your sustainable community 2011

Your Sustainable Community 2011

YOUR GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING ON THE NORTH COAST

ANOTHER GREAT PUBLICATION

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mailto:[email protected]

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 20112

Survey Results are in!Thank you to all the 400 folk who completed

Council’s Compost Survey last year.

The feedback gained is being used in Council’s Organics

Education program.

Thank you to all the 400 folk who completed Council’s Compost Survey last year.

The feedback gained is being used in Council’s Organics

Education program.

Survey Results are in!

The next compost workshop will be held at Mullumbimby Community Garden on Sunday 17th April - call Jude Mason at Byron Council to book a spot. Be quick! Limited places Ph 6626 7077

25 lucky folk took home prizes

ranging from compost bins & worm farms,

to $50 farmers markets vouchers & movie passes.

Ocean Shores Public School had the most

school entries and won a hollow log parrot

home for their school grounds.

Since July 2010 Council has conducted over 50 compost sessions at farmers markets in the shire. Compost bins and worm farms are still available cheaply at $35 and $45.

Who came first?Who came first?

Survey results indicate there was strong support for:

(54%)For Compost

demonstrations& workshops

(75%) (73%) (61%)For trainingchildren at

Schools

For kerbsidegarden waste

collection

For subsidisedor cheap compost

bins

For trainingchildren at

Schools

For kerbsidegarden waste

collection

For subsidisedor cheap compost

bins

For Compost demonstrations

& workshops

(80%)Said

Composting made

good sense

Said Composting

madegood sense

(56%)

(29%) (72%) (72%)

(29%)

Said they wanted to learn from

others

Said theydid not

compost properly

Said they wantedto compost at home

and not pay for a service

Said compostingwas good for the

environment

Did not know which compost

bin to get

(43%) Wanted a home visit to help get them composting!

What’s in it for you – a look inside…

The era of cheap energy is gone p4Get used to doing more with less

Mr Walker walks the organic talk p5This farmer has gone organic

Learning to build smart is crucial to survival p6Lessening the use of resources in construction

Local councils do their part p7Yes, they’re promoting sustainability too

Farming, food and our future p8Local farmers speak from experience

A brief history of socially responsible investing p10Put your money where your eco-mouth is

Saving energy in your office p11Put down that nuclear paperclip, Dilbert!

The ocean is your backyard, too p12Find a soft spot for our seafood

Simplicity a key to design p13Tutor explains the clean, green house

One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure p14Bargains can be found just about anywhere

Making textile recycling the new fashion hit p15‘Less is more’ is the new black

What’s a good sustainable idea for our community? p16Local folks have their say

Sustainable transport and the psychology of change p17Jump start your mind as well

Windy times at Hayters Hill p18A man installs a turbine

Foodies raise awareness of Mother Earth’s needs p19Look after Mother and Mother will feed you

Your Sustainable CommunityAN ECHO SUPPLEMENT

www.echo.net.au

THE BYRON SHIRE

www.tweedecho.com.au

THE TWEED

Editor: Michael McDonald

Design & Production: Ziggi Browning

Advertising Manager: Angela Cornell

Client Liaison: Amanda Bennett

Front cover: Photo Eve Jeffery (www.treefaeriephotos.com), digital wizardry Ziggi Browning, many thanks to model Grace Jeffery-Kingston for enduring the ant bites.

Contributors: Nina Bishop, Victoria Cosford, Joe Ebono, Mary Gardner, Daniel Harper, Eve Jeffery, Kel Raison and Lani Summers.

Photographers: Eve Jeffery, Victoria Cosford, Nina Bishop, plus images from Stock.XCHNG www.sxc.hu.

© 2011 Echo Publications Pty LtdABN 86 004 000 239 Village Way, Stuart Street, MullumbimbyPhone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 Byron Bay: 95 Jonson St. Ph 6685 5222Printer: Horton Media Australia LtdReg. by Aust. Post Pub. No. NBF9237.Printed on recycled paper

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 3

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The sustainable life requires attitude‘What we are trying to suggest is that the solution for a cluttered, frustrated existence is not merely in moving to the country and attempting to practise “the simple life”. The solution is in an attitude towards human experience which makes simple physical and economic arrangements almost a moral and aesthetic necessity. It is the larger purpose in life which gives to its lesser enterprises – the obtaining of food, shelter and clothing – their essential harmony and balance.’– from a review of Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, published in the Manas journal (www.manasjournal.org) of March 23, 1955, and reprinted in Henry Miller’s book Big Sur. (Nice site by his daughter Valentine at www.henrymiller.info.)An interesting quote. The description of obtaining food, clothing and shelter as ‘lesser enterprises’ doesn’t ring true. In the ‘developed’ world, music and art may seem separate from and greater than the tribal life of hunting and gathering but it is in attention to the natural world that art and music began and flowed through the tools of these ‘lesser’ enterprises.

The reviewer is right, however, in pointing out that the simple life lies in attitude to what we do every day. You might not call it ‘reverence’ but surely respect for what nature offers – and a healthy understanding of its manifold dangers – enriches the way we dig the garden, fetch the water and chop the wood.

And now we know our ac-tions in total as the human race can destroy our chances of sur-viving on Spaceship Earth, the need for a sustainable attitude becomes not only obvious but critical.

Helen and Scott Nearing, the subjects of the review above, were extraordinary American pioneers of frugal and ‘purposeful’ living from the

1930s on, espousing rich social philosophy and love of the arts as well providing practi-cal tips to carry out the ‘lesser enterprises’. Their work lives on

at www.goodlife.org.I read their books in the

1980s and marvelled at their determination, endurance and lively sense of fun. You could get exhausted by just reading their description of building a dam by hand with pick, shovel and wheelbarrow!

If the Nearings were living in the time of global warming, they would face it head-on. In fact, if everyone in the devel-oped world had lived like the Nearings, the warmth would have been less of a threat.

Not all of us will have the Nearings’ fortitude but we can still take steps to make our lives more sustainable. In the fol-lowing pages we outline some practical methods towards that goal, interview some inspiring examples and point out a few pitfalls.

We hope this supplement will be of some use to you and inspire you to undertake more of the exciting journey towards a sustainable life.

– Michael McDonald

Scott and Helen Nearing, pioneers of the ‘good life’.

www.manasjournal.org

www.henrymiller.info

www.goodlife.org

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Joe Ebono

As this article goes to press oil prices are set to pass $US100 per barrel, again.

The only other time this has happened, 2008, events in Venezuela, Russia and Iraq conspired to squeeze supply at a point where demand was at an all time high. Specula-tors began to stockpile, and gamble, on a rare commodity and the price soared.

Within months, the first signs of what was to become known as the Global Frock Crisis – in some circles Finance was the preferred F word – appeared and an economic slowdown reduced demand and cooled the market.

The half-century-long real-estate property bubble burst and governments dipped deep into their pockets to preserve the status quo, causing less robust governments – Greece, Spain, Ireland – to face up to their crime of being almost rich.

In the months that fuel pric-es soared, everyone became aware of energy’s role at the core of the price of transport, refrigeration, medical services, manufacturing etc. It became commonplace to observe that a small rise in the cost of energy might lead to runaway inflation.

Once demand dipped below

supply, fuel prices were yester-day’s news. Executive salaries, government regulation of the financial sector and the cost of an ageing population led the financial news. Energy did not figure at all.

For a fleeting moment we understood energy economics, then, suddenly, we forgot that we ever had.

Despite recognising that cheap energy has created the affluent society we have been born into, we resist the notion that it might be a lucky accident. We believe it is our birthright.

This explains the second oversight: the supply of oil has not exceeded 2008 levels and may never do so. We may already have seen the peak of energy consumption on planet earth.

Limits to energy growth

The fundamental limiter on future energy production is an arcane concept known as nett energy profit.

The easiest way to define nett energy profit is to start with the fact that oil and coal are petrified plant matter that has been buried for billions of years. Plants capture the energy of sunlight by using it to combine carbon dioxide

and water and build complex carbohydrates. Animals eat plant material and consume that energy to live. So do our machines. The rate at which our machines consume it how-ever, is incredible.

In 150 years, we have con-sumed almost all the oil and easily accessed natural gas on the planet, and are getting well stuck into the planet’s coal reserves. Billions of years of sunlight, released in decades.

The Beverly Hillbillies were rich precisely because they did not have to do anything, except drill a hole. Their story is the story of the American Century.

As soon as we start having to manufacture oil using algae, generate electricity by convert-ing sunlight, extract gas by washing fractured coal seams, or electrolytically splitting wa-ter the energy is no longer free.

We are now working really hard to make the same energy which we got for nothing only decades ago.

