a
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beautiful sculpture.” Various metal finishes such as raw steel meant to oxidize, polished steel for window mullions, and copper patina lend interest and color contrast. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the solar greenhouse collector, a lowtech way to harness the sun’s energy to heat the building and preheat water for brewing. A polycarbonate layer over the metal exterior of the building’s south side attracts the sun’s rays, heating the air inside in excess of 190 degrees. Copper pipes filled with glycol absorb the heat, then a series of pumps carry the heated glycol to heat exchange units inside the brewery. Some of this water heats the building while the rest is used for brewing. The team estimates that this solar greenhouse will reduce their energy needs 60 to 70 percent. Additionally, 100-foot troughs running the length of each side of the Quonset building are expected to harvest between 35,000 and 40,000 gallons of rainwater annually for vegetation, cleaning, and sanitation. Holshorn’s knack for finding salvaged materials has helped keep building costs down. Portions of holepunched metal shelving from a defunct Borders bookstore were transformed into attractive wall sconces lining the perimeter of the theater, and an art installation of raven feathers (representative of Taos Mesa Brewing’s logo) made from wooden shelving acts as baffling agents to enhance stage acoustics. Ground colored glass from the Taos Recycling Center sprinkled throughout the concrete liven up the main hall floor, and a layer of used tires under the dance floor give it a spring-loaded effect. Massive hanging metal lighting fixtures that once illuminated a gymnasium cost a mere $15 each, and brewing equipment was purchased at a bargain from a pub in Pennsylvania.
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Liza Barre tt
Partner Dan Irion, a member of the popular “discofunkgrass” band Last To Know, brought firsthand understanding of backstage requirements. A rear entrance allows for pre-show privacy and easy loading and unloading of equipment, and a spacious green room provides a quiet place where performers can relax before shows. At the bar, managing member and head brewer Jayson Wylie reports that the offerings will include nine distinctive brews on tap, five staple products, and three to four seasonal or specialty beers in rotation. By using local grain from the San Luis Valley for brewing, the facility further reduces its ecological footprint. Spent grain will be used as eco-friendly landscaping compost and as chicken feed, with plans to trade the feed for local chicken meat once food service begins. Future plans include adding a reusable water system to work in conjunction with the facility’s septic system, an arc-shaped solar array behind the amphitheater to serve as a shade structure for outdoor shows, and a conversion system for turning heat energy into refrigeration for beer storage. While the four partners have invested a great deal of heart and sweat equity into the project, they are quick to acknowledge having lots of help along the way—even trading shares in the business for professional services. “One of the great things I have seen come about through the process of design and construction is how much local support we have received from people who want to see a cool project like this come to fruition,” Gary Feurerman observed. “We’ve had a huge amount of free, outside human energy contributed to our project. We hope to give back with good music, great beer, and lots of fun times for the people of Taos.” taosmesabrewing.com
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Wee are W
-maintaining healthier smiles with digital x-rays compared com pared to film film,, a 60% reduction in radiation exposure for our patients
-creating a cleaner Santa Fe
putting no film-processing chemicals into our local waste stream
at Rusty Kirkland, DDS, PC
a PN PNM M Pow Power er Sav e r p r a c t i c e
2905 R Rodeo odeo Park D Drive rive East, Bld. 4, Ste. 200 - Santa Fe, N New ew M Mexico exico 87505 - 505.982.2578
eco
green living
Just
Pretty
Not Another Taos’s Vapour Organic Beauty brings eco-consciousness to your make-up drawer
C
osmetics may make you look good, but often the chemicals they’re made of are not so pretty. Taos-based Vapour Organic Beauty produces a line of non-toxic cosmetics that have just as much staying power—and aesthetic appeal—as conventional brands. The company’s mission is to create cosmetics that are safe, healthy, and good for the planet, says Kristine Keheley, who co-founded the company with Krysia Boinis. Vapour Organic Beauty products contain a minimum of 70 percent certified organic ingredients, with the remaining 30 percent comprised of mineral pigments and natural vitamins. The company doesn’t use any of the irradiated, chemical, or petroleum ingredients commonly found in cosmetics. The company takes a “cradle to grave” approach to its operation, incorporating environmental sustainability into every aspect of the business.“We are conscious at every step of the process about the choices we make,” says Boinis. “From the earliest stages of product design through manufacturing and the product life cycle, we are dedicated to keeping women and our planet healthy.” Vapour’s manufacturing facility in Taos, where 99 percent of all Vapour Organic Beauty products are
