User:Zowill3586/sandbox

Sustainable Habitat
A sustainable habitat is an ecosystem that produces food and shelter for people and other organisms, without resource depletion and in such a way that no external waste is produced. Thus the habitat can continue into the future tie without external infusions of resources. Such a sustainable habitat may evolve naturally or be produced under the influence of man.[citation needed] A sustainable habitat that is created and designed by human intelligence will mimic nature, if it is to be successful. Everything within it is connected to a complex array of organisms, physical resources, and functions. Organisms from many different biomes can be brought together to fulfill various ecological niches.[citation needed]. The term often refers to sustainable human habitats, which typically involves some form of green building or environmental planning. Now with a growing economy and enhanced industrialization, a sustainable habitat is creating a balance between economic and community advancement. This means that humans provide protection for the environment by implementing human habitats with basic needs including shelter, jobs, services, public infrastructure, and transportation.

Creating sustainable habitats
In creating sustainable habitats, environmental scientists, designers, engineers and architects must not consider any elements as a waste product to be disposed of somewhere off-site, but as a nutrient stream for another process to feed on.

=== How others are creating a sustainable habitat ===

==== Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) ==== These buildings are made to use the minimum amount of energy possible. When these buildings contain renewable sources they are able to produce the specific amount of energy required to function. In some cases they can produce more than the of energy they need and they will harness this energy.

==== Energy positive buildings ==== Currently, "buildings account for almost 40 percent of global carbon emissions." Energy-positive buildings produce more energy than the energy they demand, this is a demand for most countries that are focused on total carbon emissions. Hydro and the Zero Emission Resource Organisation (ZERO) is a specific company that has created energy-positive buildings in Norway. They have an interesting approach that includes embodied energy, which means that the total energy with every step of collecting materials and constructing the building. For example, timber or wood takes less energy to collect, cut, and construct into something than concrete. Whereas recycled material contains the lowest embodied energy. This company has engineered its buildings to self-ventilate, have maximum daylight, and more. This is one alternative to building sustainable habitats.

Concrete
Sustainable building materials can change the way we move forward as a society. A very common form of building material is concrete. However, this is not a sustainable resource for building materials because it can crack and degrade over time. An alternative to concrete is bacterial concrete (self-healing concrete), which is a substance that mixes Bacillus pseudofirmus, Bacillus cohnii, and concrete. This mixture can be a sustainable switch because it is a self-healing substance. Since concrete can crack from weathering, plates shifting, and the temperature it is important to consider using something that will last a long time and won't need several repairs. This bacteria concrete improves strength, reduces water absorption, and more. Depending on the bacteria used you can have different effects on the overall durability of the concrete. For example, in a place where chloride is used, you can add Sporosarcina pasteuria to increase the overall resistance to the chloride ion that can penetrate the concrete. Another example is water absorption, in this situation Bacillus sphaericus reduced water absorption. The different types of bacteria can assist in the sustainability of the overall structure and length of the substance. The cost of adding bacteria can be 2.3 to 3.9 times higher in cost than normal concrete.

Wood
Wood can be a great resource for building structures because of the longevity of the material. However, since wood is a natural resource specific protocols need to be followed for using this material in order to be a sustainable building. Wood is the most commonly used building material in the United States. Wood has a low carbon impact and a low embodied energy. This is the amount of energy that is required to harvest and create said building.

The process of environmental planning
Environmental planning can be numerous things including building structures, effeminacy, and useability. A lot of factors go into play for planning something that is sustainable, and environmentally friendly, while still implementing culture and aspects to improve society. One topic why environmental planning is so important is tourism. When people visit a new place they spend a lot of money, this money goes to the economy of the town with several tourists.

=== List of steps for planning. ===

This list can create a wonderful set of baseline monitoring. This is important for sustainable habitats because it is a framework to ensure that the environment will not be negatively impacted by human actions of creating specific things like parks, houses, community buildings, and more.
 * 1) Create a planning team
 * 2) Make a vision for future
 * 3) Figure out community wants and needs for the environment
 * 4) Find solutions
 * 5) Create a plan
 * 6) Proceed with plan
 * 7) Evaluate steps and fix any issues.