 Hey everyone, I am at the Rob Greenfield Recycled Cabin and no, I did not name a cabin after myself I'm at the st. Michael sustainable community and the founder Justin Dolan is someone who's been inspired by my work for quite a few years now, maybe five years and three years ago, I visited him and afterwards he was more inspired and decided to build a tiny house a cabin after me and After designed after the way that I do my work and the way that I live my life So this tiny house is built out of 95 percent secondhand materials it's inside of an amazing food forest and it's designed to work with nature rather than against it with Using water wisely using energy wisely and using the resources around it in a more harmonious wise way So today I'm going to give you a tour of the tiny house come on with me So as I said, this was built out of about 95 percent secondhand materials and the most beautiful part to me is the wood This is all wood that was left over from a mill and was going to be thrown out according to Justin And it's just the simplest Sort of wood cabin tiny house It's a very very simple design almost everything here is also secondhand materials So there's a table to sit at you've got a couch and then the bed so, you know, that's kind of the living area and Again, you know the time the house itself has pretty few materials used to be to build it It's primarily wood and as far as Furniture items in here. It's about as simple as can be and all of it together is about 95 percent Secondhand materials. Oh also what size it is the inside is about 12 feet wide by about 18 feet long making it about 220 square feet, but it feels very spacious and that's because there's not a lot of stuff the way it's designed and Then so that makes it about 220 square feet and the balcony is another six feet Which is another 80 or so square feet so total including the balcony. It's about 300 square feet So pretty small, but it feels very spacious. You can see the breeze is coming through here as well So it's 90 degrees outside, but stays pretty cool inside Here's the kitchen So I want to talk a little bit about water This house does a few great things first of all well the water is well water So it's not it's not chlorinated. It's not there's enough fluoride in it. It's just pure well water Now in most places when you have water After it goes down the sink it goes to a wastewater treatment plant This water is gray water So it actually stays on site and waters plants that are that are food and waters food plants So a gray water setup very basic the shower is that as well, which actually I'll show you the bathroom now to stick to the water theme The bathroom is is quite simple You've got a shower again gray water So the water goes down the drain out onto the landscape and waters now the toilet This is what's called black water. So this goes to a septic and then those nutrients also stay on site They don't go to a wastewater treatment plant. You'll see the little garbage can upside down. I have sitting here I don't create garbage in here. So I don't need a can but I do need a squatty potty. So that's what this is This is a more natural way of sitting and helping with the flow Same with the sink gray water. So that is the bathroom The other thing is Electricity so this house is not off the grid It would be amazing if it was but the key here is that it uses very little electricity You'll see it's got a little electric stove. It has a refrigerator. There's some outlets to charge You know, there's there's a couple of lights. There's some outlets, but you'll see there's there's very few electronic items in here There's no Wi-Fi so it's disconnected in that way Which is really great to be here and be present without internet and be and just be where you are The good news though is that the electricity here isn't from fossil fuels. It's actually hydroelectric So I don't consider that a fully sustainable source of energy, but it's far better It would be considered alternative energy. So Yeah, that's that I'm going to take you out to the balcony now, which is a pretty beautiful little spot So it's funny I have a little bit of a hard time because there's not really that much to show here It's extremely simple, but what there is to show is the outside world And that is the food forest and the edible landscaping and that's one of the most exciting thing about these places this place An important other thing is waste, you know, we talked a little bit about water. We talked about energy Sustainable building another one is waste. So here I create almost no garbage that depends on who lives here though How they decide they want to live, but one of the most important things is composting so food scraps and and Paper and cardboard all of that stuff is composted not sent to a landfill to be actually kept on site to produce food So holding in the nutrients for this food forest There's beautiful mango freeze out trees out front. We've got bananas down here There's dozens of different fruit trees in the area just a couple days ago There was I counted 27 monkeys that I watched going from tree to tree So it's it's it's really great. It's a place where you know it's it's actually designed to work with nature rather than against it Justin and The the community here st. Michael's sustainable community They want to bring more and more animals on to this land and make it a natural