Roots' Office Remodel a Model of Sustainability

Roots Realty is proud to announce our new workplace which is truly kind to the earth and which represents our company's commitment to sustainability. Here are a few of the highlights from our remodel:

• Retrofitting oil furnace to heat the building using B99 Biodiesel which is over 99% renewable plant based oil, specifically non GMO canola oil grown in Eastern Oregon. This system uses a new locally made recycled steel fuel storage tank.
• Installed an energy efficient heat pump for cooling and heating
• Used all low VOC paints & finishes on walls and floors
• Reused as much material as possible
• Installed dual flush toilet

So what does the future hold? We plan to continue our effort to make the entire property a showcase for sustainable building techniques and materials. Our plans – which will probably take a couple of years to complete – include installing rain water catchments, permaculturing the landscape, creating bird habitat, and ultimately we are working on a building addition using alternative construction and energy techniques to truly showcase the potential and skills of the local building community.

We would like to recognize and thank the following excellent contractors for their help with this project:

• Portland Green Heat crew
• Larry Cameron, plumber extraordinaire
• Steve McBee and crew, for excellence in water & sewer line replacement
• Xavier Environmental crew for decommissioning the leaking oil tank
• Eddie Diaz and the crew at Domino Hardwoods
• Kerry Hunt the excellent handyman
• Gary Crapser & sons, also excellent handymen
• Kirk Shultz for technical building drawings
• The fine folks at Powell Paint who gave us endless advice
  along the way
• The folks at Yulan Studio who kicked butt and got the new
  web site live
• John Kassebaum, computer networking & Mac Geek