Smart Cities - Getting to 1 tonne per person by 2030

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Overview

The average Australian produces 15 tonnes of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions per year. However this figure is misleading because it omits the emissions embodied in the goods we buy. It we include embodied emissions then emissions would be closer to 25 tonnes per person per year.

If we don't reduce GHG emissions quickly then we will hasten Climate Change and Global Warming. It is very easy to reduce GHG emissions, but like most simple things it requires behaviour change.

Scientists believe that a target of 1 tonne per person per annum is a realistic target that will help keep global warming at less that 1.5 degC (66% confidence).

This document shows a path explaining how GHG emissions can be reduced to approximately 1 tonne per person per year, with most of the savings achieved in the first five years. For an entire country and the world to make this transition it will take more time.

Just as with dieting, researchers have found that dieters who lost weight quickly were more motivated to stick to their diet and keep on losing weight in comparison to slow dieters (see The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley). Similarly, by rapidly reducing GHG emissions we have a better chance of achieving the goal of keep global warming to less than 1.5 degC.

The guiding principles applied in this proposal are:

  • Green House Gas (GHG) emissions should be equally shared amount all people on the planet.
  • Technologies and resources needs to be applied equitably. Everyone on the planet deserves the same.
  • The production of most goods generates waste and causes deforestation (think solar panels, metal goods, computers, cars)
  • Transition technologies must be low cost. Electric cars for personal use are not affordable, neither is the infrastructure to support them (e.g. charging stations, solar panel farms, battery recycling operations).
  • Less is best (a 400 Watt Solar PV system will have a lower environmental impact than a 3 kWatt system). We need to make do with less.

You can get to 1 tonne per person per year of GHG emissions if you make greater sacrafices in the first five years by following these simple steps and by organising committees to advocate for policy changes in government and in businesses.

2022 - Year 1

Transportation - keep a log

Transportation of people and goods is responsible for 20% of GHG emissions. The average Australian car produces between 2 and 5 tonnes of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions per year. During World War II petrol in Australia was rationed and people could only travel a limited distance. Rationing is an equitable way encourage people to drive less. During the COVID restrictions in 2020 and 2021 people were only allowed to travel 5 km from home and many people were permitted to work or study from home. All of these restrictions demonstrated that we could live more locally.

If we could make all these changes for COVID, why then can't we make them for the bigger threat of Climate Change.

  • Each year maintain a vehicle log of how many kilometres your family travels by car. Reduce these kilometres each year by at least 10%.
  • Buy a bike $1,000. Helmet, glasses, gloves, lights, panniers, basket carrier, wet weather gear $2,000.
  • Ride to school by bike, take public transport or car pool.
  • Create your own low carbon entertainment. Gardening, board games, bike riding, pets, Dungeons & Dragons, reading books.

Stationary energy - switch to green energy

Stationary energy (electricity for homes and businesses) produces another 20% of GHG emissions. Stationary energy includes electricity production and natural gas.

  • Monitor your electricity and gas bills for the past year. Learn to read your electricity and gas meters.
  • Install the free PowerPal app and install the device in your power meter. It makes tracking electricity consumption easier. [1]
  • Switch your utilities to green electricity and green gas. Both of which are not truely green. Green has become a marketing term.
  • Reduce your energy consumption in your house by 20% per year. Think TVs, dishwashers, dryers, washing machines, computers, games consoles. Most houses could easily give up on these devices if the end result means that we can save the planet.
  • Focus on buying essential appliances: refrigerator, laptop, mobile phone, lighting (both fixed, headlamps and bike lights), electric fans, battery charger and water pumps. Small low use items can also include a shaver, hair dryer and clothes iron.
  • Create an outdoor kitchen using a gas burner. Cooking uses very little gas energy (less than 5% of total domestic gas consumption) in comparison to heating water or space heating a house.
  • Collect wood during the year so that you can sterilise tomato sauce. My Italian friends do this.

Agriculture - grow food at home

Agriculture contributes 14% of all GHG emissions in Australia. Agriculture produces food, fibre and fuel. Agriculture produces many of the essential things we need to live such as the food we eat and our clothes. However, individual households can take more responsibility for local food production.

  • Grow food at home. Start by planting productive trees such as: loquat, citrus, persimmon, grapes, berries, apple, fig, olive, nut trees. Trees take 3-5 years before they become productive so get started now by planting productive trees in winter. Aim to plant 10 productive trees. Keep trees small so they can be protected by nets (3m x 3m). Fruit trees are $50 each.
  • Keep chickens at home and collect their eggs. Chicken $50
  • Eat less meat and dairy. Eat more whole grains such as lentils, beans and chickpeas. Eat less bread, pasta and rice (Rice production has a high water demand).
  • Eat free range produce because it is better for animal welfare and health.
  • Buy food grown in Victoria or Australia (less food miles).
  • Avoid processed food.
  • Avoid excessively packaged food. Buy from Bulk food stores that allow you to bring your own packaging.
  • Buy good quality Secateurs (Felco) $100. Use tea tree oil to clean, sterilise and oil blade.
  • Buy good quality gum boots for doing work in the backyard. Shoes often get dirty and muddy. Gum boots are easier to clean. Try to avoid PVC gum boots if you can - $180 Wellies Online Designer Gumboots
  • Buy drinking water approved hose for your garden. Sold in 10m lengths. You will probably need to buy 3 or 4 lengths $40 x 4. Available in camping stores and also Mitre 10. Drinking Water Hose

Air travel - no more air travel

Air travel contributes between 3 and 5% of all GHG emissions globally. It is not essential as demonstrated during Covid. It is a luxury add on and it is not equiable for rich countries to enjoy the luxury of air travel at the expense of the planet.

