Life On The Farm A Sustainable Community - 1358 Words

One key part of life on the Farm is the quest to be a sustainable community. Many of the Agreements touch on this commitment, including â€Å"We believe the Earth is Sacred.† The members of the Farm see themselves as â€Å"stewards† of the land they live on and the Earth as a whole. They have undertaken many projects to make the Farm have as little impact on the Earth as possible. Additionally, there is a commitment to vegetarianism and sustainable food consumption habits. These programs allow them additional opportunities to interact with the community around them and make themselves a model for living a cleaner, greener lifestyle. Balancing the needs of a growing community with the desire for modern comforts has led to the construction of†¦show more content†¦This includes a Deltec, a house which comes in a kit. Solar energy is used to power their manufacturing, and then the kit is assembled on site. This house is an eight-sided round home; its shape exposes less outside surface area and makes the most of interior space. This makes it efficient for heating and cooling. It is insulated with soy based spray foam and its windows are strategically placed to allow the right amount of natural light in. Minimizing heating and cooling energy loss is important to the members of the Farm. They have used several different strategies to keep this energy use down, including constructing one building into a hill to use the surrounding earth to regulate temperature and constructing several new buildings with Insulated Concrete Forms. These Forms are placed for the walls of a home and then filled with concrete. I n addition to being tornado proof, these walls are incredibly efficient to heat and cool. One final building material the Farm uses is white roofs. These roofs reflect the sun in hot Tennessee summers and keep the interior of the home cooler than dark roofs which absorb that light. The Farm also has solar panel systems providing energy to private businesses established on the land. Tennessee only offers incentives to build solar panels to businesses, which mean that most members and the Farm Community cannot afford to