[It's no secret that my fave restaurant in the city is Brooklyn Warehouse (follow them on Twitter @BrooklynHalifax). I've even said, "I’d divorce brownie husband and leave our chocolate chip kids behind if I could marry the menu." The obvious reason for my infatuation with the food is the chef. The not so obvious reason is the ingredients which are locally sourced. Chef Graeme Ruppel was kind enough to stop by the blog to talk about his philosophy.]

Chef Graeme Ruppel: Keep it local!

By Graeme Ruppel

Over the last couple of years, as I moved from a kitchen grunt, unquestionably following the chef’s commands, to becoming a chef myself, I have seen how the decisions we make every day about our food can affect things well beyond the kitchen. We are voting with our dollars here.

When I started in the restaurant industry, if was at one outpost of a chain, where nearly everythingwas brought in frozen, preprocessed, preportioned, precooked…predone. As a sixteen year old kid, with some reactionary right-wing leanings, I thought that this was just how things were done. We were serving a lot of people each day after all.

But as I moved on, went to school, and moved out to Halifax, my view started to shift. I started to realize the importance of training your staff to do the prep work, to make something that was better than what the frozen boxes could offer. And as I got my techniques sorted out, the next step was starting to appear. That of seasonal, local cuisine.

Seasonal, local cuisine is not a new idea. It is the way things have always been, we just lost sight of that when refrigeration came along. The ability to transport, and maintain foods edibility, across long distance is truly a marvel, and has greatly expanded our diet. But it does come at a cost. Probably the best examples are fruit. Where do you think those strawberries you bought in January came from? Chile? Argentina? 8700 kilometers aways, those berries were picked when not even close to ripe, transported in a temperature and gas controlled container to prevent ripening (not spoiling, ripening), and then, upon arrival, the gas mixture is changed, to encourage rapid ripening so that they are ready for the shelves.

Now then. Eat one of those berries, and then wait till August, when the sun is beating down on you and the humidex is set to ‘kill’, find a strawberry plant (if you can find wild strawberries, even better), and bite into one of those. One will taste of the perfect encapsulation of the day, the other like sugar water. Wouldn’t it be worth waiting for those strawberries to be ready, even if it means waiting a full year? Trust me, there are lots of things that you can still eat between now and then.

I would like to present, as a case study, the city of Portland, Maine. In 2006, a report to the Maine Department of Agriculture found that only 4% of Maine’s food was being grown or harvested within Maine. The report also recommended, to ensure a safe supply of food (which is something I haven’t even touched on here) to its citizens, Maine needed to produce 80% of the food consumed there by 2020. Within a few years, Portland, having taken on the challenge, became a culinary hot spot, with one of the highest restaurants per capita in United States (after a recent trip there, I can attest that they were all busy. And it wasn’t even the tourist season yet), and was named as the “Foodiest Small Town” by Bon Appétit in 2009, just 3 years after making local food a serious concern.

And there is a lot of very good food being produced here in Nova Scotia. But not nearly enough of itis consumed within our borders. Everybody needs to be aware and make informed decisions in when they’re shopping. Even when you stop by Sobey’s, take a few extra seconds and find the products that are labelled as “Grown in Nova Scotia”, make sure to visit the farmer’s market, sign up for a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) box and get some weird vegetables and teach yourself how to cook them. Get involved with what you’re eating.

Graeme started in the restaurant field when he was 16, dishwashing at a burger bar for a faceless corporation. After hopping through a few of Edmonton’s other large conglomerates, Graeme decided to actually get good at his work and enrolled at the NAIT School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts. It was during this time that Graeme switched from working for the Man, to working in smaller, owner-operator settings. After completing his schooling and finishing his apprenticeship, Graeme decided to leave his beloved, open prairies for the most drastically different place he could think of: Halifax. It was here that Graeme started his devotion to local and seasonal products; after biting into his first, fresh Annapolis Valley Apple. After a few tumultuous years, Graeme finally found a couple of guys who were as dedicated to giving a damn as he was. And that’s how he came to be the head chef of the Brooklyn Warehouse. Follow chef’s musings.

Photo credit: annethelibrarian from Flickr

[This post was inspired by @trudi_e.]

