Jan-Willem Jansens's Page

Profile Information

What does 'sustainability' mean to you?: Creating a connection to a place and a community and being rooted in that place and community in such a way that you understand how to live and maintain a livelihood that is resilient in the face of dramatic changes. This means that you know how to sustain yourself and the community to the largest extent possible with local resources of water, food, energy, shelter, and mutual support.

What do you do to try and live green and what would you like to learn more about?: We live in a moderately sized house, which we insulated to conserve energy, and from where we sometimes bike to work or stores; we grow part of our own food; we have solar hot water collectors; we dry our laundry in the sun; we don't have TV; we are mindful of our energy and water consumption and try to reduce it; we collect roof and household water for landscape irrigation; we both have "green" jobs in the recycling and land restoration industry. We encourage others to be mindful about consumption to participate in initiatives that are regreening the planet. I like to learn more about how we could tap into local energy initiatives and which initiatives are real and which are "green washes."

What concerns you most about the issues facing the environment, whether locally or globally?: The speed, the scale, and the difficulty to predict the nature and immensity of the changes that seem to be upon us.