Sponsored by the Western North Carolina Alliance, an organization whose umbrella groups work to protect air and water quality, forests, and ecosystems in the North Carolina mountains, the three-day Expo was modeled after the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, with one exception. Rather than focus solely on renewable energy, SEE's organizers also included environmental advocacy groups. According to Ned Doyle, a member of the Alliance and one of the Expo's main organizers, a marriage of alternative energy and environmental concerns is a natural.
"Environmental action includes sustainable energy and economic development," says Doyle, a tall man with long gray hair, a long beard to match, and a very deep voice. Imagine one part Barry White and one part hippie and you've got Doyle. "It's not just energy, and it's not just the environment," he said.
Forty-six businesses and organizations set up shop at SEE, ranging from the expected to those that stretched the imagination.
Jim Tonseth's business, We Recycle Tires, probably falls into the latter category. Tonseth invents, manufactures and sells products made from recycled racing tires. The Salsbury resident has been doing this for 15 years, and operates out of a warehouse full of 60,000 tires, all waiting to be transformed.
"Fifteen years or so ago I was at a Festival watching a guy make doormats from old tires, and I thought, 'Wow! He's making something useful out of garbage.'" Tonseth says. "And now I'm doing it."
Tonseth, a small, intense man wearing a heavy apron, stood beside a wooden rack impaled with several vertical metal rods where he made doormats for appreciative onlookers. In addition to the doormats, Tonseth also makes compost cookers, sleds, swings, dart boards, key chains -- anything he thinks people might want -- from retired racing tires. Business was booming at Tonseth's booth, and he said he was surprised by what people wanted.
"We expected that the rubber fencing would be the big item -- it often is at festivals," he explained, adding that the fencing lasts 20-25 years and requires no maintenance. "Surprisingly, (people were most interested) in this," he said, pointing to a compost container made from three tires piled on top of each other and a cover fashioned from the sawed-off side of a tire. "And the racing tire toboggans (sleds)!" he stopped, laughing. "I brought 19 or 20 with me, and I've sold almost all of them," he said.
Another exhibitor devoted to recycling is the Carolina Recycling Association, a Raleigh-based group "made up of individuals, municipalities, and industry," said Noel Lyons, a CRA board member and president of McGill Environmental Systems in Wilmington. "We're out to promote recycling through all legal means -- education, legislation," said Lyons. CRA's goal for the Expo, said Lyons, was "to make people aware of us and use us as a resource."
The lure of recycling drew at least one couple to the Expo. Tim and Jody, who didn't want to give their last name, came from Ware Shoals, SC, in part because Jody "love[s] the idea of recycling anything and everything," she said. "I also said if there's ever an expo on Alternate Energy nearby, I want to go, and here it is," she continued.
It's not a huge leap from composting to recycling to alternate energy sources. Sources such as solar, wind, water, and landfill gasses (produced by the decomposition of organic materials in landfills) basically either recycle a substance (such as garbage) or make use of naturally occurring substances, such as sunlight, wind, and H2O. Despite some naysayers' arguments, alternate energy sources do work, and they're available from a number of manufacturers right now. The problem is that these alternate energy sources are often expensive on the front end. Many of those who choose to invest in alternate energy do it because they live in remote areas, they care about the environment -- and sometimes to spite Big Brother.
"When I built my house, the utility company wanted to cut a 40-foot swath of woods to put in an electric line, and I didn't want that," said June Engman, a short-haired, middle-aged woman from Yancey County. "I'd always been interested in conservation, but I hadn't considered solar until then," she said, smiling. To save the trees, Engman installed solar panels and says she would do it again. "Every time people turn on a light, some power plant is burning coal," she said. Meanwhile, Engman, whose appearance suggests someone who works in a corporate office, "is totally off the (energy) grid, and [hasn't] paid an electric bill in 20 years."
Solar suppliers were very much present during the three-day expo, using their equipment to power the indoor and outdoor stages where speakers and musicians took turns. Sundance Power Systems from Mars Hill, the Solar Village Institute from Saxapahaw, The Solar Guys from Burnsville, and Solar Connexion, from Blacksburg, VA, competed for visitor attention. Meanwhile, NC State's North Carolina Solar Center, the North Carolina Solar Energy Association, the Appalachian State University Solar Energy Society, and a similar student group from the University of North Carolina-Asheville, advocated for solar and other alternate energy practices.
