Spirit in Action
Certifiably Organic - Shairon Beale
Shairon Beale is an organic lifestyle advocate, an LEED Platinum Home Builder Designer, former host of the Certifiably Organic radio program and current co-host of Making A Splash on BlogTalkRadio.com. PLUS, she's a racecar driver, Republican and a complete delight!
- Broadcast on:
- 06 Mar 2011
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world home ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeat. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world home ♪ We've got a delightful and insightful guest today for Spirit in Action. Sharon Beale is on a conscious, organic life path. And she puts it into practice in a number of ways. She was the host of a program called Certifiably Organic until recently. And she still co-hosts a Blog Talk Radio.com program called Making a Splash. Among her many talents, she designed and built one of the fewer than 50 homes in all of the USA, which received an LED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. She grew up in Australia and around Asia, moved to the U.S. in her 30s, and is currently located in Arizona. Given her thoroughly organic lifestyle, and depending on your prejudices, you may be surprised to learn that Sharon Beale is also a race car driver and a Republican. Above all, she is delightful and thought-provoking. Sharon, welcome to Spirit in Action. Good morning, Mark. How are you? I'm pretty cold. I bet you I'm warmer than you are down in Arizona. Oh, well, you might be because you're hot in front of a fire, and I'm cooling down with all the doors open, letting in the 70-degree air. How does this compare to Australian home that you came from? Scottsdale, within reason, is pretty similar to Sydney, Australia, except it's much drier here, because we're not near the ocean. Whereas in Sydney, everywhere is close to water, so it's quite humid, same temperatures, you know, similar, but they're similar. Were you an organically oriented person when you were back? I think you were in your 30s when you left Australia. Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, pretty much my whole life, because I actually was raised in Asia. I grew up the first five years of my life in Malaya, which is now called Malaysia. Then I spent up until my 20s in Singapore, going to boarding school in Australia through the year, and then I lived two years in Taiwan, and growing up in Asia, everybody there, particularly Singapore, believe it or not, I remember the island when the tallest building was about four stories high, and water buffaloes roamed, and we had rice patties, and my biggest problem at school was not bullying, but the monkeys stealing my drink bottle and my lunchbox, because the island was so small, because we were so far away from everywhere, and transportation was not what it is today, we aged everything that was local, and it was locally grown, and herbicides and pesticides and all that sort of thing was not used, so everything was bought from local farmers, and it was all fresh, and we went to the markets just about every day to purchase food. The locals were extraordinary at maintaining what they had, and reusing and repurposing what they found to suit whatever it was that they needed it for. So that's always sort of been just a part of my life, and when we moved back to Australia in 1974, the organic movement pretty much has always been big in Australia, so I just continued on, you know, going to the farmers markets on Saturdays, and we'd buy food pretty much daily, I mean you walk up to the shops or ride your bike up to the shops, you know, I'm not talking like, you know, the Birkenstock Rustafarian type people, I'm talking just regular people that live in beautiful homes and things, that's just what you do, because it makes common sense, that's what I keep saying, it just makes sense, how can it not? So it's always been a part of my life. Until the end of last year, you were doing the certifiably organic radio program, you're still co-hosting, making a splash, what's your expertise, what's your background? If people say do you have to present a piece of paper that says, I'm certifiably organic, and it was approved by this university commune or what source? I'm from the School of Life, everything I've done is from a sense of passion, fortunately I didn't become a doctor or a lawyer or something where perhaps I needed a university degree, but everything I've done is just from reading books and from passion and on the fly. With how I got into the building here in America, when I first arrived here, I wasn't allowed to work for anybody, because I was on a tourist visa, but I found out you can start your own business under certain circumstances, and I was under that group that was able to start a business. So I just started buying little old houses, some of them which had been declared disaster zones, and the city was going to tear them down, and I said, no, no, no, no, this is what I'm going to do. So for a dollar, I bought one house, spent $3,000 moving it across town and completely redid the place, rescuing it from the dump, and it was a part of Austin history, actually. So everything has been on the fly and just learning. I'm a great believer in passion. I mean passion is what fuels me. That's clear. If people take the time to come to my site or go to your site, sharingbiel.com, they'll see you laughing. I think you have one of the most hearty laughs I know of. Actually, that one is a smile. I think that's not even laughing. You're working up to it. Working up to it, yes. So did you get