refuge for them So I know what some of you up there in Canada and northern United States are thinking well Some of you are thinking you want to get down here, but a lot of you are thinking great Well, you can do this because it's a warm climate This is designed for the climate that it's in if you look at your area You will see underground houses. You will see earth ships. You will see straw bale houses You have to design for where you live There is a YouTube channel that I really recommend called exploring Alternatives if you want to see situations that are for that environment They cover a lot of different environments, but I want to talk a little bit about solutions So what are the solutions that you can learn here and how and what are the solutions that you can do at home? So I'm going to share eight different solutions that can be done in any climate around the world number one build with Second-hand materials like this place 95 percent second-hand repurposed items So building with second-hand items number two and that is furnishing with second-hand items things like the thrift store and habitat for humanity Places where you can buy things second-hand garage sales getting things from friends from their overflowing garages So second-hand materials. I'm going to talk a little bit about water now So number three is gray water whether you're in the city or the countryside If you're in a high-rise apartment, that's a little that's a different story But for a lot of people gray water can be done Very simply the sinks the showers and laundry is one of the easiest places to start just sending your laundry Using biodegradable soaps out to your landscaping now You can also just have a bucket in your shower so that that extra water You can use that to water the plants and you could feasibly carry that down from the upstairs apartment Down or use that for your balcony Of course just using water wisely Reducing the amount of excess water in the first place and then a number four rainwater harvesting This is something that millions and millions of us can do whether we're in the desert That's where it's the most needed where we're in a tropical climate Everywhere we are we can do rainwater harvesting number five is edible landscaping So not planting plants that really don't provide any benefit except beauty But instead planting plants that provide food and medicine and are also beautiful. So edible Landscaping food forestry front yard gardens windowsill balcony or windowsill gardens or balcony gardens Growing food instead of lawns. That's those are you know something that that that so many of us can do whether we're in apartments Or we're in you know residential areas big houses There's always ways to grow a little food and design our systems based on growing food rather than plants that are Not benefiting us in as nearly as many ways or the critters around us And now if you don't have space then joining a community garden is something that you can do or finding a friend Who has space and growing food there and sharing it with them number six is composting food scraps yard debris like leaves and sticks and all of that cardboard Paper all of these things can be composted to create fertility rather than sent to the landfill Number seven is reduce energy usage before you even start talking about alternative energy First look at how much energy you're using and get rid of all the extraneous ways that you don't really need so drastically reducing energy usage and then switching over to alternative energy now what in a lot of places what you can do is you Can actually join an energy co-op Where you actually have alternative energy through the grid that you're supporting Rather than the fossil fuel energy so it doesn't require any infrastructure You just change over your bill to a source of renewable energy and then lastly number eight And that is be happy with what you have simply need less when you need when you when you need something ask yourself Do I really need this or do I just want this so? Simplification and that is the solution to so much of this not needing things nearly as much in the first place Most of us watching this video. Well, most of us already have enough and we don't really need much more So those are eight tips. We're talking about solutions things that you can do whether you're in sunny Costa Rica or southern California or you're right now sitting in freezing cold Montreal Whatever you are. These are eight things that can be done. These are solutions So if you got a lot out of this video, then I definitely recommend subscribing because there is a lot more to come and If you want this video to spread and you want this information to spread then comment and like this because that gets this into the algorithm for YouTube to get it out there and also ask questions as well and Yeah, so of course share it with friends and family to people that you think can be inspired by this and will make a positive change So with that being said, it's great to be here. It's wonderful to spend a little time with you I hope you enjoyed the Greenfield Rob Greenfield recycled cabin and of course you can stay here You can you can rent this place too. I don't own this place. I don't manage it It's just named after me, but st. Michael sustainable community runs it and you can you can rent this along with other cool places So love you all very much and