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sustainability and sustainable design

Can I lead a sustainable lifestyle?

Wikipedia definition of sustainable is: “The capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time”.

When we talk about creating a sustainable home or sustainable lifestyle we are generally talking about being self-sufficient. We grow our own food; we capture our own rainwater; we supply ourselves with energy. In doing so we try not to be wasteful and recycle what we can. We are creating our own little ecosystem with the capacity to endure. Once that equilibrium is met we can say we are sustainable.

To be entirely sustainable takes a lot of work and you will need to educate yourself a great deal. It requires a great deal of trial and error and you will need patience and time. Most of us however would be more than happy to live in a solar passive home that was comfortable, and/or a home that is self-sufficient for rainwater and power as well as recycling as much as possible. These are very achievable goals for anyone building a new home or renovating. At Ecohabit we specialize in achieving these goals for our clients.

 

how do I go about becoming sustainable?

First of all you must decide how sustainable you would like to be. You need to ask yourself a series of questions.

What is my end goal?
Do I just want a comfortable energy-efficient home?
Do I want to capture enough water so I’m not reliant on mains supply or just subsidize my usage?
Do I want to create all of my own power? Will I sell power back to the grid?
Will I grow my own food?

Most of our clients actually find answering questions on sustainability quite easy. What they struggle with until they come and see us at Ecohabit is what the questions should be.

 

 

 

can I afford to become sustainable?

As soon as the words sustainable, solar passive and energy efficiency are mentioned everyone immediately thinks “expensive”. Some products are expensive; there is no denying that. However, there is always an alternative. Starting with good efficient design is most important. If your home is orientated incorrectly you will use more energy in cooling, heating and lighting. You will be behind the curve before you even start.

If you are renovating these key aspects need to be looked at before you start spending money on photovoltaic power cells or rainwater tanks.  You need to ensure the home is efficiently designed before adding all of the extra sustainable “fruit”.

let’s work together

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