Written by the Staff at Sustainable House and Home
If you asked someone, even in the building trades, a decade or so ago what the term ‘sustainability’ meant, they would have given you quite a different answer than what we think of today. Sure, the term and ideas have been around for longer, but it has been in the last decade or so when such ideas have come to main street USA. The reason for much of it is due to changes in the way we are viewing our relationship with the environment in which we live. Years ago, when things were humming along just fine, convenience was the law of the land. If you wanted a ‘new one’ you simply threw what ever you had out and got one. It wasn’t always like this. Generations ago, things were built to last and maintained to help them do so. Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of this ideal.
Well, it is back. And it is a good thing. Not only does living sustainably help protect and preserve our natural resources, but it makes financial sense as well. Not only does it save money in the long-term, but it can actually help get an economy going again. To many, the notion of a green building revolution sparking new life into a stagnant economy is the next big move. Just like with the industrial revolution and the information/digital age revolution just before it, the green revolution has the potential to create long-lasting changes that can help us to live more lightly on the planet.
This isn’t just tree-hugging and commune-living gossip either, it has main street American implications. Imagine powering your home with wind or solar panels that are able to capture the sun during the day, stored in batteries that you can use at night or in low-sunlight days. Well, you really don’t have to imagine this, there are people living with their homes ‘off-the-grid’ as they say right now across the country. True enough, the numbers are small. But, nonetheless, the viability is there and it will only get stronger as the technology improves and our desire to be free of our reliance on fossil fuels for energy, both foreign and domestic, becomes a priority to a critical mass number of us.
These issues are so much more about the sustainability of our way of life than they are about anything else. Sustainable home design is just the way that we can bridge the gap and create an even more synchronous connection to the places in which we live. If you share an interest in these topics, you can learn more through various sustainable house and home sites online. There are numerous products and technologies available today that can help us to create the future of sustainable building today.
