Michael Green

Writer and producer

Low-energy lighting

In Greener Homes on

The federal government’s phase-out of standard incandescent light globes has already begun. Since November last year, Australian shops have only been allowed to sell their pre-existing stock. But we don’t need to be scared of the dark – there are eco-friendly options to brighten our homes and save us money.

There are two main kinds of low-energy lighting technology to choose from: fluorescent lamps – both old-style tubes and newer compact fluoros (CFLs) – and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

David Baggs, technical director of Ecospecifier (an eco product database) says that when choosing lights, it’s wise to remember both colour and brightness.

Most people prefer the yellowish glow given off by incandescent globes. “To get a light that has the warmth we’re comfortable with, ask for ‘warm white’ CFLs or LEDs,” Baggs says. To be absolutely sure, check the colour temperature (measured in ‘Kelvin’). Warm white comes in at about 2700 K, whereas a cool fluorescent tube glows bluer, at about 5000 K.

Next, if you want to know how brightly your new energy-smart globe will shine, compare the power of the light (measured in ‘lumens’) against similar incandescent bulbs. “Any good lighting shop or online retailer will have that information,” Baggs says.

The quality of both CFLs and LEDs is improving rapidly, but each is better suited to particular applications.

General lighting

According to John Knox, from the Alternative Technology Association’s webshop, CFLs are perfect for general room lighting. With a quick online search, you’ll find them available in a pleasing range of shapes, from spirals and sticks, to more elegant globes. They even come in petite candle-shaped sizes that slot into unusual places such as rangehoods or chandeliers.

Good quality household CFLs cost between $5 and $15. You can also buy dimmable versions for about $30 each, but don’t fret about the extra dollars – with a lamp life up to eight times longer than an incandescent bulb, they’ll save you money before long. Knox recommends bigger name brands. “They’re generally higher quality, last longer and won’t flicker,” he says.

Until now LEDs have not been bright enough for general lighting use, but Knox is optimistic that the situation will change in months, rather than years. “The technology is coming along in leaps and bounds,” he says.

Task lighting

Halogen downlights are the most common and energy-sapping task lighting in Australian homes. “The easiest solution is to replace them with one low-energy bulb in the centre of the room,” suggests Mick Harris from Enviroshop.

If you want to keep your downlights but cut their energy consumption, the most straight-forward option is to install high-efficiency halogens, such as the Philips Masterline ES or the Osram IRC Energy Saver, at a cost of about $10 each. “They last two-and-a-half times longer than a standard halogen and use 30 per cent less energy,” Harris says.

Alternatively, you can buy LED downlights for between $40 and $60 each. The up-front cost is high, but with a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours, they’ll almost never need to be replaced. Harris says that while LEDs aren’t yet as bright as halogens, they do suit lounge areas, hallways or toilets, and can be purchased together with a driver that makes them dimmable. “Wander through your house and see which lights are brighter than you need. They’re good spots for LED bulbs.”

CFLs are also available as downlights ($10 to $15 each), but to make them work, you’ll need to get an electrician to replace the fitting. Enviroshop sells slightly larger downlight fittings that suit standard-sized (including dimmable) CFLs. “That way, you get the best of both worlds,” Harris says. “It will give you as much brightness as you want, with a cheap, energy efficient globe.”

All CFLs contain a small amount of mercury, so they’re hazardous if broken or left in landfill. See the federal environment department’s website for more information on how to recycle or dispose of them safely. 

See this article in Sanctuary Magazine.

Meet your neighbours

In Environment, The Age on

From backstreets to the big end of town, there’s reason for neighbours to become good friends.

Last year, my neighbour and I leafleted houses in the streets nearby. We proposed something unusual. On our flyer, we wrote, “…we’d like to set up a system to share some of our resources and build a friendly local community”, and then we promised all manner of neighbourly fun, including street parties, movie nights, swap meets and veggie sharing.

