By Daily Press staff
A new half-hour television program highlighting the basics of eco-friendly living will premiere at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment next month.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, at 2 p.m. “GoingGreen — Every Home an Eco-Home” shows how people can live earth-friendly lives on a limited budget even in the middle of a city.
The program was inspired by the work of Julia S. Russell, an eco-pioneer who founded the nonprofit Eco- Home Network, now in its third decade. Russell raised her two children in a 1911 home in Los Feliz, which over the years has undergone total environmental renovation. Russell grows most of her own food on the small city lot, which includes 28 fruit and nut trees, and feeds “extra” electricity from solar panels back to the grid, becoming a neighborhood green energy station. The site is also unique because, while it remains Russell’s home, it also is a public demonstration site. Local school groups and people from around the world have visited.
The TV show mixes man-on-the-street humor with everyday affordable ways to live more environmentally friendly lifestyles in homes and apartments. The show tours Eco-Home with middle-school kids who discover first-hand some simple, inexpensive ways to become more earth friendly.
Guided by Russell, the children learn how to conserve water through drip irrigation, soaker hoses, graywater systems and drought-tolerant, “California-friendly” landscaping. They discover why and how to compost, what household hazardous waste may lurk in their homes, and how the sun’s energy can light, heat and power their own homes with sun pipes, solar hot water heaters and solar panels.
The Institute of the Environment was created to generate knowledge, provide solutions for regional and global environmental problems, and educate the next generation of professional leadership committed to the health of the planet.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 26, 2005. Read the original PDF.