SUSTAINABILITY-

 

What exactly do we mean ?

 

Is there a difference between permaculture, green building, eco-friendly environments, etc.?

 

Today, many intentional communities and eco-villages are putting a lot of emphasis on technology in order to do their part in healing the planet.  Although many of these systems may be cost-effective or use less of the earth's resources, they may not necessarily be what eco-experts would consider "sustainable".

 

Ben Portwood spoke to us about the importance of sustainable living and gave us tips on how individuals and communities can make a big difference in protecting our planet and increasing its resources.  Ben talked to us about the most common misconceptions of many so-called "green technologies" and offered a global vision necessary to really be effective in designing sustainable lifestyles and communities for the future.

 

About Ben

Our speaker, Ben Portwood comes to us from Minneapolis, MN, when at the age of 24 , realized he was fundamentally dissatisfied with the American dream.  A quest for answers led him to Spain where he lived for two years at a Permaculture Education Center.  At the Center, he tended gardens, vineyards and orchards, and found a new optimism for living in harmony with planet earth.   Now a resident and Garden Coordinator at the Ashevillage Institute,  Ben in continuing his studies in Permaculture and sustainability, starting a chestnut farm near Asheville, and is anxious to share with us the latest perspective s on true sustainability. 

Notes from the Meeting:

Some Ideas about Sustainability – Benjamin Portwood - 612-298-3293

What is sustainability?

1. An Apple

2. Conventional** ideas about sustainability

a. Examples

i. New alternative energies that will ‘cleanly’ produce fuel for our

indulgence

ii. “Sustainable” ways of continuing the expansion of global

capitalism

iii. Nothing about reduction

b. Sustainability is a consumer product

i. Agriculture

1. Organic food coop

2. CSA

a. Good model

b. Must become more developed

ii. Transportation

1. Hybrid Car

2. Hydrogen

iii. Green building v. Natural Building

1. Manufacture/transportation is the same

2. Lack of Longevity/Quality

iv. Green gadgetry

1. Buddha machine – Ambient mp3 player

2. Solar powered cooling fan hat for hot days

c. Lack of holistic/systemic solutions

i. Conventional answers to sustainability do not address the

fundamental question of what we need, want, and how we get it.

They reinforce the individualistic consumerism mentality.

ii. Band aids

3. Energy

a. Embodied energy

i. Accounting for energetic production costs, transportation costs,

maintenance costs, and disposal costs

What would sustainability really look like?

4. A new definition of sustainability will redefine our basic needs and allow us to

fulfill those needs in ways that have positive effects on environments and

community.

PC PRINCIPLE (Design from patterns to details)

5. Materials

a. Principles (Material)

i. Local/decentralized

ii. Renewable/renewed resources

1. Plants and trees are solar power machines

2. Passive uses

iii. Low Embodied Energy

1. Everything made has to save its embodied energy or more

during its productive life

iv. Made to last/reparable

v. Biodegradable

vi. Non-toxic

1. Toxicity is antithetical to life

vii. Living technologies

b. Community

i. Mutually beneficial “business” relationships with people

ii. Communities flow chart

1. “There are strength in numbers” – Grandma Mary

6. Culture

a. Definition of culture

i. Dictionary

1. Society, way of life, lifestyle; customs, traditions, heritage,

habits, ways, mores, values –Oxford American Dictionary

a. Not a holistic definition

ii. New definition

1. The “program” by which individuals and societies interact

with their ecological environment, amongst themselves and

with other cultures and peoples

b. Analysis of our culture

i. Our culture is full of unsustainable cultural ideals

ii. Unsustainable cultural ideals

1. Capitalism—money over all

2. Extreme individualism

3. Idea of ‘self’-sufficiency

4. Lack of basic respect for ‘humanity’ of life

5. Judgment of other humans and cultures

6. Linear thinking models

7. Scarcity mentality

8. Lack of fundamental values and integrity

9. …

iii. Effects

1. Destruction of environment

2. Destruction of community

3. Lowered quality of life

4. …

c. We must develop a completely brand, spanking new “Culture”

Some Ideas about Sustainability – Benjamin Portwood - 612-298-3293

d. We have a whole palette of cultural characteristics to choose from, thanks

to globalization

e. Positive cultural phenomena/tools/characteristics

i. American ideal of questioning of ideas

1. Needs v. luxuries

ii. Meditation/awareness practices

1. Yoga/martial arts link body, mind and awareness

iii. Mentality of abundance

1. Stone soup socialism

iv. Permaculture

1. Ethic and Principles for design of

culture/lifestyle/environments

v. Not valorizing other people or cultures

1. Assumption that all people are good people

vi. …

7. 7 generation project Timeframe

a. We will not see 100% sustainability in our lives

i. Build a foundation for those that come after us

8. Personal

a. How can we start to achieve sustainability in our own lives

b. Observation - Be receptive

c. Question everything

i. Question our needs and luxuries

ii. Question our fundamental culture

1. What we perceive and in what context

iii. Question where things come from

1. Water, food, electricity, light bulbs…

iv. Question our questions

v. Then act, observe, think, plan and react!!

d. The paradox of trying to be “self-sustainable”

i. No one is an island

ii. Development of community

e. Have productive hobbies

i. Low to medium tech tools

1. Gardening

2. Sewing/knitting

3. Carpentry

4. Music

5. …

f. Develop community

i. Start where you are and with what you have

ii. Find people that you can collaborate with

 

Resources

Books

The Unsettling of America - Wendell Berry, any of his essays

Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual – Bill Mollison 

Introduction to Permaculture – Bill Mollison

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability - David Holmgren

The Earth-Users guide to Permaculture – Rosemary Marro

The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies – Richard Heinberg

Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World - Heinberg

Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture - J. Russell Smith

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, vol. 1 & 2 – Brad Lancaster

Internet

Money as Debt – Google videos search “money as debt” – 47 minute video about monetary systems.  Must see!!

Greening the Desert – Geoff Lawton – Youtube search “greening the desert” – 5 minute video about desert reclamation

The Story of Stuff – Annie Leonard – www.storyofstuff.com

Soil and Health Library – www.soilandhealth.org – Downloadable books on agriculture,  health, and alternative living.

joshkearns.blogspot.com -- Excellent writings, philosophical, agricultural and potable.

www.solarliving.org – Solar Living Institute – Great organization and good list of links

Films

The End of Suburbia

What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil