In this edition we explore sustainable housing with examples and solutions for existing owners, new builders and renovators. We hope you enjoy reading ECO and don’t forget you can make comments on articles or suggest new themes to cover.

ECO news (print version) will be on the streets soon. Keep an eye out at the usual locations around the Coast. You’ll also notice that we are changing the look of ECO and continuing to search for great, new content. The print version features even more articles with a special centre-spread feature where we ask local experts their views on sustainable development.

Go straight to ECO online or click on the individual links below.

Inside this edition

Lead Article

Housing debate misguided

The argument for sustainable urban development is about more than housing design and density, says energy expert Alan Pears. Ann White reports.

Featured Articles

Sustainable housing a must

Sustainable housing design and development must come out of the too-hard basket if greenhouse emissions are to be seriously combated. This edition of Eco brings sustainable development home, exploring the issues of housing in a changing climate. Ann White reports.

Affordable eco houses

Building a house using traditional methods can result in waste and large environmental footprints, but a number of local building companies are rethinking how it’s done.

Decentralised water and sewerage

New housing developments need not link to centralised water and sewerage systems, according to a Sunshine Coast surveyor and town planner.

Water wise on the Gold Coast

It might come as a surprise for many that part of the Gold Coast is leading the way in planning for environmental sustainability, especially with the use of water, writes Brian Rickards.

Living smart homes generates change

Signing up to the Living Smart Homes Project has proved a catalyst for deep changes in how one family view the environment, writes Ann White.

Regulars

Up Close

Wildlife

Life etc

Schools

Local issues

Eco explorations

Book Review

Sustainable business

To find out what’s on or what others are saying don’t forget to look at our letters page here.

“I was taught that a company is made up of plant, equipment and capital. Staff is outside the company and just employed to run things,” he said.

He disagreed back then and still does.

“A company is a community of people. Plant, equipment and capital are employed by the people to achieve their vision,” said Mr Cameron. There is no doubt that he is correct.

In 21 years, Rockcote has grown out of a Sunshine Coast backyard shed to a yearly turnover of more than $20 million and 79 employees. Rockcote produces renders and paints that are free of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and any other toxic
chemicals.

Their operations are based on the concept of Biomimicry, that is, basing business organisation and industrial processes on lessons we see in nature. In nature there is no waste. Everything gets re-used and recycled. Using these concepts Rockcote is achieving some astounding solutions.

What makes this business truly outstanding is that no compromises are accepted. Rather than being green while forsaking profits, the credo is: “The bottom line of green is black.” With its constant growth, Rockcote has always felt the pressure of cash-flow. The solution: focusing on profit from investments with the least capital employed.

This flows on to the production facilities, which are highly adaptable. Not through the use of sophisticated computer system, but through simplicity. Bob explains: “We do not produce to planned targets. Instead our production beats in tune with sales.”

The biggest impact on the company’s success comes from one thing: the community that Bob has gathered around him to turn his vision into reality. Chris Cameron is the heart of that community. She joined the company in 1989 as office manager. While growing into the role of marketing and sales manager (and part-owner of Rockcote), she has developed a great balance of professionalism and personal caring. The highly effective management team is sometimes referred to as a council of elders.

As many businesses are starting to catch onto environmental issues, Rockcote is one step ahead by aiming for a net benefit to the environment in a similar fashion to a tree or forest and therefore producing a surplus of water, energy and resources. Without saying it, it is clear that the vision includes a surplus in profits.

What a sad day for all Queenslanders when Premier Anna Bligh decreed that every man, woman and child will be forced to ingest fluoridated drinking water. Fluoride is a highly toxic chemical substance made from the waste product during the manufacture of insecticides. Scientific studies, with all the variables controlled, have been performed in laboratories and there is proof that fluoride is highly toxic and causes cancer in animals. No scientific studies in the human population have ever been done, because there are too many variables in humans, which cannot be controlled.

Why spend millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to build machinery to pollute the drinking water with a known carcinogen? Fluoride is a highly toxic chemical substance that also has a cumulative effect, which means that the human body does not have a system to rid the body of ingested fluoride toxins. Consequently the fluoride accumulates and remains in our bodies throughout the lifetime. With clever media management, the general public has been led to believe that a cancer-causing chemical is good for our health.

Who are the players in this scheme? The dental association knows that a few drops of fluoride and a few minutes of time to apply it to the teeth generate a charge of $65, which is good for business. Monsanto, the giant in the insecticide industry also benefits, their highly toxic waste product is sold to the unsuspecting public. Also good for business and the bottom line, Anna Bligh jumped on the dental association bandwagon without checking all the facts. In a free democratic country no one should be forced to ingest a known carcinogen.

Marie Besler
Buddina Beach

I wanted to write on behalf of my family and express our appreciation at having such a great newspaper as ECO on the Sunshine Coast. The paper reflects our concerns about the environment and yet provides balanced comment and most importantly ecologically sustainable ideas and solutions to some of the most pressing environmental concerns.

Julie Wilson-Hirst
Mooloolah Valley

Green Travel is divided into 6 sections: North America & Caribbean, Central & South America, Europe, Africa & the Middle East, Asia, and Australasia (including Australia, New Zealand and Fiji).  Each section has about 15 or so destinations (hotels, resorts, or lodges) such as  “Hoopoe Yurt Hotel, Spain” or “Serengeti Under Canvas, Tanzania”.

Along with a discussion of each resort and local activities is an Ecofile.  This is a twist on traditional guidebook information, so as well as rooms and rates, the Ecofile includes the carbon emissions from your flight, the cost to offset them, plus a ‘5-leaf’ (instead of 5-star) rating system of Environmental and Social Responsibility for each locale.

What makes the destinations so interesting is the human-interest angle.  The Chalalan Ecolodge in Bolivia, for example, is the result of the Tacana people’s efforts to stop illegal logging in their forests using the power of ecotourism.  They built the lodge as a way to protect the forests, and their traditional lifestyle, from destruction.   Run entirely by Tacanas from the nearby village, the Chalalan Ecolodge is solar-powered, while all waste is composted or recycled.

Also included in each section are special features of green interest.  You’ll find chapters on cycling routes in Scotland, sea-kayaking in Baja, the Gnaoua World Music Festival in Morocco, and ‘Voluntourism’ and wildlife conservation in Botswana, among others.  Ethical travel dilemmas – articles on issues such as whether to hire a car or give to beggars – are also discussed.  With plenty of glossy colour photographs, and so many fascinating destinations, it will be hard to choose just one of these guilt-free holidays.

Green Travel is due out April 29, so be ready to go green this winter!

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: The Davis family gets a trial run on the purple pipe network that will deliver quality recycled water.

The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast are seen as rivals in many ways. Sunshine Coasters see their southern counterpart as a high rise shrine to the gaudy and glitzy, whereas many Gold Coasters regard their northern neighbour as being a bit off the pace and a haven for eccentric environmentalists.

So, it might come as a surprise for many that part of the Gold Coast is leading the way in planning for environmental sustainability, especially with the use of water. And it’s leading the way with a far-sighted strategy that introduces, on a large scale, the concept of water sensitive urban design.

It will also bring into play an advanced dual-reticulation system which delivers potable water and recycled water treated to Class A plus which is the highest quality of recycled water for non-drinking purposes in Queensland, having been filtered and disinfected through two different treatment plants.

Water experts predict that this system will eventually reduce the use of drinking water in new homes by up to 84 per cent. It will make a significant impact on the total water consumption habits of Gold Coast residents since the new water strategy is focused on burgeoning Greenfield development sites at the northern end of the Gold Coast.