trained in the trades? Did you have a mentor, or how did you learn to do what you do with buildings? Then we want to, of course, know what you actually do with the building. Right. Well, my greatest claim to fame was about three years ago I designed myself, but I then take the design to structural engineers. I don't go to architects to a structural engineer who made sure the thing was going to stand up and, you know, it was code and everything, and then you take it to the city and file your approval. But I designed and built a U.S. Greenville Council lead platinum certified home. It's one of probably less than 50 in the entire United States. It was the first in the valley here in Scottsdale, Phoenix, and it's only one of two in the whole state of Arizona. I had two great mentors on that project. One was Richard Zimmerman, who was my lead provider, and the other person was Santosh Rao, a local businessman here with a store called Natural Territory, and you can go online and purchase products from them. Great, great store, beautiful, beautiful products. They were my two mentors. I mean, I just can't thank them enough for all the tremendous help and encouragement that they gave me to keep going, because really, when I told people that I was embarking on this project, I mean everybody laughed at me and said, "Good luck, you know, you'll never do it." Nine months later, "Oh, well, look what I've got." A platinum certificate. So what is the essence of this house that you built? How is it different from the unfortunate house where I live? Well, the good news in building a house like the one that I built was, from the minute you start the program, you start taking into consideration, for instance, the orientation of the property. Is it a north-south facing property here in Arizona? We like that, where you are. You want an east-west facing property so that you can harvest the warmth from the sun in the winter. So orientation of property, we start taping off any trees and bushes on the property so that we protect all of the fauna. How floral, should I say? Because, you know, workmen have a tendency to come in and they're big pickup trucks and what I call bush bash through the place, just plowing down everything. And then I took down an old house and part of the lead program is that whatever can be salvaged, whether it's a little screw, a light switch, a fan, windows, screens, the kitchen that was in the house was only, I don't know, five or so years old. The previous owner that had put it in came back and took it. He reused it in, I think, the house that he had moved into. So every single thing gets separated out and is either given to somebody or most of everything that I salvaged went to the Stardust Foundation, which is similar to Habitat for Humanity. So in that regard, we're not just taking stuff to the dump and just throwing it into the earth and polluting everything, which most of everything in a conventional house is so incredibly toxic for many, many, many years afterwards, particularly from a formaldehyde perspective, for instance. And then when you get into the building process, do you use stainless steel? Do you use wood? I, in fact, elected to use wood framing. But that all came from certified forest. None of it was impregnated with these toxic pesticides. And then, you know, moving on again, the windows, they were all triple pain. The fronts of them were all the wood. Now they were not from sustainable, the other wood was not from sustainable forest. The outside was aluminum. All the paints inside were 100% soy. All the glues, all the stains, all the finished coats were all water-based. The garage floor was painted in a water-based coat. All the toilets, the dual flush, all the faucets and showers, all have water restrictors on them. But a lot of pressure. So I thought, "Ooh, I'm not going to like this. Oh, it's going to take forever." But I never noticed the difference. A CL-free system was put into the house, which pretty much eliminates all bacteria, all medications, all feces, all fluorides and chlorine that is in regular water. And I had that same system installed in the swimming pool. So you can walk out to the swimming pool and drink that water. It's 100% drinkable. You can make up your baby's bottle with it. You know, it just goes on and on and on and on. Everything that you do is in consideration of human health and the well-being of the planet and our surroundings. It's a very special treat to be able to build like that. And it affects you and it changes who you are, obviously, particularly when you start living in the house every time. For about the first two months that I lived in or longer, actually, that I lived in the house, I'd walk in and you'd feel this like low humming vibration. That's about all I can describe it as. But also, like, on a just a slightly cold day, somebody wrapping the softest, warmest cashmere wrap around you. And that's, you know, that's what it felt like living in that house until you become used to it, unfortunately. But a very nice feeling, nonetheless. Is that the house you live in now? Did you build it for someone else? I actually built it to sell and, of course, the market tanked, so I lived in it for nearly three years, and I just moved out of it about two weeks ago. And I have tenants about to move in there, which I'm excited about because the mother of the family, she was starting to have major health issues. And so she went to one of the holistic practitioners here in town and he said, "Oh, yes, they were remodeling their home." And it was from, again, all the