Mexican Caribbean Today talks to Tamara Lashbrook

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson at an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970 and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. Earth Day is celebrated in spring in the Northern hemisphere and autumn in the Southern hemisphere, Many communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

In celebration of Earth Day, or Earth Week, whichever you prefer, Mexican Caribbean Today talks to Tamara Lashbrook a fascinating American woman, who is known as the “Eco Woman” of Tulum, and an expert in using local products from nature, local materials and local talent and skills in order to live a “green lifestyle.” Here she shares her passionate philosophy, innovative concepts and expertise about how to live your life in a more sustainable way.

About Tamara Lashbrook, Eco Woman of Tulum

Tamara Lashbrook, originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, has been living in Tulum for 3 years. Prior to settling in Tulum, Tamara studied linguistics, politics, religion, theater and welding at a variety of institutions of higher learning, such as the University of Colorado, Gresham College in London, Lawrence University and Fox Valley Technical College). She holds a B.A. in Russian and Slavic Linguistics.

From there she followed a career in economic and democratic development in the former Soviet Union. She has spent 13 years living in Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine and working in all 12 former-Soviet republics. When the “abstractness of the work started get to me,” she headed to Sri Lanka to help rebuild after the tsunami.

Unfortunately she found that the relief work in Sri Lanka “was no more straightforward than the previous, and I became horribly cynical and disgusted by the corruption and politics involved in ‘aid’. So I quit and wandered aimlessly around the world until I landed in Tulum.”

As a child and teenager, she was good at math and science, but later became distracted by languages and politics. After dropping out of the job game in 2005, she gravitated back towards chemistry (Sancen Natural Cleaning Products) and electrical engineering (renewable energy).

She has taken a full range of courses (both online and hands-on) in solar system design and installation and sustainable house design.

She recently passed the entry-level certification exam with the North American Board of Certified Energy Professionals (NAPCEP) in the U.S.

Tamara started with Sancen Natural Cleaning products, which are sold in Tulum, Akumal, Playa del Carmen and Punta Allen. More recently, she has just finished building her second “eco” house in Tulum. She also has a very complete website: www.greentulum.com to showcase her products and sustainable living homes. She includes a lot of self-learning on her personal resume.

Interview between Mexican Caribbean Today and Tamara Lashbrook

MCT: What is one of the most important things a normal citizen of Quintana Roo can do to lower their impact on our fragile paradise?

Tamara Lashbrook: The environment is not something separate from us; we are an integral part of the ecosystem. So, be aware of your actions and take responsibility for them as a participant in this ecosystem. We don’t need someone to tell us how to live responsibly, green, sustainably. If we are honest with ourselves, we know what we should and should not be doing to live in harmony with our surroundings.

Ask yourself: What do you like about living here?

Is it the beach, the sea, the coral reefs?

• Then stop contributing to water pollution. Reduce the amount of garbage that you produce through purchases and consumption. If you buy it, then it was produced for you and you are now responsible for disposing of it. Bring your own bag, glass, cup, bottle, food container.

• Recycle. Reuse. Compost. Stop using toxic chemicals for cleaning, repelling insects and protecting your skin from the sun.

Is it the cenotes and jungle?

• Flush toilets are doing massive amounts of damage to the underground river system, cenotes and the jungle. There are alternatives, such as composting toilets, dry toilets, and constructed wetlands. If you are building anything here, investigate these options before putting in yet another wasteful and polluting toilet! Conversions can be a little bit more complicated, but can be done.

Is it the (almost!) year-round sunshine?

• All that sun can do much more than tan your hide. Put the sun to work producing energy for your home or business. The energy you offset is energy that doesn’t need to be produced by oil, natural gas and coal. Lower you own energy consumption for the same reason. There are hundreds of articles on the web about how to do this, but if you need more help you can have an energy audit by a solar professional (such as myself…).

Is it the fresh fruit?

• Then buy locally-grown fresh fruit from people in your community, enjoy it with relish in its season and plant or compost the parts you can’t eat. Try those locally-made banana chips instead of Ruffles or Doritos. Have a guanabana or pitihaya juice instead of a bottled carbonated artificially-sweetened beverage. If you buy boxed pineapple juice at Walmart, there is something wrong…

Is it the people and the sense of community?

