Bob Cameron at the Rockote Design Centre

Australia’s first sustainable commercial building wins international recognition

Yandina-based Rockcote, manufacturers of eco-friendly paints and renders, have gained international recognition for their Gold Coast showroom. The Rockcote Design Centre, Australia’s first truly sustainable commercial building, is built on a former wasteland at Nerang.

The building was announced as the runner-up in the prestigious international 2008 Prix D’Excellence Awards Environmental Category at the FIABCI World Congress in Amsterdam on May 29.

With architecture cleverly integrated into the landscaping of the surrounding site, the building achieves total self-sufficiency in water, waste treatment and energy.

Furthermore it sells its excess power into the electricity grid. These features are a first for a commercial building of its kind in Australia and set. It is now setting an example in its use of natural systems for heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation for others to follow.

Integral to the building’s design is the surrounding organic garden and its water capture and treatment system. They all work together to provide clean water, food, clean air, and a healthy environment. The fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in the garden are enjoyed by the building’s occupants and visitors in their cafe.

Rockcote’s owner Bob Cameron said: “Our project demonstrates that environmental objectives can be achieved at no greater cost than a conventional building of the same size.

“More importantly, its running costs are far lower, it provides a healthier and more productive environment for all who use it and gives considerable benefits for the surrounding community.”

In 2006 the Rockcote Design Centre was recognised as Australia’s best building, winning the President’s Award in the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s National Awards for Excellence.

A study finds Nambour is relatively well protected from the expected blows of peak oil, however other Sunshine Coast locations won’t be so lucky.

A recent study has found Nambour to be relatively protected from the pain of escalating fuel prices.

As part of his environmental planning honours studies at Griffith University, Phil Woods questioned many Nambour residents about how rising fuel prices are affecting their day-to-day lives. He found the town’s facilities and infrastructure are cushioning many of the working and retired population. Even though others are feeling a pinch in their hip pocket nerve, they are not.

“Nambour is an old established town compared to the strip development along the coast,” Mr Woods said. “It has a localised economy of its own — a major hospital, a TAFE college, some industrial businesses, retail and commercial businesses, schools and so on. Without the coast, Nambour could still function quite well on its own.”

Nambour’s localised economy means that around one third of its workers travel less than five kilometres to work. Retirees in Nambour, too, are generally not feeling the pressure at the petrol bowser because, while many own cars, the number of kilometres driven is comparatively small. These are the people whose lives will probably continue unchanged if prices rise beyond two dollars a litre.

However another third of Nambour’s workers travel to workplaces more than 30 kilometres away. Others have children with diverse recreational and sporting activities requiring relatively long and frequent trips in parents’ cars on weekends. Others rely on social networks and interests in areas away from Nambour. These people are most vulnerable to rising petrol prices.

Many are already changing their habits to minimise their petrol costs. By far the most popular response was to plan ahead and undertake several tasks during one trip. Others were cutting back on holiday trips or non-essential expenses, using the smallest family car more, and car pooling.

“I was expecting to see the trends of using more public transport and moving to scooters and motorbikes, because this is what’s happening in other areas,” said Mr Woods. “However I found that people love the convenience, comfort and freedom of their car, and they see public transport as neither reliable nor comfortable.

“While in capital cities there was a seven-fold increase in scooter sales in as many years, and a doubling of motorcycle sales in general, Nambour drivers were concerned about bikes and scooters being driven off the road by cars. In cities, people turn to scooters because of congestion and traffic jams, but we don’t have that here in Nambour.”

The results of the study raise questions about how other parts of the Sunshine Coast will fare without advantages such as Nambour’s.

“In every town in Australia, almost everyone has a car, but it’s the amount of travelling done in that car. If where you live has a localised economy, then the population as a whole is probably less vulnerable,” Mr Woods said. “So coastal towns that only have tourism and accommodation, for example, are more vulnerable than Nambour.”

By examining impacts at a household level, Mr Woods’ study builds on work undertaken by Jago Dodson and Neil Sipe of Griffith University. Their 2005 report Oil Vulnerability in Australian Cities examines the impact of rising oil prices at a neighbourhood level. It found poorer outer suburbs in Australian cities are likely to be most affected by rising petrol costs because of their dependence on motor vehicles and limited access to public transport. In contrast, wealthy inner suburbs are less vulnerable because of their higher incomes and better access to public transport.

“The reason why rising fuel costs will impact on lower socio-economic groups in the outer suburbs is twofold. First, these households are already at a greater risk of adverse impacts from any socio-economic change,” Dr Dodson said.

