San Francisco is widely known to be one of the most environmentally progressive cities in the world and does indeed present that way in many cases. You walk down just about any street in the city and you’ll see signs of its eco friendly qualifications. There’s the ‘three person ride share’ lane on the highways going into the business districts, the ‘trees for the city’ signs on trees planted in aid of the campaign, recycle bins everywhere you go (from the cinema to the library), ‘share the road’ signs to encourage communion of cyclists and motorists on the roads, service businesses such as car washes and drycleaners advertising their eco credentials, organic fair-trade café’s galore and certainly less petrol guzzling SUV’s on the road than anywhere else in the country. Yes, if there were any city in the world that could call themselves ‘green’ it’s this one. Or so I thought…

I read an article the other day in the San Francisco Chronicle about how the national standard for energy saving of buildings, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), is not performing as it should and that developers are using it to move projects through the system faster as well as charge higher rents. Though it rewards energy-efficient buildings that have features like low-flow water fixtures, bike storage, nontoxic paints and solar power, a new study has found that 25% of new buildings approved do not save as much energy as expected and most don’t monitor their energy use at all.

The good news is the national eco buildings standard LEED is improving with legislations being set in place to make owners of new buildings more accountable for their operations by requiring them to provide the first five years of utility bills in order to receive certification. But energy experts say there is a long way to go and the standards should be stricter. For a leading green city that has a history of setting the bar for radical and progressive ideas (think gay and women’s rights) one hopes the standards will be made tighter as soon as possible so that they will be embraced by other eco aspiring cities.

It's one of, if not THE, world's most valuable resources. We use it to make and create everything we use or do or consume – we’re made of it for goodness sake! But how often, as individuals, do we consider how much water we use each day.

10 gallons or 38 litres is what I used in 8 days in the desert. Most of this was for drinking, dishes, dinner and teeth brushing. I quiver to think of how much I wasted on long showers and washing dishes under a running tap back in London. Consider for a second the amount of water it takes for your local café to make you a hot mocha and sandwich – water you say? Think preparation (water used to make the bread, wash the lettuce and filter through the coffee machine) and cleaning.

Basically we use a lot of it – too much in fact. The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, recently stated “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.” Whether we see it directly (through turning on the tap) or indirectly (via the products and services we use daily) it’s time to lower our individual usage.

Here are a few tips to help you water down.

In the home:
•    Turn the tap off  to save 7 litres per minute
•    Install low-flow shower head (according to Water for Tomorrow showering accounts for 17% of a household’s indoor water use)
•    Replace your toilet with a dual-flush, low flow model to half your toilet water waste
•    Wash fruit and veg over a bowl in the sink and reuse to water plants in the garden
•    Clean dishes in a sink of soapy water and rinse afterwards rather than keeping the tap running
•    Fix leaking taps (60 drops per minute is equal to approximately 730 litres lost per month)

In the garden:
•    Spread organic mulch around plants and trees to help the soil retain moisture so that you don’t need to water so often
•    Install a computer based irrigation system which gets data from the web and combines it with information collected by ground sensors to provide precision watering for your garden.
•    Choose native plants that are the most drought-resistant – even in parts of the UK that get plenty of water you can eradicate the need to water the garden at all.

Every now and then we get the chance to experience living in the context of another's life… that is, a way or viewpoint that is unique from our own lives. Tasting the pearls and perils of another’s lifestyle help us either to be more grateful for what we have or give us ideas of how to better our lives.

Travelling to places far from what we know – culturally, geographically or otherwise is one of the best ways to do this (splashing out for a weekend at the Ritz or setting up bed beside a homeless man for the night is the closest we’d get to out-of-the-ordinary living in the city). Tonight, by divine luck or a set of linked ‘coincidences’ I find myself in a cushy little yurt in the middle of a Californian forest (near Boulder Creek, one hour south of San Francisco). I’m yurt-sitting, as the owner visits a friend afar this weekend. Just twenty four hours in this thing and I’m ready to unpack my bags for good.

This yurt has its own fresh water well which is used to supply the solar heated shower/hot tub, compost toilet, a closed in wood fire, a large couch, a double bed, a sectioned off bedroom, a dining table with four long backed rocking-chair-style (without the rock) wooden chairs, an oven, a sink, a fridge, tall bookcase, coffee grinder, and wood paneled floors.

It is as fully equipped in every sense as the conventional home with all its comforts, except for the T.V and flush toilet. There is only one circular room here with a fireplace and clear, adjustable sunroof. You have all the time in the world to collect firewood, listen to the crickets at night and blue birds at first light; all the time to read and bake or walk the surrounding ‘less beaten’ forest trails of the hilly landscape surrounding the yurt.

