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Information about Tanya Ha

Tanya Ha is an author, television presenter and a enthusiastic ambassador for green, sustainable living. Tanya's books include:

• Greeniology
• Green Stuff for Kids
• The Green Consumer Guide
• Green Building and Renovating

You can find out more about Tanya by visiting her website.

Geothermal Heating and Cooling

One of the most energy efficient ways to heat and cool your home is using a geothermal heating system. Geothermal heating and cooling systems rely on the temperature of the earth to maintain a comfortable environment in the home. By using the earth temperature energy requirements, and costs, are reduced.

The following websites have information about geothermal heating and cooling systems:

• Direct Energy
• Geo Thermal Dynamics
• Your Home Technical Manual (you can buy the Your Home book from Sustainable Insight)
• Wikipedia

For other information on how to keep your Australian home cool or warm we recommend the following books:

• Warm House Cool House by Nick Hollo
• Your Home

Making our urban landscapes part of the ecological biodiversity

An article in Ken Hickson's ABC Carbon Express reminded me of the opportunity we have to link our urban areas with the natural environment and enhance our suburbs for us and native flora and fauna.

The article by QUT professor of architecture, Janis Birkland identifies the opportunity we have to retrofit our urban areas to establish an environment that is both regenerative and harmonious to the natural environment, and an environment that is cleaner and healthier for our communities. One way to achieve this is through smarter and more considered building design.

These ideas, along with the establishment of urban nature corridors that allow environments to connect, as discussed in the book Corridor Ecology, provide an exciting opportunity and if implemented, a more dynamic, bio-diverse, and natural environment in our suburbs for our future enjoyment.

Ken Hickson is the author of The ABC of Carbon. The book Corridor Ecology has been reviewed Dr Kees Hulsman, Senior Lecturer, Griffith School of the Environment, Griffith University. You can read Dr Hulsman's review here.

Chemical Free Living - how not to be poisoned

Watching 60 Minutes this week left me frightened and sad. Their feature story, 'Poisoned', tells of the continuing use of chemicals in nut, vegetable and fruit farming in Australia that have a history of causing birth defects in humans and other living creatures. We recommend you read the full story.

If you are wanting to learn more about chemical-free eating and living we recommend the following books:

• Chemical Free Kids by Sarah Lantz
• Chemical Free Home by Robin Stewart
• Chemical Free Pest Control by Robin Stewart

Another way to be more certain about he what is sprayed and added to your food is to grow for food at home, although we do suggest you check out the history of your property and any likely trace chemicals that may be found. We have a great number of books on growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs.

Love the electric car?

If you have an interest or passion for or against the electric car you may be interested in the website Dump the Pump. Established by Better Place the websites provides news and information related to electric cars and aims to help promote the adoption of electric vehicles in Australia.

If you thinking of making the change to an electric car, or hybrid electric vehicle or another alternative fuel vehicle you may find the book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hybrid and Alternative Fuel Vehicles by Jack Nerad useful.

Where can I find education resources for teaching sustainability?

Often we are contacted at Sustainable Insight by teachers, educators, consultants, lecturers and students on where they might be be able to find good resources to teach others about sustainability. Here are some of our suggestions and recommendations below.

Books

• Education for Sustainability in Primary Curriculum - A Guide for Teachers
• The Outdoor Classroom by Carolyn Nuttall and Janet Millington - A guide to taeching children about gardening and food
• Handbook for Sustainability Literacy - for higher education and informal adult education
• Kitchen Table for Sustainability - for informal adult education

Websites

• TeachSustainability.com.au - A resource sharing database for teachers
• OurCoolSchool.org - Everything about our environment for students and teachers
• ARIES - The Australian Research Institute for Education for Sustainability
• Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative - an initiative by the Australian Government

Do you know of and would like to recommend other resources?

Are there alternatives to insulating your home?

I really feel for people involved in the Australian insulation industry, particularly feel for those who have been in the industry long before the government started to meddle and who were doing a reputable job. I have no doubt that have been on one big roller coaster ride, a ride that still has quite a way to go.

Insulating your home is one of the better ways to moderate your home temperature and to keep down heating and energy costs, but there are some alternatives, if installation of insulation is no longer an option for you.

Books like Nick Hollo's Warm House, Cool House and the Your Home Technical Manual offer great ideas on passive solar housing and on ways to help keep energy costs down, without totally relying on insulation. However both these books tend to provide good advice on new homes, or homes that are likely to undergo a significant renovation. Derek Wrigley's book Making Your Home Sustainable is focused more on existing homes and doing modifications to help improve the energy sustainability of your home.

Although modifying your home to achieve energy reductions can often have the greatest impact and achieve the best results, they can often be the most expensive and consume more resources. Learning to live green and being energy conscious is one way to improve your energy usage, reduce your ecological footprint, save money and help improve your life.

Books like A Lighter Footprint by Angela Crocombe, Save by Shannon Lush, The CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook, and True Green Home by Kim McKay and Jenny Bonin offer, in very different ways, good suggestions on how to live a green life and reduce your energy consumption.

We would love for your check check out our range of Sustainable Housing and Sustainable Living books are let others know your thoughts on which books helped your improve your energy consumption and also to hear your suggestions on alternatives to insulation.

ReRead

A big thank you to all those people and organisations who have donated books to Sustainable Insight's ReRead program. We have already made one delivery of books to the Rwanda Literacy Project and are busy preparing deliveries for other potential recipients.

One thing to please keep in mind. When donating books please make sure you remove or conceal any of your personal details. We do not controlled to which individuals these books are received by and we would hate to see you get harassed or worse following your good deed.

Select the link to find out how you can donate books to the ReRead program.