Ann Arborites Matt and Kelly Grocoff will launch Greenovation.TV -- an Internet TV channel dedicated to green home improvements-- on Earth Day, April 22.
The couple, who installed a geothermal system in their 107-year-old home (featured in this article last year), was inspired to create Greenovation because they observed first-hand the lack of practical advice about the energy-saving projects available to people engaged in home renovation.
"We often turned to the Internet when researching products and practices to green our home," says Matt. "What we found was there was no central location that offered the resources and the 'how-to' that we were desperately looking for. Our hope is that Greenovation.TV will become a community that will help and support others who are looking to greenovate their homes."
Greenovation aims to be a one-stop shop site with original programming, how-to videos, and viewer-created videos, where viewers can share their own "Green It Yourself" (GIY) projects. Matt observes, "Every person who renovates their home has a story to tell -- and redefining what home means is the best story imaginable. People are desperate for information. They need the resource we didn't have when we were renovating our home."
Indeed, this hunt for info landed Greenovation.TV its first certifiable "star" -- Dr. Anna Marie from the Weather Channel, who found Matt while web-surfing during her own home renovation project.
"She contacted me last year because she was looking for a way to share her story in a practical way," says Matt. "She did some detailed research and realized that there were no good resources out there to help her renovate her home. She found Greenovation.TV and called me to get my advice and to see how she could help give what she learns through her experience to others."
Her GIY segments will be a recurring feature on the site.
Grocoff sees a real need for this type of information, observing that there are 130 million homes in America with an average age of 30 years. "That's a lot of old and wasteful homes -- that doesn't mean we should bulldoze them and build new green McMansions," he says. "It means we need to look at the value we have and restore them with affordable technologies that will make our homes more comfortable while saving money and the environment. Our homes are the best economic stimulus package we've got."
Check out the site and sign up for its email list while you're at it.
Kelli B. Kavanaugh is Model D's development news editor and writes the weekly column, Green Space, for Metromode.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.