Smart Cities - What is a Sustainable Smart City?

Ever since the industrial revolution started and coal was used to power machines, people have been leaving their farms been moving to cities to help run these machines. As a consequence cities have grown ever larger and today more than 56% of the world's population live in cities. The prediction was that this figure would keep on growing, however COVID, the availability of high speed internet, telecommuting jobs (e.g. working from home) and the high cost of living (e.g. house costs) may mean that cities and urban centres may not grow as expected.

Cities large and small consume resources, they take up land and produce wastes. Most systems can accommodate a modest amount of resource use and waste production. All animals eat plants and other animals. They also produce waste. But they do this in moderation and Earth can easily accommodate their activities. Unfortunately humans have an almost never ending appetite for the consumption of resources and the consequential production of excessive wastes. As a collective, the current global community is not sustainable. We know this because the Earth is over-stepping Planetary Boundaries.

This course module will showcase the elements of a city, town or village that make it sustainable.

Learning Objectives:

• Being able to define what is a Sustainable City.
• Learning about some Appropriate Technologies to add to make a Sustainable City Smart.

What is a Smart Sustainable City?

It is very difficult to define a Smart Sustainable City with a universal definition acceptable to all. To help, lets break out each of the individual terms:

• City - a city if a large town. Progression is village, town, city, mega city (more than 10 million people). However in this context city can also mean village and town.
• Smart - means that the people are smart, knowledgeable and wise. They use machines and technology to improve their quality of life. Examples are X-ray machines, vaccines, television, radio, computers and the internet. Smart can also mean wise.
• Sustainable - means that the Earth and its biota (living things) are in an ecological balance and we are in harmony with nature. That animal species and resources on the planet are used modestly and any harm to the planet can be renewed or healed by the planet.

Sustainable City

The term sustainable is a good moderator for a Smart City. Its easy for un to imagine all sorts of smart devices that could be added to our lives. However, each material good and service that we produce requires:

1. the extraction of natural resources from the planet (unless recycled content is added)
2. requires energy to extract, fabricate and transport
3. produces a waste stream during every stage of manufacture, sometime during the life of the product, and also when the product life has ended.
4. multiply all these impacts by the population on the planet
5. repeat these influences for the lifecycle of the product (e.g. 3 years)

Smart City

There are two general schools of thought (or visions) about what a Smart City looks like:

• Techno-optimist Smart City - a city where technology and renewable energy maintain our current living conditions. Lots of technology is used within the city in all aspects of our life and that we depend on technology for both complex and basic tasks. The addition of all technology generally improves our lives.

• Earth Steward / Permaculture City - a city with a focus on growing food and taking resources from the Planet in a sustainable manner. Proponents generally favour less consumption, less materialism, less energy consumption overall.

Techno-optimist Smart City

Today, when we think about Smart Cities we tend to think about:

• Tesla electric cars
• Large solar panels producing renewable electricity with battery backup
• Computers able to process big data sets to take away the drudgery of some work activities
• Delivery of people and goods by electric drones within the hour
• Streaming any movie on demand from large server farms
• The latest mobile phone model
• A recycling system that can accept any waste and magically turn it back into a new product (circular economy)
• Monitoring of citizens to minimise crime, predict our behaviours and personalise advertising/marketing on the internet
• Personal electronic assistants using artificial intelligence to remind us of important calendar events and navigate

All of these technologies inherently try to do humanity good. But they also bring along their share of issues:

• All technologies are resource intensive. Metals and rare elements need to be mined, refined, and manufactured into finished goods. This produces a waste stream, destroys habitat for animals and plants and consumes lots of fossil fuel energy.
• Many of these technologies are not equitably applied on our small Planet. The rich countries tend to get them first and poorer countries wait for the trickle down effect.
• The technologies tend to promote consumption, rather than economisation. With increased consumption comes environmental degradation.
• Technologies tie us to the excessive consumption of fossil fuels. Today we still make most goods using fossil fuels, not renewables. Products that claim to be produced using 100% renewables still depend on the use of fossil fuels to produce stable base loads on our electricity grids. Most 100% renewable claims, while admirable and progressive, are an accounting exercise.
• New technologies and products are notoriously difficult to recycle into new products. Instead, they produce tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste). Most e-waste is shipped to poorer countries for processing.
• The Life Cycle and longevity of products is generally poor. While each product attempts to improve on the last, they do contribute to a growing waste stream.
• Single use packaging has grown with new product and service offerings (e.g. Uber eats, on-line shopping). We still don't have a good recycling solution for these waste items.
• There is not inbuilt compass in a Smart City to minimise material consumption, energy consumption or waste production. The reason is that the full costs of waste and resource depletion are not factored into the cost of the good or service. Only small monetary signals are applied, which is generally not enough. Government imposed regulations are required to set limits and boundaries (e.g. no pollution to waterways)

If humanity is already over-stepping several Planetary Boundaries then we need to re-examine how it is possible for the entire world to live like we do.

Earth Steward Smart City

If you travel to Africa, Asia and South America you will find small villages and towns that are using Technology in more sustainable ways to improve food production, electricity supplies, health, education, transport and communication to create more equitable societies. We can learn from these real world examples and apply them here to achieve the goal of making all cities Sustainable and Smart. This is the so-called Earth Steward / Permaculture Smart City.

Some of the key attributes associated with an Earth Steward Smart City include:

• Sustainable use of Appropriate Technology - all technology uses resources, creates waste and has a limited life. We need to apply it wisely to maximise the benefits of technology while minimising harm to living systems on the planet. We will certainly need to use much less technology to achieve this goal.
• Zero waste - the vision for no waste production or a waste stream that can be safely processed by the environment. The Australian aborigines lived here without producing significant waste (e.g. middens). Everything you buy is associated with the production of waste much of which is hidden from view. Zero waste will be an enormous challenge for high consuming societies such as ours but important if we want to protect oceans from plastic pollution and prevent the destruction of forests and the living environment.
• Sustainable use of Renewable resources - harvest a tree from a forest, but replace it without another tree while maintaining the integrity of the forest. Most solar PV panels are produced using coal. They are not carbon neutral. They also contain harmful metals that need to be managed carefully when recycled. Wind turbines use rare earth metals in their electric generators. They need to be mined. Mines will always destroy the natural environment. Reducing the energy use in our homes means that less renewable energy infrastructure needs to be built which is better for us and the environment.
• Minimal use of non-renewable resources - Coal, oil and gas have taken millions of years to form. They can be used but only sparingly and certainly not to the extent where they elevate CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
• Free and universal Medical Care - a strong emphasis on physical, mental and spiritual health with an equal emphasis on prevention and cure.
• Free and universal Education - In teh 1980's the yearly cost of going to university was $300-500 (excluding books). The true cost was education was heavily subsidised by society because it was seen as a good social investment.
• Efficient and convenient Public Transport system - this reduces the total amount of area allocated to roads. It also reduces the emphasis on private vehicle ownership.

The Four Energy Descent and Climate Scenarios - David Holmgren

The Story of Stuff - 23 April 2009 - 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.

Indigenous Communities - Dark Emu

Dark Emu was published by Bruce Pascoe in 2014. Bruce is a Professor of Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. In his book presents historical accounts from early explorers showing the aboriginal people were building houses, cultivating food crops and engaged in other engineering activities including building large fish traps. These activities indicate that aboriginal people created settlements where they lived. These communities were environmentally sustainable because their impact on the environment was minimal.

Indigenous people did have large agricultural fields allocated to the production of Yam Daisy plants and grasses (e.g. grains collected from Kangaroo grass). Yam Daisies produce a tuber in the ground that can be harvested, cooked and eaten. It has a high carbohydrate content. Even though vast areas of the landscape were put to cultivation, the overall land area was very small in comparison to the surrounding bush. The Aboriginal people still employed hunter-gathered techniques. They hunted game for meat (kangaroo and lizards) and they collected fruits, nuts (macadamia tree), honey (from native bees and honey ants), sea food and fresh water food (eels, muscles, fish).

House construction used local materials. The base was often made from stone and the roof was a thatch of grasses and sticks. They also stored grains in the house or separate grain stores. They also constructed wells, some of which were engineered to have stone covers to protect this vital resource. They also constructed mechanical devices such as an automatic fishing rod to capture and land fish and eels.

They were Smart. They were an aural culture. By this we mean (in simple terms) that most knowledge was handed down by speech. Knowledge and wisdom was passed down for more than 60,000 years by aural tradition, songs and songlines. Indigenous people were able to recall historical events thousands of years in the past as evidenced by their knowledge of Indigenous Astronomy and their recollection of significant astronomical events. Songlines were used to help navigate across the country. Words and lyrics were carefully chosen to convey meaning about how far to travel, in which direction and what significant landscape features to note along the way. Modern Western culture still maintains remnants of this cultural tradition. We sing songs and nursery rhymes to babies to teach them stories. Our brains seem to be hard wired to tune in to and recall stories and songs. Before computers, books and written languages information was carried by people in their brains. Memory joggers were paintings, places and smells - all of which would help unlock these stories. You may also recognise that some people are very good at recalling stores word for word. Today they become lawyers or actors on the stage, but in yesteryear they were the Wiki's of a community.

Indigenous Australian had a significant influence on the Australian continent through the use of fire. The book Fire Country - How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia by Victor Steffensen discusses how Indigenous people use fire to help manage the Australian landscape. Before the Indigenous people arrived fire only arrive by accident - mainly sparked by lightening strikes. When indigenous people arrive fire was harnessed to carefully burn native grasses and shrubs (so called cool burns or cultural burns) to manage fuel loads in the bush. Fire also was used in this way not only to manage fire risks, but to stimulate new growth of grasses to attract native animals, using smoke and heat to stimulate the germination of seeds, in special ceremonies and rituals (e.g. Welcome to Country) and to Heal the Country (by reducing cluttered vegetation). By doing so, approximately 200,000 indigenous people, using a tapestery of land mosaics across the whole of Australia, managed this Country for thousands of years while preserving the landscape, flora and fauna.

How Australian Cities evolved

Pre-colonial Melbourne

Before Europeans arrived the local indigenous Australians managed the land. They hunted, farmed and also practised cultural burning (cool burning) to manage fire risks and help keep the country uncluttered and healthy. In the north of Melbourne volcanoes started erupting 50 million years ago, with the last eruption being at Mount Napier 7,200 years ago. The lava that these eruptions left if their wake can still be read in the landscape today. Basalt plains are generally flat. The basal is very hard for most tree roots to penetrate in to and when the basal does break down it forms very clayey soils.

The landscape only had very disperse tree plantings. There were sheoaks, buloaks, wattles, banksias, grey boxes and the iconic River Red Gums. Most of the area was a highly diversified grassland dominated by Kangaroo grass. The open plains were home to a myriad of other native grasses, daisies, lilies, orchids and native peas. The land was managed by the indigenous people by regular cool burns. Some wild fires were sparked by lightening. Animals that lived on these plains included wombats, echidnas, bandicoots, kangaroos, dingos, quolls, etc. These relatively stable conditions were maintained for thousands of years.

When it rained in Spring there would be spectacular floral displays from orchids, daisies and other wild flowers. Migratory birds would arrive to feed and breed in wetlands and swamps. River Red gums had evolved to survive periods of being inundated with water as well as periods of drought. Some waterways were ephemeral, meaning that they only flowed when there was rain, other flowed permanently (e.g. Plenty River, Darebin Creek and Merri Creek). Rivers and streams often had deep pools that would always hold water and provide refuges for aquatic animals such as the platypus.

Volcanoes in the North of Melbourne - Merri Creek Management Committee

Galada Tamboore - Merri Creek Management Committee

Early Farming in Australia

When Europeans arrived they brought their knowledge of farms and cities with them and imposed them on the Australian landscape. European methods of agriculture altered the plant and animals diversity. Cattle and cows were imported. Their heavy hooves, appetite for native grasses and access to water courses resulted in the erosion of land. Foreign grasses for pasture were imported (e.g. clover) and displaced native grasses. Phosphate fertiliser were added to pasture, however most native grasses had evolved in poor nutrient soils and were not accustomed to high nutrient application levels. The washing of excess nutrients into waterways also contributed to algae growth and pollution. Areas of the land were also fenced off making it difficult for native animals to move through the land across their traditional animals tracks. Water was also extracted from waterways to support the large water requirements of dairy farms.

Urbanisation of Australia

Urbanisation has created an even bigger mark on the land. Housing, roads and other infrastructure has been built over grasslands and agricultural land. Many resources have been harvested from the surrounding lands to build houses (wood, bricks, petroleum products). Roads have been constructed by extracting gravel from quarries and laying down bitumen from oil deposits. Each house is serviced with electricity, gas, water (potable is the same as tap water), sewage to remove our wastes, stormwater to take away rain from our roofs and roads, telephone and mobile phone communications. To deliver many of these services we have had to dig large underground channels to lay all pipes and cables. When a new housing estate is established often the entire ground is dig up to remove volcanic rocks. Only a few of the original trees will remain.

Once a new urban area has been created it will continue to consume resources and produce wastes. Electricity comes from the burning of coal which produces Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. People buy furniture and other goods to furnish their homes. Most people travel around using cars. Cars use petrol and produce localised pollution on our roads because they leak oil and also shed heavy metals from brake pads and the wear of car tyres.

Urban areas take their fresh water from rivers and store these flows in reservoirs and dams. The average person in Melbourne uses 155 litres of water per person per day. To grow the food that we eat we take an addition 475 litres of water per person per day. It total 70% of water is extracted from natural water systems for Agriculture, and 20% is extracted for use by homes and businesses. This leaves only 10% for our native animals and plants. When droughts come this leaves even less water to support environmental base flows.

Most of the water that households use is flushed down the drain and into the sewage system. This includes water from showers, sinks, laundry and the toilet. This water enters large underground pipes and flows by gravity and is also pumped to a sewage treatment plant. Some of the sewage water is sent all the way to Werribee and some is also treated locally. The name "Werribee" comes from the Aboriginal word Wirribi-yaluk which means "backbone" or "spine" and reflects the curved nature of the Werribee river. Sewage is treated to remove solids and reduce most of the nutrients in the water. Treated water can be used as recycled water by local residents or discharged to local waterways. The treated water is still very high in salts and nutrients and is definitely not the same as river water. The treated water also contains many chemicals that we use in households.

When it does rain stormwater pipes (also called stormwater infrastructure) take all the water from our roofs and roads and sends it directly to our waterways. While this may lessen the risk of flooding in our homes, it floods the creeks were animals live and also ruins their habitat by causing erosion and washing small waterbugs (macroinvertebrates) away. Some stormwater is filtered through wetlands. Wetlands trap some sediment and litter and they plants in wetlands remove nutrients in the water. However because of this cleaning function wetlands often contain lots of litter and pollutants which is not good for the animals living in the wetland.