I think we’ve all been in this scenario. You’ve got a cart full of groceries and are eying the magazines and candy in the check out aisle when you realize you’ve left all your re-usable canvas bags in the car. D’oh! It means you’re either going to get dinged 5 cents a plastic bag or fork out another 99 cents to get more canvas ones (that you’re likely to forget in the car again).

I’m fortunate enough to work around the corner from a Pete’s Frootique. At my workplace I keep at least one canvas bag tucked away in a desk drawer and another in my laptop bag. As a pedestrian and a person who uses public transit as a primary form of transportation, I have to plan such grocery shopping expeditions out in advance. I even use listingly or Evernote to keep track of my grocery and to-do lists.

We like to think that it was granola BC that started the trend of making canvas bags mandatory but, in fact, it was a small town in Manitoba. In fact, it was only a month prior to their policy that San Francisco became the first city in North America to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores.

Even in Europe there’s a 5 cent surcharge for plastic. The difference there, that Cokebaby and I noticed on our last trip in the summer is that they still have a free option of paper bags.  We’ve begun to use our paper NSLC bags for composting. It was only recently that Nova Scotia jumped on the eco-band wagon in terms of canvas bags.

Last week, Cokebaby and I attempted to use our canvas bag at the self-checkout lane and I have to admit this is where it became problematic. I have no issues with the bag-your-own groceries option when it’s for a small amount of groceries (1-2) canvas bags. However, the system doesn’t really seem equipped to handle non-plastic bags. Every second item scanned came up with a “please wait for attendant” notice. I’m not sure if it was the fact that the canvas bag kept slipping from the bag holder or because the weight calibration was off. As much as I think this is a great idea in theory, there are definitely hiccups that need to be worked out for it to not be frustrating.

Now merging canvas bags with other stores, that’s another story altogether. I often get deer-in-headlights stares from the clerks at stores that don’t offer re-usable bags. Sometimes, they attempt to leave the bagging to me. As if the canvas bag is some foreign concept.

What do you think?

[Welcome to another edition of East Coast Guest Posts. Now that Hallowe'en has come and gone, we all know what's on most consumer minds: Christmas. This week, we'll be hearing from guests about shopping "home for the holidays." First up: a word from the Ecology Action Centre.]

By Charlene Boyce

Working at an environmental non-profit organization has several implications for the holiday season. One is that every year I’m challenged to be creatively ‘non-consumer’ with my gift-giving…crafting, re-gifting, baking and researching what folks actually need has become SOP.

But nothing is ever easy. It’s not like I live in a commune of like-minded individuals. I have family who do not speak ‘green’, and don’t understand a used, marked-up book as a sign of love. I also have a nine-year-old daughter, who is perfectly balanced between ‘planet-lover’ and ‘marketer’s-brain-washed-sidekick’. The child devours the Sears Wish Book just as I did at her age, and yet accepts most of the Santa-legend amendments I offer, such as “Santa’s elves are only using recycled materials this year”, and “Santa won’t bring you new toys that he knows you won’t love…so if you don’t get them, it’s because Santa knows you don’t really need them.” Santa’s omniscience is unchallenged as yet…thanks be to the gods of fiscal prudence.

Gold bow

This year my newest green tip (because I am a notorious impulse buyer) is to make a list of stores I want to support and shop at for Christmas and to avoid the others. Despite Wal-Mart’s tremendous green initiatives recently, they aren’t on my short list, because Wal-Mart causes me to suffer ‘shopper’s ADHD’: “I just need thi—oh, there’s that shirt Nancy wan—oh, I need more laundry so…is that a SlapChop?!…oooh, shiny! ”

You get the idea.

I’m looking at boutiques like Woozles and P’lovers, small stores that support local products like Rum Runners, co-op stores like MEC and the Farmer’s Market. If I can make it to Christmas without going in a mall, so much the better for my wallet and spirit. I’m also being a dragon about sticking to my list this year. No buying stuff just because so-and-so, who I had no intention of buying for, might like it.

First run-through the list, though, is to figure out who would love or use something homemade. I’ve started knitting, but the baking won’t happen till there’s snow down to inspire me. Every year I make Christmas bread for several people. My daughter helps me prepare it, from an old family recipe I got from her dad’s mom. This year it will feature red fife wheat, our local Nova Scotia variety. I may add some blueberry preserves (my roommate is the preserves queen, I’m counting on her for guidance.)

