Adios Eco-centric!

03:27pm 20 Apr 2009 9 comments

This will be our last blog post for Eco-centric. Thanks for your support, scepticism and inspiration along the way! Thanks heaps to all of our guest bloggers who wrote on topics ranging from vegan babies and the food crises to Happyzine and Greenpeace.

We've covered topics from veggie gardens and food additives to climate change and wind farms. Hopefully we've provided thought-provoking debate as well as tools, ideas and links such as Seven Oaks Education Centre, Sustainable Accommodation at Goldenbay Hideaway and Organic Explorer.

It will be interesting to see what the year ahead brings on a global and environmental level. We will be focusing on work and family over the next while. We would be happy to hand over the reins as such so if there's a keen blogger out there get in touch with Stuff! Thanks again, Nat & Matt

What does fuel poverty mean?

11:07am 14 Apr 2009 13 comments

By Guest Blogger KATIE NIMMO

As fuel (electricity, wood, coal, and gas) prices creep up, the number of households living in fuel poverty in New Zealand will also increase and include parts of our society which have not previously struggled to pay their fuel bill.

Families with young babies, elderly people, disabled people and those with a chronic illness are particularly vulnerable because it is these groups who are most affected by the cold but least likely to afford to heat their homes to healthy temperatures. Fuel poverty is a phrase that is relatively new to most Kiwis.  A household is living in fuel poverty when essential energy services such as heating, lighting, cooking and hot water are unaffordable to the resident(s).

A benchmark used in the UK to identify households living in fuel poverty is to calculate if it would cost more than 10% of the household income to heat a home to a healthy living temperature of 18-21C° (recommended by WHO) and provide other essential services. The definition focuses on how much householders need to spend to be comfortable and healthy, not how much a household is actually spending. It therefore includes households that might have relatively "low" fuel bills, but fail to heat their homes to a healthy temperature. The main factors contributing to fuel poverty are household income, fuel (energy) use, the efficiency of fuel use, the price paid for household fuels, and the energy efficiency of the building fabric of the house. New Zealand has a legacy of old, cold, poorly insulated houses, and families living in houses like these are especially at risk of living in fuel poverty.

I work for the charitable trust Community Energy Action (CEA) as a Community Outreach Coordinator. CEA has been working at the coalface of fuel poverty in Canterbury for over 15 years. Our dream is that fuel poverty is eradicated from New Zealand, and all houses achieve a "Warm Home Standard", whereby a house is capable of providing minimum healthy indoor temperatures (18-21°C) in a manner that everybody can afford. To reach that standard, a house must have very good levels of insulation and efficient, effective heating. 

So why is a topic like fuel poverty relevant to a blog like Eco-Centric?  It could be argued that cold homes and fuel poverty is primarily a social and health issue. But I see fuel poverty as a symptom of increasing pressure on a crucial tension between our environmental and social systems.  As demand for energy increases across all sectors of energy users and energy supply becomes less certain, the price of fuel will increase. Heating a home to healthy temperatures could become less and less affordable for more people. However, we must stay warm. It is a basic human need and essential for good health. While putting on an extra layer of clothing and living with internal indoor temperatures cooler than 16°C (any lower than this will put your health at risk) might be okay for some people, it won't for most.

Car-free life

03:06pm 02 Apr 2009 42 comments

Guest blog by ALISTAIR and LYNETTE BROWN

We are Alastair (a computer programmer), Lynette (a nurse-turned-mother) and son Philip (born in May last year) Brown, a family living in Riccarton, Christchurch. In February 2003 we sold our car before an eight-month stint overseas, expecting to buy another vehicle on our return.  But when we returned we procrastinated and lost motivation and finally decided that a car is something we can happily live without.

Having thought about the pros and cons of car ownership, we've concluded there are four compelling reasons for not owning a car that apply locally and globally:

The first is environmental.  Ditching the car seems like the most logical response to global warming.  We don't want to get into a long and involved discussion about that, but it seems to us that there is at the very least a prima facie case for global warming, and we think that we should give future generations the benefit of the doubt.  Furthermore, if the number of cars reflected needs (maybe 0.05-0.15 per capita), rather than wants (0.6 per capita, according to the Economist) we could have fewer square kilometres of tarmac and do something more useful with that land.

The second is financial.  We can afford a car, but it seems like an unnecessary expense.  A rough estimate of the cost of an average car is $200 a week (according to Sustainable Living), depending on many factors, of course.  In our case it's allowed us to get debt-free quicker than otherwise.  Thinking nationally it looks like an addiction that defies rational thought - billions upon billions of dollars spent each year, most of it going overseas, taking our balance-of-trade south with it.

The third is fitness.  Our default setting is to take a bike, so we have no choice but to bike between 30km and 100km each per week.  We've concluded that fitness is an outcome, not a prerequisite.  We see very few overweight cyclists, and are heartened when we do because they probably won't stay overweight for long.  Even taking the bus requires a fair amount of working.  Cycling and walking our way around the cities we live in seems like an obvious answer to the obesity that many people fret about.

A showhome for sustainability

10:32am 24 Mar 2009 46 comments

By NATALIE CUTLER-WELSH

I love hearing about people from diverse backgrounds pouring their experience, heart and soul into a project. Especially a project that is forward thinking and has potential to change the way we think and move things in a more eco direction.

Lawrence McIntyre refers to himself as a "chicken farmer" turned eco-activist who, with his wife Antje, recently designed, built and opened Golden Bay Hideaway.

This is more than eco-accommodation as the couple hope his ideas and building techniques will inspire others to incorporate elements of low-energy and low-impact alternative building ideas into their homes or businesses. Outfitted with data loggers,"The Little Greenie" is the showhome for Eco-action Design and Build. It is set in a stunning environment with a retreat or "escape" vibe and with its passive solar design, off-grid electricity supply among other eco features, it is ready to live up to its name.

Its obvious that Lawrence and Antje did heaps of research and poured four years of their heart, time and money into this project. They talk about "the art of insulation and to treat it like the kitchen joinery". Such a great comparison as so frequently people readily part with thousands of dollars for an impressive kitchen but skimp on insulation which is a one-off cost that's easy on the environment and a low proportion of the overall cost.  

Pruning the Environment Ministry

10:29am 12 Mar 2009 16 comments

By MATTHEW CUTLER-WELSH

On the same day that Australia finally announced its carbon trading scheme, we hear that our own government is scrapping key carbon initiatives introduced by Labour along with up to 86 jobs from the Ministry for the Environment.