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People tend to dwell on the spiritual, aesthetic and social aspects of sustainability when they talk about sustainable communities and give lessattention to the maintenance of the physical environment. Yet, it is the effect that energy, transportation, food, water, and waste systems have on the environment that determines sustainability. Dependence on non-renewable polluting resources is having a critical impact on the physical environment. As long as energy for transportation and power comes primarily from a finite supply of fossil fuels, no significant level of sustainability can be achieved, especially since competition for remaining supplies causes armed conflict and the burning of fossil fuels deteriorates air quality. The following three sustainability principles are paraphrased from The Natural Step, System Conditions [1] Air, water, and soil quality must be maintained or improved. [2] Natural cycles must be completed. And [3] Resources must be used equitably and efficiently. |
| Air |
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We put a lot of effort toward ensuring the quality of the food we eat, but consider for a moment that we can survive a month without food and only three days without water, but without oxygen we only survive for three minutes. Oxygen is arguably the most precious resource on earth, yet we take it for granted. In the first six months of life an infant converts about 400 cubic feet ofoxygen to carbon dioxide. Burning one gallon of gasoline uses approximately the same 400 cubic feet of oxygen. In California where there are more cars than people, the average person burns over 600 babies worth of oxygen a year. But it's even worse, because the exhaust from cars contains many toxic gases that cannot be assimilated by the environment. On the other hand, when we breathe we are participating with the plant life on earth in a cycle that includes photosynthesis and respiration in a process that has maintained relatively consistent oxygen levels for the last 500 million years. Increasing carbon dioxide and decreasing oxygen levels cannot be corrected by planting more trees. It takes as much oxygen to burn or decompose the carbon created by a plant's growth as the plant produces in its lifetime. The only reason free oxygen exists in the earth's atmosphere is because carbon is buried under the earth's crust. It took billions of years and the shifting of the tectonic plates to create and bury the carbon we know as fossil fuel. When we bring fossil fuel to the surface, we reverse the process that created the conditions that allow us to exist. |
| Water |
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A community's sustainability can be judged by the way water cycles through it. Before the snowbirds invaded the desert from the Northeast there was a small agricultural community just south of Phoenix, called the Laveen Area. For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, a sustainable community in that area had depended on a water table just 10 to 12 feet below the surface to grow food. When I studied the area in the early '70s, the water table was at 400 feet and dropping fast. The engineering solution was to build a big coal-fired power plant and use the energy it produced to pump water out of the Colorado River to make the desert bloom. There were a few Native Americans who protested because the coal came from the sacred land at Black Mesa. But what did they know. Their ancestors only lived sustainably in the desert for 12,000 years. There were also protests from some Mexican farmers down stream who could no longer get enough water out of the river. No problem. The engineers just built another power plant to pump brackish water into the river at the Mexican border. When the Mexican soil turned white from salt deposits, they stopped farming. For planning purposes, a community's ideal size and density can be determined by the amount of water that can be diverted within its borders without reducing environmental quality. Employing water conservation techniques can
drastically increase the land's carrying capacity. |
| Food |
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A large portion of the nonrenewable energy consumed in California is used for pumping water. The majority of the pumped water serves the needs of agribusiness. California agribusiness ships food all over the world and the
rest of the world ships food to California. It takes about 200 gallons of diesel per acre per year to keep California agribusiness fed. The dependence of one dysfunctional system on another is like living in a house of cards and hoping the wind won't blow. Trying to work for change within the framework of existing systems is a futile effort. Current agribusiness monoculture destroys biodiversity and soil quality. Permaculture techniques should be employed on all degraded soils to increase their fertility. The
