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Take a long look at your rubbish bin. Can you envisage turning it into kitchen shelves?Recycled rubbish bins are just one innovative feature of the new headquarters for the Environmental Technology Centre (ETC) at Murdoch University. The $500,000 building is a case study for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), showcasing the effectiveness and advantages of sustainable construction. “The ETC demonstrates the possibilities of sustainable construction, using recycled materials wherever possible and ensuring the building is constructed to be easily recycled at the end of its time,” said the ETC Director, Professor Goen Ho. “Up to 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from quarrying materials, construction, use and demolition of buildings.” Professor Ho said sustainable construction was more than simply ensuring a building faces north to capture the best proportion of sun and taking advantage of afternoon breezes. The large windows of the ETC’s building ensure that no lights or ventilation are needed during the day, and a wax-like substance under the floor controls temperature by releasing and absorbing heat. As well as design aspects, the ETC building shows most building materials can be taken from recycled items. In the ETC’s building, the rammed earth walls are recycled house bricks and the terrazzo floor is concrete with broken high strength glass that cannot be remelted, and used as a substitute for gravel normally used in concrete; and the concrete pavers in the courtyard contain 20 percent flyash from the Kwinana power station, the ash that remains after coal has been combusted to produce electricity. Even water from the kitchen and toilets is treated and used to irrigate the ETC’s permaculture garden. The ETC is working with more than 20 industry partners to refine each innovative design idea, either using their waste materials or their environmental technologies. “We are demonstrating that green business makes sense - it often costs less to build and is usually less expensive to operate,” said Professor Ho. The ETC Centre was showcased at the Australian Innovation Festival in May. |
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Editor: Pepi Smyth
Produced by the ">Office
of Community Relations, Murdoch
University |
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