And now, our block in Carlton moonlights as a ‘sharehood’.

The Sharehood is a social networking website that shows you everyone with a profile who lives within 400 metres of you. It includes lists of things to borrow and lend and a forum for upcoming events. The first one was set up in Northcote in 2008, but it works no matter where in the world you live.

The Sharehood’s creator, website developer Theo Kitchener, says connecting online can help meeting face-to-face. “It’s all about encouraging neighbours to get to know each other in real life – all kinds of good things can come from that.”

So, aside from a sensible impulse to borrow a circular saw rather than shell out for one of my own, what’s behind my wish to know my neighbours?

Associate professor Kathleen Hulse, from Swinburne University’s Institute for Social Research, says knowing our neighbours not only makes us feel safer, but also meets our deep need for a sense of place. “Being connected locally is strongly associated with a sense of belonging, and we all need to belong somewhere. It’s a profound thing – that is what a home is about.”

According to Gilbert Rochecouste, from placemaking consultants Village Well, there’s been renewed interest in “caring for place”. Governments, councils and property developers are all aiming to strengthen local communities. “People are changing their priorities,” he says. “We’re seeing that with developers building ‘neighbourliness capital’ into projects.”

Mr Rochecouste points to Delfin’s Laurimar estate, past Epping in Melbourne’s north, which includes a town centre lined with local stores within walking distance of all the homes. “People meet in main streets, that’s where the heart is,” he says.

Also at Laurimar, a community worker is employed to organise activities. “In greenfields developments like that one, we’re starting to see place managers who coordinate community gardens, events and food swaps,” Mr Rochecouste says. “To build citizenship you’ve got to invest in it.”

The trend isn’t limited to the urban fringe. Sue West from the McCaughey Centre at the University of Melbourne says that over the last decade, state and local governments have supported more and more initiatives to build community resilience. Now, about eight in ten local councils say they fund projects of that kind, be they community gardens, local action plans or activities to bring different cultures together.

“There’s been growing interest in programs that involve communities in getting to know each other,” Ms West says. “The research was showing that a country or a community can be doing really well economically, but people’s wellbeing is beyond just money and the economic measures. It’s about the connections people have with each other.”

Ms West coordinates Community Indicators Victoria, a set of measures gauging social, economic, environmental, democratic and cultural wellbeing in local council areas. “Feeling connected to neighbours does contribute to wellbeing. It can be really important in difficult times, like the one we’ve just been through with the financial crisis, and the ones we continue to go through because of climate change and drought,” Ms West says.

Improved neighbourliness also goes hand-in-hand with environmental gains. As well as The Sharehood, there are a large number eco-friendly neighbourhood groups across our suburbs, such as Sustainability Street (a group training program in eco-living) and community gardens. There were 75 community gardens in Melbourne at last count, in 2006, and interest has been flourishing since then.

Transition Towns is another grassroots eco-development movement. The people in each location determine what they’ll do, but generally speaking, the goal is to live better with less – to re-make your area into a food producing, low-energy, low-emission, tight-knit community. It was founded in England in late 2006 and there are already over similar 250 initiatives worldwide. In Australia, 27 groups have officially signed on and dozens more are joining up, including seven in suburban Melbourne.

Razia Ross is convenor of Transition Town Boroondara, which traverses inner-eastern suburbs from Kew East to Ashburton. She says the threats posed by climate change and peak oil will change our relationships with people nearby. “It seems to me that we really need our neighbours in a way we didn’t before.” For now, her group is scheming for community gardens, orchards and guerrilla gardening.

The good news, according to housing researcher Dr Hulse, is that we have a strong base of neighbourliness to build on. “I think that the connections in suburbs are underestimated. Special initiatives like community gardens are important, but they wouldn’t work if there wasn’t already a fabric there,” she says.

