March 7th, 2010 by admin

After seeing the documentary Garbage Warrior sponsored by Transition Newubryport and The Long Way Home, Heidi Spinella and her husband decided to learn more.  Here’s her report:

We’re planning on building a home in harmony with nature, so as part of our research we visited Michael Reynold’s Earthships in Taos, New Mexico in November. We were delighted to experience living in a home built primarily from recycled materials that heats and cools itself, generates its own electricity from the sun and/or wind, catches rain and snow melt for drinking water and household use, treats its own sewage and then uses it to grow food indoors all year long.

Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures in any climate year round since they’re built about four feet into the earth which maintains a constant temperature of 58 degrees. Simply by letting in more sunlight or cooler air, home owners are able to regulate the temperature to their liking.
We checked into our earthship studio rental about 3:00 in the afternoon and were surprised by how warm, actually, hot we found it. The shades had not been drawn and we felt the full power of the sun immediately. We were able to bring the temperature down by opening the front door and a skylight for about 10 minutes, which funneled cool air throughout the home.

We then set about exploring the earthship. A large greenhouse runs the length of the house and opens into the interior which includes a living room and bedroom combo, a full kitchen with sink, refrigerator, propane stove and oven and a bathroom complete with toilet, sink and full shower/ tub. In addition there is a TV with VCR, stereo and wireless internet connection, all the comforts of home without the unwanted side effects of conventional living. A shelf full of books detailing all aspects of earthship construction caught my eye and I spent the next several hours lost in the world of earthships.

As the sun set, we made a lovely meal in the comfortable kitchen equipped with everything we needed. It was a treat to know we were drinking rainwater, captured naturally, filtered through the house and supplied by a separate faucet next to the kitchen sink.

As the evening wore on we were surprised by how cool it got inside. Since we keep our home about 62 degrees we weren’t uncomfortable, but did use the extra blankets supplied. We woke up at 5 am to a sky full of starlight.  Marveling at the vastness, we were about to go outside but upon opening the door were greeted by howling winds and 20 degree temperatures.  Grateful for our cozy earthship, we snuggled under the covers and went back to sleep.

Waking the next morning, we tentatively turned on the shower, half expecting a trickle of lukewarm water, but were delighted to find a more than ample supply of wonderfully hot water. After breakfast we tidied up our temporary home and prepared to leave with both pictures and inspiration of what our own earthship will one day be.

For more information, please visit Earthship Biotecture.

March 7th, 2010 by admin

Three members of Transition Newburyport joined in the world-wide No Impact Week. The goal was to raise awareness of our own ‘footprint’ on the planet by reducing our energy, water and material consumption. The Daily News wrote an article about the experiment, and some of us wrote about our experiences on the Transition Massachusetts ning site.

Here is just one entry by Niall Robinson, who participated with his wife and two children:

“Perhaps the biggest learnings for us were around the ‘multiplication effect’ of changing our behaviors.

I must admit I too was not fazed by the trash perspective until I thought about what I purchased at work and ended up throwing away. My family already composts our kitchen scraps, buys local and reuses all we can so I was feeling comfortable about our trash footprint at home. But at work, our cafeteria is a ‘healthy’ walk away from my cubicle so I bring everything back to my desk. Usually a cardboard box and grease proof paper for my sandwich plus in the morning there is another container for my oatmeal or bagel. Now granted my work colleagues already think I’m “interesting” in that I bring home the cardboard containers (they are a great weed blocker in my garden) but I thought there was an opportunity to improve and also have a bit of fun.

Not to digress too much but I was recently put on to Amory Lovins’ (actually a friend had been pestering me for awhile to watch it and I finally did — http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid231.php ) series of lectures at Stanford University where he talks about getting multiple benefits from single expenditures. Though Amory was talking about building smarter buildings the same applies to almost everything you do i.e. maximize the number of benefits you get from what you do.

So I decided to bring in my own lunch and breakfast. The benefits were multiple:

1. I eliminated my trash by using reusable utensils etc.
2. I saved money by not buying expensive food at the cafeteria.
3. I controlled the food I ate.
4. I reduced my carbon footprint by sourcing my work meals locally.
5. I reduced our food waste at home (using up leftovers).
6. And I felt better!

And so, not to get too philosophical, I think a big takeaway is that we have to ‘think out of the box.’ We have to think creatively to solve these problems, and yes, the solutions should be imaginative and ‘better’ than what we know today. As William McDonough talks about, up-cycling is the way — not re-cycling or down-cycling.”

If you are interested in trying it out for yourself a new nationwide No Impact Week is being launched on November 15.

November 29th, 2009 by admin

Monday, November 9

Monday November 9th Transition Newburyport and Long Way Home co-hosted the movie Garbage Warrior at the Newburyport Public Library.  Mike Reynolds, the garbage warrior, builds self-sustaining homes, “earthships”, made of re-purposed tires, cans and bottles.  One of Mike’s favorite techniques is to utilize passive solar energy by building walls of tires packed with earth.  The free movie showing was very well attended and sparked a dialogue we hope to continue.  For those of you who were not able to attend, the movie is available though the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium.