Proud to be a Green Plumber

I'm going to focus on the Green Plumbing movement in Australia for a while here. It just seems that everything I read points to Australia as the focal point for Green Plumbing globally.

The Aussies are years ahead of the rest of the world because of their government sponsored "Green Plumber" accreditation program. It started as a collaboration between a trade association, RMIT university and the federal government to study and develop that program. After the program was developed and deployed there was concern that there would be little interest in the classes besides those who were saw a business opportunity in the new green methods. However, the response has been much greater than expected because of the idealism shown by the plumbing tradesmen in tackling the global issue of conservation. Read the article from The Age, a newspaper from Victoria.

I would like to see a green plumbing certification here in Portland at some point.

Green Building! ... in ... Northern Idaho?

Yep. Northern Idaho. That bastion of forward thinking and tree hugging environmentalism has it's first green built housing development.

/end sarcasm

Ok. So, Northern Idaho isn't the most progressive place in the world. However, you know the time has come for green building when Sandpoint, ID starts developing green. This story about a housing development built from sustainably grown timber, energy star windows and no "outgassing" carpets came out of Boisie State Radio. It got airtime on Oregon Public Radio a few days ago. It seems like almost every day now I'm seeing green building articles in the newspapers and in the MSM in general.

Here is the transcript from OPB: Home Builders See Green In North Idaho

Are there also green building projects springing up in your community? Are you suprised to see them? Tell us about green building in your community. Click on the comments link below.

Green Plumbing: Australia 2

Along with Austrailia's dedication to water conservation comes an industry of green plumbing and water saving products. Here are some interesting Austrailian products I have found:

An alternative to rain barrels and underground cisterns.
The Waterfall: Modular Water Storage System

Green Plumbing: Australia

In searching for green plumbing related information around the internets I started to realize something. I realized that there were places around the world that are far ahead of the US in the green building movement. Even though Portland is considered a leader in green building in the US, you would be hard pressed to find a green plumber. In fact, this year's ReDirect Guide, a regional guide to environmentally friendly businesses in the Pacific Northwest, has only one green plumber listed. I'm sure there are some more out there. They are just not that common.

Australia seems like the place to be if you are a green plumber. Apparently, Australia is one of the driest areas in the world and is in the midst of the second worst drought it's seen since 1900. However, the population has the third largest per capita usage of water in the world. This puts them in a bit of a pinch.

One of the ways Australia is reacting to their water problems is through widespread adoption of green plumbing practices. Here's what Wikipedia says about the current drought , "The current drought has changed the way Australia treats its water resources. Because of the long-term effects of the drought now showing, many state governments are attempting to "drought-proof" their states with more permanent solutions... Now schemes like Grey-water water-recycling, government rebates for home-owners to install water tanks, and tougher restrictions on industries have come into effect."