HOLISTIC HOMES

Sustainability. Renewability. Energy efficiency. These content-laden words and phrases, heavy with foreboding, are daily blazoned across the headlines and front pages of national and local newspapers and magazines. Television promos tout in-depth interviews with the latest and greatest pundits and pontificators. Self-proclaimed experts offer both bunk and de-bunk, whichever is the most popular flavor of the day. How to make sense of it all?

There are real issues, critical issues, hidden beneath the bluster, misinformation, and general hysteria. Energy is the key puzzle to solve in the 21st Century. New sources of energy, new solutions for maximizing currently available resources, and innovative strategies for utilizing energy efficiently – solving these problems is one of several and immediate grand challenges facing American society today.

Renewability and sustainability are essentially interchangeable concepts. Renewable, of course, means you can use something over and over again. Sustainability is probably the stronger term, with greater depth of meaning. When a resource is sustainable, you can use what you need and the resource will replace itself over time. Trees and plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to create energy for their needs. Animals consume the plants for energy and return carbon dioxide to the ecosystem. These interactions are sustainable indefinitely.

In the natural world, resources are used and replaced ongoingly. Living systems will increase their numbers until they reach a limit of available food, water, and air to sustain their population. Natural systems are naturally sustainable. But human activities create new systems which are often antagonistic to innate principles of sustainability.

The concept of sustainable cities attempts to infuse the principles of harmony and balance into man-made structures of concrete and steel. This is a noble effort. Sustainable cities incorporate four big ideas –
• Walkability
• Mixed Use
• Smart Transportation
• Quality of Design

Sustainable urban design leads to greatly decreased dependence on cars, with dramatic decreases in energy utilization and greenhouse gas emissions. In a sustainable city, shopping, health care facilities, and entertainment are located within a short walk of home and work. In addition to the immediate and long-term effects on environmental quality and energy security, walkability provides built-in exercise for residents and the opportunity to connect with an ongoing variety of people.

Mixed-use design creates egalitarian living environments that are both sustainable and diverse. A mixed-use neighborhood includes pedestrian-friendly stores, offices, residential homes, and apartments. In Curitiba, Brazil – a poster-city for sustainable design – each building devotes its bottom two floors to commerce. Mixed-use apartments foster diversity of cultures, races, and demographics. A group of units are reserved for low-income families and a group are reserved for upper-income families. Senior citizens, couples with young children, and a variety of cultures intermingle, thrive, and create robust, vibrant communities.

Sustainable cities offer smart transportation to support energy and environmental conservation. In sustainable urban design, high-quality trains connect neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Within cities, light-rail systems offer high capacities, safety, comfort, and speed. Light-rail transport is both cost-effective and energy-efficient, providing a convenient, realistic alternative to automobile congestion.

Sustainable cities are people-oriented. Architectural diversity and design aesthetics are key considerations in renovation and new construction. Form and function are optimized to create beautiful living and working environments.

Practical, on-the-ground examples of urban sustainability include Portland, Oregon; Davis, California; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. These thriving, dynamic cities offer real-world proof that successful solutions are available to our energy and environmental challenges.