Escape clause?Energy companies dig

desperately for alternatives. Coal seam gas for example is an energy (and water) intensive method of collecting gas from low grade reservoirs under-

ground. From an energy point of view, the most significant factor is that coal seam gas is only marginally profitable.

The technocrats talk of a hydrogen economy. But hydrogen is manufactured by pumping energy into water, or by breaking down an existing energy source such as meth-ane. Hydrogen is a storage medium, not a source.

Energy of the futureRenewable energy is obvi-

ously the energy of the future. Captured from sunlight, either directly by solar mirrors, solar panels, algae or plants or indi-

rectly through wind and waves, it is relatively harmless to col-lect. Most importantly, it does not release fossilised carbon as carbon dioxide.

While it is limited to the currently available sunlight, there is more than enough renewable energy to provide the world’s energy needs. The problem is, however, it can nev-er be as cheap as oil. You have to invest a significant amount of energy to capture renewable energy.

The amount of economic activity consumed by the production of the energy then has to be absorbed into the cost of all the other goods that are manufactured with that energy.

Even though we can use nature to do most of that work for us, allowing algae to pro-duce oil, for example, the era of cheap energy is gone.

The inevitable outcome is that the cost of energy will rise.

As a result, all our worst fears about the impact on the cost of food, commuting, bricks and the very fabric of life itself will come true.

Brace yourself. It will not be pretty.

n Joe Ebono is an environmen-tal author, broadcaster and consultant with a background in technology and media.

The era of cheap energy is gone – get used to it

www.beyondbuildingenergy.com



Story & photo Victoria Cosford

Frank Walker turned organic about ten years ago, largely for reasons of health. ‘I used to look at these old blokes in their 60s, buggered because of the chemicals they were using,’ he tells me.

Frank is a fourth-generation farmer whose family owns property at Murwillumbah and Burringbar. The main growing farm is on 600 acres at Burringbar and while cattle are the chief source of income, pumpkins and bananas are what Frank brings weekly to the Byron Farmers Market.

He grows pumpkins all year round, last year producing one that weighed 20 kilograms and which made it on to the front cover of an organics magazine. ‘It ate well too!’ he says.

It isn’t only the health factor that persuades Frank in favour of organic farming. He says it is also the improvement in soil, a ‘phenomenal production’, and of course the superior flavour. Customers come back to him every week to tell him how good his pumpkins and zucchini and sweet potatoes taste, especially compared with ordinary store-bought ones.

‘Even their kids are starting to complain about the taste of non-organic vegetables,’ he says.

While it is obviously more

expensive – not to mention time-consuming – to grow crops organically, Frank is determined not to pass those extra costs on to his custom-ers, priding himself on the fact that his produce is among the cheapest around.

‘That surprises a lot of people,’ he says. ‘It was never about the money.’

He agrees there is definitely a movement of farmers going organic ‘because people are realising a lot of the pesticides used aren’t good. If their kids stay in the game, farming, then

the parents don’t want them handling all that stuff.

‘But having said that, I’ve got nothing against conventional growers. There’s a good mix of us at the markets – and there’s a place for everyone.’

He adds that the Byron Farm-ers Market is a great one. ‘It’s saved a lot of farmers.’

Last season was terrible. ‘You couldn’t physically get on to the ground as it was too wet. We lost rockmelon and watermelon crops as well as pumpkins.

‘That was a pretty common

thing, though, throughout the whole market.’

Frank says that there was never really anything else he wanted to do, although he did work in an office for seven years at one stage, continuing to work on the farm on weekends. He loves the fact you are your own boss. ‘You can work your own hours,’ he says. ‘They’re long but they’re your own.

‘The main thing I love is the markets, meeting the custom-ers, people coming to you every week and giving you feedback.’ The worst thing is the hours – and the lack of holidays.

Frank tries to remember when he last had a holiday, then recalls that it was last year, the first he had taken in four years, when he turned 50 and went on a trip up to Cairns with mates for an extended weekend. ‘I bought a boat in 91 and it’s been out of my shed three times!’

But it is a lifestyle he loves. He tells me about his sister-in-law’s grandmother who at 99 was still mustering horses. ‘She wasn’t just riding horses,’ he says, ‘she was mustering them.’

And then there is Frank’s own father. ‘He dropped dead in the paddock at 77,’’ he says. ‘He loved it. To this day he was the hardest working man I have ever known. That’s what keeps you going!’

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Joe Ebono

The mountains of plasterboard, plywood door skins, chip-board cupboards and flimsy, fabric-covered furnishings after the Brisbane floods were a stark reminder that we live in a throw-away society. The impermanence of Australian settlement is often identified as an overriding first impression by European visitors born and bred in stone towns and cities, centuries old.

That outback icon of human frailty, corrugated iron, has made a comeback as an urban building material because is relatively light to transport, easy to work with and so cheap to erect. Even our city skyscrap-ers and concrete bridges are designed to last decades, not centuries.

If we want to build smart, throw-away cities, we need to mimic the traditional Japanese approach and build them from bamboo and paper.

Affordable smartsGiven the flimsy nature of

our built environment, then, it is all the more alarming that houses are so unaffordable: that the return on investment is so low that rental properties are not being created quickly enough to meet demand.

As a nation we should now be investing in smart building programs that produce afford-able dwellings in community settings that minimise energy use and resource consumption.

We all have a rough idea what that settlement pattern looks like; it has evolved inde-pendently in all cultures, on all continents, across millennia. It generally involves roughly hexagonal networks of villages within a day’s walk of each oth-er and a market town. A larger town, or city, that provides occasionally required services such as universities and hos-pitals is generally a day’s ride away by whatever high-speed transport is available to the rich or the desperate.

The buildings themselves are either lightweight and replace-able, or permanent structures that last for generations. Sleeping quarters are generally separated from functions such as bathing, cooking and fabric care and those functions are often communal.

Smaller, simpler dwellings are cheaper to build, cheaper to rent and have less impact on the environment. Communal facilities have greater utilisation rates and are so more efficient, less resource intensive and cheaper to access as a result.

Smart affordability build-ing programs are sustainable

because they use resources effectively and do not need to be rebuilt constantly.

Pipedreams v pragmatism

If the vision is so obvious, why are our housing affordability programs bogged down in compensation percentages and our sustainable settlement committees in zoning arguments?

How can an incoming state government seriously promote a return to new suburbs on the city fringe as a solution to

the housing crisis? That will satisfy property developers and money lenders but can hardly be seen as an investment in the future.

We have innovative engi-neering solutions, entire archi-tectural movements based on walkable communities such as New Urbanism and a range of emerging technologies that minimise construction costs, water and energy consumption and that produce and re-use energy, water and food locally.

This is not to say that subur-ban dwelling is itself unsustain-able. Just that it must incorpo-

rate strong local communities, local food and energy produc-tion, and water and waste recycling solutions. There is no point all popping a solar panel on the roof and a grey water plant under the laundry if we won’t share anything.

Recasting regulations

Government regulations drive unsustainable build-ing practices, but they are intimately bound up in many of our values as a society.

The fundamental problem is the notion of property as an investment. The return-on-investment model relies on increasing property prices. Thus, successive Australian governments have provided ever more generous incentives to fuel this investment. The ridiculous, artificial, high house prices we now face are a direct result.

It has also fuelled the eco-logical disaster of a rampag-ing increase in house size as punters invest more and more in their primary asset.

It also explains the pathetic attempt at creating affordable housing by compensating de-velopers for forgoing a portion of their capital gain, by making a percentage of their housing stock cheap enough to live in.

The centralisation of plan-ning powers to favour property developers who have the ear of a central government only exacerbates this problem. More significantly, it makes it impossible to develop innova-tive approaches to regulation where rates are levied on hard surfaces that require addi-tional water infrastructure, for example.

The U FactorFinally, it is our selfish desire

not to share things with our fellow humans that drives the push into greenfield develop-ment and the duplication of expensive infrastructure that could be communal.

When petrol prices shot up suddenly in 2008 many tree changers considered moving ‘into town’. Despite pride in their sustainable values, the enforced reduction in their carbon footprint was delayed until petrol prices fell.

The oft repeated justification?

‘I couldn’t bear to be that close to my neighbours.’

Face it, baby. That ain’t sustainable.

n Joe Ebono is an environmen-tal author, broadcaster and consultant with a background in technology and media.

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While the rough and tumble of politics is often the focus of local government, both the Tweed and Byron shires are enthusiastically involved in promoting sustainability to the wider community.

The Tweed Council website describes sustainability as ‘a concept that has emerged over the last 20+ years as a result of worldwide recognition that our environmental problems and solutions are closely linked with the state of the economy and the health of our community.

