Before anyone wrote books about environmental issues, farmers began to realize that agricultural crops depleted the soil, unaware that crop rotation was the way to maintain the land.

The need for a sustainable development became more apparent as cities began to grow and resources began to diminish in quantity and value. In the early 1800s, some people began to develop personal lifestyles that were conservative and took into account environmental issues.

Considering environmental issues, sustainable living is simply a lifestyle that attempts to use renewable products and to take as little from the earth as is humanly possible. The concept of reducing our carbon footprint in the world is the more modern way of looking at sustainable living because the world realizes that humans have not used resources wisely.

The three factors in maintaining a sustainable development and lowering the carbon footprint that are most crucial are energy consumption, transportation, and diet.

In terms of housing, sustainable homes are built in such a way that they use few non renewable resources, do not require much energy to run, and cause little or no damage to the surrounding environment. A sustainable home should be constructed from materials that have been produced in an environmentally friendly manner. For example, a house might be built from straw bales, adobe, or reclaimed stone or brick. Many homeowners pursue sustainable living by making their homes as low energy as possible, either by making sure that they have very high energy efficiency or by producing their own power from the sun or wind.