A rammed earth house is constructed using a mixture of earth, gravel, sand, silt and clay. The mixture is placed between framework forms and then rammed using a mechanical rammer. Once the mixture is fully compressed, the framework is removed leaving the completed rammed earth wall. The thickness of the external walls is normally around 30cm, but i...

Designing for the sun is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to heat New Zealand houses. "Passive solar design" refers to the use of the suns energy directly for the heating and cooling of living spaces.

In New Zealand, rainwater is a primary water supply for many rural and small town residents. Our larger communities have become accustomed to a centralised water supply but there is a good argument that all households should catch and use rainwater for part of their water needs.

Water heating accounts for about 30-35% of a home’s energy consumption (electricity and gas). Large reductions in hot water energy use are feasible by improving the thermal performance of the hot water system.

Have a beautiful garden and grow great vegetables by composting at home in a bin or container. Compost is the natural way to fertilise your garden and recycle your garden and kitchen waste. This composting guide will have you creating quality garden compost in no time at all.

An alternative method of recycling garden & kitchen organics If you have the space, trench composting is a cool method which involves less work but takes longer to mature, taking from six months to two years depending on the nature of materials used, climate, and aeration conditions. Compost made in this manner will still heat up at first, bu...

Feeding organic waste to worms gives people an effective and easy way to turn food scraps into a rich fertiliser. Adding worm casts or worm tea (liquid produced in the composting process) to the soil promotes soil fertility, moisture retention, and encourages plant growth. Worm composting is easy and fun and can be done indoors or outdoors.

Feed your food scraps to EM bugs. Effective Micro-organisms (EM) are a great way to recycle most kitchen organics (not bones or liquids), especially if you have limited space. Simply place your food scraps in an airtight container and add EM Bokashi to kick start the fermentation process. At the same time EM Bokashi neutralises odours and breaks...

It can be difficult to assess exactly how sustainable a product is and which materials are preferable to others. Often we have to rely on manufacturers’ information, which can be biased and incomplete. This chapter aims to bring some clarification to the issue. It outlines some tools that can help you to choose your building materials, but the i...

Many surfaces in the average home are painted - furniture, walls, ceilings, wooden floors, exterior cladding, roofs. Paints have been used for centuries to make surfaces more attractive, easier to maintain, or to protect them from the elements. Paints and finishes can extend the lifetime of some materials, such as weatherboards, dramatically. ...

Earth is an ancient building material that is still used in many different ways with about half the world’s population still living in earth buildings. But earth building is not a phenomenon only of the Third World. In France, about 15% of the population live in earth walled houses. In some regions of Australia over 20% of the houses are built ...

Energy efficiency means more than just cheaper fuel bills, firstly and most importantly our homes need to be a healthy place to live. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states a residential house needs to have a minimum air temperature of 160C, a building that is colder over long periods will have various problems such as condensation, damp and...

Adobe is a natural building material composed of sand, sandy clay and straw or other organic materials, which is shaped into bricks using wooden frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet. Adobe buildings also offer significant adva...

Straw bale, in most situations, makes an excellent building material. The main benefit of straw bale construction is the high level of insulation it provides. This insulation is achieved because of the thickness of the walls (around 45cm) and the trapped air inside which makes a poor heat conductor. Straw bale houses are generally constructed as...

Passive solar construction is a very attractive design philosophy as not only does it save energy, but it also reduces dampness and condensation, improves sound insulation, increases the durability of building materials and makes the home healthier. Passive solar construction uses the sun to warm the house. Heat is absorbed into the buildin...

More than six litres of household paint is sold each year for each and every person here. That's a lot of paint particularly as much of it is left sitting in paint containers and ends up in landfills. There are lots of ways you can reduce this burden on the environment... here's some ideas to get you started: Reduce, reuse and recycle Buy Env...

Energy efficient appliances and products comparison database

Solar water heating is generally more economically viable the more people in the household and the more hot water used. This means the more hot water you use, the better your savings will be.

In New Zealand, solar radiation is an abundant energy source. Many homes are exposed annually to 20 - 30 times more energy from the sun than they use in electricity or gas.

Tank water may be collected from: • rain off the roof • natural water, for example, from streams or lakes • a bore (a deep hole in the ground) • a spring. Water supplies from all these sources can very easily become unsafe. For example: • roof water may be corrosive, or may become contaminated from ash, dust, agricultural spraying or bird o...

It is an independent method of assessing the environmental performance of new homes. The Scheme offers new home owners, designers, architects and developers a means by which key environmental issues can be examined, using a rating system

Filming WA$TED! was a journey of discovery for everyone involved. No matter how environmentally aware we considered ourselves before, it soon became clear we all had a lot more to learn. For most of us it was also a journey of no return. Once you’re aware of the impact of your actions, it becomes more diffi cult to throw your vege scraps in t...

