Meet Lisa, Megan and Jacob!

We're excited to welcome three new staff to Yestermorrow this month.

Lisa Barnes joins us as a Kitchen Assistant. Lisa is a certified natural chef, trained in therapeutic cooking through Bauman College. She brings a passion for healthy cooking into the kitchen along with a repertoire of home grown recipes and knowledge of the nutrition behind them. She truly believes that a healthy body is a happy one.

Jacob Mushlin is one of our new Design/Build Interns. Jacob grew up in Hartland, VT where much of his childhood was spent building dams in streams and making awesome things out of cardboard. He studied architecture, design and studio art at various schools and has spent most of his professional life working for educational institutions and in carpentry. He brings with him a banjo, a road bike, and a clandestine interest in knitting.

Megan McNally is also one of our new Design/Build Interns. In 2008, Megan embarked on a self directed crash course in home repair by buying a fixer-upper in the annual tax foreclosure auction in her hometown of Buffalo, NY. Upon graduating with her undergrad degree in Environmental Policy this past May, Megan has pursued additional education in alternative methods of construction by working on various jobsites across the country. As well as taking classes and doing general intern stuff like shoveling snow, Megan hopes to learn guitar, read lots and lots and lots of books, and be master of snow football during her time at Yestermorrow.

Meet the rest of our staff and intern crew on our website at:
http://www.yestermorrow.org/staff-interns/

BuildingGreen Suite™ special deal

We are excited once again to offer a special opportunity to friends of Yestermorrow -- discounted annual subscriptions to the BuildingGreen Suite™ for only $50! The normal retail price for this subscription is $199.00 and this offer is available only through a special bulk buy program if together we have more than 25 subscriptions. This program is not limited specifically to Yestermorrow so if you have friends or colleagues that you think would be interested as well, please spread the word!

The BuildingGreen Suite™ (www.buildinggreen.com) of online tools gives you the best information on green design in a subscription-based Web site format. This online resource features comprehensive, practical information on a wide range of topics related to sustainable building--from energy efficiency and recycled-content materials to land-use planning and indoor air quality.

BuildingGreen Suite™ online membership keeps you abreast of developments and trends in the green building field. BuildingGreen Suite™ will help you become a leader in the field by providing you access to the following:

• 2,000+ GreenSpec® product listings—updated weekly
• The latest news in green building
• In-depth sustainable design strategies
• 275+ case studies of high-performance buildings
• Hundreds of practice-oriented articles
• Continuing education hours & learning events.
• 70% off a print subscription to Environmental Building News

BuildingGreen Suite subscribers can also access the EBN print resources at a substantial discount.

HOW TO SIGN UP:

Once we have your money in hand ($50 per person) we will get a list of activation codes which we will distribute to everyone who is taking advantage of this great Yestermorrow/EBN offer and you'll be able to choose your own user name and password. If you have a current Building Green subscription, and want to use this offer to renew/extend your subscription, that's fine too.

If you're interested please email me so I can get your name on the list, and send a check made out to Yestermorrow to Monica's attention, or call with a credit card number. This is a limited time offer- after November 1st we will likely not be putting together another bulk subscription this year.

If you need me to send you an official invoice for your office record-keeping purposes, just let me know.

Please get in touch if you have any questions,

Monica DiGiovanni
Student Services Coordinator
monica@yestermorrow.org

Win a Hand-Crafted Kayak!

Partake in the 2010 Winter Raffle. For just $10 a ticket or 6 tickets for $50, you can win a hand-crafted kayak built by Yestermorrow students and teacher Hilary Russell and support Yestermorrow.

This lightweight boat is strong, handles beautifully, and is elegant in its craftsmanship.

You can see photographs, get specifications, and buy raffle tickets online at http://www.yestermorrow.org/kayak-raffle/ or come by the Yestermorrow lobby to see it in person.

You can purchase your tickets online through our secure donation site. You must specify “kayak raffle” in the memo line and include your contact information so we can get in touch with you, if you are the lucky winner.

All proceeds benefit Yestermorrow’s Scholarship Fund.