  • Stop all international travel by air.

Clothing - buy 100% natural fibre clothing

Clothing contributes 10-20% of GHG emissions and is a significant waste issue because of synthetic fibres and the microplastics they shed. Natural fibres are not perfect either. The production and processing of natural fibres can result in pollution and the use of chemicals.

  • Before you buy anything it is better to keep an old garment than to buy a new garment, even if the new garment is made using natural fibres.
  • Learn to repair your clothes even if they are made from synthetic fibres.
  • Buys clothes from thrift stores. Buying second hand is better than buying new.
  • Buy quality clothes. Avoid fast fashion.
  • Buy clothes made from natural fibres so that you can compost the item at the end of its useful life.
  • Learn to make sandals and slippers using leather or other natural fibres.
  • Buy 100% wollen socks for winter Woollen socks
  • Buy 100% woollen blankets Waverley Mills. Woollen blanket (e.g. Herringbone Superfine Wool Throw Almond) $350

Technology - install Linux

The only technology we really need is a laptop and mobile phone. If they are cared for they should both last for more than a decade.

  • Experiment installing and running Linux on an old laptop.
  • Buy a Raspberry Pi computer or the Arduino. You can learn a lot about computers with either device.
  • Install a program to monitor the processor temperature on a laptop or computer. Keep the processor temperature to 35degC or less. Avoid the use of any programs that increase the processor temperature above this level, including web sites.
  • Appropriate uses for a laptop include: reading pdf documents and books, word processing, email, web browsing, listening to music, watching videos, programming, some gaming.
  • Use multiple hard drives to back up your data and keep backup hard drives at a safe location away from your house.
  • Download Creative Commons and other content (e.g. pdf books) from the internet.

Creative Commons Resources for Schools

Creative Commons Programming Languages

Waste - compost food waste

Waste contributes 3-5% of our GHG emissions. Organic waste is mostly sent to landfill where it produces methane under anaerobic conditions. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Waste also signifies inefficiencies because we bought something that had a limited service life that now has to be thrown away. Nature produces no waste, so we need to be very critical of the waste we produce so that we can make better purchasing decisions in the future.

  • Compost all food waste.
  • Compost all green waste produced from your garden. Composting is a great soil conditioner.
  • Build a compost bay using Steel mesh (x4) $200. Use string to connect panels. You also need sugar cane mulch as a carbon source.
  • Audit what you throw away in your rubbish bins - even your recycling bin. How can you reduce each of these waste components.
  • Hold onto waste. Rather than throw something away hold onto it as a reminder.

Things - for gardening

The average American household contains more than 100,000 different items. Australian households will be similar. This tells us that we own too many things (material goods). Added together, all the things we own are responsible for a large environmental footprint due to the mining of resources, deforestation and pollution generated whenever something is manufactured. Its time to reduce the amount of things we own. Luckily, students and young people typically own far less than the average person.

  • Buy gardening tools (fork, secateurs, bird safe nets).
  • Headlamp (e.g. Petzl Actik Core 450 Lumens Headlight) $130. Good for work activities at night.
  • Reference books - e.g. gardening, permaculture, fruit and nut tree care, hobbies.
  • Example book list coming soon.

Schools - set up diverse clubs

As a student you may not be aware, but schools are always in gentle competition with each other because the more students they have attending their school the greater the amount of funding they receive. A very busy curriculum, long hours, marking and additional extra curricular activities mean that teachers and principals are more busy and stressed than ever before.

It is difficult to ask schools to do more, so students will need to help make the transition to a more sustainable education model. The school environment will play a critical role in skilling up the community to meet the challenges of climate change adaptation (adapting to the effects of climate change) and mitigation (i.e. reducing GHG emissions).

The number of subject areas are diverse and some are listed below. While it is not expected that schools will offer all of these courses, it would be expected that schools could be living display models for these systems.

  • BYOD - support for Bring Your Own Device, rather than forcing students to buy expensive laptops
  • Creative Commons resources - many institutions have created free text books. These should be used in preference to other prescribed books or subscriptions. You also get to keep the Creative Commons text books and teachers and students can contribute to them.
  • Low carbon transport arrangements to get to and from school.
  • Gardening, cooking and food preservation classes
  • Formalised learning related to animal husbandry (caring for animals) and horticulture (cultivation of the garden).
  • Short courses such as:
  • More emphasis on using tools to build useful things for around the home - garden beds, compost bays, chicken coops, trellises, ferro-cement rainwater tanks, construction of sheds and tiny homes, energy and water efficiency improvements.
  • Home energy efficiency.
  • Courses to introduce students to micro electricity grids, solar PV panels, battery storage, solar hot water heating systems, biogas generators, water pumps, etc
  • Making and repairing clothes Modern Mending website by Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald.

House - tiny house

A new home will release 90 tonnes of GHG emissions during construction and in the materials used to construct the house. Roads, street lights and underground services all add more GHG emissions. Remember that the aim is to get to 1 tonne per person per year.

Rather than building a new house it is better to continue using our existing housing stock better, for example, by increasing the number of people living in a single house. Australian houses are 2 to 3 times larger than other houses or appartments in Europe. Some new suburbs in Melbourne have on average 2.2 people per house. This is a significant waste of internal space.

