Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Eco-action Design and Build


I'm excited about finally making the time to post on Lawrence and Antje's Little Greenie at their Golden Bay Hideaway.

The red and green native grasses in this photo will eventually merge to create a lawn that only needs mowing once a year! Oh and you can see the website for better photos!!

This summer Lawrence and Antje finished building the Little Green and we were lucky enough to be there to prepare it for it's first visitors. Eco-action design and build is Lawrence's company. The name came about as Lawrence wanted to let people know that what he is doing in his design and building is considering the environment and actioning his considerations! He is not just talking about designing and building environmentally sensible dwellings, but he is actually doing - all of it himself, with the help of a few friends.

Some of Lawrence's philosophy includes a modest size and a simple design in order to focus on the important things, such as low energy requirements through excellent insulation and low energy lights and appliances powered by solar energy and a passive solar design. Other features of importance to Lawrence in creating dwellings for a sustainable now include long lasting materials, low maintenance, composting toilet, simple open plan, easy to clean.

Lawrence and Antje's website www.goldenbayhideaway.co.nz has huge amounts of information on the design and construction of the Little Greenie. Lawrence is happy to share more information in person when you come to stay in the Wee Greenie, which is very reasonably priced for luxury accommodation in an amazing environment. Specifically priced to be accessible to more people! In Lawrence and Antje's style!

Perhaps competitors in this years SHaC competition run by Otago Polytechnic could get some tips from Lawrence!

Monday, February 16, 2009

What I'm up to in the Educational Development Centre

Busy, busy. Hence why I haven't posted for a while. What I've got going on at the moment includes the following:
- Development of the Sustainable Practice 1 course for delivery to the Tourism and Travel Yr 2's in Term 2.
- Applying for academic approval of the Education for Sustainability staff development course.
- Development of a lecture and tutorial on sustainability issues for Ko Te Tai Ao - Natural World paper
- On going involvement in the Otago Polytechnic Sustainability Management Group.

When time allows I am attempting to
- develop something on Maori and sustainability
- work with Heather Day on integrating sustainability into the Graduation Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning
- work with Barry Law in supporting departments in integrating sustainability into their curriculum and teaching. Possibly including a resource book for all staff to access resources for teaching sustainability.
- Supporting any lecturers who approach me for help on teaching sustainability.

Cheers, Anna :)