What's "new" is really "olde" in Sustainability.
Good group. Cheers everyone.
I've been exploring sustainability for many years. While at a Shaker Community in Poland Spring Maine, doing my masters thesis research - inventions and innovations of Shakers, I visited Bill Cooperthwait's Yurt Foundation HQ. That was 30 years ago.
Sustainability is nothing new. Just new to us, perhaps. Yurts or gers, round huts, natural materials, natural cooling etc, were the way people built before Carrier Corp developed residential air conditioning, and Levit(sp?) developed cookie cutter houses to fill the need when WW II vets returned and needed housing fast.
However, the cost and availability of natural resources, gas, fuel oil, coal etc made it possible to build big leaky houses with no thought to conservation of resources. Europeans have had a different approach to building for comfort and conservation. Energy use standards are far more rigorous.
Here in Buffalo we have a 3 year old organization called Buffalo ReUse - Deconstructing houses, salvaging materials and reselling them.
Go to BuffaloReUse.org for a tour of the process and warehouse. I worked on the first two houses deconstructed- a volunteer effort to learn the process and get us started. Now there are paid, trained crews.
My 100 year old house is a work in progress to make it and me comfortably sustainable. However, I'd rather live in a tiny house such as those seen on web sites such as Tumbleweed houses etc.
I've been exploring sustainability for many years. While at a Shaker Community in Poland Spring Maine, doing my masters thesis research - inventions and innovations of Shakers, I visited Bill Cooperthwait's Yurt Foundation HQ. That was 30 years ago.
Sustainability is nothing new. Just new to us, perhaps. Yurts or gers, round huts, natural materials, natural cooling etc, were the way people built before Carrier Corp developed residential air conditioning, and Levit(sp?) developed cookie cutter houses to fill the need when WW II vets returned and needed housing fast.
However, the cost and availability of natural resources, gas, fuel oil, coal etc made it possible to build big leaky houses with no thought to conservation of resources. Europeans have had a different approach to building for comfort and conservation. Energy use standards are far more rigorous.
Here in Buffalo we have a 3 year old organization called Buffalo ReUse - Deconstructing houses, salvaging materials and reselling them.
Go to BuffaloReUse.org for a tour of the process and warehouse. I worked on the first two houses deconstructed- a volunteer effort to learn the process and get us started. Now there are paid, trained crews.
My 100 year old house is a work in progress to make it and me comfortably sustainable. However, I'd rather live in a tiny house such as those seen on web sites such as Tumbleweed houses etc.
