Willow Bend Environmental Education Center and Coconino County’s Sustainable Building Program have organized a day to “Celebrate Sustainability” by providing two all day collaborative events on Saturday. Celebrate environmental education, sustainable living, and a future steeped in hope by attending Willow Bend’s 30th Anniversary Kick-Off Celebration and the Sustainable Home and Building Tour on May 31st from 9am-4pm! Willow Bend Environmental Education Center is celebrating 30 years of environmental education in Northern Arizona!!! Demonstrations of rainwater harvesting, solar cooking, and tours of their passive solar straw bale building will occur throughout the day. Willow Bend will showcase the many ways of decreasing our carbon footprints and offer suggestions and encouragement for folks in the Flagstaff community to do the same at their own homes. Family and children’s activities at the Anniversary Celebration will include scavenger hunts, nature walks into Sinclair Wash, music, storytelling, and more!!! Coconino County’s Sustainable Building Program celebrates sustainability by providing tours of residential and commercial buildings featuring green building practices and systems!!! The tour will showcase a variety of homes and buildings that have been awarded through the County Sustainable Building Program as well as the U. S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Included on the tour, are several locations such as Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, Mountain Meadow Permaculture Farm and architect, Paul Moore’s passive solar straw bale residence. These buildings lead by example! Willow Bend’s passive-solar straw bale education center has: low-water native gardens, rainwater harvesting system, alternatively-fueled vehicle, photovoltaic system, on-demand hot water heater, energy efficient lighting and energy star office equipment, composting and more! The Sustainable Home and Building Tour features different examples of straw bale construction, Navajo Flex-Crete masonry and green building approaches in large commercial buildings. The tour will provide hands on models for native landscaping, permaculture, renewable energy systems as well as rainwater and greywater collection and distribution methods. The self-guided tour will begin at 9 am at Willow Bend and the last tour will take place at NAU’s Applied Research and Development (ARD) Building at 1:30 p.m. Tour sponsors include: City of Flagstaff’s Sustainability Program and the Northern Branch of the U.S. Green Building Council. Willow Bend celebration sponsors include: Coconino Natural Conservation District, City of Flagstaff, Prometheus Solar, Flagstaff Cultural Partners and Coconino County. For more information about the Sustainable Home and Building Tour please visit the Coconino County Sustainable Building Program website or contact Amanda Acheson at aacheson@coconino.az.gov or (928) 679-8853 For more information about Willow Bend’s 30th Birthday Celebration please call 928-779-1745 or email Sapna Sopori at sapna@willowbendcenter.org | 
Email to a Friend