• Then support your local community by buying locally grown and produced foods, goods and services. Share, trade, barter. Walk instead of driving and get to know the people in your neighborhood. Support community-based tourism, Mayan cooperatives, local eco-businesses and other local small businesses by choosing their products and services over mass-produced, slickly-packaged, imported alternatives.

Is it the mysteries of Mayan culture?

• Remember that we are newcomers and guests in their paradise. Be respectful of our hosts and take care of this amazing place that they are sharing with us lest they ask us to leave for being bad guests…. Imagine having a house guest that shits in your water, leaves piles of garbage in your yard, feeds your children chemicals, dances half-naked in front of your spouse, cuts down the jungle that provides plants and animals for your food and well-being. And now imagine having millions of them every year….

MCT: Since we're celebrating Earth Day and many people would like to make resolutions to "turn over a new leaf," what would be a good way to start a lifestyle dedicated to green living? Something simple that can get us going?

Tamara Lashbrook: It is very simple: Be aware and honest with yourself about your consumption and the waste you produce. And then take responsibility for it. When you take that plastic shopping bag at the supermarket, it was produced for you and is now your waste product. How will you dispose of it responsibly so that it will not contaminate anything? You can’t. So don’t take it.

What about that plastic bottle of Coca-Cola (no nutritional value, plastic bottle, multinational corporation gets economic benefit)? Why not a fresh papaya juice at a neighborhood juice bar instead (vitamins, fiber, no garbage produced, local families get economic benefit)? Is it really so hard to choose when you stop to think for a moment and are aware of what you are doing?

What about your human waste? (Oooo, we don’t like to talk about that. There is nothing embarrassing about human waste, it is part of the life cycle.) Where does your waste go when you flush the toilet? And those bins of used toilet paper? Where do they get dumped? If you don’t know, then you are producing waste that is contaminating our precious water. Do not assume that someone else is taking care of it. “They” are not. Your waste is your responsibility.

My solution is composting toilets. I love my composting toilets for so many reasons:

1. You do not use valuable fresh water for transporting waste out of sight, out of mind.

2. You throw your toilet paper in, so no nasty bin of used toilet paper to deal with.

3. You are turning your “waste” into a resource and keeping it in the life cycle. What I eat becomes fertilizer for what I eat. There is no “waste” in nature.

A simple way of looking at things: if it is organic, it can probably be re-used or re-integrated into the ecosystem in a positive way. If it is inorganic, limit your consumption and use as much as possible.

The choices are obvious if we turn off the autopilot and pause for a moment to be aware of what we are doing. The “green” choices generally have multiple benefits for the environment, our communities, our health and our wallets.

MCT: What exactly is sustainability? We hear about it and think we know what it is, but since you are our expert; how would you define the word "sustainability?"

Tamara Lashbrook: The sustainability question! Funny how things like sustainability follow one around.... For years I was an international development program and organizational sustainability consultant. I thought I had made a radical career change moving into solar and renewable energy, but here it is again. Sustainability, one of those words that become either watered down by overuse or made too complex by attempts at regulation....

To me sustainability is simple and straightforward. It is almost intuitive, so let's see if I can define it clearly.... As we are talking about sustainable living, I will focus on that in my definition. To live sustainably is to live within one's means, without damaging or limiting the resources necessary to sustain life.

The house that I just finished building is a good example of a sustainable house. I won't go into all aspects of its "sustainability", but it has a solar system for electricity, rainwater collection and storage, composting toilets and greywater filtration for irrigation.

What does this mean?

First, it means that I need very little money to live comfortably in this house. I don't need to pay for electricity every month, I don't need to pay for water, I don't need to pay to have a septic tank pumped, I convert all organic waste into fertilizer, I reuse all water for watering the garden, which provides fruits, vegetable and herbs for my kitchen. So if business is slow for a while, it does not affect my standard of living.

Second, living in this house does not pollute the water that I (or my neighbors) use, does not pollute the earth that we grow our food in, and turns all organic waste that I produce into fertilizer for the plants that I will eat. It is economically sustainable in that there is no additional cost to live in the house once it is completed; and it is environmentally sustainable in that it utilizes renewable resources such as the sun, rain and plants and it creates no pollution (though electricity generation at power plants, no seepage from a septic tank, no dumping of sewage pumped from a septic tank, natural filtration of grey water before returning it to the earth as irrigation for plants).

