Drinking the Kool-Aid, Mars sucks, and green websites

THREE NEAT THINGS

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ISSUE 035 | 8 May 2023

Hi friends! 

Did you know that an estimated 1 in 9 Australians suffer from asthma? This is high compared to the rest of the world. And a lot of asthma triggers come from our own homes - indoor air pollution from cooking, gas or wood heating, mould, dampness and pests.  

I just spent a few days in Sydney at THRIVE - the 2023 South Pacific Passive House Conference. What an inspiring group of speakers and attendees (and delighted to so many of my clients among them too). One memorable story came from an architect from NZ who had two children with terrible asthma (who also took a long time to recover from the dreaded childcare bugs). He decided to build his own small passivhaus, and once they moved in his two children never had respiratory issues again. And his third child who was born in the passivhaus never had any at all. 

The health benefits of electrifying our homes and improving energy efficiency is measurable and undisputed. Who wouldn't want constantly healthy, fresh, filtered air, no dampness issues, and a constant temperature around 20-25 degrees all year around? 

A phrase at the conference that kept popping up was that we'd all ‘drunk the Kool-Aid’. Meaning once you know about passivhaus principles, you can't see any other solution that is as good. I have a short video below explaining these principles in under 4 minutes - check it out and see if you've joined the Kool-Aid club too.

Marnie x

1

Passive house explained in under 4 minutes

Passive House (also known as passivhaus so as to not be confused with passive solar design) is considered the most rigorous voluntary energy-based standard in the design and construction industry today. 

Consuming up to 90% less heating and cooling energy than conventional buildings, and applicable to almost any building type or design, the Passive House high-performance building standard is the only internationally recognised, proven, science-based energy standard in construction delivering this level of performance.

Watch a video below to understand the five principles behind passivhaus in less than 4 minutes.

2

Website carbon calculator

Yes, website have a carbon footprint. The internet consumes a lot of electricity. 412.2TW per year to be precise. 

I measured mine, and it's not good (too image heavy!). And my provider (Squarespace) isn't hosted by renewable energy (check by clicking here). But while I figure out a solution, I switched my domain hosting to a better supplier. I moved to Serversaurus - a certified B Corp, 1% For the Planet member based in Melbourne. 

3

Mars sucks

At the passivhaus conference, this campaign by Activa was referenced by Zach Semke of Passive House Accelerator. I looked it up, and it's brilliant. Activa are a creative agency sparking conversation about putting our earth first.  

It was created in response to the excitement, energy and investment directed at solving how to explore Mars (a planet that hasn’t changed for billions of years) versus solving how to save life on this planet. Watch this short video and see if you agree.