Sustainable Living - Charlie Smallshaw

I had the opportunity to visit a neighborhood of homes designed to operate as sustainably as possible. Each house optimized their energy usage and made every available use of the resources around them. I was completely taken aback by how extensive the efforts were. Every minute detail seemed so intentional, from the angle of the glass skylight to the engravings on the wooden porch. There seemed to be no wasted movements, so to speak. It made me think about how when asked about the main challenge in reaching sustainable living, the owner of the house answered ‘habit.’ It was hard to believe that anybody would have qualms about living in a house like that where you feel almost as though you are living with nature. The houses are admittedly expensive to build, but I think that developing technologies will allow us to build homes that eventually make us our money back in money saved on heating, ventilation, etc. The whole neighborhood shows that living sustainably doesn't necessarily mean sacrificing comfort and luxury.

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