Even if existing homes are not energy efficient by European standards it is still possible to reduce heating and cooling energy inputs. A single room in the house can be modified to improve the thermal comfort, rather than improving the entire house. Occupants can also dress more warmly in winter and use ceiling fans or evaporative coolers in summer.

If you are building a new home then build small and energy efficient. Building a tiny house is also an option and it would be good if this training was offered as an elective in secondary school.

Tiny homes use less material than traditional homes. Because they are smaller they will cost less, which means that debts to banks can be paid off sooner and the owners can work less. People mainly work to pay off debts. A typical mortgage can take 20 to 30 years to pay off. Theoretically, you can build a tiny house for a fraction of the cost.

Well insulated tiny homes can be heated by the occupants. An adult human will produce 200 Watts of heat. In a small structure this heat would be sufficient to make a room very comfortable.

Smaller homes can also be self-built. There are short courses available that you can do so that you can become an owner-builder. Building your own home will take 6 months to a year. A small house is relatively easy to build and the task can be made easier if you work with some friends.

Small homes work best when some of the added functionality we typically include inside a house and located outside. An example may be an outside laundry, which doesn't need to be heated or cooled to the same extent as a living space. A simple shed would do fine. Many cultures also cook outside using gas burners. Cooking outside is easy if a small ventilated and sheltered room is available.

A good example of a good sized building you may want to build would be 4m x 8m. A building this size could contain sleeping areas, shower and bathroom, toilet with a small kitchen areas for making hot drinks. All other facilities would be outside in detached sheds.

Building in the city or the outskirts of the city is probably not a good option because the cost of land is so high. Instead, build in regional areas that have large stable town centres, have fast internet and are well served by rail networks. These features will help you be more productive in the country, get to the city if you need to, and cost you less in the long term.


  • Learn to build a tiny home at school or trade school.
  • Spend more time outdoors and less time indoors so that you appreciate outdoor spaces (e.g. gardening, bee keeping, conservation, outdoor pets).
  • Research how to build tiny homes that are energy efficient.
  • Build something at home (e.g. rabbit hutch, chicken coop).
  • Borrow power tools from a friend or tool library and make something.

Learn to Build a Passive House

A Passive House is simply a very energy efficient house. It would be the equivalent of a 10 to 12 Star rating house using the NatHERS energy rating system.

The following principles can be applied to make houses more energy efficient.

  • insulation (with an emphasis on the thermal properties of windows)
  • air tightness of the building envelope
  • elimination of thermal bridges
  • orientation living areas north to maximise heat gain in winter
  • incorporation of thermal mass to keep internal temperatures stable
  • air heat exchanger to refresh internal air while minimising heat loss or heat gain
  • appropriate shading and shielding from trees and vegetation around the building

Insulation

Heat is both gained and lost through the roof, walls, floor, windows and doors. Increasing the level of insulation in each of these structures will help to minimise heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer.

To make insulation comparisons easy Australia uses R values to define the thermal properties of insulation. The higher the R value, the better the insulation properties and the more resistant the material is to heat transfer.


In Melbourne the R value for walls should be up to 2.5 to 4.0 and the R value in ceiling 6.0 to 7.0. Floors should have similar values to walls.

Windows are more challenging. They are measured using U values, which is the inverse of R. It is more expensive to insulate windows. Standard windows have a R value of 0.16 (U value 6.2). Some of the highest performing windows available have an R value of 1.0 (U value of 1.0). As a rule, to maintain good thermal comfort in houses it is best to keep windows relatively modest in size and to have all windows facing north so that they can maximise heat gain.

Australian Government - Your Home - Insulation

Insulation calculations

To calculate the amount of heat loss from a room you can use these simple calculations.

  • determine the area of each surface (e.g. wall 6m x 2.6m = 15.6m2
  • determine the temperature difference between inside air temperature and outside air temperature (e.g. 20degC inside and 0degC outside = 20 degC temperature difference)
  • determine the R value of the insulation in the structure (e.g. R = 2.5)

Then use this formula to calculate the amount of heat transfer under the specified conditions.

Heat Transfer (Watts) = 1 / R value x Temp difference x Area = 0.4 x 20 x 15.6 = 124.8 Watts

In this example, 124.8 Watts of heat would be lost through the wall. If a human can generate 200 Watts then this level of heat loss could easily be supported. You can also change the R value of the wall to see what difference this makes.

Windows

Air Tightness

Common leakage points in a house

Source: Sustainable Energy Authority Victoria


MVHR supplies filtered outdoor air to living rooms and bedrooms while extracting air from bathrooms, kitchens and laundries Source: https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/ventilation-airtightness

Things to buy

Each year local residents pay their Council rates. In 2022 $76 million was spent on Infrastructure, $24 million on waste and $16 million on local roads. With a population of 240,000 this equates to $483 per person. By taking more responsibility for waste and transport we can help to minimise these expenses.

  • Secateurs (Felco) $100 - and tea tree oil to clean, sterilise and oil blade
  • Headlamp (e.g. Petzl Actik Core 450 Lumens Headlight) $130 [2]
  • Headlamp (e.g. NiteCore HC65 $150 [3])
  • Volt meter $10 so you can monitor the charge state of batteries.
  • Chickens $50
  • Steel mesh (x4) to build composting bay for kitchen scraps $200. Use string to connect panels. You also need sugar cane mulch as a carbon source.
  • Fruit trees (x10) $50 x 10
  • Woollen blanket (e.g. Herringbone Superfine Wool Throw Almond) $350
  • Bike $1,000. Helmet, glasses, gloves, lights, panniers, basket carrier, wet weather gear $2,000.
  • Gum boots $100
  • Drinking water hose for watering the garden $160.