“Secondly, these households are more dependent on cars for travel. This dependence means residents who rely on cheap petrol to drive to work or the shops are highly vulnerable to increased fuel costs. This may be compounded by the lack of alternative modes of transport, such as public transport, walking or cycling.”

Dr Sipe said governments need to understand how rising oil prices will affect Australian suburbs and plan to limit the impacts on car dependent neighbourhoods through provision of better public transport services.

The report found Brisbane’s outer growth corridors were most vulnerable to rising petrol prices. These areas included the suburbs of Beenleigh, Caboolture and Ipswich.

With oil becoming scarcer and more expensive, government policies of subsidising oil consumption are delaying urgent action and directing vital funds away from long term solutions.

After growing for 150 years, the oil age is coming to an end. The term peak oil is one we will hear a lot more in the future. It refers to the time when the production of oil stops growing and starts to decline.

While the oil shocks felt around the world in 1973 and 1979 were caused by geopolitics, the 21st century shock of peak oil is largely due to the growing gap between demand and supply. The effects of peak oil will be profound. However the populist policies of State and Federal Governments that apply selective excise subsidies merely tinker at the edges of the price of fuel.  Mitigating the impact of peak oil means taking action that reduces our dependency on oil, in other words reducing its cost to consumers and industry. To date such action remains in the too-hard basket.

While some developed countries are reducing their oil consumption Japan has achieved a 10 per cent reduction over recent decades, and even the USA’s consumption dipped in 2006; such reductions are more than overtaken by increased consumption in China and India. China outstripped Japan in 2003 to become second only to the USA in its oil consumption. On current trends it will equal the USA in 2020. India doubled its oil consumption between 1992 and 2005.

These trends cannot continue simply because there is not enough oil in the world to sustain them. Demand is pushing the price up and if it weren’t for the rising Australian dollar, petrol today would be much closer to $2 a litre. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted the price of oil to average $US141 a barrel in the second half of 2008, eventually rising to $US200.

The Queensland Government was warned of the dire consequences of peak oil in a report by the now Minister for Sustainability Andrew McNamara published in October last year. Queensland’s vulnerability to rising oil prices – taskforce report advised that tourism could be devastated by rising fuel prices as aviation and motoring costs increase.

The report’s predictions are now starting to become reality, with airlines the first to suffer and Qantas and Jetstar announcing cuts to schedules. The knock-on effect was immediately felt by tourism, the state’s second largest industry behind coal, and one highly vulnerable to changes in fuel prices. Not only is it heavily reliant on long-distance air travel, drive tourism accounts for 75 per cent of domestic travel in Queensland.

Around the world, upward oil prices are biting. General Motors, which manufactures larger fuel-hungry SUVs and pick-up trucks, recently announced it will close four plants in North America because of the pressures of rising oil prices. Chrysler too is feeling the pinch with a downturn in sales.

Given the dire warnings of peak oil and its time frame, only fundamental changes can cushion its effects. As Andrew McNamara said last year: “We will have to confront the reality that the society we have been used to living in is going to have to change dramatically.”

His taskforce report recommends: reduction in consumption of liquid fossil fuels, encouraging the development and use of alternative fuels, technologies and strategies, and preparation for demographic and regional changes, as Queenslanders change travel, work and living habits in response to rising fuel prices.

The report was hailed by commentators, one stating: “It marks the Queensland Government as the first state/provincial government in the world to recognise that peak oil is real and decide to do something about it.”

Since its release in October, however, the only update has been a February announcement that the government is developing a strategy. Calls to Mr McNamara’s office yielded no further information.

Any preparation for the shocks of peak oil is contradicted by the Premier’s early June announcement to fast track more urban sprawl. Some 17 sites in the southeast have been identified to help absorb a population growth of more than 20 per cent over the next 10 years. Areas earmarked on the Sunshine Coast are Maroochydore, Meridan Plains, Caloundra South and Palm View. Questions about public transport and services to these new suburbs remain unanswered. The conclusion is that the developments follow set patterns of oil dependence and in no way prepare future residents for the necessary altered travel, work and living habits identified by Mr McNamara.

Such preparation, as Mr McNamara no doubt knows, is expensive and not amenable to quick fixes. Around Australia, environment groups are calling for the billions of dollars currently spent on fuel subsidies to be redirected to fund critical changes.

In his recent address to the Australian Press Club, Don Henry, Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation said the Federal Government should take fossil fuel subsidies and invest them in energy efficiency, better public transport and cleaner cars.