chemicals and toxins in the building of a regular home. And it was affecting her health. So I said, "Wow, you can't be moving to a better place than this one." So I'm excited for them to move in and get to experience, because as I said, there's only 50 or so of these houses at this level in the entire United States. So I'm excited for another family to move in and get the feedback from them, you know, what they think and what their experience is. So, yeah, I just moved out two weeks ago and I miss a lot about it already. What is the specific certification? What's the LEED? What did they call this house? LEED is leadership in environmental and energy design. That's for the US Green Build Council. The minimum pass is a certification. Then the next one is a silver and then the next level is gold. And then the top one that you can get and it's like 94 points out of 100 is the platinum. And platinum is what I received. There was platinum, not plutonium? No, no, no, no, not plutonium. Is this kind of house immensely expensive to build and to reconstitute? I mean, you have a lot of labor going into it. You have triple pane windows I think are not too inexpensive. How does it compare with other houses around there? It certainly costs more. And particularly when I did it, things are getting cheaper. Products are improving. It doesn't require any more labor force than a regular house. But it does land up costing. And I use top of the line everything. So like my kitchen actually came from Wisconsin. It's a holiday kitchen and I've forgotten where they are situated in Wisconsin. Of course, the top quality would come from Wisconsin. Absolutely the best. So it does cost a little bit more. But my electricity bill because of the solar that I put on the house was only $200 ish in the height of summer. And it could have been around $7,800. And my water bill, including watering half an acre of garden and filling or keeping a $35,000 gallon swimming pool full, my water bill was only about $80 a month. So, you know, one has to look at the costs from that standpoint. But most importantly, which unfortunately we can't measure is to your spirit and to your health. If you live in one of these houses and you go through life perfectly healthy and happy, can we say, oh, well, that's because I did not live in a conventional house. I wasn't breathing in formaldehyde and all these toxins. I would say definitely because I work with people. I do a process that I call life scaping where when they are having their houses redone, I go in there and I show them what products to use that are safer for them. And also what products, personal care products, house cleaning products, whatever it is, you know, whether they are buying a new dining room table, maybe there are other things we can be doing. So, I think the most important thing, that 20% that we are talking about, I think that to me just to live daily knowing that I am not poisoning my body, that to me is worth the 20%. So that's all the difference, 20%. I was thinking you were going to double the cost of the house. No, no, no, no, no, not doubled, no. And those percentages have gone down somewhat now from when I, like I said, you know, because more people are jumping on the bandwagon. More people are buying soy paint. I mean, I had to buy a gallon the other day. It's $44 a gallon. But if your dog or one of your children gets into it and sits there and drinks it, they go to vomit, but you do not have to rush them to the hospital. Because it's, it's only, there are no chemicals in there, no chemicals. Don't you just give them french fries to go with it then? Yes, after I've gone to McDonald's first to get them. I'm imagining that some of the things you have to plan in, you mentioned how you orient the house could be significant. You've located your house in Arizona. Would you have had to build a completely different house if you were up here in Wisconsin where I am? You take different things into consideration. Here, you know, we're trying to keep ourselves cool in the summer. So we, you know, grow trees that don't drop their leaves, you know, that provide full shade all year long and we try and plant them along the east-west side. For you, it would be the total opposite. It would just be the opposite of what we do here. That's all. I mean, you still need triple pane windows to keep out the coal. We need it to keep out the heat. So it's just the opposites of the coin, that's all. And you'd be orientating the house east-west, whereas we absolutely, you don't want that. But if you do get stuck with it, then you plant nice, big, thick, deciduous trees along those sides to protect those exterior walls. What about power for the houses? Is this just normal electricity coming in? Do you have solar? I have, yeah, I've got about, I think it's almost four kilowatts of solar power. That's about 75% solar power. And my one regret was that I didn't do 100%. But again, you know, it costs. What I put on at the time was around $28,000 with about a $8,000 rebate. So if I'd gone 100%, it probably would have been $35,000. It would have landed up costing me out of pocket, about $28,000 out of pocket. But I wish I'd done it in hindsight. And why is that? Isn't the city or state or the region where you're getting your electricity from? Aren't they producing it all from solar? What percentage do they do from renewable sources? Oh, the state of Arizona, that's a good question. I don't actually know, not nearly nearly enough. Mostly it's all electric power that they're producing. There are some wonderful things going on in