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made, is powered by solar and wind and is certified by the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission as a USDA Organic Processer and Handler. The Vapour team is also sensitive to the limitations of their high desert manufacturing location: All Vapour products are “anhydrous” formulations, meaning they are made without water. “We aren’t stressing the precious local water supply,” Kristine notes. “We simply don’t use it.” The firm’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond the factory. Vapour’s primary packaging is recyclable, and secondary packaging, such as unit boxes, are made from wood waste from forest management projects and postconsumer paper waste. The company’s retail display units are made of recycled steel. Product ingredients are biodegradable and contain no nano-particles or toxic chemical pollutants. “We contribute to a sustainable loop of clean, conscious manufacturing,” Keheley says. Vapour got its start when Boinis and Keheley became disillusioned with the conventional cosmetic industry. While working together in Boinis’ skin care manufacturing plant, they became aware of the practice of “greenwashing,” where companies misleadingly market products as “safe” and “environ-
BY LYN BLEILER
Face mentally friendly” even though the product is still chemically based, although perhaps with a few botanicals added. “Greenwashing poisons the well for every other organic business,” Keheley says. “People start to mistrust the term ‘organic.’” Determined to provide a truly green alternative to conventional cosmetics, the team began experimenting with product prototypes based entirely on organic, minimally processed, food-grade ingredients. One of their first testers was New York-based cosmetics expert Eric Sakas. After applying a Vapour prototype to his skin, he became an instant convert, and the three joined forces to launch Vapour Organic Beauty in 2009. While Vapour Organics is only three years old, several of its 100-plus products, which include organic eyeliners, shadows, formaldehyde-free nail polish and natural mineral-pigmented lipsticks, already have received accolades for their performance. For instance, Vapour Organic Beauty’s Elixir Lip Plumping Gloss was chosen by People StyleWatch in March as the best lip gloss in a list that included Chanel and other industry giants. It was the only organic gloss to make the cut. The Vapour product line also has garnered
high praise from editors of top fashion and health publications, including Women’s Wear Daily, Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, InStyle, Lucky, and Real Simple. Vapour Organic Beauty received an Allure “Best of Beauty” award, took top honors as “Best Natural Age-Defying Foundation” by Prevention magazine, and snagged two of author/environmentalist Sophie Uliono’s coveted 2011 Gorgeously Green Beauty Awards. The buzz about Vapour even has reached as far as Haiti, where its eco-cosmetics caught the attention of Haitian fashion designer Hassan Pierre. He asked the company to donate makeup and a make-up artist’s time for his show at the 2011 New York Fall Fashion Runway week. Pierre’s leading organic and sustainable clothing line, WISB (Way it Should Be) was an ideal match for Vapour, Keheley says. Inspired by the intoxicating scent of Haitian vetivert grass, formulator/inventor Keheley created a vetivert-based scent for Vapour that honors the people of Haiti. Essential oil from the plant offers many other benefits, too, she notes. “Vetivert grass is a superhero with the ultimate in sustainable properties,” Keheley says. “It is beneficial in erosion control, pollution mitigation, and water treatment.” Fifty percent of proceeds from the resulting fragrance, which Keheley considers a labor of love, are donated to the Red Cross Haitian Relief fund. The company also supports breast cancer research: All of the proceeds from Vapour’s popular Honor Elixir Plumping Lip Gloss go to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute to support its work in creating a breast cancer vaccine. Despite their success, Boinis and Keheley are not content to rest on their laurels. “Young girls today should be starting out with organic cosmetics, Keheley says. “Our motto is: luxury, purity, performance. We will continue to create new products that don’t sacrifice health or the environment for beauty.” vapourbeauty.com ecotrendsource.com 61
