Resilient Household Project

Join the Resilient Household Project!

A year ago, in January 2009, an ice storm knocked out electricity throughout most of Berea for several days, and much longer in some outlying areas. If your house lost power, how did you make out? Some households were cold and uncomfortable, poorly fed, routines disrupted, unable to do much after dark but huddle under extra blankets and anxiously wait for the electricity to come back on. Other households stayed warm, enjoyed good hot food, and continued their work and other activities with little disruption. Some households were more resilient than others.

Resilience is the ability of households and communities to adapt to disturbances while maintaining their basic functions.

The failure of the electrical grid in mid-winter was a disturbance for which many Berea households were not prepared. Yet this was a relatively modest stress compared with the likely long-term impacts of peak oil, climate change, depletion of global resources, contraction of the global economy, and upheavals in the U.S. financial system.

The typical Berea household is able to provide its residents with shelter, warmth (or coolth), lighting, food storage and preparation, washing and other services only with continuous inputs of large amounts of energy, food, water, and materials. Each inflow requires a corresponding outflow of money, and the household’s use of resources results in the production of large amounts of wastes, either locally or at some distant factory or power plant.

When one of the inflows is cut off quickly and completely – such as our electricity in January – the impact on most households is severe. The loss of a job and income, a breakdown of the municipal water system, or a truckers strike that leaves the shelves of the Wal-Mart grocery empty are other examples of acute stresses that could deprive the household of necessary inputs.

However, there is another set of stresses that may unfold during the course of years rather than days. Rising prices for energy and food, long-term droughts, and inflation of the U.S. dollar are some of the stresses that may more gradually reduce the availability of energy and materials to the Berea household. In all likelihood, what Berea faces is a combination of gradual increases in prices and declines in supply punctuated by breakdowns, crises and disruptions.

The resilient household will continue to function well despite the decreasing and erratic availability of energy, goods and services.

Preparations to make a household more resilient fall into two categories:

1. Changes that allow the household to function long-term on lower inputs and less cash outflow. Examples include insulating the house, installing low-flow water fixtures, and cutting back on purchases of nonessential consumer goods.

2. Emergency preparations to maintain functions during shorter periods of complete cut-offs of certain inputs. Examples include a two-weeks supply of water stored in jugs, a wood-burning stove and a pile of seasoned firewood, a well-stocked pantry, and keeping a week’s worth of cash on hand.

Last fall, Sustainable Berea developed a short list of suggestions for increasing your household’s resilience. The Resilient Household Project will expand this list and provide more in-depth information to assist Bereans in strengthening their households. We will be discussing water, waste, energy conservation, alternative energy, growing and storing food, emergency preparedness, health and transportation. Whether you live in an apartment or a single-family house with a yard, there will be recommendations to help you prepare.

Postings will be made to the Sustainable Berea website throughout January, and your comments and contributions are welcome. What steps have you taken to prepare your household that others might find useful? Do you know of good sources of materials or information? Do you have skills that you would like to share? We hope you will join the conversation, but more importantly, we hope you will move ahead with your preparations.

If you are eager to start, we’ve assembled an introductory list of books and other resources. Economic and environmental changes are accelerating, so it is critical that we move ahead. The time to begin is now when there are still ample resources and no immediate crisis. If Berea has another power outage this January, will your household be better prepared than you were last year?

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