Alternative technology

Technology designed to be an alternative to “Western” industrial methods. It emphasizes the use of simple equipment made on the spot, environmental conservation, social responsibility, and individual or small-group efforts.Usually refers to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. The term was coined by Peter Harper, one of the founders of the Centre for Alternative Technology, North Wales (aka The Quarry), in Undercurrents (magazine) in the 1970s. Some "alternative technologies" have in the past or may in the future become widely adopted, after which they might no longer be considered "alternative," for example the use of wind turbines to produce electricity.