Yearly Archives: 2011

compost, Eco Thrifty Renovation, environmental education, global issues, growing food, wanganui

Perfection

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I appears that many global forces of unsustainability have been swirling of late. The synergy with which these forces interact, and the non-linear effects make predictions near impossible. Most economists and politicians appear to be in utter denial of anything other than a return to “growth” and “business as usual.” (I’d say that is the one place we are not headed.) But one economist in particular seems to be able to recognize potential problems better than others.
You may recall that Roubini was the one who accurately predicted the financial crisis of 2008. Are you going to believe him, or someone like Greenspan or Bernanke or Geitner who had no clue?
While the right mixture of forces can, indeed, make storms perfect, the right combination of design, communication and education can make solutions perfect. For example, this weekend the ECO School helped the YMCA manage the waste stream for the Connecting Families Day.
No, not that YMCA, this YMCA.
With over 20 years of experience in award-winning resource recovery programs, we felt confident about working with the Y with the goal of a zero waste event. I’ll write more about the mechanical details in another post, but the guiding principles for success when managing events such as this are:
1) Plan ahead. Sometimes called “pre-cycling,” this means thinking about the entire waste stream of the event and planning accordingly. For example, we ordered compostable cups for both hot and cold drinks. Zero waste.
2) Design. (“Failure to design is to design to fail.”) The physical lay out of collection containers is important. They must be clustered together. For example, we had bins for compost, paper recycling, drinks bottles recycling, and miscelaneous rubbish all together at one station.
3) Communication. This comes in a couple of forms. A) Signage must be brief, clear, colorful and at eye-level for both children and adults. B) Announcements can be used to remind attendees that this is a zero waste event and their efforts are crucial for success.
4) Education. Including the why and how of resource recovery is important to give people reason to act. Our education effort took two forms this weekend. A) I manned the resource recovery station to interact with people and monitor quality control. B) Our friend, Hadi, provided home composting advice at the Sustainable Whanganui table.

5) Quality control. Essential, essential, essential. No one wants to pick through dirty bins afterwards. Make sure everything goes in its proper place during the event. As mentioned above, quality control can and should go hand-in-hand with education.
By employing the above strategy, we were able to divert over 95% of the waste stream from landfill while role modeling positive behaviours to families. Those are world-class results. Not bad for weekend work.
More details on our composting process in a later post.
Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation, our story

E.T.R. @ 100

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Through much hard work and dedication, we have reached our 100th post. We have tried to keep our posts informative, educational, motivating, humorous and well-illustrated. You may or may not agree. This represents hundreds of hours of unpaid work thinking about appropriate topics, taking photos, writing and making videos. As permaculturists we feel an obligation to share our experiences/knowledge with others at low/no cost. The web is just one way to do that.
But who the heck are we anyway? Some of you know us well, but others may not. I thought that an update on we, The ECO School, might be appropriate from time to time. (Plus, I had to write a bio for a research symposium I’m going to in Australia next month, and I thought I would let it perform multiple functions for me.) So this is me at the moment. I’ll let ‘the boss’ post herself next.
You may think of me as a designer/builder/dumpster-diver/organic grower, but in fact, I am a Environmental Education/Education for Sustainability researcher. This is my bio for the Oz symposium:
Nelson Lebo, PhD Candidate, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Although I have been in the field of EE/EfS for 25 years, I am new to the field of EE/EfS research. I can still recall sitting in a lecture theatre in 1986 while a professor covered the problems of the world from deforestation to ozone depletion and everything in between. That course gave a new direction to my life (other than sport) that I have been following ever since. Over the last two decades I have been a secondary school environmental and science teacher, a wilderness trip leader, an organic farmer, and green builder. In 2008 I decided to combine these experiences into PhD research that draws on them all. The challenges my research seeks to address are the high rate of attrition in science classes beyond the compulsory years, and the low uptake of EfS in high schools. As a result, both the scientific literacy and ecological literacy of many post-secondary learners is sub-optimal. While a whole school approach is recommended and appears appropriate for many primary schools, at present it does not appear to be viable for most secondary schools. The approach I’ve developed to engage students in science while incorporating high quality EfS into a Year 10 science classroom in New Zealand is to set the science learning within the context of environmental problem-solving and ecological design through the use of local permaculture projects. Transformative learning theory, systems thinking, social constructivism, and experiential learning play key roles in this research.

Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation, global issues, growing food

Alternatives to wheat and potatoes?