When we build our houses and new urban areas were remove the grass and vegetation leaving the soil bare. When rains come the top soil is washed away into stormwater drains and then into local waterways. Deep pools are filled in with silt and the water also becomes very cloudy and murky because fine particles of soil (mainly clay) become dispersed in the water. The murky water is not good for aquatic animals. The murky water clogs fish gills and also brings more nutrients into the water which can reduce oxygen levels in the water making it difficult for aquatic animals to breath.

Some native animals have profited from grassed lawns and parks. Mapgpies, cockatoos, galahs, Noisy miners (from the Honeyeater family), willy way-tails, Red-rumped parrots, Wood ducks, Pacific black ducks, crested pigeons and the Australian white ibis all seem to be doing well in the city. Urban areas are also home to introduced bird species such as the Black bird, Indian miner, Common starling and House sparrow. These are pest species and many have thrived by nesting in our roofs and sheds. They compete with native birds for food, habitat and they also spread avian diseases. Many of our smaller native birds only live along waterways because they need bushy trees (often with thorns) for protection.

New houses are very large in comparison to the size of land they are on and backyards and front yards are shrinking. Black roofs, concrete driveways, black bitumen roads and less tree cover have made our urban areas much hotter in the summer because exposed, dark surfaces are very good at trapping heat. Less water in the ground also stops trees from evaporating water (called transpiration) which also makes the environment hotter. Houses also have air conditioners that pump hot air from inside houses to the outside, adding more heat again. This local heating effect in urban areas is called the Urban Heat Island effect.

In total, only 7% of the urban area is reserved for parks and conservation areas and even these area are dominated by people, pets and the rubbish we leave behind.

Millennium Drought 1997 to 2008

In 1997 Melbourne entered into an extended dry period that lasted ten years and became known as the Millennium drought because it occurred at the start of the new Millennium. Everyone thinks that a drought equates with no rain; this is a myth. On average the Millennium drought reduced average rainfall by only 30%. It still rained, but there was less rainfall and also typical rainfall patterns during the year changed.

The 30% reduction in rainfall had a profound effect not only on the urban environment, but also on the surrounding countryside.

The water reservoirs that supplied Melbourne with water started to empty. At one point they were down to 50% of capacity and in one year dropped by 20%. Melbourne was placed on water restrictions that limited how we could use water. People installed rainwater tanks and collected water from showers and laundry rinse water (this waste water is called grey water). Many trees died. Only one in four sportsfields were irrigated. Some sportsfields were irrigated using harvested stormwater and others were irrigated using recycled water. Waterway flows decreased and the water became very salty (saline). Some waterways stopped flowing altogether (cease to flow events).

Birds that lived in the surrounding countryside migrated into cities in search of water and food (because seeds, nuts and grain production also needs water). Kangaroos also migrated into urban areas in search of grass and water.

Australia has always experienced periods of drought in the past and our plants and animals are survived and bounced back with the returning rains. However climate change has made soils even dryer than normal because the average temperatures are higher now leading to more evaporation. Drought plus increased evaporation have decreased soil moisture (called the soil moisture deficit).

As an insurance policy, a desalination plant was built in Wonthaggi that removed salts from sea water to make drinking water. The desalination plant can meet up to 30% of Melbourne's potable water needs. The desalination plant was very expensive to build and uses lots of electricity to operate.

We cannot predict when droughts will occur, or how long they will last, but we can be certain that they will arrive again. So we need to have a long term plan to prepare for drought. To help make droughts less severe for our living planet we also need to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

Permaculture

The concept of Permaculture is a hybrid of two terms Permanent and Agriculture. The use of the term Permaculture has been broadened to creating human settlements that co-exist with nature by arranging plant and animal species to maximise food, fibre and fuel yields. Many permaculture principles can be applied to cities, towns and even to homes (i.e. house lots).

Permaculture looks at natural systems and tries to arrange the plants, animals and environments so that they all benefit. For example putting a chicken and fruit tree together achieves the following:

• the tree provides shade and shelter for the chicken.
• the tree drops fruit for the chicken to eat
• fallen tree leaves protect the soil from excessive evaporation keeping the area cooler for the chicken
• fallen tree leaves hold water giving the chicken a drinking bowl
• the chicken eats insects that may eat the tree
• the chicken fertilises the ground under the tree
• the chicken scratches the ground and breaks down leaf litter to recycle nutrients back to the tree
• the chicken eats fallen fruit and prevents fruit flies from breeding and spoiling the fruit on the tree

In this system the sun provides the energy for the tree and the chicken (solar powered). As an added benefit for designing this relationship humans get the benefit of eggs and perhaps some meat (when the chicken dies). For a little effort (planting a tree and homing a chicken) humans can gain a yield from the system. The arrangement is relatively simple but is the product of intelligent design (smart sustainable city). This simple, illustrative system also produces no waste because everything can be composted on site, doesn't use fossil fuels for the transport of goods and is not cruel to animals. It is much better than the alternative of store bought eggs, chicken and fruit.

