This speaks to me directly. I am currently enrolled in a grassroots college in Montreal QC, created by experts in their respective fields in order to share their knowledge and experience with over 200 of us, every day people. And by experts, I mean experts in sustainable building materials such as hemp, hempcrete, wood, hay, clay, adobe. Experts promoting the new Living Building Challenge. Experts in thermal mass and passive solar energy. Experts in home and city rain water collection and treatment. Home sewage treatment and management. Permaculture!

I am convinced that sustainable/off-grid homes are part of the solution but, that solution requires two other major components:

1. A major diet change. Be more plant based in order to really appreciate a greenhouse adjacent to your home…it looses its functionality when your meal comes mostly from restaurants, fast food or processed foods. Lucky for us, the medical field has finally broken the lobbying barrier in order to promote a plant based, preventative diet, backed by 50 years of peer-reviewed research (nutritionfacts.org, The China Study).
2. A zero-waste lifestyle. It takes time and research as well but allows you to live chemical free and helps manage waste efficiently. For me, it started by eliminating one-use items all the way to shopping at zero-waste grocery stores (or bulk) and making DIY products. Keeping stuff and not changing it unless absolutely necessary. Reassessing the word “necessary”. The end game — consuming LESS crap.

With struggle comes the desire for change. The system is failing us so, people are thinking outside the box and seem willing to go the extra mile to make it happen. That is me and the 200 surrounding me in class. It’s also many of you out there in this beautifully entwined social media world. These ideas are spreading fast and delivering on their promises so, there is no going back for me now. Sustainability, I live and breathe it now. I’m not on a mission to change legislations and the system, it’s actually too daunting to me and seems pointless if people’s minds and habits don’t change. I want it to start at the root. To start with each and every one of us. We can do this.