Other things working at an ENGO means at Christmas? One, I buy an organic Christmas tree (I work for the Ecology Action Centre, and, full disclosure, we sell them annually); I don’t use regular gift wrap (except sometimes for the child’s gifts, due to the infernal culture machine dictating that for Santa); I do give those who will appreciate it gift memberships or charity donations in their name; and (something most will relate to) I never have enough money to buy everything I want to at Christmas. Non-profit salary means that all my planet-saving measures must also be cost-saving measures…so believe me when I say, if I can afford a green, sustainable Christmas, anyone can!

Charlene Boyce is the Development and Outreach Coordinator for Ecology Action Centre. She’d love to help you find great sustainable gifts for the eco-peeps on your list… like gift memberships or eco-undies!

I’m not the kind of person who usually “wins” anything, particularly out of the blue. I don’t buy lottery tickets or go in on the 50/50 draws at work. So, I don’t really expect random earnings either.

Well, about a month ago I received an e-mail saying I’d been selected to receive a free TASSIMO coffee machine.

Being a sceptic, the first thing I did was search Google for TASSIMO scams.

Hey, for all I knew, it could have been a cleverly disguised Nigerian 419 scam in which I shipped my personal supply of coffee and tea with the guarantee that I’d be swimming in a lifetime supply of caffeine at a later date.

Photo credit: DeaPeaJay from Flickr

In any case, after I was sufficiently satisfied that it wasn’t a scam I gave out my mailing address. About a week later, a huge package arrived at the door. Inside, was not only the coffee machine but a wide range of products from decaf coffee to chai latte to espresso and Starbucks brand coffee.

To be honest, my first impression was that it was a gimmick. The coffee, tea and milk (for lattes and cappuccinos) come in containers called T DISCs. Each T DISC has a bar code that’s read by the machine to pour the “perfect cup.” You simply fill the water filtration container, insert the disc and press a button. Within seconds, there’s a cup of hot beverage waiting to be enjoyed.

It’s almost right out of Star Trek.

Say, “Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.”

And it magically appears.

Almost.

The quality of the beverages ranges in quality, possibly due to personal tastes. For instance, I find the latte milk far too sweet for my liking but the option to add hot water simply made the beverage taste, well, watered down. On the other hand, Starbucks coffee is exactly what I’d get if I ordered a black coffee from Starbucks. The cappuccinos are probably the most impressive of the bunch, particularly if you reverse the order of coffee and milk to create a macchiato (in a clear glass is best so you can see the layers).

The appeal of TASSIMO is in the ease of use. There’s really no mess of grinds involved and cleanup is pretty much as easy as disposing of the T DISC. Our kitchen already includes a coffee & espresso machine, an electric percolator and a French press. Clearly, the company knew what they were doing when they sent this package. Originally, I thought we’d try it out for a little bit and then I’d bring it to work. One month later and it’s still fairly well-used in our house, particularly by Cokebaby who has to work a lot of bizarre shifts.

My one complaint is the packaging. There’s a lot of it and not only does that create waste but it also weighs on my eco-conscience. The T DISCs are plastic and I believe non-recyclable. These, in turn, come packaged in boxes that are encased in more plastic. Does the convenience outweigh the garbage created? I don’t know. Probably not. It’s definitely the one thing I’d ask them to change about the otherwise great system.

I still drink my fair trade coffee and tea from Just Us! but the simplicity of brewing one cup versus one pot certainly has its appeal. For people who are constantly on the go or working in an office without the benefit of a large kitchen and appliances, I can see the real benefit in time and clean-up. It’s certainly not the haute coffee that can be compared to the likes of Kopi Luwak. But I’ve always questioned the validity of drinking something that’s come out of a civet’s rear end.

P.S. For the record: I’m sorry purveyors of Kopi Luwak coffee but, if you’re reading this and thinking of getting in touch to maybe sway my thoughts on the matter by sending freebies, I’m seriously not interested in trying it. Seriously.

Have a happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Hope you enjoyed the special East Coast Guest Posts that have run for Earth Week on the site. If you missed any, you can read them here.

