Where to put your power points?

Having moved in our new home not too long ago and this coinciding with my increased passion for energy efficiency and sustainable home design, many "home renovation" ideas have been added to our family's "to do list".  One of our key considerations, is how we function with existing infrastructure in our house (one of the key "environmental" principle - reuse), or alternatively what we would need to do to the house to make our life easier or improved without creating a significant cost to the environment.

One of the things that should be considered, but may not seem so obvious to most people and surely should be towards the top of the list, is the location or placement of the humble power point or power outlet. Why, you might ask?

(Source: South Australian Government)

In the modern household, power points are typically low down, in the corners of rooms throughout the household or just generally tucked away. However, if you re-locate these to locations that are higher on the walls or just surrounding the "edges" of your furniture, you will be encouraged to turn off your appliances at the wall. Through this simple re-location, you have the potential to create significant environmental and energy savings in your home (particularly, if you live in a typical modern, western household).

The mere action of moving power points to more accessible and more prominent locations means you are more likely to turn them off (at the wall) when your appliance isn't in use and if you're really diligent even remove the appliance's plug from the power point. Why do you need to remove the appliance's plug from the wall as well? There is actually a small amount of current used by many modern appliances even when they are turned off at the wall but remain plugged in, quite often to run memory requirements or maintain batteries, etc. Therefore, the simple act of removing the plug to the appliance from the wall removes this energy requirement and save you money.  

All in all, the action of turning off appliances at the wall means you save electricity, money and  reduce the amount of greenhouse gases and "obviously" save the planet in the process. And all this is more likely to happen if you can see your power points and reach them.  





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What will your container do in its second life?

It is time to re-think containers! Most of the products we buy from the supermarket come in some sort of container and many of us just throw them out or put them in our recycle bin to be turned into another product. Well, now it is time to think what you can do with these containers around the home.

In our house I religiously wash and save jars. I have a nice stash in the top of the cupboard and utilise these for all sorts of things around the house, but mostly for holding basil pesto that I make from basil I grow in my garden. Another container that has many uses in my household is a strong plastic type container that we get yoghurt in. My partner is particularly good at utilising these!

(Source: Georges Yoghurt)

We store many of our bulk food items in these containers, including sugars, biscuits, cereals, bird seed and much more. And these types of containers are sturdy enough to last a long time and have great lids that seal well so little black ants aren't attracted to their contents. 

What is great about re-using these containers at home, is that there is no additional transportation costs and no more electricity or water used to make these products into something new and none of these costs (financial and environmental) associated with buying a new container to store the products that I am currently using these "second hand" containers for.

Other uses for these containers might include:

• storing elastic bands, sewing cotton;
• storing kids' pencils, felt tip pens, crayons;
• storing all types of food products;
• storing or freezing leftovers and excess garden produce.

Why don't you leave a comment and tell us all what you use your left-over containers for.


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Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand

I have started to read Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand by Haydn Washington and John Cook (2011). So far, I am truly enjoying this book, but I wanted to share a part of the forward to this book by Naomi Oreskes.

"Most of us are aware that scientists say climate change is under way, but even if we accept it as true we act as if it had no implications. We deny, what it means, and continue business as usual. 

....will that is needed.....not the will to keep calm and carry on in the face of tragedy. It is the will to change the way we live in order to avoid an even greater tragedy; a tragedy that will affect not just Queensland, or even all of Australia, but the whole world, including the plants and animals with whom we share this rock upon which we live. 

It is about the way of life that does not reckon the true cost of living, an economics that does not take into account environmental damage and loss.

Climate change is the ultimate accounting; it is the bill for a century of unprecedented prosperity, generated by the energy stored in fossil files. By and large, this prosperity has been a goof thing. More people live longer and healthier lives than before the industrial revolution. The problem, however, is that those people did not pay for the full cost of that prosperity. And the remainder of the bill has now come due. 

What we need now is the will: the will to face the facts, the will to accept their implications and the will to do something about it."

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Internet carbon footprint

(Source: Pareto Logic)

Just came across an article on the ABC website about a new technology that could potentially improve the carbon footprint of the Internet. The article is located at: http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/04/02/3469291.htm.

