Coolmob November Newsletter No. 22

No. 22 - November 2011

In this edition:
Congraulations Australia for passing the carbon price legislation today!
Top End SWAP Party: Friday November 11th
National Recycling Week: November 7th - 14th
Do you want to know how to make your workplace more sustainable? Register for Sustainabiltiy Training with GTNT
A 'Changing Climate' talk, Wednesday 16th November
Building Energy Rating Scheme
Recycling E-Waste in Darwin
Green Christmas Gift Ideas
COOLmob Sustainable Apartments and Sustainable Streets Project
A Case for Water Efficiency in the Top End? We think 'yes'

CONGRATULATIONS Australia for passing the carbon price legislation through the Senate today!
This is historic moment for Australia and COOLmob joins countless other sustainability and climate change groups across the Country to recognise the hard work we have all put into this fight over the past weeks, months and decades.

Next week, Australia will have joined the 31 countries and a number of many US States who have already introduced a price on carbon. This has only been possible because of the hard work of people right across the climate movement from community groups, to environment organisations, to churches, NGOs, and unions and more.

It has been because of the many voices saying YES to action on climate change, and YES to renewable energy, that we are now in this position. So whether you've been one of the people who's campaigned on this for days, weeks, years or decades you deserve to be recognised.

Watch this interesting short video by the Moreland Energy Foundation on why Australian's should support the Carbon Price: "Tweeting the Carbon Tax"

Top End Swap Party, Friday November 11th
Together with Darwin City Council, COOLmob will be hosting a Big Aussie Swap Party on Friday the 11th of November. The Swap Party will be in two locations:

Raintree Park (from 12.00pm - 2.00pm)
Casuarina Library (12.30pm - 1.30pm)

A Swap Party is a fun, free and frugal way to catch a bargain AND help reduce waste. You can bring along quality items you no longer want or need, and exchange them for Swap Tokens, and then swap the token for something you like!

What should you bring to Swap?
Clothes (kids, women's and men's), shoes, books, sporting equipment, gardening material, home-wares, or just about anything you can easily transport! (so no large items please)
Remember: one person's trash is another person's treasure!!

Electrical or poor quality items will not be accepted and please limit the number of items to 3.

Want to participate?
We want to see as many people at this year's event, so tell your friends, family and neighbours. Bring down 3 items you'd like to exchange and swap it for something that takes your fancy - it's that easy!

National Recycling Week: November 7th - 14th
2011 marks the 16th year of Planet Ark's National Recycling Week. Take this opportunity this year to move towards avoiding waste. You can build on our daily habits to avoid, reduce, reuse and recycle at home, at work and in the community.

Did you know that:

It is important to take air conditioners and fridges to Shoal Bay where they can be de-gassed and recycled
Compact Fluroescent Lights (CFLs) should be taken to Shoal Bay Recycling Depot to be recycled, rather than putting them into the wheelie bin (as the contain minute amounts of mercury)
You can now recycle 1 - 7 plactics in the yellow lidded recycling bin
All metal scraps or objects can be recycled at Shoal Bay Recycling Depot
Batteries can be recycled can be recycled at Battery World (4/21 De Latour Rd Coconut Grove)
Ink cartridges can be re-filled at Cartridge World or recycled at Australia Post, Officeworks, Harvey Norman, Tandy, Dick Smith Electronics or the Environment Centre

For more information on recycling, please contact COOLmob on 8981 3642

What else is on in Darwin for Recycling Week?
In celebration of National Recycling Week, COOLmob and Darwin City Council will be hosting the annual Big Aussie Swap Party.

Other programs in this year's recycling campaign are the Schools Recycle Right Challenge, Friday File Fling and Recycle Right Quiz Night . If you are interested in hosting one or more of these events, make sure you register with Planet Ark and tell COOLmob about it so we can help advertise the event through our website!

A great demonstration of using recycled materials is the famous Darwin Fridge Festival. the Darwin Fridge Festival will engage the wider NT community, allowing more people to participate in the festival and more of the public to view the fridge art. Check out the Festival Finale this Saturday

When: 12/11/2011 4.00pm - 8.30pm
Where: Darwin Water Front

Sustainability Training for Business
Want to make your workplace more sustainable while reducing costs and increasing profits?

The Group Training Northern Territory (GTNT) invite you to attend our next sustainability training session to assist you to implement beneficial policies within your business.This training will provide the knowledge and incentive for managers and leaders who are looking to implement green policies and sustainability within their enterprises.

