As a follow up to last month’s post about BOULD, a Colorado-based social venture that is working to “end substandard housing through green building education,” comes another story from Boulder, Colorado about green homes for under-served populations. In this case, it is the University’s Sustainable Housing Project, which is part of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. The project’s director, Tom Bowen, is working to “develop a construction organization that builds homes using compressed earth blocks made from clay found on the [Crow] reservation” in Montana. According to an interview with CU Connections, the University of Colorado system’s online newsletter, “Good Earth Lodges employs tribal members to manufacture the blocks and build the energy-efficient structures.”
Many of the homes on the reservation are substandard. Several consist of modular trailers that have little to no insulation. These structures are not only unhealthy for the inhabitants, but incur enormous utility costs. According to the story, temperatures can reach 45 degrees below zero (as a curious side note, -40 degrees Celsius is equal to -40 degrees Fahrenheit) during the winter, resulting in heating bills that approach $600 per month. Coupled with high unemployment and little prospect for steady work, utility costs are stifling. Good Earth Lodges is located on the reservation, uses local resources, and serves as an employer in the community while building structures that also drive down heating bills.
