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Eco friendly house - Otago Coast
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This home is located on the Otago coast....
Last comment: We are online wholesaler for unlocked gsm cell phones and accessories and they comes with one year international warranty.

We provide convenient, cost-effective way to purchase your cell phone. you email us and obtain information about the...

Eco Innovations

A list of interesting eco inventions and innovations selected from the 'Springwise' newletter such as a low cost 'world bicycle' and a 'eco friendly board game'

More about eco innovations

Share a ride - save on fuel

Here's a concept Ecobob recently came across; Fueled by a community of over 3,000 passionately green kiwis, backpackers and everyday commuters, Jayride allows you to find a ride by carpool, rideshare, vanshare (or anything) to anywhere in NZ...

More about Jayride...

Urban Forests

Forests provide invaluable ecosystem services. These include sequestering carbon, filtering pollution from air, limiting extremes in temperature, reducing stormwater runoff and increasing precipitation, to name a few.

In urban settings these kinds of services are especially important in counteracting the detrimental effects of city living to both health and psychological well-being. Trees can also be of economic benefit to a city by providing shade to the north and west of buildings during hot summers thereby reducing the amount of energy used for cooling, and raising the value of properties.

Read more on Urban Forests...

The Manawatu River Opportunity

I woke up thinking about the Manawatu River. It's in need of our help. A new study has proven that it's currently amongst the most polluted in the world. How astoundingly un-New Zealand. I used to live in Palmerston North, having completed four years of university studies at Massey. I'd bike across that huge bridge and gaze down at the water...

Read more on Manawatu River...

Too much building waste

Construction, maintenance and renovation of buildings account for around 40 per cent of the world's material flows, so it's always sad to see an old building reduced to a pile of rubble...

More about building waste...

Connected communities

Over the past century, unprecedented technological breakthroughs have advanced the development of cities and promoted a move away from agricultural lifestyles. In urban areas, people have become increasingly dissociated from the source of their food and completely dependent on monetary systems as their primary resource.

Read about connected communities

Farming For The Future

This item on YouTube is a BBC documentary on the precient global farming and food crisis, filmed in the UK. Featuring Martin Crawford (Agroforestry Research Trust), Fordhall Farm, Richard Heinberg and others.

Watch the video

Peak Oil - What's in store for NZ?

This page is an open discussion on what is in store for New Zealand with peak oil either happening now or about to happen in the next few years. Please feel free to facts and opinions to this discussions along with any interesting links below.

Join the peak oil discussion

Disastrous consequences?

For more than ten thousand years the earth has been in a relatively stable state - a unique period called the Holocene, which has allowed civilization to evolve into what it is today. This desirable state is now under pressure from what scientists say is largely human driven change. The question is: how far can we go before our actions cause disastrous consequences, or is it already too late?

Read more here...

How Food Shapes Our Cities

Every day, in a city the size of London, 30 million meals are served. But where does all the food come from? Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world.

Watch this video now

Seed store to save the world

Genetic diversity is the stuff that evolution is made of. It allows a species to survive by adapting to a constantly changing environment. When a species population size decreases, some of the building blocks of that species are lost, and hence some of its ability to adapt to change is lost. This diversity within crops is the biological foundati...

More about the saving seeds

The Solar House (Video, UK)

Elaine Brook shows you round her eco-house which is fun to live in, cheap to run, and is probably how we'll all be living in a few years time.

Watch the video

'Green roofs' - An eco friendly covering

What if a city could support natural ecosystems? What if it could blend into the rural surrounds, manage some of its own byproducts, clean its own air and even produce its own food? Such a city would use green roofs.

Read the article on green roofs

A Woodland Home

It looks like something out of The Hobbit but this Welsh Woodland Home is an example of an affordable 'hand made' eco-house. It was built by Simon Dale, his father-in-law along with a group of friends. The house took around 1000-1500 person hours and £3000 (US$4950) to build.

Read more about this house

Dirty Rivers - New Zealand NOT 100% pure

New Zealand is promoted overseas as 100% Pure – a clean, green, environmentally conscious kind of place. But with 90 percent of our lowland rivers said to be too polluted to swim in, is our image based on a lie? 60 Minutes reporter Paula Penfold investigates.

Read more about dirty rivers

A bold plan for electric cars

Forget about the hybrid auto -- Shai Agassi says it's electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020.

