From Fibro to Fabulous: Sanctuary Magazine features Freo

There are lots of good reasons to fix up and adapt rather than build new so I was pleased to see the latest issue of Sanctuary (a magazine dedicated to modern green homes) this issue focus on retrofitting our housing.

Over the years I have collected interesting stats like:

• The demolition of one small old building will negate the environmental benefits of recycling 1,344,000 aluminium cans due to the embodied energy that is lost.
• …the energy embodied in the existing building stock in Australia is equivalent to ten years of the total energy consumption for the entire country
• The energy inherent in the material and construction of “a typical Victorian period house contains energy equivalent to 15,000 litres of petrol which is enough to send a car round the world five times, or half way the distance to the moon”

Despite this old fibro houses that we have plenty of around Freo often aren’t seen as worthy of retrofitting. This issue of Sanctuary makes the case as to why you should including taking as one of its many interesting case studies our humble fibro abode in White Gum Valley.

It’s, as they say, available at all good newsagents and bookstores.