Likewise, community activist organisation GetUp advocates levelling the playing field through removing fossil fuel subsidies and placing a price on carbon, either through a carbon tax or a regulated cap-and-trade scheme.

Railways, cycle paths and public transport are a better investment than roads, says the Sustainable Transport Coalition, and the perverse policies that subsidise heavy car use and excessive freight transport must be dismantled.

Mr McNamara said to parliament in February 2005: “Peak oil… will impact on our lives more certainly than terrorism, global warming, nuclear war or bird flu.” However, instead of action, the State and Federal Governments through their fossil fuel subsidies appear determined to either ignore the problem or entrench it even further.

Every generation has its taboo… the resource upon which our lives have been built is running out. We don’t talk about it because we cannot imagine it. This is a civilisation in denial.
George Monbiot

Peak oil represents the most serious and immediate challenge to our prosperity and security. It will impact on our lives more certainly than terrorism, global warming, nuclear war or bird flu.
Andrew McNamara, Queensland Parliament Hansard, speech of 22 February 2005

Crude facts about oil

Oil is the foundation of our modern economy and our society, responsible for our wealth, transport, and production. The world consumes 13 billion litres of oil each day. A vast proportion of products we take for granted are derived from oil: fertilisers, computer parts, packaging, pipes, toys, and countless others.

Nineteen sixty four was the year in which the world discovered the greatest amount of oil. Since then each year we have found less and less. In 1982 we began consuming more oil than we were discovering. We now consume four times more oil that is discovered. The price of oil has risen from US$10 a barrel in 1999, through US$140 in June, and is tipped to reach US$200 before the end of the year. If it weren’t for the strong Australian dollar, petrol prices would currently be much closer to $2 a litre.

What is peak oil?

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it begins to decline. Global oil consumption is growing, and until now production has kept pace with consumption. However oil is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

When will it peak?

While forecasts for the date of the global oil peak range between right now and 2020+, there is growing consensus that the peak of oil production in non-OPEC countries will occur between 2010 and 2015. The CEO of Shell Oil said recently “Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.” Last year the Queensland Oil Vulnerability Taskforce predicted peak oil will be reached within 10 years.

What are the likely effects?

Abundant, cheap oil has moulded our modern western lifestyles, so the impact of peak oil is difficult to overstate.

The shock waves as we slide down the other side of the oil production peak will affect our ability to move people and goods, grow food and other crops, heat and cool homes, provide health care, build housing, as well as to produce plastics, medicines, synthetic fabrics, computers and toys. In the USA, for example, each calorie of food is produced by burning 10 calories of oil; each gram of electronic microchips uses 630 grams of fuel.

As a sign of things to come, US chemical manufacturer Dow recently announced a 20 per cent price rise on its whole range due to the increasing cost of energy, feedstock and transportation. In the wide brown land of Australia, eighty per cent of oil usage is for transport. Queensland’s transport, mining, resources and primary industries are particularly vulnerable to increasingly expensive and scarce oil. And most of us live in car-dependent settings.

The threat of high oil prices brings predictions like the desertion of whole belts of outer suburbs, accompanied by the inevitable social upheaval that results from the loss of the Australian dream.
Adam Grubb of EnergyBulletin speculates that if oil reaches $5 a litre we will see suburban wastelands where abandoned McMansions are raided for their copper wiring, where people are forced to live in their cars, and destitute communities fall back on neighbourhood trading to survive.

“Many services of the welfare state may be withdrawn, depending on the political climate,” he speculates. “Restaurants, tourism, recreation, personal services and electronics are likely to be some of the hardest hit industries. The cheap airline industry will collapse. There may be food rationing of basic items.” Beyond Australia’s shores, there is the distinct probability of international conflict as wars are fought over remaining oil supplies.

Facts of petroleum excise subsidies

The Federal Government excise on petrol and diesel is approximately 38 cents per litre.

• Queensland:

The Queensland Government refunds just over 8 cents per litre of the federal excise via a Fuel Subsidy Scheme, resulting in cheaper fuel. The Queensland Government’s Fuel Subsidy Scheme cost taxpayers $528.52 million in 2006/07. The state fuel subsidy is currently received by anyone buying fuel at the bowser in Queensland, however the government has announced plans to alter the system so that only residents of the state receive it. How this will be administered and at what expense is not yet clear.

• National:

Under the federal Fuel Tax Credit Scheme, off-road users such as mining companies pay no excise on diesel. The scheme costs taxpayers $4.9 billion last financial year, up 38 per cent from the previous year, the equivalent $230 a year for every Australian. From 1 July 2008, mining companies will pay no excise on unleaded petrol under an extension of the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme.
Trucking operators receive a rebate of 18.5 cents a litre on excise, paid under the federal Fuel Tax Credit Scheme.