‘Sustainability has three core components:

‘1. Balanced decision making based on environmental, social and economic goals;

‘2. The focus on equity and fairness and the recognition that we cannot ignore the ef-fects of our actions on others in an interdependent world; and

‘3. Recognition that while a strong economy is necessary to meet the needs of today, it must not be at the expense of future generations to meet their own needs.

‘It is important to recog-nise that sustainability is a journey, not a destination. It’s about government, industry, business, institutions, house-holds and individuals making informed decisions for the ben-efit of the natural environment,

social equity and economic resilience.

‘If the guiding principles of sustainability were distilled into a single sentence, a candidate would have be the Native American proverb: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”’

Byron Shire defines sus-tainability as ‘the capacity to maintain quality of life both now and into future. Sustain-ability relies on:

‘• fair, just and dynamic communities,

‘• healthy and diverse

environments,‘• innovative thinking and

creative solutions,‘• active and robust econo-

mies.’Both the Byron and Tweed

sustainability officers have been actively involved in sup-porting community programs on the ground and providing information about projects such as Northern Rivers Food Links and Northern Rivers Carpool. One of the successful community programs is North-ern Rivers Sustainable Streets.

‘Neighbourhoods across the Northern Rivers of NSW are

coming together to strengthen community, conserve natural resources and restore local eco-systems through the Sustain-able Streets program.

‘Steps include energy and water efficiency, local food production, recycling and composting, backyard biodiversity, restoration of local bushland, ethical shopping, transport options and community participation.’

The program has seen a sub-stantial reduction in resource use in the areas of power and water. Interested groups have formed at such places as Uki, Mullumbimby, and Cabarita.

The Uki group has its own web-site at http://sustainablestreet.gostart.com.au.

Byron Shire has also under-taken a ‘preliminary identifica-tion and economic assessment of renewable energy resources across the Byron Shire, includ-ing detailed wind mapping of the Shire. The Ssudy provided valuable information about the viability of local wind and solar resources that may facilitate in-vestment in renewable energy across the Shire.

‘The study indicated that Byron Shire’s wind resource is highly variable and constrained for reasons such as tree cover

and scenic protection. This suggests that the wide-scale deployment of wind turbines is unlikely to occur, although small pockets of land may support smaller wind turbines, whether privately owned or through a community share program. However, the study identified solar power as hav-ing a strong financial basis and an obvious choice for deploy-ment due to its widespread and evenly distributed nature.’

n See more at www.byron.nsw.gov.au/sustainability and www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/sustainability.

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Story & photo Nina Bishop

How are you going to keep them down on the farm?

Sarah Thompson, NSW Farm-ers’ Association Rural Affairs Committee Chair, said recently that, at present, there are a lim-ited number of young people in Australia’s agricultural indus-try resulting in a skills shortage in the farming industry.

‘A specific example of this problem can be found in research recently com-missioned by the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture that concluded that there were probably fewer than 800 agricultural science graduates each year to meet job market demand of 2,000,’ Mrs Thomp-son said.

I wondered if this were true at a local level, and interviewed a few people in the know about farming.

PHIL HARVEY is the head teacher of agriculture at Wol-longbar TAFE. His definition of sustainable agriculture is ‘if you can make a living and con-tinue without degrading your resource base with minimum adverse effects elsewhere’. But we all know supply is just one side to the equation – it’s what happens in the marketplace, the type of demand that influ-ences the way farmers grow.

According to Phil, the scale of production at a regional North Coast level is restricted due to the cost of land and topography rather than due to the skills shortage that is af-fecting agriculture at a national level. Our undulating region is not ideal for agribusiness, which requires good access to irrigation and a centralised distribution system. Centralised systems work best for large retailers’ profit margins but not for small producers.

‘So many products now are sold via large supermarkets which require large volumes on an ongoing secure basis,’ says Phil. ‘Small farms find it near impossible to compete in that market, which is why regional farmer’s markets are critical to many of our fruit and veg farmers.

‘In Queensland there are single banana operators that are bigger than the entire NSW banana industry.’ Phil believes that this is likely to have a negative regional impact as it’s favouring a limited choice in the supply chain.

‘Rather than diversity, we’re ending up with what is conve-nient for a large retailer. Busi-ness competition of this kind, in the long term, is bad for the consumer and the producer. Specifically fruit and vegetable farmers.’

‘A lot of it relates to consumer expectation, the way consumers want a capsicum 12 months a year, so what follows is that large supermarkets seek a large supply all year round and if an Australian large producer can’t meet that demand they look overseas, hence the prevalence of Chinese garlic and apples. Demand created by seasonal eating is critical for the viability of small crop farming on the north coast.’

In recent years Phil has seen a huge change in demograph-ics with those wanting to work the land and learn how at Wollongbar TAFE. ‘Before it was mainly sons and daughters, now it’s new farmers across all age groups, and for most, the farming is a secondary income.

‘Wollongbar TAFE agriculture section originally concen-trated on training dairy farming apprentices at a time when north coast milk production was expanding. Today there’s a fraction of the dairy farms that were in production at that time, and very few younger people entering the industry.’

Wollongbar now runs more specific short courses upskilling existing and new farmers and focusing on specific skill areas rather than general farming. ‘There’s a drift toward organic farming and a very strong

shift toward a more biological approach with less inputs and more emphasis on managing and maintaining soil resources.

‘A lot of our current training is focused around the maca-damia industry and organic fruit and vegetable production as well as beef production for smaller coastal landholders.

‘We also run a lot of short courses in the areas of product quality assurance and agricul-tural pesticide use. As well as meeting legislative require-ments these courses result in better farming practices.’

SILAS LONG at age 39 is one of the rare young farmers in this area. ‘Land was way too expensive close to Byron; we had to move another 35 km out to Lismore shire,’ he said. ‘Most of the farmers I know have advised their kids not to stay on the farm but to get a career. I’m aware of only a few farmers under 40 who are producing primary produce.

‘The word is to get bigger or get out. Small-scale farms are considered and treated as if they’re disposable. If I send a box of good produce to the central markets they may either reject it or buy it for as little as possible. If they do accept the produce they can take up to six weeks to pay.

‘At farmer’s markets we

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get paid a fairer price for our produce and we’re paid on the day. We can also experiment with the market and try out a variety of produce which suits a mixed farm model.’

With a mixed farm the aim is to create a biological cycle that lessens the need for inputs, and is therefore more environ-mentally friendly. For someone selling to a central market you need to be geared for large quantities and diversity loses out every time.

‘Farmers markets are wonderful. We don’t need to protest against Woolies – if they don’t make a profit here, they’ll move elsewhere. We just need to support our local farm-ers markets and shops who sell local produce.

‘McDonald’s have only had one café fail in Australia. It was in Newtown where I lived in the 90s. People were just not interested and it inevitably closed down.’

DAVE FORREST has taught Sustainable Agriculture and Organic Farming at Wollongbar TAFE for the past 30 years. He’s seen a steady decrease of train-ing support structures needed for young people to enter agricultural industries. ‘The training for those who either wish to work for themselves or someone else is considerable,’

Dave said. ‘The dilution of the required training program is just one of factors that makes the choice for a career in agri-culture less favourable.

‘The high capital cost of setting up a productive farm is also prohibitive with residential land values being applied in our region.

‘Even the sons and daugh-ters who have the opportu-nity to continue on the family farm often find the economic climate is not conducive to remaining in the industry.’

Many of the people Dave teaches now have had a career

in another field, or are farmers who want to learn about bio-logical methods requiring less expensive inputs such as non-organic fertilisers and sprays.

According to Dave, ’Nearly all of these farmers agree that climate variability is on the increase, though not always believing that humans are responsible or indeed influ-encing this climate change. Nonetheless, making a living on the land is challenging now more than ever. Recent seasons have seen a lot of properties up for sale.’

Dave Forrest wants to make

a major point: that, above economic viability, high cost of land, climate variability and lack of training support struc-tures, the power of consumers is of the utmost importance.

Consumers making wise choices, supporting farmers making wise choices, will make local organic farming into the future sustainable. Poisoning our land and waterways is not a sustainable option.

n Nina Bishop is a sustainability educator and coordinator for Tweed and Byron Shires’ Sus-tainable Streets program.

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Socially responsible investing, also known as sustainable, socially-conscious, or ethical investing, describes an invest-ment strategy which seeks to maximise both financial return and social good.

In general, socially respon-sible investors favour corpo-rate practices that promote environmental stewardship, consumer protection, human rights, and diversity. Some (but not all) avoid businesses involved in alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons, and/or the military. The areas of concern recognised by the SRI industry can be summarised as environment, social justice, and corporate governance (ESG).

The origins of socially responsible investing (SRI) may date back to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1758, the Quaker Philadelphia Yearly Meeting prohibited members from participating in the slave trade – buying or selling humans.

