The Southern Colorado Sustainability and Outdoor Living Expo will fill the Colorado Springs Event Center, 3960 Palmer Park Boulevard at Academy, March 31 through April 2, 2017. This family-friendly event boasts over 150 booths and will connect area residents with services, products and businesses focused on affordable and sustainable living in our community.

The show will feature two of the hottest new tiny homes. The Tiny Home Co. offers an unrivaled selection of luxurious tiny homes. All models are built with only the finest building materials, full-sized appliances, over-engineered design and structure, and, of course, keeping green building at the front of all applications. Schooner EcoHomes Inc. is a local veteran-owned business. They build sustainable off-grid homes and work spaces on a custom basis. “Our key focus is sustainability and building homes better with advanced building solutions, and that is what we are displaying with our Tiny Homes,” says Dan Rosenbaum, owner of Schooner EcoHomes, Inc. “I am very passionate about energy conservation for many reasons; some of them obvious in the fact that fossil fuels are finite resources and we should use them as efficiently as we can, but as a former military and government contractor I also believe it is a matter of national security.”

Attendees will also have a chance to meet The Mushroom King, Tom Weipert. As his nickname suggests, Weipert knows a lot more about mushrooms than the average hunter. His father started bringing him along on mushroom hunts when he was just three years old. Through the years he learned about the unique relationship of mushrooms to trees, the best weather conditions and places to find them. Last year he traveled 54,000 miles hunting for mushrooms all around the country. Weipert also works as a chef. Consuming wild mushrooms can be a hazardous endeavor and in some cases even fatal, so before eating any mushroom collected from the wild it is absolutely critical that it is identified with certainty. An old mushroom hunters’ axiom states “When in doubt, throw it out.” Such an embrace of skepticism can save your life. “I also like to teach people about the health benefits of many types of mushrooms,” says Weipert. “Many don’t realize how healthy they are. Many are anti-viral, anti-bacterial and contain antioxidants. I focus heavily on educating attendees on this and teaching them how to cultivate their own mushrooms as well.” Weipert will be on hand for Q&A all weekend and hosting one seminar each day. “I love the sustainability show, this show is by far my favorite. It seems like Coloradans have great sense of keeping healthy. I save a lot of my products to share with the attendees of this show and am very excited to be there,” he says.

Dome Creations and Atlas Greenhouse are eager to see new generations take pride in their ability to see sustainable growth and ingenuity in place of the disparity that has come between the general populace and their food, income and resources. Greenhouses, of whatever shape or size, represent a step in the direction of consciously addressing that gap, and seeing it bridged. Greater education and greater production will help our children and their children succeed.

Localvore Colorado CoOp Store will be on hand demonstrating a variety of products related to gardening, canning, freezing, dehydrating, bees, fermentation, goats, chicks and many other items!

Enjoy Outdoor Survival Seminars by Pikes Peak Community College and a special Natural Health Section that includes an apothecary of herbal medicine.

Specials will be offered on energy-efficient windows and Energy Star rated heating and cooling solutions.

Register to win great prizes including a Nordic hot tub valued at $3,000 from Bliss by Arctic Spas!

Show Admission:  Adults/$6, Youth 16 and under/FREE!  Parking is FREE all weekend!

Show dates and times:Friday, March 31st 1-7pm / Saturday, April 1st 9am-6pm / Sunday, April 2nd 11am-4pm

For more information contact Tiphani Ruark at 816-676-0483 tiphanir@rjpromotions.com or Jessica Caylor at 816-676-0686 jessicac@rjpromotions.com.