I recently visited Aprovecho, a 40-acre non-profit center about 15 miles south of where I live. They research green skills and sustainable living practices. They also tend a 1.5 acre garden; sustainably manage 23 acres of forest; and teach workshops in subjects like green building, permaculture, rainwater harvesting, and eating a 100-mile diet.
In addition, they develop something called Appropriate Technology (AT). On their website they define AT as devices that are “energy-efficient, nonpolluting, and renewable” that are made from “available materials, many of them recycled”.
Aprovecho was founded in 1979 by a group of back-to-the-land hippies interested in a specific type of AT: stove design. They wanted to develop affordable, fuel-efficient cooking stoves for use in the third world. And they developed something called the rocket stove, which is designed to use a small amount of wood, fully combust it, and keep smoke out of the house.
In the last thirty years, the Aprovecho staff has done over 100 stove projects in 60 different countries. Last year Prince Charles awarded them with the prestigious Ashden Award for one of their designs.
The group of people specializing in stove work recently moved off the Aprovecho campus and spun off into a separate non-profit. But they left behind an outdoor kitchen equipped with all different types of efficient cooking stoves. One of them is called a haybox. It’s a box that is so tightly insulated that you can bring rice and beans to a boil, stick the pot inside the box, and in several hours, the rice and beans will cook, with no extra energy expended.
After visiting Aprovecho and learning about their efficient cooking stoves, as well as their solar showers and composting toilets, I’ve been thinking that it would be fairly easy for more people to switch to at least somewhat more appropriate technologies, like:
- regular toothbrushes instead of electric toothbrushes.
- mixing spoons instead of electric mixers
- clotheslines instead of dryers
- bicycles instead of cars (at least for shorter trips)
I think I’ll stick with my flush toilet and electric range for now. But I’m a lot more mindful that the most high-tech tool is not always the best one for the job.
What types of Appropriate Technology do you use? In what ways do you try to conserve energy?
I think it is great that this group was able to make something to be used in 3rd World countries. I have to say though, I’m glad we have our nice stove and such. I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far. I’m glad though that our appliances are as energy efficient as you can get in this day and age.
well, most recently we switched to hand washing dishes but in the future we hope to use a composting toilet and other more “radical” AT’s.
Handwashing dishes
Hang drying our laundry
Thanks for posting your links, Renee.
Funny you should mention the toothbrush, because I’ve come to prefer my old manual one. Not sure why, but relieved to know that it is better for the environment. I hang dry almost all of my clothing and usually walk or ride my bike. However, cannot get myself to do the dishes by hand – I love that the dishwasher hides away the dirty dishes and the sink is always free.
Strange. I’ve come to prefer a regular toothbrush too. I actually prefer hand washing dishes too, in part because we’re a lot faster and more thorough than our dishwasher.
Love what they do!
We made a conscious choice a couple of years ago to switch to as much appropriate technology as we comfortably could at the time. My sweetie sold most of his power tools and replaced them with hand tools. I picked up some manual kitchen appliances such as a hand-cranked blender, old coffee grinder, and hand-cranked food mill. Since we get whole wheat berries from our CSA, we got a grain grinder and then converted it to pedal power using an old exercise bike. Eventually my hubby will convert my electric blender to pedal power, too.
I wash some laundry by hand instead of machine, although I use a low-electric use spin dryer to remove the final rinse water. The dryer is used very rarely in lieu of sun-drying clothes. We do cook with a gas range, microwave, and electric toaster and rice-cooker. But, we also cook with solar ovens, rocket stove, and retained heat cooking (in a basket with blankets instead of a haybox).
In the yard, we use hoes and rakes instead of weed-eaters and gas blowers. To sweep the porch, I use a broom instead of a blower or the hose. We both bike and walk quite a lot instead of driving. Using the phone instead of driving around looking for something is a good option, too.
Since water is precious here in the desert, we are careful to use it appropriately. Showering 1-2 times per week only, in order to wash hair, and taking sponge baths the other days saves water and the gas to heat it up. Flushing only when necessary helps (as does peeing in the heavily mulched tree wells occasionally.) Cloth wipes help keep the toilet from clogging.
Clothes are worn more than once, other than undies and socks. Water is used more than once if possible. Rinse water from doing the dishes goes on the landscaping plants. Water saved while waiting for it to heat up flushes the toilet. Hand-washing water is used for multiple loads and then poured on landscpaing.
Wow! Thanks for sharing. You guys are amazing. They also have a bicycle grain mill, blender, and water pump at Aprovecho.