Good morning folks.

Having studied sustainable issues for over 12 twelve years, I have come to understand that our sustainability as a species on this planet is dependent upon our relationship with plants. I am not saying this in an esoteric or fluffy way, nor am I suggesting that we find new ways to merely exploit and profit from the plant world. Plant life is a common thread in almost all of the issues related to our ability to live – food, energy, construction, oxygen production – ,and we must learn how to create synergistic relationships with the myriad manifestations of this profoundly complex technology in order to survive and thrive.

The video above briefly explains how certain species of plants can clean, humidify and oxygenate the air, processes collectively known as phytoremediation. This property of plants has been known since the 1970’s, when NASA conducted extensive research on plant’s air and water scrubbing capabilities for use in space capsules. Dr. Bill Wolverton, one of the NASA engineers involved in the research, has published several books on the subject, including How To Grow Fresh Air.

How To Grow Fresh Air details how plants, particularly tropicals, have the ability to remove toxins from air, as well as oxygenate and humidify it. Dr. Wolverton actually developed hydroponic planters with inline fans that magnify this amazing capability by a factor of 200.

Phytoremediation is extremely important now in our energy conscious world. In order to maximize the efficiency of our building’s heating and cooling systems, we are creating airtight building envelopes. One downside of this though is the increased stagnation of interior air. Using plants to offset this adverse side effect is the ultimate in “going green”. Aside from cleaning the air, indoor plants look great, and add to the living energy of spaces.

Using plants to clean air is only one of the ways in which we can employ these incredible biomachines. Dr. Wolverton’s planters are an excellent example of how we can use simple technologies to work in harmony with nature to amplify its benefits. This basic model is applicable to waste water disposal, food production, building construction and a host of other applications that we humans have only begun to scratch the surface of.

Showing some humility by admitting that our technologies are infant’s toys compared with the sublime depth of natural biological systems may be the smartest we ever do.

Remember everyone, buy local, or grow it yourself!

Love to all,

Millard

Good morning folks.

Here is one more video comparing LED light bulbs with incandescent and compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). While LED beats the pants off both in terms of efficiency, there are other very god reasons beside this to choose LED bulbs over CFLs.

CFLs contain mercury, which is a poison, and they cannot be responsibly discarded with regular refuse. Also, most of them are made in China, as is over 90% of the consumer products that Americans purchase every year. It really blows me away that companies can ship a product across 9,000 miles of ocean, and still make more money than if they just made it at home. Do Chinese workers even get to eat? Anyway, those cute, curly bulbs are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and should be avoided.

Changing out light bulbs may seem like a small step, but it can really save money over time, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Good morning folks.

I was looking all morning for the right ecovilage video, and I settled on Terramor because it was the cleanest and best developed idea. They are doing so many things right here – water efficiency, energy efficiency, building a sense of community, and even growing some fruits and vegetables – a very impressive, well conceived development.

I feel guilty though, because I passed up some ecovillage videos who adopted far more completely the idea of sustainability, but to be honest they looked slummy. Am I being elitist or judgmental when I disregard the message of the community because of the untidiness, weeds and the starchild demeanor of the community member being interviewed? These hippie-like communities are fantastic in that they really get sustainability, but even for a devoted environmentalist, there is something off-putting about the commune quality of these villages.

The good news is that the cutting edge environmentally sensitive communities built by the big developers are slowly starting to move toward real green, and the more grass roots ecovillages are getting better at addressing the needs and comfort requirements of people in the 21st century. One note for grass roots ecovillages: if you are going to be doing a YouTube video on your community, have the sense to weed the place before you shoot.

Remember everyone, buy local or grow it yourself!

Love to all,
Millard

Good afternoon folks.

I have been blogging about sustainability in food for the past few weeks because that is where I am at in my life right now. I am transitioning the habits of myself and my family to food sustainability, and I have found that it takes a lot of effort to climb out of unsustainable ruts. The good news is that the ruts are mostly psychological and the long term benefits are worth the effort.

I blogged earlier about square foot gardening, as this is the method I am using to grow my food. A key element to keeping the ongoing costs low in square foot gardening is to be able to supply your own compost, as this is the primary nutrient supply and must be replaced after every harvest.

