What’s stopping your block from being greener?

Living as I do in a building that won an international architectural award for sustainability features in its design – many of which never made it off the drawing board – I may be a bit sensitive to environmental plans that never see the light of day.

There’s many a slip between what’s promised and what’s delivered in planning – especially in apartments. And there are too many people in strata for whom sustainabilty is only seen as an immediate cost and not as a long-term benefit, either to their block or the planet. 

In our case, the solar panels that were supposed to heat the outdoor swimming pool were never installed and, 20 years on, we are still heating our pool, and the surrounding air, with energy created at least in part  by fossil fuels.

The excuses trotted out every AGM as to why we can’t have solar panels now have, over the years, ranged from the comic to the chronic.

It would cost more to pump the pool water on to the roof that you would save in heating, said one chair who couldn’t tell the different between a domestic hot water booster and photovoltaic cells.

The panels could blow off and kill someone, was another excuse. In the following storm the only fatality in the city from flying objects was someone hit by a gas cylinder. So far there has been no moves to protect the general population from airborne barbecues.

Oh, and then there was “Fitting the solar panels would endanger the waterproof membrane on the roof” – because, obviously, you would use installers who’d never been on the roof of an apartment block before.

Anyway, rant over: I’m happy to promote a survey about barriers to improvements sustainable infrastructure that havecome up in in your block.

As well as helping to save the planet, it’s worth doing as you could be in the running to win an iPad Air. But you are on a tight deadline as the survey closes on August 9.

And if you really want to get behind the project, download and print this poster for your noticeboard, so others can take part too. – JimmyT

Explanatory notes from the organisers.     

You’re invited to participate in an online survey to share your views and experiences about installing sustainability infrastructure in your building.

By ‘sustainability infrastructure’, we mean solar panels, batteries, smart meters, efficient hot water systems, electric vehicle charging stations and other emerging energy innovations (such as energy management services). 

Further information

This survey is part of a research project by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology and Green Strata for the Department of Industry, Planning and Environment.

Your privacy is important to us. Any information provided will be solely used for the purposes of the stated research project and will not identify you in any way. 

Please see the first page of the survey for further details on the project, how we will use the information you give us and how we will ensure confidentiality.