Living by sun and wind

LENOX - A recycled solar-powered bicycle. A sun-generated oven made of cardboard and aluminum foil. A recipe for a 5,000 pound carbon-free diet. A lesson in turning a house green from roof to cellar.

All of that and much, much more is in store for visitors to the Green Living Fair at the Lenox Middle and High School on Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m.

Sponsored by the Lenox Environmental Committee, the fair is being held to encourage residents and businesses throughout Berkshire County to do whatever they can to help save the increasingly polluted planet Earth.

The fair will feature talks on the environment, workshops, exhibits and fun and games for children. Prizes will be awarded to student winners of Green Living poetry and poster contests. There will be a few surprises, including special gifts for the first 100 families who come to the fair.

Town Manager Gregory Federspiel, a leader in organizing the event, hopes that people will leave the fair determined to take positive steps in their home and business environments to reduce the flow of greenhouse gases that poison the environment.

"The message we are trying to deliver," Federspiel said in an interview,

"is that although global warming is a daunting problem, there are a lot of solutions out there now, and we need to start implementing them."

He hopes the fair will generate enough countywide interest in conservation to enable the formation of a Living Green Task Force of volunteers to mount a mass offensive against pollution and polluters.

Susan Olshuff, one of the fair's organizers, declared that "there has been enough talk about doomsday.

"We have learned the facts about global warming," she said in an interview. "The Green Living Fair will be a positive celebration of the human spirit and our inherent creativity to meet the challenges before us."

Some of the steps that can be taken right now to start solving some of the environmental problems will be demonstrated by the more than 30 exhibitors who have reserved spaces inside the school building and, weather permitting, on the school grounds.

State Sen. Benjamin Downing and Ross Robertson, associate editor of the What is Enlightenment magazine will speak, beginning at 1:30 p.m., in the Duffin Theater. They will ask, "How do we change the way we think? We now think about ourselves: 'What's in it for me? It's all about me.' Now we should shift to an awareness that we should all be connected in moving forward with new kinds of energy."

Workshops on solar energy and on projects for homes, such as pesticide reduction, composting and recycling, will be held in classrooms. There will be two sessions, at 3:15 and 4:45 p.m., with schedules posted at the school.

Federspiel will conduct two workshops, the first to encourage homeowners to buy 60-gallon barrels for catching rain water drained from house roofs for use in gardens and house plants. The barrels, costing $65 each, can be ordered at the fair.

The second will be devoted to a "Low Carbon Diet — Lose 5,000 pounds in 30 days." Federspiel will offer suggestions for changing daily habits to reduce "carbon footprints." Here are a few proposed steps: Start by taking shorter showers. Turn off lights, TVs and computers when not in use and install more efficient bulbs. Recycle more; throw out less trash. Drive less.

For those who can take more drastic, and costly, steps, Federspiel suggested: Trading in a gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient car; upgrading your furnace, getting a fuel-efficient water heater, and installing new environmentally acceptable insulation at home.

As one who has learned ecology from the ground up, Nana Simopoulous will come to the fair from Adams, where she and a partner have converted a rundown boarding house into the 100 percent pollution-free Topia Inn, with nine guest rooms, each with its own colorful motif.

She will lead a workshop to recount how they recycled the interior of the building with cotton insulation, clay-coated interior walls, ecologically processed wood floors, cotton and wool carpeting, special lighting and sinks made of recycled glass mixed with cement.

Solar panels on the roof generate 7,000 kilowatts of electricity a year.

Simopoulous plans to display samples of some of the material used in creating the green inn that has been reconstituted so that "no gasses escape from anything. We are not polluting the atmosphere at all."

Recycling is also on the agenda of Jamie Cahillane, director of recycling services and manager of waste reduction programs for the Center for Ecological Technology (CET). He will offer ways to conserve human and ecological energy.

Cahillane plans to ride his recycled bicycle to the fair to display it, with its new front wheel wired to a battery pack, motor and handlebar throttle. The conversion cost about $350. He rides it 17 miles each work day from his Lenox Dale home to CET in Pittsfield. When the bike needs fuel, he plugs it into a wall socket or a solar panel.

"It's not all about straight savings on fuel," he explained in an interview. "I do get exercise on it by pedaling on easy terrain and letting the motor give me a boost on hills. So I get health benefits as well as saving money on fuel for my car. I keep cool. No sweat."

Cahillane will also conduct a workshop on rain barrels and composting.

"I have had rain barrels at my house for years," he said. "My wife uses the water in the garden. We have saved hundreds, possibly thousands, of gallons of water. It's also better than water from a faucet because it hasn't been treated or used."

Solar power created for electricity or baking also are on the fair agenda. The Seventh Grade Explorers class at the Sylvio Conte Middle School in North Adams will demonstrate a solar oven made of cardboard and foil, and a solar power expert will explain how panels on the high school roof are reducing electric bills.

Led by Peggy Winslow, their teacher, three middle school students recently roasted hot dogs and apples on the Berkshire Museum front lawn in an oven they made to display on behalf of Solar Cookers International, which supplies refugees and an other displaced people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Chad with solar ovens. The students seek donations to support the provision of the ovens, which cost Solar Cookers $8 each.

In addition to finding a new way to help others, they are incorporating the ovens into their science class.

Carter Wilder-White, a professional solar panel installer, will lead a workshop in which he will talk about his work, emphasizing the solar panels he mounted on the Somers high school roof. He will explain solar-created electricity and government incentive programs for rebates covering part of the cost of panel installation. Sample solar data showing the savings on the school's electric bills will be on display.

The Town of Lenox will also discuss a law that would make it possible for homeowners to establish their private wind turbines for solar-powered household electricity. Federspiel, Cahillane and Olshuff acknowledged that the fair offers a full plate to serve the public.

Cahillane declared: "Whether only 10 people or 10,000 come to the fair, I will be happy."