Hopefully by this point, your paradigms* are reshaping and you are ready to be a part of rebuilding a new system, not only for tiny houses, but for your own nested systems. Part Two will provide inspiration from tangible examples to help inspire your own journey with Tiny Nested Systems.
-Donella Meadows
I value close friendships. When I am at coffee with a friend I put my phone in my bag, not on the table and only look at it for emergencies.
As with tiny house dwellers and builders today, systems thinkers are the next wave of necessary ‘early adopters’ and ‘creative communities’.10, 17, 29 In order for an innovation (such as systems thinking*) to take hold in society, we need about 20% adoption, and early adopters play a crucial role in this transition.10 Thought leaders who effectively sit in multiple social groups and communities can also spread systems thinking quickly an effectively creating far-reaching ripples when they decide to make behavior shifts.10 In examining Community Based Social Marketing techniques, we see that ‘expressed social norms’ provide the foundation for diffusion any of innovation.10, 39 For evolutionary benefit we have adapted to be social creatures that mimic each other’s behaviors. Therefore, the more we model (and thrive in) a behavior, the more we make it a possible norm for others. However, it is worth noting that there will always be some resistance that is so
stubborn it is not work the effort.4, 10 The last group of people to adopt a new behavior are going to only change once everyone else has, so put your focus/ attention on those who are in the majority, not the ‘laggards’.4,10 The ‘laggards’ are not your allies, but there are many who can be.
The diagram below shows the approximate percentage of people in category in regards to diffusing innovations (such as sustainability ideals).4,10 As you can see it takes a bit of the ‘Early Majority’ in order to reach the 20% of adoption.4,10 After the Early Majority adopts the practice or innovation, the rest of the population tends to followed, with the ‘laggards’ trailing behind. 4,10
In this section, brainstorm: Where do you see 2 opportunities for your own home to create a better future, in light of your nested systems?
With the Tiny House Model as our theoretical foundation, we can now look Inside the Tiny House to find concrete examples of what it means to live tiny with a systems lens. Whereas, tiny as a goal created issues with conventional materials, social issues, and feeding over-consumption, living in your tiny system perspective can result in regenerative materials, positive social contributions, and circular consumption where waste is food for the system and people can ‘thrive in balance’.25, 41 There is a big opportunity in tiny. In the next pages, we will look at practical ways to incorporate systems thinking into the elements of a tiny house.
Some building examples come from the idea ‘Resilience* architecture’ through ‘systems biomimicry’ or looking at how nature solves problems of large systems to repair our own systems.41
One example of systems biomimicry is looking at a city as a ‘catchment’ for rain water. With the extreme drought that Australia experiences, Mel-
bourne shifted their paradigm* to view their whole city as a device for capturing rain water. From the addition of rain barrels to the replacement of solid paving to pervious paving, the city was able to mimic natural systems of holding fresh water sources and replenishing underground reservoirs.41
In Germany, solar panels on buildings have become common place.41 With a sift to a decentralized system of energy creating, the country begins to mimic plants in an ecosystem that all photosynthesize, rather than leave it up to one plant.41 The electrical grid does not disappear but becomes more resilient when spread out.41
Although they may not have known it as ‘systems thinking’* builders and designers have already begun to consider not simply the building, but also the context and interdependencies of society and planet with tiny houses. These examples do not perfectly solve the issues of the system, but they begin to build a different and better future. It is worth mentioning that building a better future does not mean buy all the right things. As you will see, it is often about consuming less (objects, energy, water, space, etc) and reusing (objects, water, space, etc).
As you read, consider what motivates these builders, designer, and dwellers and how their work builds on your own work in our ‘planetary household’.25 As you see shortcomings in the examples write them down and brainstorm ways to avoid similar issues in your own work.
Tiny furniture: How does the built environment support the health and needs of the tiny system of tiny house inhabitants? There are hundreds of ways to build any item in a tiny house to be convertible and save space. One example is a comfy and elegant L-shaped sofa that converts to a comfy bed and also contains space for storage, all fitting within a tiny house living room.
