This story appeared as part of a profile of Thai energy activist, Chuenchom Sangarasri, who spent some time in the island with her husband Chris Greacon, where they lived in a ‘net zero energy’ house on the island.
Vasana Chinvarakorn reports:
“Due to family reasons, last year the mother of two moved to the United States to a small island a couple of hours from Seattle where her husband grew up and where his family has been living.
There she had a chance to experiment with simple living that included hard physical labour, gardening and using an outhouse.
From her descriptions, Lopez Island seems like an ideal place to live. There is a strong presence of people with a social activist background. For example, several worked to fight against war and nuclear weapons nationally, and moved to Lopez to create and be part of local solutions.
“Many people have made a conscious choice to reduce food and energy dependency and to live simply but elegantly. Instead of investing in stocks or securities to accumulate wealth, they choose to invest in each other and in the community as a form of security. People here take good care of each other. When one gets sick or hit by misfortune, the community will come together to help out.”
There are also several facilities and programmes that community members created to provide social safety nets as well as solutions towards sustainability. An example is the unique “take-it-or-leave-it” recycling/reuse centre where one person’s unwanted items become another person’s assets, free of charge. Chuenchom reckoned in the time she has been there, she has had no need to spend money on clothes at all.
“It’s a great system. It cuts down on [unnecessary] consumption, reduces waste and helps out families in need.”
Another example is the unique land trust/low-income cooperative housing on Lopez Island. The idea is to create and keep a stock of houses affordable to the low-income population by holding the lands – on which houses are built – permanently in trust, out of the speculative market. Only ownership of the houses can be transferred. Chuenchom and her husband joined the latest project, which built environmentally friendly straw-bale homes with passive solar designs, solar water heaters and solar power.
As a resident, Chuenchom had to put in “sweat” equity by participating in all stages of house construction from laying the foundation, mixing mud plasters, roofing, to fishing the kitchen cabinets. The houses have a goal of achieving “net zero energy” within three years.
“I really enjoyed the whole process, toiling with dignity, appreciating work normally reserved for construction workers while learning useful skills to be able to build and fix things myself.
“It’s been great to see interesting examples, witness aspiring personalities and be part of a strong community on Lopez and see what makes it so. It also makes me realise we don’t need that much in life and that we are after all only a guardian of things to pass on to the next generation.”