Sustainable Living

FOOD

I believe the best way to live a low-impact lifestyle is by eating a vegetarian diet. The amount of energy and water it takes to produce a pound of meat is astronomical. So by cutting out the middle man you can reduce your energy and water consumption majorly.

TIPS

• Vegetarian Diet

  • This is a highly contentious topic and frankly seen as some hippie shit down South and possibly blasphemous. And not just in the South, I’ve lived all across this country and food is closely tied to regional cultures and not eating meat can be seen as divisive and an act of separating yourself from the status quo.

  • I choose to eat a vegetarian diet not only from why I stated above, but also because I think it’s important to know where your food comes from. After reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma in my organic farming class I was educated on the mass factory farms where most of our animals are raised and slaughtered. Cows for example are fed corn to fatten them up quickly but which their rumens are not made to digest so they get sick and then are feed antibiotics. I don’t think that is right and therefore I am not going to buy into that process. Really, that book made me not want to eat anything as I learned how much food is processed, etc. So the best food you can eat is the food you grow, or buy fresh, in-season organic produce at local farmer’s markets.

  • Now, I like meat; I recognize that I’m an omnivore and that I can process meat. Therefore, I believe in the practice of hunting and I hope to one day do that as a supplemental source for my food. However, since I have not done that I do not know how it is going to make me feel so I reserve the right to choose not to do that if I can’t handle the killing and dressing of the animal I kill to eat. In that same train of thought I would eat meat if I raised the animal, ie chickens.

  • The way I see it is, what is the most important thing in my life? —> Living. So what I put in my body is what keeps me alive. The food/energy that I consume makes the body that I live in. So when I put processed shit into my body, that is what is building my body. When I put fresh, nutritious food in the form of energy calories into my body I can function to the best of my ability. Simple as that.

• Gardening/Farming

  • I believe growing your own food is the best practice you can take to nourishing yourself. The process connects you to your surroundings as you become more in tune with the weather, soil, pests, etc. in order to successfully grow food. Plus, eating fresh, organic produce is the best thing you can put in your body.

• Foraging

  • I’m very interested in this subject but ignorant of the majority of the field. Learning the flora in your environment is a skill to be practiced; knowing which plants you can eat is empowering. Knowing that you could survive on your own in the forest or wherever without relying on a grocery store is revolutionary. I don’t know my trees/plants as well as I would like, but when I notice something I do know I feel more connected to the world around me. Calling it by its name and knowing how it can be used is an intimate relationship I want more of.

• Dumpster Diving

  • For the frugal, cheap, anti food-waste pioneers, dumpster diving should be right up your alley. It’s an action straight up sticking it to the man. One of my major pet peeves is food waste. Seeing perfectly good food go to waste makes my skin crawl. Therefore, I actively take part in dumpster diving, and I love it. I’ve got my method down, and it’s not what you think. I have never had to get into a dumpster, I just slide the side door or lift the top open. I have never had to rip open a garbage bag, the food is usually just sitting right on top, still packaged and safe. It doesn’t have to be a gross job. I am always overwhelmed and sickened by the amount of food I find in grocery store dumpsters and I have to restrain myself from taking more than I need. Read my dumpster diving article here to learn more about the specifics. I uploaded a video on my YouTube channel of my dumpster diving (March 2021) video below.

• Compost

  • As stated above under the waste section, rather than sending your food waste to the landfill where it decomposes anaerobically releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 25x more powerful than carbon dioxide, throw your food in a pile outside and let it decompose so you can use in your garden and reduce emissions.

WATER

I became much more aware of my water use when I lived in Arizona during grad school. I was coming from the South where water is in abundance and so I had to shift my thinking and actions when in Arizona where water is much more precious.