Fossil fuel subsidies: who knows?

For every $28 spent by the government on the fossil fuel industry, only $1 is spent on renewables. A Newspoll survey commissioned by Greenpeace found 78 per cent of Australians didn’t know that oil, coal and gas receive much more in the way of subsidies than renewable energy. GetUp’s Galaxy Research poll found that Australians overwhelmingly prefer their taxes to support renewable energy rather than fossil fuels.

Breakdown of fuel prices in Queensland

The following breakdown is based on a pump price of 147.4 cents per litre (already outdated) for petrol paid by a motorist. For simplicity, a component of ethanol in the fuel is not considered in the equation. In contrast, a mining company does not bear the cost of any excise or GST.

Image: Lyndal Chase

The recent international Green Cities Conference heard that each resident of Brisbane is responsible for 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, compared with just 5.8 tonnes in Beijing. While many point to large and booming economies overseas, population and housing trends here at home are stark reminders that Queenslanders must look to their own back yards for local solutions to their thumping ecological footprints.
“We have an urgent need for change,” says Mark Thomson, architect and President of the Australian Green Development Forum. “The conference brought home that we will be living in a very different world in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time. We may be experiencing more severe storms, floods and droughts, and we as a community need to start responding to these likely occurrences.”
Currently, most new homes are built by project builders. Buyers choose a standard plan and have it positioned on a site, often with scant attention paid to the principles of “passive design”. The result can be energy-intensive homes which need air-conditioning and heating to maintain user comfort. Passive design uses orientation, layout, materials and the site itself to create a comfortable environment for its occupants with little or no need for artificial temperature control.
“One of the reasons why air conditioning has become so prevalent in southeast Queensland is that our modern houses are so poorly positioned on their sites,” Mr Thomson says. “Regulation is playing a role in improving water and energy efficiency, but to my knowledge there are no moves to regulate passive design in new buildings. It’s in the too-hard basket.”

While the industry is showing signs of change, its efforts are falling short of what is needed. The Housing Institute of Australia (HIA) offers GreenSmart courses in sustainable building and those completing are given permission to use the GreenSmart builder’s logo. However, course completion does not guarantee a builder will change their practices.
“Builders find it easier not to apply good passive design principles,” Mr Thomson says. “The challenge for the building industry is to fully acknowledge passive design and understand its importance in addressing issues like climate change.
“And home buyers need to be educated and empowered to demand it.”

While the basic principles of passive design haven’t changed – orientation of living areas towards the north, a thin building layout ensuring good cross ventilation, using appropriate materials that store heat in winter and ventilate adequately in summer, etc – its site-specific nature makes it difficult to stipulate with the use of standard plans.
Some newer developments are starting to adopt the principles of passive design in their homes and estates, but it needs to consider the wider landscape. Vegetation is a major contributor to a house’s microclimate, however many new subdivisions begin by clearing all trees. Expansive roofs, driveways, high fences and paving can considerably heat the microclimate, contributing to the urban “heat island” effect.

“Maintaining a canopy of shade goes a long way to reducing overheating and maintaining a natural microclimate. Sustainable development needs to look at natural vegetative states for clues as to how we should be designing for the future.”

The Smart Sustainable Home Program is an important step in educating home buyers, says Mr Thomson.
“The houses give visitors an opportunity to experience and learn more about passive design. A majority of people are living with the consequences of poor design and Smart Sustainable Homes give them the chance to see and feel other options.”

SALA Homes is a Brisbane-based company selling kit homes with an environmental emphasis. The houses begin with standard plans, typically smaller than the average new home. The plan is adjusted to ensure efficient passive-solar design exploiting prevailing breezes and to suit the buyer’s lifestyle.

“Our homes are the result of a balanced assessment of customer appeal, environmental impact, embodied energy, longevity and cost,” said Bruce Connell, General Manager at SALA.

“Choosing a sustainable house is an economic and environmental decision. People confuse cheap housing with affordable housing. An affordable house is low cost over its lifetime. Our homes feel spacious, and have a lower ecological footprint and lower running costs without compromising usability.”

SALA sources timber from sustainably managed, or plantation forests. Timber used for decking and external cladding is radially sawn to use up to 80 per cent of the log, compared with the traditional 40 per cent. House frames are steel or termite-resistant cypress pine.

Choices of cladding include timber, eco ply, Colorbond or hardboard. SALA decided on offering Colorbond cladding after weighing up its embodied energy – or the energy used to create it – against the need for maintenance, as well as its recyclability at the end of a house’s life. One criterion for selection of other materials was that they produce none of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked with health concerns.