There is no reason why cities and homes could not be transformed into small urban farms. If we all did this it would have multiple benefits:

• green the urban landscape by planting more trees
• adds more water to the ground because plants need lots of water in rainwater tanks when growing food
• reduces stormwater runoff and will improve the health of local waterways
• encourages the composting and re-use of organic material at home
• promotes the use of composting toilets so that humanure can be used as fertiliser
• strengthens community ties when excess produce and knowledge are shared
• lessens the urban heat island effect
• reduces GHG emissions because local food production uses no commercial fertilisers and no transport
• gardens can be filled with native plants to create food forests for people and native animals

To help make these relationships more resilient, Permaculture places significant emphasis on perennial vegetation (living for many years) rather than annuals (one year life cycle). Water is managed on site with the careful placement of trees and vegetation cover, mulch, swales and dams.

If we are going to build a Smart Sustainable City we need to think about how we design our homes so that we can produce more food locally, with the least amount of external inputs.

Permaculture reference from Wikipedia

Cuba - A Smart Sustainable City

Cuba has a population of approximately 10 million people. Cuba meets the definition of a Smart Sustainable city and is ranked in the top 5 based on the | Sustainable Development Index. Cuba's transformation to a Sustainable City was largely due to the imposition of The Special Period which began in 1991 as a result of an economic blockade that prevented the importation of oil, petrol, diesel and other fossil fuels. Fossil fuels were used to produce food (agriculture), to power cars and also to produce electricity. All of these basic services were severely compromised and the country had to respond quickly to this new normal.

• The Cuban population almost starved as they transformed their agriculture sector.
• Urban areas in the main cities were converted to market garden - growing vegetables within the city using organ and permaculture farming practises.
• 20% of the population moved back to rural areas because there was more space to grow food.
• One million bikes were imported form China.
• Trucks were converted to camel-buses to increase the capacity of public transport.
• Education and public health measures were increased - Cuba has more doctors and teachers per head of population than most other countries.

With respect to technology and other manufactured goods:

• Cuba produces their own vaccines and medicine.
• They don't have an internet but have a weekly distribution of new files on hard drives that spread across the country (people buy electronic media). Cubans rely on donations of old computing hardware, from which they build their own ICT infrastructure.
• The internet is severely restricted so many small communities form their own local networks using servers and ethernet cables.
• The people are poor.
• It is very difficult to get necessary supplies to make basic repairs to buildings.
• Cars are repaired rather than bought new

Its is important to mention that the Cuban government has denied many of its citizens basic human rights. There is no reason why a society cannot have basic freedoms and also achieve all of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

See the documentary The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil - 2006

Vision - Zillion Year Towns

The vision for a Zillion Year town was written by Nick Sharp in 2010 (he is a retired ICT consultant who lives in Sydney). The term Zillion years implies that humanity should be able to live on Earth if we adhere to three rules:

• stop using non-renewables
• stop more and more renewables
• nurture the soil, water and air.

He creates a vision for future communities were we mostly live in small towns of 10,000 people. These towns would be connected by fast rail networks and be able to produce many of their goods and services. They would be large enough to have enough doctors, specialists and educators. Access to other specialists would be via telepresence and high speed internet.

The list of suggestions for a sustainable future are:

1. Composting toilets, and disposal of the humanure on adjacent agricultural land
2. Disposal of the (now only grey) waste water on adjacent land by subsurface irrigation
3. Collection of the rain for all remaining water uses in the house
4. Heating most hot water by the sun
5. Powering (fewer) electrical devices mainly from photovoltaic panels
6. No cars, therefore no garages, drives, or carports
7. Much less street infrastructure: simpler roads and few domestic services
8. Mostly wood house construction
9. Most travel within the local area on foot or bicycle

The 120 page book on Zillion Year Towns (A Zillion Year Plan - Creative Commons) and a radio interview are available using the links below. The book presents a very detailed plan for how we could shift our society to still have modern conveniences, but live more sustainable. He also brings an equitable lens to living standards, because the standards he is proposing could be applied to everyone on Early, not just rich people in Developed countries. Whatever solution we decide to apply we need to make sure it is equitable for all of humanity.

Zillion Year Town - ABC Radio Ockham's Razor

The Zillion Year Town - Internet Archive

The Conserver Society - Ted Trainer

Ted Trainer is an academic from the University of NSW. He wrote The Conserver Society in 1995. The Conserver Society aims to reduce consumption, live simpler lives, produce more food at home, build more home infrastructure (e.g. houses, rainwater tanks, sheds), and ultimately work less.

Here are some interesting characteristics about Ted Trainer and how he lead his life.