“You cannot buy a meaningful life.”
-MinimalLife33
Tiny Houses Built with Recycled Materials: How do the materials of a tiny house support a circular resource flow for the local and global community? This book is rewritten by a well-known tiny house dweller and writer in the Tiny House Movement: Ryan Mitchell. Mitchell enumerates the benefits of reusing when building tiny and showcases beautiful examples of tiny houses with reclaimed materials.22 This book helps folks across the country ‘self organize’ and build for a sustainable* future.20
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living, How does a tiny structure give back to the community in physical and educational capacities? Omega is an educational nonprofit that has built an education center that has meets the standards of LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge. 1, 31 The center features net zero energy usage and a water treatment system on site though large planter beds, called the Eco Machine 31
Notice that not one of the solutions we’ve explored depend on tiny as a goal and none of them require a specific size or new building. Go back and check. Yep, none. Certainly tiny make some technology, such as solar panels, less expensive but community solar and urging your power company to go renewable are more widely accessible routes to similar effect. Remember you are always nested within your community/society. The community that is equitable and educated will bring about sustainable* practices. The power ultimately lies with the community.
To more directly tap into community you want to organize and empower the community to create lasting change. Volunteering in your community and remembering that every day you are a citizen, not just on voting day, can help elevate your contributions to the system. When ability is lacking, sometimes simply positively amplifying positive systems changes can be a great way to help new norms take hold. If we don’t have the language for a new idea, we won’t be able to make it our new goal, so spread the word.20 At the end of day, the goal is not about building new, it’s about thriving, so you do not necessarily need a tiny house to live well and sustainably.
On the next page we will look at Inside the Tiny House to see more examples and how many pieces can work together to create a more resilient and mindful system.
Grey Water System
Sinks and bath go to the garden to avoid water treatment plants and save fresh water
Personal Items
Making space for what’s important and brings you joy15
Certified Wood
Less raw resources
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
PV Community Solar
Your roof, giving back to the grid with renewable energy
Garden
For local food and plant sequestering carbon
Rain Barrel
To capture water, saving tap water for drinking and cooking
Avoiding chemical water cleaning, energy use in water treatment, and creating a feed stock for promoting healthy soil
Used Furniture
Repurposing for a circular economy *
Inside the Tiny House we find a big opportunity to build a better future. We promote wellbeing for dwellers and nested communities with practical environmentally and socially just solutions.
Little Free Library
Sharing economy, creating a service for access rather than ownership16
Use
Weave their efforts into your own tiny nested systems.
a critical lens without discounting the contributions of other movements.
If tiny houses still seem to lack what you need to build your own goal, here are some similar movements that can help spark you systems thinking* .
Minimalism*
Tiny apartments & conversions of old houses into apartments
Voluntary simplicity*
Wellness architecture*42
Zero waste movement*
All these movements can suffer from the wrong goal if the nested systems are not considered, however, movements can build communities which can inspire diverse groups to the common goal of wellbeing* and the safe and just space in The Doughnut 20, 25
Here are a few ways where these movements can have the wrong goals, and a possibility to find the right goal.
Better goal: living with less waste to help shift paradigms* about how we can live without single use or plastic waste
Minimalism* and voluntary simplicity* wrong goal: living with less at home by throwing everything away just after purchase and use
Better goal: consume less to have time to give more and prioritize
Tiny apartments & converted houses wrong goal: make more money by fitting in more people.
Better goal: create beautiful and functional com-
munal spaces so that individual living spaces don’t need to be as large and community can be fostered.
It’s time your you to find your own path to helping build a better future. Below are some examples to get your brain working. In the next section, we will explore how to overcome any resistance you may feel to meeting your new goals. Let your goal be specific enough that you can check your own progress in a month or less.