Lucky for me, composting is easy! I’m happen to be pretty lucky actually in this regard, because the house my family is renting has a rather large backyard, and the area has a semi-rural feel to it. My throwing up a compost pit was not only allowed by my landlord but encouraged.

Some people may have more or less challenges than me between them and composting, but if growing your own food is the greenest thing you can do, composting is the essential fuel of your garden. In the near future as I work on moving to a zero waste household, I will be starting worm composting, which will enable me to use all of my food waste for composting. Right now though I will be limiting myself to basic composting of yard clippings and scrap vegetables and fruit. The main reason is that it is way simpler.

So what do you need to to compost? All you really need is an area in your yard to pile up your plant waste! If you want to keep it contained just buy buy 15′ of 5′ high wire fence, form a circle with it, and start putting your waste green in there. If you live in an apartment, you can buy a composting bin and operate on a more modest scale, but in either case I strongly encourage everyone to do it. The trick is to keep the pile not too wet or too dry, but moist, and to turn it regularly. The more you turn it, the quicker you get compost. If you are able to turn your compost over daily you can have a fantastic soil amender in two weeks, all from yard scraps, kitchen scraps, pennies of water and five minutes a day with a shovel or a pitchfork.

The picture at the top of the post is of my little operation. Yeah, I got a little fancy with a concrete block lined pit, but it does not need to be this involved. The blocks just happened to be laying around the yard. The property comes with a gardener, and every week he clips about 4-6 trashcans full of green waste. All I have to do is take the cans and dump them into the pit. It almost feels like I’m cheating it is so easy. Now the operation is only a couple of weeks old, but I can already see it is going to give me all the compost I need to grow my vegetables and them some. Below is a picture of the yard I get all of these wonderful trimmings from.

To speed up the process I may buy a yard chipper, which will turn all of the branches and leaves into a fine mulch. I saw one used on craigslist for $175, and a new would cost around $500 and up. It is definitely worth it for a larger yard.

For apartments and condos you do not have to be limited to your kitchen scraps. You can easily get some yard waste from the gardener of the complex, and this can be used in the square foot garden on you balcony or patio.

The bottom line is there is no excuse for not doing this. Food sustainability may be the most important facet of the whole sustainability picture, and no matter what your living circumstance you can do it. Grow your own food. Compost your plant waste. Save our troubled species. Repeat. This stuff is very easy, and it will help so much.

Remember, buy local, or grow it yourself everybody!

Love to all,

Millard

Source Designs is the result of long years of practice, study, and a lot of trial and error. I conceived the fellowship as something that was one package, yet at the same time encompassing many ideas. Some of the ideas may be off-putting to people who may be attracted to portions of the Source Designs message, but I feel all of the components of Source Designs are necessary for the fellowship to be able to participate in creating true sustainability.

Here are the principles of Source Designs, which I have included on the Source Designs about page. I would like to expand upon them a little more here, so that people who are interested can understand the mission.

1. The design and geometry of a space affect the energy flow of a space, which in turn affects how that space is experienced

As soon as I wrote the term energy flow, I envisioned many eyes rolling over at the thought of an idea as intangible as “energy flow”. Yet understanding energy is essential to creating beautiful space, and this has been understood by most cultures for thousands of years. It is fundamental to the 3000+ year practice of Feng Shui, which is essentially the consious sculpting of space to maximize harmonious energy flow.

Recent discoveries in quantum physics have also supported the idea that our reality is supported by an underlying substrate of subtle energy, which again has been described as qi, prana and a variety of other monnikers for thousands of years by several ancient cultures.

A simple visualizing experiment will illustrate what I mean when I talk about energy flow, geometry and how these affect how a space is experienced.

First, imagine yourself in a square room, say 15′ long  x15′ wide x15′ tall. The color of the wall is neutral, and there are no windows or decoration. Imagine yourself going to the center of the room and sensing what the symmetrical geometry of the room makes you feel. At first you will probably say nothing, because the energy being shaped is very subtle, but being in the center of a square room will most likely make most people feel quiet or in stasis.