Save the date & join us for the raffle drawing during Yestermorrow’s 6^th Annual Art Auction, Saturday, December 4. A live auction, silent auction, and all around great party is planned. Check out http://www.yestermorrow.org/december-4-art-auction/ for more details. We’ve already got art work and handcrafted items from Yestermorrow instructor Ken Burton, board member Mickey Ackerman, interns, former students, and staff lined up.

Purchase tickets to win the kayak and join us on December 4^th.

Green Buildings Open House October 2nd

Ever wonder what your friends and neighbors are doing in terms of sustainable technologies and renewable energy solutions? Time to come on inside and find out for yourself! NESEA’s highly successful Green Buildings Open House is scheduled for October 2, from 10 AM to 4 PM in locations around the Northeast, including here at Yestermorrow. Last year, more than 16,000 people toured some 500 sites from Maine to Pennsylvania, and this year’s event is expected to be even bigger!

For a complete list of locations in your area (or to learn more about building features or fuel types) go to http://www.nesea.org/openhouse/listings/ and search the NESEA GBOH database.
For the past 14 years, the GBOH program has inspired thousands of individuals to learn about and implement energy efficient and renewable energy solutions in their homes. The goal of the GBOH event is to enable participants to see, firsthand, energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements in their communities and subsequently motivate them to adopt similar solutions themselves. At host sites, participants are able to talk with home and business owners, ask questions, and see how their renewable energy technologies actually work. GBOH also connects building owners and managers with professionals who can provide them with sustainable energy services or energy efficiency retrofits.

As host sites register, detailed information and photos of the buildings' innovative energy features are posted, providing an ongoing educational tool (see Yestermorrow's listing at http://www.nesea.org/Scripts/googleMaps/detail.php?id=610). Just a few of the features you can see here at Yestermorrow include: a composting toilet, daylighting, Energy Star appliances, FSC certified wood, two green roofs, grid tied photovoltaics, heat recovery ventilation, local materials (slate, stone, wood), passive solar, recycled materials, solar domestic hot water, straw bale, and super insulated walls/roofs.

Talk to the people who are in the trenches – what worked, what didn’t work, what they may be thinking about doing next. There is something really powerful about homeowners talking to other homeowners and sharing what they’ve learned. This is how change happens ‐ be a part of it!

Yestermorrow is pleased to be a recipient of 1% for the Planet. The Brown Buffalo in Burlington, VT has committed to give 1% of their profits to support Yestermorrow. We’re looking forward to give Brown Buffalo staff a tour of the campus during leaf-peeping season.

A Creative Design Studio, The Brown Buffalo’s mission aligns well with ours. They employ architecturally minded methods to create product from process, with a specialty in designing backpacks, handbags, luggage, and travel gear. See what they are up to at http://www.thebrownbuffalo.com/

If you want to a simple way to support Yestermorrow, you can become a member business, visit 1% for the Planet. It’s easy. It’s fun. And it keeps earth in business.

Meet Development Director Ruth Dinerman

We're excited to introduce our newest staff member, Ruth Dinerman, who came on board this week as our first Development Director. Ruth holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She comes to the Mad River Valley by a circuitous route that’s taken her to various places in the Midwest, New York City, China, Boston, and most recently, the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. She’s taught high school students who were failing in the Newark, NJ public schools to enjoy writing, run programs to help adults prepare for college, and taught English to Chinese undergraduate and graduate students as well as to Chinese engineers and mechanics. After living and working in China for four years, she settled in New England, fiercely committed to protecting the natural world. At the Appalachian Mountain Club, she involved volunteers from Maine to DC in stewardship projects and advocacy to protect the region’s mountains and rivers. As she became increasingly concerned with issues of sustainability, she’s helped farmers increase their energy independence through efficiency and renewable energy improvements, and created a program to teach new moms about ways to reduce toxics in their homes to protect their babies. Since 2001, she’s been raising money for not-for-profits, most recently, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She loves writing, reading, raising chickens, hiking, bicycling, as well as live music and theater.

In her role as Development Director here at Yestermorrow, Ruth is responsible for creating and executing a comprehensive strategy that grows contributions to Yestermorrow and developing Yestermorrow’s Capital Campaign to expand campus facilities. She works on a variety of fundraising and outreach activities such as alumni relations, special events and social media campaigns. You can contact her at Ruth (at) yestermorrow.org.

