Green Building Material: Straw Bale Houses

Whilst not necessarily a new building material, straw is increasingly been seen as a greener option to build a home.

Simon Turner

Save Water: Re-Cycle Your Bath Water

Imagine reusing your wasted water in the bathroom.

Designer Jun Yasumoto has created one, his mini-eco-system uses the principles of phyto-purification, a filtering process that recycles the water that is wasted.

Normally used in ecological purification systems, an organic system re-cycles the water from the shower and basin allowing it to be reused.

THE PHYTO PURIFICATION PROCESS:

- Rushes are planted in sand which allows the filtration of larger particles. The root system of the rushes contain various bacteria enabling the breakdown of these particles for absorption by the plant.

- Reeds are planted next to the rushes due to their ability to filter the heavy metals from the water.

- Floating water hyacinths are used due to their ability to draw some of the water borne particles through their roots.

- Lemnas (aquatic plants) bind to the remaining aquatic micro-organisms to complete the filtration process.

- The final step uses a carbon filter to absorb the remaining micro-particles.

Ok, so you may not like the idea of bathing again in this water (or it may take some getting used to), but the water could prove acceptable for many other household requirements thus reducing your carbon footprint and allowing you to become more green.

Simon Turner

http://marquetteturner.com/eco-friendly-your-bathroom-can-be-an-eco-system/trackback/

Grey to Green – Creating a Green Home

How Green Are You? Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

An Ecological Footprint is the measurement used to calculate how much human pressure we place on our planet.  

You can now find out your own individual pressure – at first it may horrify you but so long as you do something about it, that can only help.

I have just taken a test to find out what my Ecological Footprint is. What a shock! I am horrified to learn how high it is as I thought I was living “green”.

Global Footprint Network stated that if everyone lived the lifestyle of the average American,  we would need 5 planets. My results stated I would need 4.6 planets.

I encourage everyone to take this test here www.ecofoot.org

Christine Watson

this article originally featured on the MarquetteTurner.com site

Sustainable Energy: Is Clean Coal Really Clean?

When I hear the term “clean coal” I can’t help but wonder what it could possibly mean? Coal to me is black and dirty and produces horrible black and smelly smoke when it is burned. The term “clean coal” is used to refer to any process used at a new or existing facility which will significantly reduce sulfur dioxide emissions or other green house gases in the fight against global warming.

Around 50% of electricity production in the USA is through coal fuelled power stations. The clean coal technology term is used to describe the process by which carbon is captured and sequestrated (confiscated and stored). There are currently estimates that clean coal technology reduces emissions by as much as 77% so there are still at least 23% of emissions that are not captured.

The other issue is of course in the storage of pollutants and radionuclides. Significant amounts of fossil fuel energy are required to mine coal and transport it to power stations. Disposing of pollutants and transporting the waste also require large amounts of fossil fuel energy and therefore the whole notion of “clean coal” technology seems questionable at the very least.

Coal mining can strip away mountains, hills and natural areas and can cause enormous environmental destruction due to subsidence, erosion and degradation. While there is no question that “clean coal” technology reduces green house emissions it does not compare to the efficiency and environmentally friendly solar and wind technologies. These should surely be the methods Australia pursues. We can only hope.

Michael Marquette on +61 433 170 170

Nuclear Power is not the Energy Source for Australia

We have all heard the debate in relation to climate change regarding the use of Nuclear Power as a potential replacement for our coal fueled power stations. Is Nuclear power clean and green? Will nuclear power decrease the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions and thus decrease global warming?

In 2007 around 15% of the world’s electricity came from nuclear power. The United States produces the most nuclear energy in the world with nuclear power providing 19% of its electricity supply. France supplies more than 78% of its electricity through nuclear reactors and the European Union as a whole relies on nuclear power for around 30% of its total electricity needs.

The reality is that enormous amounts of fossil fuel are used to mine, mill and enrich Uranium that is needed to fuel a nuclear power plant as well as construct the enormous concrete reactor. Nuclear reactors have a 30-40 year life cycle and massive amounts of fossil fuel energy are required to complete the dismantling process. There is also enormous fossil fuel energy required to transport and store the nuclear waste which is buried underground.

Scarily radioactive waste like Strontium 90 remains radioactive for 600 years. Plutonium is the most significant element in nuclear waste and is so toxic and carcinogenic that 500 grams of the waste evenly distributed around the globe would be enough to cause cancer for every man, woman and child on the planet and Plutonium waste remains toxic for 500,000 years.

When considering radiation it is easy to look at Dentists when they X-Ray your teeth. The dentist will leave the room because any amount of radiation is dangerous if you are exposed to it often enough. The USA currently has more than 55,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that it has stored with each reactor producing a further 25-30 tons of nuclear waste annually.

Australia currently has no commercially operational or planned nuclear reactors. Our focus should be on the harnessing of solar and wind for our energy production. The Kyoto Protocol requires that we produce 20% of our energy needs through renewable means by 2020.