solar here. But also, unfortunately, there's a lot of politics going on. And I think that the, of course, the electric companies and those that benefit from keeping them in business are paying or doing whatever they can. To prevent solar from coming into Arizona. And the truth of the matter is that there is enough sunshine here in Arizona to solar power the entire United States. So my question is, why didn't we start this program 30 years ago? The oldest solar power company is a company here called Pet Solar. They've been here for 30 years. So why hasn't the government jumped on board and done that? Well, maybe I should ask you that question. Why hasn't the government jumped on board and done that? It's politics. You know, they've got whoever they, you know, whoever they is. There's a lot of money invested in keeping the electric power plants going. I'm sure they were paid off a zillion years ago. So they're just making, like the oil companies money hand over fist. So let's keep the train rolling as long as we can. I mean, they know it's going to come to an end. It's just a matter of when. But in the interim, let's not start slamming on the brakes and making alternative plans. Let's just milk the gravy train for all it's worth. It's just politics. Politics is my perspective. I've run into something that I was kind of astonished and very pleased to see in a local, you know, one of the big box type hardware stores. I saw they have a number of photovoltaic panels in there now. I hadn't seen that anywhere until just now. I knew you could always order them and there are small distributors here. But this is one of the big box stores carrying it now. Well, that's amazing. That's great. By the way, I did want to ask you also, could you send a little bit more of your sunshine up to here, particularly in the winter? We could use it. You've got too much, anyhow. We do. In fact, yesterday, I was grumbling and complaining because I think it was, I don't know, '78 or whatever it was and I kept saying all day, it is so darn hot. What am I going to do when summer comes? So, yes, I'd definitely like to share some of our warmth and sunshine with you, for sure. What kind of house did you move into? Now, you said you're living in this dream house, the one that most of us could only aspire to. Do you have to very carefully pick which place you go into? Because, of course, you're thinking about the formaldehyde and the lead in the paint and whatever else is going on. Were you able to pick a house that could meet your standards? Are there other things like that available around the end of Arizona? No, there really isn't. But what I did was I kind of moved into a funky, what I call patio home, which I'm very happy with. But I'm trying to do as much as I can, not that anything is being done yet, that's, you know, green. I'd like to go get some restrictors, put on the force that's, for instance, and I will be getting a little bottle of somebody's old bottle of water. I don't drink bottled water. I think that stuff is disgusting and unhealthy and just a huge rip-off at about $15 a gallon, which most people haven't figured out. But you fill one of those bottles and put it inside the toilet tank, and hence it fills up the water level to a higher level. So you're not using as much water every time you flush the toilet. So I'll get into doing all of that kind of thing as soon as I can. But given that I don't own this place, there's, you know, not a whole lot more I can do. But I am actually buying a CL-free system. The man's coming tomorrow to look at where and how we can hook it up here because the chlorine, I'm not, I'm just using like a Brita water jug, seeing at the moment for the water. But the chlorine in the shower water is really, really getting to me big time. But hopefully my worries will be over in a week. Did you have health considerations that led you in the direction of an organic lifestyle? Yes and no. No, I didn't per se and that I did not have any cancers or asanas or whatever. But what really did kind of kick it off somewhat was that I did almost die from toxic epidermal necrosis, a doctor messed up on some medications. And as a result, my skin, I don't know how else to describe it, but as the skin all grew back, my skin was just very, very delicate and sensitive and easily irritated. So it was certainly a joy to move into that house with the water systems and the no toxicity, if you will, to just give my skin and my breathing system because it affects all your organs as well. A chance to kind of recuperate and regenerate and, you know, the doctors along the way have been amazed not only that I didn't die, but how well that I've recovered from all of this. That definitely was a wonderful thing to be able to move into that house for. Let's talk a little bit about your perspective on the world. Of course, you started over in Australia and living in Asia, you've moved here, you lived in Austin, you're in Arizona now, you were somewhere else in between. One of the things that you told me when we were talking a little bit earlier was that you're a liberal Republican. And I think that most people who are into green housing or living organic, we think it's a Democrat or perhaps more liberal than Democrats. It's a lefty thing to do that. So give me your perspective on how this fits and how this fits with other people of your acquaintance who are, let's say, on the right side of center. Right. And I do. I have many, obviously, Republican friends, if you will, that believe in saving the planet and doing good for others and all of that