Sustainable Housing
Retrofitting a house or building from scratch can save you money in energy bills, keep you comfortable and create a light and delightful space to live in.
We make this easy for you. We often run sustainable house tours, so you get the opportunity to visit sustainable homes in your community and hear from others what they are doing to make their homes and gardens sustainable. Please see our Facebook page for videos featuring sustainable houses, gardens and other sustainability topics in our ‘SEE-Change Explores’ series. Check out the topics below for more information and resources about sustainable housing.
Sustainable House Day
Sustainable House Day 2024, a community-driven event hosted by Renew, will showcase over 150 homes across Australia that have met the challenges of reducing energy bills, getting off gas, being more climate-resilient, and providing a comfortable home environment.
This year, SEE Change, are partnering with Renew to showcase Canberra’s amazing sustainable homes.
This event is a great opportunity for people who are interested in renovating, building a passive house, converting their home to electric, or making energy efficient improvements to their home.
These tours will allow people to see some practical examples and speak to the home owners. The sessions will be 1 hour each and have time for a Q and A. See here for more details and registration links.
Wrapping and sealing your building
SEE Change has collaborated with Commonsense Sustainability Solutions to develop a video series about how to wrap and seal a building properly.
This video series shows how to improve the construction of a building, which helps to maintain a comfortable temperature inside the house, stops drafts, and provides moisture control and water protection. Find the whole series in our Resources section below.
Sustainable House Tours
Members of the community open their homes to demonstrate sustainable building and living practices.
To find out about upcoming tours see our events page.
Home Buyers
Building or buying a new sustainable home can save you money in energy bills, keep you comfortable and create a light and delightful space to live in.
We’ve developed ‘The Your New Home Buyer’s Guide’, in collaboration with Paul Nagle from Commonsense Sustainability Solutions. View and download the guide below
The SuperShed
Woden SEE Change loves a challenge! We continue our conversion of a tumble down shed on the Canberra City Farm (CCF) site on Dairy Road, ACT into an inviting, energy efficient educational space for CCF volunteers, schools, community groups and all visitors to use and learn from.
The shed is available for free use by any CCF or SEE Change group - except for the days when reconstruction is occurring.
Transition from gas
By switching your appliances from gas to electricity, you can save money on your household bills, improve your family’s convenience and comfort, and take action to stop climate change.
Head to Make The Switch for a comprehensive guide on why and how to switch your household from gas to all electric.
Electrify Canberra have a step by step checklist on electrifying your home, check it out here
Co-Housing Canberra
Cohousing Canberra formed in mid 2017 and was successful in its expression of interest to become a demonstration housing project for 30 north facing dwellings. The group are awaiting valuations from the ACT Government on two parcels of land in Canberra’s inner north.
To keep up to date with Cohousing Canberra – join the Facebook Group
Draught-Proofing Workshops
SEE Change host draught proofing workshops twice a year to help Canberrans learn simple, easy and cost effective measures to make their homes more comfortable and save on energy bills. Jeff Knowles from Eco Footprint Solutions has been on board to deliver his expertise on energy efficiency. These events usually take place at the start of winter and summer - keep an eye out in our newsletter, events page, and social media to hear about these events!
Resources
New Home Buyer’s Guide
The Your New Home Buyer’s Guide was developed by SEE Change in collaboration with Paul Nagle from the local Canberra business, Commonsense Sustainability Solutions. The Guide takes you through the steps involved with choosing a home, explaining what to look for and the important questions to ask, especially if you are new to the process.
Whether building or buying a new home, The Guide looks at:
Getting started
Planning your budget
Choosing where to live
Choosing your home
Working with your Expert (room by room)
Selecting heating and cooling, fittings and appliances
Selecting colours and finishes, and outdoor areas
Finishing off
It also explains what you should look for to make sure your home is cheaper to run with lower energy bills and at the same time better for the environment.
Buying Checklists
To complement the Guide, the following checklists have also been developed.
The ‘Overview’ checklists are a condensed version of the checklists shown in the Buyer’s Guide, making them an easy, paper-saving print version.
The ‘Before signing a contract and building’ checklists provides a list of the key items to check before you sign a contract or start building.
Video Series
Wrapping and sealing your building
This video series: 'Tips and tricks for wrapping and sealing your building', by SEE Change and Commonsense Sustainability Solutions, takes you step-by-step through a range of techniques for how to effectively wrap and seal a building.
Video 1: Getting started – tools
Video 2: Getting started – tapes
Video 3: Putting on the wall wrap
Video 4: Sealing around penetrations
Video 5: Taping up the joints
Video 6: Sealing around windows
Video Series
How to construct a green roof
This video series: ‘How to construct a green roof’, by SEE Change and Commonsense Sustainability Solutions, explains how an extensive green roof is constructed.
Video 1: Waterproofing a green roof
Video 2: Layers in a green roof
Transition Streets Workbook
Transition Streets is a free program designed to help us all build a stronger community and reduce our ecological footprint and our impact on the environment.
It involves a series of workshops or sessions — set out in this booklet — that you can take in your own home, with your household, or with a bunch of your neighbours and friends.
By reading through this booklet together and doing the fun activities with friends, you’ll be able to save money on your electricity, water and grocery bills, reduce your carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, help minimise your household’s reliance on fossil fuels, find cheap and free alternatives to pricey consumer products and improve your health!
Email hello@seechange.org.au for a copy of the Transition Streets Workbook.