“It’s important to look at the lifetime of the house,” Mr Connell said. “People often make decisions about building a home based on one point in time, then suffer the consequences later of sub-optimal design or high-energy costs.”
Depending on the location of the new home site, SALA may source materials such as frames, flooring and kitchens from local suppliers, providing they are compatible with SALA’s ethos. “It not only reduces freight costs; sourcing local materials helps support the surrounding community, so there’s a social sustainability aspect too.”

A standard SALA home is complete with a solar power system, solar hot water, energy efficient lighting, and water and waste treatment systems and upholds the tenets of universal design.  Universal design ensures a home is accessible to all people at all stages of life. This includes wider doorways, disability friendly appliances and easy access from outside.
“The designs are simple enough for owner builders to construct them. While there are other kit homes on the market, we don’t know of any that have our emphasis on sustainability,” said Mr Connell.

Fast, modular steel

“About 50 per cent of landfill is construction waste,” said Deb Grattan of Seacove Homes, “whereas we manufacture our homes in our Noosaville factory, minimising any waste at the building site.”

Seacove patented its modular construction system that uses lightweight steel. Each house is designed to suit the site and customer preferences, while ensuring passive-solar design for occupant comfort. Cladding materials include sustainable timbers and eco ply. Wall frames are guaranteed for 50 years.

A house can be delivered in three truckloads, including floors and windows. Modular construction means building is very fast – the home can reach lock-up stage within a week. Customers are responsible for fitting internal wallboards, kitchens and bathrooms, and energy and water systems.

The construction technique limits soil disturbance and is particularly suited to steep or awkward blocks. As each home is modular, it can be extended or demounted with relative ease.

“The construction is very strong as well as being fire and termite resistant. Because it’s recyclable it’s almost the ultimate sustainable home,” Ms Grattan said.

Steel and polyurethane panel houses

Maroochydore-based Ecohousing Building Systems use their own patented method to manufacture structural building panels made from lightweight cement sheeting with a polyurethane core.

Managing Director Tonny Bergqvist explains its advantages: “Polyurethane is widely used to insulate refrigerators, hot water systems, passenger jets etc. It’s inert, so it doesn’t give off VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and it has no interest for termites or vermin.”

Each building panel is load bearing and self bracing, so it is very strong without requiring a frame. They are also fire retardant and, importantly, very energy efficient.

“While insulation batts work on the principle of heat absorption, our panels work by heat exclusion. They have very low thermal conductivity, equal to about three metres of brick wall. Our buildings are five-star energy rated, but would be much higher if the scale allowed. Internal walls are fibre cement, sandwiching a polyurethane core. Because our houses are elevated with insulated floors, they maintain constant temperatures,” Mr Bergqvist said.

Ecohousing advises customers on home design and placement on the site to ensure passive design principles are followed. They provide doors and windows, but not kitchens, bathrooms or lighting. If required, they advise on water systems and will supply rainwater tanks and sewage-treatment systems.

The absence of framing means there are fewer components to transport to the site and construction can be undertaken either by the customer, or a builder. The panels can also be used in retrofitting and renovating existing homes.
“We’re not competing with either kit homes or fast-built project homes,” he said. “We are a unique part of the market.”

Greg Downes, of the Downes Survey Group, speaks from experience when he explains his belief that the water and sewerage needs of new housing developments could be self contained in many cases.

“A lot of society’s rules and regulations still reflect old thinking,” he said. “We’ve come a long way, for example Maroochy Council’s planning scheme has sustainability as a core objective. But old patterns are hard to break, and planning schemes can prevent planners and developers from looking at how the site is connected to the wider landscape and responding to its special characteristics.”

While water efficiency measures are cost effective and should not be ignored, the major leaps in sustainable water use come from redesigning the whole system.

“We need new thinking to solve old problems. In the past the various professions involved in housing development focused on specialist areas, trying to optimise their own little bit of the picture. Now we need to work together as teams of specialists.”

Centralised sewerage systems defy all criteria for sustainability, Mr Downes said and they have huge energy costs and are the cause of much environmental harm.

“Water comes to the house from a long way off, and waste leaves the house to be pumped a long way in the other direction. Then it’s treated and poured into the river because we have so much of it and opportunities for large scale recycling at the plant are limited. And the pipes leak and overflow, especially in storm events,” he said.
Underground stormwater pipe systems also break the natural water cycle that, without human interference, would see a much slower flow between rain falling on the ground and entering waterways.