2023 - Year 2

Transportation - travel by bike

Reduce car travel by 10% every year. Cars are responsible for significant amounts of pollution, both directly and indirectly. The less we use cars and the more we adopt either public of active forms of transport (e.g. bike, walking) the less pollution there will be. Switching to electric cars is not the answer. Each electric car has 15 tonnes of embedded GHG emissions due to the resources and energy required for its construction. Cars also need drive ways, roads, car park, service stations, freeways which in total take up 20%-30% of the urban environment. Cars leak oil. Tyres release heavy metals and rubber particles that eventually get washing into stormwater drains and then into waterways. Brake pads also contain high levels of heavy metals. Car tyres are being recycled, but the recycling process produces more waste and produces more GHG emissions.

There are other ways to move people and goods around rather than the car. In Australia in the 1950s grocery trucks would travel through the streets and people would come out of their houses to buy vegetables and other produce. In France, streets are converted to open markets two times each week so local people can do their shopping. Alternatively, you can just walk or ride to a local store to do you shopping. It was not uncommon for people to walk 3-5 kilometres of take the bus to do their shopping. They would carry their shopping in trolley bags (the ones with a long handle and two wheels).

Taking a 1 tonne (1000 kg) car to the shops with one human driver (80kg) to pick up one litre of milk (1kg) just doesn't seem very efficient whether the car is powered by batteries or petrol. If the planet is to be saved we need to swap the car for more sustainable modes of transport.

  • Buy Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres for your bike that are more puncture resistant $200. Bike pump upright design $100. Skinny tyres will make it easier to peddle. Fatter tyres will last longer and will offer more grip on slippery surfaces.
  • Enjoy a regional holiday by train or bus $2,000. A regional holiday will produce lower GHG emissions that an international holiday because you are travelling fewer kilometres.
  • Buy a small Shopping Trolley 45L with two wheels $60 to bring your groceries home or put panniers on your bike (Ortlieb Back Roller Classic Panniers).
  • Buy an electric bike if you think it will make bike riding easier $3,700.

Stationary energy - short cool shower

Seven percent (7%) of all Victoria's GHG emissions are associated with heating water. Hot water production at home uses large amounts of gas (approximately 40%+ of all gas usage). There are several ways to reduce gas consumption, but the easiest is to see if you can acclimatise to shorter and cooler showers.

  • Take 1-2 minute, 25 degC showers, once per day. If you can handle water at this temperature then a solar hot water will be able to meet all your hot water requirements without needing any boost. Showering in the evening will make the best use of the hot water. You can always miss a showering day if the weather is cloudy.
  • Thermometer to monitor shower water temperature $10.
  • Buy a hair dryer to dry and warm yourself after having a shower $100.
  • Swap to using bars of soap to wash rather than liquid soaps.
  • Make sure all soap is natural and biodegradable (buy from a Health food store outlet). Then you can use the grey water from your shower in the garden without affecting soil health.

Too much focus in placed on bringing renewable energy online (supply side) rather than reducing demand for energy (demand side). If energy demand can be reduced this will result in an immediate reduction in GHG emissions and make the goal of achieving 100% renewable energy more viable. When new wind turbines or solar PV panels are purchased they have been mostly fabricated using fossil fuels and therefore have embodied GHG emissions. For solar PV panels it can take 7 years for this GHG emission debt to be paid off. Yes we need renewable energy, but we also should aim for a much lower overall energy demand for society.

  • Reduce your electricity and gas usage based by 20% each year.
  • Monitor daily usage and set limits.
  • Install monitoring devices (e.g. smart meters) if this helps [4].

Agriculture - learn to farm

During the Special period in Cuba (1990 to 2000) GHG emissions were radically reduced because fossil fuel imports were heavily restricted. Food production is heavily dependent on fossil fuel inputs, and during the Special period the Cuban population almost starved.

Fossil fuels heavily subsidise the production of cheap food because oil and gas are used to produce fertiliser, provide energy for farm equipment, transport produce and run refrigerators. With less fossil fuels many Cubans left the major cities and moved back to the country to provide labour inputs for local food production. Cities also converted many of their open spaces and parklands to food production. To help reduce GHG emissions quickly we all need to become urban farmers.

  • Do the Complete Urban Farmer course at CERES $880.

Travel - to the country

Rather than take an aeroplane to a far off destination, why not travel to and stay on a local farm in the country and perhaps learn some new farming techniques while you are staying there.

  • Take a train or bus to the country and have a working holiday on a farm $2,000.
  • Attend a permaculture design course in regional Victoria $3,000.

Clothing - wash by hand

Washing machines have liberated millions of women from the difficult chore of washing clothes. Women still do more work in the home economy (i.e. housework) than men. While washing machines are a great time saver they also consume modest amounts of electricity and water. It is possible to wash and rinse clothes by hand and to wash clothes less frequently. Undergarments need to be washed after being worn once, but outer garments may only need to be washed weekly. And even if you are wearing clothes in the garden and they get dirty, you can probably wear them again if you are still going to be working in the garden. Washing by hand is not uncommon. Many people who go car camping or caravanning take along a portable hand operated washing machine. Buy a good quality unit so that it can last many years.

  • Wash clothes by hand using soap nuts. Hand operated washing machine $100. Soap nuts 1kg $50. Soap nuts are garden friendly.
  • Dilute all rinse water (1 in 5) and use to water the garden.

Technology - backup your data

Prior to 1995 the internet was not available to the public. Even when the internet did become more widely available some people couldn't afford it at home and had to use libraries, internet cafes and work premises to do their personal emails. Today we can hot spot to mobile phones to access the internet. In Cuba, where access to the internet is patchy, the citizens share digital content using hard drives. With this in mind, it is possible for you to download books and other content onto your computer that will be similar to a large personal library. While you have good access to the internet it's a good idea to find information you are interested in and save it on your computer and also on an external hard drive.

Data stored in the cloud on the internet will keep on producing GHG emissions. Whereas data stored on a hard drive and kept powered off will not generate any emissions.

  • Buy a good external mechanical or solid state hard drive to store documents, books and educational material you have sourced from the internet e.g. SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Drive (1TB) $230

Waste - learn to cook

No cuisine is free of waste, but cooking and preserving food at home will make a significant impact on reducing food waste. Food waste can always be composted at home. Choice of ingredients will help minimise packaging waste. Learn to cook. Find anyone interested in showing or teaching you how they cook.

Food waste sent to landfill will mostly decompose anaerobically and generate methane, a powerful green house gas. Food waste fed to chickens or composted is given a second life as a food or energy source.

  • Make wire mesh compost bays to compost all green waste - $400.
  • Reotemp Backyard Compost Thermometer 95cm length Stem $100
  • Avoid all single use food packaging if you can, or aim to reduce this waste stream by half.
  • Avoid tinned foods. They use too much metal and need to be heat sterilised. Beans can be soaked over night and cooked quickly the following day. Fruit can be bought in season. Fish can be bought fresh and carried in reusable containers.

Cuttings from the garden can be cut up using secateurs and either placed in a composting bay or left on the ground to decompose. This latter technique is called chop and drop. Chop and drop is the perfect way to create your own garden mulch. You will never need to buy mulch again. Mulch is easily created from the branches of trees. The woody texture of trees and some leaves slows down the degradation process.

Schools - Bring Your Own Device

Up to 270kg of carbon dioxide is released during the manufacture of one laptop [5]. If we can extend the use of a computer this will help reduce climate change. The Linux operating system uses resources on your computer more efficiently and therefore keeps the processor temperature at low levels (30 to 35degC). In addition, the choice of activities we do on our computers will also extend their life span. Reading pdf documents, using word processors, using email, editing photos place less stress on computer hardware. Make sure that you can support both teachers and students who are prepared to make this transition.

Teachers and your principal will be happy to support the change you would like to see in the school environment. You will have to support them with this transition by forming committees, collecting information, networking with parents, local government and businesses, and being prepared to share your knowledge with other schools and students.

  • Advocate for your school to support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and run teaching classes for Linux.

Supermarkets - Bring Your Own Containers

Some local supermarkets allow customers to bring their own reusable container to reduce packaging waste. The local community needs to get behind this effort to make sure that a greater range of staple food products are available. Examples could be coffee, tea, cereals and grains, meat, deli produce, chocolate, biscuits, snacks, etc.

Some argue that we can simply recycle single use packaging. Most recycling processes require significant energy inputs (and associated GHG emissions) and will still produce waste streams. The waste hierarchy also states that reuse should come before recycling. So we should favour reuse.

  • Form a school committee and collaborate with local supermarkets to ensure that staple food products will be available for refillable packaging in 2025. It is important that young people help to drive this change.

House - invest in a tool shed

Things to buy

Reference books will always be valuable because they don't require any batteries or technology to run. Books have a life expectancy of 50 years or more. To understand a subject area you often require just a few key books, not a whole library. Doing a course may help simplify your selection (I still have my French text book and dictionary from university).

  • Reference books $500.
  • Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres for your bike that are more puncture resistant $200.
  • Bike pump upright design $100.
  • Buy a Shopping Trolley 45L with two wheels $60.
  • Enjoy a regional holiday by train $2,000.
  • Thermometer to monitor shower water $10.
  • Install monitoring devices (e.g. smart meters for electricity, water and gas) if this helps $300.
  • Do the Complete Urban Farmer course at CERES $880.
  • Take a train or bus to the country and have a working holiday on a farm $2,000.
  • Attend a permaculture design course in regional Victoria $3,000.
  • Wash clothes by hand using soap nuts. Hand operated washing machine $100.
  • Soap nuts 100% natural and biodegradable detergent 1kg $50.
  • Buy a good external mechanical or solid state hard drive - SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD Drive (1TB) $230
  • Make wire mesh compost bays to compost all green waste - $400.
  • Reotemp Backyard Compost Thermometer 95cm length Stem $100

2024 - Year 3

Transport - keep active

Ironically, if your local environment was more interesting then you would only need to travel within your local community. Local destinations that people like to visit include coffee shops, libraries, small boutique stores, community centres. In the 80s, before the advent of the internet, young people would roam the street on bikes, play games on local roads, hang out at Milk Bars and shopping centres, or just at their friend's place to play board or computer games. When I was growing up there was a vacant lot that was home to a donkey. People would walk around the block and bring grass and other food for the donkey. Upkeep must have been minimal for the owner. The donkey also mowed the grass.

