To Sustainability & Beyond! - Earthship Brighton

The DEVS100 class visited Earthship Brighton on Friday, September 27^th. Having watched the documentary “Garbage Warrior” about Mike Reynold's journey of sustainable development using the Earthship model, seeing an actual Earthship in person was an enlightening experience. 

Earthship Brighton is run by a not-for-profit organization Low Carbon Trust; their main objective is to tackle “climate change through highlighting the connection between buildings, energy use and carbon emissions.” (Low Carbon Trust) In building the Earthship, they wanted to showcase what a low carbon, low waste future could look like. Some statistics of the construction of Earthship Brighton include 1000 used car tyres rammed together for building walls, 2 tonnes of cans and bottles used, and 90 reclaimed granite blocks used. (Low Carbon Trust). 

Sustainable development, in my opinion, is about creating eco-friendly lifestyles that are mutually beneficial for you and for the environment. It is about finding what areas and ideas you personally are most passionate about, and using that passion to find alternatives to environmentally destructive habits, such as combatting fast fashion by going to charity shops (thrift stores). Sustainable development is not about extreme living off the grid, eating berries in the wilderness and hunting deer and rabbits. It is not solely about nature, it is about people learning to genuinely care about improving conservation efforts, preventing further environmental havoc, developing lifestyles that work harmoniously with nature, not against it.