Posts Tagged ‘consumption’
Air Travel & Climate Change: Talk Climate Forum
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 12th, 2010
Source: Climate Action Centre
Visit the website for more details.
Tags: air, consumption, sustainability, transport
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Greener Apartment Living: EcoCity Forum
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 10th, 2010
Image: see-ming lee via flickr CC
The EcoCity Forums provide the community with an opportunity to learn about Melbourne City Council’s sustainability programs and find out what you can do at home to reduce your ecological footprint.
More than 70 per cent of residents in the City of Melbourne municipality live in apartments. Overall, residents account for 22 per cent of the municipality’s water consumption, 7 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 14,000 tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year. The session will provide information to residents, especially apartment-dwellers, about how they can reduce their everyday environmental impact. The community will learn how sustainability programs from the City of Melbourne and other organisations can be applied to apartments. Residents are also encouraged to share stories of ‘green’ features they have created within their homes.
Presenters include:
* Glenn Howard, Director, h2ouse environmental plumbing consultants
* Matt Williams, Sustainable Design consultant
* Esther Bailey, Enact Energy
* Dorothy LeClaire, Melbourne Inner City Management (MICM)
* Alex Fearnside, Sustainability, City of Melbourne
Thursday 18 March, 7pm – 9pm
Services and providers’ products on display. Sustainable door prizes. RSVP: by Mon 15 Mar ecocityforum@melbourne.vic.gov.au
Councillor Cathy Oke, Future Melbourne (Eco-City) Committee chair will host the session.
Tags: apartment, consumption, high-density, residential
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Sustainability on Show
Posted in Events by collette on March 1st, 2010
Building or renovating a home? Go green with the latest energy efficient products. Visit Sustainability on Show and walk away with hundreds of green ideas to improve the health of your home and environment – plus save money. Reduce your carbon footprint with building and renovating ideas and products that conserve energy, save water and incorporate sustainable design. It’s a one-stop shop from flooring to kitchens, water efficiency to building materials – see it all at Sustainability on Show, a major feature of the Building & Home Improvement Expo.
9 – 11 July 2010 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Open 10am – 9pm Fri & Sat, 10am – 5pm Sun.
Visit buildexpo.com.au for more details.
Tags: behaviour change, building expo, consumption, energy
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Sustainable Living Space Users’ Guides: March
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on February 25th, 2010
Source: Sustainable Living Space
Users Guide to Solar Hot Water
Presenter : Kevin Fregon
Heating Water for domestic use represents a large part of our home energy use. By installing a solar hot water system, we can make substantial savings to our energy bills as well as making a difference to our ecological footprint. This session will explore a range of issues concerning installing solar hot water systems on your home or apartment.
Wednesday March 3, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Users Guide to Water Tanks
Presenter: Jenny Francis
Are you considering harvesting rain water by installing a water tank? This is the workshop for you. In this session we will explore the reasons for catching rain water, how to choose the right tank for you, where to locate your tank, as well as installation and flow maintenance issues.
Wednesday March 10, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Users Guide to Grey Water
Presenter: Jenny Francis
We can reduce our water consumption by reusing our grey water in our garden. There are some limitations to the use of grey water. In this workshop, we will explore the reasons for reusing grey water, the composition of Greywater, Garden friendly grey water, distribution techniques, as well as your plants and grey water.
Wednesday March 17, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Tags: community, consumption, education, Ringwood, water
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Smart Grids for Distributed Power
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 24th, 2010
Source: Stock & Land
From The changing face of rural Australia’s energy supply, by Matt Cawood
THE nature of the power grid is about to fundamentally change, analyst Paul Budde believes.
Instead of a central power station pushing energy out to homes, farms and business sites around the grid, many sites will become capable of generating renewable power and sharing it around the grid via a “smart” management system that uses computer analysis to trigger switchgear. The United States government has just allocated US$20 billion to developing such a grid, and the Australian government is seeking tenders on a more modest $100 million grid linking 10,000 houses.
Mr Budde, whose company BuddeComm has recently released an analysis of smart grid trends and opportunities in Australia, regards the move to smart grids as “absolutely inevitable”. Currently, nearly a third of all energy generated is wasted because of inefficiencies in the delivery system, he said. “About 10 per cent of all power just disappears. We can’t afford to waste electricity in such a way.”
The cost of fossil-fuel generated electricity continues to climb. A system that helps use power more efficiently—by, for instance, switching on dishwashers in the early hours of the morning instead of during peak load—patterns of energy delivery can be smoothed out and the infrastructure needed to supply energy refined. And then there is the surge in renewable energy generation. “If we want solar energy, we want it to be efficient. It is not very efficient for everyone to have their own solar panels but not utilising the combined power of what is effectively a giant solar panel if you join them all together. A smart grid does that, and makes the whole system more efficient.”
Farmers have a big role to play in a world of smart grids, Mr Budde said. “Already in Europe, in places like Denmark and Germany, lots of farmers have windmills—thousands of them. It’s not just for their own properties: they are pumping energy back into the network. In Australia, solar power generation should be a very useful farming activity.”
From The changing face of rural Australia’s energy supply, by Matt Cawood
Tags: consumption, energy, production, smart grid
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Out of the Scientist’s Garden: Australian Urban Agriculture
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 22nd, 2010
Source: Cleanfood, the Future Climate newsletter
Out of the Scientist’s Garden — a story of water and food by Richard Stirzaker
From the Book Review by Andrew Campbell
There are few more fundamental issues facing humanity than how best to feed ourselves in an increasingly crowded world, and — in Australia especially — what that means for scarce water resources. Richard Stirzaker has written a fascinating exploration of the realities of turning water, sunlight and nutrients into food. Out of the Scientist’s Garden — a story of water and food is published by CSIRO Publishing.
