One of our projects is now for sale:
Built on a 809 m2 section next to the historic Riverhead Hotel. The Building is a double storey timber framed building on a fully insulated concrete slab.
The cladding is rebated bevel-back macrocarpa weatherboard left natural. The intersecting monopitch roofs give it a interesting appeal and the north facing roof has a solar-thermal panel installed that provides 75% of the annual hot water. Latest LED lighting installed.
Read more: Riverhead passive solar design house
Latest news blog
Latest News
This category contains the latest news of the last month.
Older articles can be found in the News Archive.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Thursday, 02 May 2013 12:13
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 71
I just had to publish that in order to be able to share it.
(it came in via email)
If you would like to change the world and make it a better place, join AVAAZ today. It's free and simple. I have done it. They don't send you spam, only important petitions.
Dear amazing Avaaz community,
We did it -- Europe just banned bee-killing pesticides!! Mega-corporations like Bayer threw everything they had at this, but people-power, science and good governance came out on top!!
Vanessa Amaral-Rogers from the specialist conservation organisation Buglife, says:
“It was a close vote, but thanks to a massive mobilisation by Avaaz members, beekeepers, and others, we won! I have no doubt that the floods of phonecalls and emails to ministers, the actions in London, Brussels and Cologne, and the giant petition with 2.6 million signers made this result possible. Thank you Avaaz, and everyone who worked so hard to save bees!”
Bees pollinate two thirds of all our food -- so when scientists noticed that silently, they were dying at a terrifying rate, Avaaz swung in to action, and we kept on swinging until we won. This week’s victory is the result of two years of flooding ministers with messages, organizing media-grabbing protests with beekeepers, funding opinion polls and much, much more. Here’s how we did it, together:
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 08:34
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 367
Via ecowatch, 2012-12-21
Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its final environmental assessment on the so-called “frankenfish,” a salmon that has been genetically engineered by Massachusetts-based AquaBountyTechnologies Inc. (ABTX:LSE). This would be the first-ever genetically engineered animal intended for human consumption to enter the marketplace despite widespread public outcry and a faulty assessment based on incomplete company data.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Friday, 14 December 2012 12:36
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 611
Via Treehugger, 2012-08-15
Canucks seem to have a sharper grasp of climate science than their southern neighbors. Here's the Globe and Mail, the nation's top, conservative-leaning paper:
Only 2 per cent of Canadians who responded to a new opinion poll believe climate change is not occurring ...“Our survey indicates that Canadians from coast to coast overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and is occurring, at least in part due to human activity,” said centre CEO Carmen Dybwad.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 21:16
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 576
On July 17th, Annie Leonard will be releasing her new movie, The Story of Change.
She sent me an email about what to expect with the release of a 30-second teaser for the movie.
Annie was inspired to make The Story of Change by the thousands of people who've asked her what they can do to change the system she described in The Story of Stuff.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Friday, 17 August 2012 10:45
- Written by Original article via Yale University, Climate & Energy Institute
- Hits: 760
Despite a sharp drop in public concern over global warming, Americans—regardless of political affiliation—support the passage of federal climate and energy policies, according to the results of a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities.
Read more: Poll: Americans Support Strong Climate, Energy Policies
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 June 2012 15:39
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 270
has a new home page!
We are excited. After several years of good service, we have retired the Joomla CMS 1.5 and have upgraded to Joomla 2.5 with a new template system and some new features.
While some minor items need refinement, the overall site is working quite nicely. If you come across anything that does not work, please drop us an email.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Thursday, 16 August 2012 07:41
- Written by David DeFusco
- Hits: 634
Via Yale University, 2012-08-08
Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies in Geophysical Research Letters.
Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. Normal air concentrations are less than 2 parts per million, but the Yale researchers found average levels of 15,000 parts per million inside trees.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Friday, 22 June 2012 12:58
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 403
Via Los Angeles Times, 23/05/2012
Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean.
Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Friday, 06 July 2012 09:15
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 640
Via Questpoint Solar Solutions, 03-07-2012
The University of Utah has placed an order for a 40-foot, all-electric transit bus with BYD Company Limited (BYD) the largest manufacture of all-electric buses in the world. BYD’s long-range, all-electric, “GreenCity” buses have been running worldwide in commercial fleet service for the last two years. BYD’s GreenCity fleets have accumulated over 14 million miles using BYD’s internally developed electric drive technologies and Iron-Phosphate battery systems.
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- Parent Category: News
- Category: Latest News
- Last Updated on Friday, 22 June 2012 12:58
- Written by Ingo Ratsdorf
- Hits: 357
via ecowatch.org, 17-05-2012
Vermont Public Interest Research Group
Gov. Peter Shumlin made Vermont the first state in the nation to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas when he signed H.464 into law on May 16.
Shumlin praised environmental advocates and legislative sponsors for their leadership on the bill. He also noted that the new law could be a model for other states to follow.
“Fracking for gas is not the solution to our energy needs, it’s part of the problem,” said Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG). “I’m proud that Vermont has a governor who understands the difference between a problem and a solution and is willing to stand up for clean renewable energy over fossil fuels.”