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/

Images from the 30th Anniversary

Here are a few images from our 30th Anniversary celebration on May 15th and all the amazing work we got done around campus!

Yestermorrow 2010 and the next 30 years

The following speech was presented by Executive Director Kate Stephenson at the 30th Anniversary celebration on May 15, 2010

Yestermorrow 2010 and Beyond

For those of you who I haven’t met yet, my name is Kate Stephenson, and I am the Executive Director here at Yestermorrow. It’s wonderful to see so many familiar faces and at the same time so many new ones. It’s truly amazing to think about where the school has been and all the changes over the past 30 years that make Yestermorrow what it is today. In my experience here at the school over the past 8 years, I’ve been able to be a part of many of those changes and met many incredible people in the process. After hearing John talk about the beginnings of the school, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about where we are today, and what the next 30 years of Yestermorrow might have in store.

Today, 2010, Yestermorrow is offering a record 168 classes a year. Our 1,100 students a year come from around the country and around the globe (this year we’ve had students from Germany, Hong Kong, and all over Canada). We have over 150 instructors on our faculty from as far as Hawaii, Ontario, Seattle and Florida. The school’s reach and reputation continue to grow as our graduates help us spread the word about what’s happening here at Yestermorrow.

In addition to our many short courses, we now offer three in-depth certificate level courses – in Sustainable Building and Design, Natural Building and Woodworking. All three programs are currently full to capacity and interest increases every year. We’re seeing more and more students coming to Yestermorrow as a critical stepping stone in their careers, some of them choosing Yestermorrow as an alternative to a traditional college education, others coming as part of a mid-career transition into something new.

Over the past 10 years we have had 127 interns working at the school (myself included). These emerging design/build professionals are in many ways the core of our educational program. They help us keep the school running, are enthusiastic students, and build an incredible skill set and network during their time at Yestermorrow, ranging from 3 to 12 months. Our former interns have gone on to become award-winning architects, skilled furnituremakers, teachers, small businesspeople, treehouse builders, solar installers, and timberframers. In many ways they are the future of the design/build profession, and many of them are now coming back to the School as instructors, helping us build the next generation of faculty.

This year marks a major shift towards reducing our fossil fuel footprint on campus with the installation of two new solar systems- a 100,000 BTU solar hot water system to heat water for the kitchen and bathrooms; and a 28 kW photovoltaic system which will produce over 90% of the electricity needed to power the campus each year. Both of these projects are not only about “walking the talk” and demonstrating what we teach, but they also help improve our organizational sustainability by lowering our operating costs to heat and power the campus.

This year we also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the summer lecture series (although I did find an old flyer in the archives for a 1983 lecture series, so maybe it’s been more than 10 years…). This annual event is an important way for us to reach out to the local community, talk about what we’re doing here, and provide an educational resource for the Mad River Valley. We bring in creative, inspiring leaders from the design/build world to talk about their work on a diverse range of topics. We just published the lecture schedule yesterday, so please pick up a copy in the lobby or check it out on the website. The series starts June 16th and runs every Wednesday night through August 18th.

We also have 14 incredibly dedicated members of our Board of Directors who volunteer many hours of their time to hold the vision for the school alongside our staff, who despite being underpaid and overworked, make this place what it is today, and in hundreds of little ways keep things moving forward every day.

I’ve thrown out a lot of numbers, and that’s one quantitative way to get a sense of what’s going on here, but there are also so many un-quantifiable moments that tell the story of the School. A student comes back to visit with a handful of photos of the house they designed in a Home Design/Build class ten years ago and have finally built. A group of women gathered together at the end of a Carpentry for Women class who had never held a hammer before and have now learned how a whole building goes together. A certificate student launches his own natural building business with the skills he learned here. There are honestly so many stories I have trouble keeping track, because here at Yestermorrow EVERY DAY someone is learning something new and taking that knowledge out into the world and putting it into action.

So… that’s a little bit about where we stand. But the burning question remains: where are we going? In the year and a half since I took on the role of Executive Director, I’ve been getting that question a lot. Everyone wants to know what my vision is for the school. And while I have plenty of vision, I also believe wholeheartedly that this is not a place where one individual’s vision will rule the School. I see myself as a facilitator, an instigator, the person who asks the tough questions, and someone who can rally the people and resources to take Yestermorrow to the next level.