sort of thing. And I mean, my take on it is you vote whatever you vote. That to me is irrelevant. I am a capitalist. I believe in working hard and receiving good rewards for what you do for your creativity and honesty. I don't mean capitalism at its worst out of control that we've seen in the last 10 or, well, probably forever, actually. But yeah, people are always shocked when they meet me because I don't know what they think I'm going to look like, but they're like, oh my gosh, you're not what I was expecting. And then when I asked them to describe what they were expecting, it's like, gosh, I don't know, but not you. You know, it's a philosophy that one has. And I think for a country, for a business, for a family to thrive and survive, I think the first and foremost in life is passion. And secondly, the ability to thrive, I think behind that is a sense of well-being and accomplishment. I have not seen it operate any other way than a person getting up out of bed every day and having a purpose. Even if that purpose is as a volunteer, one has to have a purpose or else a job. I think that that gives one a sense of pride and that's how you measure. How well am I doing? Oh, I can afford a BMW or, oh, we can now afford to upgrade, you know, the refrigerator or wherever we all are on our path in life and what is important to one itself. Therefore, to me, people refer to, I guess, folks that get out of bed and have a job and don't rely on the government and others to take care of them. They refer to us as capitalists. Fine. Call me a capitalist. I don't care. It doesn't insult me. I have pride. I do good things and I work hard and I'm rewarded for that and I go to bed feeling good each night. And that's a wonderful thing. I assume most Democrats consider themselves capitalists as well. I guess the socialist tinge maybe is what you're referring to there. Do you believe that it's good to have, say, state or federal programs, incentives like cap and trade or, you know, rebates that you get on your solar equipment, tax credits, it's on? Is that an appropriate thing for government to do or is that infringing on the market forces that should be directing it? I don't disbelieve in it. I'm not in favor of cap and trade, definitely not, because I just see that as a wrought. You know, okay, you, Mr. Big Industrial Company, you're spewing out stuff all over the place. And here I am, little Mr. Factory guy doing my thing to save the planet, to be conservative in what I'm using and how much toxicity I'm releasing into the environment. So you can come along with cap and trade. You can come along to me and say, hey, Sharon, I noticed that you've got tons of credits left over. I'm going to buy them from you. So you buy them from me and you just continue on your merry way, spewing, spewing, spewing. So it's not helping you clean up your act one little bit, because guess what? You're within the bounds of your cap and trade requirements. That's why I don't like cap and trade. I think companies should be made to clean up their act, period. But with tax credits and things, I think certainly to get a way of building or cleaning up the way people are doing things, I don't disagree with that. But I think it should come in, get people going, like with the solar thing. I did receive rebates. I think if it once it gets established, you put a timeframe on it. You know, for the next 12 years, we're going to give rebates and then they'll be phased out. So that gets people on the bandwagon. Oh my gosh, well, we want to get solar. We better get hustling and save up or whatever if you want your rebates. I think that sort of thing is certainly a good initiative to bring in for a period of time. I think you're organic across the entire spectrum, the food you eat, perhaps the clothes you buy, all of that. Could you talk a little bit about implementing an organic lifestyle, some of the aspects that you include in your personal life, and that you advise other people to follow? Yeah, I try and support the local farmers as much as I can. I've become very disillusioned with whole foods. I remember them when they were a store about the size of our lounge room in Austin. Now they're just a mega-glomerate. So I actually, on my radio, show you to refer to them as wall foods, but certainly I love to support local businesses and farmers. It's more personal, like my ex. I mean, I'm friends with a guy. I've been to his place. I've seen how his chickens are fed, where they sleep, how they live. Boy, with his ex, you sure can taste the difference. So it creates a nice sense of community and friendship in supporting your local farmers. So I try and have everything as organic, probably at least 75, 80%, if not more of what we eat is organic. And personal care products, that's a line that I actually have on certifiablyorganic.net. It's a line out of Australia that is the only line in the world that its third party certified to food standards, USDA, Australian certified organic, which is almost impossible to get and as exceeds all international requirements for organics. So I use everything that they offer in their line I use in the home for personal care and household cleaning. Otherwise, best household cleaners, vinegar and lemon juice, not together, but those are nice and cheap and natural, particularly here in the summertime with all the lemons everywhere. And with clothing, that's a little more tricky, but I'm a great one for going to, as we call them in Australia, op shops, the opportunity shops, you know, goodwill or consignment stores and things. I always poke around