I thought the most interesting part of the article was the section that explained that currently the Internet has a carbon footprint equivalent to the global airline industry, but that the Internet is in fact growing at a faster rate. My understanding is the majority of this impact comes from the electricity used within the buildings that support the data centres. Pin It

Have you outsourced your environmental impact?

I was daydreaming the other day about my future vegetable patch. Carrying on from this lovely moment, I continued to ponder but this time specifically about the irrigation system that is going to have to support this dream. Then my thoughts strayed to considering how significant a burden a vegetable garden can be on your domestic water bill, your rain water or your dams, depending on your situation. No matter which one of these water sources you have you become keenly aware of how much water it takes to get your vegetables going and producing adequately.

In line with this, when you create a vegetable patch, no matter what style or type, there are a significant number of imposts on your household budget, particularly during the establishment phase, but these do carry on through to the maintenance phase. Anyway, long story, not so short, it made me think! At least I am keenly aware of this 'economic and environmental' impact to produce the lovely vegetables and fruit that I receive. All resulting from hardwork, effort, investment and natural resources.

But how many products and systems does the average householder have that removes them from the direct production process or means that they do not understand how much and many resources (water, soil, nutrient, electricity, timber, minerals, waste, etc, etc) it takes to produce the items in their household? The answer, I'm afraid, is soooooo many! Basically, our households, systems and businesses have allowed us to outsource our environmental impacts and become removed from this production process. This in turn, creates a false sense of one's personal environmental impact. No wonder we have a society which does not value the environment or think the planet is in dire straits.

 (Source: http://pervasiveshopping.wordpress.com/)

Many people in our society do not believe that the environment has an intrinsic value and should just be preserved/conserved. Moreover, many of these people are completely devoid of understanding and experiencing natural resources. How can we therefore expect them to care for the planet?

Obviously education is a key component of rectifying this situation! With my thoughts being an important focus on arousing a re-connection to nature and particularly natural resources. Maybe with such information people might start to care about the world and potentially change their lifestyles to recognise the finite nature of many of earth's provisions.


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Speed Dating a Sustainable Designer

How cool is this concept? The Alternative Technology Association is hosting a series of dating events (advice service) with sustainable architects and designers in various cities around Australia. The event is called "Speed Dating a Sustainable Designer".

The idea is you get 10 minutes with a sustainable designer or architect (or maybe you're extra special and get several dates) to chat about renovations, building ideas relating to your personal sustainable building project. One of the most important things to remember to bring along as many plans, photos, props, etc to help you get the most out of your 10 minutes and to communicate your ideas and aspirations.

There are still upcoming events in Sydney and Brisbane, with Melbourne holding one of these earlier this year. Have a look at the ATA's website for further information about these fabulous events and register your interest.

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Have you calculated your environmental footprint?

A simplistic way to determine the environmental "footprint" of your lifestyle and decisions is to use a 'footprint calculator'. WWF has a good one that provides you an indication of the number of planets we would need if everyone made the same decisions you have made, in regards to transportation, food choices, waste generated, energy usage, air travel and size of your house.

Have a go!

WWF footprint calculator

See what impact your lifestyle is having and maybe provide you with some inspirations for ways to change and you reduce your impact. 



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Seasonal produce guide

Via the 1Million Women campaign blog I have discovered a "seasonal produce guide" that lets you know which fruit and vegetables are in season and therefore the ones you should buy. Food that is in season will have shorter food miles, be fresher, be better for you and will generally be more enjoyable to eat.

I have been wanting a pocket size seasonal produce guides for ages and have started dabbling in creating my own, going so far in some instances at looking at when you should plant various crops and calculate their availability based on time till harvest. But, yippppeee, there is no need to reinvent the wheel and I have now printed out the Sustainable Table's version.

The one downside to this guide is that it has been produced (by the look of things) by people based in southern Australia. There is therefore some seasonal variation between the northern parts of Australia and the fruits and vegetables available in the fields in southern Australia, but at least it does provide a guide. It will provide you with some reference to what you should be able to buy and perhaps over time you can amend it to better suit your region. 