More and more, for me Earth Day is becoming a part of my daily life. I read more books and articles on the subject of greener and sustainable living in order to make changes. One of the things I’ve learned in the past year is that mercury is floating around in things that should really be of greater concern.

In our food just take a look at reports about fish and warnings for pregnant women and small children in particular to not consume particular types of fish too frequently. Perhaps it’s a good argument for veganism, but for those who aren’t willing/able/interested in taking that route, I recently discovered the Blue Ocean Institute FishPhone: a sustainable fish information service. You can send a phone text to 30644 with the message FISH (in all caps) followed by the type of fish you want to know about and it’ll fire back sustainability and health info on that species for free. Choosing the eco-friendliest seafood options just became  easier than ever. Check it out now using this cool little widget:

And next is makeup. MERCURY IN MASCARA!? It’s true. The Environmental Working Group’s researchers in the United States list the products and ingredients you should avoid in What Not to Buy. Check out my article at Halifax Retro on going green with cosmetics and toiletries. Remember, this new site is looking for community members to blog, vlog, and podcast about their sustainable living opinions, issues and ideas. Contact staff [at] halifaxretro [dot] ca for more details.

In the meantime, do you have any Earth Day resolutions?

[This next Earth Week post comes from @myogis on Twitter who's running the Halifax Geophotwography contest with me until the end of the month. If you're interested in winning great eco-books from Random House of Canada, check out the details on the Halifax Tweetup wiki.]

By Michelle Yogis

OK…I knew I was going to write this guest post for about a month now and though I did think about it in earnest and had great intentions to write it early…this past month was extremely busy with work, turning 40 and various tweet-ups. In a way I feel that it is fitting that I procrastinated in writing this post for “EARTH WEEK” since the whole idea behind “EARTH WEEK” seems to be one that 99.9999% of us in the ‘civilized’ world are late to the party for. We can recycle our cans/bottles, separate our garbage and buy hybrid vehicles all we want but it’s kind of like giving someone with a debilitating migraine an aspirin as we hammer away at our next project.

Mother Earth has been very upset with us (see natural disasters becoming more prevalent)….and well she should be! The human race has walked this planet for thousands of years and in the last three generations we have brought it to the brink. We are a society of convenience. I don’t think about where/how the electricity that I use to run my computer or turn on my lights comes from…just that it is there when I want it. We buy coffee at local coffee shops (you may have gone through the drive-thru), get take-out food in Styrofoam containers and buy things that are over packaged. And, yet, just one week each year we are asked to think about it. We don’t want to think about it, however, because at this stage of the game it is a freakin’ mess and it is sad to think that the ones who must do the bulk of the clean-up are still in diapers and/or not yet conceived.

Photographed at the 2009 Washington DC Auto Show

I read a quotation on Twitter the other day (and I should have saved it in my “fav quotes’ folder”, ‘cause now I’ll get it wrong and not give proper credit where credit is due) which said that “taking a step forward is not progress when you are standing at the edge of a cliff.” It’s time to save the future by stepping back and ask…”where can I start?” In a way…we have started but there is a mountain to be moved and sometimes I think it would be easier to build a time machine so we can go back 50-70 years or so and start people thinking about what has become our reality. If necessity is the mother of invention then we should see ‘greener’ products available for all aspects of life. Oh, wait, they are available now…they’re just cost prohibitive! Perhaps a place to start is for business to offer less choice of environmentally unfriendly products in order to boost the sales and bring the costs down on the products that are friendlier! Get rid of the Hummer and mass produce the Volt! (maybe that will save GM)

In the meantime….think about “EARTH WEEK” as being every week. Traditional media doesn’t offer the gloom and doom stories much in any other week. Let’s face it, stories about the environment are scary these days. Though we shouldn’t become ‘doomsday’ believers, we should keep an eye on what’s going on. You can do this by reading articles posted on the web (like this study) or by following sites like @greenbizdaily on Twitter.

FYI…tomorrow I’m using my travel mug again when I get my coffee.

Michelle Yogis is an inventory manager, starting up a skin-care line with a friend (still working on it), a just-for-fun singer/songwriter who wishes to improve guitar skills!