This elegant, lucid book starts in the Stirzaker family garden on a 877m2 block in suburban O’Connor, ACT. It works from that very local scale through large-scale industrial agriculture to national and global food security issues and back again, always grounded in a profound understanding of the challenges facing food producers at all levels. In our quest for more sustainable options, the Stirzaker garden should stimulate the Australian consciousness as Walden Pond did for Americans — an evocative lens through which to examine and better understand big issues of our time.
In his day job, Dr Richard Stirzaker is a Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO. He has an outstanding track record in science and innovation as the inventor of a uniquely simple irrigation wetting front detector and CSIRO’s ‘Clever Clover’ kit for vegetable gardens. First and foremost, Richard Stirzaker is a gardener with a lifelong passion for growing food. This book unites the scientist and the gardener beautifully, blending the rigour of the scientific method with the sensuality of planting in rich soil and tasting perfectly ripe fruit and fresh vegetables. When Stirzaker suggests that the best way to experience an apricot at its most perfect is to lie under the tree with your mouth open, it is easy to imagine him doing just that.
Tags: consumption, soil, urban agriculture, water
No Comments » |
Email This Post
2010 Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 19th, 2010
Source: Ethical Consumer Guide
The 2010 Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping is now available. To help you navigate through the issues connected to your everyday purchases, we’ve not only updated company information, but also added a more detailed rating system, new blurbs, and two new categories — Alcohol and Office Supplies. Order here.
Overview:
The Ethical Consumer Guide has come out of a shared concern that many people although eager to make changes in their buying habits for the better, do not have access to information to make informed choices. The website and accompanying guides, provide information on companies and brands, drawing from existing sources. The information allows evaluation of the social and environmental impact of companies on the earth and our society, and gives insight into the ever-increasing concentration of company and brand ownership.
The guide is specific to Australia. We hope that this ethical buying guide can allow people to not only make wiser choices in their purchases and open up a dialogue with companies, but also come to more fully understand the connection between how we act and what is going on in the world around us.
It is our aim to:
* inform shoppers of more ethical or less ethical choices in their buying
* empower people and create awareness about consumer power
* provide a means for consumers to give feedback to companies and government, and so encourage change
In doing this we seek to make all information:
* freely accessible
* transparent and well sourced
* easy to use for the everyday shopper
Tags: behaviour change, consumption, education, Food
No Comments » |
Email This Post
CarrotMob: Supporting Sustainable Business
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on February 11th, 2010
http://melbourne.carrotmob.org/
Tags: behaviour change, consumption, local action, networks
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Draughtproof Your Home: Workshop
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on February 5th, 2010
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Image: douglemoine via flickr CC
Draughtproofing is the necessary first step to improving the thermal performance of your home. Draughts reduce the effectiveness of your home’s insulation, and can lead to big energy bills. Effective weather seals on all external doors, brush seals on internal bathroom, toilet and laundry doors, exhaust fan seals and elimination of recessed downlights will all contribute significantly to reducing air leakage. In this workshop presented by Maurice Beinat (EcoMaster), we will explore the many sources of draughts, and what you can do to prevent them.
Thu 11 Feb, 7pm – 9.30pm
Meeting Room 3&4, Ringwood Civic Centre, Braeside Ave, Ringwood
All welcome, Gold Coin appreciated.
Info: Chris or Sue, Nth Ringwood Community House 9876 3421 project@sustainablelivingspace.org.au, or visit the website.
Tags: community, consumption, education, energy
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Sustainable Consumption: Design for Disassembly
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on February 5th, 2010
Source: Core 77
Image: Core 77
From “Afterlife: an essential guide to design for disassembly“, by Alex Diener
What is Design for Disassembly?
Design for Disassembly (DfD) is a design strategy that considers the future need to disassemble a product for repair, refurbish or recycle. Will a product need to be repaired? Which parts will need replacement? Who will repair it? How can the experience be simple and intuitive? Can the product be reclaimed, refurbished, and resold? If it must be discarded, how can we facilitate its disassembly into easily recyclable components? By responding to questions like these, the DfD method increases the effectiveness of a product both during and after its life.
Where did Design for Disassembly come from?
Our ancient tools, meticulously crafted from natural materials and intended for repair and reuse, are perhaps the earliest example of DfD. During the 1950’s rise of consumerism, fueled by mass production methods, cheap labor, and design fashion, disposability became the norm. Over time, the waste created by planned obsolescence and a throw-away culture was exposed. Organizations studied the negative impacts of toxins found in our product waste and governments began to regulate. In 2004, the European Union passed the landmark WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive, placing the responsibility of disposing electronic products with their manufacturers. This tectonic shift was recognized as a sign of things to come by global manufacturers, driving interest in the DfD strategy.
How do I Design for Disassembly?
Given environmental and cost constraints, our challenge is as much product de-creation as it is creation. And DfD strategies are applied throughout the entire design cycle; designers will need to educate the team, discover waste, set goals, create solutions, and then monitor results through production, release, use, and end-of-life.
Read the full article for more information including:
Pre-Design: Organizational Education + Buy-In
Pre-Design: Research the Recycling Stream
Design: Set goals + Project Planning
Design: Research Materials + Processes
Design: Create DfD Concepts
Post-Design
Tags: behaviour change, consumption, industrial design
No Comments » |
Email This Post