Sustainable Living
Presenter: Dean Boone
Episode: 19
1st September 2007
We are all aware of an increasing need to learn how to live and garden sustainably, but how do you do it? There is a centre that is dedicated to educating and displaying just how when can reduce our footprint on the earth, some of the ideas may surprise you.
It is a very new facility designed to display all sorts of green technology, they run all sorts of courses and hold demonstrations so you can learn about it too. Here there are three main areas of interest, the building, the reed bed and the production garden.
It is the latest in eco-friendly design, the garden works in with the building, and there is a recycled water pond, which is powered by solar energy, allows for cool air to be drawn into the building through glass louvres, giving an instant cooling effect in summer.
The reed bed is probably something you would not have seen before. It is both a black and grey water treatment system modelled on those that have been used in Europe for decades. Instead of an in-ground septic tank, the reed beds filter and clean the water for use in subsurface irrigation throughout your garden beds.
The production garden area display principles of permaculture and organic gardening. The entire garden uses certified organic heirloom varieties of vegetables and they also run a seed savers program. The compost systems are for demonstration purposes as well as for recycling all the organic waste produced onsite. All of the water on site is recycled.
The garden is open to the whole community; anyone can come here and lend a hand. It is back to basics, grass roots type of stuff and the rewards of their labour are eaten in the organic café, so literally nothing goes to waste.
If you want to know more you can come along to their huge Spring Open day next Sunday.
The event sponsor is Biotech Australasia and they have a brilliant new product, called Thermilate, which is an additive, to paint that actually provides insulation qualities!
Biotech has offered to donate their product to the Centre for an "eco-home renovation" project which involves a sustainable retrofit of an old cottage. This is just one amazing example of what you can learn how to integrate your home with your garden, so come and check it out.
Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living
1 Mount Annan Drive
Mount Annan NSW 2567
(02) 4647 9828/0400 491 317
www.mcsl.org.au
Event sponsor: Biotech Australasia
Some Useful Statistics
Spring Open Day is thebiggest event on our calendar.
Participate in FREE talks, tours, kids’ activitiesanddemonstrations all day.
See sustainable building materials and products on display. wealth of information on everything from solar power to water recycling, natural cleaning to no dig veggie gardening
Take a stroll around the Organic Veggie Patch and enjoy some local and organic produce at the Café. A great day out for the whole family
Tours - Eco Smart Home Ideas
Guided tours take people through the whole site showing them sustainable technology and design in action.
The tours are designed to inspire people with ideas on everything from eco home renovations to new home design and eco gardening practices
Tours are $10 including a delicious morning tea
Group bookings are encouragedbut anyone can pop in on a Thursdayor the 1st and 3rd Sunday ofthe month
5. Schools
The Centre has a comprehensive Schools Program including:
Calendar of Events and Workshops
There is an ever expanding range of activities, workshops and events at the Centre
Topics include: cheese making, permaculture, earth oven building, pickling and preserving,worm farming, composting, designing a native or wildlife attracting garden, straw bale building and much more...
Thermilate
Don't just paint - Insulate!
Save Energy, Save Money, Save the Environment
Dramatically Reduce Condensation
Approved by Energystar
Lifetime warranty
ISO9002 quality assured firm
Web: www.biotechaustralasia.com.au
Episode: 19
1st September 2007
We are all aware of an increasing need to learn how to live and garden sustainably, but how do you do it? There is a centre that is dedicated to educating and displaying just how when can reduce our footprint on the earth, some of the ideas may surprise you.
It is a very new facility designed to display all sorts of green technology, they run all sorts of courses and hold demonstrations so you can learn about it too. Here there are three main areas of interest, the building, the reed bed and the production garden.
It is the latest in eco-friendly design, the garden works in with the building, and there is a recycled water pond, which is powered by solar energy, allows for cool air to be drawn into the building through glass louvres, giving an instant cooling effect in summer.
The reed bed is probably something you would not have seen before. It is both a black and grey water treatment system modelled on those that have been used in Europe for decades. Instead of an in-ground septic tank, the reed beds filter and clean the water for use in subsurface irrigation throughout your garden beds.
The production garden area display principles of permaculture and organic gardening. The entire garden uses certified organic heirloom varieties of vegetables and they also run a seed savers program. The compost systems are for demonstration purposes as well as for recycling all the organic waste produced onsite. All of the water on site is recycled.
The garden is open to the whole community; anyone can come here and lend a hand. It is back to basics, grass roots type of stuff and the rewards of their labour are eaten in the organic café, so literally nothing goes to waste.
If you want to know more you can come along to their huge Spring Open day next Sunday.
The event sponsor is Biotech Australasia and they have a brilliant new product, called Thermilate, which is an additive, to paint that actually provides insulation qualities!
Biotech has offered to donate their product to the Centre for an "eco-home renovation" project which involves a sustainable retrofit of an old cottage. This is just one amazing example of what you can learn how to integrate your home with your garden, so come and check it out.
Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living
1 Mount Annan Drive
Mount Annan NSW 2567
(02) 4647 9828/0400 491 317
www.mcsl.org.au
Event sponsor: Biotech Australasia
Some Useful Statistics
- Over 1000 volunteers hours have gone into the development and maintenance of the site in 2007 alone
- The solar panel array has produced over 7000KwH in just over 12 months of operation
- The sustainably designed building has used only 75KwH in the same timeframe!
- The building itself has an embodied energy "bill" of approx 500 megawatt hours, which will be "paid back" to the grid via the solar panels
- The Centre was officially opened in February 2007, since then over 2500 people have been involved in our activities both off site and on site
- At this moment there is 120,000L of stormwater, and over 70,000L of rainwater in storage onsite which supplies us with more than enough for all our drinking, hand washing, toilet flushing and irrigation needs
Spring Open Day is thebiggest event on our calendar.
Participate in FREE talks, tours, kids’ activitiesanddemonstrations all day.
See sustainable building materials and products on display. wealth of information on everything from solar power to water recycling, natural cleaning to no dig veggie gardening
Take a stroll around the Organic Veggie Patch and enjoy some local and organic produce at the Café. A great day out for the whole family
Tours - Eco Smart Home Ideas
Guided tours take people through the whole site showing them sustainable technology and design in action.
The tours are designed to inspire people with ideas on everything from eco home renovations to new home design and eco gardening practices
Tours are $10 including a delicious morning tea
Group bookings are encouragedbut anyone can pop in on a Thursdayor the 1st and 3rd Sunday ofthe month
5. Schools
The Centre has a comprehensive Schools Program including:
- School excursions to the Centre
- In-school visits for various workshops
- School holiday activities
- Annual Macarthur Sustainable Schools EXPO
Calendar of Events and Workshops
There is an ever expanding range of activities, workshops and events at the Centre
Topics include: cheese making, permaculture, earth oven building, pickling and preserving,worm farming, composting, designing a native or wildlife attracting garden, straw bale building and much more...
Thermilate
Don't just paint - Insulate!
Save Energy, Save Money, Save the Environment
Dramatically Reduce Condensation
- Save up to 37% on your energy use
- Helps reduce your heating and cooling bills
- Dramatically reduces condensation problems
- helps to reduce your CO2 emissions
- Extremely simple to use, just mix into your paint
- Can be added to almost any paint/coatings
- is completely safe to use, inert non-toxic and environmentally friendly
- Suitable for residential and commercial use
Approved by Energystar
Lifetime warranty
ISO9002 quality assured firm
Web: www.biotechaustralasia.com.au
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