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Environmental Commitment

My earliest childhood memories are of playing outside.  The forests around our mountain homestead in West Virginia became the playground for my siblings and me.  We headed for the woods when our homeschooling studies were finished (around noon) and often stayed out until hunger brought us back for dinner.  The deep respect and appreciation for nature that grew out of those early experiences, expanded with long-distance hiking, seeping outside, and a college education.  I majored in Environmental Studies at Bates College and worked for three years on waste reduction and recycling in the college dining hall.  I believe that running a business requires environmental responsibility that should go well beyond the current norm.  While it might be slightly more time intensive I think that it is our responsibility both as individuals and businesses to do all that we can to lower the environmental impact of our daily lives.  
 

The Mouse Works is going Solar!
I am in the process of installing a 4.5kw photovoltaic system that will provide twice the amount of electricity that The Mouse Works and our Household of 2 consumes!   Photos will be coming soon.


 Teaching compass skills to a local student on a biodiversity research study in Madagascar.

Recycled Fleece?
First, all of the Malden Mills fleece that I use is "trash" from factories. Due to their large production facilities they cannot use the ends of the bolts, flawed fabric or old colors. That is where I come in. Each year I purchase hundreds if not thousands of yards of this discarded material to make into hats. My hats are the same quality as those made from virgin Polartec Fabric from Malden Mills.  The difference is that the environmental impact is far less and you get a wider selection of colors and textures.

Secondly Malden Mills makes some of its fleece out of recycled soda pop bottles.  The technology of this process is so good that you can not tell the difference which makes it impossible for me to know how much of my fleece is made from recycled plastic due to the way that I purchase it.

Want to recycle your old fleece clothing? 
Send it to Patagonia and they can melt it down spin it into new fabric!

 
Fleece scraps insulate my storage shed ceiling!  		Recycling in action
Hand cutting hats out of fabric maximizes the usage of fabric.  But still I generate large piles of scraps.  I tediously cut larger scraps into small hat tassels or use them for patchwork clothing.  Those that I cannot use for sewing become pillow stuffing for dog and human pillows that I give away.  I have never thrown away any fleece scraps (except for some floor sweepings).   To the left is a bag of scraps that I can not use for hats that will soon become pillow stuffing.  Imagine a room 10 foot square filled four to five feet deep in scraps, that is how much I recycle each year! 
Waste
One can judge the effectiveness of recycling by looking at the amount of trash that goes to the landfill.   In 2007 my production hung out at about 3000 hats and I still only filled one paper grocery bag with trash.  It could be less but it is the best that I can do.  I would estimate that 95% or more of my business waste is recycled. 


Fleece scraps from the cutting table.

Entire Business trash from 2009 fit in one grocery bag. Now that is recycling
 

"There is nothing like home-grown tomatoes" 
This tomato plant grew pretty huge while I was backpacking the northern half of the Pacific Crest Trail



Gardening
We try to grow as much food as possible in our own back yard.  It just tastes better and is far less energy intensive and chemically safer than store bought veggies.    To see more photos please visit my gardening page.

No Daily Commute
My daily commute involves walking inside from my outdoor sleeping spot greatly reducing the amount of gas usage and harmful emissions from my car.  In the fall I travel to festivals so I do put 2-3000miles on my vehicle then.

 
New "Green" Studio-House
During the summers of  2005-6 I built a new home for my self and the Mouse Works.   While I was on a tight budget and doing most of the work myself I tried to incorporate many affordable green building practices into the construction. Here are a few:
  1. The house is built on a large concrete slab and is partly earth-bermed on the north and east sides.  This provides a slightly cooler space in the summer and warmer in the winter.  
  2. The building is oriented to take advantage of passive solar heat gain in the winter.
  3. I super insulated the building using recycled newspaper.  The earth-bermed cinderblock wall cavities were insulated with used packing beads and fleece scraps!  It took only 1/2 cord of wood to heat the house last winter!
  4. Most of the windows are recycled from houses and construction sites.
    Light colored energy star metal roof
  5. My entire workshop is lit by window light during the day and by night with energy efficient florescent bulbs. 
  6. The trash from the entire construction fit into one station wagon car!
  7. In the spring of 2008 I recycled a 1984 vintage hot water solar system.  After numerous headaches and replacing broken components it is working fabulously.  We regularly have eighty gallons of 150-180 degree water!
  8. I am exploring putting photovoltaic solar on the roof next year.  If you have any knowledge that you can pass my way please do so.


The Weedy patch in the foreground is a rainwater garden that absorbs the runoff piped from my gutters.  I am trying to establish a cranberry bog in part of it.  You can see my raised-bed garden in front of my studio-house.

Click here to see more photos of the new studio-house

 


The newly installed 24 year old hot water solar panels.   And check out the new porch on the left!
 


The new homemade pantry door open to view the hot water solar system.  The 80 gallon tank regularly stays between 150-180 degrees!  The blue circle is the heat exchanger that converts the antifreeze heat from the panels to the domestic hot water. 

Other Initiatives

  1. Much of my equipment comes from sources that salvage from damaged and closing factories.  Buying used equipment has a smaller impact on the environment than new equipment.
  2. Dumpster Diving.  Yep that is right much of my personal and business supplies (lights chairs, office supplies, paper, plastic bags, etc) come from scrounging through other people's trash.  
  3. If you buy a hat from me at a craft fair I will give it to you in a recycled plastic bag.   That saves around 2,000 bags each year!
  4. I print all of my internal office documents on the back of used paper.  New recycled content paper is only used for business correspondence. 
  5. Some waste like the spools from the 200 miles of thread that I generate is donated to a local school for art projects.
  6. Most individual hat orders are shipped in recyclable paper envelopes while larger orders are shipped in recyclable Tyvek priority mail envelopes.   Both are made partly from recycled content.
  7. I also donate to environmental groups and write letters to elected officials about environmental causes that I think are important.
  8. I vote for environmentally oriented public office candidates.