Green Houses; Designing for Health, Air-Quality and Energy Savings, a Workshop for Homeowners, to be Held on Saturday, June 2, 9 a.m. to noon at GHF Salvage Warehouse

Dwayne Jones to Speak on Roadside Architecture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2007
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834

Presented by Berry Smith and Tom Schwenk
GHF Salvage Warehouse, 908 23rd Street.
9 a.m. to noon
$10 at the door ($8 for GHF Members).
Call 409-765-7834

This Saturday, Galveston Historical Foundation is offering a class for homeowners interested in making their indoor environments healthy and energy-efficient. The class will cover heating and air-conditioning systems and indoor air quality along with issues like off-gassing (unhealthy fumes that can pollute indoor air if a house is too tightly sealed), healthy cleaning products, and how to reduce residential energy consumption in ways that also save money.

Workshop leaders will offer many examples of how indoor environments can become toxic—and what homeowners can do to measure toxicity and rectify potential problems. Leaders will present little-known environmentally significant facts about everyday items in every home: What are household products made of? Where are they from? What is their lifespan? Can they be re-used?

Workshop leader Berry Smith is the City of Galveston’s mechanical inspector. He gives classes and lectures regarding energy compliance and design criteria. Before going to work for the city, he was an independent mechanical contractor.

Workshop leader Tom Schwenk is the co-owner of Seminars by Design, a company that offers a variety of health, safety and welfare classes for interior designers, architects and the general public. An “eco-broker” with Joe Tramonte Realty, Schwenk is the first real estate agent in the Gulf Coast region with the “eco-broker” designation. According to Schwenk, eco-brokers receive specialized training and certification issues related to energy-efficient, sustainable, healthy design features in homes. Their training includes energy and environmental information on mold, radon, daylighting and indoor air quality issues.