Fundamentals of Sustainable Living

Become a more thoughtful consumer, save money, and reduce your ecological footprint with this course that teaches you how integrate sustainable practices into your everyday life. By learning specific knowledge and techniques on how to work more efficiently with the energy, water, and food you consume, you can live a more balanced and sustainable lifestyle that also positively impacts the world around you.

Sustainable living practices can help you to:

• reduce your home’s energy consumption by 75 percent or more and enjoy the same or better service;
• heat your home without fossil fuels and produce enough clean energy to contribute back to the grid (or leave it altogether);
• reduce, and potentially eliminate, your water bill;
• grow your own pesticide-free fruits, vegetables, and herbs year round; and
• make effective cleaning products at home that are safer and cheaper than anything you can buy at the store.

And you can do these wherever you live, whether it’s on acres of land or in a small city apartment.

Fundamentals of Sustainable Living reveals how you can become an active participant in the worldwide sustainability revolution, in as simple or as ambitious a way as you wish. Across 12 practical and inspiring half-hour lectures, you’ll learn concrete strategies for making the shift toward providing for yourself and reducing your cost of living, without compromising the resources of future generations. Guiding you is Lawrence A. Gamble, an award-winning Assistant Professor of Sustainable Living and the Co-Director of the Sustainable Living Program at Maharishi University of Management. A pioneer of the discipline and living proof of sustainability’s real-world applications, Professor Gamble hasn’t had to pay an electric bill in more than two decades.

The significant financial rewards are only one benefit of cultivating a sustainable lifestyle, but it’s a perk that can be realized relatively quickly. As Professor Gamble says, “For about the price of a daily latte, you can put enough solar electric power on your roof to offset your electricity bill. And you don’t even have to give up the latte – the system will pay for itself in utility bill savings.”

Fundamentals of Sustainable Living brings this notion to life with demonstrations of how you can implement sustainable practices where you live. You’ll leave the studio for eye-opening field trips: see a thriving community orchard; watch the installation of a backyard drip irrigation system; walk through the professor’s own greenhouse; tour solar-friendly Fairfield, Iowa; and witness many other aspects of sustainability in action.

• Food: By cultivating fruit, vegetables, and herbs in your yard, a container, or a community garden, you can be confident that you’re eating the safest produce possible. Tips to get you started include step-by-step instructions for building a simple greenhouse that allows you to enjoy fresh produce through winter.
• Energy: Designing your home to collect and store solar energy pays dividends for your bottom line. Get strategies for using solar – even if you rent, have a shady yard, or can’t put panels on your home.
• Water: Investigate how you can minimize your dependence on the water company by collecting, storing, purifying, and using rainwater to meet your daily needs.
• Shelter: Travel to the Sustainable Living Center to learn how local rammed earth blocks timber, and earth plasters can be used to create sustainable materials for regenerative buildings.
• Heat: Visit the Living Soil Compost Lab to learn the recipe for good compost and how heat generated as a byproduct of the process can be used to heat water, buildings, and greenhouses, and even to create a “hot spring” in the snow.

About the Author

Professor Lonnie A. Gamble is a founding faculty member and Co-Director of the Sustainable Living program at Maharishi University of Management, where he has taught since 2003. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and has completed additional studies in renewable energy, cognitive science, and computer science at the University of Maine; Maharishi University of Management; and the University of California, San Diego.

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