This month has been busy finishing off the cob woodworking shop and preparing for the construction of the house. As our little cob workshop is finished its beauty is continually motivating and inspiring us. The living roof has been planted mostly by plant donations from the Victoria Native Plant Study Group who came out for a sunny fall day of planting. Check out http://www.npsg.ca/. The electrical is in, the floor is ready for linseed oil, and interior walls are almost finished being plastered. The woodstove keeps the little building very cozy. This is a place we like to be, and almost everyone who sees it is inspired opening their eyes to other possibilities.

Those who are not inspired exist too. “Why are you doing this?” “Now I’ve seen everything!” These are the words from the electrical inspector during his first visit with us and our electrician Mike. We gave him a short explanation of climate change and how our little sustainable green home is part of the solution. Eyes rolled! By the time he left he was starting to warm up to us but was still pessimistic when he learned of our plans to do a grid-intertie with BC Hydro’s net metering program (initiated in 2004) and commented, “Good luck” while rolling the eyes once again. His entrenched philosophies of power usage and conventional housing were being challenged.

The media plays a role in disseminating and “gate-keeping” information to/from the public. Cindy Harnett in her coverage of the C-FAX forum on climate change for the Times Colonist roasted a panelist for his suggestion that beef production was a major contributor to GHG’s, calling it farcical without doing any of her own research to validate her comments. Many individuals including Cindy Harnett are entrenched in the belief that GHG’s are more caused from cars than any other source.

Entrenched ideas on behalf of any individual are roadblocks to the solutions. For climate change there are multiple solutions ranging from political, regulatory, economic, scientific, and personal. Our belief is that oil is not the biggest cause to GHG emissions and climate change… it is our propensity to consume oil that is the problem. Oil in the ground is not a problem…the fact that carbon in the ground is not in the air is what makes our planet habitable to land animals in the first place.

The British government just released a 700 page report detailing the economic impact of climate change authored by Sir Nicholas Stern, a distinguished development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank. Stern says “our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century”.

Sir Nicholas Stern goes on to discuss the economic realities between acting now, later, or not at all. Any rational human being who reads this report could see that it is imperative to act now and the economics dictate so. There is a far greater economic cost not to act…even in our lifetimes. It’s interesting, or perhaps pathetic, that this report based on the economics of climate change has gained so much more publicity and support than the similar reports that quantify climate change in lost lives/species/biodiversity. Our society has spoken… again entrenched beliefs that economics comes before all else.

If we stay entrenched in individualism and consumerism we will always create a self destructive society. The changes necessary are not easy and the timeframes required are tough, but our history has shown that we are capable of such massive shifts virtually overnight as in the case of war. As George Monbiot said in his article on Sir Nicholas Stern’s report, “If you believe that these (economic changes) are worse than mass death then there is something wrong with your value system.”
We suggest that entrenched views of our ways of living need to be dug open, laid bare and new infrastructure buried to create new beginnings, kind of like we have been doing here. We have spent five days digging our trenches for our infrastructure, by hand, no fossil fuels here. Sixteen yards of rocks and clay lay open for the new sustainable infrastructure. Our electrical wires for wind, solar, grid intertie and pumps, well water pipes, grey water pipes, rain water pipes, irrigation pipes and septic pipes (to pass inspection). We have even planned an electrical hook up for our future electric car.
Gord has picked up the shovel as a demonstration of what can be accomplished without machines. It is not only healthier for the environment but we are becoming BUFF. Five days of work accomplishes the same as two days of small scale excavating, a cost of $850 before tax. The additional income required to cover this would have been five days. Do the math. Gord would have sat for five days behind a computer to pay someone else to dig the trenches, creating GHG’s, and being loud and destructive. Gord “back-hoe Baird” versus the excavator. He chose to be at home with his family in the fresh air listening to the ospreys overhead instead.
Many people who visit our site are amazed at what we have accomplished and are interested in the finances. They all ask if we have had any government or other funding, major donations, or supplier donations? Everyone assumes we have, but sadly, the answer is nope. There are not even any tax incentives to build green…our governments should be ashamed. Sara Cassidy, who interviewed us for her article in Focus Magazine, is very interested in this and in particular the bureaucratic hurdles that the individual faces when attempting to build sustainably. All the green building grants are set up for property developers, and non profits. We are not a business, an NGO, nor other such entity. We are however in the largest group of individuals; simply a family building a home in keeping with our values. Our goal, when the home is built, it to make a basic income from education, tours, workshops, and green building consulting. But for now…no income! We have been living off savings to build the home and will need the sale of the Wise Island property in order to fully complete the project. This Wise Island cabin also has a large mortgage that comes due in February…should be fun to renew without employment. We walk the talk, and we are serious.
This month has seen us quite disturbed by the climate science and economic reports painting gloomy pictures if we don’t address these issues globally and immediately. We are so disappointed in our own countries lack of action. Yet, ironically, we feel more justified in our own path with the mainstream press finally reporting on the science and realities facing the planet. We would like to leave you with a couple ideas towards some solutions.
Think about everything you buy from food to gadgets. Could you buy them locally? Do you really need it? Would you support tax shifting to make local more affordable and imported things more expensive? Would this help create more local jobs? This is a start and it doesn’t mean more taxes, just a shift in taxes. If you support local products your taxes would actually go down. If you support green energy products your taxes would go down. Taxes would only go up for large scale consumers of imported stuff.
In keeping with our values we decided to make some things rather than buy them. The first was a birthday gift of a handmade arbutus slingshot crafted by Gord for our son Parker (now a source of much fun). Howie crafted a very special door for the cob workshop from used cedar from the old Port Moody sundeck, old plywood from the family ping pong table (that doubled as a table at Christmas dinners), and incorporated some left over cedar shingles that friends dropped off. To top it all off rather than buying a door handle and latch assembly, Howie took a piece of Arbutus firewood and proceeded in making a completely functional and wooden system. Now this is what memories are made of… and if we had not been trying to change our entrenched habits we would have missed out on these joys.
That’s it for this month and as always we appreciate your comments, feedback, and suggestions.
Ann and Gord

