STRAIGHTEN UP - Natural Awakenings

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Best known for her roles in such popular films as Splash,
Blade Runner and Kill Bill, actress Daryl Hannah is now
busy shedding light on environmental issues and working
hard to help improve the way people treat our planet. “It’s just
common sense to care about the environment,” she says. “I’ve
always understood and valued the interdependence of all life, the
idea that whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.”
Dwelling in a small community in the Rocky Mountains,
Daryl attends to her ethical-lifestyle website and serves as a
positive role model for living a simple, natural and healthy life.
How did you go about designing and building an
ecologically sustainable home?
My home is a small, recycled barn that was about to be torn
down to build a new post office. I salvaged the old barn and
carefully had it relocated and bermed into the side of a hill,
which faces southwest for optimal passive solar exposure.
The sun passes high in the summer for shade and low across
the sky in winter to warm the house.
20 Chicago North & North Shore www.NAChicagoNorth.com
The south wall of the house is like a greenhouse, where
spring water flows through and provides humidity in the dry,
high-altitude air. We used stones gathered from the site for
the fireplaces, bathroom and stairs. I’ve also used a number
of moss-covered stones in a “living” couch. I grow food in a
garden that is wildly productive when cared for.
“Off the grid” is a new term for some people.
How do you define it?
Off the grid literally means that an individual creates their
own power and has access to rain, well, spring or ground water.
I believe in being as self-sufficient as possible. Both passive
and active solar energy provides my power and I’m very lucky
to have a productive spring for water.
LOVING A
SUSTAINABLE LIFE
Heartfelt Perspective from Actress and Activist Daryl Hannah
by S. Alison Chabonais
What have been the most rewarding, as well
as the most challenging, aspects of achieving
your current Earth-friendly lifestyle?
More and more these days, I admire and crave simplification.
While filming the video blog for my website, dhLoveLife.com,
I have found it incredibly interesting to learn how many gifts
traditional knowledge holds and to discover amazing new
innovations. The more I learn, the more I try to adapt to and
adopt a simpler lifestyle.
Why do you choose to drive a biodiesel car?
I like opting out of the petroleum economy as much as possible,
and I love that I can drive on non-toxic waste. Biofuels
can be an important part of the solution to the energy crisis
we face, but even biofuels can be produced destructively. I
co-founded the U.S. Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance to help
people differentiate sustainable biodiesel from other, “bad
news,” biofuels.