  • Keep healthy by using your bike. Travel local.
  • Make local more interesting.
  • Grow vegetables in your front yard.
  • Plant trees and other plants in your front nature strip.
  • Create a chicken or rabbit run in the front yard that local residents can visit, pat and perhaps even feed.

Stationary energy - domestic solar hot water heater

  • Now that you have adjusted to cool showers it makes sense to stop using gas to heat water and switch to a solar hot water system. You can build your own solar hot water heating system using a Solar Oven to heat enough water for a 1 minute shower.
  • Buy a quality, repairable fan to keep cool in summer.

Agriculture - ferro-cement tank

Most tanks are either made from plastic or are metal. Galvanised tanks are available but they will eventually rust and will release the zinc heavy metal. Stainless steel tanks will not rust but are expensive and have a high GHG footprint. Ferro-cement rainwater tanks can be easily constructed and will last for many decades. Water is one of the most important resources on any property. You need lots of water to grow food, especially in summer. As a rough estimate you should aim for 20,000 litres of water storage for a house.

Clothing - learn to darn

Start to buy clothing made from natural fibres. Clothing made using synthetic clothing sheds microplastics and cannot be easily recycled. Most clothing placed in recycling clothing bins is sent to Africa to be on-sold. More than half of the garments are sent directly to landfill because they are of poor quality.

Don't throw out you old clothes. This would be a waste even if they are made from synthetic fibres. You are better off keeping and repairing them. If they can last for tens of years this will still be much better for the environment as a whole.

  • Learn to darn and repair your clothes. Sometimes all you need is the right type of thread, a range of needles, and some additional fabric. Repairing clothes does not require a sewing machine. Small repairs are easier to fix than big repairs, so as soon as you see a hole repair it.

Technology - microcontrollers

Many systems require a small computer (microcontrollers or Programmable Logic Controllers - PLC) to operate. The microcontroller often responds to the input from a sensor, analyses the data using simply logic, and then generates an output. An example may be a smart tank that has sensor inputs for tank water level and weather data, then can decide whether to use water for irrigation or to fill up a frog bog. They can also be connected to soil moisture sensors to help determine if there is too much or too little water in the root zone of plants. They can monitor green houses and open vents if the inside temperature is too high. They can help guide a solar oven so that it always tracks the sun, even when the sun is occasionally blocked by clouds. There is a small microcontroller in domestic solar hot water systems so that water is only pumped when the temperature in the solar panel is above a certain limit.

The Arduino and Pycom microcontrollers are great learning resources for learning how to program these small computers.

  • Buy an Arduino Uno and find a book to help you learn how to program it in C and C++ and some electronic accessories - $150.
  • Buy one of the Pycom devices and learn how to program in micropython - $100.

Waste - collect nitrogen rich urine

Urine is rich in nitrogen which is one of the key nutrients to support plant growth. Compost heaps may also be deficient in nitrogen if they have too much carbon based material (e.g. straw, sawdust, other so called brown materials). Adding nitrogen to compost heap will increase microbial activity and raise the temperature of the pile. Collecting urine turns a waste into a valuable resource. We should not be wasting it.

  • Collect all urine (wee) and use to fertilise the garden. Dilute 1 in 10 before application. Collect in 1L containers (e.g. Soy milk bottles with screw on lids).
  • Citrus trees (e.g. lemon) love some extra nitrogen fertiliser. Make this your go-to place in the backyard.

Schools - advocate for change

There are many important causes that need a strong community voice. It often only takes the persistent voice of 15 individuals to create change. Most people are too busy or preoccupied with other life challenges to invest in societal change. It will be up to you to help drive change.

House and home - use plants to insulate

Deciduous vines can be planted on the north and west side of the house to shade houses in summer. Deciduous vines grow leaves during spring and summer. Their leaves can shade bricks from direct sun exposure and this will help keep houses cooler.

Vines in Tuscany, Italy are used to create a natural covering or roofing equivalent to a pergola. A wooden and wire scafolding if provided for the plants. Over several years the wines grow thicker and thicker which adds to the aesthetics. Many of the vines will also bear fruit. The foliage from the vines stops sunlight from heating the ground and outer walls from buildings. In autumn the vines drop their leaves and the cool season sun can reach the ground and pass through windows and into the house.

Non-deciduous (evergreen) vines can be planted on the southern side of the house. These plants are best located on the southern side of the house. During summer and winter they can provide additional insulation from the elements.

All plants used for screening and insulation will require additional watering during summer so that they can transpire (Transpiration is the plant equivalent of perspiration).

  • Plant Grapevine (Vitis vinifera), Wisteria (Wisteria chinensis), Bambino dwarf bougainvillea (Bougainvillea species), Creeping fig (Ficus pumila), Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), Passionfruit (Passiflora edulis).
  • Plant a Lilly Pilly hedge on the southern side of your house.

Things to buy

  • Solar oven to heat water for showers - $1000
  • Electric fan - $200
  • Ferro-cement materials to build a rainwater tank - bags of cement, sand, chicken wire, steel reinforcement, wrapping wire - $1000
  • Darning equipment. Look at the website Modern Mending by Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald and her associated book. There are many other resources on the internet - $100
  • Arduino Uno to learn about microcontrollers - $50-150
  • Climbing plants to insulate your house and associated trellis structures and guide wires - $1000

2025 - Year 4

Stationary energy - solar powered refrigerator

Most people need a refrigerator to help keep food fresh. However refrigerators also use significant amounts of energy. Buying a refrigerator that can run on solar power will help lower household energy consumption and also allow for the house to be connected to a micro-grid in the future. A micro-grid requires significantly less infrastructure than the conventional electricity grid.

