Green Story

As a fifth generation mason, Les Veilleux always had a feeling he’d come back full circle. After years working for various technology companies (including Oracle, Netscape, and Microsoft) and as a travel photographer, Veilleux decided it was time to try his hand at showcasing his family’s legacy, all while giving it a 21st century green twist.

Veilleux launched Eco Firebox in 2010, with the goal of providing a more affordable, sustainable, and efficient heating system for the New England homeowner. Knowing he didn’t want to just build average, run-of-the-mill fireplaces, Vellieux instead developed a technology as green as it was attractive and functional. Building on technologies popular in Europe for over two centuries (Mark Twain even wrote about it in the late 1800s while traveling the continent, in the process lamenting his own country’s stubborn refusal to adopt them), Eco Firebox’s “masonry heater” uses only a fraction of the wood used in standard woodstoves, producing a clean, radiant heat that provides even temperatures for 12-24 hours after the fire has died out....