Vote for New Books, Articles & Designs

Living with Nature—Integrating culture, technology, and economics with nature. Eco Design Principles-download, Principles of natural economics, community, design examples. Audience: People interested in living ecologically.

Design for Community (book) —Inspiration and design for successful community based on experience in nearly a hundred communities.

Understanding Money —(book or section of book) —Principles of natural economics, how to save money, how to live better with less, real life examples. Part of  Living with Nature.

Resource use (download)— A packet of spreadsheets and information for assessing water and energy consumption in residences or businesses, evaluating options for saving resources and money. Audience: Home and business owners who are interested in saving resources and/or money, people who are interested in helping people conserve as a business.

Understanding Water (workshops, book) —Understand how and why water quality changes as it moves through natural and manmade water/ wastewater systems. Learn how to improve water quality. Builds onFecal coliform countsinformation. Audience: Anyone interested in water quality. Especially useful for those caretaking natural waters or a water system.

Wild water wisdom-article—How wild water systems work, how to find clean water to drink in the wilderness, where to poop, how to wash.

Water System Design (book) —Water system design principles for small and medium sized (1-40 connection) examples of water supply systems, including drawings, spreadsheets, photographs, water testing, etc. Audience: Anyone designing or maintaining a water system.

Rainwater harvesting (book)— A complete guide to harvesting rainwater and managing runoff for household and landscape needs, and groundwater recharge. Focus on simple, gravity systems. Audience: Anyone wanting to harvest rainwater (See image at right) .

Don't want to wait for Rainwater Harvesting? Check out Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (book by Brad Lancaster), by Brad Lancaster.

Radical Plumbing (book, or book chapter) —Reduce the impact of the materials used for plumbing your house by 90% by dispensing with traps and venting, using smaller diameter, more ecological pipe or none at all, no septic system, etc. Audience: People building their own radically simple home.

Eco-luxury bathing chamber—(design, book chapter)—An insulated bathing chamber design which allows one to get clean in comfort on a few liters of water, or have a half hour bath for two and a water fight on less water and energy than a ten minute low-flow shower. The design is flexible enough that it could look normal enough to build hundreds in a dorm (at colossal utilities savings) or be tweaked for maximum efficiency and bathing pleasure with some habit changes. Audience: Green builders, sustainable hedonists.

Wood burning bathtub (design, book chapter)—Drawings, photos, and explanation of how to make a wood burning bathtub, the quintessential sustainable hedonist appliance. Soak all night with two people on a couple armloads of wood, then do laundry in the same water. Turn brush and stumps into energy instead of landfill. Audience: Sustainable hedonists, back to the landers.

Wells for drinking (design)—Drawings, photos, and explanation of how to make a hand dug, sealed sanitary well for drinking water. Audience: Development workers, expatriates who want clean water in their third world homes.

Greywater greenhouse  (design, chapter in book) —Plans for building passive solar, passive gravity flow water treatment attached greenhouse. Consulting for this design is available now. Audience: Anyone who wants to build one.

—Information on greywater in Spanish. Focus on designs for Latin American context. Audience: Spanish speakers, people living in Latin America.

Toilet Alternatives (book)—A guide to simple alternatives to the flush toilet for homeowners, builders, and regulators, including composting toilets, green septic systems, watson wicks, constructed wetlands. Audience: Anyone interested in composting toilets (see cover image at right).

Septic system failure (download, chapter in book) —Inexpensive, simple techniques to avoid or repair it. Audience: Anyone with a septic system.

Green septic system (design, chapter in book) —Plans for designs which enables sustainable reuse of septic effluent for irrigation. The system also has higher capacity and longer life than a conventional system. This system is relatively easy to get a permit for. Consultingfor this design is available now. Audience: Anyone making a new septic system.

Watson Wicks (design, chapter in book)—A revolutionary combined shallow septic/ leachfield. This system stands all conventional wisdom about wastewater systems on it's head. As much art as science, Watson Wicks are as context sensitive as greywater systems; plants, soil life and rainwater harvesting are integral parts to the design, and no two installations can or should be alike. The system uses about a tenth of the money, resources, and excavation of a conventional system. The majority of the nutrients and water back into their cycles. Audience: Anyone interested in radical wastewater systems.

Constructed wetlands (design, chapter in book) —Plans for a single-family sized, toilet only wetland for a warm climate.

Earth, & orchard toilets (design, chapter in book) —Construction plans for a very simple, ecological composting toilet. Audience: People living rustically.

The way of the bicycle—Designs and tips for touring, commuting, and mountain biking. Interspersed with stories from ten years of making custom transport bikes for people without cars, three years of travel in twenty countries, and over two million vertical feet of mountain bike rides. Audience: Bicyclists (see cover image at right).

World's best bicycles and accessories (designs) —Designs for a line of unique, well-designed commuting, touring and mountain bikes and accessories

Green car packet (download, chapter in book) —Information on the true costs of cars and way of reducing them. (SeeWhat driving costs) Audience: Drivers, activists.

How to Camp (book); Water, Food, Shelter, Clothing, Excreta Management, Greywater Management, Energy, Transportation. Includes long term, lifestyle camping, ultralight, close to the earth camping, how to do it with kids (see cover image at right).

Hammock physics (book)—A book celebrating life in hammocks, while expounding on some of the interesting principles of physics which hammocks illustrate well. Includes good knots, how to sleep in a hammock, etc. Audience: Homeschoolers, sustainable hedonists.

Language learning system (download or book)—Art's system for learning languages. A focused learner who doesn't get embarrassed easily can learn to read, write, understand, and speak fluently in three months of total immersion. This system was refined over the course of studying seventeen languages. It will most likely focus on Spanish, German, Italian,, and Nahuatl, though it can be applied to learning any language. Audience: Anyone who wants to learn or teach a language.

Computer Age Guide to Pencil and Paper (book)—How people who don't use computers can apply ideas from digital information management principles to improve their mastery of writing by hand, and understanding of computers. How computer power users can benefit from integrating hand writing and drawing in their craft. Audience: People who write by hand or with computers and hand.