  • Aim to replace your existing refrigerator with a solar powered refrigerator $1249 [6].
  • Build your own solar PV system with battery backup. More on this later. $2,500

Agriculture - solar powered water pump

Water from roofs can easily be diverted to rainwater tanks using gravity. When irrigating you garden using tank water you will need an electric pump. Many pumps are available that use 240V AV. Pumps that use DC (from a battery) are more efficient, and DC pumps that are designed to use solar power are even more efficient.

  • Buy a solar electric pump to pump water from the tanks to the garden or into a header tank raised 3m above ground level.
  • Learn to grow 3 more vegetables.
  • Plant other vegetation in your yard to attract pollinators, insects, lizards and frogs into the backyard. All these species will help keep your garden more productive because they will control pests.
  • Read books about Food Forests.

Travel - discover local

There are many bike trails that follow waterways and railway lines.

  • Explore the Mernda bakery or Plenty gorge by train or bike.

Clothing - make sandals

In the past shoes were made from natural fibres whereas today shoes and sports shoes are increasingly made using synthetic materials. Two options are presented as alternatives. You can make your own sandals and thongs using natural materials such as leather that you can source and craft yourself. You can also buy leather shoes that are significantly more expensive. If you can't afford the expensive leather shoes you can still use shoes made from synthetic materials, but perhaps reserve them for special occasions.

  • Learn to make shoes, candles and thongs using leather and other natural materials. Leather production can also result in pollution and the use of harsh chemicals. Look for the label vegetable-tanned and Made in Australia.
  • Buy good quality leather shoes with leather soles made in Australia (e.g. RM Williams). If cared for an used infrequently they should last a lifetime. Keep the leather supple using bees wax and polish leather.

Technology - self managed ICT infrastructure

Imagine if you were on an island and had to provide all the technology needs for your local community. Perhaps you would need to provide a web server (to host web sites), email server, mediawiki server (just like this site), ftp server (so files could be shared). These services would be available using WiFi routers available situated in key hot spots.

Today most of these services are offered in the cloud by large providers such as Amazon and IBM. These large providers dominate the landscape because of fast internet speeds. Rather than investing in local servers, most businesses invest in these cloud services.

Victorian schools still have local servers located on the school campus and also within Australia so that sensitive student and teacher data stays within the country (sovereignty rules). But other online tools that schools use can be located in the cloud and offshore.

Just like it is better to support locally grown food, it is also better to support locally managed servers. The GNU Linux community have given us all the tools we need to support these processes, we just need to learn how to use them. If we learn how to use them it will also make our community more resilient and less reliant on large multi-national corporations. Keeping and ICT system local will mean that we will wont have all the latest gadgetry, however the system we create will be more than sufficient for our needs. It will also be free of advertisements, tracking cookies and simpler systems will also consume less of our computing resources.

  • Download computer DIY literature to help you build these system.
  • Start to learn how to use each of these key software modules running on Linux systems.

Waste - waterless toilet

Most manures purchased from stores (cow, chicken, sheep) come from animals kept in pens and are not free to wander in fields. Manure cannot be easily collected from animals that are free to roam in fields. Therefore our gardens should not be dependent on animals kept in these feed lots. An alternative to animals manures is humanure that can be collected and safely processed at home. Humanure will return almost all the essential nutrients needed for healthy plant growth back to the soil. To collect humanure we need a waterless composting toilet. Both the Swedes and the Americans have been making and using waterless composting toilets for many decades. To help protect the environment and especially waterways its time we used them more extensively in Australia too.

  • Build and start using a waterless composting toilet Humanure Handbook by Joel Jenkins
  • Full instructions are available from his web site.
  • Major supermarket chains have committed to refillable and reuable packaging in stores by 2025. You will be able to refill your favourite foods at their stores. This will significantly reduce the amount of packaging going to landfill and also bring sustainable food options closer to home.

Schools - cooking lessons

  • Learn to cook and preserve foods.

House - Passive house

Insulate one room in the house to Passive House standards. It is very expensive to convert an old house to a Passive House design. Converting one room is much easier and will cost less. Australia does get cold in winter, but not as cold as in Europe or North America. Improving the thermal properties of a single living room will dramatically reduce heating bills. Even if the rest of the house is unheated this not a serious issue in Melbourne because temperatures rarely drop to below zero degC.

Check out this video - Passive House explained in 90 seconds

To convert a single room to meet Passive House standards requires:

  • Windows to be replaced with double or triple glazed windows.
  • All air gaps to be sealed. The room needs to be tested with a special fan to make sure it can hold pressure. This is called leak testing.
  • Replacement of doors so that they are air tight. Most doors leak air. A new door and door frame need to be installed together to achieve a leak proof seal. Often these door fittings come from Europe where there is more attention to the construction of energy efficient homes.
  • Special vapour membrane added to all walls to let moisture out in summer, but not in winter (to prevent condensation and mould). The special membranes in the wall completely seal the room from air leaks. Air leaks are responsible for the greatest heat gains or heat losses in houses. Stopping air leaks is the first priority.
  • Additional insulation in walls, ceiling and floors.
  • Thermal mass - Thermal mass is an interesting subject. Thermal mass can store heat. Sunlight streaming through a window in winter can heat concrete, brick or water very efficiently. At night where the outside temperatures drop, the internal temperature stays relatively constant because the heat energy stored in the thermal mass structure can slowly release this heat energy. Alternatively, when really hot summer days are experienced, thermal mass on the inside of homes can keep internal temperatures much cooler because they can absorb any heat that leaks into the house. At night time when it is cooler outside windows can be opened for ventilation. The thermal energy stored in the thermal mass structures inside the house can then lose their heat energy. In general we want thermal mass inside the house and insulation on the outside of the house. As most houses unfortunately have bricks on the outside of the house (thermal mass on the outside). We can mitigate this effect by covering the outside of the house with vegetation and shading.
  • Air heat exchanger added to ensure that air in changed many times per hour with little heat loss or gain from the outside.

