Water

-- Quote of the Day -- 

“Even something seemingly innocuous as eating a better diet can make change because they start to think about the food and where it comes from and whether there were pesticides used, and they might look at purchasing organic foods, and then they may start to think about local farms, and then they might think about top soil and… they might think about the larger implications such as run off and dead zones. So what started out as a small change ended up being a multi-faceted change and then this impacts the people around them. …Sustainability is really the same thing as well-being – in the broadest sense of the term, for example people have adequate food and security… creative expression, meaningful jobs, contributing to others, having access to education, recreation, breathing clean air, drinking clean water, having the opportunity to see pristine nature, justice, and political empowerment… etc. …Being sustainable means making well being the core of our systems. …The monetary, financial, corporate and political systems need to be aligned with the mission of making well-being a part of society. …The solution is not in shouting at corporations, the solution lies in aligning all the core aspects of society. …Then you get into these deep questions such as – what is wealth? …A much more functional definition is that wealth is really the same as well-being.”

~ John Boik

Today’s quote originates from the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio episode that aired back on … titled: Sustainable GlobalCommunities

 (*Click on the title to access the full discussion)

-- Water -- 

A lot of water is simply wasted, dumped down the drain and captured in street runoff where it is carted away, and out of sight. Industry too is guilty of consuming a huge amount of water, as are our flushing toilets and irrigation needs. 

There are some phenomenal initiatives out there that we haven’t talked about yet including Solar Aquatic systems that can recycle waste water for non-potable use (flushing toilets, washing streets or vehicles etc.,  or irrigating landscaping) – or if accompanied with a reverse osmosis system the water can be made safe for drinking as well. 

There is a company in Vancouver as well that recycles influent from industry and also septic water to grow plants that thrive in this kind of environment. There are also algae production companies doing similar activities in order to produce bio-fuel. One of the companies actually uses sea water to produce plant seeds that offer a highly sought after oil for fuel. 

Some resources for you: www.H2futures.net, www.ecological-engineering.com, www.ecotek.ca http://edm.ca

Note: Just recently over on our blog we posted an article about rain collection that you may want to check out… June 13^th, 2013… a simple rain barrel connected to the trough that lines the end of your roof would work well, but there are more elaborate systems that can be looked into as well. It really depends on how much rain falls in your area and how much you are able to store due to space restrictions. Another option might be putting in an underground cistern to hold the rainwater. Go online to check out some of the options out there for you to consider. 

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