April 12, 2009
· Filed under green living tips · Tagged insulation, solar energy, solar power
I’ve been asked about the Federal Government’s grants for insulation, so here is the relevent link.
Basically you can get $1600 back for either installing solar hot water or installing ceiling insulation. The insulation grant is only available if you currently have no ceiling insulation or your ceiling insulation has an R-value of less than 0.5. (The recommended R-value for ceiling insulation in Sydney, for instance, is 2.5.)
In most cases, this grant will make installing ceiling insulation free.
This is separate to the grant for installing solar panels.
August 21, 2008
· Filed under green living tips · Tagged plastic, recycling, waste
First in an occasional series of basic eco-gear is a humble daypack. And in it I’d put one of those insulated coffee cups, a lightweight plastic plate, knife and fork, a washed-out takeway container, one or two of those green shopping bags (with a couple of plastic supermarket veggie bags inside) and a bottle of drinking water. And whatever else you carry around in a daypack, of course.
That way you can eliminate that daily mountain of plastic packaging from takeaway containers, buying drinks on the run (bottled water is an eco-crime) and unplanned stops at the shops.
July 31, 2008
· Filed under green living tips
May 2, 2008
· Filed under green living tips · Tagged beanie, energy-saving, heating
How easy is it to be green? How cheap? When it comes to saving energy, pretty easy. Try wearing a beanie around the house this winter instead of cranking up the heating and watch your energy bills come down. (This tip works best if you wear some other clothes too, of course.)
March 14, 2008
· Filed under green living tips
If you put organic waste such as food scraps into your ordinary rubbish it goes to landfill where it breaks down anaerobically (without oxygen). That produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. But did you know that about 40 per cent of all household waste can be composted. Composting is incredibly easy. It involves little more than a covered pile in your garden, or a $60 compost bin. And compost breaks down aerobically, with no methane. Instead it produces healthy, nutritious fertiliser for your soil. (If you don’t have a garden, you can compost and give it to a neighbour or a local community garden.)
March 13, 2008
· Filed under green living tips · Tagged carbon dioxide, climate change, global warming, meat
One of the most surprising things we unearthed while researching the little green guide was that eating less red meat is one of the best ways to reduce your contribution to global warming. Meat production means clearing forest, and there are a lot of fossil fuel inputs into growing feed and so on. Cows also produce a lot of methane, another climate change gas. In fact reducing your red meat intact will save more CO2 emissions than trading your car in for a hybrid. And it’s a lot cheaper too.
