New eco-home research makes a financial statement.

LAST year, the Cape Paterson Ecovillage broke new ground when its high eco-standards were written into the local planning scheme.

The development will border on the existing town of Cape Paterson, on the Bass Coast, about two hours south-east of Melbourne. Each of the 220 new houses must be oriented for passive solar gain and have a minimum energy rating of 7.5 stars, as well as efficient appliances, at least 2.5 kilowatts of solar energy and 10,000 litres in rainwater tanks.

Now, the project’s developers have released research showing that all these features will save homeowners money over the long term.

“When we started, we wanted to pull together all the proven sustainable housing solutions in one place, and to attempt to deliver a carbon neutral project,” says the ecovillage’s director, Brendan Condon.

That was eight years ago, and back then, he thought they’d need to offer incentives to help buyers pay the extra upfront costs. But because of the steep rise in utility bills in recent years, and the price hikes still to come, it’s no longer necessary.

“We’ve hit a clear tipping point now where the uptake of these sustainability features makes absolute economic sense,” Mr Condon says.

He says that if homeowners re-invest savings into their repayments, they could cut years from their mortgages. And once an electric vehicle (powered by extra solar panels) is in the driveway, “the economic benefits expand rapidly”.

“If we hit high predicted energy and water cost futures, you could pay your mortgage off between seven and eight years early. The benefits accrue to about $300,000 over a 25-year mortgage.”

Independently reviewed research, funded by Sustainability Victoria, compared a Cape Paterson home against three benchmarks – an existing 4-star dwelling, and both a larger and smaller new 6-star home. Consumption was assumed to remain constant in each house, no matter the price rises.

The report’s author, consultant Anthony Szatow, says that in all the scenarios modelled, the greener homes came out in front. “Solar power, efficient appliances and water tanks all return in excess of 10 per cent, after tax. Most sustainability features provide very attractive return on investment, purely on a financial basis,” he says.

“And that financial proposition is just going to get better and better as the cost of centralised energy and water goes up.”

With the strict guidelines for the Cape Paterson homes in mind, Mr Szatow says householders should shop around for plans. “Experienced, skilled designers and architects should be able to get a new home to a 7.5-star rating with very little premium,” he says.

He adds that another financial benefit will come at the point of sale. “It’s early days in the market for sustainable homes, but the indication so far is that homes with the highest star ratings and solar power do have a resale premium.”

For Mr Condon, it’s not enough that the ecovillage has gone green alone. He wants the mainstream building market to change its ways too.

“Rising energy, fuel and water costs are going to become intractable problems for our community,” he says.

“You have a choice now to build conventionally and lock in rising costs, or build sustainably and protect your wallet and the environment – and to do it in a comfortable house.”

Read this article at The Age online

Start your engines, sometimes.

THERE are now well over 200 share cars dotted around inner Melbourne. And before long, that number will double again.

Car share schemes work like this: you join up, book online when you need a vehicle, then walk over and swipe in. In Melbourne, there are three companies: GoGet, Flexicar and GreenShareCar. The rates and plans differ, but all involve a membership fee as well as a charge for usage.

It’s a model that’s growing rapidly in many countries, and one that steers gently into the space left vacant by shifts in the way we’re buying and using cars.

In recent years, the increase in car ownership has slowed in Australia, and the distance we drive in each vehicle has begun to decline. Meanwhile, public transport patronage is on the rise.

Stephen Ingrouille, from Going Solar, publishes a newsletter on sustainable transport. He says car sharing reduces congestion and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’re not going to wean this society off its car obsession for a long time – that’s just a reality. But car sharing is a good intermediate solution,” he says.

“Share cars tend to be energy efficient models: the companies want them to run as cheaply as possible, because petrol is included in the cost.”

Research by consultants Frost and Sullivan in the USA found that in 2009, every share car replaced 15 private cars, and that car sharing members drove nearly one-third less than they would if they owned a vehicle. Widespread growth of these schemes would mean fewer motors, used more efficiently.

Mr Ingrouille argues that governments should require apartment developers to swap large car parks for modest share car bays, or even a taxi rank – thereby improving housing affordability, as well as reducing traffic.

“A lot of energy goes into manufacturing cars, but often they’re just sitting idly,” he says. “Typically, a family might have had two cars; with car sharing they could have just one. Or for people like me, who prefer public transport, it’s great to have access to a car occasionally.”

Mike Murray, from GoGet, says householders join up to save money and for convenience – especially in areas where parking is limited. In Surrey Hills, in inner Sydney, two out of every ten licence-holders are GoGet members.

Late last year, the company purchased its first fully electric vehicles – Mitsubishi iMiEVs – and one is now parked at The Nicholson Apartments, in Coburg. Another one will soon be stationed in South Yarra.