My vision for Yestermorrow is to build on what we’ve created so far, to raise the professionalism of the school, to improve the quality of the educational experience, and to make Yestermorrow a national center for design/build education.

Just after we celebrated Yestermorrow’s 25th anniversary we dove into an intensive year-long strategic planning process. We talked to students, to board members, to staff, to our competitors, and in the end we came out with a plan to:
- Increase the number and diversity of courses
- To build more in-depth certificate and semester programs
- To increase the professionalism of our staff and intern program
- To plan for future campus growth
And four years into this plan, I have to say I think we’re on target. This year we received a $25,000 grant to help us develop a semester-long program in sustainable design/build. We’ve hired Jon Mingle to design the curriculum and plan for the launch of the program in 2011. This is a really exciting step in deepening our relationships with architecture schools and colleges around the country and creating a hands-on program which will be truly unique.

We’ve also spent the last 3 years working to develop a campus master plan which will provide the facilities to make our enrollment goals possible. We’ve set REALLY ambitious goals for what we design and build― to create something beautiful which articulates in practice our mission of teaching ‘good design’, to push the limits of efficiency and on-site energy production towards a goal of carbon neutrality, to create an abundant permaculture landscape, and to incorporate students into the design and construction process. We’ve set the bar high. And as a result, we’re taking things slowly. We have an incredible base of knowledge within the Yestermorrow community, and we need to figure out how to tap it effectively to bring our big visions for the campus into reality.

These are big initiatives for the School, and while we can celebrate many successes, there are also challenges. We still struggle to fill every seat in every class and on average run our classes at only 60% full- so we need your help in spreading the word about the opportunities we offer here. We have a long way to go with our campus―and although after all the work today, I have to say it’s looking much better―but there’s so much more to do. We have a small staff and never enough hours in the day. We need to diversify our sources of funding beyond tuition in order to launch new programs and build new facilities. And in the end, we need to ensure that we continue to offer a consistently excellent education in each and every class. That is what sets Yestermorrow apart from everywhere else.

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU to everyone who came out on Saturday to help celebrate our 30th Anniversary! The work day got so much done I can't even list it all, but I'll try: 3 new perennial beds around the entry, setting up the new herb garden, clearing trees and brush, seeding wildflowers and clover, building trails, stacking firewood, deconstructing and rebuilding the solar hot water heater, putting away the strawbale cube... please forgive me if I've forgotten something. John Connell's history slideshow of the first 10 years of Yestermorrow was funny and informative. The evening presentation of Pecha Kucha with 14 different presenters was also amazing. And the kitchen folks managed to pull off feeding the huge crowd at lunch and dinner. What a great group effort and appropriate way to celebrate 30 years.
-Kate Stephenson

2010 Summer Lecture Series Announced

Please join us for our 10th annual Summer Lecture Series running Wednesday nights June 16 through August 18 at 7:00pm in the Main Studio at Yestermorrow.

For a full description of each lecture and bios for each presenter, please visit:
http://www.yestermorrow.org/june-august-2010-summer-lecture-series/

Click on the poster to open it up and print it out!

New Design/Build Program in Yucatan, Mexico

Yestermorrow is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Yucatan Institute for Sustainability to offer two design/build courses this summer.

The Yucatan Institute for Sustainability is dedicated to preserving traditional knowledge and promoting sustainable design through education and research, while involving and supporting the local Maya community. Our vision merges principles of sustainability and alternative energy systems with traditional cultural knowledge to shape the interface of human cultures with their environment. The campus serves as a hands-on, real-world laboratory for experimentation and education. The goal is to provide a center where international scholars from diverse disciplines can work, study, interact, create, and exchange ideas while exploring common themes of sustainability, preservation, and innovation. It also supports the neighboring Maya community of Espita while its members confront the challenges of maintaining their cultural heritage.

Course Overview

The Maya have lived in the dry tropical forests of northern Yucatan for over 3,000 years. Despite the environmental hardships of periodic droughts and thin soils, ancient populations were able to prosper, as the elaborate architecture of their abandoned ancient cities attests. This course frames modern principles of sustainability and ecological design within a broader perspective gleaned from thousands of years of human habitation. Students will learn traditional building and design techniques collaborating with the local Maya community. Students joining this initial season of a new educational venture will literally have a hand in guiding its development as we explore the intersection of traditional culture, ecology, and sustainability. The result will be an unforgettable experience helping to design and build a new center for research and education in a tropical setting.