TIPS

• Reduce water consumption

  • Shorter showers &/or use a timer when in the shower

  • Turn off faucets when not using

  • Use low-flow shower heads, faucets, and toilets

    • When at home using my own toilet I will not flush if I just pee. Older toilets use from 3-7 gallons of potable water per flush. That’s just ridiculous. “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down”

  • Learn where your water comes from

    • It sounds simple but educating ourselves on the source of our needs opens our eyes to how dependent we are on our environment. When we realize our dependence on the planet for survival we can begin to treat our environment with the love and respect it deserves rather than ravaging and destroying it. Water is Life.

• Water catchment system

  • Connect a barrel to your gutter and voila- free water. Even if you don’t filter it you can use it for watering plants. I set one up at my parents: I got 2, 50 gallon barrels on my local freecycle.org site, bought some tubing and connected the tube to the end of the gutter and then the other end to the barrel. Then I installed a hose faucet on the bottom. I didn’t raise the barrels too high therefore there’s not enough pressure to have a hose attached. (I’m currently thinking of purchasing a Berkey Filtering system in order to use that collected water to drink and cook with —that’s the ultimate goal.) June 2021 update: I recently made a YouTube video about the rainwater catchment set-up at my parents. Video below.

  • For my future off-grid home I would essentially do the same thing but on a greater scale and add a WOM (water organization module) to filter the rainwater so I could use it in my house. Why rely on the city/county for your water when you can get it from the sky, for free.

  • To go even further, you could then plumb your home to use greywater, the water after it’s used in your kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower. You could send it to your toilet bowl or use it to water your plants like in the Earthship system where it goes to the interior botanical cells, aka indoor garden.

SHELTER

My ultimate goal is to build an off-grid home on a small farm. This is my #1 passion and what I spend the majority of my time daydreaming about, designing and creating different off-grid homes.

I don’t have any tips but rather I offer up a different perspective to start you thinking of alternative sustainable housing options.

After interning and volunteering with Earthship Biotecture in New Mexico and Colorado, traditional/conventional housing seems downright stupid. We’ve been suckered into believing that these conventional houses are the only choice, and that the typical house is what we should strive for and spend enormous amounts of money on. But what I learned at Earthship Biotecture is that’s all bullshit. There are other options, options that won’t break the bank, options that allow you to co-habitat with the environment, and options which lessens your impact on the planet. These Earthships are completely off-grid and autonomous homes that address 6 principles: natural and recycled building materials, solar electricity, water catchment, thermal/solar heating and cooling, sewage treatment, and food production.

We (the majority of people in this country) are paying an exorbitant price to live in a box which we have to continue to pay for to operate via electrical bills, water, sewage, etc. When you’re dependent on the grid, you’re dependent on a company. By being off-grid you don’t have to rely on anybody else to provide what you need. I can capture my water from rainfall or use a well, then filter it and use it. I can capture my energy needs from the sun (more info below in the Energy section). And most interestingly, this is SO much cheaper. People complain that they can’t afford houses, or a nice place to live, but you CAN if you think outside of this box that society and corporations have stuck over you and are suffocating you with.

Wake up folks! Break away from the crap these industries are feeding you. There are other ways to live out there.

ENERGY

In this age of big oil and fossil fuels polluting our environment either by the extraction of the resource to the burning of it in use, I am astutely aware of my electricity use and gas use. Again, living in Arizona educated me in this topic of which I was previously ignorant. For example, out on the nearby Navajo Reservation, coal is being extracted on sacred land and then transported to the Navajo Generating Station (NGS). Then that generated electricity is used to power the pumping of water from the Colorado River to be diverted through canals with the Central Arizona Project (CAP) to cities like Phoenix and Tucson. So those desert cities can have pools, golf courses, and waterparks. All the while, the majority of folks living on the reservation go without running water and electricity. Does any of that sound right to you? (Of course there are many other factors such as the loss of Native jobs when the NGS closes. Just another reason to develop renewable energy jobs out there). All that is to say, I try to limit my electricity use while I am inhabiting on-grid residences.