One of the most articulate early adopters of SRI was John Wesley (1703–1791), one of the founders of Methodism. Wes-ley’s sermon ‘The Use of Money’ outlined his basic tenets of so-cial investing – ie not to harm your neighbour through your business practices and to avoid industries like tanning and chemical production, which

can harm the health of work-ers. Some of the most well-known applications of socially responsible investing were religiously motivated. Investors would avoid ‘sinful’ companies, such as those associated with products such as guns, liquor, and tobacco.

BoycottsThe modern socially

responsible investing move-ment evolved with the political climate of the 1960s. Economic development projects started or managed by Dr Martin Lu-ther King, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Operation Breadbasket Project in Chicago, established the model for future socially responsible investing efforts. King com-bined ongoing dialogue with boycotts and direct action targeting specific corporations. Concerns about the Vietnam War were incorporated by some social investors.

During this time, social inves-tors increasingly sought to ad-dress equality for women, civil rights, and labour-manage-ment issues. In the late 1970s, SRI activism gave increasing attention to nuclear power and automobile emissions control.

From the 1970s to the early 1990s, large institutions avoided investment in South Africa un-

der apartheid. International op-position to apartheid strength-ened after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. In 1976 the United Nations imposed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa. The subsequent nega-tive flow of investment dollars eventually forced a group of businesses, representing 75 per cent of South African employ-ers, to draft a charter calling for an end to apartheid.

Climate changeSince the late 1990s, socially

responsible investing has be-come increasingly defined as a means to promote environ-

mentally sustainable develop-ment. Many investors consider effects of climate change a significant business and invest-ment risk. CERES (www.ceres.org) was founded in 1989 by Joan Bavaria and Dennis Hayes as a network for investors, environmental organisations, and other public-interest groups interested in working with companies to address environmental concerns.

‘Booming market’Socially responsible invest-

ing (SRI) is a booming market in both the US and Europe. As-sets in socially screened port-

folios climbed to $2.71 trillion in 2007, an increase over the $2.16 trillion counted in 2003 according to the Social Invest-ment Forum’s 2007 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States. From 2005 to 2007 alone, SRI assets increased more than 18 per cent while the broader universe of professionally man-aged assets increased less than three per cent.

According to the Respon-sible Investment Association of Australasia (www.responsi-bleinvestment.org), responsible investment is ‘the preferred approach for an increasing number of institutional and individual investors as an alternative to conventional investment practices’.

The evidence for this, says RIAA, is in a ten per cent in-crease in managed responsible investment portfolios, a 50 per cent increase in responsibly invested financial adviser portfolios, and a 29 per cent in-crease in Australian signatories to the Principles of Responsible Investment over 2010.

Each year since 2002 RIAA has commissioned research into the size and growth of responsible investment in Australia and New Zealand. The objective of this research is to gather data on the various forms of responsible invest-

ment and to present analysis of growth in the sector in comparison with the total investment market.

According to RIAA, the benchmark report ‘shows that not only is responsible invest-ment a smart choice, it largely outperforms the average mainstream funds over one, three, five and seven years for Australian shares and interna-tional shares. Balanced growth managed funds outperformed mainstream funds over five and seven years.

‘Since the difficult times investors were facing in 2009, the RIAA report reveals that core responsible investment (a combination of specialised managed funds, community finance, green loans, RI char-ity investments and financial adviser portfolios) rose 13 per cent from $AU16.15 billion to $AU18.19 billion.

‘Furthermore, managed re-sponsible investment portfolios alone rose 10 ten per cent from $AU14.02 billion to $AU15.41 billion. Growth in responsible investment portfolios fared bet-ter than the broader market of managed portfolios which rose 9 per cent in that same period.

– abridged from Wikipedia source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_investing and RIAA data.

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Daniel Harper

Electricity prices are going up 20 per cent in July and are set to raise by up to 70 per cent within three years.*

While no-one wants to spend more on basic neces-sities, rising electricity prices, like rising petrol prices, are a certainty.

So now is the time to be embrace energy efficiency which is simply to be aware of your electricity use and find ways to use less of it.

Because not only does in-creased energy efficiency save you money but it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of climate change.

In fact, increasing energy efficiency is one of the major reasons for the federal govern-ment introducing a carbon tax.

A carbon tax will increase coal-fired electricity prices, encouraging Australians to consume less electricity while also making renewable-energy generation more financially viable.

Renewable energy, solar hot water, insulation and compact fluorescents have all been en-couraged by the government with subsidies and rebates in the past.

These incentives have been generally directed at residential properties and have been well received.

But now with a carbon tax the government is using the stick instead of the carrot.

So if you are serious about saving money and helping the planet, energy efficiency is an area that you would be well advised to look at.

Energy Efficiency Offices around the world

are a large source of electric-ity consumption and carbon emissions.

Fortunately there are a variety of things that even a small office can undertake to increase energy efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.

The biggest areas of electricity use in an office will nearly always be air conditioning, lighting and computer equipment.

Air conditioningIn our subtropical climate air

conditioning is often the larg-est area of electricity use in an office. Reducing air condition-ing (and heating) use takes into account two main areas: thermal performance and the energy efficiency of the cool-ing/heating unit. Thermal per-formance looks predominantly at where heat is entering and exiting the building envelope (the office building or structure in this case). Looking at the thermal dynamics of a building

can get quite involved and doing it properly will encom-pass: orientation, ventilation, insulation, shading, thermal mass and glazing. One of the first steps to improving thermal performance is to determine where heat is entering the building – is there a large win-dow that gets direct sunlight? Is there sufficient ventilation to remove heat generated in the office? After determining the problem, discover the solution, which could involve insulation, heat-reflective paint, window tinting and awnings to reduce heat gain, while installing ex-haust fans, roof ventilators and vents can encourage heat loss in the office.

There other aspect to look at: is simply the efficiency of the air conditioning/heating (AC) unit. Looking at the star rating on a AC unit will give a good idea of how efficient it is. Star ratings are calculated by divid-ing the unit’s output power (how much cooling power it can generate) by it’s input (how much electricity it consumes). This figure is called the EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio); anything over 3.2 is generally considered efficient. To further increase AC efficiency, ensure there is adequate and acces-sible control of your AC and encourage awareness of usage by staff. Set the temperature slightly higher in summer; one degree difference will make a 10 per cent difference in your AC costs. Remember to keep windows and doors shut when the AC is on. If you need doors open, installing an air curtain is often a viable solution.

Lighting Significant lighting savings

can be made through behav-ioural change. Simply turning

off lights in parts of the build-ing that aren’t being used is of-ten an easy solution. Putting in multiple light switches for large banks of lights can help give more control in reducing the lights that are on. Educate staff on best practice and consider installing sensors and timers to also limit ‘on’ time. Installing skylights and opaque roofing to enhance natural light can be another good option. Delamp-ing (taking out bulbs in over-lit areas) is free and can give instant savings. In The Echo’s art room they took three tubes out of a bank of 12. The light was still ample and they achieved a 25 per cent saving that was free and took five minutes.

Upgrading old lights to the latest and most efficient types can offer great paybacks (time it takes to recoup initial outlay through energy savings). Incan-descent lights can be cheaply changed to CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) which are now dimmable and can have a ‘warm’ light. Just about everyone has now done this, but check hallways and store-rooms that may have not been upgraded. LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are regularly getting cheaper and brighter mak-ing them viable alternatives for halogens. LEDs have no mercury, less heat, run much more efficiently and last five to 15 times longer than traditional lighting sources.

The most common lighting source in offices by far are fluo-rescent tubes. Fluoros, while reasonably efficient compared to other light sources, can be cost-effectively upgraded to more efficient models. T8s with magnetic ballasts are the prev-alent kind of fluoro consuming around 45 watts per lamp and are used over 95 per cent of the time. Upgrading to a T5 with

electronic ballast that consume 30w give a saving of 33 per cent and over the many lights typical of an office adds up to a significant saving. Payback for these upgrades are generally between two and five years.

Office equipmentThe best rule with office

equipment is to turn it off when you can. Printers, photo copiers and computers should all be turned off when possible. Office Equipment on standby continue to consume energy and should be turned off at the switch. Computers should be put on their most efficient settings, putting hard drives to sleep and turning monitors off after short periods of inactivity. When purchasing new equip-ment compare how energy efficient it is, as the running costs are generally higher than the original purchase price.

So there you have it: simple ways to save money and increase the environmental performance of your office space.

Remember you don’t have to own the business to make these changes; some of the best ideas and impetus for change come from within the organisation.

* ‘An Australian Industry Group study finds the annual bill for a typical Sydney household will climb from $1257 to $2012 between 2009-10 and 2012-13 if the carbon price is introduced at $26 per tonne. Even with no carbon price, the bill is set to climb to $1705. ‘ The Sydney Morning Herald, February 21, 2011.

n Daniel Harper is an energy assessor and founder of Cool-planet coolplanet.com.au.