Nature provides everything we need to survive. Nature provides the sun for energy and warmth; the wind for energy and cooling; water for our bodies and for cultivating food; plants for food, shade, air and water filtration, and creating shelter; earth and rocks for cultivating plants and for creating shelter. If we take care of nature and use its abundant renewable resources wisely, nature takes care of us. It is all about recognizing our place in the ecosystem and living responsibly within it.

In my opinion, water is the renewable natural resource most under threat. If we want to have fresh water in the future, we need to do our part to keep it clean so that we can continue to reuse it over and over again, remembering that we aren't the only ones on earth that need clean water for survival. All plants and animals need water, too.

Applying the concept of sustainability to water involves limiting our use of fresh water to what is really necessary, treating the water we use to return it to the earth unpolluted, not letting our garbage sit in landfills to leach into the water system, and not allowing toxic chemicals and human waste to seep through the porous limestone and cracked cement of septic tanks into the underground river system.

MCT: Is this something that a person such as you could evaluate their current habitation and make suggestions as to how to change their house to be more energy efficient?

Tamara Lashbrook: Of course! The first step in designing a renewable energy system is an audit of electricity usage, patterns of usage and habits in a household or business. When you choose to use renewable energy, you need to have a different approach to electrical consumption because available energy is not unlimited. You are installing your own independent power station, so the system needs to be professionally designed to be able to produce the quantity and quality of energy necessary for your specific situation.

If you just purchase equipment without taking all of these factors into consideration, you will likely be disappointed with the results. Professional system design is critically important, yet ignored by many solar equipment sales people. This type of audit is also useful to find ways to decrease your electricity bill, even if you don't plan on converting to renewable energy.

My company, Ecolocos S.A. de C.V., provides a wide range of services related to green building, green living and renewable energy. My business partner, Pepe Blanco, is a certified permaculturist and experienced green builder.

We offer energy audits for existing homes; consultations with architects, designers and builders to integrate energy efficiency into construction and remodeling projects; design of renewable energy systems; sales and installation of renewable energy systems; sales and installation of energy-efficient lighting and appliances; service and maintenance on renewable energy systems; and client education on doing their own maintenance of their renewable energy systems. We also make and sell a line of biodegradable house cleaning products, Sancen Natural Cleaning Products.

We also offer consultations on sustainable home design and full green building services. We offer green house tours for prospective clients, architects and builders to show examples of our work and provide an introduction to sustainable building materials, design and systems.

We have experience with composting toilets, rainwater collection and storage, constructed wetlands, greywater irrigation systems, landscaping and garden design, alternative building materials (such as poured earth with plastic bottles!) and a full carpentry workshop.

We charge $250 pesos per hour for consultations. A typical energy audit takes 1-2 hours. Should a client decide to purchase a renewable energy system from us, the cost of the energy audit goes toward the cost of the renewable energy system.

Projects Sponsored by Tamara Lashbrook

Sancen Natural Cleaning Products.

Little Green Shop carries the full range of Ximbaltik natural cleaning products for home, office and hotel. Come by to try out these natural cleaning products which utilize natural products like Mexican cinnamon, barks, citrus fruits, herbs and other products from nature which can be used to not only effectively clean your house, but repel insects!

Zama Natural Cosmetics.

Little Green Shop in Tulum carries the full range of Zama Natural Cosmetics, including the famous Mayatan natural insect repellent, essential oils, massage oils and more!

Hand-made Recycled Paper.

We hand-make paper from used paper products and renewable plant fibers using traditional Mayan techniques.

Biodegradable Takeaway Food Containers.

For your picnic on the beach or for your environmentally responsible business. Food and beverage containers made from corn and potato starches are available here!

Renewable Energy Equipment

We represent some water filtration systems and solar equipment. If you need it and we don’t have it, we can probably help you find it through our Green Tulum Links!

Traditional Products from Mayan Villages

We work in the surrounding Mayan villages with traditional healers, artisans and craftspeople to provide you with a variety of hand-made items.

Sustainable Housing Tour

If you’re interested in touring an eco house, Tamara will be glad to give you a tour of a modern minimalist design house, equipped with a solar system, composting toilets, grey water irrigation and rain water collection systems. The house surrounded by natural landscaping, fruit trees and a vegetable garden, which provide not only a beautiful , but edible environment and completes the “sustainable living” concept.

The house has 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a fully-equipped kitchen, laundry room, living room, front and back terraces and balconies, and parking inside the gate of the property. It is located south of Tulum town.

"Live simply so that others may simply live."

~Mahatma Gandhi