Things to buy

  • Retrofitting one room in your house to be Passive House compliant - $80,000.

2026 - Year 5

Stationary energy - Microgrid

In India and Bangaldesh individual rural households and villages cannot afford to buy large solar installations. If they are luck to have solar panels they may install 80 Watts and use a car battery to store the energy for night time use. The appliances they run using the solar panels include lights (so children can do homework at night), a mobile phone (so they can communicate with friends, relatives, doctors), a radio and sometimes a television or laptop. They live in small houses with minimal possessions. Despite their poverty Bangladesh has 5 million PV solar installations versus 1.8 million installations in Australia (2040 movie).

A company called SOLshare has produced a special box that is allows individual households to buy and sell the energy their solar panel produces on a microgrid. The microgrid connects each home and can span an entire village. Even households that don't own a solar panel can install the SOLshare box and buy electricity from other producers. This is a very low cost and equitable system of energy distribution. In a country like Bangladesh, where storms and flooding are common, the system is also very resilient to natural disasters. After a storm has passed it is possible for local villagers to reconnect broken electric cables and reconnect the microgrid because only low voltages are used for energy transmission.

The academic Ted Trainer was able to run his small off-grid home with a small 400Watt panel. If he can do it, then we all can. Keeping a system small, and learning to live with less electricity also keeps costs low. Schools can set up these systems as a learning tool and also change the school curriculum so that students don't have to depend on high speed internet to access education resources from home.

  • Install solar PV panels (400 Watts), battery backup and micro-grid connection system for the local neighbourhood. This system is more equitable from a global perspective.


Electrical devices - 12V appliances

Modern houses are serviced with 240V AC (Alternating Current), also called mains electricity. Any electrical work with 240V AC legally requires an electrician. These high voltages can kill.

You may have noticed that your mobile phone is charged using a USB power supply. This power supply delivers 5V DC (Direct Current). This is a very low voltage and is similar to the electricity delivered by a battery. This low energy supply cannot electrocute you (it can still burn you) and if you learn more about electricity you can easily wire up your own circuits.

Most appliances can work using low DC voltages. If you have been car camping or used a caravan you may have used the 12V DC socket found in most cars. Refrigerators, lights, mobile phones, small water heaters, electric power tools and water pumps can all be powered using low voltage DC.

When solar PV (Photo Voltaic) panels produce electricity they generate a DC voltage (12V or 24V). This energy can directly charge batteries. In most houses today the DC voltage produced by solar PV panels is sent to an inverter which converts the DC electrical power from the panels to 240V AC so that the power can be fed to your house and to the electricity grid.

If you want to completely disconnect from the electricity grid you can install the following:

  • Solar PV panels (small 400 Watt system)
  • Nickel Iron rechargeable battery system (these batteries will last for 30 years) Iron Core Batteries
  • 12V electrical appliances The 12V Shop.

The advantage of using 12V appliances (which can also include 5V appliances) is:

  • No electricity bills (costs related to setup and maintenance of equipment)
  • You can do your own electrical work (no electrician needed)
  • More sustainable system
  • Appliances more likely to be repairable or serviceable
  • More resilient system. You are less likely to be affected by extreme weather events.

As a suggestion, you may wish to run the following appliances:

  • portable refrigerator
  • mobile phone
  • laptop
  • small water heater for hot drinks and for showering (you can also use gas to heat water and a thermos to keep it hot)
  • lighting (fixed and head lights)
  • water pump - for watering the garden or refilling a header tank
  • hair dryer
  • small rechargeable appliances
  • electric fan
  • rechargeable power tools
  • running an inverter - you can connect an inverter to the battery to convert DC to AC. This allows you to run some appliances that still need to run on 240V AC.

Agriculture

After several years of growth most of the productive trees are starting to bear fruits and nuts. This local production significantly boosts the local food production capacity of your land. With the recycling of urine, the production of humanure, the mulching of green waste and the composting of food waste you can recycle most nutrients back into your garden.

A garden will be unbalanced with only trees and vegetables producing food for humans. We need to create a diverse ecosystem that can support many animals (insects, lizards, frogs, birds). Animals will help do gardening for us and also protect our plants from pests.

  • Plant native and non-native plants to help create a food forest.

2030 - Conclusion

We all need to act quickly to avoid the impacts of dangerous climate change.

This discussion emphasises the economisation of household consumption and expenses and gives emphasis to the home economy and local food production. Living this lifestyle will have the lowest resource and carbon footprint. It is also a more equitable solution for the planet.

The action of young people will be key to driving this change. Rather than act in isolation, the association of students with schools will help to motivate the entire community to support this change. We need to start making significant changes now.

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