Mr Murray says electric vehicles are perfectly suited to car sharing, because the average GoGet trip is only 30 kilometres.

“People suffer from what we call ‘range anxiety’ with electric vehicles, but you could do more than three of our regular trips before you’d have to charge it at all.”

He believes car sharing can spread beyond Zone 1. “We’re trying to develop a low-density car sharing model, because that’s where most Melbournians are – we’re not all in Brunswick or Southbank.”

GoGet will begin by parking shared utility vehicles at Stockland’s Selandra Rise development in Casey. “The developer is telling us that a lot of households have three vehicles. If they owned one car, and had car sharing instead, they’d save a lot of money.”

Read the article at The Age online

Branch out with backyard fruits of yore

CECILIA Thornton was always a vegie gardener. Then one day, in a dentist’s waiting room, she read an article about heritage apples growing in Cornwall.

“It was the names that got to me,” she explains. “These fascinating names – Lord Lambourne, Beauty of Bath and Cox’s Orange Pippin. I was really struck by them.”

On further research, Ms Thornton discovered that people in Australia were conserving these varieties too. Now, she’s the president of the Heritage Fruits Society, which manages Petty’s Orchard in Templestowe.

Every autumn at the orchard, the society holds its Antique Apple Tasting Festival. The 2012 festival will be held on Sunday March 25; visitors can take a tour, and taste and rate the 200 varieties grown onsite.

“Heritage varieties have been selected by gardeners and diners over centuries, even going back to Roman times. They’ve been chosen for reasons of flavour, ripening time, or colour, or for their resistance to certain diseases or their cooking consistency,” she says.

Ms Thornton argues they’re important not only for their historical links. “The commercial varieties in supermarkets are chosen mainly because of their handling and keeping qualities, so they don’t bruise as easily and they keep for ten months. They’re not chosen for their unique flavour or their juiciness.

“Some of the heritage varieties only keep for a week once they’re picked, but they taste like heaven. If you don’t have one in your backyard, you’re missing out.”

So how should you choose your trees?

First, survey the space. You can maximise your harvest in a few ways: by choosing columnar varieties that don’t branch out; by pruning normal trees into a shape tall and skinny; or by “espaliering” them flat and wide against the fence.

“You can also do duo or trio plantings,” Ms Thornton suggests. “In one hole, plant two or three apples, plums or pears, about 150 millimetres apart. Just make sure they’re varieties that will cross-pollinate.”

Next, choose your fruit. What do you like to eat? “We’re really lucky in Melbourne, we have a climate that’s kind to everything from stone fruit and citrus, to sub-tropical fruits,” she says.

Ms Thorton is growing several sub-tropicals, including jaboticaba, longan and wampee. “You can grow them here so long as they’re near something that holds the sun’s heat, such as masonry or water,” she says.

When there was no room to walk around her thriving backyard in Bayside, she bought a block on the Mornington Peninsula.

“I’ve got a lot of rare and unusual fruits. I’ve got gooseberries, josterberries and mountain paw paw,” she says. “I’ve got something called a jujube, which is very popular in China because it has stress relieving properties and tastes delicious like sweet dates.”

If you’re looking for something less exotic, Ms Thornton says you can’t go wrong with citrus. The Heritage Fruits Society website has tips for planning, planting and care, as well as historical catalogues, fruit poems and exhaustive lists of varieties.

As a general rule, it’s best to plant fruit trees in winter, when they’re dormant. “Fruit trees are a lot less work than a vegetable garden, but while they’re young you have to water them through summer and mulch them well,” she says. “Feed them during their growing season with plenty of organic chook poo and blood-and-bone with potash.”

Read this story at the Age online

What would the festive season be like without the bells and whistles?

ONE way of preparing for Christmas involves buying new things – a lot of new things. But there are other ways too.

The New South Wales Uniting Church runs a website called What Would Jesus Buy?, which contains articles and links – both spiritual and secular – on the matter of consumption. As the website’s coordinator, Stephen Webb, explains, its tagline is “Stop the shopocalypse”.

“For Christians, this is the time of advent, so there’s lots of thinking about the way we lead our lives,” he says. “How can we use our time and income to do something useful, rather than just contribute further to the consumer culture around us?”

This year, with scientists’ warnings about climate change continuing and the global financial system seeming ever more volatile, there’s a growing chorus for a different kind of Christmas.

In the United States, the Occupy Wall Street movement has not only spread throughout the country, but also to Santa’s sleigh, with campaign called Occupy Xmas. It draws upon Buy Nothing Christmas, a longer-standing initiative complete with amusing, snarky posters (“Santa Came, Jesus Wept”).

