About
“This Sustainable House” is a project that is now in it’s second incarnation. It was originally a simple project to convert a fairly ordinary 1980′s style brick veneer home to an environmentally sustainable oasis that provides most of the needs for it’s occupants. However it has now become a 15 acre, cold climate oasis which will further develop the original concepts to include right livelihood.The basic recurring theme across the two locations was/is to develop a demonstration site for what can be done, and to encourage change. With the current crisis with regards global warming never has the following Chinese Proverb ever been truer;
“Many a false step was made by standing still”
This Sustainable House is a first step… a step onto a path leading to a brighter future for our children, the environment, the world.
Goals
One of the stated goals of the This Sustainable House project is to create a home which is comfortable and comforting, but which has the least negative impact on it’s environment. This will be achieved by combining a number of newer technologies (such as Photovoltaic Cells) with older ‘nana’-technologies and natural systems. The other stated goal of the project is to share this ‘vision’ with others, and to encourage others to adopt similar systems. In “open source” style, the hope is that others will be able to improve upon the work done on this project, and will then share their improvements in turn. To facilitate this communication this website, and the Green Phoenix Permaculture Website, will be developed to provide as much information and statistics as possible about the demonstration site. An un-moderated community forum will also be developed to encourage discussion between interested parties.A further dimension of the project, is to develop systems that encourage ‘right livelihood’ or sustainable methods of making a living. With that in mind, the current project will become a test environment for a number of small scale businesses.
Principles
This Sustainable House is being designed and built on a number of practical and philosophical principles, but the predominant influence is Permaculture. Permaculture is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture though it can also be thought of as permanent culture. The basic premise is that the only truly ethical decision is to adopt a responsibility for ourselves, and our environments. With this in mind an individual can become a ‘designer’, creating an environment that supports ourselves (and the environment) using design principles which mimic nature. It is a very simple theory which can be implemented in as simple, or complex, a manner as the individual wants.