• Lives on a bush block on the outskirts of Sydney.
• Works 2-3 days per week in the real (monetary) economy and estimates that his out-going expenses are one-tenth of a typical household.
• Rides his bike to the local railway station and takes the train to work.
• Owns a car (29 years old) that travels 2,000 km per year.
• Built his house mostly from recycled materials and was valued at $20,000 (one eighth the cost of a normal house). It took 6 months to build in his spare time.
• Lives off the grid and produces own electricity. 400 Watt solar PV panels and battery storage.
• He uses electricity to power lights, a laptop, water pumps, radio (and possibly mobile phone).
• Total household demand is 260 Watt hours per day - average Australian home is 14-16,000 Watt hours per day.
• Garden water is pumped from a local swamp using windmills.
• House and addition garden water comes from ten rainwater tanks. All concrete tanks are hand made using using chicken wire reinforcement salvaged from local scrap yards.
• Grounds are maintained with a Shetland pony, chicken, ducks, geese and turkeys.
• Extra storage is made using sheds, rather than an extension to the house.
• A wood stove is used for heating and cooking.
• He darns and patches his clothes as a hobby.
• He would prefer that education was obtained on the job by cooperating with others to achieve a task (e.g. build a chicken wire reinforced cement rainwater tank, re-vegetating degraded pasture land.

Ted Trainer proposes that urban environments could be easily transformed to increase levels of self-sufficiency and community without the need for excessive capital. His proposed changes for a typical suburb include:

• Digging up and replanting roads with pasture, gardens or woodlots - reducing the space occupied by roads (typically 20% of space in urban areas).
• Removing fences between properties - this improves community interaction, removes shadows, more land for nature and animals.
• Drains restored to creeks and ponds - also called daylighting. Ponds and bogs would provide habitat for frogs, lizards and birds. Remove all stormwater infrastructure. All building to install multiple rainwater tanks.
• Old factories or industrial sites that are not being used could be converted to market gardens or community activity centres (community workshops, schools).
• Adding small forests, meadows, ponds, orchards, vineyards - a mixture of community and primate ownership
• Properties and buildings owned and run by the local community - woodlots, orchards, workshops, housing, libraries.
• Most energy sources run and managed by the local community - microgrids, biogas generation, woodlots.
• Many animals throughout the community - pets, native animals, lawn mowers and for food production.
• High levels of self-sufficiency in food production from backyards, local market gardens, community gardens, ponds and aquaculture and from the composting (recycling) of organics.
• All nutrients recycled to local gardens (private and public).
• A neighbourhood workshop on every block offering specialised training (home cooking, food preservation, wood working, home electrification, rainwater tank construction, gardening, etc).
• Open spaces providing leisure activities.
• Many small and cottage businesses.
• Many committees to run enterprises, cooperatives and services.

Ted Trainer Extended Interview - Happen Films

Ted Trainers website on The Simpler Way

The Simpler Way articles - Check out two inspiring articles My Delightful Day and Eggs.

Troubled Waters: Confronting the Water Crisis in Australia's Cities - ANU

The book Troubled Waters was published in 2008 by the Australian National University (ANU) and edited by Patrick Troy in 2008 during the height of the Millennium Drought (1998-2008). Cities in Australia were reaching a crisis point because they were running out of water and rationing had to be introduced to conserve water. In Melbourne we reduced our water consumption from almost 250 Liters per person per day, down to 155 L/p/d. State governments also invested in very expensive and energy intensive desalination plants to guarantee that our cities would never run out of water. No one knew when the drought would break. Just like the bushfires in the summer of 2019/20, people associated the drought with the effects of Climate Change and a warming planet.

The 228 page book summarises its findings in the conclusion. They are:

• Asking households to install rainwater tanks and reduce the consumption of potable (tap) water. This aims to make people more responsible for water they consume. By monitoring rainwater tank fill levels people can also alter their consumption habits based on rainfall patterns.
• Use grey water in the garden. Treat grey water and use it for washing clothes and flushing the toilet.
• Use dry composting toilets for human waste - rather than using water and large scale sewage infrastructure to transport and treat human wastes.

These actions would reduce household water consumption by 70%. They could be achieved at low cost especially if rainwater tanks were home built. They would allow for more water and nutrients to be recycled back into the garden to support local food production.

Large rainwater tanks would also remove the need to install stormwater infrastructure and would have significant benefits for the health of our waterways and the animals living in them.

• Stormwater pipes carry litter to our creeks, river and the ocean.
• Stormwater carries pollutants from our roads (heavy metals, oil, petrol, grease, plastic and rubber) and our gardens (fertilisers, pesticides, chemicals, weed seeds) directly to our waterways where platypus and other animals live. Too many nutrients in the water can lead to the growth of algae and in very bad situations this removes oxygen from the water leading to fish deaths (so called Black Water events).
• Stormwater also results in large flooding events which harm the animals living in the waterways. Rainwater is best if it can stay close to were if falls and soak into the ground. Ground water flows then gently feed waterways and also support trees (soil banking of water). This keeps water flows into waterways more constant year-round, especially to provide base flows in summer or during periods of drought.
• Stormwater carries silt and debris into our waterways. Before European settlement waterways ran clear and had very deep pools. These pools were important during drought periods when rivers stopped flowing (cease to flow events). The deep and cool pools provided shelter for animals until the rains came again. All these deep pools have been filled up by silt and sediment.
• Stormwater also makes water cloudy (high turbidity) if it carries fine particles of clay and soil. Fish and other animals in our waterways prefer clear and clean water. You can easily measure turbidity using a special tube.

In relation to the Earth's Planetary Boundaries:

• Freshwater use - using less potable water means that
• Biodiversity loss - using more water in the garden supports more native animals and plants. Plant a diverse garden with both native plants (grasses, shrubs and trees), productive trees (10 fruit or nut trees) and vegetable patches (1m x 4m garden bed).
• Nitrogen cycle - no need for production of nitrogen fertilisers using fossil fuels. Production of nitrogen on site using nitrogen fixing plants (e.g. peas, beans, acacia.)
• Phosphorus cycle - recovery of phosphorus from organics including food waste and humane. Recycling of phosphorus to grow more food.
• Climate crisis - reduction in GHG emissions because GHG emissions are significantly reduced when food is produced locally and translates to fewer food miles from farm to plate.

ANU Press - Troubled Waters - Confronting the Water Crisis in Australia’s Cities 2008

The Simplicity Institute - Samuel Alexander

The teaching from The Simplicity Institute is strongly related to The Simpler Way (Ted Trainer) and both share publications. The Simplicity Institute does place greater emphasis on economic considerations such as Degrowth. Degrowth makes the inflection in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from being an economy in growth (positive GDP) to an economy in negative growth. The imperative for most economies is to continue to grow. Growth is however closely correlated with material consumption, energy consumption and waste production. Growth is normal in biological systems, however after a period of time growth slows, and then reaches a limit. Think of yourself. You are growing now, but you won't grow forever. Unfortunately the thinking about the economy is that it will keep on growing.

Degrowth proposes that the economy will need to stop growing and may need to grow smaller. Growing smaller is important because our current rate of resource consumption is too great for the Earth to sustain. In economics any period of regrowth or negative growth is associated with a recession and seen as something bad. These researcher argue that negative growth (regrowth) will actually be healthy for the planet (similar to a diet to get you back to the correct weight). If growth is not checked it can lead to collapse. Excessive growth will accelerate the overstep of all Planetary Boundaries.

So what does a city experiencing regrowth look like?

Sustainable City Living on 1/10th of an Acre - Degrowth in the Suburbs - Happen Films - 2018

Limits to Growth - A report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind - Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jtsrgen Randers and William W. Behrens III - 1972

[https://www.ted.com/talks/johan_rockstrom_let_the_environment_guide_our_development?language=en Let the environment guide our development Johan Rockström Ted Talk 2010]

Movie 2040 - Micro-grids in Bangladesh

The movie 2040 by Damon Gameau features a village in Bangladesh using micro-grid technology supplied by SOLshare. In Bangladesh many remote villages have solar PV electric panels and battery storage. The solar panels may only be 80 Watts which may seem small by Australian standards. An 80 Watt panel is sufficient to run a light, charge a mobile phone, run a radio or television and a laptop. Young people benefit from lighting at night because they can study their books after dark.

SOLshare allows individual systems to be connected so that electricity can be bought and sold. This is how it works:

• Households install a solar panel, battery and the SOL box.
• SOL boxes are connected to other SOL boxes (cables are run between neighbouring houses).
• Energy is pooled together to form a microgrid and energy is bought and sold as required. Households that don't have a solar panel can simply install the SOL box and buy the electricity they need on a user pays basis.

This system maximises the utility of the microgrid making it very resource efficient.

Micro-grid Peer-to-Peer energy trading

How sustainable is a laptop

A laptop is a good example of a technology that we depend on today for study, work and leisure. Unfortunately the expected service life of a laptop is between 3-5 years. But what is the ecological and carbon footprint of a laptop?

• 160 million new laptops are made each year globally.
• In typical use a laptop will produce between 44-88 kilograms of CO2 emissions per year.
• The manufacture of one laptop produces approximately 214 kilograms of CO2 emissions (embodies carbon emissions)
• Laptops will also require plastic production and the extraction of Lithium and other exotic metals for batteries and other components.

To make a laptop more sustainable you need to take good care of the one you have, and repair it if it breaks down. You can also install the Linux operating system if other operating systems make it too slow to run.

Sustainability is very dependent on user behaviour. If you do simple activities on a laptop, keep processor temperature less than 40degC, and minimise excessive reading and writing to storage devices then your laptop will last for more than 10 years. Word processing, reading pdf files, using email, reading Wikipedia, playing digital music are all examples of the sustainable use of technology.

Eco Friendly Laptops - How to choose a sustainable and ethical laptop

Green IT Factsheet - University of Michigan

Smart Sustainable Town Challenge

Imagine you are living on an island. The island is circular and 15 kilometres in diameter. There is a single town in the middle of the island. The population of the island is 4,000. The island has nature reserves for native animals and plants that cover 70% of the land. Twenty percent (20%) of the island is dedicated to agriculture and 10% for the town infrastructure.

Choose and design each of the following elements for your Smart Sustainable Town. The cost of most items correlates well with measures of resource requirements, energy needs and GHG emissions. The purchase of all goods (e.g. bikes, PV panels) have been expressed as a yearly payment annualised over 10 years (which assumes that they will last for 10 years).

Ranking Tally up all your costs and then see how your town ranks!