Now, imagine yourself in another room, only this room is long and narrow. Let’s make the dimensions of this room 30′ long x 5′ wide x 10′ tall. Go to the center of this room and sense how you feel. The energy here is moving and your feeling experience of this space will be totally different from the square room. In the square room the energy is quiet and balanced, while in the room shaped like a hallway creates a sense of motion and direction.

The geometry of any given space affects the sublte energy contained within that space, and the art of architecture in its ideal is sculpting space  to create  harmonious energy flow. Very simple. Energy flow is harmonious when it is going neither too fast nor too slow, but at a medium pace in gentle meandering curves. The ideas very briefly summarized her are far more complex than this outline, and it is the very core of creating beautiful space.

2. Designers and builders have a responsibilty to create buildings and infrastructures that are self-sustaining, at least at the bioregional level.

This responsibility actually extends beyond designers and builders to include officals at the local, state and federal level. A given population in a given bioregion or watershed must be able to produce subsistence level amounts of food, water and energy without need for replenishment of resources outside the bioregion. Any other situation puts the bioregion and the population in a very comprimised postion that is subject to many calamities, both natural and manmade.

Additionally the whole idea of “waste” must go away. There is no waste in a sustainable world. There are only byproducts to be reused or recycled in another part of the societal  living system. There is far more to be said on this subject, but this is the most tangible and quantifiable part of sustainability – the basic self sufficiency of our bioregions. It does not mean isolationism. It means independence that will lead to positive, synergistic interdependence, not ankle grabbbing dependence.

3. Beautiful environments and life quality are intrinsic to sustainability

It’s unfortunate that this has to be spelled out for so many people, but I think that the vast majority of our civilization has lived at the basic survival level for so long, that most of us have forgotten just how important deep environmental beauty is. I am not talking about about superficial aesthetics. I am tallking something that starts right in the bone marrow and radiates outward. True beauty is masterful functionality, simple, elegant elements, performing multiple functions and looking good doing it. I may have written this before, and if  you read a lot of my work, you will probably see this again: If it isn’t pleasing aesthetically and functionally, it isn’t worth sustaining.

4. Compassion unlocks all doors, and is the only foundation that lasts.

Ultimately all I can speak to is my experience. I have crawled under quite a few rocks trying to figure out what makes this world tick. Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, The Qabbala, Hindu, Scientology….I studied them all trying to arrive at some formula for perfect happiness. What I learned is that there is none. The Wizard Of Oz is just an old man with a balloon, and he didn’t give anything to the tinman that he didn’t already have. Our minds love to create formulas and models and plans, and we often end up chasing the carrot of these mental creations our whole lives.

It wasn’t until I concsiously opened my heart to compassionate love for the whole universe that I felt the world shift beneath me. Something happened in my heart, not my mind, and I have never been the same. I have come to realize that my endeavors which our grounded in true compassion cannot help but succeed. The true matrix, the innermost substrate of the universe is compassion, and when you align yourself with this force, everything else seems so small.

It has been an honor and a pleasure to have founded Source Designs, and I sincerely hope that those of you who read this check back often, because the is growing ripe for companies and ideas like Source Designs, and we are just getting started.

Source Designs is a vey growing and evolving idea, and as such our website is constantly being changed and upgraded. While the core of our services revolve around helping people create sustainability through smarter and more efficient buildings, Source Designs encompasses a much larger portion of the sustainability spectrum. So if you see some things that may seem incomplete or incongruous on our website, it is because we feel very strongly about approaching the challenge of sustainable building from a holistic point of view, and we haven’t gotten around to updating everything.

In the old and now dying paradigm, individual disciplines like architecture, civic planning and wastewater management were very compartmentalized. However we can no longer afford to separate and isolate the various components of our infrastructure and the professionals who build them. Additionally we all need to have some knowledge about where our food comes from, where our water comes from, where our energy comes from and where our waste goes.

As such the subject matter is vast and requires a great deal of time to properly assimilate and organize. The state of our site represents this process, and for that we apologize. It will be getting better every day though, and we will have great free sustainability information, as well sustainable products and ways to set up local green groups. So please be patient with us, and we will deliver.