Egrets’ Cove
Common Agreement
On Ecological
Parameters
As noted
in our By-laws, this Common Agreement serves as a guideline, and therefore is
open to renegotiation at any time.
Interests and Principles
we are trying to serve with this agreement
We
have developed this listing of parameters in order to challenge ourselves to
walk more lightly on the earth by making radical changes in our habits. They
give us measurable goals that we hope will help us to come closer to living
sustainably within our place on the earth. The goals will always be a work in
progress, but they give us a starting point in our planning.
We
are looking at many different ways to reach these targets. For example, one way
to think about the meaning of the sustainability goal is to use calculations
such as the "Disposable Planet Quiz" found on the 'redefining
progress" website to estimate our community's collective ecological
footprint. It seems to us to be a reasonable goal that we should live in a way
that, if followed by all persons on the earth, would make this one earth
sufficient for all life on the planet. At this writing, the average ecological
footprint in the US is estimated to be one that requires 9.7 global hectares
per person while according to this statistical approach; the earth has only 1.8
biologically productive hectares per person.
Definitions
Community Guidelines: General principles; i.e.
Reduce use of fossil fuels or try to close nutrient cycles.
Community Targets: Quantified goals; i.e.
Cabins should bum less than 100 gallons of gas per year or Community should
send less than 12 pick‑up loads to the landfill per year.
Community Strategies: General agreements on how
to apply the principles or work toward the quantified goals. i.e. Cabins will
be well‑insulated, with passive solar heat gains and adequate thermal mass or
All organic matter is composted, bulk purchases with minimal packaging and
recyclable content are given preference.
Our Policy
Site
Guidelines: Minimize disruption to existing
ecosystems; promote biodiversity; slow movement of energy, water and nutrients
from land.
Targets: Keep 50% of the land in
forest.
Strategies: Cluster housing to leave
as much land as possible either unchanged or in food and energy production
unchanged; make buildings as small as possible; have driveway and vehicle
parking only in the front of land with only foot paths on the rest; minimize
and consolidate leach fields using constructed wetlands and composting toilets;
minimize soil runoff through garden design; increase habitat and feeding
opportunities on disrupted land to compensate for disruption, i.e. plant
service berries or vibumum , put in ponds and birdhouses. Use permaculture
techniques as much as possible, favoring perennial and native species.
Water
Guidelines: Live off the yearly
rainfall without importing water or depleting aquifers; assure that the quality
water leaving our community is as close to that of rain as possible.
Targets: Obtain 100% of the water
we use for drinking, washing, cooking, gardening, etc from rainfall catchments
and filtration.
Strategies: Big gutters; big overhangs
and porches to increase water catchments without increasing house size; dig
ponds; use composting toilets, constructed wetlands, garden design to make best
use of small amounts of water, reuse gray water in garden; low use showerheads;
horizontal axis washing machine; awareness of water reserves in using water.
Energy
Guidelines: Minimize use of fossil
fuels; minimize negative impacts of energy use, i.e. smoke, soot, global warming,
in all areas, especially housing and transportation.
Targets: Use 25% of national total
home energy consumption or about 25 million BTUs per household per year. A
household target of 25 % of national household electrical consumption, about
2,750 KVM per household per year from non‑photovoltaic sources; by 2007, reduce
current level of fossil use for transportation to 50% of the Kentucky average
of 553 gallons of gasoline per household to about 275 gallons per household.
Strategies: Reduce energy requirements by
combining trips; ridesharing; good vehicle maintenance, good insulation and
weatherization of buildings; eliminate need for air conditioning through good
design and natural ventilation; use photovoltaic electricity in cabins; support
net metering legislation; investigate alternative energy sources to replace
some of our fossil fuel consumption; use information on attached sheet,
"Community Energy Notes" to make informed decisions about fuel
sources.
Housing
Guidelines: Dramatically reduce the ecological
footprint of the American house, in terms of size, resource use at greater than
replacement rate, embodied energy, maintenance energy, and toxins; create a
model of small inexpensive personal cabins that serve as peaceful sanctuaries,
while having the benefits of modem technologies available but separated in a
nearby community building.
