Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
EcoChi
Designing the Human Experience
by Debra Duneier
Published 2011
by New Voices Press
Hardback, 162 pages, 5.25 x 6.25 inches
ISBN 978-0-9748103-8-6
Price: USA $23.95
Canada $25.95
“Life is lived the way it is designed...”
That statement is a very true one indeed and this book will help the reader design a space that is both healthy and happy and environmentally sustainable.
The EcoChi System, devised and developed by the author, and written about in this step-by-step guide, is a marriage of a couple of disciplines. One of those is the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. Another is “Green and Sustainable Living” and yet another is “Environmental Psychology.”
All of those, combined with the fourth aspect, that of “Healthy Choices”, make up the EcoChi System; a system that might just give our lives and our world a new chance.
The choices that we make in our lives and in our environment, at home, the office, etc., reflect in the greater picture of the environment, natural and man-made, as a whole.
The right choices now may be able to bring things back into balance, in our own lives and that of our families, and communities as much as in the greater world around us and at a whole.
There is just one thing, or maybe two, that I have to mention in regards to “mistakes” made by the author in this book. Those “mistakes” are not typos or syntax errors simply and thus are very important.
One of those is when on page 138 of the book she states that plastic takes 500 years to decompose. While plastic degrades and that primarily through the influence of sunlight, it photo-degrades, it does not decompose, in any shape or form (with the exception of plant based “plastics”), and that not by a long shot.
The second one is about the use of wood in the construction of buildings. While her statement may be true in the USA as to virtually no building being constructed with the use of wood, in other countries things pan out somewhat a little different there.
Those are, however, the only criticisms as to the contents of the book and the context and I must say that there are so many parts were one can do no other than to agree.
Now I must just find a way to implement some of the aspects of the EcoChi System from the book in my home, office, and life.
The book is available from the EcoChi Website http://ecochi.com/ as either hardback or as e-book in a variety of formats, and from Amazon as a Kindle edition e-book http://www.amazon.com/EcoChi-Designing-Human-Experience-ebook/dp/B005NWRKOO.
© 2011
