Interest boom in sustainable living

AROUND 1000 people visited Cape Paterson’s eco village ‘The Cape’ on Sunday.
Five homes were opened to the public as part of Sustainable House Day.
Two stages amounting to 66 lots have already been completed and the lots are almost entirely sold.
Stage three is on the way, anticipated for summer.
The homes in the eco village have all been designed for comfort and to showcase the best practices for energy efficiency.
The eco village is the first of its kind in Australia. People journeyed from as far as northern New South Wales to participate in the open day.
Each home’s energy bill is 20 percent of bills charged to conventional homes, with some zeroing their energy bills.
Designers and contractors were on hand throughout the day to answer questions.
Tad Hendry from Adapt Design Group designed and built his family home in The Cape.
The house has an 8.7 star rated home and features a combination of design choices to maximise efficiency.
The house works with the sun to naturally heat the house during winter, which has the opposite effect to cool the house over summer.
“(The estate) is important on a range of levels. It helps to decrease energy bills and it’s a place we really need to be in on a global level. We need to start living more sustainably for the benefit of the planet,” Mr Hendry said.
“It also brings us back to the old values. It is a great community to live in and everyone knows their neighbours.
“The reception (on the open day) was phenomenal. The scale of interest was incredible.”
Experts in sustainable living also presented.
On top of this, people had the opportunity to try out electric bikes and electric cars.
The Cape director Brendan Condon said the electric vehicles were being promoted because the houses were designed with electric vehicles charging points and a solar public electric vehicle charging station would be installed in the estate.
Included in the estate is an innovative community garden.
It is a highly productive food garden fed by surplus rain water harvested from homes in stage one.
The garden is used by 30 gardeners and uses efficient wicking beds.
Another attractive feature of the estate is that it is 50 percent open space.
Interest in stage three of the estate can be registered at liveatthecape.com.au.

Great lifestyle: The Cape director Brendan Condon was pictured with Adapt Design Group’s Tad Hendry, Zac Gilmour and Jess Cuman on Sustainable House Day last Sunday. Adapt Design Group designed and built this home, belonging to Mr Hendry.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Sep 18 2018. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry