About us

Goal of the website...
The idea of this website is to put together a resource so that other people in the same situation that we were in could learn from us (and hopefully avoid our mistakes).

In a nut shell we want it to be easy for people to ‘go green’, not a time consuming chore, so with some luck the information compiled in this website will achieve that goal... I hope you find the website informative and useful - at the very least hopefully we'll provoke a bit of thought!

Background (what led us to here)...
We wanted to build a normal looking suburban home that fits into our normal looking suburban street, BUT, be as kind to the planet as possible.

We are an average young family (mum, dad, two kids and a dog) and, I’d like to think, reasonably environmentally conscious, so about 5 years ago when we decided to build, we decided it had to be a ‘Green Home’.

Five years ago the environment wasn’t the largely publicised issue that it is today, so after speaking with every commercial builder we could find and banging our heads against innumerable brick walls someone suggested that we ‘just go it alone’ and design our own place.

Most of the people we spoke to at the time thought that we were mad and obviously wanted to live in a tree house, not bathe, and spend our days and nights walking around bare foot in the forest or tying ourselves to trees – this is not the case, as we said above; all we want is a normal looking suburban home that fits into our normal looking suburban street, BUT, is as kind to the planet as possible.

As luck would have it I (Antoni) was working for a Building Management System company and was closely involved with design of the Building Management System for the 500 Collins Street refurbishment (Australia’s first 5 Star Green Star project).

This exposed me to some very clever individuals who had worked in Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD) for a number of years and the guiding principles behind ESD - which opened my eyes to just how easy it actually is to incorporate ESD into projects. What we did find though, was that although there was an enormous volume of information available for the commercial market, there was very little knowledge in the residential market beyond the basics.

Having no luck with the standard lines of enquiry, we started to attend ‘environmental’ trade shows and expos to try and get as much information as possible, then adapt it to a normal residential home. This quickly led to spending an unhealthy amount of time on the internet looking at European websites and sending enormous amounts of email to various interest groups.

After 100s of hours spent reading, emailing and talking to very knowledgeable people to collect this information, we decided that we couldn’t let it just stay with us - we had to pass it on to the community at large, which led to this website (we want it to be easy for people to ‘go green’, not a time consuming chore).


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Out of the ground (Slab and underground works) The structure (Walls, windows and roof) Fit out (Plumbing, electrical, tiles, plaster & paint) The Environment Bits & Pieces
		About us Goal of the website... The idea of this website is to put together a resource so that other people in the same situation that we were in could learn from us (and hopefully avoid our mistakes). In a nut shell we want it to be easy for people to ‘go green’, not a time consuming chore, so with some luck the information compiled in this website will achieve that goal... I hope you find the website informative and useful - at the very least hopefully we'll provoke a bit of thought! Background (what led us to here)... We wanted to build a normal looking suburban home that fits into our normal looking suburban street, BUT, be as kind to the planet as possible. We are an average young family (mum, dad, two kids and a dog) and, I’d like to think, reasonably environmentally conscious, so about 5 years ago when we decided to build, we decided it had to be a ‘Green Home’. Five years ago the environment wasn’t the largely publicised issue that it is today, so after speaking with every commercial builder we could find and banging our heads against innumerable brick walls someone suggested that we ‘just go it alone’ and design our own place. Most of the people we spoke to at the time thought that we were mad and obviously wanted to live in a tree house, not bathe, and spend our days and nights walking around bare foot in the forest or tying ourselves to trees – this is not the case, as we said above; all we want is a normal looking suburban home that fits into our normal looking suburban street, BUT, is as kind to the planet as possible. As luck would have it I (Antoni) was working for a Building Management System company and was closely involved with design of the Building Management System for the 500 Collins Street refurbishment (Australia’s first 5 Star Green Star project). This exposed me to some very clever individuals who had worked in Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD) for a number of years and the guiding principles behind ESD - which opened my eyes to just how easy it actually is to incorporate ESD into projects. What we did find though, was that although there was an enormous volume of information available for the commercial market, there was very little knowledge in the residential market beyond the basics. Having no luck with the standard lines of enquiry, we started to attend ‘environmental’ trade shows and expos to try and get as much information as possible, then adapt it to a normal residential home. This quickly led to spending an unhealthy amount of time on the internet looking at European websites and sending enormous amounts of email to various interest groups. After 100s of hours spent reading, emailing and talking to very knowledgeable people to collect this information, we decided that we couldn’t let it just stay with us - we had to pass it on to the community at large, which led to this website (we want it to be easy for people to ‘go green’, not a time consuming chore).