Electric cars: Read more...

Rubbish good for building your house

People have been building dwellings for over 14,000 years, largely using materials accessible in their immediate environments. Whether that be wood, stone, clay, reeds, or ice, the practice has always been to use what's available and abundant. It's only since the advent of modern industry and mass production that we have been using products that are mass produced, and then transported over often vast distances to reach our doorsteps.

Building with rubbish

Keeping NZ in the 'Dark Ages'

Power companies are keeping consumers in the dark with dumb meters. Smart meters are the best way to give consumers control over their electricity consumption and stop power companies dictating to them, according to electricity consumer lobby group REFIT-NZ.

Read the full story

Imagine How High Petrol Prices Will Go

Here is a thought which businesses and car owners should take notice of when considering their plans for the next few years. The global economy is currently undergoing its worst downturn since the Second World War. Yet oil prices are at US70 a barrel and at their low point in February only briefly got to US$35 before shooting back up.

Read more about petrol prices

Poles Apart - The Great Climate Change Debate

Gareth Morgan couldn't decide whether he believed in climate change or not, so he hired the best international scientists to answer his questions and these are his findings. Combined with anecdotes from his own recent trips to Antarctica and the Arctic this is something completely unique in books about climate change - somebody who has approached the topic with an open mind, somebody who has the resources to explore such a topic and somebody who has personally investigated all of the issues.

More about the book

What happens when the lakes run dry next year and the year after?
What happens when the lakes run dry next year and the year after? New Zealand’s electricity consumers have again been left vulnerable by the failure to ensure this country has adequate long term energy supplies, Sustainable Electricity Association New Zealand said today. The launch of yet another winter power saving campaign tonight should be a wake-up call for this country’s electricity policy makers, said SEAN...
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DonateNZ
DonateNZ Donate NZ provides the ultimate simple portal where individuals, organisations and companies can donate time, expertise and goods in any condition to schools, early childhood and not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand. The process is simple! All you have to do is list what you have to offer then community organisations like those above have...
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COMPOSTING GUIDE
COMPOSTING GUIDE Compost is a mixture of organic material and is used as fertiliser. Generally, the ingredients used to make compost come from our gardens and kitchens (food scraps) although organic material is anything that was once living. Compost results from the eventual decomposition or break down of the ingredients. It can take anywhere between two and 18 mon...
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Worm Farming and how to make your own farm.
Worm Farming and how to make your own farm. Worm Farming When I told my long suffering husband that I was getting 5000 new pets and he had to help me come up with names for each one, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! Worms would have to be the best low maintenance pets available. They don’t need daily walks, don’t scratch the sofa, don’t require costly trips to the vets or get th...
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World Environment Day - SIFT
World Environment Day - SIFT The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust (SIFT) is a Canterbury-based Fund Management organisation whose vision is to lead, support and facilitate the promotion and adoption of sustainable practice and initiatives. World Environment Day (WED) commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimul...
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Welligton Car Pooling Web Site
Welligton Car Pooling Web Site Here, we do all the work for you. All you need to do is register, follow a few quick steps and we’ll find carpooling matches for you. We make it easy for you to say goodbye to those long solo drives to and from work, and hello to more money in your pocket with lower fuel costs each week. And that's just one of the many reasons to carpool.
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Couple builds an off grid sustainable earth house
Couple builds an off grid sustainable earth house They decided to design and build a home that was eco-friendly and could generate its own electricity. They used rammed earth for the walls, mixed with concrete – it is 450mm thick. 16 solar panels sit on the roof, generating electricity and another eight solar panels heat the hot water. The eco house is very well insulated with double glazed window...
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Wave power device gets green light