Learning to go green through natural building

Yestermorrow's Natural Building Intensive program was featured on WCAX-TV! Check out the video or read the text of the piece included below.
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13021240

Middlesex, Vermont - August 23, 2010

At the end of a dead end road in Middlesex, nearly a dozen students and instructors from the Yestermorrow Design Build School are putting the finishing touches on a major assignment.

"It is essentially a classroom like a classroom that you would find at any academy except that here you have a hammer in your hand," said Jose Galarza, an instructor at Yestermorrow.

The class is called Natural Building-- one of many courses offered by Warren-based school. Using materials and an approach that is in harmony with the environment, the group helped build the bulk of a 1,700 square foot home.

"Classically when someone thinks of natural building they think specifically of the materials," Galarza said. "In this case we have straw bale construction that is supported by a timber frame structure. I think what we would rather people imagine when they think of natural building is really the integrative design process."

That process includes everything from cutting much of the wood for the framing on site, to the relationships formed with the Plainfield farmer that provided manure, an important ingredient in the plaster mix that goes on top of the straw bales.

"The cow is the absolute best because it's a ruminant; it has four stomachs and there's the addition of this thing called the Rumen which is this glue like substance into the mix that actually creates this wonderful, workable, very, very durable plaster," explained Ace McArleton of New Frameworks Construction.

The home's owners, a Montpelier couple, paid the cost of building supplies and for selected contractors. The student labor comes free.

While adobe and straw bale houses are usually associated with warmer, drier climates like the desert Southwest, the builders say they can also be successful here.

"The benefits of straw bale are things that can be realized in this climate when they are treated appropriately. That's why we work on detailing them in a way that we can protect them from the elements, to allow them to do what they do best-- insulate our homes extremely well with local and natural materials," McArleton said.

And it's those natural materials, says McArleton, that replace a lot of the foams and toxic materials that go into a traditional home that can affect people's health and the environment.

"So paying more attention how we put that into our built environment both for the longevity of the structure but also people living in them, people living near them and people living near the waste dumps where they go eventually is something we try to think about," McArleton said.

The house will use a wood stove as primary heating. The builders say that-- along with the homes super insulation and southern exposure-- it should earn the house an Energy Star rating through Efficiency Vermont's Energy Stars Home program.

The students wrap up their hands-on experience with a graduation and open house at the end of the week.

The public is invited to come see the student's work at an open house and graduation ceremony Friday, Aug. 20, at 4 p.m. The house is located at 400 Notch Road in Middlesex.

The Yestermorrow School is currently looking for their next project for next summer's class. Click here to apply or find out more.

Alexei Rubenstein - WCAX News

WANTED: Treehouse Project in the Mad River Valley

Yestermorrow is seeking a few good trees and a client with imagination. We are reaching out to local organizations and individuals interested in hosting a site for a new treehouse. The project will be built during our adult design/build class starting September 4th, use minimally invasive techniques and built with surroundings in mind. Uses for treehouses are only limited by what one imagine.

Yestermorrow is committed to working with and improving the local community. We do this by offering time and skills in building and collaborating on a range of construction projects. The client for this project must be at most a 35 minute drive from the campus in Warren and be ready for immediate construction in September 2010. While we provide the labor, clients are responsible for the cost of materials and overhead. For more information and guidelines regarding the project, please contact our Community Outreach Coordinator at julie@yestermorrow.org or at 802-496-5545.

Upcoming Unveiling for Yestermorrow/Hubbard Park Community Project

Construction is underway for Yestermorrow’s collaborative community design/build structure for Hubbard Park, in downtown Montpelier. Working with the Montpelier Parks Commission, eight Yestermorrow students are designing and building a unique moldering toilet structure set to be unveiled Friday, August 13 at 4 PM. The public is welcome to see the latest Yestermorrow public creation.

Led by instructors and design/build mavens Steve Badanes, Jim Adamson and Bill Bialosky, students meet with a client, work with site constraints, propose a design, build a full-scale project and install it on-site all within a two week timeframe. Past projects have included park pavilions, trail shelters, bus stops, and village green bandshells. The project is part of Yestermorrow’s mission to support non-profits and community organizations by providing design and building skills through its class projects. Yestermorrow is always interested in new opportunities to work with communities in the area and welcomes ideas and proposals for future design/build projects.

