“What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our money within 50 miles of where we live?” The Slow Money Alliance has a set of principles in place in order to “enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and … Read more
It is possible to get your hands on a bottle of water for under a dollar. Bigger bulk purchases mean bigger bargains. But bottled water still costs more than tap water. In fact in the UK each gallon of bottled water costs more than petrol. If you’re looking for something … Read more
Miniature dairy goats are relatively new breeds of goat that are the product of a standard size American goat bred to a Nigerian Dwarf. Miniature goats generally stand between 23 and 29 inches and are larger than pygmy goats which stand between 16 and 23 inches. Miniature dairy goats are … Read more
Every person makes a difference and all we need is for everyone to do their part. However the baseline for sustainability, for hundreds of thousands of people, is created through the green practices of their cities. But what determines how green a city is? Different surveys consider different elements. The … Read more
So just what is downcycling? Downcycling is what happens to many products when we recycle them; they’re turned into a material of lesser quality and value. So paper, which can be recycled up to about five times, is downcyled each time it’s recycled. It might start off as a high … Read more
Rain barrels are a fantastic and sustainable way to conserve water and to store and use rain water for gardening and landscaping. Most commercially available rain barrel systems integrate into a building’s existing rain gutter system and effectively collect the rainwater from the roof of the structure and funnel the … Read more
Green lawns have long been a staple of residential neighborhoods; they are favored by homeowners associations for their uniformity and by home builders for their ease of installation. However, lawns are just not suited for many geographic areas and arid areas require irrigation and extensive watering. In most cases, chemicals … Read more
At first glance, a wind turbine on your roof or in your garden seems like a great idea. Wind is free; you can lower your carbon footprint; and you can reduce you electricity costs. Domestic wind turbines come in two flavours. Mast mounted sit on a mast or tower and … Read more
We all like to escape from the city once in a while; head out to the hills or forest and get some peace and quiet. Then some guy turns up in an RV, hauls out his fridge and TV and starts up a portable diesel generator. So much for peace … Read more
A haybox cooker is a box full of insulating material that keeps a meal hot enough so that it cooks without having to keep it in the oven or on the stove for hours [1]. It’s a bit like an insulated thermos flask, except rather than coffee or soup it … Read more
Many articles exist out there about “going green” at home. Stressing, small, easy-to-follow steps concerning conservation, such as installing a low-flow toilet, or switching to compact fluorescent lightbulbs, these tips only scratch the surface of a very large problem. They also assiduously ignore a major cause of global climate change: … Read more
Over 400 million tonnes of metal are recycled each year[1]. Almost all metals can be turned back into metals of equivalent quality, but steel, aluminum and copper take the lion’s share of metal recycling. Recycling metal has benefits for everyone; it saves energy; uses fewer natural resources (why dig more … Read more
In many ways sustainable living is a return to the old ways of doing things. Unlike other construction materials such as concrete, wood, and steel, mud house construction is not environmentally destructive and it is relatively inexpensive. Mud House Construction: Learning from the Old Ways Just because a construction process, … Read more
‘Do as I say, not do as I do.’ Political instability in the Middle East, increasingly hard to extract fossil fuels, and fears around global warming mean governments are telling us to save energy, and the planet. But in the next 20 years energy consumption will increase by 60 percent … Read more
Foraging for food is an ancient aspect of the human condition but to most urban dwellers it is a concept and a skill long lost to history. Many view foraging as a “primitive” and “uncivilized” way of living but this ignorance of the wide variety of edible plants simply leads … Read more