the most sustainable home is not what you think // busting the BIGGEST eco myth

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[JanneBU]

As an urban planner I found this video refreching, but also frustrating. Not because I don't agree with what is said, but becaus it is so hard to actualy get to see the changes. The reason beeing that for the last 40 years our cities has been developed individualy one progject a time. If you are a land owner or project developer you dont want to have half of your plot as a green park. There is no monney in it. So you would not plan for that. And if the goverment said it should be a park here, or green spaces the developers would hust ignore that plot until the goverment changes their mind. Slovly we har though seeing a shift with more regulated green spaces, buss and metro projegts, bikepaths but it is painfully slowly. I am looking forward to the day when the cities are built for humans and not cars, but that is unfortunatly a long way to go.

[anatempass]

I live in the countryside in the French Alps
1) I have public transportation until my work - mostly because is a public obligation to have transportation for students to go to school and the high-school is 20min from our village, near Grenoble, so we do have public transportation! And it's like this in all of the Isere region
2) we have a producteurs shop in the village with a lot of stuff and a big organic shop less than 10min by bus
3) for the recycling, we have two recycling points and the recycling centre is actually closer to my home then to the big town 😂

All this was important when I decided to go live in the countryside. I truly love working from home 3 times a week, that I can grow a big garden, that I have lots of trees (and fruits)... And I have saved lots more cats 😊
It's really less stressful, I have a need to travel less and enjoy my home and the countryside!

[katherineburtt]

Fully communal living isn’t for everyone. I’m neurodivergent and have ptsd, and I need a completely private space in order to feel comfortable and safe. I have lived in big share houses most of my adult life, and sometimes the thought of interacting with people keeps me from leaving my room to make food or do chores or it keeps me from coming home. (I hate the feeling of being perceived). I like the idea of an apartment building with a communal kitchen and hang out space, but I want those spaces to be something that you opt into when you’re feeling like it and not a hurdle between me and my bed or food when I’m having a bad day. Bring on the solarpunk cities of the future, but let me have a little home of my own.

[FranciscaPires]

i know it's selfish to want to move somewhere less sustainable, but i grew up listening to drunk people yelling at night and loud music and a busy city. honestly i'm just tired of living in a city. i want to not hear sirens all the time, i want to be able to sleep without neighbors yelling on the phone, i want to be able to open the windows at night in the summer without listening to horror movie osts and screams. i want to be able to go for a walk without feeling suffocated by the sheer amount of people on the streets. i'm so tired. i know it might be selfish of me but i just want a house with a small garden close enough to a city to not be ultra isolated. i just want some rest. i find the city beautiful but i can't stand it here anymore. i grew to hate living in the city i love.

[saaralliet]

As an architect I totaly agree with everything you said. When we bought our house 10 years ago (build in 1935) and introduced ourselves to our neighbours they were surprised that we said we wanted to live sustainable in the city. They also the idea you should live on the countryside for that. But as we live close to a trainstation we don't need to own a car. And we still have a small garden to grow some food!

[RiverHayes]

Thank you for this video! I was really surprised by what you shared. Ive always thought of really living sustainably as something I can't do until I have a higher income, but because of my low income, I have lived in rented apartments, I bike and take public transport everywhere, and I rely on secondhand goods. I'm learning to make my own clothes with secondhand fabric because I can't afford new clothes and I usually only have meat with dinners. This video was kind of a revelation for me. I've always felt bad for not doing more and told myself I'll do better once I finish school and get a nice job. I think instead I'll focus on what Im doing now and what else I can do to both save money and live sustainably.

[victoriajankowski]

Future tiny house homesteader here, we didn't really pick this, we literally can not afford to live in any city in the US! We scored super cheap undeveloped land with the onetime payment in 2020. We will be self building, literally, not paying contractors but with our own hands, and/or converting sheds. The local area has no building codes or rules about what you can build on your land. We can't afford rent anywhere, we are basically homeless until we build things. I would love to live in a city, but my disability won't even cover rent on a one bed apt much well utilities! Sometimes survival trumps sustainability, and that sucks! Yes a fireplace is more noxious (maybe, still have coal plants around here) but wood can be acquired for free.

[ChristopherDraws]

I flinched a little bit when you suggested we should all live in smaller apartments and use communal spaces more - but then I reminded myself you're speaking to a global audience, and probably that comment applies more to Americans. I'm in the UK and for a golden period between approx. 1940 and 1970 we had strong state building design guidance about minimum domestic space/size needs - buildings from this period tend to be sized so well (rooms are generous enough to be flexible, but small enough to heat efficiently, and layouts are really functional). I've lived in a 1930s flat that was designed for a middle class bachelor with a live-in servant - so it was actually cramped for 2 people to share, as the servant's spaces (kitchen and bedroom) were little more than large cupboards. And homes from the 1980s onwards often have really awkward layouts and inflexible spaces (because developers were maximising profit by reducing costs per square foot) meaning they "age" poorly in terms of how our domestic needs have changed over the past 40 years.
Our new government should bring in space standards again, but something that "turns off" people from living in apartments is a concern space will be cramped with no quick access to the outside. We live in an apartment block built in 1959, and it is one the best homes I've lived in (and I've lived in incredibly modern, "top of the market" apartments in London, as well as growing up in the countryside in a very small town in a fairly sizeable - for the UK - 120 year old terraced house).