Directions to Hubbard Park: From Elm St. (Rte. 12) take Winter St. into the park, at the Y stay right, and keep straight on the gravel road. The project location is at the end of the gravel road at the “7” Fireplaces loop. See map below.

Natural Building Intensive 2010

This year’s Yestermorrow Natural Building Intensive engages students in a truly innovative project and course of study. Over the past three years we have worked with clients in the Mad River Valley to build a variety of structures—a barn, a garden folly and a music studio. This year’s project takes the program to a whole new level, building a home for a young couple in Middlesex, Vermont. The project achieves very high standards of efficiency in heating, cooling, daylighting, and overall energy use, all while maintaining a beautiful, custom, hand-crafted finish with a minimal use of petro-chemically-derived materials.

The Natural Building Intensive (NBI) brings together a collaborative group of experienced and enthusiastic instructors with students in an in-depth, hands-on experience in natural building, from the design and planning stages through the finishing touches. Over the course of a 12-week curriculum, students in the Summer 2010 program are helping to design and build a complete home from start to finish – a building handcrafted from natural stone, straw, timber, and clay along with more modern building materials, emphasizing an integrated approach to natural building systems for a northern climate.

This year’s clients, Bryan Redmond and Kate Clemente, live in Montpelier, Vermont and for years have dreamt of building their own home. Three years ago they purchased a piece of land on a hilltop in Middlesex abutting the Green Mountain National Forest. They cleared trees, put in a driveway, and started to think about the design of their future home. Bryan enrolled in Yestermorrow’s 6-day Timberframing course in 2007 and met instructors Josh Jackson and Skip Dewhirst. After finishing the course he was convinced he wanted to build a timberframe home, and started to work with Josh and an architect friend to develop a design concept.

Bryan and Kate were starting to think about the process of building their home last summer when they went to hear Ace McArleton, natural builder and Yestermorrow instructor, give a presentation. Having initially dismissed the idea of building a strawbale home, they were intrigued by the images and past projects Ace showed in his slideshow. After further conversation the topic of the Natural Building Intensive came up. Having taken a course at Yestermorrow, Bryan was familiar with the School, and realized that many of the builders he talked to were also instructors at Yestermorrow and taught in the NBI program.

After meeting with a variety of potential clients last summer, Yestermorrow staff selected Bryan and Kate as the clients for the 2010 NBI program and hired José Galarza as the NBI Program Director and Designer. Throughout the winter José worked with Bryan and Kate to refine their design ideas and put them onto paper and into digital 3-D models. He also worked closely with the different instructors in the program to coordinate the curriculum components and determine what elements the students would build. Due to the scope of the project (a 1700 square foot home) they determined early on that it was not be possible for the students to complete all aspects of the building in 12 weeks, and it would be necessary to collaborate with additional contractors to complete other aspects of the project. The client Bryan Redmond took on the role of general contractor, hiring the crew of New Frameworks (http://newframeworks.com) for the main components of natural building during the NBI program. The partners of New Frameworks are Ace McArleton and Jacob Deva Racusin, both experienced Yestermorrow faculty members (Jacob was the former NBI Program Director in 2008 and 2009). Their crew includes a variety of Yestermorrow instructors as well as alumni.

On May 30th the eleven students in the program arrived on campus to kick off their 12 weeks with a 5-day introduction to natural building, then a 3-day survey of Permaculture and site design. Next they went out in the woods for 2 days of Stump to Sticker, looking at forest management, harvesting and milling. The class worked on site in Middlesex to fell trees and cut them in a portable bandsaw mill for use in the structure. Next they came back to campus for 6 days of Timberframing, culminating in a raising day on June 19th.
From then on, the students were on site every day, learning basic carpentry skills while installing the roof and interior walls, laying the strawbale walls, and applying natural plasters to the bales. The program concludes with work on stone masonry, super-insulation with cellulose, electrical and plumbing rough-ins, and many finishing touches in the final week leading up to graduation and an open house on August 20th.

At the end of the program, the clients will still have lots of work to do to finish the interior of their new home, but the majority of the building envelope will be complete. The design of the home includes many unique features which demonstrate a strong commitment to sustainability, high energy performance, craftsmanship and beauty. In addition, the house will achieve an Energy Star rating through Efficiency Vermont’s Energy Star Homes program, and the clients hope to engage in long-term monitoring of moisture content, indoor air quality, and energy performance so that the project can serve as a demonstration of high performance natural building systems.

