Practical solutions for people + planet
What Are You Working On?
What are you working on, at home or in your community, to help make life more sustainable, joyful, better in some small way? How is it going?
Tags: community, sustainability
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Edward Paschich on -
Hello,
I am currently trying to find a buyer for my latest "Sustainable House" here in Albuquerque New Mexico. I am in the initial stages of the search but if in the end it becomes necessary to build it as a "spec" house (spec. means to build a house and then try to sell it.) I do believe I will. I have built as spec. homes, solar adobe homes, tire homes, and straw bale homes. They were all not completely financial successful but they helped me learn what worked what did not and what the “home buyer” would buy. Unfortunately the vast majority of home buyers today want what they think they can sell for a profit in a few years. That means as big a house and as little cost per sq.ft. as possible and just like the house next door that just sold! Sustainability, carbon footprint, energy consumption costs etc. are rarely a consideration!
I will be quite a challenge to find a buyer that will let me dictate 100% of the house design. Since my sustainable house design is only 1271 sq.ft. my potential buyer will be even harder to find.
My sustainable design includes:
1. super insulated walls, floor and ceiling
2. grid tied photovoltaic’s
3. a constructed wetlands
4. a cistern
5. Forest Steward Council certified wood.
6. 100% post consumer recycled insulation.
7. ETC. ETC.
I anyone would like have a copy of the plan, specs and discussion I will be pleased to email them a copy. Of course it is free. This is my way of trying to do my part to push our culture away from its blind headlong rush to environmental collapse!!
-
Permalink Reply by Scott Adam ALF on -
I am developing an energy management program as a production model for small rural , and emergency relief at temporary, or displace communities, where energy production can manifest a higher level of living.
-
Permalink Reply by Scott Adam ALF on
-
As an experiential educator I am developing an energy management program as a production model for small rural , and emergency relief at temporary, or displace communities, where energy production can manifest a higher level of living. forgot to say its going, but slow, money flow is short when the poor of a rich country try to help the poor of a 3rd world country. My Energy Farm model is to show an agrarian thread to the development of sustainable energy (alternate energy only if you have a source already, otherwise its). I am seeking a grant writer, underwriter for the proposed site. We are cleaning out the garage for an Appleseed processor(Biodiesel), have a location for a Methane program Composting Manureetc, , and plans for an Alcohol refinery, ATF approved of course. Solar plans also exist.
-
Permalink Reply by Scott Adam ALF on
-
As an experiential educator I am developing an energy management program as a production model for small rural , and emergency relief for a temporary, or displace community, where energy production can manifest a higher level of living. forgot to say its going, but slow, money flow is short when the poor of a rich country try to help the poor of a 3rd world country. My Energy Farm model is to show an agrarian thread to the development of sustainable energy (alternate energy only if you have a source already, otherwise its). I am seeking a grant writer, underwriter for the proposed site. We are cleaning out the garage for an Appleseed processor(Biodiesel), have a location for a Methane program Composting Manureetc, , and plans for an Alcohol refinery, ATF approved of course. Solar plans also exist.
-
Permalink Reply by Dana on -
Hi Kim and Hi Bioneers!
I am new to this group, so hello! I read about Bioneers in an interview with Ken Ausabel (forgive the massacre of last name spelling) in the Sun magazine several years ago. Then I took a job in the SF Bay Area to further my clinical research career and was completely consumed by it for almost 3 years. I am now back to my beloved Colorado and am attaining some semblance of balance. As a consequence, I have been thinking hard about my life's passion, and what I want to do with the next 40 years of my life.
I have lived a double life in the world of biotechnology, and across the tracks, have been a massage therapist, both for more than a decade. My dream has always been to tear down the fences between the two. There is such a need for the holistic community to understand what it is going to take to eliminate the barriers into mainstream medicine and an equal need for traditional science to soften at the periphery and understand that healing falls into a larger purview than just the perception of the black and white of the mean value.
I now feel I have attained a proficiency in managing clinical trials, understanding the issues surrounding the protection of human research subjects, and an intuition into our regulatory agengies' mindsets, that I am in the planning phases of launching a new business to facilitate communication between complementary healing modalities and mainstream allopathic modalities, through education and clinical trial evaluations of alternative therapies.