Red Tape Snares Green Dreams: Bureaucracies simply aren’t prepared for people seeking alternatives

Vancouver Sun
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Page: C8
Section: Weekend Review
Byline: Larry Pynn
Dateline: VICTORIA
Source: Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA - Gord Baird, 37, looks at his shed-cum-office and compost-based outhouse, both made from recycled materials, and jokes that his wife Ann has “made a dumpster diver out of me.”

The words are not meant as a slight but a recognition of Baird’s evolution from the successful owner of a Victoria auto body shop owner to something of a celebrity in the world of so-called “off-grid” home construction that relies on solar and wind energy as well as features such as rainwater collection systems.

For the record, the Bairds haven’t even started their cob house — a centuries-old construction method employing straw, clay and sand — but have already been the subject of stories in local community newspapers, a national CBC radio feature, even a segment on Peak Moment TV in the U.S.

“Are we going backwards?” Gord asks of their creative, continuing project. “No, we’re going forward.”

All the attention is a reflection of just how curious people have become about living off-grid in a world increasingly defined by the cost of heating and lighting.

The Bairds met two years ago over the Internet — his computer powered by BC Hydro, hers by solar panels.

Today, they are only half-way through their first project — a cob workshop — but have ambitions of moving into their two-storey, 2,100-square-foot cob home in about a year.

Accompanying them will be Gord’s two children from a previous marriage — Parker, 8, and Emily, 6 — their dog, Boo, and Ann’s parents, Merrily and Howie Chadderton, who sold their home in Port Moody to invest in their daughter’s great sustainable adventure.

“We roll with the punches,” Merrily allows from the doorstep of her trailer, one of two serving as interim accommodation for the extended family during construction. “This is home now.”

The Bairds live on three hectares of land purchased in rural Highlands near Victoria for $385,000 in February, a lovely rolling forest of arbutus and Douglas firs overseen by soaring bald eagles and turkey vultures.

The south-facing house will cost about $150,000 to build, 85 per cent of the work handled by the Bairds.

Even though the couple have yet to build their home, they’ve already had their share of negative bureaucratic experiences associated with such an unconventional construction project.

The couple had to put in a $30,000 septic system, even though they won’t use it. They will have to install far more electrical outlets than needed for a family that plans to minimize their electrical use. And they complain that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Net Zero Energy Healthy Housing Initiative is for developers of “affordable, energy-and resource-efficient housing” but does not apply to homeowners.

Still, the couple soldiers on, confident they can set a practical, sustainable example for mankind. They figure they won’t be giving up any comforts — at least none they can’t do without — and will actually have more leisure time because they won’t have to earn money to pay for unnecessary energy-gobbling gadgets.

Getting there won’t be cheap: the couple expects to pay about $30,000 for six 125-watt solar panels and a wind-turbine system. “What of the hidden environmental costs?” counters Ann, 39, referring to the damage caused by society relying on everything from hydro reservoirs to coal-burning plants to create electricity.

Technically, the Bairds will still be connected to the BC Hydro grid, taking power as needed to recharge their solar batteries, but also returning to the grid more of their own excess energy during sunny or windy periods — all made possible through Hydro’s net-metering program.

“The way we’ve designed the system, we’ll use more power when there is more power,” Ann confirms. “If it’s windy, that’s when we’ll pull out the vacuum cleaner.”

In theory, Hydro will cut the couple a cheque each year for being net energy providers.

Education is also part of what drives the Bairds, who are so enthusiastic they are prone to verbally trip over each other, one starting a sentence and the other finishing it off. The couple have also sponsored a seminar on cob home construction and maintain their own website, www.islandnet.com/~anngord.

The B.C. Sustainable Energy Association (www.bcsea.org) has also been a source of helpful information, acting as a referral agencies for people looking to get at least partly off the grid (especially in areas prone to power outage) or who live on remote islands or far-flung corners of B.C. not served by the hydro grid.

“The Bairds are extraordinary people doing a wonderful thing,” association coordinator Peter Ronald said. “They have hydro on their property. They just don’t want it!”

Ronald noted that British Columbians, as an option to expensive solar panels, might consider installation of an array of vacuum tubes that use solar energy to heat their hot water tanks. They cost $6,000 to $12,000, depending on the size required, with a payback period of 10 to 15 years. Visit solarbc.org for more information.

Individuals living in remote communities often rely, reluctantly, on diesel generators as their power source.

That changed in May at Kyuquot, a village of 180 natives on northwestern Vancouver Island, when Synex Energy Resources Ltd. did what BC Hydro had not: The private company laid a $3.8-million cable across 46 kilometres of land and water connecting with the hydro grid at another small reserve, Oclucje.

Kyuquot band manager Kevin Head describes the change as bittersweet. The band’s cost of electricity will drop, marginally, to 35 cents per kilowatt hour from the 38 cents paid to provide diesel. There is also the measurable benefit of no more pollution and noise from the generator.

On the other hand, Head remains miffed that BC Hydro charges residential customers elsewhere, including Oclucje, only about six cents per kilowatt hour.

“We are totally opposed to paying such high rates,” he said.

lpynn@png.canwest.com