I would like to see our politicians commit to the British plan of producing enough off shore wind farms to produce all of the energy required to power the entire nation by 2020. If nuclear power is too dangerous for Iran to have we should not be looking to increase its use anywhere in the World.

Michael Marquette on +61 433 170 170

Original article published on the Marquette Turner site

Australian Resources: Solar Power and Wind Power Must Be Used

Given the location and size of Australia it is possible that we could lead the world in solar and wind technology. We live on the largest ssland in the World, have the 7th largest land mass of any country, we are surrounded by ocean and have a population of just over 21.84 million people. We have an abundance of land, plenty of ocean and enormous deserts.

Wind farms throughout the world are being set up with a few dozen to several hundred wind turbines. Some are being set up offshore to take advantage of strong winds over lakes or oceans. Germany currently has the largest wind generation capacity followed by USA, Spain, India and China. The United Kingdom plans to power all of its homes by wind power by 2020 through enormous offshore wind farms.

By ratifying the Kyoto protocol in 2007 Australia committed to producing 20% renewable power by 2020 – in other words we have just 11 years to improve our performance from just over 4% to the 20% target. Australia currently uses wind technology to produce just over 1% of our energy needs and a further 3% is harnessed through solar. Scotland is already using renewable sources to produce 19% of its energy needs.

Germany has 100 times more installed solar capacity than Australia. Australia has only 25,000 households with solar panels installed and solar installation is increasing at 15% per year compared with 30-40% globally. With so much capacity to produce energy through renewable sources the Australian Government must put policy in place to encourage installation of solar and wind facilities. There is no excuse for Australia to be anywhere but first place in the race to be green.

Watch a video to see how solar panel works HERE

Michael Marquette on +61 433 170 170

this article first appeared on the Marquette Turner Luxury Homes site

How to Receive the Homeowner Insulation Rebate from the Australian Government

Australian homeowners are able to receive financial assistance – the Homeowner Insulation Rebate – an  incentive to eco renovate.

Why Use Insulation?

Quite simply, by insulating your home, you will utilise one of the simplest methods to make your home more energy efficient and regulate the air temperature.

Effective insulation keeps the heat in and keeps the cold out during the winter, and assists in regulating the cool air in your home during the summer, thus benefiting from reducing your requirements (and thus expenses) for artificial heating.

The Homeowner Insulation Rebate

This allows for zero up-front costs for insulation installations that generally cost in the realms of less $1600 for the majority of households.

In the specific case of landlords and tenants, there is a Low Emission Assistance Plan for Renters, which qualifies investment/rental properties to receive assistance of up to $1000 for insulation installation. Given that the average cost for installing insulation is approximately $1200 per property, that means an outlay of around just $200.

Getting Your Insulation Installed

1. Find out if you are eligible. (there are a few limitations, notably for those household that are also considering solar hot water Federal Government rebates).

2. To find registered installers, search online on the Insulation Installers Register.

Begin your search HERE

3. To find out what options of installation are most appropriate for your home, discuss the possibilities with your registered installer. Your climate region and the heat flow in your home will dictate the best option for you.

Find out more about the Homeowner Insulation Rebate on the Federal Government website HERE

Simon Turner

http://marquetteturner.com/how-to-receive-insulation-rebates-in-australia/trackback/

Designer Eco-Product: Recycled Glass

I’m a huge fan of the myriad of designer glassware, so the news that Artecnica has created the environmentally friendly Transglass collection as part of their Design With a Conscience program is great news.

Whether you’re a fan of vases, jugs, carafes or drinking tumblers, and whether for practical or visual purposes, this collection which is created using recycled wine and beer bottles nicely mixes design aesthetics with eco ideals.

Simon Turner

Eco Products: Vodka 360

We’ve mentioned green beer before, and now for spirit lovers, there’s Vodka 360 from the US.

Whilst the vodka itself isn’t organic, it’s sexy packaging is plus an eco-audit details the environmental benefits of the packaging.

Cheers!

Simon Turner

How to Build a Greener Home: The EcoFaceBrick

EcoFaeBrick turns cattle waste into bricks that are greener, 20% stronger and 20% lighter than regular clay bricks.

This Indonesian group was established in early 2009 to deal with the problems surrounding excessive waste in farming areas. From this, the ecological and economical solution of the Cow Dung Brick was born.

Instead of using wood fire the dung bricks are fired using biogas, helping to further reduce carbon emissions (up to 1692 tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of turning 269 cars into hybrids). A further benefit is that by using 75% of processed cattle waste, 53 hectares of productive agriculture land is able to be preserved.

There’s no visible difference between a traditional brick and the dung brick (see the image below) —with no nasty smell or health hazards.

It’s a simple, practical and worthwhile idea.

Website: www.ecofaebrick.com

Simon Turner