Laura Turner Seydel’s sustainable home, 20 years later!
Laura Turner Seydel calls her father, Ted Turner, “the original Captain Planet” and credits him with awakening her passion for caring for the Earth. “When my siblings and I were children, he instilled environmental stewardship into us every chance he had,” she says. Seydel and her husband, Rutherford, live that philosophy daily in their home, EcoManor, one of the country’s first LEED Gold-certified homes.
The house was built in 2005 in Buckhead with the help of Atlanta-based designer Jillian Pritchard Cooke from Wellness Within Your Walls. The sustainability efforts the pair laid has paid off. Here, Seydel, who co-founded Chattahoochee River Keeper, serves as chair emeritus of Captain Planet Foundation and is on the board of climate change organization Project Drawdown, shares a retrospective on her home.
How did it feel to own the first LEED Gold-certified residential home in the Southeast?
It was a great honor. Rutherford and I wanted to build the most eco-friendly and healthy home possible for our family. LEED certifications had just come out for residential homes, but they dealt mostly with using local resources and water and energy efficiencies. These are important topics, but we wanted to expand the focus to include a healthy home and establish a new blueprint for sustainable residential houses. We are proud that EcoManor continues to be a teaching home for builders and designers.
Any other trailblazing moments?
We initiated the concept of a “healthy” home to make people aware of chemical off-gassing from materials used in home construction including glues, adhesives, paints, stains and even formaldehyde from wood cabinets and furniture. We were one of the first to use low- and no-volatile organic compounds paints.
For air purity, we were one of the first to install AprilAire filters that prevent airborne allergens from circulating. We also made use of Energy Star appliances to cut electricity use and low-flow toilets and shower heads to save water.
What are some of your favorite features?
I love how much natural daylight there is in the house, a quality that greatly reduces the use of electricity during the day. We installed large operable windows that can be opened to let in fresh air. We added transom windows to add more natural daylight and solar light tubes that bring extra light from the roof into bathrooms and closets.
Another favorite feature is the landscape design. We were able to get a National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Wildlife Habitat certification for leaving a certain percentage of our yard in its natural state for a multitude of native species of flora and fauna. We also have an edible garden for fruits and vegetables.
Were there any things you’d do differently?
We learned a few things along the way as technology advanced. When we built our house, LED bulbs were not available. Over the years, as the compact fluorescent bulbs burned out, we have replaced them with highly efficient and long lasting LED bulbs.
We’ve also expanded and updated the solar panels on our roof, installing a more productive array that increased the kilowatts produced. Georgia is fifth in the nation for solar production potential. We sell excess green energy back to Georgia Power, which lowers our bill and has paid for the initial cost of construction.