Give it a go and let me know what you think. Pin It

Transition Film Festival

11-19th February 2012 in Melbourne will see the Transition Film Festival hit our shores. As their website advertises:

"What is the future of clean energy? How can we redesign our economic system? What is the design science of sustainable architecture? How do we consciously evolve to solve our planets multiple crisis? See the change you want to be in the world @ Transition Film Festival."

This event is also part of the larger Sustainable Living Festival (also being held in Melbourne, Australia). For those in Melbourne probably worth going along to to see what you can do and what other people around the world are achieving!  

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How much energy does your household use?

Would you like to know exactly how much energy you use in your home?

CSIRO is conducting a study examining 500 homes across Australia (Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne) to look at how much energy households are using for cooling and heating. The researchers are presently looking for households that would like to one of the 500 households.

One of the conditions of entry is that your house has to be less than ten years old, which removes my household from participating, as well as many of the people I know, but if you meet the criteria you can sign up and reap some of the benefits.

Have a look at their website: http://www.csiro.au/house to see if you are eligible to take part.

Benefits that CSIRO states households will receive from participating include:

• learning how to reduce your energy bills;
• a report on your home's heating and cooling energy performance;
• a set of infrared photographs that show if you are losing heating and cooling and where it is going 
• $100 cash for looking after and returning a pair of thermometers; and
• some homes may be eligible for installation of an energy monitor, valued at $1500, to provide online access showing where your electricity is being used.

I think this would be so cool, particularly the photos of your house showing the heat/cool leaks!

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I want your old toothbrushes!

For a while now I have known about cleaning bathrooms with baking soda and water, which you just combined into a thick paste and used on walls, grout, etc. I haven't actually ever used it, but thought I would give it a try on my bathroom the other day, which was looking a little grey for all the mould in the grout.

I have some "special" cleaning paste (suppose to be natural) and microfibre cloths which I normally use, but thought it looked a little too much like hard work. So, I had an old toothbrush and I thought I would give the baking soda paste a try.

Wow, how fabulous is it to clean grout and bathrooms generally with a toothbrush. The baking soda paste didn't completely eliminate the grim, but certainly improved the darkness and I am so impressed with the ease of toothbrush cleaning I didn't mind giving it another go this weekend just past. And managed to experience another "enjoyable" cleaning moment.

My only problem is old toothbrush don't last with the amount of pressure applied and I really need a large amount of them to continue to get into my grout gaps effectively. So, if you've got some spare and you don't cotton on to this less laborious cleaning practice, send me your old toothbrushes! Pin It

South East Queensland Food Network

There is a new push in south-east Queensland to promote local opportunities to producers and connect them to their local markets. The Queensland Business Review published an article this week entitled: Farmers Take Control of Local Supply Chain, which can be found at http://www.qbr.com.au/news/articleid/77703.aspx.

From my review of this article it looks as though producers, tourism organisations and local Councils have established the South East Queensland Food Network as an attempt to promote local produce to people visiting areas and to develop alternate supply chains.

I'm not sure what the outcome will be, but it sparked my interest as there certainly will be opportunities to find out more about your local producers (including who they are and what they produce) and potentially establish direct links to them or alternatively promote their use through your local supermarkets.

It is always great to find out more information about food that is available in your local area and where you can purchase it from.


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Aaaah...the good ol' days!

A friend of mine sent me a message today about the good ol' days and their associated environmental impact. Not sure who wrote it, but thought it was a very interesting take on the environmental impact recent generations have had for things that the current generation probably take for granted and without consideration for their environmental footprint/impact.

So, here it is:

"Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own carrier bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." She was right about one thing -- our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day.


So what did we have back then…? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day here's what I remembered we did have.... Back then, we returned milk bottles, fizzy pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilised and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day. 

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator or lift in every store and office building. We walked to the supermarket and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two minutes up the road. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of England. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used screwed up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right. We didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?"

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Summer heat

It seems that the traditional summer heat and humidity of south-east Queensland has finally set in for the summer. The timing is about right, with January through to February being the hottest and most humid months here.