quality and quantity of the food grown on a piece of land ultimately depends on soil fertility. Fertile agricultural soils make up an extremely small percentage of the earth's surface and must be protected. Communities should be planned to allow plants to grow wherever fertile soils exist. Fertile soils that have been buried in developed areas should be uncovered. Roads should be reduced in width to allow the inclusion of rich permaculture plantings or be eliminated altogether and be replaced with pedestrian and bicycle paths. Buildings should be sited where soil is thin or of poor quality. If they must be placed on fertile soil, the soil should be carefully removed and used for roof gardens and permaculture plantings in areas that are not so well endowed. In short, soil, like oxygen and water, is an essential prerequisite to life. Soil should be treated with the same respect as gold or diamonds, which are only two bit players in the cycle of life. |
| Waste |
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Sustainable communities must participate in local cycles that maintain or enhance a healthy environment. For instance, human waste is a nutrient when it is returned to the soil but when it is flushed away, it pollutes
drinking water and becomes a waste product. The word waste shouldn't even be part of our vocabulary. The concept of completing cycles precludes producing things that stay toxic. The use of poisons in our homes and on agricultural lands is even worse. Evolutionary theory suggests that the length of the reproductive cycle determines how quickly an organism builds resistance to a poison. Just because we figure out how to kill a pest, doesn't mean it's a wise thing to do. Our reproductive cycle is thousands
of times longer than insects. Who are we poisoning? If it's not a nutrient, if its toxic, or it doesn't fit into a natural cycle, we shouldn't produce it. Reduce, reuse and recycle are hollow words, if we don't practice them. We need to go way beyond plastic bottles and aluminum cans to every manufactured product we use. |
| Transportation |
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It all starts with the individual. A lot of people complain about corporate control and then shop at WalMart. And even the most environmentally sensitive people will get in their cars - often the gas-guzzling sport
utility vehicles - and drive for miles and miles without thinking of the environmental cost. Cars are extremely inefficient considering the amount of fuel they consume, the embodied energy that goes into their manufacture, and the infrastructure that supports their use. Burning a gallon of gasoline uses up 150,000 BTUs of energy. A car that gets 15 miles to the gallon uses about 1,000,000 BTUs to go 100 miles. Contrast that with the efficiency of a human being. We consume a net of about 2 BTUs of food energy a day. On that amount of energy we can walk 30 miles or ride a bike about 100 miles. Which means that people are 500,000 times more efficient than cars in converting fuel into mobility. Unfortunately, the layout of our existing communities often does not support pedestrians or bicyclists. We need to plan communities around people, not cars. Communities should be limited in size to ensure that walking and cycling distances are convenient from home to school, work, and services. Necessities like water, food, and building materials should primarily come from within the community, and waste should be recycled within the community's borders. Forest and Permaculture greenbelts should separate and define communities to maintain human scale. Rail and hybrid electric vehicles could provide transportation of freight between communities, but ultra light pedal/electric cars offer the best alternative for moving people. An ultra light pedal/electric car with both road and rail capability would offer convenient neighborhood mobility and a virtually frictionless mode of transportation between communities. An 8' wide raised two-directional rail system could carry as many people as 24 lanes of freeway and leave the ground undisturbed for wildlife corridors and agriculture. The other wonderful thing about rail is that you don't have to pay attention to the road which leaves your mind and hands free. The embodied energy in 24 lanes of freeway weighing 130,000 pounds per linear foot is an unconscionable use of resources when compared to the 150 pounds per linear foot of a raised ultra light rail system. Electric and hybrid electric vehicles are now ready to serve as a transition to a rational transportation system. The most important thing each of us can do to move towards sustainability is limit our use of fossil fuel. |
| Energy |
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The resources to make our communities sustainable are abundant and easy to access. For example, more energy strikes the earth from the sun every day than the amount of energy available from the earth's entire petroleum
resource. Sustainability requires that we learn how to tap this virtually unlimited, but dispersed, solar resource. There are now unbreakable photovoltaic panels that can be used as roofing. The energy that is used to make these panels is paid back in two months of use. The small amount of non-toxic materials used to make the thin film amorphous panels is among the most abundant on earth. The average home's roof has space for enough PV panels to satisfy the electricity needs of the home's occupants.
