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2 forwarded sust-mar messages:
Daniel MacKay: making homes environmentally responsible
Roger Davies: sourcing environmetally responsible building materials
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel.MacKay@Dal.Ca (Daniel MacKay)
Subject: Re: Environmentally-Friendly Homes
Graham Smith asks:
>Is there a contact that any of you would recommend for advice on ways to
>make homes as environmentally friendly as possible?
Hello from Solar Nova Scotia, the solar/alternative energy information,
education and advocacy group for east coast Canada.
Our web page is at
http://chebucto.ns.ca/Technology/SolarNS/
We hold regular courses on designing low-energy-use homes particularly
suited to our climate; the next one starts on Feb. 8th; I'll send you the
details under separate cover.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write back.
--
Daniel MacKay
Secretary, Solar NS
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Roger Davies" <daisies@chebucto.ns.ca>
Subject: Sourcing eco-friendly building materials
Sourcing eco-friendly building materials in the Maritimes
Let's have a discussion of what is available, and what needs to be
available, to make eco-friendly building more of a viable alternative to
mainstream depletion resource practice.
I'd like to do this because I'm going through a frustrating experience of
trying to source, at a "somewhat!" viable cost, alternative 4 by 8 panels
for eco-friendly boatbuilding projects. There are panels out there made
from straw, rye grass, bamboo left-overs, newspapers and soy, to name a few,
with non-toxic binders, but damn if we can get them here for less than a
king's ransom: here is the scoop-to bring in six rye grass ¼ panels from
Oregon will cost $80 per panel , before any duty gets levied, to go to
Kent's you can pick up a panel made from Meranti from devastated forests in
Malaysia and the Philipines, shipped halfway around the world and put into
Kent's economic structure and marketed at less than $10! There is something
so incredibly horrid and unbelievable about this, the nightmare of
globalization where real living wages and environmental "costs' mean nothing
in the equation.
Another problem seems to be a lack of interest on the part of some
producers. A straw-based panel is made in Western Canada but I can't seem
to get them interested in opening up a market for their product here.
So, what to do? Those buying wood here can recycle -there are some outlets
in Halifax selling used building materials, and/or buy from our wonderful
eco-harvested woodlot operations, to name two:
Ron Loucks' Maple Creek Farm http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/ron.loucks/
Jim Dresher's Windhorse Farm http://www.windhorsefarm.org/
What about sources for non-toxic paints and other coatings? Fibres?
Eco-quarrying?
We need to share what we know and then consider a co-op for power buying.
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The preceding message was posted on Sustainable Maritimes (sust-mar)
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