“Allowing nature to treat the water by filtering it through vegetation and soil is the key to healthy waterways.”
An integrated approach can avoid waste, large transport costs and disruptions to natural systems.  Whereas pumping wastewater to centralised treatment plants and treating it to drinking standard is expensive and energy intensive, the Buderim Escape development in Buderim replaces the notion of waste disposal with recycling through on-site treatment systems.

The average household needs only 30 per cent of its water to be drinking quality. The Buderim on-site systems integrate recycled water into home uses such as toilet flushing and garden watering, using all waste water without suggesting it be treated for drinking.

Because the demand for outdoor water use fluctuates, recycled water storage was incorporated with the treatment plants to avoid waste. Collecting rainwater from roofs instead of channelling it as stormwater into streams not only helps balance the hydrology of the area, it also avoids the need for much underground infrastructure.

“Newcastle University worked out that each house’s water needs can be met by a 3000 to 5000 litre tank and on-site reuse. Overall, it reduces mains water use by about 75 per cent and demand on infrastructure by about two-thirds,” Mr Downes said.

Sustainably integrating housing into the wider landscape goes beyond water and sewerage services, and Mr Downes is particularly concerned by the threats to biodiversity on the Sunshine Coast.

“The hinterland’s riparian forests are threatened because of our history of land clearing, and now our lowland heaths and wetlands are threatened by coastal development,” he said. “We need to restore and link remnant vegetation and control the weeds that have exploded since the 1970s – they’re destroying the environment as effectively as clearing.”
Mr Downes’ work in revegetating some 13 hectares of previously cleared farmland at West Woombye as part of a rural residential subdivision won him a 2006 Sunshine Coast Environment Award.

The project removed tens of thousands of weeds and replanted 15,000 trees, reconnecting remnant vegetation to cover two-thirds of the development site. This achievement would not have happened without a passion for the environment.
“We need incentives to protect and restore vegetation. It’s unfair that landholders who have been good environmental custodians in the past are penalised compared with those who have cleared everything in sight and whose usage options are much wider,” he said.

“If we are to build the capacity to meet our sustainability challenges, the response needs to be broadly based, with inclusive partnerships between councils, industry and communities.”

Image: Dayle Batistic and daughter Elleah, and the others in their household, are reaping the rewards of completing the energy and water modules of the Living Smart Homes Project.
Photo: Courtesy Batistic family”

We’ve learned so much,” says Dayle Batistic, mother of three, “such as how to read our meters and audit our water and energy use. The actions we’ve taken, like changing to energy efficient light bulbs and turning down the temperature of the hot water system, have had no negative effect on our comfort. We’ve since converted to solar hot water and even though there was a nine per cent price rise in electricity last year, we’ve reduced our bill by eleven per cent.”

The Living Smart Homes Project aims to empower householders to do something about climate change on the home front. Run by the local council in Caboolture and Noosa, it is currently completing its pilot stage. The Batistic household is one of 50 in Caboolture and 90 in Noosa to sign up.

Image: Matt and Rebecca Colefax and their family live in Tewantin and have also signed up to the Living Smart Homes Project. “It makes so much sense,” Matt says about the program. “Visitors see our sign and take interest. We’re planting the seed in their minds that they can do something too.”

Participants receive a sign to display at the front of their property. As they work through four self-paced modules – energy, water, waste and transport – they develop an understanding of their own consumption patterns and how they might change them. On completion of each module, the household receives a badge to attach to the sign.

Mrs Batistic’s electricity savings were a good return on her investment of 45 minutes spent working through the energy module on the project website.

“We haven’t done transport module yet, but instead of driving the kids seven kilometres to school we now ride our bikes together. So that’s a saving of $15 a week in petrol and we’re burning seven kilometres of calories each trip. The kids get out into the environment and are noticing things, like the local koalas, snakes and wallabies,” she said.

“It’s a wonderful program because it makes you so aware. We had all the information before, but we had never analysed it and put it in terms of carbon emissions. When you see your impact, that’s when you go: ‘I can change that!’ And it connects you with other people – they ask about our sign and want to join up.”

The program has been a catalyst for Dayle and her husband Richard to become involved in other environmental initiatives such as the Caboolture region environmental education centre (CREEC) at Burpengary. They have also formed their own bush care group and are helping to promote the Living Smart Homes Project to other groups.

The Living Smart Homes Project is current being evaluated and will soon be extended to Caloundra residents. It will be made available to other councils next financial year.