On the environmental front, Mr Webb says the relationship between consumption and climate change is clear, but can be minimised with careful thought. “You can still buy certain things and have a good time without contributing to injustice, pollution and global warming,” he says. “And as we celebrate, we can think about what we’re celebrating and what is of value to us.”

If you’re looking for hints about alternatives, Environment Victoria has put together a festive season guide, which contains gift ideas and tactics for reducing waste and needless expense, from wrapping paper to table decorations.

“Christmas is a time of incredibly high consumption, in so many ways,” says Michele Burton from Environment Victoria. “There are all the presents, wrapping and cards, but there’s also all the food, and typically, a lot gets wasted.”

Meat – especially red meat – leaves a hefty mark on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity. “We’re not suggesting you go vegetarian for Christmas, but it’s a good idea to reduce your meat consumption,” she says.

For more detailed information about the footprint of your yuletide food, see the Ethical Consumer Group’s guide to Christmas, and its new Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping, updated for 2012.

When it comes to gifts, Ms Burton says families could opt for a Kris Kringle, rather than buy for everyone; make or bake their own presents; or give experiences rather than things.

“If you do buy something, choose items that will last – for example, wooden toys will last much longer than plastic ones,” she says.

If the choices appear too complex, keep the details in perspective by focussing on bigger issues around the home, such as buying GreenPower, limiting consumption overall and avoiding flights. The eco-savings of obsessing over re-used wrapping paper will be well and truly shredded if you jet to Bali on Boxing Day.

On that note, Ms Burton says the holiday season is a fine time to establish patterns for the year to come. “You can look back on the year you’ve had and the choices you’ve made, and aim for your Christmas to reflect the way you want to live,” she says.

Read this article at The Age online

That plant you despised could become your dinner

ADAM Grubb makes a beeline for a plant clumping in the mulch, behind a park bench, next to the barbeque area.

“This is mallow,” he explains, “which is related to the marshmallow plant and to okra. You can eat the leaves, the seeds and the flowers. It’s eaten widely around the world, especially in the Middle-East.”

We’re in a small, typical park in Brunswick. Mr Grubb, from Very Edible Gardens, runs regular edible weeds walks, in which he traces an extraordinary, wholly overlooked fact.

“The vast majority of herbaceous annual weeds – the most common plants that pop up without invitation – are edible. And a lot of them are medicinal,” he says.

Most can act as substitutes for our normal leafy greens. Mr Grubb also suggests blending them with fruit to make green smoothies.

But it so happens that today in the park, we find mallow, with its seeds, and salsify, a starchy root that looks like a white carrot. “They could be the foundational parts of a meal,” he explains. Nearby we identify five more edibles, side-by-side: milk thistle, dock, dandelion, wild lettuce and cleavers.

At the moment, Mr Grubb is up to his elbows researching edible weeds for a book he’s writing with Annie Raser-Rowland, who teaches workshops on the subject at CERES Environment Park. (While you wait for theirs, see this booklet by Pat Collins.)

Facts about all kinds of plants roll off his tongue – like these about cleavers: “Also known as sticky-weed or goosegrass, it’s in a lot of ancient medicinal books as a lymphatic stimulator. Pliny the Elder said it’s good to improve one’s lankness and to keep from fatness,” he says. “You can also make a coffee substitute out of it.”

If that sounds obscure, here’s something more straightforward. “Remarkably, a large percentage of these wild plants are more nutritious than spinach,” he says. “They’re higher in vitamins A, C and E, higher in omega-3, and much higher in anti-oxidants.”

Aside from the nutritional benefits, there’s a practical plus to all this weed-eating. “Learning to see the benefits of these plants is revelatory, because it means you have to do less work in the garden. The only definition for a weed is a plant out of place. We can do the weeding in our minds,” he says.

Mr Grubb offers a word of caution, however: some are poisonous. The Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking a cup of hemlock, which is common around Melbourne. “Don’t go eating anything you haven’t identified beyond doubt,” he says.

Ms Raser-Rowland says that from an ecological perspective, many weeds help repair damaged land. “They can stabilise and rebuild topsoil, trap nutrients and slow water movement,” she says. “In doing that, they create homes and food for birds, insects and other animals.”

She says the good things about backyard vegie patches, such as reducing transport and packaging, are magnified in the case of weeds.

“If these plants can produce food in our urban areas, with no need for labour or inputs pillaged from other ecosystems, it seems worth asking whether they have a role here – not an unchecked role, but a role.”

“There’s also something very, very reassuring in walking your territory and picking food. It has been the dominant activity of most of our human history, so perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising.”

Read this article at The Age online