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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."

"Australian scientists have found a way to print large but extremely lightweight and flexible solar panels like money. World-leading scientists at the CSIRO said the A3-sized panels, which are created by laying a liquid photovoltaic ink onto thin, flexible plastic could soon mean everyone has the ability to print their own solar panels at home."

"Do you want to know how your electricity use compares with other households of a similar size? Energy Made Easy can show you the average electricity usage for similar households in your area."

"Australia is on the cusp of a solar energy revolution. First, a recent study suggests that the country could power its entire national domestic infrastructure using only solar (while slashing the price of home electricity by 70 percent). Now, the University of Melbourne has introduced a new organic PV cell printer that rolls out a functional binder page-sized sheet of solar panel every two seconds, making the production of all those cells cheaper and a whole lot faster."

"By Giles Parkinson on 14 August 2012 Demand management has finally entered the political lexicon, as politicians to the left and the right realise that a 20-lane wide power grid has been built to service our energy demands, when one half that size might just as easily fit the bill."

"Smartphones, laptops, tablets, digital TV. You may not have considered it, but all those devices require a lot of energy to operate, and gobble it up even when they sit idle. In fact, the iPhone uses more electricity than a refrigerator. A medium-sized, energy star fridge uses 322 kilowatt hours (kWh) each year. The average iPhone? 361." See the full report at http://goo.gl/FstidW

"Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity: A framework for estimating population sizes and lifestyles that could be sustained without undermining future generations by Gretchen C. Daily and Paul R. Ehrlich"

"The Swinburne Centre for Sustainability has developed an online software tool to allow small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to conduct a sustainability self-assessment of their operations. In addition to generating 'triple bottom line' reports for business, the tool provides practical information and resources to encourage SMEs to pursue immediate and realistic strategies to move towards sustainability"

"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."