Living Green With Tammy Hooper

Tammy Hooper is an eco-broker and licensed sales associate with Resort Property Realty, Inc. Look for her column, "Living Green with Tammy Hooper," as a regular feature of "The Green Sheet Eastern Sierra." E-mail her at tammy@rockstarrealestate. com and visit http://www.rockstarrealestate.com//.

 June 2009

With spring's arrival and the earth warming, my hands yearn to feel the soil of my garden again. Our backyard has emerged from winter, which means it's time to review last year's cornucopia of garden notes and landscape periodicals. In preparation of another high yielding, drought resistant season of garden production, I am reminded of a funny story that hits home. You should know that Al Gore used to be my inspiration...not anymore. His daughter, Kristen Gore has replaced him. She is more than an inspiration to me ... she is a visionary, a futurist, prophet, creative thinker, and a seer. And, she is also a humorist. In her article, "Herbicide in the First Degree - How to kill your lawn and not feel bad about it," (Plenty: The World in Green, August/September 2008), she tells a comical story of moving to Los Angeles and immediately setting out to kill her lawn. I found her piece funny until I pondered the real message. My laughter turned to a stare out the window of my own home, looking at all the green grass fringed with snow in my backyard. Previously, I hadn't given much thought about it. I wondered if anyone else in my neighborhood had either. So, I called out to my man in the house and asked him what he saw. Unexpectedly, and to my surprise, he responded with a quick, "A beautiful green water guzzler." His answer was shocking to me since it was his idea to create the expanse of lawn last year. Was this the change in his perception I was after? Was he willing to forfeit the lawn area for a productive garden? As a believer in "organic" change, I saw this as an opportunity. Awareness was settling in. At the height of the cold-blooded herbicide execution, Gore was concerned that her actions did not endear her to the new neighbors with their pristine lawns. "How would they feel about xeriscape, an organic landscape composed of native plants, designed to conserve water and protect habitat?" Closer to home, how was my family going to conserve energy by landscaping in a more sustainable way? As the dog ran across the backyard, my husband looked at me and said, "I can't kill, I've never killed and I won't start now. But, I promise, the next yard and garden will be all yours!" As an avid organic gardener, this brought joy to my heart. Since reading about Gore's waterwise garden application, our family has also learned about outdoor water management. California legislation mandates that on January 1, 2010, smart clocks and hydro zones be implemented into all residential landscape plans. Terms like MAWA (Maximum Applied Water Allowance), allowable stress, hydro zones and water audits will be the norm. As responsible neighbors, we are committed to a more ecological landscape  lan by utilizing this new technology and potentially saving us money and the Earth, energy. Together we can responsibly increase our flower and vegetable garden footprints and reduce the size of our lawns by simply following the new guidelines.  Consider this: the grass IS greener on the other side of the fence ... with a sustainable landscape. Next time you decide to create a lawn area and landscape, go green and consult with a micro climate and organic gardening expert! In Mammoth Lakes/June Lake: Earl Henderson Landscape Micro Climate Design and Water Audit Services, 760.914.1167 and Mammoth Lakes Nursery Organic Gardening Products, contact Jenny Bouwman, 760.934.6012. And in Bishop: Bishop Nursery, Native Plants and Irrigation Supplies. Contact Wayne 760.873.7515.