Course Objectives

Students will complete the course having gained an intimate standing of human-landscape relationships in Yucatan from a millennia – long perspective. The course will illustrate the challenges and advantages to sustainable design in a tropical environment. Students will gain an understanding of the principles of historic conservation and learn traditional building techniques varying from wattle-and-daub and thatching to masonry walls and lime plastering. Finally students will have the chance to help design an educational and research facility completely off the grid. The master planning and design component will shape the direction for future courses.

The two course sessions will be offered this summer:
Session 1: June 14 – July 4
Session 2: July 5 - 25

Tuition for each session is $2200.

For more information, please visit http://neogeo.kent.edu/yis/

Yestermorrow and AllEarth Renewables Install 28 Kilowatts of Solar Power

Power Purchase Agreement Makes Solar Power Affordable for Non-Profit

Waitsfield, VT (4/20/10) – Yestermorrow Design/Build School of Waitsfield, Vermont and AllEarth Renewables, Inc. of Williston, Vermont have partnered to install seven AllSun Trackers® on the school’s campus in Waitsfield. Over the course of a year, the 28 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic array is expected to produce enough electricity to power over 90% of the electricity used in Yestermorrow’s main classroom facility. This initiative is part of Yestermorrow’s master plan to implement and promote renewable energy systems and transition from fossil fuel use.

“Yestermorrow is committed to exploring renewable energy solutions, and part of our educational mission is to provide a demonstration site for different types of systems and technology,” said Yestermorrow’s Executive Director Kate Stephenson. “We’re thrilled that AllEarth Renewables’ power purchase agreement brings this photovoltaic technology within reach of non-profits.”

David Blittersdorf, CEO and president of AllEarth Renewables said, “Financially, it’s a smart decision for Yestermorrow. Our power purchase agreement, which requires only a $1,000 deposit, establishes a fixed price per kilowatt hour for their electricity, enabling Yestermorrow to save money as the cost of electricity rises over the five year term of the agreement.”
The AllSun Tracker is a complete grid-connected solar electric system which consists of photovoltaic panels mounted on poles installed in the ground. The system uses a GPS (Global Positioning System) and a dual axis rotation to keep the solar panels at a perpendicular angle to the sun’s rays throughout the day. This maximizes the amount of light reaching the panels, which in turn maximizes the amount of energy generated, providing as much as 40% more electricity than fixed panel installations of the same size. More than 100 AllSun Tracker solar systems have already been installed, including 36 at the Green Acres Tracker Farm in Hinesburg, Vermont, the largest solar installation to date in the state.

Yestermorrow’s AllSun Tracker installation is located on Route 100 in Waitsfield, VT. The Yestermorrow campus is open to visitors seven days a week and free tours of the solar systems are available with advance reservation (call 802-496-5545).

The solar trackers are UP!

Interview with John Connell on 30 Years of Yestermorrow

In preparation for our upcoming 30th Anniversary Reunion we decided to check in with Yestermorrow's founder, John Connell, on what he's observed about the School over the last 30 years...

What was your original vision for Yestermorrow?
I wanted to teach the butcher/baker/candlestick maker a method of design-driven construction that would allow them to have well designed homes without the cost/annoyance of an architect.

Did you ever think it’d be around 30 years later?
Absolutely. When I was shopping for a campus (there were several potential parcels that I considered) one of the highest priorities was that it should be a situation that we could grow into for at least the next 100 years. At least....

What’s changed the most about the school over the past 30 years?
Many of us old timers lament the loss of design focus that drove the first decade. I guess this is the inevitable price to be paid for being a leader in green and sustainable methodologies. And maybe the pendulum will swing back now that "green" is as common and credentialed as 2x6 studs. Also, we were involved in bigger structures back then. We always tried to build homes or full scale additions. Here again there has been a trade off. By moving to tiny structures we can service more non-profits and municipalities. Still, I think there's something to be learned by wrestling with a real house and a real client's constraints.

