Taking a professional approach to housework can enhance the wellbeing of present and future generations. Using this approach to competently complete housework with an ecological awareness contributes to creating sustainable societies through the individuals it touches at home. The Sustainable Living e-book discusses these ideas in a compilation of presentations from the third Excellence in the Home Conference.

This e-book examines how anthropological aspects, the use of management skills, and, of course, architecture and design all contribute to transforming a house into a home. Its task is to explore the difference between a house and a home: by what extraordinary process does a building, a house, become a home?

The home, we believe, is the real schoolroom for life, with the family its teachers. It is in the home where we learn the personal values, attitudes, and behaviours that will stand us in good stead throughout our lives, picking them up by watching those around us. Schools can't teach such things too well. Families can and do, often unwittingly through example.

This book demonstrates a bold theme: that what goes on in the home is at least as important as, and probably more important than, what goes on in national parliaments or the United Nations council chamber. “Domestic Science” – cooking, shopping making beds, child rearing, and cleaning up – is something to be discussed as seriously, by qualified experts and high-profile international researchers, as global warming, terrorism, and the plight of Africa.