Tonight is the fifth in Golden Real Estate’s Sustainability Series. Previous sessions were about home insulation (January), home heating technology (February), solar power (March), and electric cars (April).
This month, the topic is sustainable renovation. Our presenter is an expert in sustainable practices when it comes to home renovation. His name is Steve Stevens, and he has been my mentor regarding sustainable practices for nearly two decades.
A retired scientist from Bell Labs, Steve has made a lifelong project, it seems, out of reducing the carbon footprint of his 1970s brick ranch in South Golden.
Retired and living on a fixed income, he has developed several habits/practices that are not only sustainable but also have saved him a boatload of money.
For example, he only buys cull lumber from Lowe’s, and he buys returned products (typically mis-ordered) such as windows and doors, which are then sold for a fraction of their original price.
Steve also seeks out salvaged goods such as windows and doors. As with buying cull lumber and returned products, collecting salvaged products means zero new carbon footprint for doing your renovation.
Steve, being a scientist by training and passion, always considers the embedded carbon footprint of products, whether it’s food or building materials. How much energy is used to transport the goods you purchase? For example, are you buying slab granite mined and shipped from Asia, or an alternative material mined or created closer to home?
Steve will share his shopping and construction tips that save money and are also sustainable.
For example, he emphasizes insulation, which should always be your first measure when it comes to saving energy. But what products should you buy, and where should you start?
The session will be held tonight, May 16th, from 5 to 6 pm in the Golden Real Estate office at 17695 S. Golden Road, Golden. There are still seats available. Reserve yours by emailing me at Jim@Golden RealEstate.com.
Each of our sessions is video recorded by our friend, Martin Voelker, from the Colorado Renewal Energy Society. You can watch videos of the first four sessions at Sustain-abilitySeries.info. This session will also be recorded and posted there.
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