“I live in great luxury, in a magnificent Queenslander high on Point Vernon,” says the Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation. Andrew McNamara’s definition of luxury, however, is unexpected: while his home has neither air conditioner, nor clothes dryer, nor swimming pool, its wide wooden verandas catch the prevailing breezes and solar panels heat its water.

He has plans to convert the whole house to solar power, becoming part of what he predicts will be an explosion of demand on the heels of the Queensland Government’s solar bonus scheme. From 1 July this year, the government will pay households and businesses 44 cents for every kilowatt hour generated by solar power systems and fed into the grid.

“I think (the tariff) marks one of those turning points in solar power. It reduces front end electricity bills and the repayment time on the systems comes down from ten years to three. I think it will now be picked up by governments and houses across Australia.”

His endorsement of solar power seems a big leap for someone who, before entering parliament seven years ago, sat on the board of Ergon Energy. Environmental interests and energy interests are usually thought to pull in different directions.

“That is traditional thinking,” he says, “but it’s completely wrong. Our wealth is built on the natural environment we inherit and the energy we extract from it. They’re not just linked, they’re the same thing.”

Ergon proved a valuable training ground for the future Minister. In 1999 the Beattie government declared within five years Queensland would generate 13 per cent of its electricity from gas. The announcement caused consternation in the Ergon board, of which Mr McNamara was a member.

“I learned the power of targets,” he says of the experience. “Governments setting targets for industry can drive enormous change. To take the gas industry from almost nothing to 13 per cent of Queensland’s power within five years was remarkable.
“For me, being on the Ergon board when the 13 per cent gas target was announced, and in Cabinet when the solar feed-in tariff was announced, was a sweet double.

“The rooftops of Queensland represent an unbelievable resource for gathering power and I expect the day will come when every roof is a solar collector”

“I think the solar tariff will change our power mix in Queensland significantly. What really excites me is that it’s a huge step towards recognising we need distributed power systems.”

In an energy-constrained world, losing 20 to 25 per cent of power by sending it vast distances is too inefficient. Local solutions provide answers.
“The rooftops of Queensland represent an unbelievable resource for gathering power and I expect the day will come when every roof is a solar collector. It’s shameful how far behind we are,” he says. “Copenhagen, with a third of the number of our sunny days is producing 35 per cent of power from solar. It’s just embarrassing.”

Mr McNamara predicts the Federal Government’s carbon trading system (announced in March and planned for 2010) will transform the energy sector, providing a massive boost to renewables. However, he also admits government action is too late.

“We needed to get our act together 30 years ago. We are pretty well locked into two degrees of global warming no matter what we do. So the battle is on two fronts: firstly to try and stop the two degrees we know are coming turning into four, and secondly to adapt to the two we know are coming.”

Adaptation work, he says, includes giving Queensland’s biodiversity the best chance of survival by ensuring clean waterways, north-south and east-west connectivity of nature corridors, and redoubled efforts on pests and weeds.
As part of staving off the spectre of a four-degree rise, Mr McNamara is currently reviewing last year’s Climate Smart 2050 policy. While the strategy committed to a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2050, he says “it doesn’t go far enough in addressing the scale of the problem. It focuses too much on stationary energy and not anywhere near enough on emissions from other sectors”.

Some 40 per cent of Queensland’s emissions are from stationary energy, and much of Climate Smart 2050 looked to “clean coal” power stations for answers. However, the technology does not yet exist and is predicted to take well over a decade to deliver any greenhouse gas savings.

In the meantime, Queensland’s coal powered stations continue to pump between 40 and 50 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere every year, overwhelming the relatively small emissions savings made elsewhere, e.g. the 13 per cent gas policy.

It’s just as well, then, that in early March Mr McNamara convinced the government to require assessments of greenhouse gas implications, mitigation options and alternatives in all cabinet submissions.
“It’s an enormous reform and I believe we’re the only government in Australia doing it. I think the British government’s just introduced something similar, but not quite as extensive.

“I think it’s a very significant change in mindset that should filter through everything we do. It’s something I’m very proud of.”

The reform precedes a review of the Integrated Planning Act by Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, which Mr McNamara predicts will require all councils to take into account the implications of climate change in development applications and approvals.

It remains to be seen if Mr McNamara’s initiatives, designed to help steer the climate change juggernaut away from disaster, keep the support of a comparatively conservative cabinet.

Well versed in the evidence and predictions of climate change, he is confident that the public opinion tide has turned.
“There’s a much broader acceptance and understanding across the community about the challenges. I’m still not sure people have quite got their heads around the scale of the impacts that are already locked in.”