Wave power device gets green light A New Zealand developed and designed wave power device could be close to operating commercially within 5 years, thanks to a government grant. Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee announced today that Wellington-based company Power Projects Limited is to receive $760,000 from the Marine Energy Deployment Fund for a wave energy device it i...
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Attracting Bees to your Garden
Attracting Bees to your Garden Creating a Bee Friendly Garden Nothing evokes the sense of an organic garden like the hum of honeybees toiling among sun-warmed summer flowers. Honey bees are important for pollination of all our fruits and berries and many of our vegetables crops. They don’t need us but we certainly need them. World wide their numbers are on the decline and exp...
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Greywater expert backs Council approval
Greywater expert backs Council approval The Kapiti Coast District Council’s decision to approve Plan Change 75 and make the fitting of a greywater system and/or rain tank compulsory in all new dwellings has been applauded by an expert in greywater irrigation. Steven Roberts, Managing Director of Kapiti firm Watersmart, says legislating for the re-use of water from washing machines and...
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Good Wood Guide
Good Wood Guide Good Wood comes from ethical and ecologically sustainable sources. When you choose Good Wood, you support a solution to deforestation and related climate change, you protect unique biodiversity and you help local forest communities find alternatives to poverty and loss of livelihood.
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Smart choices indoors will help the great outdoors

Smart choices indoors will help the great outdoors While we can't all afford to build our dream "green" home, we are able to retrofit and apply practical eco-logic, making our homes more eco-friendly, with a smaller environmental footprint. Some houses tend to be easier to retrofit than others, and others are inherently greener and healthier, despite not being "consciously" b...
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Gardens for Kids
Gardens for Kids In today’s world any way to prise children out from in front of the TV or Xbox can be a real challenge for parents. One way to get kids outside can be to involve them in gardening. By designing the garden with the kids in mind it is possible to develop an exciting adventure playground and fantasy world within your own property boundary. A child’s...
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Aquacalypse Now - The End of Fish
Aquacalypse Now - The End of Fish Our oceans have been the victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries. Beginning in the 1950s, as their operations became increasingly industrialized--with onboard refrigeration, acoustic fish-finders, and, later, GPS--they first depleted stocks of cod, hake, flounder, sole, and halibut in the ...
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EcoDay 2010
EcoDay 2010 EcoDay is a free, community event and is Auckland’s premier environmental festival.
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Eco Houses

Do you own or live in an eco house? You can list your eco house on Ecobob for others to view. You can even sell your eco house.

You can make it easier for people to live in a sustainable way by listing your house as an example.

Browse eco houses | Search eco houses


Latest Forum Posts

Post a topic or ask a question

Hi Pete Did you have any issues getting a building consent? If so, any pointers? Seeker

Updating an old thread: Will a ‘new home buyer’ ever be able to afford a ‘green’ home? If you l...

Pete I am all uPVC but I don't like the cheap and nasty ones. They are not just ugly looking but ...

Oh well, maybe they've improved since they were installed in the house you saw? The ones I saw in th...

Have you considered to install a concrete tank which becomes part of the deck structure? Yes it cou...

Hi Kristy. I work at Waterplex in Aus - the company that makes Eco Sac and Reo Sac. Tim's sug...

Underfloor heating there is not a right or wrong way, It how it is applied and what your expections...

Looked at a house for sale with Warm Windows. No thank you no!!!!!! Just looking at the rough work...

Give the Russians a call. - Warm Windows Bought my uPVC windows from them after seeing them in the f...

My slab was poured yesterday 8th February 2010 with underfloor heating pipes embedded, so heres what...

Hi Ingo Can you get fire-rated timber fibre insulation? Seeker

No it is not quite like that. Only larger panes are glazed on site and even imported windows come g...

To my knowledge whatever windows you buy, they come without the glasing as it would be too fragile a...

Have tried to shop in Europe? Not as cheap as China but the best in the world. Glas compliance and ...

Well its an ambitious task would be the easiest thing to say. 1st off the glass needs to meet all...

@K: Noted, but not necessarily agreed. ;-) All right, initials are fine. As long as I know that it i...

Hi Rex. Sorry for the long delay in replying to you, I did not get any notification (maybe lost) and...

Nonsense it works well overseas it works well here. Especially with the ever changing weather it of...

50m overlay is not the best system for New Zealand. NZ has relatively cheap electricity and relative...

Ingo Ratsdorf The building industry in this country is so dirty, nasty and corrupt that we need t...

To all anonymous users here: Any chance that you create a login, login, or at least state your name ...

Where is the hint about the David Reid Home??? The censorship is getting a bit over the top here :...

Yeah yeah its all good and fine to say get rid of the source but try living in rented accommodation ...

Very interesting re: the slab insulation, I observed a new house being built over a number of weeks ...

Hi bj, We were originally going to go with underfloor but have decided against it (v.expensive for t...

Post a topic or ask a question