Recently I wrote about how I see a sustainable, resilient community functioning.  This would be based on renewable energy and local production of food and engagement with the market through production of goods and services from within the community.  I see this an antidote to the stress, economic uncertainty, lack of autonomy and fragility I see in traditional centralised systems.  I’d like to follow up with this posting about some of the principles that I see as necessary for successful resilient and sustainable communities or individual living.

Principle 1: Capital + mind = solution

My first principle is that ideas and capital must be combined.  Ideas without capital accomplish little – at the most, a harsh and primitive way of life, while capital without ideas leads to the centralised quagmire that we are in now – an economy at crisis point, unaffordable housing and basic services, working just to survive and unfulfilling lives based on exploitation of the environment and other people.

Capital allows us to deploy technology that allows us to provide localised infrastructure for food, water, water treatment, communications and energy.  Ideas help us to select the right technology, which has the right scale.

Principle 2: Smaller, faster, cheaper…better

The second principle is that we should be aiming for simpler, smaller, faster, cheaper, smarter and more robust solutions as opposed to complex, large, slow, expensive, unintelligent or fragile solutions.  This points us towards having infrastructure at the dwelling level.

An example of a large, slow, expensive and fragile solution is a nuclear power plant.  It has to produce the same amount of power, irrespective of demand so it is not smart.  It is large and slow.  It needs a lot of maintenance and labour to keep it going and is centralised, therefore vulnerable.  It has effects outside of its immediate area, in that it produces waste and requires a lot of fresh water and processed fuel from outside.

An example of a smarter, smaller solution is a solar panel.  It uses ambient energy, so has no impact on the environment.  The energy of its manufacture is soon recouped.  It has no moving parts and requires no maintenance.  It can be easily deployed, and is relatively affordable.  It can produce local power.

Principle 3: Think decentralised and local

The third principle is that solutions must be local and decentralised as opposed to grid connected and centralised.  We’ve already discussed the need for independence and investing capital in our own systems rather than paying a high charge (but with no capital expense) in someone else’s system, then working hard to earn enough to pay for it, and for taxes.  Local solutions keep the money in our own hand.  Living out of the “convenience” of the city means not having to pay for the grid and having enough space to produce what we need ourselves and the cheaper property allows the capital to be invested in technology that allows for sustainable and resilient living.

Living in a small community of like minded people meets social needs with real people rather than strangers.

Principle 4: Small environmental footprint = sustainable

The fourth principle is that sustainability relates to the amount of external inputs required, outside of the household.  If you live in an apartment, then it is fairly non-sustainable.  You need to rely on natural resources found elsewhere.  You are unlikely to be able to harvest your own food, water or produce power.  Your footprint is far bigger than your dwelling.  If you have your own rural property and can harvest and treat water, produce food and energy from your surroundings, you have a far more sustainable solution.

My situation

Where am I at with this personally?  Well I live in a large city.  I put a 1kw photovoltaic system on my roof.  That has cut my power bill down substantially, but I’m still grid connected.  The house itself is not optimal for heating and cooling despite installation of insulation and relies on a large airconditioning unit, particularly in the 40 degree Celsius summers (at peak, this will use far more than 1kw).  I have started growing food in pots, not having a large block.  Garden water is taken from a bore, but sewage and drinking water uses the water/sewage system.

The main limitation is the existing house design, the lack of land (I can’t put up a wind turbine, or grow much food) and my tie to work 20+ kilometres away.  I pay for everything out of post tax dollars. The sum result of this is that I’m still tied into and dependent on the system, making me vulnerable to the economic, social alienation and environment chaos that entails.

I think that the ideal solution would be to live in a rural area (whilst maintaining contact through communications), have infrastructure needs provided from ambient wind, solar energy, rainfall and land and meet social needs through the support of a small, resilient community.  Also, a new house could be designed from scratch to be sustainable, rather than attempting to retrofit an existing one.

Tags: photovoltaics, principles, resilient community, sustainable

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Sustainable community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.