The home is designed with a southern orientation to take advantage of passive solar heating. A large percentage of the wood in the structure was harvested on the building site and from local sawmills. The foundation is constructed of insulated concrete forms made Durisol, a product made of recycled concrete and wood chips. The roof is constructed with 16.75” of cellulose insulation (made of recycled newspapers) for an estimated R-value of 60 (assuming R3.6 per 1”). The walls are strawbale infill around a timber frame, with unique knee braces framed to the interior for ease of plastering. The strawbale wall envelope is finished with a coat of lime-stabilized clay and manure plaster for moisture protection and initial air barrier, followed by a lime-sand-manure top coat for durability as well as vapor permeability. The manure was gathered from neighboring horse farms by the clients, utilizing a local waste product. Interior partition walls are constructed with woodchip clay infill for sound deadening. The standing seam roof is made of recycled steel and the wood floors and trim are made from local, native wood.

The building envelope features exceptional detailing for contiguous air barrier, contiguous thermal barrier, and implemented a comprehensive moisture management strategy throughout design and construction, addressing head-on the issues of moisture management in a vapor-permeable, organic-based wall system. Passive solar heating will be supplemented by a high efficiency Euro style woodstove with a direct vent propane back-up. The mechanical systems include heat recovery ventilation, a necessary component to mechanically control air exchange in a super tight and well insulated structure. The building also features WaterSense certified fixtures and a high efficiency toilet.

One of the key elements of the success of the NBI program is its emphasis on team building. A major focus is on building relationships between the key players involved in this project on a macro scale (instructors, contractors, client and the School) and also within and among the students themselves as a team. The curriculum also emphasizes the individual development of each student to strengthen and support the skills-based learning of the program.

Yestermorrow Partners with the Canova Association to Rebuild an Abandoned Village in Italy

For three weeks in July and August, Yestermorrow has been conducting the first of what is planned to be an annual course in the Ossola Valley of northern Italy. Yestermorrow is collaborating with the Canova Association, an organization dedicated to the appreciation and preservation of vernacular stone architecture in this region of the Alps bordering Switzerland. The course is being taught by Mac Rood and Thea Alvin from Yestermorrow and by a talented group of Italian master masons and architectural historians. As with most Yestermorrow courses there is a blend of studio design work, field trips and of on-site construction. The construction project is the restoration of a small water powered grain mill, including the traditional granite roof, weighing 830 pounds per square yard. Students learn how to make the “shingles” by splitting two inch slabs from blocks of granite. The mill walls were repaired and the timber roof structure rebuilt using recycled beams before the roofing was installed. The course has been very successful in the eyes of the local municipal officials. Although initially skeptical of the likelihood of a student powered construction team finishing an important piece of historic preservation, they are now excited to have Yestermorrow come back next year. Television and press will be on hand August 6 when the completed mill will be celebrated.

This course and other study abroad opportunities are important for Yestermorrow because they broadcast the value of the school to a much broader audience, allowing students the opportunity to work with other types of building construction and reinforcing the program taught at the main campus in Waitsfield which attracts over one thousand students per year to the Valley.

For more information and photos from the course in progress, visit:

http://www.canovacanova.com/Canova_Association/Yestermorrow_Field_School_2010.html

Super-Insulation Symposium Video Now Online

Did you miss our Super-Insulation Symposium on June 23rd featuring many of Vermont's leading super insulation practitioners? Check out the video from our lecture series online:
Part 1--http://www.blip.tv/file/3930216
Part 2--http://www.blip.tv/file/3932565

Thanks to MRVTV for the technical assistance!

We Won! Thank you all for your help.

Thanks to everyone who voted and helped Yestermorrow win the Revelation to Action competition for a $5,000 prize which will go towards development of our new semester program in sustainable design/build.I had the opportunity to travel to Boston yesterday for an awards ceremony sponsored by Ashoka and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (the sponsors of the competition). Out of hundreds of entries, and 15 finalists, Yestermorrow was one of the top 3 vote-getters in the entire competition. Over 4,800 people viewed our entry online over the course of the past few months.