What’s stayed the same?
The people! The school is still the net result of an incredible group of outstanding people. It's these people that generate the school's gravitational pull, bringing in more of the same. While the physical plant is important and our facility helps us attract funds and students - it's our faculty and staff that really make the school. If the campus were foreclosed on tomorrow, I know we could start over in a heart beat. We should never lose sight of this fact. It's the staff, the faculty and the interns that really keep the curriculum fresh and the students coming.

When you led the decision to buy the Alpen Inn property, what did you hope would happen to the campus?
Again, my vision was at least 100 years out and I was hoping we would pioneer some really new and brave design/build directions. The economic realities of such a large property have forced us to settle for something a good deal more conventional than I had dreamed. And yet, I still think in 100 year increments (and even 200 years!) so I'm not the least bit disappointed in what we have accomplished in a mere 30 years. There is nothing keeping us from stepping up to even greater design accomplishments if only we will make that a priority. Our campus is an excellent reflection of where we have put our focus - green methodologies both vernacular and high-tech. I love that about it.

How do you think Yestermorrow has influenced design/build education on a national scale? When we started Yestermorrow there were exactly two design/build curricula in the nation's architecture schools. Today, over half the schools have great shops and ongoing design/build programs. Yestermorrow faculty helped set up and run a handful of those programs and many others took lessons from our early efforts. But we are no longer leading the discussions that take place in that national context. We could do well to tune in. Additionally, I find that there are more design/build offerings at the elementary and middle school level. This is an incredibly important development and an arena we need to pay more attention to. Only be educating our entire population to design basics and visual intelligence will we be able to bootstrap the future of our built environment. The "Solar Age" of the late Sixties and early Seventies taught us that even green architecture that works will be razed if it's unattractive or poorly designed.

What do you imagine Yestermorrow’s next 30 years looking like?
Yestermorrow, like many institutions, is looking at a critical moment in its evolution. Every aspect of residential design and construction is under review as we look at the post-meltdown resource limited future. I would so like Yestermorrow to be a place that looks at things that other institutions can't because of entrenched special interests, routine or bureaucracy. If we could grow a school that combined the qualities of the Atlantic Monthly, Wired and Metropolis magazines, I think we might be headed in a promising direction. As an organization matures, it becomes increasingly difficult for it to persist as an innovative trail breaker. Maybe that phase of Yestermorrow has passed. I think not (see above concerning the staff).

But really the answer to question #5 should be, "Surprise me!"

John Abrams Lecture Cancelled

We regret to inform the public that the previously scheduled talk for the evening of April 23rd "Building a Local Economy in the Mad River Valley" has been cancelled. There is not yet another scheduled date at this time.

A Note on Solar Trackers from John Norton, Board President

Dear Yestermorrow Community;

As many of you who drive by the school on Rt 100 may have noticed, there has been some construction activity in the area in front of the school between the wetland and the driveway. Seeing this several members of the community have raised serious concerns about the pending installation of solar photovoltaic trackers at Yestermorrow hard by a scenic highway. I am writing to describe the relevant details of the project and to explain the background of the decision to proceed with this project.

Last year, Yestermorrow was approached by All Earth Renewables (formerly Earth Turbines) of Williston, VT with a very attractive proposal to install solar trackers at the school. In December of last year after deliberation by the Executive Committee of the Board and discussion of the whole board, the school entered into a five year leasing agreement with All Earth Renewables for the installation of eight 4 kiloWatt solar trackers. Due to the site constraints only 7 will be installed. This is enough capacity at our location to cover 90% of the anticipated annual load of the offices, studio, shop, kitchen and dormitory. Under the terms of this lease Yestermorrow has made a nominal down payment and will pay All Earth for its energy use at its current price fixed for five years. At the end of the term of the lease the school may elect to renew the lease, buy the trackers, or have them removed. The agreement is forecast to be cost neutral for the school assuming that our cost of electricity would not have changed over the five years. This lease was signed earlier this year and All Earth has installed the concrete pilings. The project has received a Certificate of Public Good and approval from the Wetlands Division of ANR. The trackers will be installed this week. Under the terms of the lease, if Yestermorrow does not purchase or renew at the end of five years, All Earth will remove the trackers, foundations, wiring and conduit and return the site to its former state.

