Family demonstrates that living green is a way of life

Pat Whalen sports a Missouri Department of Conservation badge.

And he wears his reddish-brownish hair like someone who’s spent one too many nights in the wilderness, slumbering beneath a lean-to made of large branches.

The Blue Springs resident admits to caring deeply about the welfare of the planet.

But that’s not why he reuses, recycles and renews.

“It’s mostly that I’m just cheap,” says Whalen, scratching his head. In front of him lies a brand-new navy blue Toyota Prius. “Now, my wife, Kathy, she’s the environmentalist who’s willing to spend a little money.”

Whalen’s wife was the one who convinced him they needed a Prius, whose 2008 model is the most fuel efficient car sold in the United States, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She’s also the one who insists on going organic, racking up a bill two or threefold that of ordinary supermarket fare.

But she has her reasons.

“It’s not only that the Prius gets 44 to 45 miles a gallon, it has one of the cleanest emission profiles of any automobile,” Kathy Whalen says. “I am a proponent of organic-type foods; I like knowing what it is that I’m eating.”

Elsewhere in the Whalen household, she’s the culprit behind the low flush toilets, compact fluorescent light bulbs and tankless water heater.

As for the thermostat, its high setting is her husband’s prerogative.

“It’s all about cheap,” says Pat Whalen, who is responsible for much of the home’s interior look.

Pat Whalen’s home is a smattering of scrap reconfigured to fit his taste in mid-century modern art.

Virtually all the furniture – including the futuristic chairs and lampshades that seem pulled from the set of “A Clockwork Orange ”– are thrift store or garage sale throwaways.

“Everything you buy new is made from China, junky and falls apart,” Pat Whalen says.

Kathy Whalen says she’s astonished by some of her husband’s discoveries.

“He has a knack for finding stuff,” she says.

Most of the stuff Pat Whalen finds and brings home isn’t the prettiest nor the most practical – at first glance, anyway.

One day when he discovered a pile of splintered, nail-nicked wood on the side of the road, he packed it into his van.

Now that same wood comprises his deck.

The remodeling of his basement cost some money in terms of labor, but not materials; the cabinets were made from heart pine Pat Whalen pulled from a junk pile abutting a renovated building in downtown Kansas City.

“I don’t mind yanking nails out of wood if I like how it looks,” Pat Whalen says.

The front porch of the home Pat Whalen tore out, replacing it with bricks from the trolley route that went across the old Prospect Bridge over Brush Creek.

“I thought they looked cool,” he says.

Even the Whalens basement floor is at once environmentally friendly and economical. It’s made of cork from the bark of oak trees, a renewable resource.

“We got it because of my wife’s allergy problems,” Pat Whalen says. “And it’s cheap.”

The Whalen’s 2-acre yard is a hodgepodge of native grasses and wildflowers, including mayapples, Solomon’s seal and purple cone flowers.

Aside from its benefit to wildlife, Pat Whalen’s sanctuary has another use.

“Once it’s established, you don’t need to water, and there’s no maintenance,” he says.

Also, each year, there’s less and less for him to mow.

“Saves us some gas,” he says. “Cheap.”



DESIGN work -

Six years ago, Pat Whalen played a part in the design of the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center in Kansas City. The building, owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation, is hailed as one of the region’s greenest structures, the brainchild of Bob Berkebile, the so-called godfather of green. Pat Whalen works at the center as an education specialist, teaching children about conservation through art-related workshops.