Caitlin McGee
Principal Research Consultant
Institute for Sustainable Futures,
University of Technology, Sydney

Last year my workplace had its tenth birthday party. The invited speaker was Hugh Mackay, well-known social researcher and author of Advance Australia Where? He told of being seated next to a woman at a dinner party whose entire conversation revolved around finding the right tiles for her bathroom renovation. I felt a little sorry for the hapless dinner party guest who’d unwittingly become a metaphor for mindless consumption, but I had to agree – surely there are better things to talk about! In the same vein, a colleague recently sent me a press release about a new book, Renovation Nation, which examines Australia’s obsession with renovation, ‘property porn’, and making our homes ‘bigger and better’.

In this context, renovation sounds a bit like a dirty word, especially for the more environmentally conscious amongst us. But does it have to be?

I guess it all depends on your reasons for renovating and the approach you take. I’ve just embarked on a renovation of my own. It’s not because I’m tired of the décor or have too much time on my hands (I wish!), but because the back of the house is literally falling apart. It’s a worker’s cottage in Sydney’s inner west, built in 1890. I don’t think a whole lot has been done to it since. It still has the dunny out the back, which lends a certain charm but is no fun at all on a cold winters night! 

From the outset my aim was to make the renovation as green as I possibly could. As a former architect I designed it myself, but trying to work full-time and get the plans designed and through council has taken a while. What’s amazing is how fast the building industry has moved over the past few years – suddenly green technologies once considered a little ‘out there’ are mainstream, and there’s a massive range of environmentally friendly building products available. By the time I was ready to approach builders, none of them saw me as a rabid greenie or tried to talk me out of it. In fact they were very positive about what I wanted to do.

Now I’ve engaged a builder and we’re in week 3 of the 26 week building program. So there’s a long way to go, but I’m learning fast. In a nutshell, the main aims of my renovation are to:

Þ     Reduce the need for new materials by retaining or reusing what I can

Þ     Recycle whatever I can’t reuse

Þ     Plan the interior efficiently to reduce the size of the extension

Þ     Save energy and water

Þ     Choose building materials with low environmental impact

My advice to those wanting a green renovation is to get the basics of the design right and ensure all the environmentally friendly products you want to use go into the specification you give to the builder. Getting the design right is so important, as it essentially allows you to lock in many green attributes for free or at low cost.

First, think carefully about what you can reuse before you demolish anything. Then there are considerations like orientation, space-efficient design (the bigger the home, the more resources it tends to use), appropriate use of glass, placing your hot water system in the right place, choosing energy efficient lighting and water efficient plumbing products.. the list goes on. You can find plenty of advice in the Your Home Renovators Guide and Technical Manual at www.yourhome.gov.au.

I’ve found that most of the environmentally friendly materials I’m using don’t cost any more than standard alternatives, or if they do it’s a marginal increase for a significant environmental benefit. A concrete floor slab is one of the most energy-intensive parts of a home to manufacture. At a meagre extra cost of about $30, my new slab uses less energy intensive ingredients and saves about 8 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. My bamboo flooring is durable and costs less than hardwood timber. The wall cladding I’m using is made from recycled polystyrene and aerated concrete. It costs about the same as more conventional construction, but creates a higher level of insulation that will save (or hopefully avoid!) winter heating costs.

Then there are some products that do cost more, like the polyethylene plumbing, a much less toxic alternative to PVC that will cost about $1600 extra. There’s also the gas-boosted evacuated tube solar hot water system, incredibly efficient but costs a small fortune at around $6000 ($1000 less if you’re replacing an electric storage hot water system and therefore eligible for the government rebate).

An important piece of advice – always leave a contingency in the budget for the unexpected, particularly if it’s an old house and you’re making significant structural changes. I factored in a 5% contingency and by week 3 I’ve spent half of it fixing up dodgy old services pipes and defunct party walls! Bugger, the photovoltaic system will have to wait, especially now I can’t get the rebate!

Although I won’t know the exact total for a few months yet, the green initiatives will almost certainly account for less than 5% of the total renovation cost, yet they’ll save on a lifetime of bills, especially in the face of rising resource costs. Worth it? Absolutely!

This weekend I went in search of a recycled front door. I trawled through heritage recycling yards stacked with beautiful old windows and doors, each with a secret history of its own. It was a strangely moving experience. The door I chose was scratched and stained with age, but I knew it would scrub up magnificently for its new life. So beware dinner party guests – I too am collecting renovation stories. I just hope that, rather than tales of consumption, they’ll be tales of inspiration.