Garrett Gauthier

Garrett Gauthier's picture
Basic Info
Wild Gift Class Year: 
2011
Work Focus: 
Affordable/Green Housing
Education
Energy
Sustainable Food & Agriculture
Water
Location: 
Hamilton  Ontario
Canada
Current Occupation: 
Lead Organizer of Your Sustainability Toolkit
Website: 
http://PedalAcrossTheAmericas.com/
Blogs/Social Media: 
http://pedalacrosstheamericas.com/the-journal/
https://twitter.com/#!/PedalProject
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pedalacrosstheamer...
Images of Sawtooth horizons, of paint-peppered alpine meadows, of tourmaline lakes, of sun-coloured straw-covered hills, of rushing and relentless river rapids, and most of all of caring, passionate, motivated people will forever inspire my vision of a better world... Thank you Wild Gift!
My Story: 

My enthusiasm for sustainable households and "green" technologies was first sparked in 2005 during a reunion with a long-lost cousin in eastern Ontario.  This cousin's home – built at a fraction of the cost of most new houses, yet wholly comfortable and uncompromisingly eco-friendly – struck me as clear evidence that a sustainable society is far from just an ideal and is already quite possible.

I've been studying and experimenting with "household-scale" sustainable technologies ever since.  Renewable energy, passive solar design, wastewater recycling, composting toilets, and backyard food production – my goal is to help others include such systems into their homes and workplaces.

In 2009, I helped to initiate the Onaen Sustainable Housing Project in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.  Onaen is a testing ground and demonstration centre for the kinds of sustainable technologies mentioned above.  Then, in 2010, I organized and led P.E.D.A.L. Across the Americas, a series of documentary bicycle tours to research sustainable technologies, households, and communities.  Past and present P.E.D.A.L. members have cycled over 6000 miles so far to document such initiatives.

My 2011 Wild Gift trek instilled in me a new sense of ambition and focus, and has opened up some very exciting future collaboration.  Since the trek, I've been acting as lead organizer for Your Sustainability Toolkit, an online resource kit for practical and do-it-yourself sustainable living.  The Toolkit shares proven technologies and ideas that are straightforward and affordable – everything in the Toolkit has already been pioneered by real-life sustainable households.  Currently, information collected by the P.E.D.A.L. tours is being turned into user guides or "Tools" for Your Sustainability Toolkit.

Beginning in summer 2012, Your Sustainability Toolkit will be put to the test when technologies featured in the 'Kit are re-created and shown off at the Onaen Sustainable Housing Project.  In the years that follow, other "demonstration centres" and households throughout North America will join Onaen in teaching practical, real-life sustainable living, with Your Sustainability Toolkit as the primer.

In between this work, whenever possible, I enjoy baking and playing the piano.

Garrett on Twitter (@PedalProject):

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