Book talk at Shearers On Norton

Shearer’s On Norton talk The bookshop, Shearer’s On Norton, Leichhardt, is putting on a talk evening where I’ll talk about the new book, what worked and didn’t over the last 14 years; this is a story of the house where no sewage has left the site (how can you keep over 1.5 million litres of sewage on your house lot?), energy and water bills are less than $300 a year, and lots of mistake and lessons were made and learnt that can help you go sustainable at... Read More

New Chippo group supports Sustainable Streets Plan

A new group has been set up to support the City Council’s Sustainable Streets and Community Plan. Called, Sustainable Chippendale, the idea for the group and the moving force behind it are Andrew Jacobs and Thais Nascimento.  They’ve set up a Facebook page and say this is how to find and join the group or obtain information there: - The link is: www.facebook.com… , but if you go on Facebook and just look up for SUSTAINABLE CHIPPENDALE , you will see us and... Read More

Terrific new insulation

Here’s a new insulation that I’ve been introduced to by a friend who builds her buildings sustainably, and owns one a few doors up from me, Sarah. It’s called, Polyair: -1300767776 - www.reflectiveinsulation.com….au There are five options.  All use the same design approach:  reflect the hot summer sun with the top layer, have a multi-layer inner core for insulation, use a lower layer to reflect and retain the winter warmth within the building. Use it... Read More

Workshops for Sustainable Streets & Communities Plan

Sustainable Chippo Public Meetings Info On Wednesday 16 March at 630 to 8 pm Sydney City Council will hold a public meeting to provide information and hear feedback on the Sustainable Streets and Communities Plan that’s being prepared. Information is in the flier from the Council which you may download above; it’s about 1 MB – if you’re a ChippoIte then do try to get there, ask questions, offer ideas and help us work together to sustain where we live and... Read More

Architect who gave up ‘architecture’ to work with ‘garbage’

In the documentary called, Garbage Warrior, we can see the story, vision and passion of Michael Reynolds who for the last 30 years has been building houses in the US that are self sufficient for energy, water and recycling sewage.  There’s a 3 minute vid here: www.garbagewarrior.com… May the warriors be with us, Michael  Read More

Sustainable and unsustainable streets

A flooded street For some reading about recent thinking about how our climate is changing, this is a useful article: www.economist.com… The photo above is from that article. It shows an unsustainable street, and it seems how we live here in Chippo, and Australia generally, is partly the reason there are streets like those.  Hopefully, the work being done to trial sustainable streets in Chippendale will reduce the number of unsustainable streets elsewhere.  Read More

Mayor Moore’s letter about making Chippendale sustainable

Final Letter On January 2011 Mayor Clover Moore MP wrote to let us know in Chippendale about the plan to make the suburb sustainable.  The Mayor’s letter is in this blog, above. May the sustainable streets be with us, Michael  Read More

Biolytix into liquidation

I’ve received an email from a contact in the wastewater industry with this advisory note from WA Health about Biolytix going into liquidation: ‘ Approval for Biolytix aerobic treatment units withdrawn by Department of Health, Western Australia As of 19 January 2011, Queensland-based company Biolytix Water Australia Pty Ltd has gone into liquidation. In Western Australia, the ‘Biolytix BF-6 Aerated’ model was an aerobic treatment unit (ATU) approved... Read More

LED replacement lights for halogens

LumiSpot LS-DL04-7x1W Halogen downlights chew up energy and drive up your energy bill. An option for cutting your energy and electricity costs is to replace them with LED lights. For example, try the LED lights designed and sol by LumiSun, called, LumiSpot LS-DL04-7x1W. www.LumiSun.com… And the product brochure can be downloaded by taking the link at the top of this blog entry. May the LEDs be with you, Michael  Read More

Blue tongue lizard on back deck today!

Blue tongue lizard on back deck today Don’t ask me where it’s come from but today I saw a blue tongue lizard on the back deck. It looks well fed. I don’t think it can get into the chook run, but I’m not sure.  If it did it may eat the eggs, I suppose. I’m amazed. May the lizards be with us, Michael  Read More