ECO-TECHNOLOGY: What is it?
Eco-technology is very similar to the word pairs; "sustainable technology" or "appropriate technology". We chose to use "eco-technology" because the other word pairs have too many watered down definitions which have popped up over the past 30 years.
In summary, Eco-technology is any technology or tool which provides for the needs of people
from the resources of nature without harming it. Key characteristics of eco-technology include
human scale, locally sourced, affordable, non-polluting, and directly manageable at a local level.
One of the most important resources for modern eco-technology is the new discipline of Permaculture. It is a land use system which integrates design and ecology. It incorporates micro climate, annual and perennial plants , animals, soils, water management and human needs into a productive community.
Here are two more definitions which are important in any dialogue about ecovillages or sustainability:
Sustainable design:
The use of design principles and strategies which help reduce the ecological impact of buildings by reducing the consumption of energy and resources, and by minimizing disturbances to existing vegetation.
Ecological footprint:
Towns and cities rely on a hinterland much larger than their own area to provide the resources that support the levels of consumption they promote. This concept has been described as the developments 'ecological footprint' (Wackernagel 1993), which for a given community is the 'amount of land needed to biologically produce the resources they consume and to assimilate their waste indefinitely'.
It should be noted here that the world is currently consuming resources at 4X the rate that nature can replace or clean the resources. In other words mankind is using the resources of 4 planets to supply the current world global economy.