Builders example: I will research the supply chain or lifecycle* of one material we use and see if there is a way to improve livelihoods of workers, recyclability/reusability, or lower the toxicity of this product either through working with the supplier or looking for alternate supply lines.
Designers: I will ask my clients about their values and brainstorm ways to incorporate their life goals into the physical design of the house to improve the longevity of the tiny house as their living situation.
Guests to the tiny conversation: I will consider why my purchases in the grocery store to see if there is an option for less waste, more fair practices, or more environmentally friendly practices for items I regularly buy. or I will examine one room in my house and see if lives up to me and my family or cohabitators’ goals and look for a way to help that room feed our body systems health, our community’s health, and the planet’s health.
How can you shape the path for yourself and others to a life seated in wellbeing?
That little doubting voice within yourself or your parent that for the first time in your life becomes unsupportive, or that first time you sit down to do the work, the moment when everything that can go wrong, does: that is ‘resistance’.23, 24 Whenever we are following our calling, doing our work or art, pursuing our purpose or however you’d prefer to say it, meaningful work triggers resistance.23 Resistance is normal. Keep your goal in mind and watch out for system traps, but don’t interpret resistance as failure or too brusquely dismiss your gut feeling as the ‘wrong goal’.20 Use resistance as a check for yourself or useful feedback, but don’t become and advocate for cynicism that only leads to a ‘drift to low performance’ or lowered expectations for what we can accomplish.6, 20 Start small, and exercise those doer muscles until you feel it is not enough, then add a bit more, acknowledging and celebrating every meaningful step you take.3
What are your goals? What do you truly want in life? Even if you feel you are clear on your goals, write them down. Do your actions feed your goals and values or are you ‘seeking the wrong goal’*? List what you do to achieve your goals. Then, list all the excuses you make to not go after your goals. How can you address them?
Allow yourself to feel powerful for a moment. What if you could quit the job you hate? What if you didn’t pay for the more expensive apartment? What if you didn’t have a TV streaming subscription? What if changing something that you think you couldn’t is all you need to actually achieve your goals? What if you did know a ‘way out’ of your ‘system trap’*?20 Often excuses are inherently bad, so it is easy to
make good things, like another sport for the kids into an excuse for not pursuing your real goal of a family that is close and spends a lot of time together. These are just a few concrete examples to get you thinking about your own life. Only you know what your excuses are.
It may frighten us--fear is a form of resistance. But, in order to build a better world, we have to ask ourselves how we will build it. Each of us have a role to play. You are enough to do the thing you know you need to do; you may just not know it yet.
You can work to remove barriers for yourself and increase incentives, this will help you lead by example and clear the way for others.13, 39 What we often interpret as laziness is simply fatigue, and what we see as unwillingness to change is a lack of knowing the how and why.13 To ‘shape the path’ for ourselves, we need to increase incentives and decrease barriers to the work or behavior we want to change.13,39 In order to be fully motivated and take action, we need to know why we should do something and also have an emotional prompt for change.13 Too often, we attempt to pressure ourselves into change, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain will power.13 Instead we need to motivate our passionate side and change our situation to create lasting change.13
For example, to start a new daily yoga routine, you could start by shifting your physical space and making a comfortable place to stretch out. Then you could make a plan to do your routine as you make your morning coffee, starting with just a just one sun-salutations until you feel the drive to add poses.3 Shaping your environment and creating a prompt from your existing routine will certainly help, but if your only motivation is to lose a few pounds because your doctor said you need to in order to improve your health, your will power will get fatigued by earlier mornings.3 However, if you connect your new yoga routine to your value of being a physically strong person and take notice of how that one sun salutation a day made picking up your groceries just a bit easier and reaching that top shelf a breeze, your core being will connect better to the behavior change and the new yoga routine will stick.