The site of the trackers was determined by a committee of the board working with All Earth to maximize the energy production of the trackers on Yestermorrow property. Several of the trackers are located in the wetland buffer, the balance are in the meadow just outside the buffer. None are installed in the wetland.

This decision was taken deliberately with the full awareness of the potential for controversy after careful consideration of the project’s cost benefit and relationship to the school’s mission and values and was based upon the following principles:
1) Yestermorrow must take responsibility for its own energy consumption and production, to the extent practical, and it must do so with conservation and renewable energy, in its own backyard, not someone else’s;
2) The project must conform to all federal, state and local regulations and must not adversely affect the ecological values of the site;
3) The project must be as beautiful as the current technology and site conditions permit.

We recognized that in order to proceed with the project with the resources available, this third principle would have to be compromised. Considering the “long emergency” of peak oil and the crisis of climate change, we elected to make those compromises. In the context of the 30 year history of Yestermorrow and a thirty year minimum future these compromises can be revisited in 5 years.

This is a matter on which reasonable people, with full appreciation of all the elements involved, will and do disagree, so I am challenging the Yestermorrow community – board, staff, instructors and friends, to collaborate to confront this challenge now. We see and understand the current state of the art and we now see and feel the price of its limitations, and we will soon have a laboratory in our back/front yard. To a far greater degree than any other institution I can think of, Yestermorrow has the resources to design and build, reject and design and build again solutions which will meet the full challenge of the three principles I outlined above in concert with its mission.

Respectfully,
John “Sucosh” Norton
President, Board of Directors
Yestermorrow Design/Build School


For more on the specs of the AllSun Trackers, click here to download the spec sheet pdf

Digital Fabrication Should Be Taken Less Seriously

Yestermorrow instructor Erik Hegre is currently a MArch student at the University of Oregon and put together this presentation on digital fabrication. Press the play button to zoom in and read the details.

Digital Fabrication Should Be Taken Less Seriously. on Prezi

Moving Forward with Semester Program

We’re thrilled to embark on the planning and design of Yestermorrow’s new semester program in sustainable design/build, scheduled to launch in Fall 2011. This innovative new program will bring college students to Yestermorrow for a semester-long immersion in the world of design/build, learning core concepts of ecological design along with hands-on building skills. With start-up funding from an anonymous foundation we have hired Jonathan Mingle to work with us over the next 8 months as a consultant and Semester Program Coordinator. Jon brings to Yestermorrow a broad range of experience in teaching, design/build, semester program development, writing and energy studies. For the past 5 years he has worked with Vermont Intercultural Semesters as a teacher and consultant for their semester and gap year programs in Ladakh, India. He is a freelance writer who has published in the Boston Globe, New York Times Magazine and Home Power magazine and he has built treehouses with Forever Young and worked on natural building projects at Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica. He completed his MS in the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley in 2009 and graduated from Dartmouth in 2001. Jon’s connections to Yestermorrow trace back to his internship here in the summer of 2004.

"Smart About Solar" FREE Seminar March 30th

If you are interested in stabilizing your electricity costs while taking tangible steps toward a cleaner planet, please join us next Tuesday, March 30th after work for cheese, crackers, cider and a candid discussion about the practical and financial aspects of implementing residential-scale solar photovoltaics in Vermont.

Who: Renewable energy experts with AllEarth Renewables (formerly Earth Turbines), a Williston-based company specializing in the design, manufacture and installation of grid-connected, residential-scale wind and solar electricity generation systems.
What: A free 'smart about solar' presentation titled "Surviving and Thriving in an Uncertain Energy Future."
When: 7:00 - 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 30
Where: Main Studio, Yestermorrow Design/Build School, 189 Route 100, Warren, VT
How to attend: Please RSVP to events@allearthrenewables.com or call Meghan Dewald at 802-872-9600, ext. 111.

Students build new counter for the Savoy Theater

Yestermorrow's Woodworking Intensive students recently completed a new concessions counter for the Savoy Theater in Montpelier, VT. The theater, recently under new ownership, is undertaking a series of renovations which started with the installation of the new cabinets and countertop. The Woodworking Intensive students built the project during the one week Cabinets Unlimited portion of their 10-week curriculum, led by instructors Larry Jacquette and Peter Buley.