Welcome to the Eco-My-Flat 2008 Competition page!
Here you will find information and details from the 2008 competition.
Latest News
4 April - We have winners! Congratulations to The Castle and The Bunker for taking out the top prizes! See below for a full list of winners!
28 March - The last workshop is over, and final audits are about to begin!
19 March - At the third workshop on transport Paul de Spa did a show-and-tell with his new $80 bike trailer. Find out more about them at Steven Muir's website. Matt's cinnamon biscuits disappeared quickly with requests for the recipe from happy contestants.
11 March - Second workshop on waste proclaimed not to be waste of time. Kate's home made hummus was very popular.
4 March - First workshop declared a success by all, despite lack of bagels.
1-3 March - Auditing of flats underway.
28 Feb - Registrations for 2008 have closed.
2008 Winners!
Major Prizes:
Best Eco Flat -The Castle
Prize:
Weekend in the Catlins
Forest and Bird membership
$500 installed insulation
1 x $100 bike voucher
$25 scorpio voucher
Bottle of wine
Comments: Where some flats focused on one particular area, The Castle went hard with everything! Their commitment to eco-flatting included: baking their own bread, growing fresh garden produce (until they ran out of space to plant any more!), preserving fruit, heaps of work on insulating (including cleverly using bubble-wrap as a form of double-glazing), installing better curtains, and talking to their landlords who arranged insulation for their hot water cylinder. They also bought a power meter from Dick Smith and did a major investigation of their electricity usage complete with graphs and illustrations. Brilliant effort on all fronts.
Most Improved Flat – The Bunker
Prize:
Weekend in the Catlins
Forest and Bird membership
One dozen bottles of Phoenix
$100 bike voucher
2 double cinema passes
Comments: A group of "hard-core engineers," The Bunker made a lot of innovative improvements to their flat. They replaced their light bulbs with eco-bulbs, built a vegetable garden and started preserving fruit. They also made a wind generator out of recycled materials, and brewed their own biofuel from rotting apples in their back yard and used it to power their lawnmower. Put an emphasis on proactive solutions to improving the environment rather.
Other Categories:
Best starting efforts – The Greasy Wok
Prize:
$100 trade aid goodies basket
One
dozen bottles of Phoenix
Comments: On their first visit to The Greasy Wok, our auditors described it as "very, very grotty with trash everywhere." The second audit found them in the middle of Earth Hour, with the power turned off and a musician friend playing the guitar. Their eco-improvements included expanding their vegetable garden and growing their own produce and herbs, visiting farmers' markets, composting everything they could, and getting extra recycling bins. Very enthusiastic and trying hard in all areas!
Best energy innovators – The Bunker
Prize:
$100 bike voucher
$25 Scorpio voucher
Comments: The Bunker's engineering expertise in creating energy-saving contraptions meant they were a shoe-in for this category. Their wind turbine, home-made biofuel and pedal generator showed what is possible with a bit of know-how and a trip to the supershed.
Least wasters – The Aluminium Smelter
Prize:
Greenman Beer
$100 bike voucher
Comments: The Aluminium Smelter took waste seriously. All flatmates stopped using cars completely, and all went vegan during the competition! After realising how much packaging they usually got when shopping, they figured out alternatives – buying more in bulk and buying from the local growers' market, and trying to buy New Zealand made when they do buy packaged goods. Only used one council rubbish bag during the whole competition!
Best hunter-gatherers – Clare and Co
Prize:
$50 Piko voucher
$100 Supershed voucher
Ya-ya teahouse t-shirt voucher
Comments: Clare and Co are experts at turning trash into treasure, re-using and sourcing all sorts of items from garage sales and op-shops. They "borrow" fruit from trees in the neighbourhood, making jam and stewing and freezing fruit, and are keen home bakers. They also made their own vege garden and also a shed out of recycled materials for chilling out in the garden.
Best Teamwork – Paeroa Pirates
Prize:
2 cinema passes
Pair of socks
Comments: The Paeroa Pirates were the most enthusiastic flat, coming to all the workshops together and working well as a team. They reduced the number of cars they have to one (between five people) and have an admirably low power bill. They reuse plastic bags, bought eco cleaning products and increased their vegetarian meals.
Great effort – Hornby Habitat
Prize:
2 cinema passes
Comments: Hornby Habitat are well set up in a flat which has good insulation, double-glazing and a heat pump. They are also all keen cyclists. They built a raised vegetable garden and compost heap from wood they scavenged, and started buying in bulk in an effort to reduce packaging.
Great effort – Lily's
Prize:
2 cinema passes
Comments: Lily's have a great garden, growing lots of veges. They also grow their own mushrooms, and make their own bread and yogurt. They have a worm farm for composting food scraps. Wrote creative blog entries from the perspective of their adopted neighbourly cat.
Competitor Blogs
All eco-my-flat competitors are encouraged to post blog entries giving details of their progress throughout the competition. Prizes will be awarded for the best blogs. View all eco-my-flat blogs (hosted at carboncreditcollector.com, courtesy of Ooid).
Eco-my-flat is drawing to a close, and our bloggers are summing up their experiences. The Bunker's proactive approach, with their variety of home-made eco-contraptions including a wind turbine and pedal generator, showed that saving the planet doesn't have to be a chore:Eco-my-flat has been an interesting experience, when our group first signed up to it we agreed if we were going to do it then we had to make it fun. Rather than take a reactive response to climate awareness, we have tried to be pro-active by coming up with ideas that not only reduce our effect on the environment but actually do something to improve it. |
The Paeroa Pirates found fulfillment in their new eco-warrior identity:
Our proudest moment: being called nazi eco hippies by visitors who left a light on (we were so proud to be recognised)... We have gone from un-educated, un-eco tyrants to energetic, enthusiastic eco-freaks (a bloody good effort on our behalf to be honest). We have REALLY enjoyed the experience and learning to be eco-conscious about our way of life... The things we have learnt and habits we have got into this month are going to stick with us - there is no way any of us could revert back to our old carbon chugging ways. |
Meanwhile, Clare and Co apparently found spiritual enlightenment from the satisfaction of doing the right thing:
But it hasn’t been easy being Eco. The God of Convenience keeps demanding worship in our hectic, urban lives, and the Goddess of Modern Comfort offers her many temptations. But sometimes it is more fun to ignore it. To get our fingernails dirty, gain a bruise here and there, spend an evening talking in the dark; and through it all, feel the dim pangs of becoming ‘conciously unskilled’, knowing that one day we might become ‘conciously skilled’. |
Read more about their adventures, and those of other competition entrants, at the eco-my-flat blog site.