The time is ripe for change....I have read that it only takes 1% of a culture to elicit critical mass for change and I wholeheartedly believe that massive change is imminent in our lifetimes. We can create that change.
So, first, I have two logistical questions:
First, is there a Colorado group of Bioneers? I have looked around on the website and haven't encountered any, but would love to meet up with local folks.
Second, is anyone aware of any networking groups of holistic medical practitioners or manufacturers who might be looking for someone to help them bridge the gap between their philosophies and the allopathic medical community, including regulatory agencies like the FDA?
And finally, I will answer the actual questions of this discussion, regarding what I am doing to make life more sustainable on a daily basis, even in small ways.
I can't say that I am doing anything directly for my community, besides donating my tax-deductible dollars to worthwhile local charities, as my time has been consumed with that corporate life thing and my newfound dedication to yoga, but my hubs and I are installing photovoltaics on our house this year and I just started composting. Our local recycler just began accepting all paper, cardboard, and plastics #1-8, so I am trying to be diligent about that.
I was a vegetarian in college, but gave it up because in Pennsylvania in the late 80's, vegetarianism meant grilled cheese sandwiches, and I don't do well on dairy and wheat. Luckily, I landed in a state that has many more choices, and I just recently adopted a "if I don't know who killed it, I won't eat it" approach to flesh-eating (after viewing the nauseating You-Tube video that resulted in the latest CA beef recall), because basically I believe that if a being is sacrificing it's life to sustain my life, it should be treated with the utmost respect and sanctity.
Oh, and I guess the only other thing I am doing this year is converting part of my yard (weed-farm) to a vegetable garden.
The last thing I want to say is that I have been reading a lot of the discussions and entries, and I am very touched by all of the mindful entries. People all over this country are seeking and finding ways to live in grace with the earth and it makes the butterflies fly in my heart. It is such an exciting time to live on this earth. It is such a difficult time to live on this earth, but man, oh man, there is such beauty in the possibilities.
-
Permalink Reply by Jeffrey V. on -
Hi Dana - there's a Beaming Bioneers Satellite partner in Boulder.
Website: ecenter.colorado.edu/bioneers
Contact: CU Environmental Center, bioneers@colorado.edu, 303.492.8308
Bioneers comes to Boulder where the Rockies meet the High Plains – creating community opportunities for sharing, learning and action, and bringing together the region’s progressive ideas, people and organizations. Produced by the University of Colorado Environmental Center in collaboration with numerous partner organizations.
-
Permalink Reply by NaTasha Shastan Bertrand on -
Hi Dana,
I hear you on the "if a being is sacrificing it's life to sustain my life, it should be treated with the utmost respect and sanctity."
I was an ethical vegetarian and budding animal rights activist in my late teens. Reality of life kinda hit me over the head, a lot, and I now eat meats. Writing about this journey is one of my current book projects.
The journey included relying upon "environmental medicine" and Naturopaths to get my health back to some semblance of functional. I took courses on herbalism and was about to become registered as a Theraputic Touch Practitioner when the laws changed, and I would have had to take two more years worth of unpaid apprenticeship or become a registered nurse in order to legally practice. I couldn't afford either, and had no interest in the second.
Hope you find a way to tear down those fences.
Happy gardening,
NSB
-
Permalink Reply by chris marron on -
I'll introduce myself with exerts of a letter I wrote to the Central Illinois Community Food Program.
I am a man with a vision. I think it is something you can easily relate to and support in your heart as well. Namely, I want to provide every community with locally grown, widely diversified, fresh organic food. This means food that is free of chemicals, all-natural, fresh, and full of the nutrients our bodies need to be
strong and healthy. Food that is grown locally, fully ripened. Not picked green and trucked from California or flown in from South America. No matter what part of the country you live in, or what type of climate you have, I am here to tell you that the benefits of year-round, locally sustainable organic agriculture are attainable for you and the families in your communities..
I absolutely believe that environmentally controlled organic food production is the wave of the future. As our planet becomes more and more polluted and our soils more depleted, this is by far the best solution to our food supply demands so far, and the preservation of the health and vitality of our citizens. The knowledge and technology are already in place and available to begin immediately.
