The Great Course Plus – Fundamentals of Sustainable Living 2022-4

Updated August 10, 2026 5.1 GB

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Description

Fundamentals of Sustainable Living. This course teaches the fundamentals of incorporating sustainable practices into everyday life with the goal of reducing your environmental footprint, saving money, and becoming a more informed consumer. By providing practical knowledge and techniques to optimize your energy, water, and food consumption, this course helps individuals achieve a more balanced and sustainable lifestyle that has a positive impact on the world around them. Practical benefits of this course include reducing your home’s energy use by 75% or more, heating without fossil fuels, generating clean energy, eliminating or significantly reducing your water bill, growing pesticide-free food and medicine year-round, and making safe and affordable cleaning products at home. These actions can be implemented in any type of setting, from a large estate to a small city apartment. Over the course of twelve half-hour lectures, led by Professor Lawrence Gamble, a leading expert on sustainable living who has not paid an electric bill for more than two decades, the course provides concrete strategies for meeting needs and reducing living costs without compromising the resources of future generations. Sustainability means doing more with fewer resources and working with natural systems without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The course covers topics such as food production, solar energy, rainwater management, sustainable shelter construction, and compost heat, demonstrating practical applications of these concepts through visits to community gardens, drip irrigation systems, personal greenhouses, and sun-friendly cities. This training goes beyond a practical guide and, by taking a holistic look at the interdisciplinary science of sustainability – including engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, agriculture, and economics – and emphasizing systems thinking, gives individuals the insight they need to understand the future and participate in its construction, helping to preserve resources for themselves, society, and future generations.

What you will learn

Becoming an informed consumer:
Learning specific knowledge and techniques for greater efficiency in energy, water, and food consumption.
Becoming a more thoughtful consumer and reducing your environmental footprint.
Reducing costs and meeting your needs:
Learning concrete strategies to reduce the cost of living and move towards meeting your needs.
Gain skills to reduce your electricity bill and possibly eliminate your water bill.
Learn how to heat your home without fossil fuels.
Practical ways to be sustainable at home:
Learn how to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs without pesticides all year round.
Discover how to make effective, safer, and cheaper cleaning products at home.
House design to collect and store solar energy and use rainwater.
Learn how to use compost to generate heat.
Comprehensive understanding of sustainability:
Understanding the big picture of sustainability and the interrelationship between human and natural systems.
Learn how to implement sustainable practices in your living environment, through practical examples and field trips.

This course is suitable for people who:

People looking to reduce their environmental footprint and save on living costs through sustainable practices.
Consumers who want to be more efficient in their energy, water, and food consumption by learning practical knowledge and techniques.
Every person who wants to actively participate in the global sustainability revolution, regardless of whether they live in a large estate or a small city apartment.
People who are looking to learn concrete strategies to meet their needs and reduce the cost of living without jeopardizing the resources of future generations.