May 2009

Like many long-time locals, Mammoth realtor Tammy  Hooper came here for the lifestyle. "It was young, outdoors friendly," said the San Francisco Bay native. "Actually, I'm from Danville, California, to be exact. It's small, poshy...sort of like La Jolla only with more fog," she said with laugh. An avid mountain climber, Hooper had no problem trading fog for snow, and when she arrived held a lot of jobs, including coaching ski racing. The only hitch was that deep down she knew her future career was out there somewhere, and coaching wasn't it. Then she applied for the job that would change her life: a gig with a development company. Hooper took to real estate and development like a duck to water and hasn't looked back. She learned everything she could about the industry, from sales to marketing and back again - you name it, she's probably done it. It wasn't until she married her husband, a home developer for more than 40 years, that she caught the entrepreneurial bug and set out on her own. Charting her own course in Mammoth's often turbulent real estate market, she was successful, but says only recently did she find her niche: as an EcoBroker, real estate jargon for "an education and certification program for real estate industry professionals, who care about the environment and want to promote energy-efficient and ‘green' features in homes and buildings." These days, the environment is where it's at, with the so-called "green-collar" job market eyeing a progressively bigger place in the workforce. Hooper, however, was going green, long before real estate went green. "I've been going green for years," she explained, starting first with "exuberance" for organic gardening. "I want to leave the Earth a better place," she stated. When she started learning about the "healthy home" concept, which integrates enhanced energy efficiency, clean air and  renewable features, Hooper said it became obvious that this was important to her clients. "They were asking about it and that got me to take a second look at it from a business perspective." What's business now will one day cross over into law since California's "green governor," Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed Title 24. Also know as the "Green Initiative," Title 24 mandates that non-commercial buildings show a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency by 2015, and encourages the private sector to meet the same goal. "I was at a green building conference in Sacramento earlier this year and when I heard his ideas for California they inspired me so much that I am using his plan as a platform," Hooper said. Green terminology may sound Greek today, but according to Hooper it is already on its way to becoming common conversation. "Terms such as ‘LEED,' (short for Leadership in Environmental Energy & Design) and ‘healthy home' will be everyday language. I'm just getting fluent in it now," Hooper said. One thing she believes in as much as being green is the concept of ‘no realtor left behind.' As she puts it, "If you're not embracing this movement now, it'll be darn near impossible to catch up. I'm already establishing myself as a leader, but what I really want is for the whole real estate community to be part of this. We all need to be working toward the same goal; that's what's best for the marketplace and the clients." There may not be much "green" product on the market yet, but Hooper's not sitting around just watching her organic grow. She's already working on ways to provide the new service that she says traditional real estate hasn't previously offered. "I'm offering complimentary healthy home analysis to make their home more attractive or better to live in," Hopper said. And the house doesn't have to be for sale. "I can do that on a consulting basis. In the long run, a healthy home is ultimately a more valuable home. Why should they listen to her? "I know what I'm talking about. I've done my homework. I'm involved," she replied. Hooper, who's also a member of [Truckee-based] Sierra Green Building Association, says she and husband John already have some green projects in the works for the future utilizing alternative energies. "Only leave your footsteps," is part of the code of backcountry living. Hooper's convinced she can bring that convention into everyone's daily life. "Lots of people know how to reuse and recycle, which is great, but the healthy home mantra is a philosophy I can share with my customers," she effused. "Look, a home is the biggest ticket purchase many of them will ever make. They're going to buy a home anyway, so why not make Earth's energy a part of that purchase."

Fall 2008

This season begs for new direction concerning energy consumption and presents the opportunity to go green. Now is the time to accept the celebration of change in the air. As you enjoy this holiday season with your family, our family would like you to join us in the green revolution. Our family is making an honest attempt to change...To go GREEN! A friend and mentor to our family, Lisa Isaacs, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Environmental Programs Director, encouraged us to move toward the inevitable. She introduced us to terms such as "carbon footprint," "renewable energy," "green triangle" and "life cycle." Since then, we have found that there are many shades of "green." Living green doesn't mean that you have to completely change your lifestyle. It does, however, mean a change must occur today for a healthier tomorrow. It also means that small steps today can change the things for generations to come. Our introduction included the state's Governors' Economic and Green Team Plan for change (www.green.ca.gov/GreenActionTeam). We also started reading books and accessing the internet. What has inspired my first ‘yes, we can' response was reading Barbara Kingslover's, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and Michael Pollan's "Botany of Desire: an Omnivore's Dilemma." Then there was Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," and Thomas L. Friedman's, "Hot, Flat and Crowded," and (I'm not kidding) "Green Building & Remodeling for Dumies." (They have Dummies books for just about everything else -even Gluten-Free Cooking. Why not Green Building?) The man in my house became a Google Eco Expert. As a land developer, the word "green" is no longer just a color for him either. His frequent Internet visits include the U.S. Green Building Council -www.usgbc.org; High Sierra Energy Foundation - http://www.highsierraenergy.com/; Southern California Edison -www.sce.org.; and SIGBA (Sierra Green Building Assoc.) at http://www.sigba.org.we/ decided to go green for our family, for their families, and for Planet Earth. If you decide to follow us in this direction, below are 10 helpful tips from our family to get more "green" under your roof and help you move toward a healthier environmental change:

Tammy@RockStarRealEstate.com