Peak bodies from the building industry have approached the government offering to roll out vast improvements in energy, water and carbon emissions if they are mandated. While encouraged by the approaches, Mr McNamara admits such improvements in the sector will hinge on regulation, “because you need to keep the playing field level”.

Coastal development is about to feel the early effects of disrupted weather patterns, Mr McNamara forecasts, driven not by regulation but by risk.

“I believe the insurance industry is on the verge of reassessing risk in relation to coastal communities as a result of climate change. When the insurance industry changes its premiums for coastal development or withdraws the offer of insurance, the finance industry will withdraw the offer of finance, and we will see a fundamental shift.”

Towards sustainable development?

“The word ‘sustainable’ has been brutally misused down the years, as if putting it in front of something grants sustainability; like magic – sprinkle the sustainable word over it and it’s good,” he says.
“I’d like to reclaim the word, and I was glad the Premier made me the Minister for Sustainability because it implies interaction between human use of the planet and the environment.”

The question of housing affordability is a furphy, says Alan Pears, a consultant and academic at the forefront of the energy debate in Australia.

“We’ve got a seriously misguided debate going on at the moment about housing affordability with some saying we can’t afford sustainable features in new homes. It’s the other way around – we can’t afford not to have sustainable features,” said Mr Pears.

“The argument is an attempt to create an artificial conflict between good design and affordability.”
Mr Pears believes sustainable urban development isn’t just about housing design and density, it’s about organisation and access.

“Most people call it transport,” he said. “I call it access.

“A developer should have an obligation to show how people living in that development could have a good quality of life without having to rely on a car. Good quality is, for example, not taking half a day to get to the doctor by bus.”

The housing affordability argument takes on a different complexion when the entire household budget in taken into consideration.

The average Australian householder spends between 15 and 20 per cent of their household budget on transport. Housing affordability in the long term is affected by world oil prices, particularly in the light of peak oil, climate change and quality of life. A well-designed house has cheaper ongoing energy and water costs and, if located in a well designed development with good transport to services, reduces transport costs and provides many social benefits contributing to a better quality of life.

“Generally speaking, five star energy efficiency measures in new homes reduce the annual energy bill by more than the slightly higher mortgage repayments needed to pay for them,” Mr Pears said.

Rising energy prices around Australia, and the prospect that emissions trading will increase them further, make household energy efficiency measures even more attractive.

The poor design of decentralised, distributed, low density housing developments away from public transport systems locks people into a lifestyle that’s expensive in terms of ongoing costs of energy and transport, travel time, and the environmental impact of emissions. Residents are vulnerable to rising oil prices and social dislocation of not being able to drive, for example from accidents, loss of licence, or being under 18 or elderly.

However to achieve quality sustainable urban development, Mr Pears said: “We’ve got to cross a lot of organisational, cultural and political boundaries to get all this right.

“The Queensland energy Minister a couple of years ago made the point that each new air conditioner installed in a Queensland house led to a need for $13,000 investment in energy-supply infrastructure. The building industry resists anything more than marginal improvement because they’re focussed on the sticker price of the house. The energy sector should be putting money into helping people build much better houses that have little or no need for air conditioners.”

The changing nature of the population is not reflected in most new housing developments. More than 55 per cent of Australian households these days are one or two people, however the bulk of new housing is the traditional model.
“When the new housing market is driven by people wanting to build detached conventional dwellings, or by developers who are focussed on rental properties that deliver a financial return without necessarily quality of life, no one has the kind of housing they most want.”

The new Sunshine Coast council has opportunities to improve the sustainability of the region’s housing, beginning with detailed social research into people’s housing and transport needs, using the results to help create sustainable developments.
“It’s not fair that people today pay the full cost of sustainable housing that will benefit people 50 or 100 years in the future; people who use and benefit from it into the future should repay some of this cost,” Mr Pears said.
A progressive local council could borrow money on behalf of the people who live in new developments in exchange for adding a regular levy to be paid by the residents enjoying all the benefits of good access and better public transport.
Infrastructure like public transport must be locked in early to new developments because the lifespan of urban layout is very long and changing it retrospectively is very difficult.

“This is why historically governments borrowed on our behalf to invest in community infrastructure,” he said. “Instead, we now have the bizarre model of governments not having debt because it’s somehow bad, but rampant private debt is okay.”

Alan Pears’ work in sustainable energy and the environment has included helping develop and implement public information and education, appliance energy labelling and mandatory building insulation regulations. As co-director of Sustainable Solutions, he has been involved in building energy and environmental rating and regulation, green building projects, educational software, green appliance development, industrial and business energy and environmental management, and policy analysis.