Sustainability and green living leaders show off projects in Green Neighbors Tour
EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- Inspiring Eugene and Springfield residents to go green on any kind of budget, a special summer bike tour series has returned, giving anyone an inside look at what some local residents are doing to lead the way in sustainability.
The 5th Annual Green Neighbors (Not Just) Bike Tours rolled through Eugene’s Friendly Neighborhood in south Eugene on Saturday, August 4th, 2012.
The tour started several years ago as a way for local residents to meet local residents who are leading the charge in sustainable and green living efforts. Each summer, the tour takes several day trips to show off different homes and their unique projects.
One of the homes the tour stopped at on Saturday featured a garden surrounding a home, growing various vegetables and even citrus fruits. The homeowner uses a recycled aluminum fence to help hold the heat in on the plants growing inside.
Tour-goers also took a look at a south Eugene home called the Suncroft House. The home is a net-zero energy house that’s designed to be energy efficient. With solar panels on the roof, the house actually generates more energy than it uses.
The homeowners who live in it don’t use any sort of modern air conditioner cooling technology either. Using cool air from the nighttime, a concrete floor and solid insulation, the top temperature in the home the entire year of 2011 was just 71 degrees Fahrenheit.
"These tours help build cohesion, they help show the best values in life come from people that we often times will just walk right by: our neighbors next door to us! We can share and we can learn and we can grow together and make for a more enriched life at home,” says Doug Black, coordinator of the Green Neighbors (Not Just) Bike Tour.
The Green Neighbor tours continue through August and early September and are free to attend. Participants don’t need to have a bike either to do it. Tours will look at several other different places in the Bethel, South University, Santa Clara neighborhoods and more.
For more information on the tours, click the following link: http://eugenesustainability.org/uncategorized/getting-ready-for-the-2012-green-neighbors-not-just-bike-tours-tours-summer/.
For more info on the Suncroft House, click the following link: http://www.suncroft.org/.
