The Concept House Village in Heijplaat village, Rotterdam

We always talk about sustainable living but what are we doing to get us there?

In Netherlands, they started the ball rolling through Concept House Institute of Building and Business Administration (CHIBB). They built experimental sustainable house designed by Rotterdam University students and researchers in Concept House Village located at Heijplaat village. The idea is to explore innovative housing concepts in a bid to develop sustainable living communities.

Dutch stylist, Helly Scholten, was selected to run the experiment by living full time in an "oversized greenhouse" with rooftop vegetable garden for 3 years. She and her family members have been there since 2015 and you can view photos and read about their experience at the following links:

Living in a greenhouse: One family's experiment in sustainable living
Helly Scholten
Instagram

You can find out more about Concept House Village at the following links:

Creating Comfortable Climatic Cities
Concept House Village Brochure

Let us hope that decision makers in our own country will also work on the aspects of starting sustainable living communities locally. Meantime, what ideas can we adopt to lead a sustainable life? 

According to author, Sam Richards, of "Sustainable Living: Guide to Living a Fully Self-Sustainable Life That Will Eliminate All of Your Expenses", they are many things that we can learn to do for our home, like learning to conserve water by installing a rainwater harvesting system, learning to grow our own food and preserving our bountiful.  For the more ambitious, we can also learn to generate our own solar energy.



Another book that you can read up on is, "The Integral Urban House: Self Reliant Living in the City", which is considered the bible of urban homesteading. The book is written through the experience of living in the Integral Urban House set up in Berkeley, California by Sim Van der Ryn, Farallones Institute, Helga and Bill Olkowski.

Old clothing? Give it a second life.

If old clothing can have a say in how they should be used, this will be its autobiography.



Other than donating your old clothing, what else can you do on a personal level with clothes that you or your family members no longer wear?  Maybe reading this book, "The Upcycled T-Shirt: 28 Easy-to-Make Projects That Save the Planet Clothing, Accessories, Home Decor & Gifts" will give you some ideas.

Retirement "cave" home. Learn to build your own.

What can you do to reduce the cost of managing a house when you retire?

Steve Rees could still remember how cool it was inside the caves he played in as a kid and decided that he will live off-grid in his make do cave by burying two shipping containers.



His retirement "cave" home attracted so much interest that he decided to write a book about how it was build and you can find it selling at


It is great to know that being kind to the environment by conserving energy and by re-using what could have been abandoned material can also be kind to the pocket.

Plastic litters are precious plastic

Take a breather from complaining about plastic bottles littering the environment and take a look at this video.



Don't you like it that you can now process plastic discards into something useful again?

And, don't worry about the cost of getting the machines you need to start because, you are going to learn to make your own with affordable basic materials at Precious Plastic.

Work on "Earth for Life" Global Fund

Many people are facing the consequences of climate change.  Land are lost and homes swept away by accelerated sea level rise due to melting glaciers.  As the temperature increases due to greenhouse effect, droughts and wildfires are taking away wildlife and their habitats.

We are producing more Carbon dioxide (CO2) than the earth could absorb by the way we are changing the landscape, cutting down trees, mining and burning fossil fuels for industrialization. But before we blame every country for greenhouse gas emissions, let us check out what Bhutan is doing about it.



I like the dream Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, shared on how we can all be carbon neutral together by kickstarting an "Earth for Life" global fund.

Let's us work on making it a reality by sharing his idea.

And if you are curious what "Gross National Happiness" is about, read this book.

 

Mason jars not made for food

The mason jars supplied by Harald Schultz are not meant for food but the light they created, provided food on the table of formerly unemployed and under educated men and women from South Africa, who are now working for him.

He calls it Consol Solar Jar as it uses the power of the sun to charge its solar cells.



This is definitely a safer and more sustainable alternative to the kerosene lamps used in most developing countries.

Now, what else can we create with mason jars?  Harald Schultz's green initiatives are inspiring.  Don't you agree?

Green enough to re-use bath water?

If being environmentally friendly means re-using your bath water, would you?  It may sound gross to anyone, but if you can get yourself a Hotaru, why not?

With a Hotaru you can even shower anywhere you want as it is a portable pop-up nylon tent set up over a plastic base that holds about five gallons (20 L) of water.  As an added plus, there is a purification filter in its base to clean up your dirty soapy water good enough for you to use it again.

If you use it on a camping trip, the unit needs to be connected to a car's cigarette lighter which will provide a shower of cold water.  If you need hot showers, you will have to use it where there is a power outlet or a generator to plugged it in to.

The filters are expected to last about two months and there is a built-in sensor to let you know when it is time to change them. Just remember to use mild body cleansers.

Check out how it looks in action.



Currently, the unit weighs 32 kg but founder, Ryo Yamada, says they are working to reduce it.

Read this at Gizmag.