We use  alternative solutions that utilize free and/or renewable resources to do everyday things. 

For example, rather than using an electric or gas burning stove, we do our cooking using forsaken wood that would otherwise be in the trash. In warm weather, we use our outdoor kitchen with the cob rocket stoves and cob oven. In cold weather, we use the heat of the wood burning stove that heats our living area, which would be burning scrap wood whether we were cooking or not. We also heat all our water for showers and cleaning simultaneously with heating house and cooking food. This makes it an extra-efficient use of the wood, and a great alternative to gas or electricity. 

 

 

 

 

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

In summers we take beautiful and refreshing outdoor showers that uses water supplied from our well. 
In winter, we shower indoors in water heated by the wood-burning stove that also heats our common room. 

We turn off the lights, religiously. Since sustainability is important to us it is a natural part of the flow of our day to be conscious of what electricity we are using, and if we leave the room, we turn off the lights or fan or computer or whatever is not going to be used while we are out. If no one needs a light to see something important, they are off. 

We purchase just about NOTHING from stores - no purchase means no financial support for their unsustainable ways. If there is something we just absolutely can't get around having for some technology or construction project, we will trade for it or we get it donated through our non-profit.

We make one with the elements. We do not rely on conventional heating or air conditioning to regulate our environments. If it is chilly, we wear more clothes. If it is sweltering, we wear much less, and douse our hot bodies in a 55 degree well shower if we get too hot. 

We are conservative and purposeful about our travel - if we do go out in an automobile, it is for a purpose that serves our greater purpose of living and sharing sustainability. We don't go out cruising to clear our heads or just to get away or put the children asleep. If we do go out, it is with the purpose of making the world a more sustainable and life-supporting place such as facilitating a festival, conference or catering an event with WAY more sustainable food than available anywhere else.  When we choose to make a trip to a festival or a market, we are doing so with the purpose of spreading awareness, sharing perspective and changing people's lives for the better. And even then, we do so in the most efficient and sustainable way we know how. 

We consolidate tasks on our trips out, and we get as many things done in one trip as possible, choosing locations that are as close as possible to achieve our purpose in going out. 

We always pick up something that enriches the GoE Vortex when out. If running to the bank or the post office, at very least, the driver also stops by somewhere to pick up some cardboard or sawdust that would have otherwise been trash. Those are then used in our garden and composting toilets, respectively, and then become compost/soil.  No one ever comes back empty handed. 

We grow LOTS of our own food! With water not processed or supplied by a municipality, we pay only for the electricity to pump the water up through our well. We use NO processed or commercial fertilizers, only our own rich and nutritious compost.

We compost everything organic- paper, cardboard, food, pee and poo. It all becomes soil and then enriches our land, which enriched our food, which enriches our bodies, which we use to further the cause of living and sharing sustainability.