Again, my goal is to live in an off-grid home where my power supply comes from a renewable source, a source that provides 430 quintillion Joules of energy an hour to the planet—it’s called the SUN.

TIPS

• Solar Panels. Solar Panels. Solar Panels.

  • It’s a no-brainer folks. Why pay a company to generate your electricity that has a limited supply of the resource and also causes detrimental effects to the planet when you can get a never-ending supply of energy from the Sun? And all you have to pay for is the solar panel to capture the energy and batteries to store it. Seems pretty simple to me. [However, it seems as though every state and county has different regulations on this. If you’re tied to an electrical grid, the local power company isn’t going to want to lose your service, aka money, so there’s probably going to be some laws against you providing your own electricity needs. Laws that the company most likely lobbied to pass and paid your local representatives to push —just another example of corporate interests controlling the government, but I digress... Once you realize that these corporations don’t have your best interest at heart, nor the planet’s well-being, and only want you for your money— you might start become more conscious of your spending habits… just a thought]

• Reduce Gas Use, Ride a Bike

  • I’ll be honest, I don’t live my beliefs as much as I should on this one. Living a nomadic, seasonal lifestyle requires me driving. Living in remote towns doesn’t make it practical to forgo driving for riding a bike. This country is sadly not bike friendly and our cities are too widespread to make this easy or accessible. When I was settled and lived in Flagstaff for a couple of years I biked to classes and reduced my car use. It’s a great source of exercise and it makes you slow down and become more connected to your surroundings.

  • Traveling oversees also weighs on my mind as I am conscious of the amount of fossil fuels it takes for the plane to transport me thousands of miles. I go into how to practice low-impact while traveling here.

• Solar Oven

  • This is a small action I’m trying to get more into. I know a few people who have solar ovens that they use to cook with and I think it’s a great idea. I struggled with making one myself using materials lying around and it looks pretty janky. I’ve only used it a handful of times to bake a cookie and heat water to make tea. July 2020 update: I recently wrote a separate post, How to Make & Use a Solar Oven, & made a YouTube video about it. Video is below.

• Divest from Fossil Fuels

  • Check your stocks, call out your university and city to divest from fossil fuel companies.

MISC

Another big and rather obvious way I avoid impact and waste is by simply not buying stuff and thus not contributing to this resource-extracting, unlimited growth, capitalist economic system. It’s not that hard since I live below poverty level and really don’t have copious amounts of money to throw around on frivolous items. But sure, it’s also a battle when you’re constantly bombarded with society’s standards of success and profit-driven corporations’ advertising schemes directed at the poor consumer. I’m constantly being told through media and my peers that in order for me to be happy/be successful/be beautiful that I need to buy this, that, and the other. Re: planned obsolescence as described under the waste section.

TIPS

• Intentional Consumer Practices/Conscious Spending

  • The power of the consumer is about where you put your money and what companies you support with that money. Educate yourself on the companies where you spend your money. Use opensecrets.org to search for company leaders’ donations, which gives you an idea of what politicians they support and what polices/agendas they stand for. I wrote a blog post on this topic here.

• Clothes & misc.

  • Buy second-hand

    • I am a religious thrift store shopper. I get the majority of my clothes there. I know brands and I know what to look for. I take pride in my ability to find great products, and there’s nothing like the feeling when you leave a goodwill with 6 items you love all for $10. I also go to garage sales but not as frequently.

      • To take it a step further. I also am constantly going through my wardrobe and trying to get rid of items that I don’t wear, or in the frame of Marie Kondo, “that don’t give me joy.” I am trying to move in the direction of minimalism and reduce the amount of stuff that I accumulate.