When: Tuesday 15th November (Darwin) 9.00am - 1.00pm; and Wednesday 30th November (Alice Springs) 9.00am - 1.00pm
Where: GTNT Freedrom Room, 38 Woods Street, Darwin; and 19 Hartley Street, Alice Springs
Cost: $95
Register: GTNT Sustainability Training or contact GTNT on (08) 9841 2102

14th Environmental Practice, Policy and Law Seminar: Wednesday November 16th
You are invited to attend the final session of ‘Environmental Practice, Policy & Law Seminar Series’ for this year, 'Northern Australia: A Changing Climate'. The seminar will cover the following three questions relating to the climate system of northern Australia:

What is the difference between climate variability and climate change?
What changes in the climate system have we observed?
What do the latest climate projections say that we can expect in the future?

When: Wednesday 16th November
12.00 noon - 1.30pm
Where: Darwin City Council Function Room
RSVP: For catering purposes, please RSVP by Thursday November 10th. Email epa@nt.gov.au or call (08) 8999 3747

Building Energy Rating System; an opportunity for COOLmob

COOLmob had great pleasure recently to take Dr Dong Chen on a tour of tropical houses in the Northern Territory. Dong is a principal research scientist at CSIRO and was presenting at the Climate Change Symposium in October on the challenges for the built environment in the face of climate change. His focus is on the cooling energy required for houses in Australia, however as we are all aware, the star rating system does not always work well for tropical designs.

Whilst visiting a number of different styled houses we had in-depth discussions on the complexities of the star rating system on buildings that do not require air conditioning to remain comfortable. The problem lies in the fact that some tropical homes are 'light weight', utilise passive cooling techniques and cool down quickly at night. Because of this, it is difficult to translate the current star rating system to warmer climates. While tropical houses are designed to use less energy, they rate poorly compared to modern homes that have air conditioning. COOLmob have urged Dr. Chen and his team to consider a rating system to include light weight house designs which do not need air conditioning, have louvered or large windows, lots of vegetation and other use alternative cooling techniques.

We also discussed the importance of 'perceived' temperature (i.e. how comfortable an individual person finds their indoor living conditions). Since meeting with Dong he has been interested in finding out:

The effect of vegetation and how much this reduces the heat load of houses
The comparison of thermal comfort perception between tropical homes and modern style homes
A comparison of energy consumption between light weight and block homes per person per day

COOLmob will continue to liaise with Dr Dong Chen and his team regarding this.

E-Waste Stewardship
What is E-Waste and what should you do with it??
E-Waste refers to electronic/electrical waste. It is estimated that the average Australian household has around 22 different electronic appliances. These are regularly replaced as new items come on the market. In 2007-8 we produced 16.8 million units of E-waste and only recycled 10% of them.

To respond to this, and to help the whole of Australia deal with E-Waste, the Federal Government has developed the National Television and Computer Product Stewardship Scheme to make recycling of household E-Waste much easier.

Under the new scheme, the manufacturer will be required to contribute a portion of their profit to E-waste recycling. Regulation 3.03 requires reasonable access to collection services is available in metropolitan, regional and remote areas of Australia by the 1st of July 2013. Under the scheme you will be able to recycle E-waste free of charge.

What does 'Product Stewardship' mean?
The principle of 'product stewardship' means that people are taking responsibility of the environmental impact of a product (from design to disposal) by encouraging or requiring manufacturers, importers, distributors and other persons to take responsibility for those products.

Stewardship takes many different forms and anyone can be a good steward. An example of a ‘good steward’ would be:

Recycling the products you no longer need
Using recycled materials in the production of new things
Improving the energy efficiency of TVs, computers and other household appliances so that they are more efficient and durable.

The Product Steward Act acknowledges that this responsibility is shared by all players involved in the production, supply, sale, use and disposal of that product. A co-regulatory approach to product stewardship involves a combination of government regulation and industry action, whereby government sets the outcomes and requirements to be met, while industry has flexibility in determining how those outcomes and requirements are achieved.

