Andersen Windows Sustainability Video

The following is a sneak peak at a segment on sustainability that will be part of the Earth Shelter documentary (which will air on television in 2011). This video was shot recently at Andersen Windows' Bayport Plant in Minnesota. This video is intended to show the viewer how a company can be sustainable and why this Team picks the products that it picks.

I want to give a huge thank you out to Ric Mixter of Airworthy Productions for putting this video together and producing this video. He acted as producer and videographer while on location and coached me through my lines as I worked off of a script. The video shoot was 3 days long and it is amazing how much work it is to set up shots and read lines from a script without making it look on video like you are reading off of a script!

Remember when?

I remember the Fall of 2007, do you? I found myself smack dab in the middle of a huge debate over a wind generator with very little help. I remember locals stopping by the job site to get in my face, I remember going into Frans Market and having people turn their backs on me, and I remember how everyone back home said good luck and went about their lives.

I mention this, because time flies and the moments in time that define a person are often times forgotten or overlooked. I remember laying awake at night in our rented, run down cottage and thinking about the possibility of losing my company over a matter that I had very little control over. I remember building, piece by piece, a home that helped reshape the building industry in this state. I remember the grinder accident I had before a big public hearing on the wind generator, and how I didn't go to the Emergency Room (even though Mary Bigelow did all she could to get me to go), so that I could give my rebuttal at the hearing. The carpet in Onekama Township Hall has the stains from my bleeding finger and a day doesn't pass that I don't think about how incredible that experience was. I carry scars on my hands from the work we did on that home and those scars help to remind me of the amazing experience that I had building it.

I remember when the final meeting for the wind generator issue was and I remember the emotions that were running wild in that room. I salute those people in the world who stepped up when times got tough and helped generations move forward. I salute those who didn't just say good luck, but rather, rolled up there sleeves and fought shoulder to shoulder with me on a very tough issue. Onekama will always hold a place in my heart, because it help shaped the person that I have longed for so long to become. I learned many valuable lessons on that project, but the most valuable lesson of all, was that I learned to never give up on my dreams. I learned that no matter what happend, I would always see a problem through and have the guts to take care of a problem no matter what it costs. I learned that not many people shared that same value, and that it was a defining value that has helped me become who I am today.

I am excited to have built the homes that I have built. Back in 2007, I did all I could to get other builders to build sustainably. Now, much to my delight, builders have stepped up to take on jobs with ICFs, SIPs, and advanced framing. I have continued to pick jobs to build solely on their impact on the industry. I am consulting more than ever on everything from schools to Earth Shelter projects and everything in between. Next up for me, once we complete the Earth Shelter Project and I finish the nation wide tour to promote the documentary, I will start another project. That project will be one of many that I am considering. I am most interested in another Earth Shelter project or a straw bale home. I will keep you all posted. For now, life is good and I am so excited to be living the life I am living..

My experience teaching

I just finished teaching the first 2 and a half day class that I have ever taught. For anyone who has ever taught, then you know how difficult teaching for that long can be. I hear it gets easier as you teach more, but going into that first day, I had no idea how much material I would need to teach for 6 or 7 hours. The first day was a new subject, that I just wrote, The History of Building from Earliest Recorded History to Present and Consumer Motivation in this Green Economy. Wow! Well, I made it through the first day, but I struggled towards the end and was forced to "leak" some of the pictures and info for day 2. After the first day of class, I went to the Instructor only dinner to rub elbows with everyone. I was nervous, because, once again, I was the "Green Horn" in something and dinners like this can go several ways. I am happy to say, that everyone was very nice and welcomed me into their rhelm. I asked for advice for day 2 and they all gave me some great suggestions. After thanking everyone for their input, I raced backed to my computer to adjust my approach and content for day 2.

Day 2 was "Green Building". I was prepared for this day! It appeared that the class members had never seen what was on my pictures and videos and everyone sat forward in their seats and said "wow" off and on throughout the day. Day 2 was a great day and put a smile on my face as I finally got to see people's reactions in person to the work I have completed. I had a meeting in Grand Rapids after the class that lasted into the evening. I got back to my computer to revamp day 3 and had an even greater respect for those who teach as their profession!

Day 3 was a breeze. For those that have taught, you know that by day 3 things are much more relaxed. We had great conversations and lots of questions. Handing out their certificates was a great experience and at the end of the class, everyone seemed satisfied with the class.

On the class evaluation sheets, there are a few comments that I will use to improve my approach. Yes, I need work and practice at teaching, but this is something I really enjoy doing and have wanted to do for many years. I will improve in areas that need improving and polish areas that need polishing. I was asked to teach again for them and I am happy to say that my teaching schedule is filling up in 2011.

2010 has been a great year of learning and realizing my dreams. I can only imagine what the future holds. No one brought me an apple in class thou....

Earth Shelter's first award entry

Thank you to Team Elmers, the Earth Shelter Project is in the running for an International Sustainable Building Award. Check this link out: http://ascribehq.com/greensite/awards/residential/oct2010/P5258

I see on the commercial side 1 World Trade Center-Freedom Tower is an entrant. I did not know about these awards, Team Elmers entered this project and it looks like we are in a group of incredible mainstream projects. What an honor.