in there and see if I can find things. I've got strange feet, so unfortunately I'm forced into buying regular shoes, but tongs have a great shoe line that's organic. And I found about 18 months ago a wonderful clothing line that I think, not only is it organic, but it's 100% made in the United States, which is my latest kick. I am not buying anything that is not made in the USA and it's pretty tough, but I'm really, really trying to stick to that. But this clothing line is called Kika Paprika. Aaron Edwards is the person that I either close from here in Phoenix, and they use recycled polyesters or 100% organic cottons, the beautiful line. I think that covers everything. I keep my cars for like 10 years. I drive a little Volvo S40, which most of the plastics inside are recycled and recyclable. So that's at least, you know, something. I looked at the hybrids, but there's just too many problems, and particularly with the disposal of the batteries and things. That's why, you know, people say, "Oh, I expect you to drive up hybrid." And it's like, no, I don't think they've come quite far enough for me, for me. You know, other people may think they're wonderful, and that's good. That's what I love about this country, the freedom of choice. And I put in a fuel extender, if you will, into my gas tank, and it seems to work pretty well. I get about an extra 30 miles out of each tank of fuel that I fill. As I said before, one of the primary considerations in terms of choosing an organic lifestyle can be where you live. Unfortunately, I think Arizona's desert, I mean, to use any water, and you mentioned having a garden there, what's the water supply where you live coming from? I believe it comes from the Colorado River, specifically, and the Salt River, and obviously it's all dammed up in the Hoover Dam, specifically we're on city water, but that's where it comes from. And part of the lead program that I was in, for instance, when I'm allowed to put in rose gardens, et cetera, et cetera, so the garden that I did put in, everything has to be major drought tolerant and local to the area. So even if it's drought tolerant and it's Australian, for instance, technically, if you do put it in, you won't be getting any points for it. Everything has to be with the vegetation as local as possible. And when I do, like now, I've been running off to various nurseries and buying things. I try and buy things that can tolerate full sun and not too much watering, so I just water them about every two or three days and just get them used to over a period of about two weeks, a little less water, a little less water, and spring them out through the summer. That's what I like about the organic sort of lifestyle is that it's not all me driven, you know, me, me, me, me, me, you're constantly thinking, what can I do with this, whatever that is, to be considerate of my surroundings and my environment. And that's what I, even as a Republican, appreciate about the lifestyle. I mean, to me, it's just common sense. It's just plain common sense. This is a way of living, and it shouldn't even be called a lifestyle, really, but it's a way of living that's just plain common sense. If you just tuned in, you're listening to Spirit in Action, and my guest today is Sharon Beale. She was host of radio shows certifiably organic until recently. She co-hosts another blog talk radio show called Making a Splash. She built one of the United States, first handful of L-E-E-D platinum certified homes right there in Arizona where she lives. There's another aspect of your life that I want to bring in here. It's going to strike a lot of people as counter-intuitive, Sharon. You are a race car driver as well. Talk about that. Well, it all comes back to the passion thing again. I had an opportunity to go to a race school back in 2000, at the age of 47. And again, everybody laughed at me. Everybody said, you know, what makes you think you can race a car? And I'm like, well, if you get out of my way, we'll all find out, won't we? Certainly for 18 months, two years, I ran at the back of the field and watched what everybody was doing and had problems with a couple of crude chiefs. But, you know, got to learn the sport and just totally fell in love with it. And here I am, 12 years later, still passionate about it. And how does this fit with the organic side of your personality? Is there a way to be an organic race car driver? Well, there are ways. But again, choosing to live a more consciously sustainable lifestyle, right now the industry is not sophisticated enough where you can be 100%. So it's full of choices. One of the things that I do that is not green, particularly, is that I race vintage cars. Now, what is green about it is that instead of destroying these cars and throwing them on the scrap heap, people at great expense and passion have taken these race cars. One of my oldest, one is a 1962 Lotus 22. There's only 11 of these cars surviving out of the original 77. And so we have recycled and repurposed these cars that were really destined for the scrap heap. We've bought a wonderful sport back to life that thrills thousands and thousands of fans. In fact, my biggest race is that I go to is at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in July. And over the course of that weekend, we have 50, 60,000 people that we races in our cars bring pleasure to. To me, that passion and that form of camaraderie and what I particularly like about what we do is the public can walk up to us, talk to us as drivers, look at the cars. We let them pop their children in the car and take