Waste

Are green buildings bad?

| olivialealwalker
The Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Lab is one of the many beautiful Living Building Challenge certified projects.
Picture source: Living Building Challenge

Some parts of the industry have come a long way in green building design, and developed beautiful, functional and efficient buildings. We start with a building and look at ways to make it better, tacking on incremental improvements.

What if our approach was all wrong?

While this approach has served us for a long time, I believe it is time we shifted the way we deliver sustainable design. Rather than ask how can we make bad better, why don’t we ask what does good look like?

The Living Building Challenge

This is the question that the Living Building Challenge seeks to answer. The Living Building Challenge is the most vigorous, transformative certification available globally. Instead of moving the needle forward slowly, the Challenge has set its flag on the hill for what good looks like, and over 100 certified buildings have risen to it.

The Living Building Challenge is rooted in considering a building as a flower, which makes sense the more you think about it. A flower is beautiful, gets all of its energy and water from where it falls and it isn’t toxic. A flower adds more value to a site than it takes.

Likewise, a Living Building generates 105% of its electricity on site, connects people to nature and their food, protects habitat, sources materials locally, only uses non-toxic materials and is net positive for waste, as well as being educational and inspirational.

The core values, or ‘petals’ of the Living Building Challenge are below, each with a set of imperatives to achieve:

Petals of the Living Building Challenge, each with a set of imperatives that show what good looks like.
Picture source: Understanding the Living Building Challenge Course

Living Building Challenge 4.0 is launching in two weeks, and this is a great opportunity to get familiar with what good looks like. The Living Future Institute of Australia is your go-to in Australia: https://living-future.org.au/

I think I’m breaking up with you.

| olivialealwalker
Australian supermarkets love wrapping fresh food in plastic, and we’re breaking up with it.

I. Love. Aldi.

Or, at least I did. I think it’s time we broke up, and it hurts my heart.

Through their chocolate brands that sound suspiciously like other chocolate brands (and yet, oh so delicious) to their special buys which magically know what you need before you do, Aldi has a unique way of bringing strangers together to bond over their admiration for the store.

I love Aldi, but I certainly do not love that every fruit and vegetable comes wrapped in plastic, and I don’t think I can stomach it anymore.I

Why do we love plastic food?

Food is being moved around the world at an increasing rate. Australia is a net exporter of fresh food, particularly wheat, meat, fruit and vegetables. Packaging is incredibly important to ensure that food doesn’t spoil while it’s being transported across the world, meaning we’re contributing to this packaging problem. We’re also doing a lot of importing, particularly highly-processed, delicious German chocolate.

What about our food security?

I’m more than a little nervous about Sydney’s food security in the near future. We’re continuing to either sell farms to international conglomerates or we develop on the good quality agricultural land just outside our city. Our population is growing, and as we reduce the ability to grow food locally, we’re going to become more reliant on international food markets, putting millions of people at risk.

What can we do?

If you have any influence on development, ensure that it occurs on land that has already previously been developed, and avoid agricultural land on the fringe of Sydney. There’s a slow urban agriculture movement happening, with places like the Gardens of Alexandria and Camperdown Commons capitalising on people’s innate need to feel connected to nature and their food. In your development, this may look like herbs as gifts for residents and fruit trees on the footpath, all the way to fully-resourced community gardens. Not only is it giving residents some autonomy and control over what they eat, food helps bring people of all different cultures and ages together.

If you’re a consumer, consider heading to your local farmers market and get to know the people who grow your food. This website lists the farmers markets in your area. If you’re after a nice weekend drive, check out Hawkesbury Harvest Trail for a wholesome adventure.

Join me, and break up with plastic-wrapped, imported fruit and veg. We’re looking at you Aldi!

What happens when our landfills are full? Part 3 – Organics

| olivialealwalker
Landfill biogas
Too much excitement visiting the biogas facility. The well in the top right is capturing the methane emitted from the landfill, and turning it into electricity.

Organic waste accounts for ~60% of our household bins. When organics decompose, they produce methane, which is 25x worse for climate change than our beloved carbon dioxide.

Earlier this year I visited the Eastern Creek Waste Facility (which is full), to see how they capitalise on methane emitted from landfill. The gas is tapped and burned to generate electricity which is sold to the grid. Excess methane is also burned, so that what is emitted is carbon dioxide, rather than something much more potent. Income is generated from the sale of electricity and the creation of both carbon offset certificates and renewable energy certificates. Pretty neat.

Biogas flare: this technology burns the methane emitted from landfill, reducing it down to carbon dioxide, which is 25x less potent as a greenhouse gas.

