Here is the key: If you do not start with setting the bar high for passive natural design, a natural lifestyle, natural building methods and food sovereignty; you aren’t even in the game.
Setting the bar high is about goals and trade-offs. It takes determination, enthusiasm and sometimes a little luck to arrive at your destination. Your goal may be food sovereignty, but the trade-off is you will still need the system for some things; and that’s okay. Pressing your own olive oil means need an olive orchard, a processing area and storage. You also likely need to communicate with the outside world and I still cannot think of a “green” computer or mobile phone. That’s okay too. What it is about is taking whatever steps fit your budget, lifestyle and livelihood. A toxin-free home and garden is easily doable if you are willing to put in the effort.
The reality in modern engineering and architecture is that current building design and construction techniques are simply not sustainable, healthy or smart. This is easily determined with a simple life cycle analysis. For most people – as a home or building owner or future owner – what we build or buy to live in, is simply the most important monetary investment we will ever make. Making that investment sustainably boils down to a choice and the factors we consider in making that choice.
Contrary to what modern builders and developers will tell you, sustainability is not more expensive: in fact, it is almost always less costly. So why would anyone tell you it is more expensive? Easy! because they do not know how. In my experience, there is simply no way to make a modern house design sustainable! It’s all about materials and methods. If I add solar panels, solar hot water, wind and geothermal systems to a modern building, it “might” be more energy efficient, but the cost rises dramatically. This is adding complexity and cost to a bad product.
You have to start at the beginning. You have to design intelligently from the land up. What you build is not just a structure you live or work in, it’s also the land and how it is managed, and equally important is the lifestyle it engenders. It’s about how to live a healthier, happier life by examining our needs and making smart choices about everything. And it’s about planning for the future. With the current lifestyles of us earthlings, there is no doubt that the world of the future will be one where more and more people consume less and less resources. Energy, water, food and other consumables will become scarcer and thus more expensive. Take a look around; it’s already been happening all over the planet for quite some time. But it does not have to be that way.
An abundance methodology for natural living produces…abundance. It can be a challenging transition and education to arrive at an abundance mindset when we are surrounded by a corporate, profit-driven scarcity mindset. Fortunately, there are countless examples of people applying abundance practices from people just like you. Just hop on the internet and let your fingers do the walking. People have made the choice to live better and their stories are inspiring and amazing. From a successful Hollywood-comedian-turned-homesteader; to a doctor who rejected modern medicine and became a natural health practitioner; and a modern builder who is now a natural builder: these people and millions more are discovering a better way of living, working and loving.
We believe in you providing for your own needs through intelligent design choices. What smart designers have known all throughout history is that you have to design regeneratively for sustainability. If you do not, you are subject to the law of diminishing returns. Rather, you need to design with idea of creating resources as part of your design. These are the things that matter to building owners and homeowners, and we wholeheartedly agree. In fact, The Warrior Rising was founded around our unswerving belief that you can build a natural and sustainable life whatever your income or job.
The secret is simple: You have to set that as your goal and want to achieve that goal. You have to get your hands dirty (which it turns out is a lot of fun). You have to understand that natural building requires a paradigm shift. You need a system that covers every base. That is where you will find us leading the way, working for and with our fellow human beings to create a streamlined and easy-to-understand process on their projects.
Here are the takeaways for today: “High Performance Intelligent Building Design means you can build cost-effectively so that it significantly reduces life cycle costs; lasts longer; consumes less materials; requires less maintenance and can produce a complete or tiered net energy gain. This is win (owner), win (builder), win (sustainability).” Why would you build any other way?