Sustainable Economic Development:

 As part of Group Two, I looked at housing that uses renewable energy resources and sharing communities to reduce consumption.

One article I looked at is called Denmark’s road to a Low-carbon, Energy-Efficient Economy. Their concern is that as the population grows, demand for energy sources intensifies driving cost up and fossil fuel resources are concentrated in a small amount of politically unstable countries.  So as Denmark did not want to be part of the energy race they actually began looking at a low- carbon energy efficient society after the 1973 energy crisis. They did this with both industry and in households: “by exploring domestic oil and gas; by diversifying our energy mix; and, increasingly, by investing in renewable energy sources. Two thirds of that energy is from wind farms. Denmark is now a world leader in wind turbine production, and Vestas alone holds a 12 percent share of the global market”. Vestas Wind System operates manufacturing plants in over 12 countries including USA and employs more than 17,000 people globally. They also use combined heat and power (CHP) which uses 30 percent less fuel then separate heat and power plants. “Since 1980, the Danish economy has grown by almost 80 percent while energy consumption has remained more or less flat and CO2 emissions have fallen”.

I also found a video about a sharing community in Denmark. Please see additional post about Co-housing.

I have also enjoyed learning about building green homes such as an article entitled How To Build A Dirt-Cheap, Off-Grid House along with a video called How to Choose a Natural Building Material(i.e. cob, straw, or a mix).   Using natural materials is considered a "Green" home because it doesn't cause harm to the environment. These homes are also associated with "sustainable" architecture because they "maximize energy, space and material efficiency, while minimizing their use so the needs of future generations won't be compromised. Solar, wind or geothermal power is used for operation and 60 percent of windows face south so heating requirements are reduced.
 This article and video led to viewing other interesting video’s with houses built with these materials that are beautiful, inexpensive and surprisingly are known to last an extremely long time.  Building with Cob: Post-collapse Solution for Shelter is one video I looked at and Cob Houses-Live Debt Free with Sustainable Development shows many cob homes.