At the event I got to meet many other social entrepreneurs who are working in non profits all over New England and network with folks working on issues of food security, job training, sustainable agriculture, economic development and much more.There’s nothing like a little outside feedback to let us know we’re doing something really great here at Yestermorrow – something which is unique, innovative, and part of a larger movement of social change. And this award will help raise awareness about the school as a whole, and provide critical support for the launch of our new semester program initiative.

Here’s me accepting the big check:

Thanks again to all of you for your help. With this award and support from additional funders we have raised $30,000 towards the $50,000 needed to get our semester program off the ground. You can help us reach our goal by the end of 2010 by donating online and designating your contribution towards the semester program.

Sincerely,
Kate Stephenson
Executive Director

Summer is a busy time at Yestermorrow

Here are just a few shots from the past few weeks at Yestermorrow. We've been super busy with the all-time record number of students on campus this month- over 45 at one point! Our Natural Building Intensive is in full swing and has now transitioned to working on the jobsite in Middlesex everyday, and will continue through mid August. Our gardens are looking great, and the new stormwater pond has been seeded and things are starting to look better on the north edge of campus where we have been doing a lot of clearing and excavation over the past year. The next step is to build Cabin #5 which is high on our project list this summer. We also have a new mini yurt on campus thanks to the Yurt Design/Build class, and a new planting of fruit trees thanks to the Edible Forest Gardens class. All in all our fabulous intern crew has been hard at work with many new and ongoing maintenance projects and priorities, keeping the place running day to day.

The Natural Building Intensive's timberframe raising went off without a hitch on the 19th.

The new perennial beds we planted on May 15th at the reunion are really taking off! Lots of bees and insects enjoying the flowers.

The new pond and cabin site in the background (you can see the Strawbale cabin for a little reference on location- this is near the north edge of campus). Interns have been doing lots of seeding and mulching to reduce erosion.

Fabric formed concrete project in action 6/29

The solar trackers are really raking in the sunshine on days like today

The Willow-Ribbed Canoe class (a Yestermorrow first!)

We invited the interns over from the Center for Whole Communities for a little inter-intern bonding. Then our interns got to go up to Knoll Farm to check out their operations.

The Cabinets and Built-Ins class finished up their project last Friday

Yes, it looks like a bunch of zombies but really it's the Regenerative Design class in the midst of a tracking and observation exercise.

Yestermorrow Named As Finalist in Revelation to Action Competition

Dear Friends,

We’ve just received exciting news! Yestermorrow is a finalist in the Revelation to Action competition, sponsored by Green Mountain Coffee and Ashoka's Changemakers. The contest was launched “to find and help fund the most innovative ideas to inspire community action in the Northeastern US” – and our proposal for a groundbreaking Semester in Sustainable Design/Build has been selected by a panel of judges for the final phase of public voting. Now we need your support to go all the way.

You can help make this pioneering new program a reality by voting for our proposal at http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/70208. The voting period starts June 9 and ends on June 30. We’re spreading the word via the Yestermorrow blog, Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn and email, and we need your help to do the same, in order to get as many votes as we can in the next three weeks.

What’s our idea?
Yestermorrow's new Semester in Sustainable Design/Build will be the first program of its kind in the country, giving undergraduate students a chance to immerse themselves in the hands-on process of collaboratively designing and building an innovative, high performance “green” building for a deserving community client. Students from a variety of disciplines and majors will work closely with Yestermorrow's renowned design/build faculty and Vermont community partners, and engage with an academically rigorous, practical and inspiring curriculum. In the process they will receive a full semester's worth of credits at their home institution. The program is currently in the planning stages, and slated for its inaugural session in fall 2011.

Who is it for?
The program will be open to undergraduates of any major, provided they have taken certain prerequisites. The “clients” will include Vermont nonprofit organizations and community members, who will become partners in the collaborative process of identifying a pressing local need and then creating an innovative built environment to address it. Yestermorrow will design and administer the program in close consultation with faculty from a credit-granting partner institution of higher education.