pictures. And some people are, you know, automotive enthusiasts and they want to get a very tight specific shot of an area of the car. And they have access to do that. What I consider a green aspect of the racing is that it's the spirit of the sport and the pleasure and joy that it brings to so many. And moving forward, I'm constantly searching for products that my team can use, be it, again, another company out of Wisconsin. A seller's company has a shop towel, which I actually use in my kitchen. They're great hand paper pan towels. They are, I think, 50 or 60% post-consumer recycled because we use the recycled toilet papers and we use all my product line out of Australia, which is biodegradable. So that, you know, when we empty our tanks, we're at least not messing up the environment. You know, we just try and constantly strive to find products that are as green as possible. You know, the whole team is as conscious as we can possibly be. I've looked at putting ethanol in the race cars, but ethanol actually in race cars and particularly are all the ones can be extremely flammable and dangerous. So I've been advised not to do that. But what I do as a driver is I try and be a swift of mind and light of foot and save on the fuel that way. So there's many ways that we try to be greener than, say, other teams. I don't suppose you could put some kind of solar panels on the top and add petals to make it go faster. Oh, no. The car actually won't go faster. No, no, no. But while we are stationed in the paddock, we can attach, stand alone solar panels to the truck instead of getting our electricity from pugging into the electric tank. Or running the diesel engine in the future, in the near future. A company said that they would be interested in being involved in that project with me. That's something that we are absolutely going to look at implementing because we run the electricity from about seven in the morning till about seven o'clock at night. That's a lot of savings right there. Are you kind of a vanguard into the NASCAR circuit? I mean, the idea of environmentalism and NASCAR, it probably blows a lot of people's minds. How do people there at the racetrack end up looking at you? Like a foreign creature? Yeah, they probably, I mean, not the drivers because they understand, but the regular fans that are just strictly NASCAR fans. A lot of people don't even know about vintage racing. Yeah, they probably look at us as probably a bit strange, you know, being a little bit rude and unfair. I kind of think of NASCAR fans as going to the track to basically just get drunk and watch crashes. Whereas with the vintage crowd, they are true race enthusiasts. They are not there to watch us crash. They are there to watch us drive to the very best of our skills. And they are there because they absolutely love the cars. And they are able to walk around and really get a good look and learn about the vast amount of cars that we have there. There are nine different classes just in the group that I race in. All the way from Formula 1, Formula 5000, we do have retired NASCARs, stock cars, Formula Juniors, Formula Fords, Formula V's, sports races, Formula 2's. So there is a bunch of cars to look at which makes it a very cerebral experience, shall we say. This is a rich life you've got, your sustainability, your organic orientation, certifiably organic. By the way, you did consider the name certifiably insane for that. Was that a pun on that that you chose that name? Yes, yes, absolutely. Because I am certifiably organic. I live it and breathe it to the very best of my ability all day long. What about the spiritual, religious background, your background personally, religious spiritually, and where you live now on that continuum? Right. Well, I was very fortunate. I had parents, I think probably because of where we lived. I never asked them. But growing up, my parents were Church of England. So I was raised Church of England. But I went to a private boarding school in Australia that again, although it was Church of England, we had girls there from all denominations. That was a wonderful thing. And then living in Singapore, which to this day, it's a truly multicultural society. We had Buddhists, we had Church of England, we had Hindus, we had Jewish people, we had Muslims, everybody, all together in a melting pot. And never, never, never in Singapore's history has there ever been any skirmishes or any unpleasantness against somebody because their religion was not the same as yours. And my parents had friends obviously of all religions, all types, and everybody was welcome in our home and at our dining table provided they were a good, decent person. You know, that was the only requirement. So that's how I've kind of grown up. I mean, you know, somebody says, "Oh, well, I'm Jewish." I'm like, "And what's your point?" Yeah, I don't care. It's like me saying, "I'm Church of England. Who cares?" I think at the end of the day, we're all human beings, whether you're gay or not, whether you're Mormon or not. We're all human beings and we all deserve and desire the same love and respect as each other and why people just can't live that way. I can't understand. I'm just too dumb. I don't get it. I just don't understand. But that's my philosophy in life. Just be a good, honest, hardworking, decent person and come on over dinners on the boil. Well, I'd like to come down for that meal, but I don't think it would be environmentally sensitive for me to make the long drive just for a meal. Well, again, see, this is where we've got to be sensible. You know, if