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Cobb Hill (McCone County, Montana)
Cobb Hill is an intentional community in Hartland, Vermont in the United States. Its design borrows from other community, agricultural, and environmental action models: cohousing, ecovillages, sustainable communities, community-supported agriculture (CSA), agricultural collectives, sustainability research and action organizations. Green Construction 23 households live in tightly clustered houses on that include a working, partly horse-powered, farm and forest. Cohousing.org Another member lives in an 1800s farmhouse on the property. The new homes and common house were built using |
Intentional Community
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision, and typically share responsibilities and property. This way of life is sometimes characterized as an " alternative lifestyle". Intentional communities can be seen as social experiments or communal experiments. The multitude of intentional communities includes collective households, cohousing communities, coliving, ecovillages, monasteries, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, hutterites, ashrams, and housing cooperatives. History Ashrams are likely the earliest intentional communities founded around 1500 BCE, while Buddhist monasteries appeared around 500 BCE. Pythagoras founded an intellectual vegetarian commune in about 525 BCE in southern Italy. Hundreds of modern intentional communities were formed across ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composting Toilets
A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material. Composting is carried out by microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) under controlled aerobic conditions. Most composting toilets use no water for flushing and are therefore called "dry toilets". In many composting toilet designs, a carbon additive such as sawdust, coconut coir, or peat moss is added after each use. This practice creates air pockets in the human waste to promote aerobic decomposition. This also improves the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and reduces potential odor. Most composting toilet systems rely on mesophilic composting. Longer retention time in the composting chamber also facilitates pathogen die-off. The end product can also be moved to a secondary system – usually another composting step – to allow more time for mesophilic composting to fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donella Meadows
Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows (March 13, 1941 – February 20, 2001) was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books ''The Limits to Growth'' and '' Thinking In Systems: A Primer''. Early life and education Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963 and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a yearlong trip from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a member of a team in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. Career Meadows taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.Meadows, Donella H. 2008, ''Thinking in Systems: A Primer'', Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, p. 213 (About the Author), . Meadows was honored both as a Pew Scholar in Conservation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Living
Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. It is referred to as zero wastage living" or "net zero living". Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbon footprint) by altering their home designs and methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Its proponents aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, naturally balanced, and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living closely follows the overall principles of sustainable development. One approach to sustainable living, exemplified by small-scale urban transition towns and rural ecovillages, seeks to create self-reliant communities based on principles of simple living, which maximize self-sufficiency particularly in food production. These principles, on a broade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change (food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic GHG emissions), water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organic Farming
Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007.''/ref> is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting. It originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. Certified organic agriculture accounts for globally, with over half of that total in Australia. Organic farming continues to be developed by various organizations today. Biological pest control, mixed cropping and the fostering of insect predators are encouraged. Organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally-occurring substances while prohibiting or strictly limiting synthetic substances. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Supported Agriculture
Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets. In return for subscribing to a harvest, subscribers receive either a weekly or bi-weekly box of produce or other farm goods. This includes in-season fruits, vegetables, and can expand to dried goods, eggs, milk, meat, etc. Typically, farmers try to cultivate a relationship with subscribers by sending weekly letters of what is happening on the farm, inviting them for harvest, or holding an open-farm event. Some CSAs provide for contributions of labor in lieu of a portion of su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Star
Energy Star (trademarked ''ENERGY STAR'') is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides information on the energy consumption of products and devices using different standardized methods. The Energy Star label is found on more than 75 different certified product categories, homes, commercial buildings, and industrial plants. In the United States, the Energy Star label is also shown on the Energy Guide appliance label of qualifying products. Elements of the Energy Star Program are being implemented in Japan, Taiwan, and Switzerland, as well as by Energy Star Canada. In 2018, a 15-year long agreement with the European Union expired. A previous agreement with the European Free Trade Association has expired. History The Energy Star program was established by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 and operates under the authority of the Clean Air Act, section 103( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jetstream Furnace
Jetstream furnaces (later tempest wood-burning boilers), were an advanced design of wood-fired water heaters conceived by Dr. Richard Hill of the University of Maine in Orono, Maine, USA. The design heated a house to prove the theory, then, with government funding, became a commercial product. Wood-burning water furnaces, boilers and melters The furnace used a forced and induced draft fan to draw combustion air and exhaust gases through the combustion chamber at 1/3 of the speed of sound (100 m/s+). The wood was loaded into a vertical tube which passed through the water jacket into a refractory lined combustion chamber. In this chamber the burning took place and was limited to the ends of the logs. The water jacket prevented the upper parts of the logs from burning so they would gravity feed as the log was consumed. The products of combustion left the chamber and passed through a narrow ceramic neck which reached temperatures of 2000 degrees F where the gases and tars release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passive Solar Building Design
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate performing an accurate site analysis. Elements to be considered include window placement and size, and glazing type, thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading. Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be adapted or "retrofitted". Passive energy gain ''Passive solar'' technologies use sunlight without active mechanical systems (as contrasted to ''active solar'', which uses thermal collectors). Such technologies convert sunlight into usable heat (in water, air, and thermal mass), cau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hartland, VT
Hartland is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,446 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Hartland, Hartland Four Corners, and North Hartland. History Hartland, originally named Hertford, was chartered in 1761. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 45.2 square miles (117.0 km2), of which 45.0 square miles (116.4 km2) is land and 0.2 square mile (0.6 km2) (0.53%) is water. The Connecticut River forms its eastern boundary, and the Ottauquechee River flows through the northern part of the town. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 3,223 people, 1,270 households, and 900 families living in the town. The population density was 71.7 people per square mile (27.7/km2). There were 1,382 housing units at an average density of 30.7 per square mile (11.9/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 98.57% White, 0.12% African American, 0.16% Native Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Hot Water
Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and sola .... A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for residential and some industrial applications (For example: in Israel). A sun-facing collector heats a working fluid that passes into a storage system for later use. SWH are active (pumped) and passive (Natural convection, convection-driven). They use water only, or both water and a working fluid. They are heated directly or via light-concentrating mirrors. They operate independently or as hybrids with electric or gas heaters. In large-scale installations, mirrors may concentrate sunlight into a smaller c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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