For further information go to www.environment.gov.au/ewaste or email: ewaste@environment.gov.au

Green Gift Ideas for Christmas
Here are some ideas for creating a 'green Christmas' this year that will see you celebrate sustainably and lower your carbon emissions:

Have you heard that COOLmob are selling the display Electric Bike at the discounted price of $740? The bike is in very good condition and is the perfect gift for anyone looking at reducing their fuel consumption. For more information call us on (08) 8981 3642. This comes with a 6 month suppliers warranty.
Onya have a range of re-usable products such as shopping bags, backpacks, coffee mugs, drink bottles, lunch wrappings and more that are convenient, practical and easy.
Give homemade gifts, Fair Trade consumerables or recycled goods
If buying electrical appliances such as TVs, make sure they have a high energy rating (the more 'stars' the greener it is!). And if you're replacing an old appliance with a new one, make sure you recycle it at the Shoal Bay Recycle depot, or re-sell it on Gum Tree or E-Bay
Limit the amount of packaging wrapping. You can use old newspaper for wrapping, recycled wrapping paper or even reusable bags
Buy locally grown or produced food for the festive season
If you love your seafood check that you're buying sustainable products. Go to the Australian Marine Conservation Society's website to purchase the Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide
Avoid using disposable plates, or use biodegradable tableware (plates, cups and cutlery) made from bagasse (the sugar cane pulp fiber) and areca nut palm leaves. You can pick these up from Eco Options in Winnellie
Use a living tree as the family Christmas Tree instead of a plastic one. Go one better and use a native that you can re-plant in the garden after Christmas.

COOLmob Sustainable Apartments and Sustainable Streets Projects

COOLmob is still looking for apartment complexes to be part of our Sustainable Apartments Project. This project is aimed at improving the overall environmental performance of apartment blocks and flats throughout Darwin and suburbs. We aim to make individual dwellings more sustainable, save dollars on your power and water bills and also create a positive environmental ethic throughout the whole building.

By participating in this project you will:

Reduce power and water bills for your own home
Improve environmental performance of the whole building
Improve the living conditions of the entire apartment block
Become a leader in creating low carbon communities.

For more information please contact Bridget on 08 8981 3642

A case for water efficiency in the Top End?
You may not be surprised that Darwin has the highest water use per capita when compared to the other main cities in Australia. According to PowerWater, we are currently consuming around 430 liters per person per day. This is double what Cairns is using per capita, who have a very similar climate to Darwin. We are using more water than necessary in our daily lives.

If we can reduce our water consumption we will have greater choice in maintaining our tropical lifestyle and safeguard this precious resource.

During the 2011 Charles Darwin Climate Change Symposium , PowerWater gave a presentation on water mis-use in Northern Australia. The reality is that if this high level of consumption is maintained as the expected population increases substantially over the next 20 years, our current water sources for Darwin will be unsustainable and unreliable. This will challenge our water resource planning and there is now a strong need to question our current cultural water use habits.

Where is our water consumption occurring and how can we reduce this?
On average, up to 65% of our household water consumption is for watering our gardens, 17% in the bathroom, 7% for washing machines, 4% for the pool and the remaining 7% for indoor use (such as drinking, cleaning etc).

Gardens
The first thing you can do to dramatically reduce household water consumption is to invest your time in a water efficient garden (as we learnt on Sustainable House Day this year in Jingili, who's owners have significantly reduced their water bills in the last year). PowerWater tell us to plan our garden carefully and to:

Consider the conditions in different parts of the garden (i.e. some may be sunnier than the rest)
Choose plants suitable for dry and wet seasons
Group plants that have similar watering requirements together
Choose water efficient plants, particularly local natives
Have smarter reticulation (for example, drip reticulation, so water loss is minimal)
Reduce the area of lawn, as this requires the most watering.
Water your garden at dusk or dawn when there is less evaporation
Consider re-using grey water on the garden, or installing a rain water tank for outside watering

The pool

Use a pool cover when the pool isn't used, to prevent water evaporation (and also keep the pool clean)
Shade the pool
Keep it clean

In the house

Use water efficient appliances
Install a water saving shower head
Install aerators to taps
Have shorter showers

Water leaks

Be alert for any hissing, dripping or running when appliances are off
Check kitchen, bathroom and laundry for dripping taps
Look for unstable or damp patches on concrete or walls

For more information on water wise practices, contact COOLmob on 8981 3642

Thank you all for your contribution. Your support is much appreciated.

Best Wishes,
The COOLmob Team.

Don't forget to check out our Facebook page for regular updates, environmental news and competitions!

Thanks to COOLmob’s sponsors

Power and Water Corporation, NT Government and the Community Benefit Fund. The content of this newsletter does not necessarily represent the position of our sponsors.

We’d really love to hear your feedback on the information we have provided. If you’d prefer not to receive any future COOL e-newsletters and be taken off the COOLmob email list, please let me know. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think may be interested or leave it in a “waiting room” (with permission).

Stay Cool,

Robin Knox, COOLmob Project Manager