Convergence House
The purpose of Convergence House is to explore ways we can lessen our environmental impact while retaining a comfortable lifestyle through living simply, growing as much of our own food as we can and living in community.
At Convergence House we believe that the answer to global warming lies through living as part of a sustainable community.
What we've done so far
No more grass. For the last four years I've stopped mowing the grass. It's all gradually becoming garden. At first I just let the birds bring what seeds they might. Within the first two years the diversity of plant life had increased significantly. At a guess, there are around 150 to 200 different plant species around the house at present.
Replaced all the light bulbs in the house with fluorescent twist bulbs. They use 10% of the energy that regular incandescent bulbs do.
We recycle everything. Often we just find another use for the item.
Composting our food scraps reduces waste and provides critical nutrients for the garden.
We purchase more whole foods and Organic foods when funds allow. Bulk foods are preferred over packaged foods.
By using bicycles, walking and riding the bus rather than driving a car.
Using a clothes line instead of the dryer we lessen our use of fossil fuels.
Redesigning community around people instead of the car.
Expel your TV from your "living room" and go out and play. Use the time to acquire a useful craft which can be traded in a community barter system. Do something for the community. Garden.
Buy from local producers. Buy Bulk.
Support mass transit. And car pool.
Recycle, compost your kitchen waste in the back yard.
Use baking soda and vinegar to clean with.
Use half the laundry detergent they suggest, or buy from area health food stores where environmentally safe laundry detergent can be purchased.
Buy Organic and help save the family farm. Eat less meat. A pound of beef requires about 280 gallons of water to bring to market. A pound of soybeans requires 7 gallons. Besides, it's not really good for our hearts for our diets to be so "meatcentric" anyway. Beans and rice are cheap even organically. If the true costs of say for instance: hog "farming"... A factory hog farm with 800,000 hogs produces the same amount of waste as New York City. New York City has 14 waste treatment facilities. An 800,000 head hog farm has ponds which during the rainy season spill into the water table polluting wells. If the true costs of having 800,000 hogs on a very small area with virtually no waste treatment were factored into the market price, the family farm would be the most cost effective to grow our food.)
Interestingly a solid plan that will be effective at slowing global warming will also lead to a more stable economy, more jobs, a cleaner environment, we could even take back the family farm. What our intentions are with Convergence house is to use it as a starting point from which to educate ourselves and other participants in practices such as organic gardening, good land stewardship, useful crafts that could be the basis for a cottage industry, living in community and becoming familiar with conflict resolution and working toward a small community designed around people instead of the car. Eventually we may sell this house and take what small equity remains and buy three acres and continue our experiment of living in a community designed around people. By living simply, we hope to create a model for human existence that is sustainable and fulfilling. I feel it is important to point out that our American appetite is burdensome upon the earth and its people. We hope to prove that the simplest solution to global warming is living simply. This is important because the solution to global warming must be made available to all people rich, poor and in between. Our goal is to ultimately create a bridge between this wasteful American life and a simpler existence in harmony with the land. A program we hope will help others find their piece of land and give them the tools and knowledge they need to be good stewards of the land.
