As a community we are blessed with an abundance of folks who care about the environment and are engaged in a variety of efforts to reduce their individual impact as well as our cumulative impact on the environment. Some of those folks have gotten together to form the Teton Climate Collaborative and launch what’s being called the Teton Area 10×10 initiative.
Our Statement of Ideal is to lead and support efforts resulting in increasingly efficient resource use in the Tetons region every year. To that end, one of the primary support services we want to provide is a forum for people to ask questions–any question, from simple to complex that concerns resource use and how to use those precious resources more efficiently.
So here you go: submit your questions to our growing panel of experts and we’ll post your question and the expert’s answer in the main column of the Web site.
And, just in case you’re curious about who our panel of experts are, here’s a quick look at who might be answering your question:
Lower Valley Energy
As our local energy provider, Lower Valley Energy wants to help us all use energy more efficiently. If you want to know if there are improvements you can make for a more energy-efficient home, just ask their conservation expert Wid Ritchie.
LVE’s Energy Audits help you identify energy-efficient improvements and their Home Weatherization Incentives help you pay for them. Their Marathon water heaters are guaranteed not to leak for the life of your home. And they are truly excited about Green Power and their ability to offer the option to customers to buy renewable energy.
Lower Valley Energy, your local energy provider for over 70 years, is also your source of energy savings programs.
Nancy Taylor
Some people have a green thumb — Nancy Taylor has a green heart, mind and soul. Nancy is the author of “Go Green: How to Build an Earth Friendly Community,” teaches classes in yoga, meditation and green building, has a business called Green Living and Building Consulting, and has written the weekly “Going Green” column for Planet Jackson Hole since 2004. Reflecting Nancy’s wide range of environmental interests, her columns have covered the gamut from global warming to toxic chemicals to renewable energy. Nancy also has her own Web site at www.NancyHTaylor.com.
Andy Tyson
Co-founder and owner of Creative Energies, Andy works as a green building consultant and oversees Creative Energies’ operations in Teton Valley, Wyoming and in eastern Idaho. Certified by RESNET as a Home Performance Specialist, Andy is also a Solar Energy International graduate. Andy participated as a design team member of the LEED Greater Yellowstone Framework for Sustainable Development and as a business participant of the Uncommon Sense program established by Yellowstone Business Partnership.
Andy is a former mountain guide and expedition leader, having worked as a NOLS instructor and Exum Guide, and has served as a guide on numerous peaks, including the Grand Teton, Cho Oyu in Tibet and Mount Vinson in Antarctica. He is a published author and lives with his wife Molly in their passive solar and solar electric home in Victor, Idaho.