• $20,000 - $24,999 - Congratulations. You have created a Smart Sustainable Town because you are using resources and energy wisely
• $25,000 - $49,999 - You are over shooting one or more of the support systems on the Island
• $50,000+ - You need more than one Island to support your lifestyle!

Electricity

• 80 Watt PV panels (500 Watt hours per day), battery back-up and SOLshare box - $100 per year
• 1000 Watt PV panels (6,000 Watt hours per day), home battery back-up, connected to micro-grid - $1,000 per year
• Connected to community PV Solar farm, wind farm and community battery backup on the grid (15,000 Watt hours per day)- $2,000 per year

Potable water

• Large rainwater tanks on all houses - $300 per year
• Large rainwater tanks on all houses with potable water backup from waterways in emergencies - $500 per year
• Potable water supply to all houses (dam and reservoir construction to collect water) - $1000 per year

Stormwater pipes

• No stormwater infrastructure. House must have 15,000 litre smart rainwater tank - $350 per year or $50 per year if 15,000 litre tank installed
• Stormwater pipes discharging water to local creeks - $100 per year - no cost for litter entering waterways, no cost for degradation of waterways

Human waste

• Dry composting toilet - $200 per year - reuse of humanure in garden. Training and inspection included in cost.
• Conventional flush toilet, sewage pipe infrastructure, waste water treatment plant, discharge of treated water to rivers and creeks - $1,000 per year

Transportation

• Bicycle - $200 per year
• Public transport system - $200 per year
• Private car use - $5,000 per year - bank loan, petrol, registration, insurance, servicing, road maintenance

Housing

• Tiny house - $8,000 per year + $3,000 per year if designed to be very energy efficient (Passive House)
• 3 bedroom house - $15,000 per year + $6,000 per year for Passive House
• McMansion - $30,000 per year + $12,000 per year for Passive House

Showering

• Solar outdoor shower using 20 litres of water. Grey water to garden. - $10 per year
• Solar boosted hot water heating system on house roof - $300 per year
• Wood fired water heating - $1000 per year - to manage woodlot
• Natural gas to heat water not available on island.

Clothes washing

• Minimal washing and washing my hand. Grey water to garden. - $50 per year
• Washing machine with detergent. Grey water to garden. - $100 per year
• Washing machine (cheap) with detergent. Waste water to sewage. - $100 per year
• Washing machine (expensive) with detergent. Waste water to sewage. - $400 per year

Home Heating

• Wood fire - $2,000 per year - to manage woodlot
• Rug up in warm garments and keep active during winter - $200 per year
• Small Passive house - $0 - if Passive house previously built
• Heating of one room using electric heater - $500 per year
• Small house using wind power from the grid - $2,000 per year

Home Cooling

• Passive house that keeps mostly cool - $0 if Passive house previously built
• Electric fan - $300 per year
• Evaporative cooler - $500 per year
• Air conditioner heat pump (split system) - $1,000 per year

Food

• Productive trees (10), veggie garden (1m x 4m) and mostly vegetarian diet - $3,000 per year
• Purchase of food from fresh food markets and Bulk Wholefoods store (e.g. Eltham Bulk Wholefoods) - $4,000 per year - bring your own reusable packaging
• Purchase of all food from grocery stores, meat and dairy - $5,000 per year - cost included for disposal of single use packaging
• Imported food, take away food and eating out - 8,000 per year

Cooking

• Solar oven - $100 per year - only useful when sun shining
• Wood stove - $500 per year
• Biogas generator - $70 per year
• Outside kitchen using bottled gas - $300 per year - based on one 8.5kg gas cylinder lasting 2 months
• Inside kitchen using induction heated cook top - $1,000 per year

Food and Organic Waste

• Composting of food waste at home - $40 per year
• Collection of green waste and food waste by trucks - $70 per year

Municipal Waste

• Yearly collection of rubbish - single bin - $20 per year
• Weekly collection of rubbish - $200 per year - sent to landfill (e.g. old quarry)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

• Milk refilled in glass bottles, food collected in cloth bags and glass jars - $20 per year
• Repair Cafe - $50 per year - cost associated with replacement or 3D printing parts

Clothing

• Thrift shopping, making and repairing clothing at home - $100 per year
• Minimalist's wardrobe - $1,000 per year
• High fashion or fast fashion - $2,000 per year

Health

• Good health. Practising preventative health. Healthy diet and normal weight range - $1,000 per year
• Modest health - $1,500 per year
• Poor health - $2,000 per year

Education

• Creative Commons text pdf books and videos - $0 per year
• Paper text books - $300 per year

Computer

• Old laptop computer running Linux - simple tasks - $150 per year
• Laptop upgraded every 3 years - $450 per year

Internet

• No internet at home. Use free WiFi at local library - $0 per year
• Mobile phone internet - $500 per year
• Home internet NBN - $1,000 per year

Travel and Holidays

• Local travel on island - $0 per year
• Boat trip - $1,000 per year
• Air plane ticket overseas - $3,000 per year

Material Goods and Furnishings

• Minimalist approach - $1,000 per year
• Modest living - $5,000 per year
• Expensive tastes - $10,000 per year