      • I have also started selling my used clothes on apps like Poshmark (use my invite code: BUNGALOWAPPAREL when signing up for $10) and depop. That way my second-hand clothes can then become third-hand clothes and so on. Or I donate them back to a thrift store. And since I like fashion a bit too much and feel like I have a good eye for things I have started to supplement my income by buying other items at thrift stores just to sell on those apps. I find it extremely rewarding to save an item destined for the landfill and then sell it to someone who actually wants it and will use it. This has partly inspired my Earth Ally project, learn more here. [I’ve got a whole page about my thrifting found here]

• Books

  • I’m a voracious reader and an avid book collector. It’s one of the items that I can’t get myself to reduce. I love looking at my wall of books. And since I read a lot I mostly get my books used. I buy used books from libraries’ friends of the library stores. But most recently, and after reading Mark Boyle’s Moneyless Manifesto, I use paperbackswap.com. On that website I can list books that I want to give away and when someone requests it I pay to ship it media mail. Then when one of the books on my list comes up I pay .49 cents and use a credit I got from sending one to get the book (you don’t have to pay for the membership). It’s a great way to swap books and you’re essentially only paying a couple bucks to mail it because the other person pays to mail the book to you. The only downside is that it’s pretty infrequent to get a book on the list as there is a wait-list of other people requesting the same book. However, most of the books on my list are pretty obscure and I would probably never be able to find them randomly at library stores. I have received 47 books since February 2017 when I signed up. Check it out—>here is my referral link. And you can find my book wish-list here. [September 2020- I just made a new YouTube video about how to use paperbackswap.com. check it out below]

• Reproduction

  • This isn’t a tip, just my personal view. And let me begin by stating right off the bat that I understand I am taking an unpopular stance and that it might anger/bother a lot of people. Of course you are entitled to your opinion as am I, and I am just using my own platform here to share an alternative perspective. You can stop reading at any time… I operate under the idea that just because something is an established cultural norm, as in this regard — having children — doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be questioned or adjusted to the current needs of the time. Climate change’s dire ramifications require us all to look inward at our own lives and assess our ways of thinking, even if that way of thinking is our biological desire to procreate.

  • As for me, I simply do not want to bring a child into this world in which they will inevitably suffer. Climate change is going to reshape the world as we know it, and I honestly do not think we as a people have the capacity to imagine what that will even look like. I strongly believe that in my lifetime there will be major catastrophic devastation — environmentally, economically, socially, politically, and all the other -allys (besides what’s already happening) — caused by climate change; therefore, human survival will become even harder for future generations. My “biological need” to procreate just doesn’t seem to balance the scale weighed down by the bleakness and suffering the future holds under the current climate change trajectory. (And of course there are other factors besides climate change that have contributed to my decision such as finances, relationship status, and my lifestyle to name a few. Not to mention some women just don’t want to have kids and they don’t have to have a reason.)

  • However on a brighter note, there is a wonderful alternative and that is adoption. If you (or I) ever decide that raising a child is something we have the means and desire to do, then I think we should look to the millions of orphans without families whom already reside on this planet. [I also want to note that I recognize that country of birth plays a big role in all this. Those children and families in western, capitalist-driven countries are born with inherently more advantages than those born in such places ravaged by war and poverty or having their land erased by rising oceans. Just by being born there they are given feet of extra breathing room for when the tide turns. Also I do recognize the high cost of adoption makes it unattainable for most.] Here’s an article that raises the question in which a philosopher can speak to better than I, Should We Be Having Kids in the Age of Climate Change?

  • And let me just leave you with this — we can have a lasting legacy without having to pass on our DNA. We can have alternative fulfilling purposes in life other than raising a child. We can experience “a love like no other” if we open our hearts to those already here.

    • I really appreciate you for hearing me out on this contentious topic, especially if you disagree with me. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t originally want to write about this because I was afraid that it would be too controversial and push people away from my message, not to mention those in my personal life. I was worried that I would come across as anti-family and/or heartless, when in reality I feel quite the opposite — I feel that I have an enormous amount of love to give. But I really think that when you speak your authentic truth, that others recognize that genuineness and can open their minds to understanding just a bit more.