Leave it to Betty Gearen to see a brandy snifter's potential to become a liquid soap dispenser.

The former art teacher is always looking for ways to recycle objects in an effort to cut down on the planet's waste. A walk through her refurbished 1935 Pauoa Valley home says it all:

The beautiful wood floor in her yoga room? She asked officials from Punahou School for old bleachers they were going to toss during renovations.

The pieces of paper she uses to write notes to friends? Gearen makes them using ginger plants from her yard.

The water for her garden? That's rainwater collected from her own rain-barrel catchment system.

Welcome to The Green House — not just Gearen's personal sanctuary, but a sustainable living center that offers weekly workshops for others interested in learning how to make the world a better, greener place.

"Our mission is to educate people in sustainable ways of life," said Gearen, 58.

Since April, The Green House has offered classes on an array of eco-friendly subjects, from learning about worm composting to making solar cookers.

"This was actually a dream of mine a long time ago," Gearen said. "To have a place where people could learn ... the things that our grandmothers and grandfathers used to do as a normal course of life: gardening, composting, making soap, making paper, making their own fuel, fixing things and creating things with their hands."

SMALLER FOOTPRINTS

The Green House's weekly workshops average about 15 students, whose diversity "is the best part," Gearen said. Participants include everyday moms and dads, seniors, and college students and professors, she said.

Kailua resident Dean Kline, 19, has attended eight workshops.

"I think what she's doing is absolutely wonderful," said Kline, a marine biology major at Hawai'i Pacific University. "I wish more people around the country did this for their community."

Among Kline's favorite classes: building bamboo crafts, using herbs to make medicines, worm composting and making a rain-catchment system.

"It's not only fun because you learn so much, but at the same time, you're learning how to better protect and better preserve the environment by making your footprints smaller," Kline said.

When neighborhood children and Gearen's own two grandsons, who live next door to her, showed an interest in the eco-activities, The Green House instructors created the Keiki Explorer's Club. The program offers kid-friendly classes for children ages 5 to 11.

Keiki workshops have included making Halloween costumes, paper and a solar oven.

For Green House instructors, part of the fun is dreaming up workshop topics. Future classes for adults include making mosaic garden decor and "rubbah slippahs" out of recycled tires, Gearen said; children can look forward to making outdoor forts and "things that go" on wheels.

Ideas for classes are endless, Gearen said: "Our motivations (for workshops) are the direction we want to see the islands go, but also calling on the memories from the past and sharing with other people the information that our ancestors lived by."

WALKING THE WALK

The Green House's core staff of six instructors includes school teachers, organic gardeners and avid recyclists.

"We basically live this lifestyle," said Jon Webster Abbott, an instructor and renewable energy systems designer.

Abbott makes his own fuel, lives off solar energy, grows organic fruits and vegetables, composts and recycles. "We really believe in walking the walk," he said.

Gearen has been walking the walk as long as she can remember. Her craftsman-style house, which she bought in 1982, is a testament to her sustainable lifestyle. It has taken her roughly five years, working with a tight budget, to get the place to its current eco-friendly standard.

Green House visitors immediately see Gearen's love for gardening: a holy basil bush, sweet potatoes, green onions and roses burst out of patches of land on the sidewalk fronting the house.

The front yard, bordered by a white picket fence with more roses and climbing oregano, is a shady jungle of banana trees, ti plants and pineapples. The backyard keeps Gearen's compost pile and free-range chickens, as well as a garden of herbs, aloe, cassava, avocadoes, tomatoes and more.

Inside, the wood floors and walls have been stained with natural linseed oil, cupboards are stocked with homemade cleaners, the refrigerator is full of organic foods, and a "gray water" system drains laundry water to irrigate outdoor gardens.

Gearen's efforts for a greener world start in her own home.

"The way that the planet is right now, we don't have any time to waste," Gearen said. ... "The people that I talk to from the classes are hungry for this knowledge; that's a great thing."

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.