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Not to harp on this climate change thing too much, but it just does not seem to go away. Of course along with the extreme weather events predicted by climate scientists are equally dire warnings of drought. That seem to be widespread at the moment.
Well, 2011 seems to be shaping up as a poster child for climate change. Combine the extreme weather with the ongoing global financial crisis and elevated yet still volatile oil prices and you have what some call the “Toxic Trilogy”; Environment, Economy, Energy. Each of these systems is highly unsustainable at the moment with little indication of change in the near term. As permaculturists, we design to protect ourselves from these powerful outside factors beyond our control.
We have written extensively on energy savings on this blog and warned about the dangers of debt and how to hedge against energy inflation. But we have not written much about hedging against food inflation, which goes hand in hand with energy inflation and is made worse by weather extremes such a drought and floods. Of course we have a large and growing vegetable garden and burgeoning food forest, but what about starch? Like most people of European descent, we eat too much bread and pasta. As indicated in the story above, the price of wheat is near record levels with no indication of coming down. My long time strategy has been to grow potatoes as a staple crop, but here in NZ we are having trouble with an aphid that is compromising all nightshades. Both our potato and tomato crops this year were poor. So last week I planted Jerusalem artichoke.
And in the spring we’ll plant kumara.
Any other suggestions?
Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation, global issues

The good, the B.A.D. and the ugly

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Just when you think there are not already enough problems in the world, something comes on the radio.
But luckily, there is resistance.
If there is anything NZ needs less than GE foods from the US, it is American-style child beauty pageants. All I can say is…I’ve enjoyed working with the beautiful and intelligent children at Wanganui Intermediate School to work toward a more sustainable world. We don’t need no stinking pageants.
And so I turn off the radio and put on my Ipod and select something more than welcome in Aotearoa: Big Audio Dynamite.
And I cut a large hole in the floor.
Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation, global issues

Too Hot

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“Too hot, this town is too hot.” – The Specials
While Aotearoa enjoyed its warmest May on record, there were a few drawbacks associated with the balmy weather.
Source: TVNZ
Source: New Zealand Herald
(Who on Earth would name their city Nelson?)
And back state-side at Ma and Pa’s place.
Source: USA Today

Climate scientists have long predicted that warmer average global temperatures will lead to increases in the frequency of extreme weather events and cause increased precipitation in some areas. When scientists believe something will happen, it is sometimes called a hypothesis. When they observe that actually to be the case, its called – in the case of climate change – yikes!
Joplin, Misouri
However, it is possible for tornados to do good…almost.
If only.
We are taking advantage of our own version of the ‘greenhouse effect’ here on Arawa Place in the form of passive solar design. Ultraviolet sunlight comes through our northeast and northwest windows, strikes solid surfaces within the home, is converted into infrared light (heat) and that heat is held (for a while) in by the walls, windows and insulation.
Northern corner in the morning sunlight.
It has worked very well so far. And as I seal up more gaps to eliminate drafts, it works better and better. It worked so well just the other day (June 1st) that well after sunset as I was preparing my dinner it was still 24.5 degrees C (76 F) in the kitchen. Earlier it was 29 C (84 F). This, of course, is too hot. Which means our passive solar design lacks enough thermal mass to absorb the excess heat during the day and re-radiate it at night. But help is on the way.
We are in the process of pouring the concrete foundation for our multi-fuel stove. The heavy, vintage Shacklock 501 will be surrounded by brick on 3 sides. Full winter sun will strike all of this thermal mass through 3 windows during 3 parts of the day. This ‘heat sink’ should provide enough thermal mass (along with other strategies we’ve used) to moderate day/night temperature swings.
And, of course, on cloudy days we’ll fire her up.

Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation

The Power of One

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I read this article this morning, and it got me thinking…

News

The rising cost of power

26 May 2011

Power bill

Power prices have climbed relentlessly over the past decade.

The usual justification is that the country needs more power and that the cost of generating this has increased (power stations are expensive to build and maintain). The population is growing and we’re using more electrical technology than ever before – although greater efficiency in lighting and heating products has helped offset some of this demand.

New Zealand’s total power use has doubled in the last 30 years. Various governments have taken differing views on the relative proportions that industrial, commercial and residential users should pay for the costs of generating and supplying electricity. So in the decade from 1982 to 1992 average residential power prices rose just 0.6 percent per year in real terms (above inflation) but increased 2.1 percent per year in the following decade. From 2003 to now, they’ve risen by almost 7 percent per year in real terms – that’s even excluding the latest GST rise.

Source: http://www.consumer.org.nz/news/view/the-rising-cost-of-power

And then I did some sleuthing, and found this.

Did you know?

  • A typical household of four people spends around $2,800 a year on energy, not including transport [1]
  • Electricity makes up more than 85% of the energy bill in an average house. Most of the remainder of the bill is gas [2]
  • The price of electricity increased 7.5% in the year between 2007 and 2008, and 41% in the five years between 2003 and 2008. [2]

Notes:

[1] Statistics New Zealand, Household Economic Survey: Year ended 30 June 2007, 2007 (online).

[2] Ministry of Economic Development, 2008, Schedule of Domestic Electricity Prices: Updated to 15 November 2008, 2008 (online).

Source: http://www.energywise.govt.nz/why-be-energy-efficient/save-money-on-your-energy-bill

And then I pulled this up: Our power bill from March.

The average Kiwi home uses about 12,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year at a cost of about $2,800. That translates to about 1,000 kWh per month at a cost of $233. Looking at the bill above, we used 47 kWh at a cost of $22.92. We have been tracking our electricity use since we had the power switched on in November.