Advertiser Index BUILDERS, CRAFTSMEN, DEVELOPERS & MATERIALS D. Maahs Construction LLC dmaahsconstruction.com 505-992-8382 ..................................................32 Hurlocker Homes hurlockerhomes.com 505-988-3783 ....................................................1 Natural Homes Marketing Group newvillage.com 505-316-0449.............................................52-53 New Mexico Stone newmexicostone.net 505-820-7625 ....................................................7 Tierra Concepts tierraconceptssantafe.com 505-989-8484 ..................................................11
ARCHITECTS, DESIGNERS & LANDSCAPE COMPANIES American Institute of Architects, Santa Fe Chapter aiasantafe.org .................................................45 Archaeo Architects archaeoarchitects.com 505-820-7200.........................Inside front cover Architecture for Humanity Santa Fe santafe.architectureforhumanity.org architectureforhumanity.org ............................8 Glorious Earth Landscapes gloriousearthlandscapes.com 505-989-1388 ..................................................14 Victoria Price Art & Design victoriaprice.com 505-982-8632 ..................................................35
COURIER SERVICES Creative Couriers LLC 505-920-6370 .................................................51
ARTISTS & GALLERIES La Mesa of Santa Fe lamesaofsantafe.com 505-984-1688 ....................................................3
FINANCIAL SERVICES Zia Financial Group ziafinancialgroup.com 505-819-5914 ..................................................23
AUTO DEALERSHIPS Chalmers Capitol Ford Lincoln chalmerscapitolford.com 505-913-1942 ............................................46–47
HEALTH & BEAUTY & SALON Rusty Kirkland, DDS rustykirklanddds.com 505-982-2578 ..................................................58
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EDUCATION Santa Fe Community College sfcc.edu 505-428-1000 ..................................................13 ELECTRONICS Constellation Home Electronics constellationsantafe.com 505-983-9988 ....................................................9 EVENTS Design Santa Fe 2012 designsantafe.org/design-lab ........................44 Taos Solarfest solarmusicfest.com ........................................59
Light & Love Naturopathic Center lightandlove.info 505-955-9919 ....................................................5 Lotus Beauty lotusbeautysantafe.com 505-988-9965 ..................................................63 KITCHENS, BATHROOMS, TILE, LIGHTING & HARDWARE AllBright & LockWood allbrightlockwood.com 505-986-1715 ....................................................4 MEDIA Green Fire Times greenfiretimes.com 505-471-5177 / 505-982-0155 ........................37 SantaFe.com...................................................36 Trend magazine trendmagazineglobal.com 505-988-5007 ....................................................4 REAL ESTATE Pacheco Park 505-780-1159 ..................................................33 RESTAURANTS & BREWERIES Il Piatto ilpiattosantafe.com 505-984-1091 ..................................................15 Santa Fe Brewing Company santafebrewing.com 505-424-3333 ..................................................20 SOLAR COMPANIES Bella Solar bellasolar.net 505-660-8272 / 505-660-6220 ..........................7 Go Solar gosolar21.com 505-690-5500 ..................................................23 WATER TREATMENT New Water Innovations 505-216-0880 ..................................................34
Illustration by Fran Hardy
ANTIQUES, HOME FURNISHINGS, RUGS & ACCENTS La Mesa of Santa Fe lamesaofsantafe.com 505-984-1688 ....................................................3 Moss Outdoor mossoutdoor.com 505-989-7300 ...................................Back Cover Santa Kilim santakilim.com 505-986-0340.........................Inside back cover Victoria Price Art & Design victoriaprice.com 505-982-8632 ..................................................35 Xanadu xanadusantafe.com 505-424-3231 ....................................................2
Last Impressions
New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop (NMEGW) facilitators collectively work on a piece at Prairie Dog Glass. From left, Holly Goldstein, NMEGW youth advocacy programming coordinator; “Spooner� Robert Marcus; Stacey Neff, NMEGW executive director; Jannine Cabossel, partner, Liquid Light Glass; Pat Morrissey, co-owner, Prairie Dog Glass and NMEGW facilities director; Cia Thorne, glass artist; Elodie Holmes, partner, Liquid Light Glass; and Ira Lujan, Prairie Dog Glass shop master. PHOTOS BY KERRY SHERCK
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