The best known definition of sustainability or sustainable development is the definition by the World Commission on Environment and Development. This suggests that sustainability is defined as: … forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Environmental sustainability refers to the environmental actions or impacts of what we do. In moving towards sustainability, we are attempting to reduce our ‘ecological footprint’ or to ‘tread more lightly’ on the earth. This equates to reducing the amount of resources we use (and buy), the waste we produce and the emissions we produce.

Home sustainability assessments are a great opportunity to engage the general public in the broad principles of sustainability and to encourage them to adopt these principles in their daily lives. A trained assessor visits a household and undertakes an assessment on energy and water use, the type and amount of waste generated and recycling and gardening practices. During the assessment, the assessor will look around the home and ask questions to evaluate the current consumption of the household and recommend simple and cost effective changes to the lifestyle of the individual/family.

Home sustainability audits and assessments vary according to the needs of the householder, the cost they are willing to pay and the knowledge and expertise of the assessor. Some audits or assessments for example cover only one particular area such as energy or water. The level of consultation, time spent at the home and detail of advice given also varies and therefore the cost applicable.

Why use Home Sustainability Assessors?

Increasing numbers of households are now seeking a service that identifies how they can best reduce their energy and water use and develop sustainable living practices. This may be as simple as improving lighting and water use in the home, to changing the way they use appliances, to installing solar panels and rainwater tanks.

Accredited Home Sustainability Assessors will provide households with the confidence that they will receive accurate, effective and impartial advice when they engage a trained service provider.

The typical Home Sustainability Assessment can look at General Household information and details of the home. Energy usage-heating and cooling and appliances. Aspects of “Green Living” – Waste, transport, lighting and insulation. Water usage in and outside the home and gardening activities. A summary of the assessment is given in a report with recommendations of actions in an order of priority.

Victorian's can request for a FREE Home Sustainability Assessment by contacting Roger Moulton from Green Home Sustainability.

This easy to follow organic vegetable gardening guide with show you how to grow your own organic vegetables.

Jonathan White, Environmental Scientist and Horticulturalist wrote Food4Wealth to help people grow their own organic fruit and vegetables. This book will show you how to:

• Set up a garden that produces many times more than a traditional vegetable garden
• Grow food that you can harvest every single day of the year, no matter where you live
• Grow vegetables and fruit ORGANICALLY
• Grow food in any soil, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD
• Grow more food than you need and sell the excess
• Create a garden that regenerates all by itself, year after year

The Food4Wealth Organic Gardening Method

The Food4Wealth guide will help you build a natural habitat that is made up of edible plants - you can create one more easily than you realize. This method of organic gardening is far easier than creating a traditional vegetable garden. No digging, and you won't have to barrow heavy loads.

Once this organic ecosystem is set up you will be able to harvest fresh organic vegetables and fruit every single day. It will literally save you thousands of dollars per year.

Jonathon's guide give you simple instructions on how to quickly and cheaply setup your own sustainable organic garden full of edible fruit and vegetables.

Find Out More About the Food4Wealth Organic Gardening System

Having moved into a new house recently I was shocked and dismayed to realize I had no where to store my tools, lawn mower and all the other crap I've managed to accumulate over the years. Not to mention having a retreat away from the misus - after all, every Aussie boy needs a shed.

That when I came across Ryan Henderson DIY Shed building guide with 12,000 shed plans to choose from. Ryan has been building wooden outdoor sheds for over 20 years and will teach you the basics of how to build a shed in minutes, not days.

This shed building guide put together by Ryan shows you exactly how to start building wooden sheds and woodwork projects easily, so that you're fully up and running, creating remarkable outdoor garden sheds and woodwork projectswithin days from now.

Even I was able to follow this guide and I barely know one end of a hammer from the other. As it says on the box, this guild can help you:

• No matter whether you're a beginner or a seasoned woodworker.
• No matter whether you're building your first shed or your 100th project.
• No matter if you do not have the DIY skills, knowledge or aptitude for building
• No matter how many instructional books or blueprints you've bought...

Building a Shed Should be fun...

... and Ryan makes it a breeze. His shed plans spoil you for choice, but with so many plans to choose from you can pick one that matches you level of DIY skill. I was able to knock up a great little shed in a day with only 1 trip to Bunnings instead of the usual 4 that most other projects require!

Click Here to Find Out More About What's Included in The Shed Plans Pack

A little reading can be a dangerous thing. After a little research I've found that a greenhouse will help you grow vegetables almost all year round. Now I want to build my own glasshouse so I can grow vegetables in winter and enjoy organic produce all year.

During the colder months, glasshouses keep in moisture and heat, allowing you to grow vegetables during winter (unless you're in a really cold area).

Glasshouses can be cheap to build. All you need is a basic frame and a transparent covering. Glass can be expensive, however there are cheap alternatives to glass that can make glasshouses an affordable addition to the garden.

If you're need plans, I found a cheap guide to building a green house that's only US$29.95 and available for download at the following link:

Build a Greenhouse - Plans

Many people may be considering adding another rain water tank for fire fighting purposes or perhaps even replacing one damaged by fire last summer. Before you buy a rainwater tanks, consider the effects fire may have before making your purchase.

The simple facts are that plastics melts and concrete can crack under extreme heat. So to prevent fire damage to rainwater tanks try to have them installed underground or at least in a protected spot under the house. The longer your tanks last the longer they can hold water to help protect your home from fire.

For more info, check with your your local rainwater tank supplier.

All structures both residential and commercial constructed on 30/40 ft and above dimension plots, should install rain water harvesting system within 9 months from the date of the proposed new rules.

(view the original press release)

Could be a good time to install a water tank!

This Guide to Converting your Car To Electric shows how a couple living off the grid were able to convert their car to electric power and spend less than $20 per month to rechard their car.

