'Connect!' explores different shades of living green

Solar couple: Carol Newcomb-Jones and Dell Jones converted their Fort Myers home to solar. There are many shades of green; that's true in living green as well as in the colors of the spectrum. From solar power to new construction techniques to eco-friendly hotels, WGCU-TV's half-hour "Connect!" show on Friday, Oct 3, at 8:30 p.m., will look at the green steps being taken by Southwest Florida businesses, individuals and public facilities. The program will be re-aired at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Hosted by veteran television journalist Jim McLaughlin, "Connect!" is a multimedia project aimed at helping Southwest Floridians connect with the region's diverse offerings in the areas of the arts, wellness, living green, volunteering, regional getaways and community character. Aside from the TV show, Connect! also includes a live, call-in radio show and Internet postings of both the TV and radio shows at www.wgcu.org.

The Calusa Nature Center offers a living museum of Florida wildlife, including a butterfly aviary. The Interpretive Center at the Six Mile Cypress Slough uses rapidly renewable construction materials and practices water conservation to teach visitors how building green can sustain plants and wildlife.

"Thoughtful architects have been doing green architecture since the beginning of our profession," says Jeff Mudgett, the architect for the nature center. "It's just recently that we've come to realize we need to quantify it, we need to be able to certify it so that people can understand what they're getting."

More and more Southwest Floridians have chosen to "live green," and save some green, by converting their homes to solar power, like Denise Daggett and Tom Lanners did on Cayo Costa.

"To live in this house, you wouldn't know that, you're on a solar system," Daggett says. "Its wired like a conventional home and so we have everything we'll ever need by living out here. We're in paradise!"

This is an ideal time to consider solar, with both the state and federal governments offering financial incentives to encourage conversion.

The "green" discussion will continue Monday, Oct. 6, at noon on WGCU-FM 90.1; WGCU-HD 90.1-1, when McLaughlin talks with representatives from resorts that have earned the state's green lodging designation.

Following the initial airtimes, all TV segments and radio shows are then posted at www.wgcu.org. Just click on "start connecting" to listen, watch and/or post your own comments.