It’s true in my block. At our sharehood events, long-term residents pass on local folklore to newcomers – yarning, for example, about the old Maltese man who built a boat in his backyard (too big for the yard, it jutted over the footpath) then set sail for Malta. It’s all part of the sharing.

A new nature strip

Depending on how you look at it, Gilbert Rochecouste and his partner Amadis Lacheta have either taken their work home, or their home to work. They run Village Well, a placemaking consultancy that works on relocalisation and civic renewal.

And on the nature strip outside their house in North Coburg, they’ve planted a community herb garden and installed a seat, among other things. “The old ladies who get off the bus pause and sit down and we’ve gotten to know them,” Mr Rochecouste says. “They’re so appreciative – sometimes they drop over pickles.”

He says neighbourliness turns a street into a meeting place. “There are eyes on the street. It helps breaks down the fear culture – you feel comfortable to knock on someone’s door and meet together. And it’s much more fun.”

Read this article on the Age website.

Village Well’s 10 ways to be neighbourly:

1.     Say hello to your neighbours when you pass.

2.     Organise a potluck lunch, dinner or picnic and invite people in your street.

3.     Plant a community herb garden on your nature strip

4.     Organise a neighbourhood swap – share and exchange clothes, garden produce, plants, books or skills.

5.     Organise a neighbourhood ‘salon’ – share music, food, poetry or stories.

6.     Install a seat on your nature strip for neighbours to sit and chat.

7.     Organise a yearly street party.

8.     Do some street beautification or community art.

9.     Create a community garden or green area.

10.  Put a free table on your nature strip and give away food, books, furniture and bric-a-brac.

Six-star homes

In Architecture and building, Environment, The Age on

Higher star ratings will add little extra cost.

The energy efficiency of our homes is on the rise again. Last year, state and federal governments agreed to lift the residential standard from five to six stars. The changes will come into the national building code from this May, and then the states must bring them into effect by May 2011, at the latest.

In Victoria, the new rules are the first major increase since the introduction of the five-star regulations in 2004. So what difference does a star make?

It’s only a small rise in cost for a cushy lift in comfort, according to the CEO of VicUrban, Pru Sanderson. With its builder partners, the state land development agency has been offering six-star homes for years. “They’ve become VicUrban’s base standard,” she says. “We’ve proven to the market that it is doable, at scale, for a very, very small price tag.”

VicUrban estimates that the better performing homes will cost $5000 extra at the most, but much less – under $2000 – if the planning, subdivision and orientation of the blocks is done carefully. “In terms of the cost of a home, it’s a very small outlay for a long-term benefit,” Ms Sanderson says. “We estimate that a six-star house uses about 15 per cent less energy in heating and cooling compared with a five-star house.”

Matt Fisher, from the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors, says the price tag could be even lower. “We did some studies that looked at real world [plans] and found that they could be increased from five to six stars for about $500,” he says.

The last jump in energy efficiency rules forced the industry to improve the building fabric and insulation. Mr Fisher says that this time around, the changes will summon designs that better suit the climate and location of the house.

David Hallett, from Archicentre, the building advisory service of the Australian Institute of Architects, agrees. He argues that the house plans and the site of the land must always be considered together. “Most of our homes are designed in isolation and plonked on a block, depending on which floor plan the client happens to like. Sometimes it works well, and sometimes, really badly.”

Poorly oriented homes may still be able to reach six stars, but they’ll need top-notch windows and insulation. It will be much cheaper for new homes to meet the higher standard if they are well-suited to their block – with features such as smaller windows to the west and south, living areas to the north, and eaves calculated to shade over summer and let in sun over winter.

The ideal way to address local conditions is with a custom design that fits your land. But Ms Sanderson maintains that big builders and developers can also offer well-oriented houses at scale – though the industry will first have to invest in expanding the range of its products. “At VicUrban we already have sophisticated guidelines about typical building configurations for different kinds of blocks,” she says.