Earth Shelter makes the nightly news up north

As I have decided to readjust my goals in 2010, the path is clear to where it is that I feel I need to go. Although the last 5 years of my life have been incredible, I never envisioned myself as a production builder who needed several projects going at once to feel successful. As I have written about in the past, my goal was always to build, to learn, and then to educate others on what I learned. That is why I chose to handle projects the way I did. Also, the Earth Shelter Project is large enough to equal building 5 homes at once, so I guess, my work load is similar to what it was before, but it feels good for a change to not have to drive all over Michigan to manage projects.

I led a team that built the most energy efficient home ever built in Michigan. Although it was a nice design on paper, the performance of that house was the result of team members at the sight who paid incredible attention to detail with regards to mechanical performance and air infiltration. Since the design was very similar to the Onekama house, I knew from the journals I kept that we needed to pay attention to specific areas of the home to try to get it 'tighter'. This seems like a waste of time, as the Onekama home was one of the tightest homes ever built at the time, but my goal was always to improve on everything that we did. The design of the home is very important, but I make sure when I teach and speak, that I mention that the performance of the home has a lot to do with variables and features that the architect doesn't have anything to do with. Examples of this are: site stewardship, recycling, air infiltration, mechanical systems, and the list is endless. Believe it or not, but the gas fireplace in Onekama was one of the differences between the two homes, any fireplace is a good way to leak air in or out of the home.

My point in all of these ramblings, is that the Earth Shelter Project is seen as a culmination of all of my research, work, and passions. Recently, a northern Michigan tv station requested time on site to do a story on the project. Before access was granted to them, I drilled the reporter about what the angle of the story was going to be. She was hinting at putting a doomsday twist on the story, at which point I denied her access to the site. Being on tv is cool and all, but contractors have an ethical responsibility to protect their homeowners on high profile projects. Proper presentation of key sustainable projects and safety is why proper news coverage is essential. We spent a week developing a different angle, which, I felt, it should have been since the beginning. Although the segment is short, it states things pretty well. As I say during the interview, I never had to think about housing for animals before (besides dogs and cats of course..i.e. dog showers, cat playgrounds). I had to research Scottish Highlander cows and their horn width so the stalls in the barn were big enough to handle these "critters".

See what you think, here is the link to the story from 9 and 10 news story: http://www.9and10news.com/Category/Story/?id=254130&cID=1

Thank you to all who continue to pay attention and support what I do. I am very happy with life and soon you may see me on your tv, shhh....

The history of building

Currently, I am studying and researching for a class that I am teaching in Grand Rapids. A major focus of this class is the history of building, back to the earliest records of mankind. In this research, I am looking for similarities in construction and technology across the generations. Digging kind of deep, one would find that the Ancient Romans used several techniques that would be cutting edge even for our present times. For instance, the Ancient Romans used cavity walls, hypocausts, and even primitive forms of insulation back around the time of Jesus, give or take a few hundred years. Cavity walls are used presently in masonry and is basically an air space between the walls that make up the exterior shell of a dwelling. Hypocausts is a form of radiant heat, where channels were made in the floors and walls of homes, in which, hot air and smoke from a wood or coal burning furnace, would pass through these channels to heat the floor and walls of a home. Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire had the money and resources to use these techniques, but were not the first to use this technology.

Extensive research into this topic shows that the Ancient Romans used these cutting edge techniques because they learned of them from those who traveled to the remote areas of what they knew as their world. The first known use of a radiant heat design has been traced back to what is now Korea. Thousands of years before the wide spread use of hypocausts in Ancient Rome, ondols were used in houses through out what is now Korea and Southern Asia. Ondols are a series of pipes that run under floors in houses that had hot air and smoke from wood fired furnaces pushed through them to heat a home. Ondols are still used in Korea, Japan, and other areas of the world. Frank Lloyd Wright was shown this technology when he was working on a hotel in Japan. F L W, came up with an idea to run hot water through pipes instead of hot air or smoke. At this point, I am not prepared to call F L W the father of modern day hot water radiant heat systems, but it does warrant more research into the matter.\

Ancient Rome used many technologies that the Greeks were already using, including using doors. The greeks are credited with being the first recorded people to use doors on their homes. It is not known where most of this technology first originated. The cavity wall design has been traced back thousands of years before the use in Ancient Rome. A recent discovery in Syria of one of the oldest cities ever found, shows the use of cavity walls. Cavity walls in this area of the world were used to cool homes by passing cool air through the cavity between what made up the exterior walls of the home. This city is reported to be over 7,000 years old!

So, my research continues, as now I am fascinated with who or what is credited with these technologies that we are using thousands of years after they were first used. I am researching societies all over the globe, as the Aztec, Hopi, and several other tribes of the ancient world used techniques used still today. An example would be passive solar design and masonry.

This information will eventually be in a book that I am writing, so stay tuned if this stuff interests you......

Earth Shelter Project earns USDA grant.

The Earth Shelter Project Michigan recently recieved a very generous grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This grant encompasses everything that takes the green house dome and the barn dome off-the-grid.

I will post more later about this, and what it is like to work with the USDA. The project team is very excited about this grant, and very thankful to the USDA for being so generous. Thank you to my fellow grant writers for putting in so much time on this grant.

Also, I would like to welcome VELUX aboard this project. We recently purchased 33 sun tunnels from them and I am currently working with their corporate marketers to bring them up to speed on what we stand for and what the project is about. We have used VELUX products in the past, we just never had the opportunity to get corporate involved. Stay tuned for this exciting news also.