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A 14 yr old sustainably built house demonstrating most of the accepted passive design principles of the time, such as northth orientation, good insulation, double glazing, and thermal mass. It’s a healthy, low toxin and recycled build and family friendly design with open plan and central kitchen and hearth.
It shows features that worked well and those that didn’t, and some that they have added along the way, such as PV and skylights. Great perspective from folks living in a sustainable home for over a decade!

Sustainable House Day Showcase 2016 Collaborators
Event Partner:
Recycled Interiors & Sustainable Home Hub - recycledinteriors.org

Event Sponsors:
City of Adelaide - adelaidecitycouncil.com
Sustainability House - sustainabilityhouse.com.au
Brocante in the Barossa - brocante-in-the-barossa.com
Hills Sustainable Gardens - hillssustainablegardens.com
Accumulus Energy Group - accumuluseg.com

Media Partner:
Environmental & Science Media - esmedia.com.au

Cast: AdelaideSBN and ESM

Tags: Sustainable Living, Sustainable Design, Sustainability, Green Homes, Australia and Adelaide

Conservationists seek public help to protect the famously inquisitive birds.

Government creates marine protected areas around four islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, with commercial fishing banned in some areas

The UK is to ban commercial fishing from a million square kilometres of ocean around British overseas territories, the government said on Thursday.

In total, the government is creating marine protected areas around four islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, including the designation this week of one of the world’s biggest around the Pitcairn Islands.

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Tesla has been criticised by a former business partner for "pushing the envelope" on car safety with its Autopilot technology.

Analysis of rocks in the Western Isles has provided "a tantalising clue" that Mars may contain habitats which can potentially support life.

This passive design house requires no active heating or cooling. Built to a low air infiltration rate of 3.6 ACH@50 Pascals using Structural Insulated Panels (SIP); using internal thermal mass, double glazing, ‘coptered’ slab and smart glass with fixed and adjustable shading. These features all add to the performance of this building. A monitoring system tracks actual performance against predicted thermal performance

Sustainability House - sustainabilityhouse.com.au

Sustainable House Day Showcase 2016 Collaborators
Event Partner:
Recycled Interiors & Sustainable Home Hub - recycledinteriors.org

Event Sponsors:
City of Adelaide - adelaidecitycouncil.com
Sustainability House - sustainabilityhouse.com.au
Brocante in the Barossa - brocante-in-the-barossa.com
Hills Sustainable Gardens - hillssustainablegardens.com
Accumulus Energy Group - accumuluseg.com

Media Partner:
Environmental & Science Media - esmedia.com.au

Cast: AdelaideSBN and ESM

Tags: Sustainable Living, Sustainable Design, Sustainability, Green Homes, Australia and Adelaide

The business secretary, Greg Clark, says the Hinkley Point deal will have a ‘series of measures to enhance security’ after Theresa May gave the green light to the construction of Britain’s first new nuclear power plant in two decades on Thursday. The plant will be financed by a Chinese nuclear power provider and French energy group EDF

• Hinkley Point C nuclear power station gets government go-ahead

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If global temperatures rise more than 1.5C, the Marshall Islands will disappear. The thin atolls scattered across the Pacific Ocean are already seeing regular flooding and droughts directly related to climate change. More Marshallese are leaving in search of dry land, with nearly one-third of the population currently in the US. Many fear that with the exodus, their culture will be lost to a country that has already taken so much from them

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The numerous atolls that make up the island nation are now regularly swamped due to sea level rise. But as more people flee for the US, many fear their culture will be lost to a country that has already taken so much from them

• Support the Guardian’s independent journalism by making a contribution or becoming a member
  

There may be music in the roar of the sea, as Byron eulogized, but the waves can also bring creeping unease. On low-lying fragments of land like the Marshall Islands, the tides are threatening to take away what they previously helped support: life.

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Energy investment fell 8% in 2015, reflecting low oil and gas prices, but falling costs and government policy shift spending towards clean energy, data shows

Global investment in energy fell by 8% last year to $1.8tn (£1.4), reflecting low oil and gas prices and cost falls in the sector, new data shows.

Nearly half of the decline was accounted for by the US, where plunging oil prices and a recent boom in shale gas, along with cost deflation in the energy sector, have played an increasing role.

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Move aims to protect nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the coast of New England

President Barack Obama will establish on Thursday the first national marine monument in the Atlantic, a move that’s designed to permanently protect nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the coast of New England.

The White House said the designation will lead to a ban on commercial fishing, mining and drilling, though a seven-year exception will occur for the lobster and red crab industries. Also, recreational fishing will be allowed within the monument.

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China is set to launch a second experimental space station Tiangong 2, as it looks to have a manned station by around 2022, state media say.

DYE PIONEERS: The blue indigo dye commonly used in today's jeans was used by pre-Hispanic communities in Peru around 6,000 years ago.

Beautiful yet terrifying, Edward Burtynsky’s aerial photography is a reminder of just how much human activity has affected the planet – as industry and agriculture leave indelible scars everywhere

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A report by Swiss NGO Public Eye says businesses in Europe are exporting highly polluting, high-sulphur diesel to the African market that could never be sold at pumps in their home countries, exploiting weak fuel standards there

All photographs: Carl De Keyzer/Magnum Photos

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Diego the tortoise, 100, has fathered around 800 offspring on his native Galapagos Archipelago.

Combining PV with a storage solution, homeowners gain from a variety of possibilities and benefits. However, it is important to know how to select the right kind of storage solution..

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Doñana wetlands in Andalusia is home to thousands of species but has lost most of its natural water due to industry and faces ‘danger’ listing by Unesco

A Spanish wetland home to 2,000 species of wildlife – including around 6 million migratory birds – is on track to join a Unesco world heritage danger list, according to a new report.

Doñana is an Andalusian reserve of sand dunes, shallow streams and lagoons, stretching for 540 square kilometres (209 square miles) where flamingoes feed and wild horses and Iberian lynx still roam.

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Blanchland, Northumberland The sexton beetle can detect ‘the irresistible bouquet of death’ from a mile away

As we climbed the hill the low cloud thinned then became wisps of mist. Patches of blue sky began to appear. Soon the heat of the rising sun would dry the droplets of water clinging to hawkbit seed heads beside the path, and their parachute of hairs would expand, carrying them away to join a blizzard of downy thistle and willowherb seeds drifting on the breeze.

The aroma of September, of damp earth and decaying grass, hung in the air, though there was, as yet, no hint of autumn colour in the trees. Fungi, the great recyclers, were already at work.

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