Energy and Environmental Building Association, 1999

INTRODUCTION

Today I want to talk about cultural sustainability in the context of environmental sustainability and why both are so important.

Then I'll describe our recipe for a modern Authentic Neighborhood.

Next I want to talk about the cornerstone of a modern Sustainable Community - free range children.

Then we'll take a tour of HomeTown and describe its major components.

Some where along the way we'll talk about profitability and marketing.

Finally, we'll visually compare HomeTown to a new conventional sprawl subdivision.

I WHAT IS CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY  and Why it is so important

Amory Lovins, the brilliant physicist and founder of RMI once asked me: What kind of a house would the master carpenter, Jesus, build?

An equally good question is: What kind of a city would God develop? 

Listen to the answer given in the Old Testament of the Bible. Zech, the prophet, wrote down God's plan for the ultimate culturally sustainable city where people live in peace and comfort.

Here is how he described it: "This is what the Lord Almighty says: Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age, and the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets."

This is a city or town that works for children and old folks. Because the old folks and the children are using the streets together,  the children are learning from the old folks the principles and values that will allow them to grow old  and then teach the same principles and values to the next generation of children, and so forth.

When we talk of sustainability in nature we mean that the ecology of a place works in such a way that the plants and creatures of the place reproduce so that the ecological balance and health of the place is maintained and sustained.

Continued on next page

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