[This next Earth Week post comes from the team behind Halifax Retro, a new blog about sustainable living. I've pitched in to put together a site that will launch soon and we're looking for content from the community.  If you're interested in blogging, vlogging, or podcasting on a semi-regular basis, get in touch with the team at staff (at) halifaxretro (dot) ca or DM me on Twitter. In the meantime, here's a piece from the founders of the project.]

By Adam Costello & Jackie Howatt

Up until the last year or so, we lived a pretty basic life. Like so many people, we were living through the usual capitalist gains you’d see of a typical young urbanite couple trying to work their way up the ranks in society. Value tended to be distributed rather trivially.

It wasn’t until a momentary lapse in reason became a fork in an otherwise oblivious road – the knowledge we thought we had about the world, suddenly became shrouded in darkness.

We came to the conclusion last year, that to become one with the “real” world, we needed to look past the smoke and mirror puppet show of the “fake” world, spoon-fed to us on a daily basis. What we found after taking a closer look was a nightmare of information wars which we continue to battle through today.

A whirlwind of facts and figures, schemes and deceit, mixed with the ignorance of the general public who together could help, but alone are quietly being numbed. Documentaries, internet sites, activist groups, are all trying to show us things that most would quickly want to forget rather than fight: our food is genetically engineered, with small businesses and farmers getting slowly conquered by evil corporate empires; poor animals are being abused, used or obliterated into extinction; our air is becoming un-breathable, water un-drinkable; population, temperatures and oceans are slowly rising above our maintainable limits, yet, does anyone care? Or a better question, what are we supposed to do if we do care?

We might not be able to do anything, but damned if we don’t try. The catalyst for these “enlightened” perspectives we’ve stumbled upon was spawned from our weekly visits to the Halifax Farmers’ Market. The tight-knit network and symbiotic atmosphere of supporting local producers of our local seasonal crops inspired a change in us to try and live more for the earth, and not just on it. And being former editors of our school newspaper, it felt natural for us to share our process of bettering our ways with anyone who would listen. With so many people entering the beginner’s stage of bridging the gap between living their chosen lifestyles, and being a more conscientious consumer, there is still time.

We made the obvious changes: started recycling more, stopped eating mammals and ate more organic foods, however, we still asked ourselves what more could we do? We drew on our experience and passions, and decided to start a publication called Halifax Retro. We wanted to document our environmental learning curve, and hoped people would contribute and want to learn with us. We published a few physical editions before we realized that there was a more environmentally conducive way to reach people, which of course, would be the internet.

The development of our environmental project, Halifax Retro, influenced and subsequently altered how we viewed the world around us. We drew inspiration from a time when the natural world was cherished rather than exploited; a time when Aboriginal people had a lasting relationship with Mother Nature before Europeans thought they could own her…and them. It evoked a strong need for us to experience a closer bond with not only nature itself, but to learn from those who were already living as soundly with nature as possible, and enjoying the fruits of doing so.

Photo credit: Vitó from Flickr

A few months into our Halifax Retro endeavour, we decided that the best way to fulfil these new goals without severely up heaving our entire lives would be to step away from our full-time jobs as minions to the corporate world (even if we were going back eventually), and volunteer through a notable organization called WWOOF (WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms). This would allow us to live directly on an organic farm, with the owners and other “wwoofers” alike, learning from the ground up how to do everything one would need to live a completely sustainable lifestyle. And what better place to do it in than in one of the world’s leading centres in the race to creating a sustainable world – Europe.

And so it began, and we’re now leaving in less than two months. We are going to live on organic farms for around three weeks in each Greece and Norway and perhaps the Netherlands as well (and have some fun along the way over the three months we’ll be gone). We also hope to write articles about different sustainable actions being taken in some of the countries over there, for we will be visiting a lot of them, and document our travels via our website.

From deciding which vegetables to plant, plus how to harvest, preserve, and share with the local communities they serve (most sell at their local farmers’ markets), we are hoping to build a foundation in our journey toward building something similar back home. By volunteering, we’ll learn everything about running an organic farm, while attaining valuable life lessons we couldn’t get by working a nine to five desk job.

We’ve become so displaced from the reality of our existence on the planet that in this day and age we truly believe that we have control over nature, the resources it emits, and the future in general. With all of the ecological changes we’ve seen in the past decade and the seemingly ensuing natural disasters like the recent Italian earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami of Indonesia, or even Hurricane Juan here in Halifax, it’s important for us to have a more hands on approach when it comes to food production, and to respect the earth while we do so.

