Michael Green

Writer and producer

Sustainable timber

In Greener Homes on

Certified products have got the wood on the competition.

We use timber throughout our homes – for furniture, framing, flooring, decking, veneers, joinery, windows and doors. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide as they grow, so timber can be a highly sustainable building material.

But according to David Baggs, technical director at Ecospecifier (a database of verified, eco-preferred products), unless you pay close attention, it’s likely your timber purchases are doing far more harm than good.

“Don’t buy timber unless it’s certified,” Mr Baggs says. “If it’s not, the odds are very, very high that you’re buying illegally harvested rainforest. This is particularly the case for furniture, especially if it’s made in Asia.”

There are dozens of certification schemes worldwide, but all are not equal. Mr Baggs recommends Forest Stewardship Council approval, as well as Greenpeace ecotimber. Recycled timber is also a good option, so long as it’s the genuine article.

Second-best options are the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC), says Mr Baggs. “At the forest level they have a self-assessment (rather than third party) process.”

“With any of the schemes, it’s important to have chain of custody certification,” he continues. “That means the trail can be audited from the shop right back to the forest and you can make sure you’re getting what you pay for.”

Certified products can be more expensive, but not always. “It’s all about knowing where to find these products and that’s where Ecospecifier comes in.”

Green Loans Program

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Eco-makeovers just became much more affordable.

The Federal Government’s newest household retrofitting scheme – the Green Loans Program – began on July 1. “It’s about trying to help people live more sustainably and also save a lot of money,” says home energy assessor Keith Loveridge. “To be quite honest, I think it’s fabulous.”

The scheme has two parts. In the first, 360,000 households will receive free home sustainability assessments. You can sign up through the government’s website or directly with authorised assessor. Applicants must earn less than $250,000 to qualify.

Then, an eco-assessor will spend about an hour and a half locating the water and energy savings that can be made around your home. You’ll receive a report detailing their findings.

“Typically, heating and cooling consumes about 40 per cent of the home’s energy; appliances, about 30 per cent; and water heating, about 23 per cent,” Mr Loveridge says. “We’re identifying which changes will have the biggest impact. For instance, if you’ve got an old washing machine that chugs away six hours a day, that’ll be one of the biggest energy users in your house.”

Once you home has been assessed, you’ll be eligible – though not obliged – to take up the scheme’s second measure: a four-year interest free loan for up to $10,000 to help pay for the measures recommended in the report. There will be funding to cover about 75,000 cheap loans and they’ll be available through participating financial institutions.

“I’ve been around the environment game for a long time and I think this is one of the best things that the government has put out,” Mr Loveridge says. Depending on your circumstances, “you can almost pay for that loan just by the savings you make.”

The Green Loans scheme is slated to finish in mid-2012, or whenever the money runs out. Given the early demise of the subsidy on solar photovoltaics, the best bet is to get in early.

www.environment.gov.au/greenloans, www.ecoassessment.com.au

Does buy local mean bye local?

In Community development on

First published on ABC Unleashed

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may have been lampooned for his Strine, but last week, in its budget, the NSW government fair dinkum went and put it into policy.

Under Local Jobs First, when state agencies and corporations buy their wares, they’ll factor in a 20 per cent discount on Australian manufacturers’ tenders.

Unions liked it. Trade experts, the European Union and the US government did not. The Age‘s diplomatic editor, Daniel Flitton, viewed the measure through the dark and troubling prism of nationalism.

The morning after the NSW budget, bright and early, Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean denounced the policy on Sky News. It would cost jobs, he warned, not save them, and could draw similar moves from other countries. It would threaten trade.

But must trade always be the last word?

Less than an hour after Crean spoke so unequivocally on Sky News, American economist and writer Michael Shuman spelt out a different kind of economic development on Radio National.

“Locally owned businesses that are focussed first and foremost on local markets,” he told Life Matters presenter Richard Aedy, “contribute substantially more to economic development than … schemes to attract or retain non-local businesses.”

Shuman’s two most recent books are Going Local: creating self-reliant communities in a global age, and The Small-Mart Revolution: how local businesses are beating the global competition. You get the idea.

On tour in Australia, he’s spruiking the myriad benefits to be had from boosting our local businesses – from better labour and environmental standards to stronger long-term wealth creation and higher, more resilient employment rates.