Why don’t we send all organics to landfill, to capture the methane, create an energy source and therefore income? It seems to make sense. This process, however, still allows ~50% of the methane to escape into the atmosphere. It also doesn’t utilise the nutrients that are locked in organic waste, and it’s what makes our landfills smell so bad.

So what should we be doing with organics?

1.How we separate at the source

In speaking to waste contractors, the best thing we can do is separate our organics at the source. This means a separate food bin at work and at home. There are challenges with extracting organics from landfill, which at this point render it unusable (see point 3).

Only one Council in Sydney currently provides a separate food and organic (FOGO) bin, whereas it’s business as usual across Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. See if your Council can run a trial or put them in touch with Inner West Council for advice.

You can install separate organics bins in your office – do you have one where you work? Be a champ and get one installed! Make sure to talk to your building management team to get a special organics pick-up.

2. How we design & operate waste rooms

Waste rooms are often just a box on an architectural drawing, but the way that box is designed impacts operations for the rest of the buildings life. It’s essential to ensure there is space for organics separation. A Pulp Master is a great alternative – it chews down the food to be used as fertiliser and keeps it out of landfill.

3. How we process organics

Suez has created a composted product from the organics that are captured in landfill. Where it’s been used on remediation sites, it’s been very successful, and diverts a huge amount of waste from landfill. It’s a better solution, however, coming from landfill there is still a chance of microplastic and heavy metal contamination. This product is currently facing an EPA ban and its future is unknown.

What’s the best way forward?

I believe the best approach is diversion at the source (so it’s clean), with the waste processed in an anaerobic digester, and the methane captured for energy.  The agricultural industry is taking advantage of this technology, capturing animal effluent in big waste lakes (mmm, delicious) where it is broken down by bacteria and used to power their facilities.

We’ve only spoken about organics in the context of food. Anyone willing to tackle sewage?

What happens when our landfills are full? Part 2 – plastic

| olivialealwalker

Last month, a colleague challenged everyone in the company to undertake a single-use plastic free month. As someone who works in sustainability, I thought I’d smash it. Wrong! I knew I was in trouble when I sat down at a café with friends and was greeted by the single largest straw I’ve ever seen!

The photo doesn’t do this mammoth plastic straw justice.

Earlier this week, I visited a landfill processing facility. This particular site processed 10% of Sydney’s municipal waste (the waste from your bins at home), and the size of the mound from just one day’s worth of waste was astronomical. The company was doing their best to pull anything of value out of the system (think aluminium cans). What remained was a consistent stream of plastic bags falling off a conveyor belt into a pile the size of a 5 story building, with trucks constantly doing their best to keep up with the river of waste.

I wish I could show you, and I wish that any of the photos that you’ve seen do it justice.

These two separate events have had a profound impact on my understanding of our plastic addiction. I’ve been confronted with the reality of those little everyday ‘she’ll be right’ purchasing decisions. It’s the spinach leaves in their plastic bag or the mince in its plastic tray. These everyday purchases are scaling up to a massive problem.

Retailers

There are retailers who have identified that plastic waste is a problem, and understand that consumer sentiment towards waste has shifted. If their value is aligned with those of their customers, they can increase their income. Franchisers like Boost Juice and Soul Origin are tapping into this market and are now selling branded re-usable cups.

Property teams

Burwood Brickworks, Frasers Property Australia’s retail centre which is targeting the Living Building Challenge, is taking this one step further. They’re working with all retailers (that’s everyone from the cinema to the takeaway shop to the nail salon) to not have any plastic waste on site! This is an enormous challenge, but you can keep posted on their progress here.

Another opportunity for property teams is to include requirements around reducing plastic in your tenant’s leases. The Better Building Partnerships Best Practice Leasing Guidelines are a fantastic resource for property teams, and CitySwitch provides great resources for tenants.

Your dollar is your vote

At the end of the day, companies change their approach based on consumer demand. If we all commit to purchasing plastic-free products, and waste is in our everyday discussion, then retailers do take note. Set yourself the challenge to remove all single-use plastic from your world for a month, and see what you learn.

What happens when our landfill is full? Part 1 – construction and demolition waste

| olivialealwalker
Construction and demolition waste accounts for 40% of Australia’s waste. Can the circular economy save us?
Photo credit: https://junkmancarting.com/construction-demolition-clean-up

Recent media, such as the ABC’s War on Waste, has bought waste into the public eye, including awareness of the issues surrounding building construction and demolition (C&D) waste.

C&D waste accounts for 40% of all waste generated in Australia. Due to high landfill waste levies (you pay for each tonne of waste sent to landfill), rates of recycling for C&D waste is relatively high. Or at least, it was.

In 2012 Queensland removed their waste levy, meaning there was no longer a financial incentive to recycle waste. You could hear echoes of “you beauty!” ring from the offices of NSW waste contractors. With the removal of this levy, they save ~$3,000 per truck load by driving it to a Qld landfill, rather than processing it for recycling in NSW. And they’re doing it in droves.