Targets: Reduce housing size to
1960 average of approximately 400 square feet per person. Include in this
calculation both the personal cabins and the portion of the community house
that replaces functions typically present in individual homes.(Per person
square footage of housing in the US was 388' in 1960, 750' in 2000 and
estimated at 815' for new homes in 2002).
Strategies: Design community building
to shift many space requiring functions, such as laundry, canning, socializing,
recreation, refrigeration and storage away from individual homes; use big
porches as low impact mild weather housing and unheated storage; use local
sustainably harvested wood, solar dried when possible; use cellulose
insulation; spend money on making a small space more comfortable rather than
increasing square footage; design buildings to fit in with environment
maximizing benefit of solar energy, breezes, shade, and earth tempering; build
so that additions can be easily added if family size increases.
Money
Guidelines: Create the physical and
social infrastructure' for a very good standard of living that requires
dramatically less capital for building and maintenance than does the prevalent
American lifestyle; keep costs low enough so that people can realistically
thrive while working part time instead of full time; to create a relevant model
for improving standard of living in societies with far lower per capita incomes
than the US; organize community so that new and existing members feel their
financial investment is safe and that most of it can be realistically regained
should they decide to leave the community; establish community is on a strong
enough financial footing to be secure even if some members decide to leave;
minimize borrowing of money at interest.
Targets: Keep cost for house, land
and infrastructure to no more than $200.00 per month over 20 years ($50,000);
limit ongoing costs for community operating expenses to no more than $50.00 per
month.
Strategies: Decrease per unit costs by
group purchases of supplies, such as building material and staple foods; share
tools; share rides; encourage frugality.
Wastes
Guidelines: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,
Renew
Targets: Less than 12 pickup truck
loads per year to landfill
Strategies: Develop comprehensive
community recycling setup (including things like printer cartridges, batteries,
engine oil); bulk purchase of commodity in minimal packaging; minimize purchase
of products with toxic components; compost all organic materials; recycle
composted humanure to non-food plants (bamboo, ornamentals, bird food bushes,
etc).
Community Energy Target Notes
A
household target of 25 % of national total home energy consumption would be
c.25 million Btus
A
household target of 25 % of regional total home energy consumption would be c.
29.5 million Btus
A personal target of 25 % of national total home energy
consumption would be c. 10 million Btus
A household target of 25 % of national household electrical consumption would
be about 2,750 KWH
HEAT CAPACITIES OF VARIOUS FUEL AND BURNING EFFICIENCIES
Fuel
Heat Content
Burning Efficiency
Coal
13,000 BTU/LB.
60%
Natural Gas
1,000 BTU/Cu.Ft.
80%
LP Gas
92,000 BTU/Gallon
80%
Fuel Oil
38,000 BTU/Gallon
70%
Electricity
3,413 BTU/KWH
100% at house
(c. 30% from generator)
White Oak
25.7 million BTU/cord (4012 lb) ? 30- 60%
(18
million recoverable)
Average
household in a single-family home in this area uses between 97 – 118 million
Btus to run their house per year. This is equivalent to about 1282 gallons of
LP gas or 34,574 KWH of electricity or 4.6 – 6.5 cords (18,455- 26,130 lbs) of
white oak.
The
average US
household uses 101 million Btus
(apartment dwellers use less per household but more per person). Per person average home energy consumption is
39 million nationwide and 36 million for our region.
Our
house uses about 200 gallon LP to heat = 18,400,000 BTU
Plus
3660 KWH electricity = 12,491,580
Total
BTUs
30,891,580
This
is c. 26.3% of the average KY single-family house or 31% US household
average)
(c.
1.25 cords of white oak)
More
than half the electricity used in the home goes for appliances—lighting, TV,
clothes dryers, freezers, ranges and ovens, and others. Estimates for the
annual amount of electricity used for lighting (940 kilowatt hours (kWh)),
cooking (458 kWh), clothes drying (875 kWh), and dishwashing (299 kWh) per
household
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