Why is this worth supporting?
Few undergraduate architecture programs provide students with intensive hands-on “learning through building” opportunities. And fewer still offer such an experience through the increasingly urgent lens of sustainability - in terms of energy, water, materials, interaction with site, and equitable access (among many other considerations). Students in this program will emerge empowered, with new skills and awareness about sustainable building methods. They’ll also have a wider sense of the possibilities of the design profession, acquired through the process of designing and building truly collaborative projects, which provide affordable housing or workspace for community members or organizations.

How will it achieve “scale”?
Picture a group of committed, creative and highly motivated students working under the close tutelage of a master craftsperson and experienced designers, putting theory into practice, engaging in practical problem-solving, learning key skills and concepts while doing something of concrete benefit to the communities of central and northern Vermont - and then returning to their home institution energized and imagining a whole array of new possibilities for their own and others’ education. Semester Program graduates will become the next generation of designers and builders leading and redefining the green building movement. After completing the program, we expect them to return to their home universities armed with an in-depth understanding of ecological design and the hands-on building skills necessary to both inform and realize their design process. We anticipate a ripple effect, first in their university programs, and then in their initial work environment (whatever the field), as their fresh outlook on the principles and practice of sustainable design/build impacts fellow students and colleagues.

What’s at stake?
If we can garner enough votes – from YOU and your friends – then we’ll receive $5,000 to support the ongoing development of this groundbreaking new program, which is Yestermorrow’s biggest initiative in 2010. The grant will support the further development of curriculum and partnerships for the program. In the long run, it will help us eventually reach a whole new segment of learners and institutions, helping to spread our design/build philosophy and sustainable design expertise in countless new directions.

The bottom line? No one has done this kind of program before, the need has never been greater, and Yestermorrow is uniquely positioned to make it happen. Help us make this vision a reality – vote today! http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/70208

Thanks for your support,
Kate Stephenson
Executive Director

R-Value? U-Value? What does it all mean?

Do you think you have super-insulation figured out? Please mark your calendars and join us for a

Super-Insulation Symposium:
A Lively Discussion on the Best Methods to Reduce Energy Consumption in Vermont

Wednesday, June 23, 7:00 pm at Yestermorrow

Led by moderator Alex Wilson, with a roundtable of Vermont super-insulation experts (including Andy Shapiro, Ben Graham, John Unger Murphy and others) we will hash out the details and best practices of one of the most important elements of any "green" building in Vermont. It is time to make sure we are advancing the state of super-insulation in the state that needs it most. How much? What kind? What about window edges? Under the slab? Hot roofs or tight conditioned spaces? Are you counting your thermal bridges? What’s your whole wall U value? What’s it cost? How much wood do you burn? Passive House? Building America? In an informal atmosphere, we will see a series of projects and systems that will spark lively debate and support the development of Vermont’s approach to climate change, atmospheric pollution, peak oil, wars for oil, and the rising cost of heating fuel – or just a common sense approach to building here in the Northeast. Bring your thinking cap and an open mind.

Moderator: Alex Wilson has been for more than 30 years the most trusted voice on energy efficiency and environmentally responsible design and construction. Since launching Environmental Building News (EBN) in 1992, he's built a reputation, resources, and staff to provide the foundation for BuildingGreen, an information company that produces GreenSpec, BuildingGreen.com, and LEEDuser, as well as providing consulting for a variety of companies for whom sustainable design is a core value. He is executive editor of EBN and GreenSpec, and his Energy Solutions and Cool Product of the Week blogs are widely read.

This event is part of our Summer Lecture Series, every Wednesday from June 16-August 18.

Welding class project for Small Step Farm

From our friends across the street at Small Step Farm:
"To help us water in all the field transplants (our soil = sand) we now have a 110 gallon water tank for the tractor! No more hand watering! Just a quick pass with the 'ol Oliver! Thank you Yestermorrow! Yestermorrow Design/Build School is located just across the street from Small Step Farm. This past weekend they held a welding class and one of the instructors happened to be Benjamin Cheney, a builder/welder/and more who Zach has collaborated with on past projects. The welding class consisted two full days. Saturday learning the basics, and Sunday constructing a steel frame for our water tank! In addition, they also built us a toolbar which will now cultivate the walkways, hill potatoes and leeks and allow lots of other mechanical experimentation (down with the hoes!) "

Learn more about the farm on their blog at: http://smallstepfarm.blogspot.com/