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| Cindy's Bio | ||||||
 Shelter Ecology was founded in 1991 with some like-minded partners and started out as a "hotline" for healthy home issues. Soon after, it expanded into a interior design and product specification practice (1994) and then into a retail store and design studio (from 1998 – 2010). Presently, the emphasis is simply on healthy home design and consultation (without the retail sector). Cindy has been researching indoor air quality and the important relationship it has to our health for over 20 years. With a BA degree from UT Knoxville in Interior Design (with an emphasis in Architecture), Cindy has had field experience with 3 other design and architectural firms before starting her own practice. Soon after graduating from college in 1990, Cindy began to personally experience the effects of toxic indoor air quality upon the body as she found that she was challenged with multiple chemical sensitivities and mold allergies. This personal experience has gifted Cindy with the ability to help people with similar issues. Shelter Ecology has conducted many presentations to the public and private sectors on "The Healthy Home" and what it means to build healthy and green. Some venues include: The Environmental Forum in Chattanooga, TN, 1991; The North Carolina Green Building Conferences and The North Carolina Recycling Association Conferences, 1997 –1999; The Green Village Expo in Charleston, SC, 1998; The National Association of Women in Construction National Conference 2005 and various forums for the Western North Carolina Green Building Council between 2001-2005. Cindy has also taught basic architectural drafting courses at the local community college, AB Tech with an emphasis on sustainable and healthy design and building techniques. Cindy has been able to experience first hand the improvements that environmentally safe products and appropriate building methods make on our health by designing and overseeing the construction of her own healthy built / green home in 1999. Many types of green products were incorporated into the first design phase of 900 square feet, including recycled materials, nontoxic wheat straw cabinets, renewable resource flooring, not toxic paint and finishes, a super efficient HVAC-DAF system, and a recycled-wood loft. In 2001, a second phase of the Patton’s home and offices was built, utilizing a different systems approach than the first phase. The two systems of the Patton’s green built homes are monitored and compared frequently which allows Cindy to offer the most appropriate systems design principles to her projects based on experience. Mold and chemical toxicity in homes is one of the leading health dangers of our present day with a 300% increase in asthma since 2001. Healthy and green is no longer an alternative way to build, but an essential way to build.
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| Also check out WNCGBC (Western North Carolina Green Building Council) at: www.wncgbc.org | ||||||
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