‘Net-zero’ school pays off - Bowling Green Daily News: Local News There’s no big smokestack. You also don’t see a bunch of workers scurrying around in hard hats. Rest assured though, Warren County Public Schools has a power plant. The district received a check for $37,227.31 this year. An online service is needed to view this article in its entirety. Login Or, use your linked account: Need an account? The check is tangible evidence that net-zero pays for itself and then some. “It has exceeded expectations. In talking this past week with officials from the nation’s capital to the Pacific Northwest, they agree Richardsville Elementary is still the only major school building in the United States that is not only net-zero, but that also actually earns money from its electricity generation. “That’s net-positive,” said Paul Hutton of Hutton Architecture Studio, a member of Cuningham Group Architecture Inc. in Denver. Hutton has worked with “green schools” since 1982. “That opens up some eyes,” Stanfield said. For example, the old T.C.
The Universal Principles of Sustainable Development By Terry Mock and Tony Wernke, SLDI Co-founders Follow Terry and Tony on Twitter: Terry @SustainLandDev; Tony @Sustainable4U This article is Part 3 in the Fractal Sustainable Development Trilogy. Part 1: Designing a ‘Big Wheel’ for Civilization Part 2: Like Life Itself, Sustainable Development is Fractal As a comprehensive sustainable development decision model, The SLDI Code™ functions as a completely integrated, fractal matrix which leads decision-makers from the foundation of triple-bottom-line sustainability to sustainable results. NOTE: The principles embedded in the SLDI Code Sustainable Development Matrix are universal in their application and need not be confined to land development projects. The SLDI Code is not designed to replace or compete with other more narrowly defined programs or regulatory constraints. The SLDI Code™ Sustainable Development Matrix The SLDI Code Sustainable Development Matrix begins with the three bottom lines necessary for sustainable project development.
What Would a Down-to-Earth Economy Look Like? (Photo: Thomas Hawk)With proper care and respect, Earth can provide a high quality of life for all people in perpetuity. Yet we devastate productive lands and waters for a quick profit, a few temporary jobs, or a one-time resource fix. Our current expansion of tar sands oil extraction, deep-sea oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction, and mountaintop-removal coal mining are but examples of this insanity. A global economy dependent on this nonsense is already failing and its ultimate collapse is only a matter of time. To secure the health and happiness of future generations, we must embrace life as our defining value, recognize that competition is but a subtext of life’s deeper narrative of cooperation, and restructure our institutions to conform to life’s favored organizing principle of radically decentralized, localized decision making and self-organization. Our Original Instructions Some indigenous people speak of the “original instructions.” The Economy of the Body
What is Sustainable Development? 1 million trees raised in 5 districts In a silent afforestation campaign, a private company has successfully raised more than a million trees on private lands in five districts in the State and recorded a survival rate of 90 per cent. Giving details to The Hindu about the successful planting of saplings and raising them to trees, A. Joseph Rexon, Director, TIST Tree Planting India programme, said it was started in Kancheepuram district with six farmers in 2003. Slowly, it was extended to Tiruvallur, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram. The company had 6,000 farmers as its members, he said. The company approached local panchayat heads to identify farmers owning unproductive lands, where agriculture was not possible. Thanks to the carbon revenues, the company paid farmers at the rate of Rs 2 per tree till they keep the trees alive. Mr.
Panacea-Bocaf Our precious planet "Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?" - Henry Ford Sustainable development design systems ensure the Bio diversity and life support for healthy ECO systems. Healthy ECO systems translate to our health and future survival, simply because human beings are a smaller aspect of a larger ecology.Unsustainable development began when the conception of progress was defined as industrial growth and economic expansion. These particular externalities have remained intrinsic to a design model of modern "development" and are still currently colonizing the worlds cultures and environment. This inferior design system continues to create the unnecessary demand of non renewable resources and energy whilst producing excessive waste and pollution downstream. Counter productive design systems in comparison to Source Source
Sustainability Achieving sustainability will enable the Earth to continue supporting human life. In ecology, sustainability is how biological systems remain diverse and productive. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. In more general terms, sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes. Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of humans and other organisms. Despite the increased popularity of the use of the term "sustainability", the possibility that human societies will achieve environmental sustainability has been, and continues to be, questioned—in light of environmental degradation, climate change, overconsumption, population growth and societies' pursuit of indefinite economic growth in a closed system.[3][4] Etymology[edit] The name sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere, to hold; sub, up). Components[edit] Three pillars of sustainability[edit] Circles of sustainability[edit] History[edit]