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Mary Gardner

To live by the sea has tradition-ally meant living on local sea-food. But even here in Australia, that’s an outdated nursery tale like the one about family farms full of happy barnyard animals. Since the 1950s, global industrialization of fishing has overwhelmed indigenous, small commercial and recrea-tional fishing. Seafood for sale in Byron Shire follows a pattern seen throughout the world: a lot of it comes from other parts of the country or, more often, from other countries altogeth-er. Can we make any choices as shoppers and as citizens that are at all ‘sustainable’?

As with ‘sustainability’ on land, the answer is problemat-ic. In the past decade, inde-pendent groups such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), New Zealand’s Forest and Bird Society and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) all published sustain-able-seafood guides. Quick guides are sheets that can be downloaded from the internet. Comprehensive guides are searchable databases, based on the names of fishes. Each species for sale is rated ac-cording to the information (or lack of it) about the stock. Also considered are fishing methods

and the impact of the harvest on other marine species.

The AMCS guide rates hoki, or blue grenadier, as a bad choice. So are bluefin and southern tuna, most Pacific and Atlantic farmed salmon, and nine other species. But each of these fish can be sold under a variety of names. As fillets their identity can be completely lost. There is no process in place to guarantee fish identity. Interna-tional undercover ‘stings’ based on DNA samples of fish reveal incorrect names on anywhere from 30 to 80 per cent of product.

Bad practicesAnother complication is

that a species may be fished or farmed in a number of ways. Hoki is caught with disruptive bottom trawls. Tuna are also caught with trawls or hook and line. Australia, like parts of the Mediterranean, pen endan-gered wild tuna in marine feedlots before sale to Japan. Farmed salmon relies on use of antibiotics and meal made from other fisheries. All of these practices are destructive in different ways.

Many guides detail all fishing methods per species. They also weigh up the impact of by-catch. Seabirds, turtles, seals, dolphins, whales, other fish

– there can also be found the juveniles of the target species. Unmanaged by-catch is why both Australia and New Zealand guides rate hoki so poorly.

The warning against hoki is doubly controversial as this New Zealand fishery was the first to be certified in 2001 as

‘sustainable’ by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). This NGO was created in 1996 by WWF and Unilever, a multina-tional seafood company. Since then hoki stocks have dropped by two thirds. The quota has also dropped. Is this sensitive management or a camouflage

for harsh overfishing?In Canada, USA and the

EU, certification and seafood choice guides are important in raising the alarm with consum-ers. This year, similar cam-paigns start in Asia too. Chefs, fishmongers and multinational supermarket chains are taking up the cause. Sustainable-seafood cookbooks such as Paul Johnson’s Fish Forever are award winners.

The Marriot Hotel in London has revised all its seafood menus accordingly. Hundreds of other restaurants advertise that they source ‘sustainable seafood’. Sushi bars, first in California and now throughout the world, are dropping tuna and other troubled options. Their new selling point is offer-ing exciting ‘sustainable sushi’.

OverfishedThe alarm about fisheries is

valid. Internationally, 80 per cent of fisheries are overex-ploited. Since 2006, of 100 key species managed by NSW, 40 are fully fished or overfished. Of the other 60, not enough is known to make a call. Over half of the 70 species managed by the Commonwealth are also fully fished or overfished. Of-ficial reports are that a fifth of Australian commercial opera-tions routinely violate fishing

regulations, involving from 20 to 60 per cent of all fish caught. And to complicate things, rec-reational catch makes as great an impact, equalling commer-cial hauls.

What to do? We can insist our supermarkets, fishmongers and restaurants offer recom-mended seafood as well as boycott threatened species. Our award-winning sushi bars can raise the bar nationally. Imagine the genuine tourism value in promoting Byron Shire for its sustainable seafood cuisine.

As citizens, we must hold our politicians on course for sus-tainability at home. They must further Australia’s Securing Our Fishing Future program. Since 2005, fishery quotas were set up, marine parks created, fleets downsized and licences bought out. The program finished in 2010 but marine ecosystems are not yet secure.

We also need proactive legislation supporting our international trading partners in sustainable fishing. Environ-mental justice for wild fish and humans depends on votes we cast as well as purchases and boycotts we make.

n Mary Gardner is a writer, biologist and tutor. See more of her work at www.tangleoflife.org.

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Story & photo Eve Jeffery

Dave Lawrence’s interest in sustainable house design goes back a long way. Dave even helped design the family beach house in New Zealand in the 1970s when he was just 17 years old. Dave and his partner Ruth, who is an interior designer, designed and built an energy-efficient house in Margaret River, Western Australia, in the early 90s but realised that as much as they loved the house, they were 3,000km away from where they wanted to be.

The couple moved to the north coast in 1994 and bought an existing inefficient house in Byron Bay. They set about ret-rofitting it to show some ways of improving existing houses. Dave set up a business specifi-cally focusing on retrofitting houses for energy efficiency. This brought about the idea of teaching others about energy efficiency. Enter ACE, now known as Byron Community College. Dave has been teach-ing courses on energy-efficient house design since just about day dot.

Do homeworkHe advises doing your home-

work before buying anything and go along to ask Council about your intended property. He says they are impartial and very helpful. ‘Spend more time on the design than you think you need to; it is much cheaper than rebuilding.’

Dave says that what dam-ages houses the most is water. Timbers rot, steel rusts, paint bubbles, damp rises, leaks travel, waterproofing fails, flashing is often simply forgot-ten or ignored, retaining walls collapse, soil swells, concrete cracks. It’s important to pay attention to keeping it dry.

One of the secrets, he says is having a master plan and a plan B. ‘Have a contingency plan for when you can’t afford your first choice. Really think

about your needs and what you can afford.

‘Your needs will change with time so make it adaptable. Only two things are fixed: the loca-tion and the aspect. Everything else can change so don’t buy based on variables.’

Dave says that simplicity is the key; if you get too compli-cated then things can get out of hand. ‘You need either a lot of time or a lot of money. It will generally cost twice as much as you hope it will and take three times as long as you initially thought. Keep it simple.’

Costs varyRefitting your house is an

option for anyone who doesn’t want to leave their current home. When asked the cost of an average refit, Dave said ‘how long is a bit of wood?’. Costs do vary according to your needs so you can pay as little as $1,000 for a small saver and up to $300,000 for a complete overhaul. ‘Basically allow $2,000 per square metre if you are using a builder; it may be less if you are attempting it yourself (maybe more if you make too many mistakes).’

Of the college course, Dave says he finds that a more relaxed approach to teaching a far more effective method. He says interactive classes are more fun and students also have knowledge to impart to each other and Dave himself. ‘I have witnessed firm friend-ships being made every year that I run the course, possibly from the sharing of similar interests and the casual nature of the class.’

Dave has either designed over 120 new or refit homes and has taught hundreds of students in his course, which covers a lot of the mind-bend-ing stuff that without guidance could become too daunting to approach. Approval processes, BASIX and bushfire certificates are subjects covered as well as tours through homes that Dave

has designed from scratch or refitted. After 12 years he says one of the most satisfying things is touring the home of past students as an example for the new ones.

Past student Paul Davies couldn’t be happier with his re-fitted home. ‘When my partner and I decided to rebuild our one-and-a-half bedroom fibro beach shack, we were extremely fortunate in obtaining the services of Dave,’ says Paul. ‘Dave drew up the plans for a new house employing solar passive design principles. Now, instead of the hot, un-insulated sauna box that we used to live in, we are proud owners of a cool-in-summer, warm-in-winter, three-and-a-half-bedroom home.’

Eye openingPaul says he and partner

Suzi were intrigued by the solar passive approach and eventually did Dave’s Energy Ef-ficient Housing Design course and were able to understand, often in retrospect, the reasons certain things were there in the plans – such as clerestory windows, louvres, and minimal glass on the western side.

Paul says the course and rebuilding has opened their eyes to the potential ways in which we can all use a simple, commonsense approach to constructing dwellings that require minimal energy for comfort and avoid any possibil-ity of ‘sick building syndrome’.

Dave, who feels that the future of eco-housing will in-clude green (living turf ) roofs, says that expecting a house to be more than it is can be the biggest problem. ‘Don’t expect more than a house can deliver.Live simpler with less clutter; sometimes subtraction is the best addition.’

n Eve Jeffery is an Echo journalist, sports writer and photographer. See more of her photographic work at www.treefaeriephotos.com.