you want to go somewhere, I think you can't just not go because of the carbon offsets. And if it really does bother you, there are carbon offset programs that you can belong to and pay into so that when you book your flight, you can say to the M.I. Do you have a program? Most of them do. Yes, you can add for your flight and the miles that you're traveling, it'll add an extra $85 to your ticket. And so you pay that and that goes into either a reforestation program or whatever it is the program is that they have. You know, if one really feels bad about that, but I think to limit your travel or whatever you'd like to do, I think just paying to a carbon offset program or travel less miles at home start. In fact, I just went and bought new tires for a bicycle. I'm going to start taking up bike riding now because where I live, I'm so close to shops and things that it is ludicrous to get the car out and drive up there. So just make find other ways to at least on a conscious level, I'm not saying go ride your bike for a thousand miles because of your trip from Wisconsin to Arizona, but something is better than nothing. It's all about a consciousness. It's all about caring about something other than yourself and just being conscious. And I think that when you step outside of yourself and make considerations outside of yourself, I just think your life is just so much better and the returns just enjoy is a thousandfold. I think that when we do good things, it's not to then sit back and go, well, where's the good coming back to me? Where is it? That's not what you do. You just go do something good and get on with your day and feel good. You need a bigger picture. Some people's picture doesn't extend beyond their doorway. My house is my castle and screw the rest of the world. And that's a viewpoint that doesn't match with my spirituality. Of course, they've got to make their own choice. Are you still Church of England and are there religious spiritual concepts? I guess maybe what the question is. What is your spiritual community? What's the community that helps you to live your life with the integrity that you so clearly include in it? Right. Well, I don't go to church, per se. I like to go at Easter and Christmas and whatever. But to me, what sort of fuels my spirit is hanging around with decent, like-minded people. I love all the people in the organic community because, again, they're thinking outside of themselves and what they can do to help or to be better. And, gosh, you know, people ask me a lot about sort of what church do you belong to? Or do I go to church? And I mean, I'm just looking out at my courtyard right now at Jasmine and actually a beautiful stained glass window that has come out of a church and it's a Bible that's open and it's got a pair of angel wings above it. You know, I look at things like that. There's a bird chirping in the tree, a neighbor's tree that's full of grapefruits is graping over. I mean, how can you not look at that and think you're in heaven? How can you not look at that and just be so grateful? How can that not drive you on through the day to do better, to be grateful, you know, to just extend yourself? In my opinion, there's no way you could. And if you looked and saw those things, of course, a lot of people get distracted from them. They need the encouragement to help them see what's right in front of their nose, but you clearly don't need that encouragement. You're so helpfully helping other people see the ways that they can connect. Every time we talk about being conscious and making decisions about what you buy or what you build or what you drive, anytime you're conscious of that and you're looking at the bigger community that we're all part of, I think that's a spiritual decision. Yes, yes. So for me, you know, my religion or my church or whatever is, you know, on the one hand, it's kind of insular, if you will, in that I don't specifically belong to a church or a community. But I, like I've had Jewish friends, oh, come to the synagogue, Catholic friends. Oh, do you want to come to Christmas Mass? Sure, you know, I'm very comfortable in anybody's place of worship. I don't, you know, I'm like, oh, I can't go in there. I'm not Catholic. I'm not Jewish. I'm not, you know, it just doesn't even cross my mind. It's a place of worship. And I kind of believe there's one God, but some of us see him differently. And that's okay. I just don't like it when people start fighting and being unpleasant and discriminatory because you're not of my faith and all that. I mean, it's just ridiculous. It's just an insult to me. Well, I certainly won't insult you that way. I'm grateful for the witness you're living, the conscious life and the way that you're helping other people have little light bulbs going over their heads. So I want to thank you for doing that work. And I want to thank you Sharon Beal for joining me here today for Spirit in Action. Well, thank you so much, Mark, as well. I've enjoyed it tremendously. That was Sharon Beal, Green Home Builder, former host of the radio program, Certifiably Organic, and current co-host of Making a Splash on Blog Talk Radio.com. Find more about her at SharonBeal.com. That's Sharon. S-H-A-I-R-O-N, by the way. Though it may be easier to just follow the link from my northernspiritradio.org. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeat, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will know this world alone. With every voice, with every song, we will know this world alone. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing. (upbeat music)