For decades, Hilda Maingay and Earle Barnhart of The Green Center have welcomed visitors to experience their home’s ecological solar home design and source-separating sanitation as working systems—not simply ideas.

Since 2023, the Green Center has partnered with Talitha Abramsen, Founder and Convener of the Wastewater Innovation Network as well as Creator and Organizer of VIPee Tours. Talitha’s VIPee Tours are immersive field trips exploring the connections among housing, clean water, climate, conservation, and public costs.

The next tours are:

Thursday, September 17, 11:00am–1:30pm
Friday, September 18, 10:30am–3:30pm (limited space available)
Self-drive/caravan; bring your own lunch and beverage.

The tour asks: Why mix valuable nutrients with clean drinking water, only to spend enormous sums removing them downstream? It explores whether ecological sanitation can offer a practical “third pathway” beyond septic and sewer—potentially opening new options for ADUs and small homes on wastewater-constrained properties.

Participants will visit a modular ADU near Waquoit Bay, the Green Center’s solar greenhouse and eco-home—with ecological sanitation systems operating for more than 25 years—and the MASSTC/Barnstable County’s  Clean Water Center (on the 18th).

Rather than a traditional conference, the tour offers firsthand experience with working systems and conversations with homeowners, practitioners, and researchers. Previous tours have brought together nearly 80 municipal, housing, environmental, and policy leaders. Following these September tours, participation will exceed 100.

The Green Center and Talitha Abramsen hope you’ll join them.

RSVP to thegreencenterinc@gmail.com