Many days we use less than 1 kWh, but our average is between 1 and 2 kWh. Including the line charge of 38.33 cents per day, we have paid less than $1 per day (at 25.7 cents per kWh) for the last 7 months. And for that 1 dollar we have renovated a house using LOTS of power tools. We also have a refrigerator, toaster, slow cooker, oven, mobile phone, computers, radio, electric jug, etc. The trick is we squeeze as much as possible out of that $1.

Regarding being eco, thrifty and hedging against rising energy costs, it only takes simple maths to convince oneself that this information regarding the rate of price rises from the above sources are frightening, especially for those on low incomes.
1) From 2003 to now, they’ve risen by almost 7 percent per year in real terms – that’s even excluding the latest GST rise.
2) The price of electricity increased 7.5% in the year between 2007 and 2008, and 41% in the five years between 2003 and 2008. [2]

These electricity rate rises outpace inflation and wage increases. If energy efficiency and conservation measures are not put in place by households, it will be impossible to keep up. Every dollar spent on improving energy efficiency will pay for itself many times over in savings, and will outperform any bank account or similar investment.
We are looking at saving about $2,500 per year from that average Kiwi household use of $2,800. With savings like those, our solar hot water ($3,900) and insulation ($3,100) will pay for itself right quick.
Peace, and power to the PEOPLE, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar

"The coldest house in New Zealand"

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When we first bought this house we knew we were in for a lot of work.

But we were ready for it. We started putting on a new roof, replacing windows, insulating, etc. We held workshops and open houses to educate members of our community about passive solar design and eco-renovation.

At one of our first open houses a woman said, “I’ve been in this house before. I baby sat here once. This is the coldest house in New Zealand.”

Despite her ringing endorsement, we persevered. We added windows to the north and removed them from the south walls. We insulated more. We are building pelmets and hanging thermal drapes. We are draft-proofing.

This week while I was promoting the Science of Sustainability at Wanganui Intermediate School I asked the students in each class if they had turned on the heat in their homes yet this autumn. Nearly all students (and teachers) raised their hands. I smiled and said, “We have not had to turn on our heat yet, because the sun is heating our house.”

Peace and passive solar success, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, environmental education

Permaculture Education in Wanganui Schools

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After a great deal of effort from the Sustainable Whanganui Trust and we of The ECO School, permaculture education is reaching Wanganui schools.

A recently completed project with Wanganui High School used the Eco-Thrifty Renovation with senior students in a Level 3 sustainability course. The project was used as an example of a “sustainability initiative” for the students to assess on its merits. Two class meetings at the school were followed by a site visit. The project received much praise from students and teacher alike. The teacher said he would definitely get his Level 2 class out for a site visit.

The current project – The Science of Sustainability – at Wanganui Intermediate School involves over 700 students. In coordination with the school’s science teacher, The ECO School has designed a programme to get students excited about the upcoming science fair through highlighting the science – physics, biology, chemistry – of a permaculture installation: The Eco-Thrifty Renovation. The scientific topics highlighted include passive solar design, solar cookers, rocket stoves, insulation, thermal drapes, compost, aerated compost teas, organic food production and various aspects of bicycling. Response has been excellent so far.

We’ve also had meetings with primary school teachers, but term 1 has proved a difficult time to ask them to take on anything new. We continue to meet with primary schools as term 2 appears more favorable regarding work load. Funding for these programmes comes from Wanganui District Council and is administered by Sustainable Whanganui. Thank you!

Peace, Estwing


Eco Thrifty Renovation, our story

This is not my beautiful wife…

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How art imitates life. Talking Heads version.
And you may find yourself in another part of the world


And you may find yourself in a beautiful house,


with a beautiful wife


And you may ask yourself, How do I work this?


And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house!


And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful wife!


Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down


Peace, Estwing
P.S. FYI: See this article in the New York Post last week.

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Gathering Steam

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The fifth monthly edition of the Wanganui Permaculture Gathering was held this week on May 18th (always the 3rd Wednesday) at the Whanganui Environment Base on Wicksteed Street.
The gathering is modeled after Permaculture Noosa’s monthly meetings held on Australia’s sunshine coast. They get upwards of 200 people at their meetings. I believe it is because of the simple format: 30 minutes of a mini-farmers’ market; 30 minutes of a guest speaker; and 30 minutes of news, announcements, etc. That’s it!
The model has worked well for us so far. Why not try it in your community? What have you got to lose?
This month’s speaker was Jonah Marinovich from Wanganui’s Green Bikes program.
Jonah, however, did not so much talk about Green Bikes, but about some interesting community activism projects he was involved with in Wellington. He provided an awesome story about creative, low budget resources access and (re)allocation.
We are tentatively looking for a speaker for the June 15th meeting and planning a Quiz Night fund-raiser for Green Bikes on July 20th. Please let us know if you can be a speaker or know of a venue to host the July Quiz Night.

Peace, Estwing