To understand your energy consumption, you fi rst need to know how much you are using. If you are just looking at the fi nancial cost each month you will have little idea of how much electricity or gas you are actually consuming, as the bill includes fi xed daily charges as well as your actual usage. The way to accurately track your energy use...

Rainwater is a free, perpetually-renewing water supply. Installing a rainwater tank is relatively simple and inexpensive, and the benefits are ongoing. Rainwater is a good source of water for using on your garden. It can also be used for washing your clothes, flushing the toilet, and - if it’s properly treated or purified - for drinking and...

By reducing the water flow from your taps, you’ll save on hot water and reduce condensation. Do you get splashed when you turn a tap on full? In many New Zealand homes, water flows much faster from taps and showerheads than it needs to. There are simple, inexpensive ways to reduce the flow of water from your taps and shower.

You may be able to use greywater from your bathroom, laundry and kitchen in the garden or to flush your toilet. By re-using greywater instead of sending it down the drain, you may be able to save on water and wastewater charges and reduce demand on water supplies in your area. However, it’s vital that any system you use for collecting and r...

If your home has no mains sewage connection, you’ll need an on-site sewage system. An on-site sewage system that doesn’t adequately cope with your household’s wastewater can endanger human health and the environment. Any system needs to be big enough and efficient enough to treat all of the wastewater from your household, and to be properly i...

Poorly-managed stormwater can damage your property and the wider environment - but, managed properly, it can be good for your garden. Stormwater is the water that runs off surfaces such as houses, roads, driveways, footpaths. In urban areas, it runs down drains into stormwater pipes or channels and is carried to rivers, lakes or the sea. St...

This excellent web site helps you work out the best way to save petrol by looking at the effect of the car you drive, the distance and the way you drive.

As a nation, we are committed to using energy wisely and effi ciently. As a New Zealander, you can do your bit to help. Improving the energy effi ciency of your house means both lower power bills and a warmer, more comfortable home. Much of the energy we use in our homes and buildings is wasted or could be reduced. A booklet produced by the Depa...

There are about 50 to 60 million insect species on earth - we have named only about 1 million and there are only about 1 thousand pest species - already over 50% of these thousand pests are already resistant to our volatile, dangerous, synthetic pesticide POISONS. We accidentally lose about 25,000 to 100,000 species of insects, plants and animals e...

We seem to be naturally curious about a technology that can produce a long-term supply of electricity with no continuous financial input, environmental side effect, or significant change to our lifestyle. Yet industry, consumers, and government only seem able to relate the value of the investment to its energy ‘payback’.

A number of web based sustainability guides, calculators and work books available to guide your business to becoming more sustainable.

The Clovelly House is a three bedroom, south facing semi-detached residence, with in-ground pool and off-street car parking, in Clovelly, an inner city suburb of Sydney, Australia. The house, designed by Kennedy Associates Architects and completed in 2004, was designed to meet the very specific spatial and accessibility needs of the client with ...

This is the sort of energy-conserving future Martin and Liz Irvine have planned for their family when they build their holiday home at Tupare on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour – and by next summer it should be a reality. The Auckland business couple wanted an out-of-Auckland getaway that was energy neutral – or better – for themselves and the...

The answer to the question "Can sustainable, green homes be built in mass production?" led Michelle Kaufmann to found Michelle Kaufmann Designs (MKD), a leading design/build firm that uses off-site modular technology to create contemporary eco-friendly homes.

Replacing an average 10 year old fridge with a new model will save up to $100 a year, and an ENERGY STAR fridge could save you up to an additional 30 percent on top.

Scientist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson, is a fan of Al Gore's global warming movie, but asks, "Where are the scientists?" He sets out to make his own documentary about global warming featuring scientists, but the only backers he can find are a fabulously flaky couple who top their list of people they want him to interview with Tom Cru...

We have just experienced – once again – a year of weather contrasts. In New Zealand, it brought floods to the north and droughts to the east and to the south, with Taranaki suffering tornadoes in-between. Insurers lament the costs, increasing by the millions from year-to-year, of damaged homes, roads and infrastructure. Adding flow-on costs to the ...

New Zealand homes have historically been extremely inefficient: 30 years after insulation became mandatory, around 350,000 homes are poorly insulated or have no insulation at all. Many of those are in the Queenstown Lakes District, where many houses were built for summer use only but are now lived in year round. In addition to the insulation pro...

Use our guide to find out what fish not to buy and the alternatives available.