This build your own electric vehicle guide will show you how to:

• Cut Fuel Costs to Nearly Zero
• Clean Up The Environment
• Get Massive Tax Refunds
• Step by Step how to convert a car to electric

So if you don't want to fork out $40k for a new Prius, but would love to convert your existing car to electric, go check out How To Convert Your Car To Electric.

1. Make sure you roof is suitable for collecting rainwater.
2. Reduce the amount of debris that will end up in your tank by installing gutter mesh.
3. Fit gutter outlets to the underside of the gutter to prevent obstruction of water flow.
4. Fit leaf eater-beater rain heads to downpipes stop gutters blocking. Leaf eater-beaters deflect leaves and debris and keep mosquitoes out of pipes that hold water.
5. Install a water diverter to prevent the first flush of most contaminated rainwater from entering the tank.
6. Ensure a tank screen is installed at the water tank entry point to filter water and keep mozzies and pests out.
7. Find your nearest rain water tank supplier.
8. Choose a suitable size tank for your home and consumption volumes.
9. Attach insect-proof screens or flap valves to the end of all pipes to the tank screen and to the tank overflow outlets to keep mosquitos and pests out and ensure the tank is well vented.
10. If necessary, utilise a tank "Top-Up" system to automatically top up the tank with mains water when water levels fall to the designated minimum level.
11. Select a water pump system to distribute water for use inside or outside the home.

• Understanding why you should Go Green;
• Learning to adapt your lifestyle to benefit the planet;
• How and What to Recycle to save our resources;
• Reduce the amount of waste in landfills;
• Help your community;
• Live a healthier life;
• Saving energy and put money in your pocket;
• Recycle home waste products
• Buy the right products with recyclable packaging
• Compost kitchen and yard waste
• Perform Home Energy Audit
• Buy local
• Install rain water tanks
• Plant drought tolerant plants
• Buy energy saving light bulbs (CFL)
• Shop for Energy Star Saving Appliances
• Calculate your carbon footprint

If you're interested in learning more about you can reduce your carbon footprint and living green, check out Going Green, the comprehensive book on home sustainability and living green.

Who wants to DIY a solar hot water systems and save?

Australian's are lucky enough to be able to claim a rebate on Solar Hot Water Systems, but for those who like to DIY and build their own solar water heater, here's a book that might help.

This easy step by step guide will show you several different plans to build your very own solar water heater system. The plans are simple enough for any DIY'er to follow and will give you different option on how to set up and install your solar water heater.

The Guide will Teach You How to Build an entire solar hot water system for as little as $100.

Once installed, you will be saving up to 1/3 of your electric bill each and every month, depending on the amount of sunlight hours in your region.

You can reduce your power bill by up to a third!

• It will cost you less than $100 to build the water heater.
• This is a practical way to help our environment.
• It is simple and you can make it in just a few days.
• You can use the system anywhere in the world.
• This is a great DIY project and you will have fun building it.
• Enjoy the massive savings off your power bill.
• You can get started in a few minutes from now!

Click Here to Find out more about How to Build Your Own Solar Hot Water Heater

The Age also reports that this week water storage levels in the state fell to their lowest level since the Thomson Dam was built in 1984.

Read the Full Article in The Age.

Read the full article at The Age.

Check out the NSW Dep't Environment & Climate Change website .

• FR-free
• PVC-free (internal cables)
• Highly recyclable aluminium and polycarbonate enclosure
• Meets ENERGY STAR Version 5.0 requirements
• Rated EPEAT Gold

All these eco friendly improvements have not had an adverse effect on performance. Your new mean green Mac Mini can come with up to 320Gb hard disk, 4Gb RAM and comes with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor giving 5 faster graphics performance.

Given that I'm a recent Mac convert, I'm drouling! For more info, check out the new Green Mac Mini pages at Apple.

If you're a webmaster, or can get in the ear of a web site owner, please encourage them to participate in this important campaign.

For more details visit the Red Cross Donation Button page at AVG.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use.

"What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there," says Dee. "Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow's leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today."

2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply.

Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says:

"Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.

"Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It's opened up doors for me and I've created some wonderful friendships." said Ms Cain.

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand's hydro and geothermal supply systems.

For those "eco-minded" students who have ever seen something and thought "I could do it better", this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to

www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on

(02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

Ripple specialising in products that align themselves with educational and environmental messages. The range of products available from Ripple Products includes various styles of Digital Shower Timers, Sand Timers, Water-saving Buckets and Enviro-tips.

Recent accolades include winning the 2007 Telstra Business Awards - Victorian Australian Government Micro Business Award and the 2007 Telstra Business Women's Awards - Victorian Australian Government Innovation Award. Australian Anthill Magazine also recognized Ripple Products by being placed in their 2007 Top 50 'Cool Company Awards' also winning their Flying Solo Award for success in business.

Check out the Ripple Products website for more info.

High energy use and consequent high greenhouse gas emissions are the major issue with desalination that need to be addressed. A plant similar to Perth's, even with energy recovery capability, will consume about 24 megawatts of electricity to produce about 45 gigalitres of water per year. This represents about 185,000 megawatt hours of energy per year. - Desalination Report

According to an Environment Victoria report, rainwater tanks are five times more energy efficient than desalination plants, and if fitted to all suitable houses in Melbourne could save up to 84 billion liters of water a year.

Professor Pat Troy's book titles "Troubled Waters", writes that mandatory rainwater tanks, greywater recycling and drycomposting toilets in all new homes would cut potable water use in those homes by 70%.

Personally I agree with making water tanks mandatory in all new homes in Melbourne and Victoria and hope that the Victorian governement decides to put these measures in place before buidling a desalination plant.