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Homegrown eco-show puts the fun in going green
Jac MacDonald, The Edmonton Journal October 27th
Published: 3:52 am
EDMONTON — In the first episode of My Green House, Kailin See takes the homeowner by the arm as they take a tour discussing ways of getting more Earth-friendly at home.
Later, Shannon Strumecki combines her snappy clothing choices and environmental sensibilities with a shopping spree at Edmonton’s Divine Decadence. Travis Milne learns how to build a wind generator for the back yard, and Andrew Misle talks about the benefits of organic food choices. Finally, Jesse Lipscombe talks about how to recycle lightbulbs — don’t throw them out in the garbage!
These are five exuberant young hosts who entertain viewers with numerous green alternatives in 13 episodes of this spirited show. All shot in Edmonton, the show takes the youthful zest of the Prank Patrol and mixes it with the facts and how-to of This Old House, with a little food and fashion thrown in for good measure.
The fivesome troop into an Edmonton home once a week for 30 minutes and show the homeowner where to make positive changes, suggestions like making a functioning composter and chipping away at that trusty old carbon footprint.
“The show feels like a bridge to people who aren’t necessarily so green right now, which is kind of like myself,” says Lipscombe, an Edmonton-based high jumper in training for the 2008 Olympics. “I don’t have an R2000 home, I don’t drive a Yaris, and my clothes aren’t organic cotton,” he says.
The five hosts combine their love of acting with their love of the environment. Kalin See combines studied environmental sciences in Vancouver and Strumecki is an environmental educator and performing artist from Calgary.
“When something comes along that is actually in line with what you kind of aspire to as a person, what you believe in, you have to jump at the chance to be in it. That is what this show is, something that has meaning and value and worth,” See says.
Strumecki, 30, brings knowledge from stints with the Calgary Zoological Society, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Evergreen Theatre. “This combines my worlds. To have potentially hundreds of thousands of people watch this show and change their world, that’s a dream,” she says.
The show was created by Ron E. Scott of Edmonton’s Prairie Dog Film and Television. Producer and co-director Jesse Schewchuk, 28, helped put it together with actors Andrew Misle, 28, Travis Milne, 21, as well as Lipscombe, 27, See and Strumecki.
The green team fanned out and shot this show in one intensive week, three episodes a day. All of it was shot right here in River City, profiling green pioneers like Peter Amerongen.
Amerongen’s company Habitat Studio and Workshop is building a zero-net-energy house in Edmonton’s Riverdale neighbourhood. The house will generate electricity and heat, and give back as much or more energy to the grid as it uses.
But going green doesn’t have to be that sophisticated. The show demonstrates how easy it can be to cut grass (with a push-mower) or roll out the rain barrel, Schewchuk says.
It’s fun, inspired, eco-friendly television to take away fear and confusion, she says.
- My Green House airs every Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. on Access TV. Catch it on Canadian Learning Television (CLT) Wednesdays at 6:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 6 a.m. jmacdonald@thejournal.canwest.com