Well, here we are at the beginning of the Not-So-Great Depression. After years of living beyond our means and having too much on our plates, now we will have just enough — if we’re lucky.

Whether the current economic “downturn” lasts five years or 20, it will radically alter our lifestyles. Our material culture will be significantly dematerialized.

Meanwhile, the global environmental crisis is building toward a crescendo. Like a gigantic version of the 1930s dustbowls, it is beginning to settle and choke the very basis of our lives and livelihood. Critical resources are rapidly disappearing, and environmental devastation is draining the global economy. The economic and ecological crises are deeply intertwined, and we are about to experience their combined impact.

How can we survive this unique global transition? What will our lives look like if and when we manage to develop a sustainable economy that balances resources and consumption? What steps can we take to achieve happiness and well being, knowing that most Americans will have fewer material possessions?

For me, these questions are personal, because I’m in the business of advising people on making their houses greener. What advice can I give when many people are concerned about simply holding onto their houses, and improving them is the last thing on their minds — when even those in a strong equity position see their homes losing value, and are unlikely to invest in a major improvement such as a passive solar greenhouse or photovoltaic system?

I can always recommend conservation measures, because they save money and the environment in one stroke. Many conservation measures such as installing faucet aerators to save water are downright cheap. Others, such as upgrading your home’s insulation, are reasonably affordable and pay for themselves in energy savings in a few years. I have and will continue to advise people on the technical aspects of resource conservation.

But our new situation calls for more than technical advice because major lifestyle changes are not just material; they also have spiritual dimensions. Turning the current crisis into an opportunity will require a spiritual revolution. And, like charity, spirituality begins at home.

Shelter, harmony and community are the three components of a healthy home life. Thinking of our homes as our shelters, rather than as investments or collateral for an endless series of home-equity loans, can keep us out of credit trouble while reinforcing our sense of domestic security.

Refocusing on sheltering — our home’s true function — will prompt us to invest our time and money in those things we can do on a limited budget, and often do for ourselves. Growing food, sustainable landscaping and good home maintenance, which save money and materials, come to mind.

Harmony means good relationships, starting within the family and extending to the connections between the home and its community and environment. If you’re planning some landscape work, have you involved your family? Consulted your neighbors? Are you using native plants and drip irrigation to harmonize your landscape with the wider environment?

Community reliance is scary to many Americans. We’re a self-reliant bunch, and for generations our security and reputation as individuals and families has rested on our financial positioning, not our community relationships. In fact, people who depend on their communities are often denigrated for not pulling their own weight.

Many Americans are surprised, then, to learn that during World War II, carpooling was the accepted way of getting to work, and that taking one’s own car was frowned upon because it wasted gas needed for the war effort. If you grow more food than you can use, you can donate the excess to a food bank — and even get a tax credit for doing so. Your community might have a tool-lending library that can save you a lot of expense. If not, you can help start one.

Opportunities abound to help each other and, by doing so, grow stronger and more fulfilled. Interdependence has an enormous potential to break down our isolation and replace our diminishing material wealth with something far more important and rewarding — relationships.

Ecology, it turns out, is the study of relationships. Fight depression by undertaking that study at your ecological house.

Philip S. (Skip) Wenz is a freelance writer specializing in ecological design issues. He founded and for 10 years directed the Ecological Design Program at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture.