Hey folks,
Long time lurker here - used to windsurf recreationally on the qld sunshine coast before moving to UK (lol cold has stopped me). Have been mulling over something recently and wanted to get some thoughts from a broader community.

I find as of late I've been pretty conflicted about understanding how my choices could impact the environment. I definitely don't consider myself an activist, but given recent events like the Australian bush fires etc, kinda makes me think more about how our world is changing. Sure we can't immediately go carbon neutral, I've found myself evaluating my purchases/behaviours and what kind of impact that could have on the environment.

I've made a more concerted effort in terms of recycling (though seems questionable as to what happens after collection!) and even looking into a home compost heap .. but looking to learn other practices. I'm even thinking of starting community initiatives (feel free to contribute to a survey forms.gle/X8RFZ8wvVUPjkGuu6)

Does anyone else find themselves doing this? I'd be keen to hear if you've had any success with offsetting - in a personal way through your own initiatives or just supporting other causes (e.g. purchasing offsets).

Ps. I really don't want to politicise this!

we built a passive solar house back in 96, solar hot water heater, PV cells on the roof.
All lights and appliances get turned off when not in use
This house isn't quite carbon neutral, we still use gas for cooking. But it's super comfortable, cool in summer and warm in winter, with no aircon or heating. Cost a little extra to build but we've recouped that 10 times over with almost no power bills.

Our every day vehicle is a Mazda2. If I'm driving I can get fuel consumption down to 5.0l/100km on highway driving and about 6 toddling around the suburbs on a cold engine.
We avoid supermarkets, (with their centralised warehouses transporting food all over Australia" and buy local.

We've probably undone all that good work by going on overseas trips, and travelling across the country to windsurf.
But we're not that good at making big sacrifices, however, I find there's still a lot of stuff you can do to heavily reduce your impact just by being more efficient.

Most of my work on this has been overseas but in building have been learning and putting into practise use of natural materials such cob and bamboo.

Growing your own food or trying to source local and been prepared to pay a bit more for it.

The gorilla in the room for me was air travel but actually learnt to enjoy the adventure of trains, buses and local shared taxis.

The other issue I struggle is we need to stop wanting more and more stuff. That has to end but us making and selling stuff is how this crazy world works.

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decrepit said..
we built a passive solar house back in 96, solar hot water heater, PV cells on the roof.
All lights and appliances get turned off when not in use
This house isn't quite carbon neutral, we still use gas for cooking. But it's super comfortable, cool in summer and warm in winter, with no aircon or heating. Cost a little extra to build but we've recouped that 10 times over with almost no power bills.

Our every day vehicle is a Mazda2. If I'm driving I can get fuel consumption down to 5.0l/100km on highway driving and about 6 toddling around the suburbs on a cold engine.
We avoid supermarkets, (with their centralised warehouses transporting food all over Australia" and buy local.

We've probably undone all that good work by going on overseas trips, and travelling across the country to windsurf.
But we're not that good at making big sacrifices, however, I find there's still a lot of stuff you can do to heavily reduce your impact just by being more efficient.

Nice work mate

It's a fascinating field and train of thought. I started a new sustainability role for the Wesfarmers group about a year ago with no prior background in the area and it's been mind blowing particularly on the product side of things with packaging, waste, recycling, mis-labelling of products etc

carbon neutrality seems to be the next wave after everybodies 'hate go-to', plastic.
the entire system needs to change for a lot of these ideas to be feasible but it needs to start with consumers pulling businesses in to action so nice work on this ideas!

Yes, the main problem is the unthinking cultural mindset, it's OK because everybody does it, attitude to waste, driving around on pickup days you see rubbish bins full and recycling bins empty. Here, waste is picked up weekly and recycling fortnightly. That's back to front for us, we need it the other way around.

The problem happens when they link NOT doing the right thing to sea level rise which by way of observation is a clear lie.

Time to get the organic waste out of the system. Bad enough how much food is wasted but worse letting it go to landfill.

Can be turned from waste to a commodity easily and naturally.

I like my foils shiny carbon black but some friends have white carbon foils.
Makes just as much sense.
Solar panels are a massive disposal issue as is pollution caused by the production of many save the planet items.

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decrepit said..
Yes, the main problem is the unthinking cultural mindset, it's OK because everybody does it, attitude to waste, driving around on pickup days you see rubbish bins full and recycling bins empty. Here, waste is picked up weekly and recycling fortnightly. That's back to front for us, we need it the other way around.

I've just landed in Hobson's bay where it's the opposite. Four bins, the smallest is rubbish and it's only collected fortnightly. Progressive, but a bit to get used to

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decrepit said..
Yes, the main problem is the unthinking cultural mindset, it's OK because everybody does it, attitude to waste, driving around on pickup days you see rubbish bins full and recycling bins empty. Here, waste is picked up weekly and recycling fortnightly. That's back to front for us, we need it the other way around.

I've just landed in Hobson's bay where it's the opposite. Four bins, the smallest is rubbish and it's only collected fortnightly. Progressive, but a bit to get used to

I had an eye opening discussion with an architect specialising in natural buildings.

We spend so much energy on processing other forms of energy to electricity only to then at a household level covert it back into heating cooling etc.
His approach was to cut out this process by capturing and using energy to meet our needs with less reliance on electricity.

Wow, love the thoughts folks. Definitely great to hear your takes on the situation.

I'd agree re: everyone trying to do their part and the small efforts adding up overall. I think there is some potential behind starting small, simply from the shift in mindset (i.e. being fundamentally conscious of ones impact) ... in the longer term that could grow into decisions made in all aspects of life.

Gotta be doing more in the "circular economy" for sure - like a lot of you have highlighted, design products for a life beyond their main purpose or least make them easily degradable!

That's really cool decrepit - you did this in 96? I imagine doing something similar now would be a lot easier / cheaper, not to mention you'd get better energy conversion?!

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sutcliffe31 said..>>
That's really cool decrepit - you did this in 96? I imagine doing something similar now would be a lot easier / cheaper, not to mention you'd get better energy conversion?!

We went around Australia looking for inspiration in 94. Did a passive solar course in 95.
We didn't go solar PV until this century when there was a good rebate on offer. So I don't think it's that much cheaper to do now, but panels are probably more efficient. Insulation may have got cheaper, as now all houses must have it.
Solar hot water systems are more efficient now for sure, we had to replace the original a few years ago, and we hardly need the booster.

We found the ideal block by the beach at Avalon facing North.
That's the main key. Sun from the North gets a long way into the house in Winter, and stays right outside in Summer.
Also Ground temp 1m down is 20C here, so a thermally conductive concrete floor with slate or tiles will help stabilise summer and winter temps. We pick up the seabreeze here as soon as it comes in, so southern and western windows open at night to let breeze in, and high hopper northern windows to let the heat blow out. This will cool the house down from high to low 20s overnight. Hottest it's ever been inside was 31C after a 4 day heatwave around 40C with the nights not going below 30, I'd get up after midnight and check the inside and outside temps, to see if it was worth opening up, but most of the time it wasn't, the house was still cooler. The lowest it's been was 16, after a string of cold southerlies and no sunshine. But it was still 10
degrees warmer than outside temps in the early morning. Most of the year, it's somewhere in the 20s

Drecrepid
Sounds like a beautiful house to live in.



If people are interested watch from about minute 9 with Jeff Lawton and his approach to natural building.

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decrepit said..

sutcliffe31 said..>>
That's really cool decrepit - you did this in 96? I imagine doing something similar now would be a lot easier / cheaper, not to mention you'd get better energy conversion?!

We went around Australia looking for inspiration in 94. Did a passive solar course in 95.
We didn't go solar PV until this century when there was a good rebate on offer. So I don't think it's that much cheaper to do now, but panels are probably more efficient. Insulation may have got cheaper, as now all houses must have it.
Solar hot water systems are more efficient now for sure, we had to replace the original a few years ago, and we hardly need the booster.

We found the ideal block by the beach at Avalon facing North.
That's the main key. Sun from the North gets a long way into the house in Winter, and stays right outside in Summer.
Also Ground temp 1m down is 20C here, so a thermally conductive concrete floor with slate or tiles will help stabilise summer and winter temps. We pick up the seabreeze here as soon as it comes in, so southern and western windows open at night to let breeze in, and high hopper northern windows to let the heat blow out. This will cool the house down from high to low 20s overnight. Hottest it's ever been inside was 31C after a 4 day heatwave around 40C with the nights not going below 30, I'd get up after midnight and check the inside and outside temps, to see if it was worth opening up, but most of the time it wasn't, the house was still cooler. The lowest it's been was 16, after a string of cold southerlies and no sunshine. But it was still 10
degrees warmer than outside temps in the early morning. Most of the year, it's somewhere in the 20s

Smart