Sustainability—Building Our Future Now

Living in Africa for 5 years in a small mud hut in a rural village with no electricity or running water changed how I looked at the world.  Hauling water from the river and washing clothes by hand took a lot of time.  Reading by candles or kerosene lanterns at night meant going to bed earlier and getting up with the sunrise.  It wasn’t an easy life, but it was a fulfilling one.  And it used a level of consumption that was more in line with what is sustainable if people are going to keep living on the earth into the future.  Most importantly life revolved around interactions with other people as the center priority and not around material possessions.  

 

When we returned to the United States I read that the average adult/family spends more time cleaning their house now than they did 40 years ago, even with all our modern gadgets.  Also average house size in the United States has grown from around 1,000 square feet per family in 1960 to around 2,400 square feet in 2008.  And the most amazing thing is that for all of our expansion in technology and size, people in the United States are not living happier or more satisfied lives than they were 40 years ago—and we are destroying and using up our natural resources at an alarming rate.

 

For the first years after returning to the United States from Africa, I farmed, using hand tools and simple techniques that could be duplicated anywhere in the world.  We raised vegetables, herbs, cut flowers, mushrooms, and livestock, selling at farmers markets and through a cooperative of buyers that bought directly from the farm.  During that time I helped set up the Sanford Farmer’s Market and the Sustainable Farming Program at Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) in Pittsboro, NC.  The Sustainable Farming Program has since grown into a 2-year degree program giving new farmers skills in sustainable agriculture and is a model for such education.  I still teach a course in Permaculture/Sustainable Living each spring in this program. 

 

For the past few years I have worked on building more energy-efficient houses and now turned my attention to developing whole neighborhoods that have sustainability built in from the start.  We are developing houses that produce as

much energy as they use, catch rainwater off the roof to flush toilets and wash clothes, and encourage re-use and recycling.  We are working on neighborhoods with community spaces, walking trails, edible landscaping, community gardens, bike and pedestrian paths, and preservation of important natural areas.  It is all work in progress, but each step is important and exciting.  

 

Our goal is to build community, save energy, and preserve natural resources.   Through these commitments we find a connection to our true selves, to each other, to the natural world, and to God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all Life.        

 

BY HARVEY HARMAN, MANAGER, WALK SOFTLY LLC / EARTH RENEWAL SHELTER