Interest in passive house design? What about as a retrofit? We can't recommend this case study highly enough. Builder Dylan endeavours 'to retrofit a draughty cottage into a modern sustainable passive house while his fiance, landscape architect Tylah's, plans for a garden oasis are battered with financial constraints. Dylan's reuse of timber from the house is driven by his concern about the embodied energy that goes into new building products ... "to be able to reuse what we can and then reinstall we're having a lot less impact". You just need to be registered for ABC I-view (free) to watch it..
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"No activity for some months. Waiting on outcome of Goulburn Murray Climate Alliance work on Sustainable Subdivisions Framework, Sustainable Subdivisions (gmca.org.au). The GMCA ESD Advisor, Simon Blackwell, has commenced trialling the SSF in each municipality, not including Benalla Council. Nathan Gasperoni is monitoring this.."
Peter Maddock "Our group has had discussions about Sustainable Subdivisions. Many Subdivision Planning issues were raised and discussed within BSFG following the Dr Greg Moore talk on ‘Trees are major assets as the climate changes’ Wed, 22 February 2023.
A key document guiding subdivisions is the Planning Scheme and while the Benalla Ordinance may touch on Environment and Sustainability there is little detail on how these values should be implemented in subdivisions. It would be informative to see what other councils are doing in this area. The Bendigo Council has adopted a One Planet Living framework to guide Ecological Sustainable Design in Subdivisions. The Goulburn Broken Climate Alliance is currently running a Sustainable Subdivisions Project and their Environmentally Sustainable Development Advisor, Simon Blackwell, has commenced trialling the Sustainable Subdivision Framework in eight municipalities in the Alliance. This project has led to a sustainable subdivision in Indigo Shire. Although Benalla Council is a member of the Alliance it is not a member of this project. However, Councils Nathan Gasperoni has advised that Benalla Council will be getting feedback about this project. Existing housing stock will have a substantial influence on reaching Net Zero by 2050 so improvements here need to be considered. The Footprint Networks Earth Overshoot estimates that in 2022 we required 1.75 earths to sustain the population. We are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks, excessive disposal of waste materials and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our group is listed on the BSFG website as Sustainable Development and that its name, purpose, and activities are to be agreed on. Two possibilities from the BSFG Review were;
Hopefully, we can soon define the group and projects and activities to work on." Peter Maddock Report Presented to BSFG AGM on 25 May 2023
Find out more about sustainable housing design as developed at the prize winning 'The Cape' project at Cape Patterson in this podcast.featuring Jess Cuman from Adapt Design. (There's a 10 minute or so 'chatty introduction', so be patient at the beginning.)
The Ecological, Sustainable Planning and Development group has not had a formal meeting since the Review, however there has been some email discussion of ESD and Subdivision Development Planning.
I followed up with Council Environmental Officer Nathan Gasperoni the offer to arrange a Planning Meeting with Developers to consider passive solar design principles. After his discussions with Council Planning people Nathan reported at a meeting with him and Bronwyn Bishop yesterday that Planning is reluctant to pursue this. This reminds me of the paper I am reading on ESD in Australia, ‘Ecologically Sustainable Development’: Success in Principle, Failure in Policy, Still in Prospect'. I wonder if we need a Target for ESD such as the Ecological Footprint, which shows that we are currently overshooting the carrying capacity of the planet. This year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 28. See my article 'Ecological Sustainable Development and Planning' in BSFG Newsletter 33, August 2022 (previous post). Peter Maddock 29/9/2022 I have been researching Ecological Sustainable Development since the formation of our BSFG Review Group and found a September 2018 PhD Thesis by Peter Bennet, 'Australia’s National Approach to ‘Ecologically Sustainable Development’: Success in Principle, Failure in Policy, Still in Prospect', https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/ handle/1885/156800.
