Green Press

Tricia narrates a new video for Vital Engineering "Help Change the World". Check it out on YouTube now!

Tricia chats with www.greenr.ca about building her off-the-grid vacation home in Alberta, Canada.

Tricia Helfer On Her Green Home

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What inspired you to build a green home?

Helfer: Well, we are a ways off of actually building it yet. I’ve been talking about it for almost two years and have gotten some flak for it not being built yet, but we don’t mind taking our time. It’s a vacation home so there is no rush and we want to make sure we do it right. A few years ago we underwent a massive renovation on our home in L.A and, although we are very happy with most of the house, we were shocked at how “ungreen” we did it. We assumed that all the options would be readily out there or offered to us by all the people involved in the build, but not one green technology was. My husband and I were both working insane hours at our jobs and I was most of the time in Vancouver filming Battlestar Galactica, so we didn’t take enough attention. I was so overwhelmed with trying to pick everything out while on weekend trips back to L.A that, to be honest, I ended up on ulcer and anxiety medicine.

Renovating is incredibly hard, especially when you don’t have an interior designer and have an architect that left a lot to be desired. After we moved back in, we realized we were so incredibly ignorant not to include even the basic green technologies. We have since put in solar panels for the pool and are currently revamping the yard to be more desert landscape, like the area should be, instead of tropical. Hence, when we started on the Alberta project we made a decision to try to be the opposite and see how green we could go. Initially, we wanted to go prefab but couldn’t find anything in Canada that had the modern architecture that we were looking for. We then hired an architect and began the back and forth process of designing the house from scratch. Then, as life usually presents itself, just as we were about to sign off and go to blueprints, my husband discovered a prefab company out of Toronto, Mafco House, that was exactly what we were looking for. We are now in the back and forth process with Mafco but nearing the end.

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Tricia Helfer sits down with Alexandra Burroughs of The Calgary Herald to discuss her move from Alberta to Hollywood and back again.

It's a long way from a grain farm in Donalda to the fast lane in Hollywood. And no one knows that better than Tricia Helfer, the 5-foot-10 inch beauty who began the journey more than 15 years ago....

Although Helfer left the province after she was discovered in a movie theatre lineup at the age of 17, she says she attributes a lot of her success to the qualities and behaviours she learned growing up in Alberta.

"I'm Alberta born and raised," she says. "I enjoy a challenge and I certainly want to be given opportunities to grow and learn. If some doors didn't open in the beginning, it was disheartening, but I certainly didn't expect to change careers and be an overnight success story."...

"When it comes to Alberta, I love the province," says Helfer. "My husband and I are building a vacation home near where I grew up. He wants to retire there -- anytime really -- but for me and my career, I need to be in Los Angeles."

Still, she says, her journey will always lead her back home.

"I'm an Albertan, that's just who I am."

Catch Tricia as she sits down with George Stroumboulopoulos of The Hour.

Tricia Helfer: farm girl with a whip

Assuming you're not running for president of the Tricia Helfer fan club, things you might not know about her include the fact that had she not been "discovered", she probably would have gone on to become an animal behaviourist. ... She's concerned about the environment but is not holier-than-thou about it; although she's currently building a solar-powered "green" vacation home in rural Alberta, ...

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Take a tour of Tricia and Jonathan's L.A. home with MTV Cribs

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