Whether you are building a new home or renovating your existing building, there are some core principles that can be adopted to make your home a Green Building. To read more on Green Building, please click here.

Earth Patrol co-founded 2BGreen, South Africa' premier affiliation of Green Building Professionals who specialise in the whole project cycle of the Green Built environment. If you would like to see the 2BGreen website, please click here.

The biggest contributors towards your enviromental footprint are:

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Electricity | Water | Product choice | Food | Waste | Transport

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Locally, our electricity is powered by out of date, poorly maintained and over burdened coal plants. Coal is one of the most inefficient methods of producing electricity and the extraction, processing and burning of this raw material has a devastating effect on our environment. Coal is a dirty raw material and produces impurities such as mercury, arsenic, and sulphur, as well as CO₂ which ultimately end up in our natural systems. So we want to avoid building the future of our country on this fossil fuel. It won’t last and it will poison more of our systems.

Internationally there has been a movement towards clean energy provision and we will need to follow suit. But the real question is where can you as a home owner start?

What you can do to save electricity:

1. Install a solar geyser - Your first move should be to purchase a Solar Thermal Geyser. These systems are available nationally and make plain simple sense, the kind we all like! With Eskom’s new rebate programs and the already shrinking cost of the technology, it’s a great place to start and the 40% savings in your monthly energy bill makes it a no brainer!
2. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient CFL’s or LED’s. These use significantly less electricity and also last considerably longer than incandescent bulbs, thereby reducing landfill use.
3. Choose a gas stove and oven over an electric one.
4. Upgrade to energy efficient appliances when your old appliances expire. Manufacturers have realised the need to make more efficient appliances and there are now plenty to choose from.
5. Develop more enviromentally aware habits. Drying your clothes in the sun instead of using a clothes dryer will save you money. Try not to leave appliances on standby as they are still drawing power; rather turn off the switch at the wall or unplug the appliance. Lower the temparature on your geyser. Turn lights off when you leave a room. Put your washing machine on the cold cycle only.

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Water:

Water is our most vital resource. In South Africa, it’s a resource on the verge of depletion. Part of shifting our awareness means beginning to look at ways and means we can change the way we utilize our resources. On average 42% of the water you consume is passed through your home and office without having performed any real sort of function. Flushing the toilet alone uses around 11 liters’ of water, but could easily be done with 4 litres . A family of four can use up to 240 liters’ a day. Our country was so absorbed in the energy crisis last year that we seemed to have overlooked the impending water crisis we now face. The costs will keep rising and the supply will keep falling. We need to act now and shift our reliance on centralized water reserves and build water security in our homes. We need to redesign the way we interact and use our water. We need to extend the life cycles of the water available to us. Every litre of water that arrives in your environment could be used to perform many different functions.

What you can do to save water:

1. You can harvest water from your roof and store this for use in the home or in your garden.
2. Grey water systems will capture your waste water from your baths; showers; basins and laundry and feed it into your landscape.
3. Simple landscaping techniques like swales and bermes will catch water where it falls and attenuate it in your garden instead of letting it run into the sewer. Plant endemic or indigenous plants that don’t use too much water.
4. Eat less meat. It takes 16,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.
5. According to the Environment Agency, a 5-minute shower uses about a third of the water of a bath and can save 50 litres every time. Install water-efficient shower heads
6. Be conscious of your water use.

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Product Choice:

This is where you can make the biggest difference!

Every time you make a purchase you cast a vote. A vote that defines the kind of world you want to live in. Becoming aware of this and of which products you support in your buying habits is by far the greatest impact you can have toward minimising the effects commerce and industry have on our environment.

The beauty of a demand driven economy, is that the end user has a say in what he is willing to accept. It’s time to raise our standards!

Earth Patrol has latched onto the philosophy of Cradle to Cradle design. Products that have been so well thought out before they are produced, that their potential life span becomes generational. This means that the kettle you buy today has been designed in such a way that when it’s time to throw it away, it can instead be taken apart and used to create a new product without any wasted material or energy.

How you make the best choice:

1. Well, the first prize is always local. It really is Lekker! How far has the product travelled to reach your trolley? Buying local goods means supporting local business, limiting transportation and reducing the reliance on big international companies that will always put profit before planetary prosperity.
2. Certified Organic products have been assessed and must conform to very high standards in their production. Beware though of cheap imitations, it only takes a good marketing team to find a way of labelling anything as organic, so make sure you know what you are buying. Locally, there is no regulation on the use of the word organic.
3. Support companies and brands that are taking steps to reduce their impact.
4. Buy better quality products that last longer.
5. Avoid plastic at all times!! Especially bottled water.
6. The third and possibly the most important factor on a global scale is that the product is not genetically modified and is chemical free! This is currently a problem as our government is refusing to give consumers a choice by labelling GM food.