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 201114Story & photo Eve Jeffery

The modern catchcry for shop-ping sustainably is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but how far can you take this in your everyday life? Obviously things like food and toiletries have only a one-time-use option, but there are so many of our modern needs that can be filled on a shopping list from the ‘pre-loved’ outlets all over the Northern Rivers. If you also calculate the shopping miles against the new-versus-sec-ondhand factor, you don’t have to travel far to save the Earth.

Since the 80s it has been

cool rather than embarrassing to visit the op-shop. You really can find everything from shoes to bras and even retro year 10 formal gear on the shelves and racks of your local Salvos, Vin-nies, Lifeline, church or animal rescue op-shop. Your dollars not only save lives, children or creatures, they help save the Earth by getting more out of discarded items.

Things have changed in the last thirty years and these days most oppys have lost the seedy smell and have stock on their shelves to outfit your cutlery drawers, your crockery shelves and your glassware cupboards

as well as the drawers, shelves and cupboards themselves. Several commercial options to the traditionally charity-based idea have also sprung up and these still house great bargains for the avid fossicker.

The other end of the op-shop spectrum is of course the antique shop. These quite often have items that, even though they cost a bit more than they did in 1920, are still cheaper than a new designer option.

Antique bargainsAntique auctions are also a

treasure trove. Mostly people who are after something particular at an auction scan the list, buy what they want and leave. A few years ago I saw a solid wood dining table with turned legs the size of the rugby player’s in the most beautiful honey timber. The piece would have taken four strong men to lift and it went for a measly $80 – you couldn’t even buy the wood for that today.

Deceased estate auctions are also great. I used to get really sad about the sale of the residue of life. I got sentimental at the memory that Depression glass jugs and stoneware bowls evoked in me – visions of my Nana’s hands making scones at the kitchen bench and the smell of her baking gone forever. But I came to realise that reusing

someone’s stuff and putting it to good use would prob-ably make them really happy, validating the value they first saw in a small piece glass on a department store shelf, and if their offspring or their grand-offspring really wanted it, they would probably not be hawking it on grandpa’s front lawn.

Raiding the pickupAnother place that many

an enterprising teenager and surely a few business-minded secondhand dealers find good stuff is the the hard rubbish pickup. Now don’t be shy –most of us at least have had our eye caught by something and con-templated returning after dark. I know I have. My loungeroom boasts a very nice coffee table thanks to the hard rubbish left out at New Brighton.

Now I am certainly not advo-cating this practice but if you do happen to find yourself in the situation and you have looked sideways up and down the street and no-one will see you, there probably are some man-ners that need to be adhered to before you take the plunge. Don’t make a mess of people’s nature strips. It’s just not cricket to pinch the cricket set then leave the remains of the croquet

set all over the lawn for the homeowner to have to wrangle at sunrise.

According to Byron Shire Council’s website in the Fre-quently Asked Questions about kerbside cleanup and people scavenging from hard rubbish piles, ‘Council is aware that this may happen, but cannot police this practice. Council is happy to see secondhand items being used, however asks that resi-dents seeking materials keep piles neat and tidy. Piles that are spread apart are difficult to clean up and add to the cost of providing this service.’

It probably is a really good idea to be super careful of electrical items found and prob-ably a good idea for rubbish depositors to snip off the cords of items that are stuffed.

As for garage sales, I reckon this area should be renamed the Garage Sale Capital of Australia. I have seen more Sat-urday morning sales here than anywhere else in the country. What can’t you buy at a garage sale? Nothing. In fact I believe you could build a material life from scratch just from garage sales around here. They also satisfy a certain hunt-and-gath-er primal need. Just be nice to the grannies, folks: it might be

really hard for them to part with hubby’s old golf set for $7.

Build your houseNow that you have managed

to clothe yourself and outfit the house, one of the last things many people think of is the house itself. You can actually build a house almost entirely from secondhand materials – everything from timber, roof-ing iron, floorboards, windows, doors, toilets, bath and vanities, taps and even carpets and rugs can be sourced from within the Northern Rivers and most of the large towns, certainly Lismore, Tweed, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay, have second-hand building and plumbing materials for sale. And don’t forget the rubbish tip. Many council tips in our area have a shop where discarded items that have been given a bit of a brush-off are displayed for your shopping pleasure.

So, the gauntlet has been thrown down – there is no excuse to not create a home and life entirely from pre-loved items. The money you save can be spent on a nice bottle of bourbon to pour into that designer deco glass ‘that I just bought at a garage sale over at Federal’.

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Kel Raison

Sitting pretty in your carbon-offset Pumas, (partially) organic cotton Levis and bamboo-fibre t-shirt? Well not for long, because in an industry that has a long list of ecological nasties across all lifecycle phases, one of the largest sustainability, or unsustainability, issues facing the fashion industry is textile waste.

Textile waste comprises approximately four per cent of Australian landfill. That makes nearly two million tonnes of textile waste ending up in land-fill in one year. And the figures are on the rise.

As it decomposes, which can take up to 30 years for syn-thetic materials, textile waste contributes to the formation of leachate. Leachate is a general term to describe liquid that moves through or drains from landfill, picking up chemical nasties from decomposing products which contaminate groundwater. Large amounts of ammonia, which is highly toxic both on land and in aquatic en-vironments, are also produced during the decomposition of materials, namely organic fi-bres and wool. And last but not least we have methane, one of the most significant green-house gases contributing to global warming, which is also

produced in large amounts during the decomposition of natural fibres.

So what is the solution? Aside from the obvious reduc-ing and reusing of fashion garments, textile recycling offers a viable solution to the exorbitant waste produced by this consumer-driven industry. According to Kerryn Caulfield, author of a discussion paper, Sources of Textile Waste in Aus-tralia, textile recycling not only prevents the presence of fash-ion items in landfill but turns out to make good ecological and business sense as well.

Marry this to the research conducted by the Mobium Group, which valued Australia’s sustainability market at $19 billion in 2009 and estimated it will reach $27 billion by the end of 2011, and the Textile and Fashion Industry Aus-tralia’s recent efforts to bring sustainability to the agenda of the Australian fashion industry players by hosting two sustainability forums, and tada! A green industry is born in Australia.

Currently in Australia the recycling of post-consumer fashion is the domain of chari-ties such as The Smith Family and St Vincent de Paul. A UK study revealed that only 60 per cent of clothing donated to charities is sold on and an

alarming 25 per cent is sent to landfill. There were no com-parable figures available for Australia. These figures become more disturbing when the UK-based Recycling Association estimated that 95 per cent of textiles that reach landfill each year can be recycled.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Smith Family’s Commercial Enterprise (TSF) located in Villawood, Sydney, is a manufacturing facility that turns textile indus-try waste and clothing that is unsuitable for resale into non-woven fabrics. Products made at the facility include carpet underlay, furniture removal felt, weed-suppression and water-retention felts.

The facility was established in 1987 and has since under-

gone upgrades including the establishment of a second manufacturing line to broaden the range of textiles produced and raise the output of recy-cled material from six to ten thousand tonnes annually.

Textile recycling facilities, although commercially vi-able, have huge startup costs considering the plant and machinery required, and Caul-field asserts that government policy aimed at encouraging investors towards this sector is a necessity.

‘The recycling industry’s contribution to protecting the environment would not be possible without its significant expenditure on often highly sophisticated plant, machin-ery and equipment... industry invests around $ US20 billion each year on new equipment and research and develop-ment. To that end, government policy is the instrument that will encourage investment in an industry that will regenerate textile waste,’ Caulfield said.

Another government initiative cited by Caulfield that could be implemented is the compulsory labelling of materials in Australia to indi-cate recyclability, like the one introduced by North American based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART).

In the US there are more than 500 textile recycling companies; 17,000 people are employed while annual gross sales of $400 million and $300 million apply to primary and secondary processors respec-tively.

In Australia, if each textile recycling facility regenerated the same amount of textiles as

SMC’s facility, we would need at least 200 facilities to deal with our yearly output of textile waste. Based on US figures that could entail nearly 7,000 jobs and a combined income of $280 million.

What are we waiting for?

n Kel Raison is a freelance writer.

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What’s a good sustainable idea for our community?

Top left, Mungo MacCallum, political commentator: ‘The most urgent need is to stop wasting good drinking water down the toilet – recycling or better still composting (all those nitrates make great fertiliser) should be mandatory.’

Top centre, Rebecca Smith, receptionist: ‘A great idea would be to give the gift of food. Whenever you buy a present for some-one, choose fruit trees and vegetable or herb seedlings and if it’s a larger gift like for a wedding, add a compost bin and a mulch-ing guide.’

Top right, Obi McDonald Saint of Mullum Mac: ‘A great sus-tainable idea is the the Byron Shire Green Pages – it’s an online directory that allows people to promote their business, support the environment and be seen to be green.’