What is the future?

How can it be cheaper to send material interstate than to recycle it 50 km from your site? The waste levy will likely be reintroduced in Qld, however the real challenge is the almost non-existent market for recycled product manufacturing in Australia. As a result, quality recyclable material – such as glass – is being stockpiled in big warehouses, waiting for a second life.

Introducing the circular economy.

The circular economy is based on the idea that the waste output of one product is the building block of another.

The circular economy enables most waste to re-enter the system and be used as a resource.
Image credit:
http://www.tropismi.it/2017/04/13/leconomia-circolare-una-rivoluzione-a-impatto-zero/

An example of the circular economy in practice is the research undertaken by The Centre for Sustainable Material Research & Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales. The team has found a way to turn recycled glass and fabric into tiles with the same properties as traditional ones.

What can you do?

You can support the circular economy by specifying recycled content in your concrete, steel and other materials.

Procurement of building materials isn’t straightforward and issues of modern slavery, chemical toxicity, carbon content and performance need to be taken into account. For example, your recycled steel may be coming from ship-breaking yards in countries which use slave labour. Certifications like Good Environmental Choice Australia can help you make informed decisions about products.

What materials are in your building and how are you ensuring a circular economy future?

References:
– ABC iView. 2019. War on Waste. Viewed on 24.3.19 at https://www.abc.net.au/ourfocus/waronwaste/
– The Conversation. 2017. Explainer: how much landfill does Australia have? Viewed on 24.3.19 at https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-much-landfill-does-australia-have-78404
– Lyons, P. 2017. Investigation into the transport of waste into Queensland. Viewed on 24.3.19 at https://www.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0029/68915/transport-of-waste-into-qld-final-report.pdf
– Snell, S. 2018. Turning old clothes into high-end building materials. Viewed on 24.3.19 at https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/turning-old-clothes-high-end-building-materials
– Good Environmental Choice Australia. 2019. Viewed on 24.3.19 at http://www.geca.eco/

Shifting shopping centres: what does this mean for people and pollution?

| olivialealwalker
Produce spilling into the main walkway creates a more intimate, market-like feel at Westfield Hornsby. As a side note, this photo shows they could clearly do with some more plants.
Photo credit: Scentre Group

There are certain stages that you go through as you move through your 20s – the 21sts (phew, survived those!), the weddings (four this year) and then the babies. With my best friend due to have her first baby, I headed down to Westfield Hornsby today to get vaccinated.

This centre is huge, and yet, it felt so personal.

With the way that the fresh food section was laid out, with produce spilling into the main walkway, and the bustle of activity, I felt like I was on the streets of Italy. There were playgrounds in every corner, and the buzz of noise permeates through the centre. There’s even a pet store with real kittens, so this big kid was satisfied! This centre had a sense of excitement – you didn’t know what you were going to stumble upon next, and so every store felt like a special secret.

What does the future of retail mean for sustainability?

The future looks different. The face of retail is changing, and if talk around the watercooler is anything to go by, people like to shop online. This growing trend makes me feel really uncomfortable for a few reasons.

Excess packaging

Every day, there are at least a dozen parcels delivered to work, waiting to be opened by the eager recipients who ordered them just three hours before (they’ll probably be returned and sent to landfill, but that’s another story). These glossy, plastic-wrapped ‘treat yo’self’ packages are only glossy and plastic-wrapped because they need to be delivered individually. It’s notoriously difficult for soft plastic to be recycled into something useful, and yet we’re not slowing down.

I don’t think this problem is going away, so I’ll give you an entrepreneurial idea for nothing: take-back re-usable packaging for clothes deliveries.

More pollution

These individually wrapped clothes are also individually delivered by individual drivers. What impact is this having on our air quality and traffic congestion? Drone delivery is next, but what will this mean for noise pollution and visual comfort? Thankfully, companies like Sendle provide a 100% carbon neutral delivery service.

Same-day delivery also means changes in the infrastructure required to move products. I expect we’ll see smaller warehouses closer to our high-density population centres. While this may drive up property prices, having more employment opportunities closer to home may be a positive outcome.

As a consumer, please think twice before you buy – it’s not just the purchase price, it’s the whole life-cycle cost of making and moving that product.

Breakdown of human interaction

While we play on our phones and order our shoes from home, I fear that the sense of isolation that is hovering over our communities may increase as we move away from congregating in shopping centres. To remain relevant, we need our shopping centres to be places that do spark joy and a place to mingle. Preferably over food. Everybody loves food.

As urban curators, how can we bring more excitement into physical retail centres, and retain a place for community?