Environmental Practices

About the Book

"Environmental Practices offers creative ways, designs, and technology to protect and improve the state of our environment and I commend you for your comprehensive work…"
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass)

The need for environmentalism isn't just because of global warming. There are – in fact – many reasons to live more efficiently including for our own health, the beauty of the natural world, an improved national security derived from energy independence, and for our pocketbooks. In the end, how can we ignore our part in ongoing environmental devastation thinking that all we need to do is recycle? Isn't wastefulness morally wrong?

The concept of living simply strives to find alternative ways of living comfortably while using less. Whether we use less water to shower with or drive an economy car, we must all learn to question even the most inconspicuous daily routines we have to see if we are wasting things needlessly or can save still more. The first half of this book is therefore a guide – with over 160 insightful hints – that will help you lead a far more environmentally conscious lifestyle. There are chapters on conserving water, paper products, food, and energy. There's a chapter on vehicle transportation, on handling trash, and even on how we can save more animals and insects.

Apart from learning about how to protect the environment on a personal level, there are chapters on the commercial use of extremely high technology and how it's dramatically increasing the safety and fuel efficiency of our airliners, oil tankers, and our commercial trucks. Some airliners have reduced CO2 emissions by nearly 50% in the last ten years. Soon this will be over 90%! Even oil tankers can be redesigned to guard against major spills by having a second, inner hull and segmented storage tanks. Understanding just how far our technology has come, gives us hope and helps us to see that this is not – by any means – a no-win situation.

Since super-disasters (or ultra-catastrophes) impact the environment just as much as our own society, there's a chapter on how our police, fire, and medical services can better prepare for such events. With better emergency facilities, rescue helicopters, and vehicles, we will be able to save more lives as well as respond to the chemical and petroleum spills, which are often caused by such disasters, that much faster! Even the public can better prepare for such disasters with homes better able to cope with live-in evacuees and minor storm damage. Two conceptual emergency-enhanced home designs (such as the example on the cover) are presented along with this.

The book's most extensive chapter is on the most eco-friendly and disaster-ready idea of them all: modernized communal living! When done correctly, living communally can dramatically lower a society's environmental impact while still maintaining our privacy and standard-of-living. Such homes would have corporate telephone and server computer systems, segregated living areas, and bedroom suites with entertainment centers, PCs, and ample storage space. There'd be wider hallways, soundproof materials within the walls and floors, and top-quality appliances that meet or exceed expected demands.

Most importantly, such homes would have professionally-equipped offices and shops that allow residents to establish comprehensive home-based businesses. This allows residents to work right from home! Shedding 60% to 85% of their vehicle needs, daycare costs, and about five-hours of travel time per week, highly skilled residents could launch an absolute renaissance in the quality of living that middle-class citizens can achieve. The combined skill and purchasing power of tailors, carpenters, mechanics, lawyers, and teachers can create a home nearly independent of corporate downsizing and that would be far more self-sufficient during times of disasters or economic downturns. Craftsmanship would improve and more durable, commercial-quality homes could be built with the savings realized on commuting-related travel expenses alone. The conceptual floor plans for five such emergency-enhanced communal homes are included to show what is possible with a layout specifically intended for this method of living!

Because everything we make and build starts with the process of design, the book's second to last chapter talks about a new step-by-step approach to the analytical design process. This critical chapter takes us through the methodology of what makes a good design good so that we canÑin turnÑuse this reasoning in reverse to uncover where such potential does not yet exist. Truly, when we can make all of our belongings and homes tailor made to perfectly suit our needs, we would gain more out of life, the most from our efforts, and a greatly reduced environmental impact.

The book's final chapter touches on nine additional topics that can dramatically help the environment right now! They include things like product standardization, computerized traffic-control networks, and the need for peace and smaller military budgets.

Enjoy! Eco Author Christopher Eldridge