Through my formal training in Marine Engineering (plant engineer at ocean going ships), I was exposed to Sustainable Energy and energy efficiency just by the nature of the job. (Ships recycle oil, make their own water from salt water etc. etc.) Through my involvement in the arts and my architectural study later in my career I became more and more involved and interested in Sustainable Energy in general.

Much can be done by any individual to make life more energy efficient. Doing so is not only better for the environment, but it's also simply less expensive. The key is using a combination of more efficient living, energy efficiency, and Passive Solar principles, in order to use less energy overall and thus spend less on energy.

Passive Solar has been used for thousands of years, but since the Industrial Revolution we just "filed away" that knowledge as "old-fashioned" since pushing a button and letting machinery do the work was much easier. However, just common sense and some simple physics can be used to create more efficient buildings by using the sun's energy without any additional mechanical equipment. We have cast aside the age old system of using the sun as our main source of energy and have gone overboard with mechanical, electrical, and energy consuming systems. It's time that we take a hard look at the age-old system that has been available to us for centuries, at least to help us create the energy we seem to need, and use our creativity rather than the easy-way-out, energy-wasting "push-button system".

Michiel VanderSommen