A Brief Overview – What Are Sustainable Communities

In the age of global drifting apart, melting down, literal and metaphorical, increasing pollution, violence and the general sense of chaos, people are turning more and more to local, small-scale level when it comes to basically everything. The glorified globalization doesn’t seem so sustainable anymore, so people are trying to keep it local. Or as the old but gold saying goes: think globally, act locally; and not the other way around.

Sustainable communities are places in which the needs of all the community members are respected, where people feel safe in every possible sense, where the environment is taken care of and protected and where the economy is thriving, offering better employment opportunities.

So basically, sustainable communities can be said to have three major elements, social, environmental and economic.

Meeting Social Needs

With the advent of global corporations, mass production, megalopolises, and over-population, our whole society is becoming quite dehumanized. In that respect, the first task of sustainable communities would be to adjust everything to the “human measure” (and not only human, but of all beings, but we’ll come to that). So this type of community is “human” both in form and scale. It is built in such a way to respect and promote diversity as well as meet everyone’s needs.

Health is one of the priorities and one way of protecting it is through keeping the environment safe and clean. Preventive health care is emphasized, as well as free and easy access to curing treatment. In sustainable communities, access to food, water, and fuel is provided at an affordable cost. What’s more, knowledge and skills training are also easily accessible. Another important idea of these communities is meeting local needs locally whenever possible. Finally, a very important aspect is the empowerment of all members of the community to equally participate in making and considering the socially important decisions.

Protecting the Environment

Sustainable communities are very environmentally conscious because they are aware their own wellbeing very much depends on the healthy and unpolluted environment. This is why they tend to use energy, water, and other resources wisely and efficiently by avoiding excessive spending. They are also turning to the so called “green” and renewable sources of energy.

Waste reduction, obligatory recycling, and other measures are also part of these communities. They are trying to reduce and limit pollution as well as to protect and enhance bio-diversity. For instance, sustainable communities promote walking and cycling instead of driving to help reduce gas emission. What’s more, they use green building techniques, such as using solar energy both for homes and for public spaces, for instance, solar street lighting. You can learn more about solar energy here https://www.streetlights-solar.com/solar-street-lighting.html.

Furthermore, they use non-toxic, recyclable materials from local sources whenever it’s possible. They make energy-efficient appliances, turn to green gardening methods, maintain their own organic gardens as a food source, and many other things. Basically, they’re trying to reduce their ecological footprint by minimizing waste, reducing consumption, limiting pollution and living in harmony with nature.

Enhancing Economy

Creating a viable local economy which provides rewarding work places and is friendly towards the environment is one of the sustainable community staples. Some of them even go all the way to create the so called live-work-play communities which provide their members with easy access to everything enabling them to avoid commuting.

In this way, they reduce air pollution and also save time and money. So they ensure easy and quick access to work places and various services but also to culture, leisure and recreation facilities. Finally, voluntary, unpaid work is something that’s highly regarded in these communities and it’s the perfect reflection of their principles where everyone contributes to the society which is very rewarding in return.

If you are looking for a way to reduce your carbon footprint, regardless of your opinion about the self-sustainable communities, solar energy is a step in the right direction.

To contact Greenshine New Energy
72 Fairbanks, Irvine, CA 92618, USA
949-609-9636