By becoming more local in our ways, we rely on transportation less (and utilize less fuel), enrich our local workforce so we are supporting our local economy (and thus empowering small local businesses), and have an actual line of sight on what is going into our food, water, animals, land, etc.

After all is said and done, and we have completed our volunteering process in Europe, we hope to open our own barnyard doors up to future Wwoofers who wish to learn more about sustainability and the benefits of organic agriculture. After all, it’s in the Wwoofers moral code to keep the learning cycle alive to ensure progress – an unwritten rule, if you will.

Adam Costello graduated from Saint Mary’s University with a double major in philosophy and English. An editor of the Saint Mary’s student newspaper, The Journal, for three years, he currently does freelance writing for several different publications and freelance publishing for a number of businesses.

Jackie Howatt graduated from Saint Mary’s University with a double major in marketing and entrepreneurship, minor in English. An editor of the Saint Mary’s University student newspaper, The Journal, for three years, she is also the founder of Scribe Business Solutions, an organization that helps small business.

[This next East Coast Guest Post comes from a very special friend with whom I shared the joy of a book called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. If you haven't read it and really want to get serious about growing your own food, I highly recommend this book.  And now, without further ado:]

By Tracy Bennett

Earth Week in my world can mean a few different things. My kids usually want to pick up garbage around the neighborhood or turn the lights out and “do” earth hour everyday. Unless they are feeling contrary and decide to ignore it and me all together.

As a family, we already do most of the little things that we are supposed to do to reduce our impact on our home planet. Every week is earth week around here. Changing our bad habits was pretty easy. Changing all the products we used was easy. Buying less crap was pretty easy. Changing how we thought about recreation and family time was easy.

Now, this next thing that we want to do…it might not be so easy…we want to grow some of our own food in a meaningful way.

I used to live in Vancouver and had a friend who said that the definition of an optimistic person was an “East Coast gardener.” Admittedly, our growing season is short but you can still grow enough food to make an impact at your table. My grandparents used to grow a tremendous amount of food in their family garden. I can still remember running my hands through the sacks full of dried beans and their beautiful colours.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks from Flickr

Earth week just happens to fall on the perfect time of year to get your own little veggie garden organized. Seriously. You put in a garden. You grow some food. Your kids learn to be more connected to where their food comes from. Sure, maybe you already go to the market for local food or direct to farmers in the valley and you should. But come on, get your hands dirty and put a little effort of your own into it.

Last year, I tried growing some food and started really small. I tried to grow a few veggies and herbs and I planted some berries and a couple of fruit trees. Some things grew, some things didn’t but I learned enough to try a proper little garden this year.

So, this week I’m making raised beds, putting them in a sunny place and filling it with some good soil and compost. Planting seeds is easy. Just read the packets and plant them. Literally. You will be amazed.

If you aren’t convinced, think about something as simple as garlic. You likely buy garlic from the grocery store. It’s all shipped here from China. Garlic is a lovely little bulb that will grow in any garden as easily as a tulip. Truly. You stick them in the ground in the fall in a sunny spot and that’s it. Harvest them in July or August. Do we really need to ship garlic here from China? Herbs…just grow them and either freeze them or dry them. Last year I grew just two small pots of mint on my front steps and had amazing, free and chemical free mint tea all winter.

The simple act of getting involved in the production of your own food even in a small way, will cause a fundamental shift in how you think about and plan for the food you need to live. This week, plant something you can eat!

Tracy is living a harmonious, happy, mindful life on planet earth, raising two enlightened kids and running Firefly Digital Media company with her husband.

[For Earth Week this year I've lined up a number of East Coast Guest Posts to discuss a variety of topics. Cokebaby and I purchased a 1950's bungalow style a few years back and have been going through the process of upgrading the place to be a bit more environmentally sound. This first guest post looks at the trials of creating a "green" house from scratch.]

By Jeff White

For the past year my wife and I have been working through the process of designing and building an ecologically-friendly home for our family. I’ve been blogging about it since September or so at Building the White House (side note: cute blog names like this just ensure you end up with a ton of bounced traffic when people are looking for the real White House).