Similarly, if you want to change your tiny house business model or simply the way your family system interacts, you can’t rely solely on will power. Make sure you are clear about your goals and the systems you will be helping to improve, but then find your passion. How does this new effort connect to who you want to be as a person and what you value?39
With the desired behavior at the center of our thoughts, we still cannot ignore the behavior we are giving up: the stagnant or problematic behavior we are replacing.5, 39 Then, strategically we can look to increasing incentives and decreasing barriers that are within our control. We may not always be able to affect all aspects, but we only need to do enough to shift the behavior.
REDUCE INCENTIVES
A Tiny House built with sustainable systems design principles, through behavior change for the individual, feeds ripples into a thriving community which is a piece of the now more socially and fiscally equitable global population that plans for health and wellbeing* of planet Earth. You are already building
your Tiny House System. Now, reshape your goal, and you will co-create a future of wellbeing*
Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. Humbly ask, learn, and ‘do the work.’ 24
Agency: the ability to shape your own path
Circular Economy: a system of exchange in which few raw resources enter and most waste is reused
Composting Toilets: a safe way to let your poo return to the earth that does not require water (for flushing) or a hook up to the local sewer system. (They are great for off-grid or sustainable living in general.)
GNP: Gross National Product, a system of measuring the amount of product a country creates combined with their income by Simon Kuznets in 1937 who himself did not think it could be used as an indicator of a country’s wellbeing, as it is used today.25, 28
GPI: Genuine Progress Indicator, a measuring system meant to encompass a holistic view of an entity’s wellbeing, including social, economic, and environmental factors.
Integrated companies: companies that have adopted a holistic sustainable company structure, supply chain, and product lifecycle26
Leverage Points: “places in the system where a small change could lead to a large shift in behavior”20
Linear Economy: an system of making goods from virgin resources, using the goods, then throwing the goods ‘away’ into landfills (in other words, a one-way system)
Minimalism: a movement to pair down personal possessions to only what is used, needed, and/or greatly and regularly appreciated
Overshoot: the use of more resources than the planet can offer at once, causing climate disruption from pollution and depleted mitigation abilities from natural systems
Paradigm: an individual or societal worldview20
Planetary Boundaries: the scientifically estimated environmental thresholds (e.g. ozone concentration in the atmosphere, or carbon levels in the ocean) that humans must not exceed in order to avoid severe climate disruption25
Product Lifecycle: the entire sequence of events and materials in a product’s time existing, from the raw materials until the product is converted to waste or another product
Purpose Driven companies: companies that were founded on sustainability ideals26
Resilience: the ability to adapt in the face of an increasingly variable climate
Seeking the Wrong Goal: a systems trap in which a system is directed towards a means or an indicator that will not accomplish the desired effect(s)20
SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 goals set by the United Nations to provide a framework for moving quickly to a just and sustainable world40
Sustainability: the ability to create a just and thriving existence for all people for the foreseeable future and beyond
System Traps: pitfalls for systems that render them unjust or ineffective20
Systems Thinking: a framework for thinking of the world in systems in order to better influence it in a positive direction
VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds, toxic substances to humans that are often found off-gassing from common household items (such as paint or glues on furniture)
Voluntary Simplicity: the intentional pairing down of possessions and activities that prevent a person from living up to their values and being the person they’d like to be with the people they’d like to be with
Wealth Gap: the growing economic disparity between those who are very wealthy and those who regularly do not have enough money, opportunity, or resources to have all their physical and mental needs met
Wellbeing: (author’s personal definition) on the whole, having all your physical and mental needs met while having a sense of agency, freedom from oppression, and the ability to pursue a fulfilling life with those you care about (in short, having what makes life worth living)
Wellness Architecture: a built environment movement to improve the “[direct] impact [our surroundings have on] us psychologically, physically, energetically, emotionally, and spiritually”42
Zero Waste Movement: the social trend to minimize the landfill waste an individual, business, or other entity creates by avoiding disposable products (particularly plastics), reusing as much as possible, and recycling or composting as much waste as possible
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