Right, Ash Grunwald, musician: ‘Buying locally massively reduces your carbon footprint – a big ask in some places but it’s pretty darn easy in the Byron Shire! As our society weans itself off fossil fuels, we might have to stay put a little more but that’s not really too hard when you live in paradise!’

Centre right, Kathy Norley, president, South Golden Beach Progress Association: ‘If every-one had both a wind turbine and solar panels on their roofs, we could create enough energy to power everything a village needs.’

Above left, Dhinawan, Indigenous entertainer and educator: ‘I think that councils and governments should plant out all public spaces, from schools and parklands to the grounds of hospitals and public buildings, with nutrient-rich food trees. This will aid a healthier diet generally and benefit the poor and homeless.’

Above right, Jan Barham, Byron Shire Mayor: ‘Community gardens support sustainable com-munity; they bring diverse people together to produce local healthy food that reduces our carbon footprint and creates friendships.’

Interviews and photos Eve Jeffery

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Lani Summers

Q: How many environmental-ists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Four. One to research the latest in sustainable light bulb technology, one to upgrade the fitting to utilise the latest technology, one to realise that the technology has since been superseded and one to light a local organic beeswax candle while the first one resumes re-searching the latest in sustain-able light bulb technology....

Jokes aside, a bigger ques-tion to be asked is this: With appropriate technology and alternative behaviours known and available, why are people, even those of great environ-mental awareness, slow on the uptake?

All the polls and surveys I found on climate change indicated that most Austral-ians believe climate change is real and happening. Most of our population also believe that modern greenhouse gas emissions are a considerable contributor. Though we know that existing weather cycles such as El Nino and La Nina still create their signature weather patterns, too frequently we are hearing an increase of use in the meteorological phrase ‘another record extreme’. While the climate may be changing rapidly, we as individuals and societies are much slower.

Brain battleNeurologically speaking,

behaviour change is a little bat-tle within our brain between our older, more primal instinct for immediate gratification, and our newer evolving de-layed gratification centre. The former is fairly constant, and is designed to keep us alive and happy now. The latter is mostly switched on by visual stimulus, and is evolving us to evolve a happy future.

Are the victims of the recent floods more likely to sign up for car pooling, or to take up cycling? Perhaps a little, but the greatest changes occur when the stimuli are rewarding. Peo-ple more often invest money long term when they imagine a wealthy future for themselves, rather than imagining the aversion of poverty. Can we evolve fast enough to create a sustainable future? Climate change is only one of several motivators in the case of sus-tainable transport. Peak oil and its economic impact on global oil prices is also a motivation, as is pollution reduction and a need for physical exercise.

After its first year, the Northern Rivers Carpooling has a whopping 609 registered participants, which is a great achievement, yet only a small

dent in this region’s commut-ing total. Car pooling is another example, where many individu-als agree that it is a good idea conceptually, but few are will-ing to leave their cars at home.

What if the price of petrol doubled or trebled; would the uptake of organised as well as informal car pooling reflect those figures? Most likely the answer would be yes. Direct economic impacts stimulate that instant gratification centre to change immediate behav-iour for immediate benefit.

GratificationA lot of technologically based

solutions also seek to stimulate immediate gratification by at least maintaining current levels of comfort and convenience without necessarily being of long-term value, or by chal-lenging current behaviours for the long-term good. If we all bought a new hybrid car, we would all benefit in the short term from reduced fuel bills; we could continue our lifestyle unaffected and seemingly reduce emissions; however, at some point we would need to account for the impact of the energy consumption used to create the cars, as well as dis-pose of the obsolete ones.

Truly sustainable transport technologies may be slow and steady solutions that incor-porate adaptation of existing

models and infrastructure, and can scale up with minimum environmental impact. That is not to say that emergent technology doesn’t hold some answers; we just need to keep checking in to the long-term values and impacts as well as the more immediate.

Clean airNext time we drive our car

two kilometres to the gym, so that we can run eight kilome-tres on a treadmill or its equiva-lent, perhaps we could use that time to exercise our delayed gratification centre. We could picture nature at its healthiest, people at their happiest – not as a flashback to The Secret, but to stimulate changes in our evolving mind and to support us to adjust our individual be-haviour for the greater good.

Picture vehicles that clean the air, and produce fertiliser as a byproduct; picture light-weight weather cases for bicy-cles and even lighter-weight silver jumpsuits for teleporting. Also, law of attraction aside and with an understanding of the twenty-year delayed car-bon cycle, as a backup plan a few of us might start picturing what a modern Ark might look like: two solar panels, two LED digital TVs, two ensuites.

n Lani Summers is a freelance writer.

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Sustainable transport and the psychology of change

‘The rumour was that in 2010, Volkswagen would be releasing a one-seater car with a fuel economy of 258 miles to the gallon, costing just $600 each. If it sounds too good to be true that’s because it is.

‘But the truth of the matter is still pretty interesting. Since 2002, VW has been working on a car called the L1. It seats two people and is made from carbon fibre so it’s super light at just 290kg. The body is flat and narrow, and even includes a little bit of storage space.

‘The prototype has a single-cylinder diesel engine (though that could change), anti-lock brakes, driver’s airbag and an electronic stability program. It holds 6.5 litres or 1.72 gallons of gasoline and does in fact get 258 miles per gallon with a top speed of around 74 miles per hour.

‘Volkswagen is calling it the world’s most economical car but the price tag is not going to be $600. Reports say it will be more like $25,900 and that VW will be making a limited number for release in 2010.’ – Leslie Berliant at www.energyboom.com.

So, it doesn’t use much petrol but it does use petrol or diesel, which will become a problem when peak oil – and China’s growing consumer base – hits home.

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 201118Consumers are being urged to use new heat-reflective coatings technology to help cut carbon emissions. Accord-ing to not-for-profit program GreenPainters, this technol-ogy should be considered as a way to significantly increase building energy efficiency, by cutting cooling costs.

‘Nano-ceramic paint technol-ogy is one of the most signifi-cant advances in the coatings industry’, says Daniel Wurm, GreenPainters manager. ‘It means that we can cut cooling costs of a building by up to 40 per cent, simply by helping the building reflect solar radiation before it causes heat build-up inside.

‘This results in lower air-conditioning energy use, sav-ing money and cutting carbon emissions.’

GreenPainters, a national program for sustainability in the painting industry, has partnered with Astec Paints, a major Australian manufacturer of heat-reflective coatings, to promote the new technology.

‘We chose to work with Astec because they are leading the industry in research and devel-

opment of the technology, and they have a proven track record here in Australia and overseas. We want to see Australia adopt this technology the way it has been used in Asia and the US.’

The coatings, which are ap-plied to the exterior surfaces of a building, work by reflecting the infra-red wavelengths of solar radiation. According to GreenPainters, this property al-lows them to efficiently reflect heat regardless of the colour used.

‘Of course, lighter colours will always result in higher reflectance values, but these products also offer significant

results when darker colours are used. Specifiers who want the best results should try to choose lighter colours to achieve the highest reflective efficiency’, says Daniel.

‘It’s also important to choose a manufacturer who meets all the other environmental con-siderations, such as manufac-turing process and VOC levels.’

GreenPainters has helped developed a training course that educates painters to understand how the products work and the importance of using them.

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The Northern Rivers Carpool is a free web-based service that matches travel details of like commuters, with over 600 members.Carpooling for just two days a week could save you $750 a year and reduce your carbon footprint by 2.6 tonnes. To register, simply visit www.nrcarpool.org

Helping people ‘grow their own’

The Lismore Community Garden is a joint project of Rainbow Region Community Farms Inc and the Northern Rivers Social Development Council, and Council supports the garden by providing the land at the corner of Brewster & Magellan Streets. Visit the site, or go to www.rrcf.org.au/lcg

Supporting local food producers

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• Lismore Farmers Market - Every Saturday from 8am to 12pm at the Lismore Showgrounds

• Blue Knob Farmers Market - Every Saturday from 9am -1pm at 719 Blue Knob Road, near Nimbin

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Story & photo Victoria Cosford

Owen Trevor-Jones’s new toy is supposed to pay itself off in seven years. The sleek and slender wind turbine stretches six metres up into the sky from his farm at Hayters Hill, visible to anyone who is commuting to Bangalow from Byron on Bangalow Road. To Owen’s knowledge the only other one in the region is a nine-metre one near Tintenbar.

He told The Echo that it had been erected in December 2010. ‘It’s supposed to be a business venture because we got in on the tariff,’ he said.

‘It’s producing electrical energy straight into the grid. It’s monitored and we get paid 60c an hour.

‘It wasn’t fully commissioned till January so we’ve only had two months out of it.’

Rewind Energy is the com-pany responsible for it, and every two years they will send someone out to check up on it. For Owen it is, however, main-tenance free, and so quiet you can barely hear the murmur of the spinning blades.