We bought our property in a fantastic community called Three Brooks. It’s a very natural area, and the people who live there pride themselves on living in harmony with nature. There are rules about tree cutting and landscaping needs to be kept as natural as possible. Awesome.

The lot is defined by natural rock outcroppings, mature aspens, spindly birches, tons of huge boulders and a ridge on the right side. We’ve been wanting to build a passive solar house for years, ever since we spent a few hours in a friend’s Don Roscoe-designed and built house.

For those who don’t know, passive solar houses don’t use any active solar systems like solar panels or heaters. Instead, they do their best to face true south (about 20 odd degrees off magnetic south). Construction materials are generally shifted from a traditional home so that you don’t have a basement, most of your glazing faces south, and you might have an air recirculation system to distribute warm air throughout the house. The south face of the house uses overhangs to ensure that you capitalize on winter sun while keeping the house cool in the summer. It’s a brilliant model because presumably you’re just rearranging the standard materials, which shouldn’t cost too much more than a normal house, right?

Think again.

First of all, no ‘normal’ builders even have a clue how to do this. Ask the Ramars and Scotian Homes of the world about this and you’ll just be greeted by a blank stare. They’ll recommend R2000, but this standard is totally different and takes the opposite approach to passive solar. It uses active systems and a super tight envelope. Which generally means that you’ll need a specialty builder. Add some serious costs for this.

Secondly, most builders don’t get the passive idea and will try to push an active system on you for secondary heating. Which isn’t a bad idea, just in case something goes wrong. You know, if the sun ever fails.

Design © 2008 Monica Sweetapple

Since normal builders don’t understand the process, you’ll need an architecturally designed house. This has substantial costs as well. House designers and architects we spoke with have professional fees of $10,000 – $100,000. This is on top of your construction, your lot, permits and everything else. In addition, insurance companies don’t understand passive solar so they have a hard time quoting on it.

But, isn’t the government offering rebates for new home builders to design and build more energy efficient homes? Sure they are! If you build a house and achieve an Energuide rating of 83 you can get a whopping $750! Wow, that should help buy a few cases of whiskey to get through the stress of spending this much money.

You’re actually better off renovating an existing house than building new, at least as far as the government rebates go. When I spoke to someone at Conserve Nova Scotia he told me that it was irresponsible to build a new house if the old one wasn’t energy efficient enough. It’s no wonder that builders have no incentive to build in a green way. There’s absolutely nothing in it for them.

Until our government sees the importance of building new houses in an eco-friendly way, new homes are going to continue to go up with insufficient insulation, poor lot siting (even a change of 30 degrees in position means the loss of 75% of passive solar value!), and inefficient heating sources. Sure, geothermal and solar panels are coming down in price, but you can still expect 20+ years before the costs of these systems start to pay for themselves. This is no incentive for those on moderate budgets–unless you’ve got unlimited funds, most of us will continue to build normal houses that aren’t very efficient.

Is there a bright side in this? Absolutely. More and more people are looking to green building technologies. However, most are going to find that it’s simply not worth it at this point in time. As much as I love the idea of building green, my wallet simply can’t support it. The industry has no interest in making progress in this way, and the government isn’t offering realistic incentives to help people make the switch.

While it’s gotten easier in the last few years to buy energy efficient vehicles, it’s very difficult at this time to truly take advantage of green heating and construction for your home. Until this becomes less of a niche market for green materials and processes, I don’t think we’ll see much progress in this area.

We need to start lobbying the government for better incentives. Until more people start buying solar panels, residential windmills and geothermal units, the prices will remain high. New home buyers also need to pressure their builders to consider greener building procedures and they need to educate themselves on the benefits of passive solar building. Once this happens, we’ll be on a much better path to saving the earth from us.

Jeff is the founder and president of Brightwhite Design, a boutique interface design and development shop, located in Halifax. A veteran designer and social media participant, Jeff brings nearly 15 years of pragmatic experience to numerous clients from small and medium companies to public sector and multi-national corporations.

Photo credit: George McFinnigan from Wikimedia

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and over on the dog blog Tofu is celebrating being “green” in an altogether other way while Cokebaby and I sneak out for a pint on our day off. So, please head on over to Who’s Your Dachshund? for an adorable picture of Tofu and your daily dose of cuteness.