[marie-evebreton]

From Montreal here, in a neighborhood that has been working for many years to create what we call "micro neighborhoods" where everything you need is very close, like a "15-minute city". It's awesome 👍

[athenapantazes]

Love this ! I won’t ever move back to the city again as my mental and physical health has been so much better . I think a huge thing is how terrible apartments are in the us . Overpriced, moldy, rude neighbors, no recycling ect. Since moving to a home out in the middle of nowhere I have been able to afford to survive, gotten more than 3 hours of sleep a night ect. The apartments also had terrible access to public transport and constantly towing our car. Also most us cities don’t let you buy apartments you are stuck renting with rent increases every year 😢

I’ve been able to compost, garden, (all secondhand and organic using home compost) plant a pollinator garden and so much more .

Alternately I know so many people who love city life and I’m glad it works for them . I hope there is a future for room for both!:) ❤

[Supercoolmary]

Thank you for this video! I’ve always been a city girl. Although, I grew up in a car centric city in the DR, I’m now living in a “walkable” city in the South of France. I always hear people around me talking about their dreams of moving to the countryside, but it has always given me anxiety. Being so isolated and car dependent is a big no no for me. I hope we can develop more sustainable cities in the future. 🌿

[assiuuskallio]

Depending on what we mean by sustainability, I would argue that no room for trees/green areas isn’t sustainable. Climate change adaptation is unfortunately a thing that needs to be considered, and trees make a significant difference to the heat in the area.

[yaneznayoui]

I live in NYC and hate it here, constantly being surrounded by people has made me realize how much I actually don't like people. The constant yelling, screaming, fighting, not to mention the high rate of poverty and all the joys that come along with that namely you know, crime. The constant blasting of music, all the drug addicts and drunkards strewn about, the vacuousness in constantly being pressured to consume and buy, and the very limited nature, all the while you live in a small box that consumes 50% of your income. Maybe this is "good for the environment" but it's no way to live. There's a reason people sought refuge in the suburbs. The dream for many is to get away from the city, just about every person I know is miserable and hates it here, and this is reflected in people's hostility, and the crime rate. Even if you got rid of cars like many city planners want to do, there's still the issue of crime, homelessness, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, lack of space, and poverty; illiteracy, being prone to violent outbursts, and capitalist hell. If being a better environmentalists means I have to want this than I'll gladly be forfeit my environmentalists card.

[feralnonbinaryautistic]

If we all head off to live in the countryside, it won't be long before there isn't any countryside.

[paganmoon]

Commercial agriculture may produce less carbon to grow, but transportation to large cities increases the footprint quite significantly. Most sustainable is to have large towns that can have land nearby that produces a large amount of it's needs.

I personally can't live in built up areas, I am an extremely light sleeper and suffer over sensory issues with noise. We live tiny, in the country sharing other people's land.

[ScottAtwood]

My wife and I have a backyard urban vegetable garden and have done so for 15 years, still using the very same EarthBox containers we started with. We only use a small amount of organic (manure) based fertilizer at the beginning of each season. The only pesticide we use is neem oil, on an as needed basis. We use a drip irrigation system to optimize our water usage. We grow primarily herbs like basil, rosemary, and mint, as well as tomatoes. I feel pretty good about the environmental impact of our gardening practices, and it is extremely satisfying to supplement our shopping with delicious fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden.

[carolineschlunke]

Thank you for this video! I don't live in the country side but I think this does not apply to a lot of places in Switzerland : you have public transports everywhere, you have to bring to the recycling center your own stuff (no one is coming to your door in most of the regions), we don't have big big companies that produce enormous amount of veggies ( you talked about this mentioning CO2 of a home garden) and we have restrictives laws on pesticides and so on

[belkyhernandez]

As a city person I am not surprised and am happy for the validation. To me, the countryside sustainability myth is more aspirational and about privilege than helping the environment.

Of course sharing space and resources is more sustainable. Also the infrastructure is more sustainable. Schools, hospitals etc can serve more people and those people drive shorter distances. The roads, sewer systems, water systems also serve more people.

When I would invite my friends from outside the city to an event such as a concert in the park, they would complain "But the traffic!". My response was, I don't have traffic. I'm already within walking distance. It's the people who aren't already within the hub who have to deal with the traffic and all that entails.

Unfortunately, I had to move to a suburb. I am trying to adjust.

[sbscbaxter]

Thank you for this! I live in a car-centric city that suffers from urban sprawl. I was aware of a lot of this from calculating my carbon footprint years ago and finding it was about 1/3 home utilities, 1/3 car travel (in a small car) and 1/3 everything else put together, including food and banking. Lately I've been getting taken in by the idea that growing one's own food is of the utmost importance. Thank you for the reality check that by moving to a central apartment I have in fact maneuvered my life into a pretty sustainable place already, and undoing that to grow my own veggies doesn't actually make sense. The home and the car use are HUGE impacts.

[IledeMontagne]

The ideal situation would be living in a walkable city, but I can't deal with having walls that are directly connected to my neighbors (anxiety triggered by loud and sudden noises). So I think we also need to take into consideration that some people can't live in very dense areas and make sure there is a robust bus (and train!) system in the more rural areas.