Kristi Jeffcoats, an Appropriate Technology major at Appalachian State, demonstrated solar ovens and talked about her major. "We're the only school in the United States with this type of program -- as far as hands-on work -- except for one school in California," she said.
The program, Appropriate Technology (AT), offers course work in construction, drafting and design, wood and metalworking, as well as instruction in solar, hydro, and wind technologies and green building. According to school literature, AT has been offered at Appalachian State for the past 17 years. Although she says she loves the program, Jeffcoats says she wishes it was easier to find a job in her field.
"We keep hearing that alternate energy is growing, but where are the jobs?" she asked.
One option for graduates is to start their own businesses. Two such graduates, Damian Keyes and Marcus Renner, studied Appropriate Technology at Appalachian State, then started a business called Appropriate Building Solutions. Their exhibit at SEE included samples of the "rustic" grade lumber they use to build decks, wood floors, and trim. According to Keyes, the rustic lumber they use is often discarded by big retailers because it has knots or other "defects" in the grain.
"But look at it," said Renner, pointing to a sample of cherry wood. "Those so-called imperfections make it beautiful and unique. And because it's considered 'a second' we can sell it for less," he says. In addition to woodwork, Keyes and Renner also design and build sustainable homes using conventional and unconventional home building techniques.
"The idea of sustainability is to consume resources slower than (those resources) become available -- if a house only stands for 30 years and has to be rebuilt every generation or so, the demand for raw materials rises substantially," Keyes explained. "Observe the growing piles of particleboard cabinets and furniture in landfills; this is the net result of poor craftsmanship and inferior materials. We want to do it right the first time."
If Keyes and Renner want to build a different type of house, Cindy Meehan-Patton wants to furnish and design healthy home interiors. Through her business, Shelter Ecology, Meehan-Patton both designs "healthy" homes and sells products, such as paint, finishes, and specially produced carpet, floor and window treatments that are free of chemicals. According to Traci Kearns, Meehan-Patton's design assistant, "Cindy has multiple chemical sensitivities, so she's been researching this area for years. A large percentage of our clientele are people who are chemically sensitive, but we're trying to make our [services] more mainstream," said Kearns.
At least some of the people attending the Expo were also interested in making the technologies and products exhibited more appealing to a mass audience. Derrick Jones, a builder from Asheville, says he came "because I wanted to see what kind of green building products were here -- that, and radiant heat systems," said Jones. However, he says he is "interested in doing a type of component that makes the radiant heat installation process more cost effective -- installation is at least 50 percent of the cost now, and I want to bring that cost down," he explained.
The WNC Alliance expected as many as 10,000 people over the course of the weekend, and while no firm figure were available as of Saturday afternoon, organizer Doyle was all smiles. "I don't have the numbers, but I know it's great," he said. If numbers at the Earth-Sheltered Housing workshop were any sign, Doyle wasn't exaggerating. At least 70 people sat in plastic fold-out chairs and wrote notes in their program guides as Rob Roy, proponent of alternative housing and mortgage-free living, shared some of the knowledge he'd gained after building countless earth-sheltered and cordwood homes. During the three days, sessions such as Passive Solar Design, Wind Energy Projects, Introduction to Natural Building, Solar Tax Credits in NC, and Saving Forests From Chip Mills were offered, while speakers addressed issues as diverse as how to live mortgage-free and how to recognize and harvest wild mushrooms.
What is SEE's Future? According to Chris Carter, who along with his wife, Lynne, runs the Solar Village Institute, the future is bright for both alternative energy and the Expo. Solar Village does site design, installation, maintenance, and trouble-shooting for their solar, wind, and hydro system-buying clients. According to Carter, "in the future, we're going to find ways to use micro-grids and to power our cities through many small places rather than large places," he said. As for SEE, "It will be unstoppable. This type of event [is a] bridge [between] technology and people. People will demand that [SEE] happens next year and the next year, and after that," he said.