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"Positive Footprints combines Environmentally Sustainable Design and Construction into the one company making high performing sustainable homes easy to achieve. Positive Footprints is honoured to have recently received 2 industry awards: MBAV Excellence in Housing  Best Sustainable Energy Home 2012 Award for Penola House and, National BPN Sustainable New Home of the Year 2012 for Marion House "

Tired of hearing that sustainable construction has to cost more, Josh and his colleagues want to prove that resource efficient homes can be built at comparable cost and timeframes to regular houses. The homes will be thermally comfortable year round, without the need for air conditioning or additional heating. They will generate more electricity than they use, and will harvest and recycle water. In addition to private garden areas, a common productive garden will supply both houses with fresh food. What sets this project apart from many others is that the building designs have achieved a 10 Star energy efficiency rating*, whilst intentionally using conventional building materials and construction methods so they can easily be replicated by industry and the wider community. The project also demonstrates a more sensitive approach to residential subdivision that has considered maximising effective garden area around the homes to allow for natural shading, children's play spaces and local food production - important health and lifestyle benefits that are rapidly disappearing from our suburbs. Construction started in November 2012 and is scheduled for completion by May 2013.

"Over 15 years ago, Melbourne mounted a long-term campaign to change the way it uses energy and has attracted international acclaim for its commitment to sustainability. This has included encouraging bike riding and public transport and improving building efficiency. One notable example of this is the Council House 2 building, Australia's first six-star green star new office design building. Completed in 2006, some of the building's features include recycled water use, automatic windows, sun-tracking facades for shade and roof-mounted wind turbines to draw out hot air."

"Sustainable House Day 2011"

"Sustainability and Heritage Guidance Sheets: Improving the efficiency of heritage houses"

"Positive Footprints combines Environmentally Sustainable Design and Construction into the one company making high performing sustainable homes easy to achieve. Positive Footprints is honoured to have recently received 2 industry awards. This is their YouTube Channel featuring Fly-throughs of their house designs.

"The Endeavour Centre is excited to begin the Canada's Greenest Home project, a residential build in Peterborough, Ontario that we are undertaking with the students in our five-month, Sustainable New Construction certificate program. Throughout the design and construction of Canada's Greenest Home, we will make every effort to publicly detail the entire process on this blog, so please follow along. We are sure to have a steep learning curve, and we want this learning to be a legacy of the project."

"Sustainable House Day 2011"

"From his own patch of turf in Coburg, Emilio Fuscaldo can see south all the way to the skyscrapers. The grass is on his roof. It's one of only a few residential green roofs in Melbourne. Mr Fuscaldo is the founder of Nest Architects; his motives were both private and public. ''It's incumbent on architects to practise what we preach. I wanted to show that you can devote a large percentage of your budget to sustainability,'' he says. ''You can compromise on other things, such as kitchens, cupboards and tiles, and still achieve a beautiful result.''"

Dr Tom Chalko has built an off-grid Eco-house at Mount Best in South Gippsland. This is the website associated with the house in which Chalko writes about the Eco-friendly aspects of the house including the use of a modified chest fridge

"Sanctuary magazine. Sustainable house design, Australian-style."

These infographics from Shrink That Footprint show the average new house sizes across the world in 2009. Despite the American penchant to do everything a little bit bigger, it's the Australians who claim the prize for world's largest homes."

"If you're thinking about building green, keep this infographic nearby, as it covers thirteen elements that you'll want to consider in the design and construction of your home. Also keep in mind that this list isn't definitive; it does, however, demonstrate well that building green involves big-picture thinking beyond "Hey, let's put solar panels up.""

"Passive solar architectural principles have come of age. They have given rise to thousands of buildings of all sizes and purposes around the world, in all climate types, to demonstrate how buildings don't need to consume fossil fuel energy to support their occupants. They can even generate more power, or absorb more carbon, than they use. Below is a ten-step guide to how to go about designing and building one."

Think Brick Australia is proud to present a new tool that makes designing for climate extremely practical and accessible: The Climate Design wizard. It is designed to use localised data from a number of key locations around the country including Geelong

"When people think about green buildings, what generally comes to mind is solar panels, geothermal energy, improved insulation, green roofs, high-performance windows, rain-water recuperation, and so forth. However, the milieu in which the building is rooted also ought to be considered. Although we often forget it, being green also includes what lies beyond the walls! Landscaping, for instance, plays a major role in energy consumption. Trees, plants and the way you take care of them can have a significant impact on GHG emissions, and consequently, on your energy bills."

"The greening of American energy is both real and profound. But there's a flip side to this American success story. Even as our nation is pivoting toward a more sustainable energy future, America's oil and coal corporations are racing to position the country as the planet's dirty-energy dealer - supplying the developing world with cut-rate, high-polluting, climate-damaging fuels. Much like tobacco companies did in the 1990s - when new taxes, regulations and rising consumer awareness undercut domestic demand - Big Carbon is turning to lucrative new markets in booming Asian economies where regulations are looser. Worse, the White House has quietly championed this dirty-energy trade."

A Cape Paterson community will feature houses to run without fossil fuels

"In 2008, the City of Yarra set a target to be carbon neutral by 2020. Not just council headquarters - the entire inner-city municipality. But how does a whole district go carbon neutral? It can't rely on government subsidies, or an unforeseen technological breakthrough, says Alex Fearnside, chief executive of Yarra Energy Foundation, the organisation established in 2010 to make it happen."

Designed by Croatian architect Ivica Gjurić, the home is primarily intended as a vacation residence. It is a mere 258 sq ft; this figure can be halved in 5-6 minutes when its two sides fold into each other via hydraulic compressors for easier transport. The house can be operated completely off-grid. Solar panels handle electricity; the builders say it can operate with minimal sun for three days with solar-charged batteries. Water is brought in from rainwater collectors. Heating and the stove are fueled by a propane tank. There is a built-in waste water filtration unit so you won't need to get a septic tank.