‘The thesis concludes that, properly understood and incorporated into an appropriate policy framework, ESD is a coherent and viable concept, one which remains in prospect when and if society returns the problem of general environmental decline to the top of the public policy agenda.” Ecologically Sustainable Development is an Australian approach to Sustainable Development. I am up to page 128 of 476! Further ESD research has led me to the Victorian Government's Environmentally Sustainable Development of Buildings and Subdivisions, https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/policy-and-strategy/environmentally-sustainable-development-of-buildingsand-subdivisions where there is a download for a roadmap for Victoria’s planning system which looks at ESD in many areas related to sustainable buildings and subdivisions. One issue we are often concerned about in new subdivisions is the apparent lack of consideration of house orientation. This roadmap outlines a program to introduce new ESD planning policies and standards that will help, for instance improve building energy efficiency and support the transition to a low emission future by ensuring buildings are sited and orientated to optimise energy efficiency and encourage the use of renewable energy. The Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment, CASBE, also has resources available for their related Sustainable Subdivisions Framework, www.casbe.org.au/resources/sustainablesubdivisions-resources/ ESD assessment tools available include Green Star developed by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), EnviroDevelopment developed by the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), and BESS the Built Environment Sustainability Scorecard developed by CASBE. BESS is the only dedicated tool in Victoria for assessing sustainable design at the planning permit stage. CASBE membership is open to all Victorian councils. My initial search about Ecological SD has led me to finding the encouraging development of Planning for Environmental Sustainable Development in Victorian subdivisions. I will continue to investigate Peter Bennet's thesis on Ecological Sustainable Development as the Ecological Footprint by the Footprint Network indicates globally we are exceeding the biocapacity of the planet. This year, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 28. A good reason for emphasising the Ecological in Sustainable Development. Peter Maddock, Ecological Sustainable Planning and Development and Retrofits Group New Action Group - Ecological Sustainable Planning, Development and Retrofits - July Report10/8/2022 Ecologically Sustainable Development may be a consideration in Planning Developments however it appears not be a major factor in Planning Subdivisions. We see this by the absence of passive orientation in Subdivisions.
Our group has yet to have a formal meeting however we have had email contact regarding goals and actions. One of our members with planning experience is away now and we hope to meet on his return. Another member has alerted us to the Sustainable Subdivisions Framework which is an initiative of the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment (CASBE). At the Council Office on Wednesday July 27, I met Bronwyn Chapman and the Environmental Sustainability Officer Nathan Gasperoni. We discussed the new BSFG Review groups. As for our group Bronwyn thought the current Planning Scheme enabled developers to consider and incorporate passive design in new subdivisions. She also felt there may be an opportunity to have a Briefing for Developers about sustainable subdivisions. This could be a joint briefing with BSFG and with Council funding. We also briefly discussed Retrofits and Council may have looked at retrofitting buildings and have a tool, Combat, which might be of interest to us. I mentioned my interest in Council emissions following the BSFG Climate Emergency Petition presentation to Council on Wednesday September 29th, 2021. At the meeting Council was to have available an emissions report ready for the review of the Climate Adaptation Strategy which is now due. I recently found that Council have been involved in evaluating Emissions Assessment tools with Strathbogie, Indigo and Towong Shire Councils. Bronwyn suggested I write to the Council asking for a Council emissions report. Bronwyn suggested a way for BSFG to work with Council could be to have regular meetings with her and Nathan. Council funding could also be available for BSFG projects however these could only be considered for the 2023 Council Budget. There are also the annual Community Grants and the monthly Sponsorship Grants to support BSFG activities, https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Community/Annual-Grants-Program. Bronwyn also suggested BSFG report to Council regularly about BSFG activities, such as the recent well attended Landlords Solar Forum. Peter Maddock Great enthusiasm and valuable brainstorming featured during the Review Workshops and was recorded on sticky notes, then compiled by Cath Botta. It seems important to keep the ideas in mind as we take up the challenges in our new action groups. These are the notes recorded for Ecological Sustainable Design and Development*.... Contributing ideas
Initiatives/Actions Engage and work with council on Sustainable planning and development options
Retrofit** Advice
Sustainable Living as Art
**The position of retrofitting in terms of the action groups may better fit/has fitted in the past with Renewable Energy Benalla under the 'Reduce 1/3 goal'.
Peter and Trish, members of the new Ecological Sustainable Planning, Development and Retrofits action group completed this training recently!
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Ecological Sustainable Development*Engage and Work with Council on Sustainable Planning and Development
Engage and Work with Council on Sustainable Retrofits *The name of the group and focus is still being discussed - this is one variant being considered. ContactPeter 0418 135 330
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Benalla Sustainable Future Group acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we live, work and meet, the Taungerang, Yorta Yorta and Bpangerang people
of North East Victoria, and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
of North East Victoria, and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.