Our buildings are now designed to rely on a utility grid that provides power primarily from non-renewable sources. There are also energy losses in transmission and distribution that further decrease the efficiency of the overall energy system. California utilities have just gone through a restructuring process that has clearly defined the external costs of plugging into the grid. Before restructuring, electricity costs in California were among the highest in the nation. Industrial customers were threatening to move to states with lower rates. Now after restructuring electricity costs between $.03 and $.05 per kilowatt hour depending on how much is used and who it is purchased from. There is also a mandated 10 percent discount for the next three years. Sounds great! But what are all these other charges on the bill? Right away you notice that the electricity is only about one third of the total bill. The next biggest charge is distribution, which is 30 percent of the bill. Next is something called TTA, which is 13.5 percent of the bill. A quick call to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hotline lets you know that the 13.5 percent Trust Transfer Amount is charged to cover the 10 percent discount? Next is Transmission at 4 percent, then Public Purpose Programs for 3.5 percent, followed by CTC which makes up 3 percent. Another call to the PUC hotline reveals that the Competitive Transition Charge goes to a $28 billion fund to help the poor utilities out with their stranded assets and bad investments on things like nuclear power plants. Finally, there is a half percent charge for nuclear power plant decommissioning. Of course, the industrial customers got the lower rates they asked for and residential rates are fixed for the next 3 years at approximately the same price as before restructuring. After the mandated price freeze it's any body's guess where residential rates will go. But because industrial rates will stay low, residential customers will probably take up the slack, and it's likely that average rate over the next 10 years will be about $.15 per kWh. The small silver lining for renewables in California utility restructuring is a rebate on a portion of the purchased cost of photovoltaic and wind power installations. Although the $54 million available for the program is far less than 1% of the money set aside to bail out nuclear power plants in California, the program has the potential to jumpstart the renewables industry. The distributed generation available from renewables is also attractive to power providers. PV systems installed on roofs eliminate distribution and transmission losses and have the added advantage of producing the most electricity on hot sunny afternoons when conventional power producers are struggling to meet peak demand for electricity to power air conditioners. A new commercial net metering law in California that took effect in January 1999 is more good news for current and prospective renewable energy system owners. This new law supersedes the residential net metering law, broadening the scope of net metering and lowering cost in situations that would formerly have required multiple meters. For example, applying the new law will result in a net savings in excess of $25,000 on a co-housing project in Oakland. Under the old law each of seven units would have required its own meter and inverter - the new law requires only one meter and two inverters for the whole project. Another provision of the new law allows annual rather than monthly metering which can cut payback time for a system in half. Because energy use is averaged over a year rather than one month at a time renewable energy system owners no longer have to buy retail power during winter months and sell excess power back to the utility during summer months at only 10% of the utility's retail rate. A net metered solar electric roof capable of producing 10,000 kWh a year can now be purchased for about $20,000 after the Buydown incentives available in California. Photovoltaic panels are guaranteed to produce their rated output for 20 years. This means your solar-electric roof would generate enough electricity to pay for itself in 10 years at $.15 per kWh. And then for the next 10 years, while utility rates went up, you could set aside $.15 per kWh and end up with another $20,000. A community's sustainability depends on the use of local renewable resources. Wind and micro hydro are other environmentally sound renewable energy sources. They have great potential on their own on good sites and are an excellent addition to photovoltaics to supplement winter electricity production. |
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If we orient our buildings toward the sun the buildings' skin will generate the electricity and heat needed by the occupants and eliminate the need for artificial lights during daylight hours. The use of energy efficient appliances, like front-loading washing machines, can cut our energy needs in half. Buildings should be located on south slopes with unobstructed solar exposure and have their longest side facing south, especially in cold climates. Leave the north slopes for forest and open space. Solar access is another primary determinant planners should consider. (See Guidelines for Sustainable Buildings for more information.) Equity on a contemporary level means none of us should use more then our
share. Sustainability also refers to intergenerational equity which means that the earth's resources shouldn't be used any faster than they are created. The goal should be to give every succeeding generation a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness until the sun burns out, some 5.5 billion years from now. If wisdom prevails life stands a good chance of even outlasting the sun. Every one of us has the opportunity to chart a new course for the future by the decisions and purchases we make daily. We can choose to plant a garden or an apple tree and harvest the fruit of our labor and buy locally grown organic produce and support our neighbors or we can buy apples from New Zealand at great environmental cost. We can choose to buy a $200 bicycle instead of a $20,000 sport utility vehicle and use it at every opportunity for the mostly short distances that we travel. And when we walk or ride bicycles we increase our health and gain an understanding of how roads divide communities and where paths are needed. We can start to make informed decisions in the planning process. We can use the $19,800 we saved by buying a bicycle instead of a SUV and throw in the gas money we saved and buy a photovoltaic roof. We can choose to move toward community energy independence by taking advantage of the inexhaustible supply of energy from the sun or we can continue to pay the utilities to operate nuclear power plants and rape the earth for coal and oil. Sustainable communities require the creation of totally new systems that are based on primal wisdom, renewable resources and appropriate technologies Choose to live in a community where your home is within walking or cycling distance from employment, schools and services. Work at home if you can. Support local businesses that attempt to move toward sustainability. Remember, what we buy, we empower. If we stop empowering life threatening systems, they will change or fade away. |
Communities pages: Sustainable Communities Solar Access Solar Charging
Shelter Design : Agriculture : Communities : Products & Services
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Stephen Heckeroth www.RENEWABLES.com Homestead Enterprises 30151 Navarro Ridge Albion, CA 95410 phone/FAX 707-937-0338 |
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copyright © 1999-2006 by Stephen Heckeroth. All rights reserved