What is a sustainable Home? Best answer gets 10 points!?

Question

What is a sustainable Home? Best answer gets 10 points!?

Answer 1

what i think they mean is,  a home that does not use external energy.

in the past, a home w/o electricity or gas would qualify.

today, i think it has to generate all the electricity it uses, and/or grow all the wood it burns.

Answer 2

A sustainable home is merely one that has the ability to support itselves in its every day to day use without outside assistance from the city.

This coult mean going totally green, which might be changing things over to solar panels and taking yourself completely off the cities electric grid.

It could include using earth technolgy to keep your home relatively constant temperature regarding cooling and heating through water and piping in the ground or by construction techniques.

It also includes the enemities around the house.

Perhaps its composting in the back yard to free your need of fertilizers.

Using southern facing windows to naturally heat the house.

Maybe even productin your own ethanol to run a heat pump or your car if you really got enthusiastic over the process.

But i've yet to see a home that is completely free of any external services. For one,....there's the waste system. Every home is generally dependant on the city sewage system. Even if you have a septic tank.

You can grow your own food in the back yard, you can be electrically independant, you can make your own fuel, compost , heating and cooling...but sewage there isn't much you can do about.