Although Ms Sanderson approves of the higher standard, she’s also quick to point out that the new regulations don’t mean we’ll consume less energy. “The improved performance is being offset by the ever-increasing size of new houses,” she says. “The average new house is 40 per cent larger now compared with the 1970s.” Bigger homes not only chew through more energy, but also more construction materials and waste.

Likewise, the way we live in the house has a drastic effect on the amount of energy we consume. “We’re wasting our time doing all of this if we don’t help educate people about how to live in a more environmentally attuned way,” Ms Sanderson says. “We want the six-star lifestyle to go with the six-star house.”

Renovating with the stars

The six-star regulations will also apply to extensions. Retrofitting energy efficiency is more difficult than starting from scratch, but Anthony Wright, building designer at Sunpower Design, says the higher standard is well within reach. “We generally aim for seven stars or better – six stars is a minimum.”

The new rules are slated to work the same way as the current five-star renovation system, which applies only to projects that require a building permit and varies depending on the size of the alteration. For larger additions the whole house must comply, while for smaller changes only the new part must adhere to the rules. “You’re not required to do the impossible,” Mr Wright says.

To make the grade, he says designers will need to incorporate solar passive design techniques, including smart orientation to get sun in winter and exclude it in summer. That task can be tricky for additions to the shady south. “Sometimes it requires more thought, but there are lots of ways to get northerly sun in a southern extension, such as using roof glazing or setting the extension back.”

Mr Wright has two main tips for would-be renovators. “Do a preliminary energy rating at the sketch design stage to see whether the designer is coming close. It might cost a few hundred dollars, but could save you a lot of grief down the track,” he says. “And be realistic about the amount of glazing you put into the house and the direction it faces. Think strategically about it, rather than having expanses of glass.”

 

Sustainable Living Festival

In Greener Homes on

The Sustainable Living Festival brings all kinds of green ideas together.

This year’s Sustainable Living Festival is already under way. The program has been extended to two weeks, with activities running at different locations across the city and state in the lead up to the main event at Federation Square in Melbourne next weekend, from February 19 to 21.

Festival director Luke Taylor says the longer program will help focus attention on the good work done by local groups. “We have a whole range of local events promoting various aspects of sustainability, from greening your home and sustainable food through to the bigger issues like climate change,” he says. “It’s an opportunity for us to support the sustainability actions done by local communities.”

The theme for the festival, now in its eleventh year, is climate change. There’ll be over 150 talks and workshops, and more than 100 stalls encompassing all shades of green, with a thicket of practical information on things you can do around the home.

Exhibitors include domestic energy efficiency retailers Going Solar, Energy Matters and Solar Shop Australia. There’ll also be useful sessions on draught proofing, reducing your waste and home chicken husbandry, to name just a few.

Mr Taylor says that change is required in our homes and backyards, and also in our houses of parliament. “Everybody needs to be involved in solving this [climate change] problem. Local action is critical, but we need government leadership as well.”

That’s a theme that will be taken up by the panel discussion, ‘Towards climate safe homes’, to be held next Sunday. Last year, a coalition of environment groups produced a report on the energy efficiency of our housing stock, and the steps required to lift it to a zero-carbon or ‘climate safe’ standard.

Panel member Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, from Environment Victoria, says there are two elements to climate safe homes. They not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also build the kind of dwellings that will help people adapt to harsher and drier conditions. “We know that with climate change we’re not going to have the water resources that we have had in the past. We need to improve our housing stock so we’re prepared for climate impacts, and also so our homes become part of the solution,” she says.

“We’re seeing families and householders across Australia taking action themselves,” Ms McKenzie-McHarg says. “There are a number of government rebates that assist them, but to make a really big difference we need a comprehensive plan to green our building stock.”

She says that although houses now contribute one-fifth of Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions, we could slash that impact by 75 per cent by way of energy efficient design and appliances.

