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Gardens in the sky, houses made from hemp and plenty of events

TGL News

We’re delighted to welcome our latest sustainable development Greenlister, The Cape at Cape Paterson led by the now quite famous Brendan Condon, joining The Fern, a Passive House project by Oliver Steele and Romeciti.

See the fabulous article on The Fifth Estate here that outlines his 2000 square metre rooftop garden located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. It sits atop a car park giving home to vegetables, herbs, a bee farm, flowering plants and more, all fed by a rainwater harvesting system, solar power and other sustainable technologies.

Compost awareness week (Sunday 5 – Saturday 14 May)

According to the International Compost Awareness Week Australia, as much as 50 per cent of the rubbish Australians throw away could be put to better use in our gardens and farms by composting. That’s right! We could be saving up to 50 per cent of our waste from landfill AND getting nutrient rich fertilisers for our backyards in the process. 

You don’t need much to create your very own compost at home. And as our cheat sheet to composting will tell you, there is more than just one way to go about it.

Plus, find out what organic materials you can add. We were surprised to find out some things we’d always been told we couldn’t add were wrong! Learn all this and more in our compost feature.

Gardens in the sky

It seems like urban farming and cleverly designed green spaces are becoming increasingly popular.

Just last week Greenlister Brendan Condon of The Cape launched the Melbourne project Skyfarm – a 2000 square metre rooftop garden located in the heart of the CBD. It sits atop a car park giving home to vegetables, herbs, a bee farm, flowering plants and more, all fed by a rainwater harvesting system, solar power and other sustainable technologies.

Growing crops on your countertop

You don’t need an entire rooftop to bring nature closer to home though. Belgian self sufficiency focused company Mother is set to launch MicroFarm in a kickstarter campaign this week (Friday 10 May). The product includes a watering tray and full spectrum LED light model that can sit on your kitchen counter and, with your help, produce micro greens such as cress and mustard every 7-10 days.

According to Mother, the tiny greens contain a high concentration of vitamins – up to 40 times more than their full grown counterpart! Not to mention the hyper local footprint of growing your own greens (after you’ve had the product shipped to your door that is).

The building material that grows like a weed

Speaking of greenery found in odd places, Perth-based company Mirreco has released a prototype micro-home made out of hemp building panels.

Built as part of LandCorp’s ultra-sustainable community development in Fremantle, the hemp panels are grown from sustainable crops that needs little water and are quick to grow, maturing from seed to plant in as little as three months. Compare that to the roughly 20 years needed for even fast growing trees to mature and you have yourself a pretty innovative building material. 

Events

Nationwide Node Expo – Tuesday 14 May

In other Greenlister news the CRC for Low Carbon Living will be holding its nationwide expo next week to showcase all the work it’s been doing and solutions achieved for sustainability over the past seven years, such as cooling cities, low carbon living and low carbon affordable retrofits.

The New South Wales edition of the Nationwide Node Expo this Tuesday will be on Tuesday 14 May, cohosted by UNSW and University of Wollongong and other locations can be found on The Fifth Estate’s What’s On page or on Eventbrite.

Speaking will be Dr Josh Byrne, project leader with CRCLCL and host of ABCTV’s Gardening Australia, and other experts will be on hand to inspire and answer questions about low-carbon living. The Expo is FREE.

DesignBuild Expo – Tuesday 14 – Thursday 16 May

Greenlister Good Environmental Choice Australia will be at another event also on next week, the massive annual design and construction trade exhibition, DesignBUILD, which returns for three days next week, Tuesday 14 – Thursday 16 May (clashing a bit with our Happy Healthy Offices event on the morning of Wednesday 15).

This big eye candy gab-fest is at Darling Harbour’s International Convention Centre, and gives you a chance to soak up information about the whole build process, from construction and materials, to interior fixtures and finishes, and software and technology.

Intro to Passive House – Monday 20 – Saturday 25 May

Greenlister Australian Passive House Association’s certified Passive House course launches next week (Monday 20 – Saturday 25 May). A five day workshop, it aims to give attendants first-hand knowledge on everything from the Passive House basics and the building envelope, to mechanical systems and how to overcome planning and construction challenges. The course consists of classes, discussions, hands on exercises and a number of take home resources to help students master the foundations of high performance, energy efficient, cost optimal buildings.

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