#sustainability

#sustainability

Off-the-grid Cabin Has Proven Its Sustainability Over Fourteen YearsHow long can you live off the grid before you get really tired of the deprivations? It depends on how committed to are to constantly making it better. Stephanie and Joel started with almost nothing and built their own home with no plumbing and no electricity. They could have given up after the first year of hard work and no power, but once they got solar panels installed, they could have most of the luxuries of the modern world. After all those years, they now have two toilets! Sure, one is an outhouse and the other an indoor composting toilet, but that still means no waiting. Their story shows that you can live without municipal utilities if you select the right place and are ready to put in the work and make it a long-term project. The best part of this video is end, when Stephanie and Joel tell us what they've learned from the experience and how they feel about it.However, once they built their first off-grid home, they kept at it. The next one they built is rented out as an Airbnb. It doesn't have all the amenities of their home, but since it's for short-term stays, just call it an adventure. -via Digg #offthegrid #ownerbuilthouse #backtonature #sustainability

This Tower of Bamboo is an Energy-Efficient Cooling System and could be a Sustainable Alternative to Modern Air Conditioning UnitsFrench multidisciplinary consultancy firm AREP has developed an urban cooling structure that ticks all the sustainability boxes—it is low-tech, energy-efficient, resource-friendly and affordable.Vietnam is no stranger to heatwaves, which the country combats with air conditioning units. These units leak coolant gas into the environment, creating a positive feedback that exacerbates climate change. AREP's hyperboloid bamboo tower uses the adiabatic principle to naturally cool water and, subsequently, the surrounding air.