Nova Terra / Rebeschini-Glover Residential Project, Superior, Colorado | Matteo Rebeschini and Mel Glover chose Lisa Morey’s company Nova Terra [previously Colorado Earth] located in Brighton, Colorado, to rebuild their home after the Marshall Fire destroyed it in December 2021.
Matteo and Mel’s family story is compelling, including their strong desire for a home made of a high thermal mass material that would not burn and a quiet house when the high winds blow. They were very impressed with Lisa Morey and her team at Nova Terra, who use earthen clays local to Colorado, which have a low embodied carbon footprint in the extraction, manufacturing, and transport of these materials is concerned.
Lisa Morey is a professional engineer and architectural designer who has worked in the construction industry since 2000, her mission is to scale the natural building industry in Colorado by offering an affordable wall system made from locally obtained materials. EcoBlox, a sustainable, locally sourced material made of unfired, lime-stabilized, compressed earth blocks was used for its fire resistance and energy-efficiency properties for this home rebuild.
Sustainable materials being used for fire resistance and energy-efficient construction on a Marshall Fire rebuild site could be a story in itself, the bigger story at work here is with Nova Terra and the steps they are taking to make sure that EcoBlox is not a trendy fad and that sustainable building materials, such as these, make their way into mainstream building.
Lisa and Nova Terra have recently been awarded a grant from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory [NREL] in Golden, Colorado, to support her entrepreneurial efforts and collaborate with lab staff to create an energy model that accurately assesses the benefits of thermal mass in areas of the country that rely on diurnal [having a daily cycle or rhythm] temperature wing. This will provide building professionals across the United States with knowledge of where high-thermal mass construction can work well and provide comfort and energy savings for their clients.
Lisa is also working with the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado students on a capstone project where they will identify areas of the country where the best type of sandy-clay soil exists to make EcoBlox. As this information is gathered and overlayed with the improved energy modeling from NREL, EcoBlox and other locally-made, earth-based construction materials could be manufactured regionally.
This story will showcase how an entrepreneur can be a social entrepreneur and how Lisa Morey and Nova Terra acquire and share information about the best practices related to natural resources and advanced energy modeling. These best practices will benefit hundreds and thousands of people who may never have heard of Lisa Morey or Nova Terra. Lisa’s vision is to demonstrate how EcoBox, an alternative building material, can stand in the marketplace. This could be the difference in moving EcoBlox from a niche building material to a building material that could challenge wood construction in areas of the country where high thermal mass buildings perform best!
