The failed urban sustainability project

The failed urban sustainability project

Can an average household in suburban Sydney become sustainable? Theoretically yes, but practically... well ...

Sustainable urban household?

I have failed. My efforts to live a sustainable 21st century life in middle class, suburban Sydney are little more than a tittered joke among the neighbours, and polite ridicule by those closest to me. Even the chooks shake their heads and cluck at me, before they put their heads down to continue destroying what is left of our meagre garden.
I live on a small block, about 550 sq. m, in a ramshackle 1960s brick house that was affordable because it has a lot wrong with it. But it provides a comfortable and happy home for two adults and two kids, and a changing menagerie of animals. Five years ago, when I left my job of 11 years, the plan was to endeavour to work less, and spend the extra time growing veggies and living a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Here's some of what has happened. And gone wrong.

Solar power

Don't believe the misinformation. People will say the most outlandish things about solar power, including the tired old line that "it takes 20 years to make back the energy that it took to produce the panels". Rubbish. When solar panels were first invented, for spacecraft, that was true, but it hasn't been true for many decades. It now takes one to four years to payback the energy needed to create a solar system. My solar panels have been a dream. They sit on the roof, causing no trouble, generating both power and income. Our household uses about half the amount of power of the "average" four-person household, according to AGL. We used 834 kWh last quarter (summer). Our solar panels generated 580kWh during that period. We were fortunate to invest at a time when the NSW Govt was offering the outlandish rate of 60c a kWh for solar power, so we actually made a profit during the quarter of $140.

Why I failed 

Although the solar panels are wonderful, we are not generating more power than we need, so are still importing power from the grid (supposedly from "sustainable" sources, but electrons don't differ between green, brown or black electricity). I hadn't fully realised when I installed the system that it is quite difficult to "upscale" a system once it is in place, i.e, all the infrastructure is to suit a certain amount of power production, and you can't just add more solar panels and plug them in. I would have liked to have designed the system that way, so it could be expanded more easily.

Food production

Some of this year's small lychee crop, harvested from the backyard.

Previous owners had planted a small orchard here. There is a large lychee tree, mangoes, oranges, lemons and a few other odd fruits. My plan was to have a well-tended veggie garden, providing a consistent percentage of our daily food requirements. Our soil is horrible compacted clay, and by introducing chickens and lots of composting I hoped to help improve the soil.

Why I failed

Fruit is shared equally between us, possums, bats and fruit fly. Veggies were going okay until I introduced the chooks. The free-range chooks basically eat or dig up everything they can - they destroyed $50 worth of seedlings in an afternoon. All attempts to erect fences to keep them in or out of a certain area have failed. They always find a way in/out. Partly because I use only recycled materials to build our chook runs, rather than buying some big fancy fully enclosed chook run.
My next suggestion was to move the veggie garden to the front yard, where the chooks are not. This failed because of social reasons - ie., the missus thought that was a stupid idea. However, we have fresh eggs and manage to supplement the odd meal with fresh herbs, fruit or the occasional surviving veggie that we have managed to coax through its life. Latest research on urban sustainability emphasises that we NEED our farms - we cannot live in the cities without them.

Demitarianism

This new term, meaning to eat less meat than you did previously, is one of the most consistent messages coming out of the sustainability movement in the past decade. Let me make this clear. I am not a vegetarian. I love the taste of meat, and don't particularly have a problem with the humane treatment and killing of animals for my or your sustenance. However, the consistent message from environmentalists the world over is that the world cannot sustain the amount of meat being consumed by Australians. It has been said repeatedly that one of the biggest things we can do for the environment is to just eat "one meal less" of meat a week.

Why I failed

I failed to "bring the family along" with this change. My wife, who was suffering from an iron deficiency, was very upset by the change. "You care more for the environment than for us," she said. My son reacted counter-culturally by going the other way, craving meat for every meal, and now cooks his own sausages for breakfast. My daughter has become semi-vegetarian, and says she will become a full vegie over time. Lesson is that change requires social change in all those affected.

Transport

We had always been a one-car family, and I generally either cycled to my clients, walked or caught public transport. Our Camry, using non-sustainable, polluting fuel, was still clocking up a lot of kilometres a year, just with the general toing and froing of kids to things, the annual family holidays, and yes, my many weekend trips to the beach or the mountains or some national park.

Why I failed

As I travelled more and more for work, and needed the car to get around the state, my wife decided we needed a second car. Of course, once you have two cars, you use them even more, and our transport carbon footprint has gone up rather than down. We are currently back to one car. My use of E10 fuel has been slammed by my mechanic, who says it is dirty fuel and results in more need for maintenance of the car. He has requested (repeatedly) that I stop using E10.

Water

According to Sydney Water, we use considerably less water than the average four-person household. With limited budget, a household recycled water scheme was the least of my priorities, and we have not installed a water tank or a secondary recycled water plumbing system (e.g, from the shower to flush the toilet). So I guess we have failed completely on this measure. But it still is the least of my priorities.

Environment

The backyard, showing henhouse in its winter position, on what should be the veggie patch.

Nearly every shrub or tree that we have planted has been native and I installed a frog pond, initially in the backyard. It did attract frogs within a couple of years. A blue tongue lizard and about five other skink species visit the garden, along with a range of urban birds. We have ring-tailed and brush-tailed possums at night.

Why I failed

When I introduced the chooks, they ate all the frogs. I therefore moved the frog pond to the front yard, and although a frog is occasionally seen there, there are not the numbers there used to be.
Also, once when I was away for work, the family fell in love with a kitten in need of a home. It became our home, and although the cat (which is white) is meant to be an indoor cat, and has a bell, it escapes outside enough to negatively affect the skink population. For an urban greenie, this is particularly galling.

Urban murderer.

The positives

Although I can't in any way pretend that we are a "sustainable" household, I know we are more sustainable than we were, which has to be a good thing. I will continue to work at solving some of these issues, and hopefully we will continue to make improvements and modifications. One thing I need to get better at is bringing the family and/or neighbours along for the ride. So much of this would be easier if they were allies and actively involved, rather than passengers being towed behind the sustainability bus.
Got any sustainability tips?
www.kensbigbackyard.com.au