Today it is looking to reach 34 degrees (celsius) in Brisbane, Queensland, 31 degrees tomorrow and 34 again on Wednesday. The shade is hot, the sun is hot and the humidity is pervasive!

I have cracked and just in the last half hour have turned on the air-conditioner. We have a wall-mounted unit in our lounge-room and with a generally open plan living space this means that energy and cool air can be easily wasted. But things I have done as many things as I can in an attempt to get the best efficiency out of the air-conditioning unit, bang for my buck and the coolest temperature I can get without making the temperature out of the unit cooler than it is has to be. The measures I have taken are:

• close all the doors to other rooms, where possible
• close all windows and doors to the outside world
• turn on the fan to circulate the cool air down quickly (not sure how effective this one is)
• set the air-conditioner to 24 degrees (celsius); and
• I will be turning the air-conditioner off in about 15 mins when I leave the house.

Hopefully with these measures I won't waste money cooling rooms and spaces that I am not occupying, I am not allowing warm/hot air coming in from the outside which then requires cooling and I will experience some relief from the hot temperatures outside.

This midday measure hopefully won't be required later this afternoon when we return home. At this point I will be opening as many windows and doors on the non-westerly side of the house as possible, turning on the fan in the living areas, and I might even pull down the shades on the verandah which is on the western side of the house (I will actually do this before we leave in an attempt to prevent additional heat entering the house before the sun starts to shine directly through these windows as its sets).

Bring on the ice-blocks, cold drinks and salads for dinner!

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Where does it come from?

As a result of my rising interest to know where my food comes from and to buy local, potentially organic and good quality, I have started to pay attention to the origin of the products I am buying. This has certainly been eye-opening to say the least.

Here are a few of the things that I have noticed over recent months.

• All tinned tuna (all brands) in my local independent grocer store come from Thailand and many don't tell you what type of tuna it is (that is, is it threatened blue fin or a bit better yellow fin)
• All but one brand of frozen vegetables (mixed variety) in my local store come from China and the one that doesn't comes from New Zealand
• All the clothes that I have looked at in main stream stores come from China, no matter what price range I looked at
• The moisturiser I use (one based on nasty petrochemicals and probably tested on animals) is made in Thailand
• Many of the main stream brands of tampons seem to be made in some part of Europe, with the ones I have looked at made in Germany or Slovenia
• Many manufactured products which are 'made in Australia' say they are made from local and imported ingredients. The label then denies you information about which ingredients or proportion of ingredients come from which country. 
• Much of the bulk-provided organic food (ie non-local markets) comes from wide and far in Australia, with many of my local producers potentially using traditional, chemically enhanced agricultural methods. 

I have found this a fascinating journey to discover where things are produced, certainly with my attempt to buy food from within 250km of my household. But the one thing that has been considerably absent is the amount of information on packaging, which makes it really difficult to make informed choices about your food your buying and available in the mainstream and market-dominating shops.

Next time you're at the shops, maybe take a look to see where the things you're buying come from. Might make you think about all sorts of things rather than just what colour it is or how cheap it is. Maybe you could even drop me a comment and let me know what thoughts were stirred up by this exercise.   Pin It

Ian Lowe's sustainable future

"A sustainable future will involve using resources more efficiently, maintaining natural systems, developing social cohesion, nurturing our cultural traditions and finding durable economic activities".

This a quote from Ian Lowe's Quarterly Essay called Reaction Time: Climate Change and the Nuclear Option. Issue 27, 2007. Pin It

Do you read books?

If you're still in the paper realm of books (which I love) a library is a great source of reading material and overall reduces your environmental footprint!

How you might ask? Well, instead of producing book material only for your personal pleasure, which once you've read it often ends up on your bookshelf, libraries allow many readers to access the same material, thereby reducing the number of times the book or reading material needs to be printed and in turn reducing the amount of raw materials required!

Other ways to improve your environmental footprint whilst still enjoying printed books:

• purchase books/reading material for your collection but share them with friends;
• if have books that you don't want anymore, hand on to friends, give to charity bins, hold a book swap, freecycle;
• buy second hand books, particularly from charity organisations;
• catch a bus to the library; or
• car pool to library.