Living this way you can’t help but feel there’s nothing else you could possibly want or need – living in a yurt, a sense of abundance prevails. Nature has a way of helping you realize it. Who knows how long it may take until the temptations of the modern world and the call of far-away loved ones will compel me to leave the latticed walls of this place. Once the domain of the hippies and mountain hermits; yurt living need not be an uncomfortable lonely affair today. With many eco converts searching for a more sustainable way of living, the yurt is a perfect contender to create a home.

Ever wondered why our months are not of equal measure, even though the moon comes around every four weeks or twenty eight days?

Traveling though California; which few would disagree is the hippiest (as in peaced out, and earth lovin’) land on earth, I was bound to come across some new-age concepts (some questionable, others believable) to marvel over. One conversation with a Belgian traveler linked me up to a website which discusses the 13 Moon Calendar… it got me thinking about biodynamic farming.

Biodynamic farmers use planetary rhythms to plant and tend to their crops. Biodynamics is a science of life-forces, recognizing and utilizing the principles of nature. One aspect of nature that biodynamic farmers give great importance to is the movement and presence of the sun, moon, planets and stars and how these changing cosmic forces influence the growth and form of a plant. It’s obvious to see the impact of sun and moon on earth by the experience of different seasons throughout the year, and of course the simple change from day to night. Biodynamic farmers use the moon cycles, for example, to estimate the amount of ground water rising to the surface at Full Moon as well as when extra sap will leak from plants whilst pruning (which also happens around a full moon).

The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted calendar which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII (hence the calendar name) and started from 15 October 1582. It does not follow the cycle of the moon otherwise we’d have thirteen months in the year instead of the January to December we have now.

The Natural Calendar is a 13 month calendar. Every month is exactly the same, 28 days long. Interestingly in 1931 the International Chamber of Commerce actively supported the use of this calendar as have prominent people like Eastman Kodak and Mahatma Gandhi over the times. Other than making the organic farmers lives simpler it also makes accounting somewhat easier as it would mean that each date would fall on the same day of the week every year.

The Druids, Incans, Mayans, ancient Egyptians, Polynesians and Lakota peoples have all used a 28 day month, 13 moon cycle year calendars to work more in sync with nature. With the proliferation of environmental consciousness amongst the masses and steady increase of organic and biodynamic farming around the work would it be too radical to suggest we change to the Natural Calendar?

I recently stumbled upon an educational talk called Technomadic Lifestyle Workshop. Quite apt considering I’m undertaking a 7 month journey down the Americas, working and writing as I go I am - without realizing it until it was given a name in this workshop – technomad. What is it? Essentially it’s a person traveling or living on the road whilst continuing to work in the ‘real’ world (of business) and all it entails including the technological aspects (which are unavoidable and extremely handy).

The workshop started with a couple describing their journey, Chris and Cherie. Both happen to work in IT and actually met on the road (it so happens before they officially turned to the nomad life). Carrie was a freelancer and her work involved a lot of travel anyway so it was fairly easy to sell her house, adopt a campervan and still keep her clients happy. In fact she didn’t tell them she had ‘moved’ for 6 months – there was no need, she could still meet with them as she’d invoice travelling expenses as she always had.

As a technomad you can easily work full time, especially if you’re hooked up to the internet. The most comfortable and cheapest was to live is in your own campervan; though the initial outlay of buying the portable home will pay off when you’re parked up on a spectacular coastline, sipping iced tea whilst answering your emails.

WIFI and Cellular internet are fairly easy to hook up. Many of the technomads at the workshop also used a system called BGAN which you can use as a satphone (it provides satellite coverage worldwide, better than most traditional cellular networks). It’s a bit like skype, plus you can leave the line open to use instant messenger and communicate with your clients.

From an eco perspective Troy and Carrie say the best way to be a ‘green’ technomad is to build (or adjust) your own vehicle. For example you buy energy efficient appliances (i.e. a top opening fridge is more efficient than a side opening one) and you can install solar panels on your ‘moving home’ to create your own electricity. Some technomads vans run off vegetable oil.

A truly sustainable life is one that not only balances work and play but combines them. The cheaper sustainable life seems also to be paying just to travel – it’s far cheaper than keeping a home and traveling. Naturally, you tend to consume less as everything you buy you must ask ‘does this really matter to me’. As Chris says: ‘you’re not encouraged to collect anymore’ as you just don’t have the space.

If you’d like to learn more about the technomadic solar powered RV lifestyle visit Chris and Cherie’s website.