At the moment, every resident of every new home in the Pimpama-Coomera region of the Gold Coast is embarking on a learning curve, not only on how to turn on to a twin water network, but also in experiencing a lifestyle that makes them, their homes and their neighbourhood become more environmentally friendly. (view google map)

And the spin-off is that everybody becomes happier, they have a better environment, a closer connection with nature and a personal input in helping to save the planet and some of its species – including the human kind perhaps.

Presently, the population of the Pimpama-Coomera area is about 20,000 and expected to top 120,000 by 2055. Indeed, it is the Gold Coast’s fastest growing region and designed within the guidelines of the Pimpama Coomera Waterfuture Master Plan - a Gold Coast City Council inspired and award-winning project that is intended to ensure sustainable development.

The Master Plan package, costing more than $200 million, includes all kinds of environmental goodies, enough maybe to make some Sunshine Coast environmental campaigners even greener with envy. Nothing on the Sunshine Coast development horizon comes close in terms of large scale impact in a positive ecological sense.

A recent short tour through the Pimpama-Coomera region reveals a wonderful work in progress. While there’s the usual array of typical Aussie homes, from the humble three-bedroom to the more luxurious and spacious semi-mansions, it’s what’s partly hidden or that which surrounds them that really captures the imagination.

The first impression is how well landscaped the neighbourhoods’ open spaces are – indeed that there are open spaces – where vegetation in places has replaced the usual bleak concrete kerbs and guttering. How the planting of native species and grasses follows original creek lines; how swales have been used on the natural contours to filter and slow stormwater run-off so that it soaks into local areas before reaching the waterways.

Drainage ponds and water infiltration zones are also used to capture stormwater at times of torrential rain. These are sand-based and allow the water to filter into surrounding soil over several days, thus slowing and reducing the flow that may cause erosion problems downstream.

But the clever thing is that some of these ponds and zones double up as attractive mini parklands at drier times, imaginatively landscaped, grass-covered and with well-designed social amenities built alongside. The other magic of this Master Plan is a network of purple pipes and mains – the pipes designed to carry the recycled Class A plus water to be used for flushing toilets and external use and so save unnecessary use of the precious potable supply.

While each new home and business in this region is plumbed with two totally separate water networks – the traditional one for drinking water and the easily identifiable purple one for high-grade recycled water – residents will have to wait until early next year before the system is thoroughly checked and comes fully on stream.

It means, that at the moment, potable water is coming through the purple network of mains, meters, pipes, taps and hoses and that home owners will have to remember which tap to turn come early 2009. The handles of taps are removable, rendering them childproof when necessary

The Pimpama Recycled Water Treatment Plant will soon be completed and then undergo a long testing period. This is a secondary treatment plant that processes treated water from the adjoining Pimpama Wastewaster Treatment Plant to a higher quality. Also, two large reservoirs are being constructed to hold a head of supply for both drinking and recycled water.

Stage 1 of the plant will convert up to nine million litres of wastewater into Class A+ recycled water each day .
Another benefit of the dual reticulation system is that home owners will have two separate meters, making it easier to track water consumption and to make appropriate savings where necessary.

The Waterfuture Masterplan also includes installation of plumbed in rainwater tanks on all new homes to supply cold water for the laundry and an optional external tap. Another environmental bonus comes with the wastewater system which is designed to limit stormwater infiltration and so reduce, in turn, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to less wastewater requiring treatment.

The council has also upgraded its wastewater pipes, creating ‘smart sewers’ which are made of new advanced materials and designed to reduce the amount of stormwater and groundwater entering the wastewater system. In all, it’s a win, win, win water system that has been developed uniquely through a Gold Coast community-based advisory committee with input from industry associations, developers, residents associations, council, government departments and not least, environmental groups that included Gecko (Gold Coast and Hinterland Environment Council), a sister organisation to our own Sunshine Coast Environment Council.

And to further demonstrate that recycled water Class A plus is a really cool item, Queensland fieries have given it the nod as being safe for firefighting.

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.