My name is Chris Marron, and I have a passion for controlled environment greenhouse farming. I have been researching organic food production for the past 25 years. My late wife and I started small with a desire to feed our family the best food we could grow, and over the years we studied everything my family could find, and eventually developed a unique system that we call “Perpetual Harvest Greenhouse System” (PHGS)
We took the best from:
Greenhouse Technology.
Hydroponics Technology.
Permaculture Principles.
Organic Principles.
Sustainable Heating and Cooling System Technology.
100% Natural Composting Principles.
We succeeded in growing our food year-round in the cold, hostile climate of Central Oregon. Our system can work anywhere. Most greenhouses today are commercial mono-crop operations, and many are as dependent on chemical additives as a Midwest corn/soybean field. Even hi-tech hydroponics
operations produce tomatoes that taste like cardboard. Cornell University produces lettuce in a system similar to PHGS, except their system uses petro-chemical nutrients. They have documented that they can produce 23 times more lettuce per acre than the commercial farmers of California can grow, using 30 times less water. See: verticalfarm.com Page: The VF Entrepreneurship. My system is entirely different.
My first criteria is to grow organically, use Bio-Dynamic preps, and Peralandra techniques. No chemicals are used, period.
The second principle is to grow the organic food in a sheltered and controlled environment with a CO2 enriched atmosphere.
The third principle is to cram the greenhouse with as much diversification as possible to provide an optimally balanced diet. We use every bit of space, and grow vertically as well as horizontally.
The fourth principle is to use readily available technology. This is neither high-tech nor low-tech, but it is fully automated. We like to call it “Green-tech”. Once this is set up, it requires constant monitoring with electrical/electronic devices, but needs only a modest amount of labor to attain significantly increased yields. As in nature, we give the plants what they need and they grow at optimum levels 365 days a year.
In my opinion, this system will become even more valuable when put to use as a community food project. It will work well in low-income housing developments, at Senior Centers, Native American reservations, etc. Anywhere there is an abundance of volunteer labor available. It is an ideal food supply system for our prisons, where a highly nutritious diet can be attained with fewer tax dollars, and prisoners may reenter society with a real skill to support themselves.
In fact, the USA could easily improve on Cuba’s policy of allowing everyone the opportunity to grow their own organic food. That country has moved up from one that was almost totally impoverished to a country with a stable economy simply by the people working together to grow as much organic food as possible in every square foot of land that will sustain plant life. Every school should be teaching the benefits of growing nutritious food and allowing the students the opportunity of putting organic food in their cafeterias, which will improve their health and their brains’ ability to learn. Every church and club (Rotary, Elks, VFW, etc.) can enjoy many benefits that fresh organic food will bring its members and the poor that they help with their volunteer services.
Another companion technology of the Perpetual Harvest Greenhouse System (PHGS), is the integrated use of various bio-fuel components. The organizations that adopt a PHGS will also benefit from installing sustainably powered distributed generation plants. Most of the power plants in the USA are fueled with toxic coal or dangerous nuclear energy. We never see what the true costs of these polluters are. Coal destroys our atmosphere and nuclear power production wastes an incredible amount of water to keep down temperatures that can easily become disasters with a simple mistake.
Today’s coal fired powered plants run at a 27-32% efficiency rating. A distributed generation plant operating on ethanol, waste vegetable oil, straight vegetable oil, waste biomass, anaerobic digested sewage (methane) is carbon neutral and runs at more than double the efficiency rating of coal by simply capturing the waste heat for use in our heating/cooling systems. In reality, there is not one answer to our energy needs but we can cut the amount of pollution we generate to a small fraction by using a combination of the above mentioned feed-stocks and all the solar and wind energy available.
In Summary:
Our system is unique. There is no one growing food the way we do.
Our system is affordable.
Our system is self-sustaining.
Our system provides optimum nutrition for health and vitality.
Our food is delicious.
Our “Perpetual Harvest” System can be a standalone business, or it can be incorporated into a housing development as a community garden.
I would like to bring your attention to an innovative, integrated building system that will house, feed, and a way to financially support eight family units or more in each building, with operating costs far below today’s standards. This eight family system consists of a 10,000 sq. ft. greenhouse equipped with new technology which can cut heating/cooling costs by up to 80% that is fully integrated with eight apartments which will use the excess heating/cooling resources and purified air from the greenhouse. By adding a combined heat and power plant (CHP), it is now possible to operate the greenhouse year-round in any climate, and to live comfortably through environmental changes that are threatening our planet.
