Welcome to
the
Eco-Village
at Sirius Community
This Page under construction
Update from the Eco-Village
Office
The Eco-Village Office is up and running having
received a healthy seed of funds from our recent combined associate member
and ecovillage fundraiser mailing. A total of $4980.00 has been received
to date from 26 contributors with the ecovillage office share being $3675.00.
Thank you all so very much for your generous contributions!
Our first wave of interns are nearing completion
of their projects and have been a wonderful asset to our work. Brian, from
Hampshire College, ran some figures the other day that show that: The amount
of forest needed to offset the pollution caused by the electricity consumed
at Sirius amounts to about 9 acres. We are in the process of determining
the "ecological footprint" of all our activities. This is a pilot
project for a ecological auditing tool for intentional communities and ecovillages
(and eventually any human settlement).
Carin has been producing working drawings of the
840 sg. ft. solar greenhouse that is to be built on the Community Center.
The foundation is there and just awaits the funds and time to complete it.
Carin is going through a complete analysis of the design including solar
gain, heat storage, and heating load. She is also looking at glazing options
and south wall design. There is talk about including an aquaculture tank
in the greenhouse and growing tilapia fish for harvest. Carin is also about
to unleash a survey on the Sirius membership tracking their transportation
use patterns and modes. This will also be turned into a "footprint".
We are recruiting more interns - hoping to have
as many as 6 by the summer time. One of the interns will be helping to research
the issues involved with installing our wind generators. Others will continue
the ecological footprinting project, solar greenhouse design, and research
into hydrogen energy systems. Arrangements have been made to trade 16 person-days
of carpentry for a 1800 Watt wind generator and Tower worth over $3000.
This will compliment our existing machine and will work nicely into the
community-wide renewable electricity backup system that we have planned.
Feel free to stop by the office sometime. Call
413-259-1254 or email me at clrwater@valinet.com and I'll be glad to meet
with you and show you what we are up to!
-Jeff Clearwater, Eco-Village Office Focalizer
413-259-1254
|