Ecological Aspects of Living

What is Ecology anyway? 

It can be described as the study of the relationship of the organism with their environment and with each other. It is an ecosystem composed of organisms, their communities, then the non-living aspects of their environment. The principles are used to design a system that is life enhancing. This is a system that can be applied to anything in our world, from an office space to an ant hill. There are four main living aspects to ecology, organism, population, community, ecosystem.  In Building Biology one of our main goals is to make sure the occupant is healthy so we look at how its environment and eco system is operating around it. Ecology is a very important part of Building Biology.

The traditional aspects of ecological living is to learn intuitive knowledge, have intelligent relations and then share the information about the natural world and the human experience.  The experience is the path of the Building Biology Specialist.  Our ultimate model is for perpetual ecological balance.  There is always a direct correlation between biological compatibility and any building materials and its ecological performance. Healthy for us and healthy for the environment.  One irony that does not escape me is that in Building Biology we use nature as the “Gold Standard”, however the first step is to make sure that there are no naturally occurring health hazards where we want to build!  This is because there are parts of nature that can be harmful to humans. 

Ecological living practices:

• Turn off technology and electricity often
• Create less waste
• Eat less meat
• Purchase local products
• Work in the garden
• Plant trees
• Conserve water usage
• Composting
• Use less harmful chemicals
• Volunteer in the community, perhaps an environmental group
• When asked, educate others respectfully