Of course, larger living/growing systems will prove to be even more viable but, today only a system set up for a minimum of five families will prove cost worthy, as it costs about $25-30 dollars a day to purchase and operate a combined heat and power plant (CHP). However, the costs of operating a 200-300 KW diesel generator (naturally, we will burn biodiesel) are not much higher than the costs of
running a 100 KW model which will supply all the power needed for five families and the greenhouse.
My vision and 25 years of experience have now evolved to my mission in life. I want to share our system with the world, and see it take hold in many diverse ways. I would like to see my system provide organic food in schools, hospitals, prisons, neighborhoods, apartment buildings, offices, housing developments,
and rural and urban Communities. Any place that serves or sells food is a potential customer. We have made the process of growing wholesome organic food attainable for all people, in all climates, and it is time to deliver the benefits. I am looking for people who are interested in this process in any of the following ways:
* If you already have a greenhouse, and would like to transform it into a “Perpetual Harvest” system.
* If you are ready to build a “Perpetual Harvest” greenhouse system, and have land and funding.
* If you are a farmer that is looking to diversify with a “Perpetual Harvest” greenhouse system.
* If you are a builder/developer and are ready to build an apartment complex with a “Perpetual Harvest Greenhouse System" incorporated to feed the families in the complex.
* If you are a co-op or community that is ready to invest in a “Perpetual Harvest Greenhouse System" for your members.
* If you are an investor with funds to establish an incubator project.
* If you are a grant provider or humanitarian willing to fund a school to teach our system.
* If you are motivated to create sustainable communities, please drop me a line as a daily dose of "synergy" has been my drug of choice for almost 15 years.
In the near future, we will offer franchises using our system. If you have an interest in obtaining a franchise, let us know and we will soon offer full training in this wonderful business.
NASA developed a similar system to feed its astronauts. The tiny country of Holland is feeding most of Europe with its greenhouses. Did you know that Holland has 100,000acres of greenhouses, while the USA has only ten thousand acres. In Southern Indiana, Purdue University is growing food underground in massive caves and in a report just published, they mention that the cost of electricity to light underground growing areas is less than the heating/cooling costs for conventional greenhouses. Cornell University has been researching similar systems for years. Sheltered food production, especially sheltered organic food production is the solution to our food and health needs.
Please contact me if you have an interest in any aspect of this offering, or pass my letter along to anyone you know that might be interested. There is a 40+ page description (almost a business plan) available by email, upon request.
Peace and love,
Chris Marron
cmarron14@yahoo.com
-
Permalink Reply by Susmita Barua on
-
Hi Chris
You are doing some wonderful work much needed now. I am a community networker ...want to learn myself how to perpetually harvest and pass it on to some green people I know in the community and online. Sending another email so you can send me the report. Thanks so much.
mita
for sustainable currency
-
Permalink Reply by Swan on
-
I am working with folks in the urban apartment complex where I live - after a lifetime of rural living and big gardens. We are translating it down to pots and containers in all kinds of nooks and crannies. We even have a pear tree in a pot this year and it's looking good. You can read my latest blog post here and at http://goodwordswan.wildflowerstew.com
-
Permalink Reply by Clinton Callahan on -
This afternoon is our weekly Just Stop Team meeting (see www.just-stop.org) an open meeting going for 3 months - it is fantastic to connect in an authentic way with people taking actions outside of mainstream culture. We use meeting technologies from Possibility Management (www.callahan-academy.com). We have started the Possibilica ecovillage project under the auspices of the UN's Global Ecovillage Network (www.gen-europe.org). We will participate in the Community Conference (www.communityconference.com) from 3-6 July 2008 in Berlin, and also the Path of Transformation conference (www.path-of-transformation.com) in Hamburg 4-7 September 2008. The hot thing is the next book (www.radiant-joy.com), this one titled Next Culture: empowering facilitators of the shift to sustainable culture. This is the thing that is in my face.
© 2008 Created by Bioneers on Ning. Create your own social network
