Sustainable Settings' Dairy Barn Team just received word that we will be receiving
$75,000 from CORE to help complete the renewable energy systems for the new Dairy Barn!
Steve Novy, Green Line Architects' principal, co-wrote the
grant application with Brook LeVan, Executive Director of Sustainable Settings.
The grant award will be used to offset the costs of the Solar
Hot Water System, PV Solar Electric System, and Anaerobic Methane Digester.
You've probably heard about solar hot water and solar electric
systems, but what about methane digestion? What is that all about?
Capturing and burning methane is a holistic process with many
benefits:
-The methane provides energy and offsets the use of propane.
-Burning methane eliminates a greenhouse gas that increases
global temperature 25 times more than equal amounts of CO2.
-Burning the methane eliminates odors on the farm and
significantly reduces flies.
-Two byproducts of this process, the separated solids and
effluent, will be used as organic fertilizer on our pastures. The
effluent from the digester is a potential income generator as it is a product
that can be sold to small scale growers.
Meet our talented Project Team:
Brook Levan - Team Leader
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Brook Levan received a MFA,
NYSCC from Alfred University, BFA, Kansas City Art Institute. He is a certified
Permaculture designer and consultant and an alumnus of the Institute for Social
Ecology (1978). He has consulted, practiced and taught sustainable design,
green building, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, wetland creation and
art and design. Mr. Levan is a Fulbright Scholar and has extensive research and
travel in Africa, Asia and North and Central America. He has held faculty
positions at Pomona College, University of Connecticut and James Madison University.
He has published, lectured and exhibited internationally. Mr. Levan is a
National Advisory Board Member of Solar Energy International and The Wright Way
Foundation, a founding Board Member of the Thompson Divide Coalition, and Board
Member of Grass Roots TV.
Rose Levan
Co-Founder, Office Manager and Agricultural Manager (and daily
gopher!) Rose Levan has a BFA in Graphics and Communication, Florida State
University. Mrs. Levan founded and directed Cultural Arts Together, as an
education outreach program of The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, a
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Omaha, NE. She was the Art Director at
Sandven Advertising, Kansas City, MO. As a Mentor/Educator, Mrs. Levan worked
with children in the BOCES program, New York and COMPASS Mentor/Apprenticeship
Program, Woody Creek, CO. Mrs. Levan is a baker, organic garden-farmer and
green builder.
Over the years, my wife Rose and I have received grants from
CORE and other organizations. We believe that we have demonstrated a
unique ability to maximize the results of money raised. We have leveraged
donor funds and grant requests and shown that we are extremely well qualified
to manage grant funds; and to complete projects on time, on budget and
according to plan.
Herdsman, Zopher Sabo, grew up in Kansas and worked in
management and sales for The Sharper Image. He started at Sustainable Settings
as an intern in 2011. As Herdsman, Zopher manages the land, including
irrigation, rotational grazing, and planting the pasture. He manages the
animals including dairy cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and horses. He operates
and manages the dairy including milking, herd health, marketing, sales and
bookkeeping.
Market Garden Manager, Sunny Morehouse, She holds
her Permaculture Design Certification and completed a Herbal Medicine
Internship: Jama-Cohuaque Forest Reserve in Camarones, Manabi, Ecuador. Sunny
brings her experiences from Roaring Gardens, CRMPI, and Rolling Acres Farm
to Sustainable Settings. Sunny joined us as our Garden Manager this winter
2015. She is in charge of plantings, rotations, harvesting and sales. Her
responsibilities include managing the CSA, Ranch Market and Ranch store
sales.
Steven A. Novy, AIA, Principal - Project Architect
Steve is a native of Denver and studied in Lyon, France in high
school before moving to Boulder, Colorado. There, he received his bachelor’s
degree in environmental design, with an emphasis on historic preservation, from
the University of Colorado. He and his wife Julia lived in Nagano, Japan after
college, where Novy planned large water recreation resorts for Nihon Sekkei
(Japan Architecture). He is a building scientist and team leader who is
continually pushing the envelope of forward thinking building design. Steve
spearheads the design work of Green Line Architects', working out elegant
solutions to tricky design problems.
Applying for a grant named after Randy Udall has great meaning
to Steve. He had the unique privilege of working with Randy Udall and
Joani Matranga on the NextGen Affordable Homes in Blue Creek Ranch outside of
Carbondale, which is an applied research project showing the many benefits of
thoughtful sustainable design. NREL’s testing and monitoring of these
homes shows that anyone can build a home with zero incremental cost increase as
compared to the local standard of care, and achieve 20% better energy
efficiency than a code-compliant home, just by using good design practices.
The research also showed that with solar hot water and PV, which was a mere 10%
cost increase over the standard construction, can achieve 50% better energy
efficiency.Mr. Novy wrote and received a $25,000 Home Depot Foundation grant to
offset the costs of design, testing and monitoring of the homes, which helped
leverage REMP funds received from CORE and initiated many in-kind contributions
from project partners.
Originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, Beatriz grew up in a
bicultural setting. She graduated from Basalt High School and studied
architecture at “El Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua” with an emphasis on
vernacular studies and design. She holds the title of Arquitecta. Beatriz
has had the opportunity to work both in the US and Mexico on very diverse types
of projects such as high end residences to affordable housing,
community/recycling centers to restaurants and commercial buildings. She is
passionate about sustainable and conscientious design, and loves to travel.
Engineers:
SGM- Mechanical, Energy, Transportation, Water Augmentation
Louis Meyer, PE – Principal Engineer
Jeff Grebe, PE – Senior Energy Engineer
Mike Suhrbier, CEM – Energy Modeling Expert
Lee Barger – Transportation Engineer
KL & A - Structural Engineering
Brian Malone – Timberframe Expert
Solar Hot Water/Heating/Plumbing Expert - SolarFlair
- Patrick Johnson
Solar Electric Expert - Sunsense - Scott Ely
Special Consultant - Amory Lovins, RMI Founder
