Every time you use electricity in your home greenhouse gases are belched out on your behalf. So buy the clean stuff!
By purchasing 100 per cent Federal Government accredited GreenPower renewable electricity you are instantly switching your electricity dollar from a traditional coal-burning power plant to one of a combination of renewable sources of electricity generation (e.g. wind, hydro, biomass and solar) and stopping approximately 10 tonnes of CO2 / year (for an average home) from being rel…
Energy saving habits are easy to learn. By changing your daily habits, you can save resources and money and reduce your contribution to global warming.
The cost of energy is rising and the threats posed by climate change are increasing. However, with just a bit of effort, the average household can reduce its energy use by about one-third – and save money on energy bills at the same time. The energy efficiency of the latest technology is improving and using common sense, we can significantly red…
Water saving habits are those easy-to-learn daily behaviours that can save us thousands of litres (and dollars) during the course of our lives.
Thousands of litres of pure fresh water are wasted every day by bad habits we have all developed. While the water we use at home may seem trivial (only 7 per cent of all water used in Australia) its conservation is a step toward increasing our knowledge and respect for this precious, life-giving resource - a resource all the living systems around us als…
When investing in large household appliances and fixtures, use the government's Energy and Water Ratings (stars) to guide you to the most efficient products to save money.
The cost of energy and water is rising and the effect is increasing. Large household appliances (including fridges, clothes dryers and dishwashing machines) and toilets, taps and showers consume the bulk of our household energy and water.
The Federal Government's Water Rating site notes that replacing a single-flus…
Sunlight converts cold water into hot water. No gases are emitted and no one gets hurt. Life is rarely this simple!
The cost of energy is rising and the effect of pollution increasing. Water heating accounts for approximately 30 per cent of an average household's total greenhouse gas emissions and about the same proportion of total household energy use. Visit Climate Change for more information.
Solar hot water systems are highly efficient in their use of solar energy (sunlight) to heat…
Renovations are the ideal opportunity to make your house more efficient and sustainable. Try these tips and feel good about your home.
From the design through to the construction of your renovation, opportunities exist to lighten your environmental footprint. These changes can range from short-term aspects (e.g. safely managing and recycling building waste) to long-term improvements in the energy efficiency of your home.
If you're renovating, explore good design: it can save energy, water…
By managing your domestic stormwater, you can reduce polluting the waterways we love to swim in, fish and simply enjoy.
The catchment area of our local rivers and waterways includes our houses, gardens, driveways and lawns. The stormwater system uses the gutters, drains, pipes and rivers to quickly remove water from residential and business areas so as to avoid flooding and the resultant damage this incurs.
When the stormwater system is in use (i.e. during a storm), any litter, debris and othe…
Too many pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your food? Try eating organic.
Organic food certification requires that crops and livestock are grown and reared naturally, without artificial fertilisers, synthetic pesticides, chemical feeds, growth-promotion drugs or routine antibiotics. As a result, organic produce is chemical-free, often higher in the nutrients and minerals our bodies require, and most importantly, it can taste better. Also, meat derived from free-range and organic farms co…
Avoid eating Genetically Modified (GM) Food and demand more thorough testing and mandatory labelling of genetic crops and foods.
Scientists are altering and augmenting the genetic make up of our food crops to increase crop yields by making the plants pest resistant, herbicide tolerant, disease resistant, cold, drought, salinity tolerant, etc and to improve the nutrition of the crop and/or to provide pharmaceutical properties via the crop to the end consumer. These crops are producing what is no…
Avoid eating over-fished and threatened fish species.
Increasing our awareness of which fish are being harvested to the brink of extinction, can help us modify our fish eating and buying habits and cease plundering an invisible ecosystem that is in a state of stress and serious decline. Becoming aware of the impact of caged fisheries on our estuaries, bays, oceans, pond systems and wetlands will help us make informed choices next time we are at the fishmongers.
How to do it now!
Eat sustainabl…
Help make the harvesting of the world's forests environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Buy Forest Stewardship Council certified timber and wood products.
The clear-felling of the forests of the Amazon or Borneo is done to supply wood and wood products for markets such as Australia. We stop buying it; they stop cutting it. The Forest Stewardship Council is a global certification organisation that allows its label to be used on wood and wood products that have come from fore…
Become aware of the environmental implications of your consumption and purchase those goods that have the least impact on our future.
Understanding the resources embedded in the products we buy and using this knowledge to guide our purchasing decisions is difficult. Advertising is a powerful influence on our purchasing decisions and there is often little information available about the energy, water and other environmental inputs required to produce the things we buy. If we are able to overcome…
Give priority to purchasing unpackaged products and save the earth's precious resources.
The average Australian consumes 90 kilograms of resources in packaging each year. This is almost double the amount of many European nations. Along with this consumption comes the generation of huge amounts of waste - so it's not surprising that Australia is one of the worst waste generators in the developed world. Reducing the amount of packaging we purchase can help to significantly reduce our us…
Wading through the ‘green wash’ to find service providers whose pro-environmental behaviour goes deeper than their marketing department can be a challenge.
As services consume a greater portion of our dollars we want to identify and engage businesses that are making efforts to operate sustainably.
How to do it now!
The following criteria can be useful in informing your decisions, as to the merit or otherwise of a business with regard to their sustainability performance.
They are an efficient…
Your investments may fund activities that are not sustainable and may be contrary to your ethics. Money talks, what is yours saying?
Investing ethically considers your investment's impact on society and the environment as well as its profitability. A study by AMP (June 2006) found that the median ethical investment manager has outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index over one, two, three and five years to 31 March 2006 (Ethical Investment Association Australasia). So, you can now make money…
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