Last year, federal and state governments agreed to lift the residential energy efficiency standard from five to six stars. The states must comply by May 2011. Ms McKenzie-McHarg says it’s a good start, but we’re still well behind many other countries. “Melbourne has a comparable climate region to California, but their equivalent rating for new homes is 7.6 stars. And in the UK they’re aiming for zero net carbon homes by 2016. This is really possible – it’s not pie-in-the-sky stuff.”

Greensburg, Kansas

In Architecture and building, Community development, Environment on

On 4 May 2007, a tornado nearly three kilometres wide ripped through Greensburg, in Kansas, USA. It levelled the town and killed 11 people. The townsfolk decided to build back sustainably, with all city buildings to meet the highest level of the US Green Building Council’s rating system. Their blueprint for recovery was all green, taking in public buildings, infrastructure, housing and the downtown business area.

Last year, Greensburg mayor Bob Dixson visited Australia. He spoke to the Green Building Council of Australia, and also to the people of Flowerdale, who lost much of their town during the Black Saturday fires.

MG: What was your message to people in Flowerdale?

BD: The number one thing is to know that there is hope and you will recover. The other thing is sometimes you have to be real patient – we want things to happen faster than they do. Sometimes you have to plan and do the best you can without getting in such a rush that you find out later mistakes are made.

Over 95 per cent of the buildings in Greensburg were totally destroyed and that’s a lot like in the Flowerdale area, so there was a real kindred spirit between us because of the smaller town atmosphere and the sense of community.

MG: How did you come up with Greensburg’s long-term community recovery plan?

BD: Planning started the first week after the storm. The community had no place to meet so we met under a big circus tent and we did everything there; we had meetings, we ate together, we had church services together. And part of the planning process then was to come up with a sustainable long-term recovery plan. It was facilitated by government agencies, but we were the ones who had the input in what we wanted the community to look like. It’s a living document and we need to revisit it regularly.

We’ll be totally sustainable. We’ll have a community wind farm that will generate electricity for our town and it will be big enough to [connect to] our fellow communities that belong to the power pool. It’s kind of a cliché, but it’s a wind-wind situation.

MG: It’s a big change from the way the town was before. How did it come to be so environmentally focussed?

BD: We knew what we were doing was for future generations. We needed to make sure we built back for the 21st century, not for the way it was beforehand. It was about being good stewards of those resources we’ve been blessed with, and about seeing how our ancestors handled it when they pioneered our area. They utilised the resources they had available; no more, no less. And they understood that if you took care of the land, it took care of you. So really the concepts of being green have been around for generations. It’s just that we have such modern technology now to take advantage of those environmentally friendly and energy-saving green initiatives.

MG: What message do you have for communities, towns or cities that haven’t suffered such a disaster?

BD: One thing we’re really proud of is we’re the first community in the United States to have totally LED street lights. That’s a saving of 43 per cent on our energy and when you figure energy and maintenance combined, it’s a 70 per cent saving. It reduces our carbon footprint by 40 tonnes of CO2 per year. If Melbourne went to LED street lights, it could cut its emissions tremendously. Any community can implement things – you just have to do it.

MG: Has the Greensburg community changed since the tornado?

BD: It reinforced the values of our community. It mattered not your economic status in the community, you lost everything. So the only thing you had left was not your possessions, not your vehicle and not your home; all we had left were our relationships with each other. And we found out they were there all along.

Several young couples have moved to the community who have no ties to the area and that’s because of the excitement and the sense of renewal and rebirth. In the midst of it all we’re seeing interest from all over the world. To me, it’s beyond the disaster and building sustainably. People see hope in Greensburg right now; hope that you could come back from a disaster. We have been blessed with a tremendous opportunity, but we also understand we have a tremendous responsibility to share with the world anything we’ve learned, because as far as sustainability goes, we are all the new pioneers of the 21st century. We live in the most exciting times in the history of this planet, because we have an opportunity right now to truly make a difference in where we’re headed.