The crux of Shuman’s argument, in economic terms, is about the flow-on effect of our spending choices. “When you spend money locally you contribute to what economists call the economic multiplier,” he said on Radio National. “That is, when I spend a dollar, say at a local pharmacy, that pharmacist pays people, they then take their dollar to a local grocery store … you have a dollar that is circulating in the economy. The more times that dollar circulates and the faster that dollar circulates without leakage, the more income, wealth and jobs [it creates]. And it turns out that local businesses do this much better.”

He points to a 2003 study in Austin, Texas, where economists analysed the impact of a proposed Borders bookstore against two local bookstores. They found that $100 spent at Borders would circulate $13 in the local community, while $100 at the local stores would circulate $45.

Shuman draws a distinction between local and non-local ownership, not between domestic and foreign. In The Small-Mart Revolution, the economist criticises promotion of “America First-ism” at a cost to others. Instead, he envisages a future of growing trade and global engagement, albeit “in goods and services less and less vital to day-to-day today survival”.

So where does the buy-Aussie policy fit in?

Despite the fuss, it’s neither a breakthrough nor a break down, and it won’t start a trade war. The rule already existed – NSW just expanded its application. Other countries, state governments and local councils also have guidelines favouring local procurement. And, despite Crean’s protestations, the Australian Labor Party’s current platform includes an almost identical policy.

That’s not to say it will work. According to the localisation theory, an ideal government purchasing system wouldn’t target Australian-made. It would target the tenders that boast the highest multiplier – probably goods made and owned nearby, not nationally.

www.small-mart.org

Kerbside recycling

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Quirks between councils can make the weekly collection confusing.

“There’s no uniformity in the types of packaging collected for recycling across metropolitan Melbourne,” says Maree Pollard, the coordinator of Banyule City Council’s Rethink Centre. “And that leads to confusion.” She runs waste-wise education programs at the Visy Heidelberg Material Recovery Facility.

Ms Pollard says that although catch-all websites like Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You can be helpful, “if you have any questions about kerbside recycling, the first port of call should be your local council.”

There are, however, some rules of thumb. Nearly all types of paper and cardboard can be recycled, including milk and juice containers and envelopes with plastic windows. Paper bound with staples or clips is fine too. The only exception is waxed cardboard such as greengrocers’ boxes.

Glass is not so forgiving: you can only recycle bottles and jars. “No oven-proof, drinking or window glass, and absolutely no ceramics,” says Ms Pollard. As for plastic packaging, put in rigid containers bearing the recycling symbol, but beware, because rules differ among municipalities. “It can vary from only symbols 1 to 3, all the way to from 1 to 7.”

Ms Pollard’s other tips include : roll aluminium foil into a good-sized ball; don’t bother removing labels from steel cans; and ask your council if they want container lids on or off.

And finally: to rinse or not to rinse? In Banyule, Ms Pollard would prefer residents do: “It keeps the conveyors from clogging and discourages vermin.”

Heating systems

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An efficient heating system can cut your costs and your carbon footprint.

When it comes to heaters, don’t be lured by low purchase prices alone. “Basically, the cheaper it is to buy, the more expensive it will be to run,” warns Mick Harris, technical advisor for the Alternative Technology Association.

So which heating options are energy-smart and eco-friendly (besides an extra jumper)?

Generally, space heaters are more economical than central heating. “To be efficient, it’s ideal to heat your main living areas rather than your whole house,” Harris says. “Put a super-efficient gas heater in your living area and keep little electric heaters in the bedrooms to turn on for twenty minutes at the start or end of the day.”

Among space heaters, high-efficiency natural gas models and slow-combustion wood heaters both score low ongoing costs and low greenhouse emissions. Top star-rating reverse-cycle air conditioners are energy efficient, but produce more CO2 if they use coal-fired electricity from the grid.

Power-hungry portable electric heaters fare the worst, so use them sparingly. Oil-filled column heaters normally use less energy than comparable bar radiators or fan heaters (which cost about 40 cents per hour, according to Harris).

With central heating, ‘zoned’ systems are best, because they allow you to heat only the areas you need. For long-term frugality, go for high-efficiency, ducted natural gas, or a hydronic system powered by gas, solar or slow-combustion wood. Some existing central heaters can be retrofitted with zoning – ask a heating specialist.

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