Sustainable living means to not take more from our environment than you put back into it. It means living in harmony with our evironment. This has become more and more important as our natural resources continue to be depleted from decades of greed and mis- use. Resources currently in jeopardy in the U.S. and the world are clean air and water, forests, topsoil, food supplies, and energy supplies. Our continued survival depends on us endorsing and committing to sustainable living.

What can you do to help reach the goal of Sustainable Living

What can your company or industry do to live in harmony with the environment?

What can our governments do?

Here’s what can you do to help reach the goal of Sustainable Living

When building a new home or community

• Use Alternative Energy sources
• Use solar or wind as primary energy source (now its affordable!)
• In the future, fuel cells may be a viable energy source
• Next least polluting energy source is natural gas
• Lastly – electricity since it could be produced using coal
• Wood - use only would certified as grown in a sustainable forest
• Alternatives to wood: Adobe, rice hay
• Have all air circulated underground first to reduce heating/AC costs
• Dual pained windows, but not to airtight that it traps harmful gases inside
• Natural lighting
• Rainwater catch/recycle system
• Passive solar hot water
• Greywater irrigation
• Composting toilets

What can your company or industry do to live in harmony with the environment?

• Find a healthy balance between nature and industry.
• Replace what you use: If you cut down a tree today, plant 10 trees to replace it.
• Find and use alternatives to wood for construction that do not produce pollution by-products.
• Power your company using renewable energies like solar or wind.
• Report any business (even your own) that is breaking any environmental laws or regulations to your local police.
• Report any business (even your own) that you feel is not being environmentally friendly to any Environmental group (Sierra Club, Green Peace)
• Eliminate/outlaw all known causes of ozone depletion and global warming (fluorocarbons, air-conditioning fluid).
• Eliminate air pollutants in your company – use solar/wind power.
• Eliminate all harmful pollutants from entering the water  (MTBE, pesticides, and sewage). Try more natural methods to replace pesticides.
• Eliminate or recycle all by-products your company produces. One company's waste is anothers fuel.
• Quit cutting down our forests. Forests eliminate C02 gases known to cause global warming, produce oxygen that we need to breathe, and provide habitat to animals and fish.

What can our governments do?

• Phase out coal-fired power plants
• Encourage use of renewable energies with tax incentives and rebates
• Increase gas mileage requirements for cars and SUVs
• Provide incentives for electric, fuel cell, and hybrid vehicles
• Protect our forests from clear-cutting
• Protect our topsoil with farming techniques that do not re-ploy entire fields each year, but just plow lines in the field leaving mowed weeds on each side.

Summary: It took millions of years for our planet to develop this complex enviromental system that links every living thing. In just the last few decades we have managed to seriously upset this system’s harmony. We have eradicated hundreds of thousands of species. It is time to take a stand and reverse this devastating situation. It starts with you.