Randwick City Council, Woollahra Municipal Council and Waverley Council, New South Wales – Sustainable Demonstration House

Three eastern Sydney councils are demonstrating the benefits of a partnership approach for implementing community education projects.

Randwick City Council, Woollahra Municipal Council and Waverley Council have joined forces to develop a sustainable demonstration house, which provides residents, visitors and students the opportunity to see working examples of practical sustainability measures that they can take in their own homes.

Background

The idea for the house arose when a local filmmaker bequeathed a heritage home, 'Barrett House', to Randwick City Council on the condition it be used as a community resource.

The dream became a reality when the three councils were awarded an Urban Sustainability Grant from the NSW Environmental Trust to implement a series of projects to reduce the councils’ collective ecological footprint.

Implementation and approach

Barrett House

Following the decision to develop the home a sustainable architect and community education specialist were employed to help determine the goals, process, layout and design of the project.

Energy and water retrofits and a range of simpler measures demonstrate the ease and value of efficiency within the home.

Sustainable transport is promoted through the locating of a car share 'pod' out the front of the house, installation of bike racks and, at a later stage, the conversion of the garage to an additional room.

The permaculture garden designed by a local group will demonstrate the capacity of urban gardens to provide locally produced organic food. Sustainable building materials and waste avoidance, minimisation and recovery are also showcased at the house.

"The benefit of having a real house fitted out is that people can see what the retrofits and modifications look like in practice, in situ. That way they can better imagine how they might work in their own homes," said Project Officer Richard Wilson.

The house has been designed to demonstrate how an inner city home can be made sustainable for less than $15,000. With limited new development in the three local government areas, a focus on retrofitting homes, rather than building new homes was chosen.

The house has also been designed to be informative for a range of audiences, from home and apartment dwellers, to owner occupiers and renters. Signage and displays throughout explain the function, cost and 'how to' of various devices, features or installations. The house will continue to be upgraded in the future as new technologies develop and rebates become available.

As well as providing a demonstration home, the site is being used as a community resource, currently providing a meeting place for local community groups including climate action, permaculture and food coop groups. While the house is owned and maintained by Randwick Council, the three councils hope to promote a sense of community ownership and pride in the house through a 'Friends of Barrett House' or similar volunteer-run program in the future.

Benefits

In addition to the community benefits of having a working demonstration home on the doorstep of the three local government areas, the project has also had a number of spin-off benefits.

Working in partnership has resulted in further projects, better collaboration and more coherence in community programs between the three councils. The three local government areas share similar demographics, problems and issues and residents often move between them. Sharing experience and more frequent communication has strengthened cross-council relationships.

In implementing the project council officers have experienced first hand the various planning, consulting and approval challenges, as well as fees and costs, involved in carrying out a retrofit of this kind. This experience will help them better educate the community on what is involved in creating a sustainable house and will inform the streamlining and improvement of internal planning and approval processes to make such projects easier for residents in the future.

"We have tried to identify the barriers the residents might come across and use this experience to improve our own processes within council,"says Richard Wilson.

Further information

For more information please contact:

Richard Wilson, 3-Council Ecological Footprint Project Officer, Ph: 02 9399 0628