2010 Sustainability Street Phillip Bay Highlights
Greg signed up for Randwick Council’s, Living Smart course that commenced on February 14, 2010. This five week course, now increased to six weeks, covers all aspect of smarter, simpler living, challenging our lifestyles to take into account our sustainable use of energy and water as well reduce our use of chemicals and production of waste. I highly recommend this course. Indeed, it is essential for those who want to reduce their carbon footprint on our planet.
In February, 2010, we became City Buddies as part of Food Connect, an organic fruit and vegie supplier that sources food from within 200 km of their depot. Unfortunately, interest in Food Connect waned in Phillip Bay to the point that we were the only subscribers so we decided to drop out and we picked up our last box on September 1. In spite of this, I wholeheartedly recommend Food Connect to anyone interested in low food km and organic produce.
On Sunday 28th March, 2010, coincidentally also Neighbour Day, we opened up our property for inspection after we completed our sustainable house retrofit which include solar hot water (SHW), a 2.09 kW photovoltaic (PV) array, a 6 kL rainwater harvesting system, a native, waterwise garden and a small vegie garden. We letterboxed the neighbourhood the week before and welcomed a total of 17 visitors to our place during the afternoon of the 28th. An excellent result!!
After a bit of an event free winter our next major activity was once again opening our house, this time for Sustainable House Day (SHD), at which we had 58 visitors on Sunday, September 12, 2010.
Anna led a Composting Workshop as part of our contribution to 350.org’s Global Work Day on Sunday, October 10, 2010. Once again, we letterboxed the area and had 21 participants learning how to start their own compost bin. We’ll be following up their progress early in 2011.
As a result of SHD we were asked by NSW TAFE if we would allow our home be used for a sustainable retrofit teaching video. Of course we agreed and had a small film crew and interviewer attend our place on Monday, October 18, 2010.
I finished upgrading our native garden by planting out more of our street verge ‘nature strip’ with natives and mulching it to the max with free mulch that a contractor supplied. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get our vegie garden started this spring as a result of Leeanne’s bad back and other pressing priorities. However, we hope to get back on track with that early in 2011.
Towards the end of 2010, Gareth and Maria had their PV system installed but not without problems as their inverter's switch was rusting out! It wasn't working for some time until a new, waterproof, housing was installed.
In February, 2010, we became City Buddies as part of Food Connect, an organic fruit and vegie supplier that sources food from within 200 km of their depot. Unfortunately, interest in Food Connect waned in Phillip Bay to the point that we were the only subscribers so we decided to drop out and we picked up our last box on September 1. In spite of this, I wholeheartedly recommend Food Connect to anyone interested in low food km and organic produce.
On Sunday 28th March, 2010, coincidentally also Neighbour Day, we opened up our property for inspection after we completed our sustainable house retrofit which include solar hot water (SHW), a 2.09 kW photovoltaic (PV) array, a 6 kL rainwater harvesting system, a native, waterwise garden and a small vegie garden. We letterboxed the neighbourhood the week before and welcomed a total of 17 visitors to our place during the afternoon of the 28th. An excellent result!!
After a bit of an event free winter our next major activity was once again opening our house, this time for Sustainable House Day (SHD), at which we had 58 visitors on Sunday, September 12, 2010.
Anna led a Composting Workshop as part of our contribution to 350.org’s Global Work Day on Sunday, October 10, 2010. Once again, we letterboxed the area and had 21 participants learning how to start their own compost bin. We’ll be following up their progress early in 2011.
As a result of SHD we were asked by NSW TAFE if we would allow our home be used for a sustainable retrofit teaching video. Of course we agreed and had a small film crew and interviewer attend our place on Monday, October 18, 2010.
I finished upgrading our native garden by planting out more of our street verge ‘nature strip’ with natives and mulching it to the max with free mulch that a contractor supplied. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get our vegie garden started this spring as a result of Leeanne’s bad back and other pressing priorities. However, we hope to get back on track with that early in 2011.
Towards the end of 2010, Gareth and Maria had their PV system installed but not without problems as their inverter's switch was rusting out! It wasn't working for some time until a new, waterproof, housing was installed.