If you're worried that you're local library doesn't have the specific book or type of books that you like, quite often libraries can buy books that you like (if they deem them likely to be attractive to a wider audience) or alternatively they may have an inter-library loan service (this may attract a small fee depending on the location of the material you require). Pin It

The journey has begun....

As you have seen from some of my previous posts, we moved into a new home recently, with the idea we would become a little more self-sufficient and enjoy the Queensland outdoor lifestyle a little more.

We have now started the transformation of our house from a typical suburban/semi-rural house into my "dream" home.  So, what have we done in the three weeks we've been here?

• installed a black cold compost bin;
• started to clean out the gutters on the house to ensure we collect maximum amounts of rain that hits the roof (as we are on tank water);
• checked out the water tanks and determined they require some maintenance works;
• got a water filter for our drinking water;
• started getting quotes for solar hot water systems; 
• enquired about grey water;
• put in some herbs and lettuces in small areas in the garden; 
• investigated heat-retardant blinds for the western facing rooms; and 
• started planning where other permanent garden features/beds will go. 

All of these have all been done in spare time around work, other commitments and this week around colds (guess it all caught up with us). But it has been fabulous being outdoors, having each morning greet us with visits from the local native birds and a lovely sunset view in the evenings.

No matter whether you've been in your space for a long or short time, view the natural world with new eyes and see what can be done around your place.

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Are you letting the cold air out?

My main fridge is about nine years old and starting to look a little daggy. Don't get me wrong I think it still does a marvellous job and wouldn't dream of replacing it, but I was a little concerned that I might be paying a higher price to run it.

Why you might ask? Basically over time the seals around the doors start to deteriorate. This means that your fridge can't keep the cold air in and has to continuously replace this cold air by running the motor which then costs your money in energy usage.

But how do you know if your seals need replacing? I had somewhere in the back of my mind that you place a piece of paper between the door and the fridge, close the fridge door and then try and remove the paper. I did this, but I could easily remove it from multiple locations around the door frame for both the fridge and the freezer. Either my seals were completely dead (which I didn't think was the case) or there was something wrong with my method.

After a quick internet search, another method suggested was to place a torch in the fridge at night, turn off all your lights in the vicinity of the fridge and see if you can see the light coming out of the fridge. If you can see any light you need a new seal. I tried this method last night and couldn't see any light, so currently I am assuming that my seals are ok. See if I can come up with any other methods to test my fridge and freezer seals.

Maybe worth a try at your place.

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Water, water everywhere...or is it?

We are now in our new house...just! This is very exciting, but overwhelming and nerve racking all at once. The first thing I have become nervous about is the level of consciousness I have brought to water use in the house. Why? Because we are no longer on town water. We rely completely on two 25,000L rainwater tanks for our household water use. This is an enormous amount of water, but I have never had a finite resource dependency.

I have always been able to turn on the tap and be assured water with come from some far removed water source, even in drought conditions. I can turn on the light switch and generally assured that my lights will come on or my fridge will continue to stay cool. I drop into a petrol station and I fill my car up with a liquid that continues to assist my car with forward momentum.

Even though a level of paranoia about water use has come over me for the first two days, it has calmed down a little in the last 24 hours given the it has rained quite heavily and I could hear it gushing towards the rainwater tanks throughout the night.

I will however have to figure out the pump that can bring water from the dam at the bottom of the hill to water the few plants I moved with us. The dam is a saving for us, because otherwise we would be completely reliant on rainwater collected from our roofs to water the vegetable patch that I plan to put in the back yard sometime in the future and this in time would be a significant drain on our resource particularly in drought periods.

I also plan on putting another water tank in to collect the water running off the carport, right at the top of the hill and potentially something smaller on the roof of the chicken hutch once it is constructed.

Watch this space as I hope to do a water audit in the future to determine the level of water that we require on a weekly basis.  This will allow me to get a true handle on our water usage and whether I should be nervous about the water we have on our site or whether we can function within our limits.



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