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Category Archives: Sustainable Living

Are sustainable houses worth more?

AFR, 11 September 2015. Jeremy Spencer built a house for his family and parents to move into last year. The three-bedroom, two-storey house in Seaholme, in Melbourne’s west, meets several needs – it’s accessible in its design, with wide passageways, ramps and counter-hung benches that permit his wheelchair-bound father to fully participate in the family life. It’s also sustainable. The house is built with materials such as a recycled concrete-and-glass slab and recycled bricks on the inside to create a thermal mass that absorbs northern sun in winter and diffuses it at night. It also has a solar panel system on the roof. “Our …

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Save $10,000 by downloading a sustainable home plan

Domain, 11 September 2015. Sustainable home designs are now available for free online as the government encourages prospective home builders to go green. The initiative, Design for Place, offers three individual floor plans for a single-storey home, which vary according to the site size and target a seven-star energy rating. Parliamentary secretary for industry and science Karen Andrews said the material was a great resource for anyone planning a new home. Architect-designed home plans are available to the public at no cost. “The plans use sustainable design principles that will help people save energy and money, no matter where they live in Australia,” she said. A Department of Industry and …

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2015 Sustainable House Day opens homes to the public this weekend

The Advertiser, 11 September 2015. For people with sustainability on their minds who are looking to build a home, put 2015 Sustainable House Day this weekend on your to-do list. Sustainable House Day on Sunday will see homeowners around Australia swing open their doors and welcome the public into their sustainability-focused properties. Sustainable House Day provides a unique opportunity to look around these houses, meet and talk to the owners and designers and get some insight into the principles of sustainable design and solar architecture. Each of the houses was designed around sustainable design principles using passive solar design, solar …

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Naomi Klein says building new nuclear power plants ‘doesn’t make sense’

News.com.au, 1 September 2015. BUILDING new nuclear power plants to create a carbon-free world “doesn’t make sense” and just serves as a distraction from the risks, Canadian author Naomi Klein says. The activist and author of This Changes Everything, was asked what she thought about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in South Australia, which a Royal Commission in the state is currently considering. Backers of nuclear power often spruik it as an alternative to renewables because it does not produce greenhouse gases, unlike coal-fired power stations. But Klein said building new nuclear plants did not make any …

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Sustainable living put to the test in Bondor-QUT study partnership

Sustainable housing is increasingly sought-after by Australians – but how effective are current strategies and products used in sustainable construction? A study, which sees Queensland University of Technology (QUT) team up with Bondor, aims to find out. Residential homes in each state constructed using Bondor’s innovative InsulLiving® building products, InsulWall® and SolarSpan®, will be monitored over an extended period of time to evaluate how Bondor’s high performance thermal building system meets the needs of the residents in relation to both energy cost savings and comfort. QUT’s Dr Wendy Miller and Bondor have been working closely since 2009 when Bondor first …

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