building green

We received our first issue of Dwell as subscribers yesterday. I read the letters to the editor regarding the Dwell Home II. Dwell is sponsoring bulding a "green" house in LA, and published the winning firm and their design in the previous issue. THere were some interesting letters to the editor regarding just how sustainable this house is. One person seeme dto indicate that you could not be sustainable if you weren't living in an urban area. Their argument is that you would have to drive in and out t get anywhere from your house, whereas an urban townhome could be within walking distance of everything one needs - food, transit, etc. But I think that there must be a way to have a sustainable environmentally-friendly lifestyle out of the city as well. True cars will probably be necessary to get from point A to B, but there are things you can do in the countryside that you probably cannot do in the city - at least not as easily. You can be completely off the grid in the countryside. It would be hard to have enough solar panels, or a turbine, or even micro-hydroelectric power in the city to power a house. It is probably near impossible to have a gray/black water recycling system in the city - the kind where shit gets recycled into fertilizer for marshlands or native shrubs. Also, unless you build a green roof on your city home, you will be contributing to the urban heat island effect.

I suppose as far as driving is concerned, one could lessen the impact by driving a hybrid, which uses less fuel, or by driving an electric vehicle or a vehicle fueled by biodiesel. Or a bicycle. of course, around here, riding my bike 20 miles up 2000 feet would kind of suck and take up a lot of one's day. Ah, but there is always the bus. Or carpooling. Or just working from home.