Owen said that as far as his neighbours are concerned, ‘most comments have been positive. Someone was aghast that it had popped up in his line of sight, though – and we

didn’t manage to appease him. But the surfers are able to tell which beaches to go to by see-ing which way the wind blows. A lot of people think of wind-towers as a beautiful thing.’

In the event of cyclonic weather conditions, the 5-kilo-watt turbine has three braking systems, effectively turning itself backwards and using its

own electric generator to turn itself off. Owen said that the av-erage wind speed for the cape is 20 kilometres an hour.

‘When you can’t see the blade it’s blowing up to 25-30 kilometres an hour,’ he said.

Wind turbines are a cheap and efficient source of reliable renewable energy sources. They date from around 50 BC.

International aid agency Oxfam Australia has urged the Multi-Party Climate Change Com-mittee to consider directing a portion of funds raised from a price on carbon and then an emissions trading scheme toward helping poor people in developing countries adapt to the devastating impacts of climate change.

Oxfam Australia Climate Change Policy Advisor Kelly Dent said Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement on the introduction of a price on car-bon is an important step for-ward, and hoped revenue from it would be used to contribute to Australia’s international com-mitments to climate finance.

‘The Australian government

has committed to contribute to a $US100 billion fund to help adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, but so far has not announced how it plans to source this money,’ Ms Dent said.

‘We hope these new schemes will be used to help meet these commitments as poor people in developing countries are facing increased floods, droughts and other impacts of climate change and desperately need support now,’Ms Dent said.

Ms Dent also said Australia is currently on a course which increases its emissions and that the scheme must be used to reverse this trend.

‘In their deliberations over

the architecture of a carbon price and emissions trading scheme, the Multi-Party Cli-mate Change Committee must not lose sight of the overall goal to deliver meaningful reductions in carbon pollution.

‘At the moment, Australia is on course to actually increase its emissions by around 19 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. As the biggest carbon polluter in the developed world on a per-capita basis, Australia has an obligation to set the bar high.

‘Globally 2010 was the hot-test year on record and more than twice the number of people died due to weather re-lated disasters – such as floods, storms and droughts – than in 2009.’

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Victoria Cosford

By now most people are familiar with the Slow Food Movement – and yet not all know about the network it coordinates, called Terra Madre. Translated as Mother Earth, it is a body composed of about 12,000 farmers, food-makers, cooks, chefs, students and academics from all over the world, whose aim is to build global awareness of the chal-lenges of food sustainability and the wonders of ‘small, slow food’. Terra Madre is the means whereby these people are given a voice.

Every second year this body comes together at an inter-national conference in Turin, Italy, a companion event to Slow Food’s huge biennial food event called Salone del Gusto (Hall of Taste). 2004 was the year it was launched, attracting nearly 5000 delegates repre-senting 1200 food communities from 130 countries.

Food futureThere were farmers and

fishermen, processors and dis-tributors, cooks and agricultural specialists; two years on they were joined by 1000 chefs and cooks and 200 university tech-nologists. At the end of that first one it was widely agreed that it had surpassed everybody’s expectations. It had allowed the delegates to meet and discuss the issues most important to them and enabled the atten-tion of the international public to be directed to the gravity and the variety of factors on which the future of agriculture and sustainable food produc-tion would be built.

Each Terra Madre is com-posed of workshops and panel discussions which explore issues like biodynamic farming, genetic engineer-ing, organic certification, rural communication, rare livestock breeds, small-scale fishing and indigenous agricultural sys-tems. Bulgarian berry foragers meet Canadian wild blueberry gatherers; coffee growers from the Honduras discuss possible

solutions to common problems with coffee growers from Ethio-pia; Turkish bee-keepers talk bees with Mexican ones.

The format is deliberately international, with present-ers speaking in their native languages. Participants don headsets which relay simulta-neous translation, akin to the presentation format in United Nations General Assembly meetings.

At Terra Madre last year (2010), the conference was opened by members of indig-enous communities from five continents. Representatives from Australian Aborigines, the Gamo (Ethiopia), the Kanchadal (Russia), the Sami (Sapmi terri-tory, northern Europe) and the Guarani (Brazil) spoke of the plight of their native peoples and the importance of preserv-ing their values and traditions for future generations. In the speech given by Slow Food International’s President and founder Carlo Petrini, he talked about the importance of a dialogue between science and traditional knowledge.

Front line‘The main holders of this

knowledge are native peo-ples, women, farmers and elders. Not only should they be listened to, but they should be at the front line for the challenges this world and the

crisis present us. Yet these are the people least considered by politicians and media.’

Much later, when it was all over, he said that ‘dur-ing the Terra Madre opening ceremony, representatives of indigenous peoples were the ones who understood how to dig deep into our soul, because many of us have had our souls sold, while they are defending them. They are fully aware of the value of what they do, of the importance of memory and diversity. They have much to teach us.’

He said that all those who had attended left charged by the desire to do more for a better food system ‘that can restore the pleasures of life to us’ – a fundamental aim of the entire Slow Food Movement.

Local perspectiveTo date there has not been

any local representation at Terra Madre in Italy by produc-ers or farmers, possibly due to the prohibitive costs involved as well as time constraints.

The Byron Bay convivium of the Slow Food Movement held its AGM in early March, with about 24 in attendance. The main item on the agenda was whether or not to continue, given the fact that member numbers had plummeted over the last few years. Has the Slow Food Movement out-served

its purpose was one question being mooted.

Given the increasing rise of other regional food-related groups and organisations such as Northern Rivers Food and Northern Rivers Food Links, which appear to be espous-ing Slow Food philosophies and doing similar things but at a more grassroots and lo-cally pertinent level – not to mention a disenchantment with what some regard as elitism within the international movement – the answer would appear to be yes.

It was not possible to form a new committee as there were

no nominations to fill the main three positions: those of Leader, Secretary and Treasurer. Those present were divided as to the merits of continuing to operate the convivium in its present form, assuming the positions were filled, or to dissolve it completely, possibly to go on and create a similar, less formal organisation. Given the volun-tary nature of the organisation, a key issue with most was the time and energy required to devote to event planning and administration in particular.

Incumbent secretary Janene Jarvis subsequently emailed all current and past Slow Food

members advising them of the status quo and asking for expressions of interest in filling committee positions, as a last cry for help. Should the local convivium close, existing mem-bers are free to join another convivium of their choice. It was generally agreed that the local group had had a wonder-ful ten-year run. Janene Jervis can be contacted on 6685 5022.

n Victoria is an Echo journalist and food writer, and author of Amore and Amoretti, a memoir of her time in Italy (Wakefield Press http://www.wakefield-press.com.au).

LOCAL FOODbe part of something special

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This project has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.

For more information on the Northern Rivers Food Links project and how this Northern Rivers council co-operation project is working towards food security for the region, go to the project website www.northernriversfoodlinks.com.au or subscribe to the newsletter by emailing [email protected]

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Zefer Solar, based in Byron Bay, has been installing solar quality equipment sinceJanuary 2010

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*Prices are based on STC price of $35.00, STC's are to be surrendered to Zefer Pty Ltd. Prices Quoted are for single storey installation with a tin roof. Extra costs may be incurred for non-standard installations. Prices are based on installations completed in Byron Shire. Zefer will make all efforts to have your application efficiently processed by Country Energy. We cannot guarantee all applications will be processed by Country Energy in time to be scheduled for installation before the end of June.

Z PRICInGZefer installs only top quality equipment and our local installation team provides a 7-year warranty on installations.

1.52 kw, 8 x Suntech StP190S modules, 1 x Aurora PVI-2000 Inverter $3995 3.04 kw. 16 x Suntech StP190S modules, 1 x Aurora PVI-3000 Inverter $10995

We install systems in a range of other sizes, including, 1.9 kW, 4.56 kW, and larger, please call for further details.*

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OUR WARRANTIES: Z5yRSinverter Zmodules

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A Zefer representative will come and visit your property and give you qualifi ed advice about costs, rebates, benefi ts and the best solution for you.If you choose Zefer as your solar provider we will handle all paperwork and get the system on your roof with a minimum of delay.Zefer helped me choose a great solar power system. My new power bills are much lower. – Colin, Suffolk Park.

* Prices are based on STC price of $35.00, STC’s are to be surrendered to Zefer Pty Ltd. Prices Quoted are for single storey installation with a tin roof. Extra costs may be incurred for non-standard installations. Prices are based on installations completed in Byron or Tweed Shires before 30th June, 2011. Zefer will make all efforts to have your application effi ciently processed by Country Energy. We cannot guarantee all applications will be processed by Country Energy in time to be scheduled for installation before the end of June.

your sustainable community 2011

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