The carbon neutral man.

Australian and American homes are the biggest on earth and average at 229 square meters. It sits strangely with our notion of being green. We know the bigger the house the bigger the cost in using energy in cooling or heating. Those enormous houses provide shelter for 2.5 people on average. Any drive through the newest of Australian suburbs show enormous houses juggling for space sometimes with the roofs almost touching the next door neighbour’s house.

There needs to be something said in only building houses for our needs. Australia is not very good at that. The article suggested that to win the Australian Award for excellence a mandatory sustainability checklist should be included. It goes on “Entries won’t be judged unless they detail the floor area, occupants per square meter, energy consumption, use of gas and green power, air tightness and renewable energy.”

Remember those reductions of using coal generated electricity needs to be achieved if we want to prevent this earth from dying? All buildings need to be carbon neutral! We need to build houses that are just enough instead of maximum size. Do we need 4 bedrooms, with a master en suite, walk in robes, butler’s pantry, home theatre, study, mud room, alfresco dining?

Of course the opponents will argue that choice is the foundation of democracy. Any incursion on ‘freedom’ must be avoided. Well, the choice to ignore building sustainable housing is not much chop if it kills this earth.

My home is about as carbon neutral as possible. I keep getting credits on my electricity accounts due to my twenty solar panels. On my grave the epitaph;

“Here lies a carbon neutral man, keep off the grass”.

Tags: Awards, Carbon, Democracy, Epitath