It’s as easy as taking the time to assess what you buy, find the brand that fulfils your criteria and then stick to it! This philosophy of being a revolutionary consumer can extend beyond your everyday purchases. Your appliances, furnishings, recreational events, vehicles and lifestyle requirements should all be purchased this way. By consciously choosing which companies you support you are actively defining the world you want to live in.

Food:

Your dietary choice makes an impact on your vitality. It also makes an impact on our environment. Up until very recently, we bought from our local butcher, local grocer or local store. We knew where our food came from and how it was produced. These days, we have no connection with our food. We are suspicious of the smallest things, but blindly trust that the food we buy is ethically produced and poison free. We have no knowledge of where it came from, who produced it and what chemicals it contains. It is time to take back control and make informed decisions about what we eat.

Eating better for the planet:

1. Eat no meat or less meat - A 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. We aren’t all vegetarians and we concede it is not realistic to expect a mass exodus towards a meat free world. So the compromise is to try and eat less meat. Animal production accounts for 18% of the world’s annual emissions. A study in the UK concluded that if everyone abstained from eating meat for 1 day a week over a year, this would save 13 megatones green houses gas emissions. This would result in a greater carbon savings than taking 5 million cars off the road. The other important factor is to know the origin of your meat products. Support local, free range, organic produce – healthier for your family and healthier for the environment.
2. Grow it green - Maintaining a home food garden is easy. You can provide most of your seasonal crops from a very small space in your own backyard. Once more, the ethos of saving money while you’re saving the environment returns with vivid results. Not only will you see an extra penny from your groceries savings, but you’ll be preventing many tons of waste annually that is generated from packaging and the associated industries. If ever there was a completely redundant concept, it is the concept of packaging every single item we buy.
3. Take your canvass bags to the supermarket - Simple! Plastic bags are devastating to our biosphere. We all know this. We all continue to use them. This one simple act can prevent millions of tonnes of waste annually, reduce a significant percentage of crude oil demand and leave the pavement a bit cleaner every day. This goes for all plastic items. The local mantra of ‘it’s good if it’s in glass’ has never been more important. Use glass water bottles, use bamboo storage containers, use natural textiles. Let plastic become a thing of the past.

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Waste:

The goal is no waste. None at all. Not a single item that ends up in a landfill contaminating our soils or down river choking the fish. It’s a large task and a tad idealistic. But it’s possible with some combined efforts and a bit of ingenuity! The first course of action is to limit your waste. Look at where you generate the most of it and then cut the supply.

How to minimise waste

1. Compost your old veggies and garden cuttings! You will be truly amazed at how much less waste you will produce just by composting. If you have limited space, you could also consider a worm farm.
2. Packaging - Don’t buy products that have extra unnecessary packaging and don’t support shops that overpackage. Complain to shops about their packaging – IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
3. Purchase high quality appliances and goods that have a long life expectancy.
4. Recycle what you can, reuse what you can’t.

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Transport:

Transportation generates 24% of global emissions.Inland transport accounts for the biggest chunk of emissions from the overall transport sector, which is expected to grow further amid rising demand for cars, goods and travel in developing countries.

Airlines contribute about 2% of global emissions while shipping accounts for about 3%.

How to minimise emissions from transport

1. Change of attitude - "If people do not reconsider their energy usage, any new technologies will not be fully effective at lowering carbon emissions. This requires a significant change in culture, such as an SUV no longer being considered a symbol of success and the smallest electric vehicle holding that accolade instead," says Peter Lukey (chief director of Environmental Affairs and Tourism's air quality management & climate change)
2. Know the car you are buying – click here for more info.
3. The UK plans to reduce domestic transport's carbon footprint by 14% over the next ten years. One of the ways they plan to do this is by marking out which consumer electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will be eligible for government grants starting in 2011.
4. Use public transport - "The Gautrain is widely criticised as transport for the rich and not for the poor. The reality is that the rich contribute to emissions through private transport. Encourage them to leave their cars and move into a quality public transport that provides less stress and makes their lives better. It is unlikely that the minibus taxi will catch on as the mode of transport for all South Africans," says Lukey.
5. Car pooling is a great way to save money, decrease congestion and lower emissions.

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