The Sustainable Renter 2011 No. 3 : the checklist

Knowledge is power the headline says - and I believe it in more ways than one.  In matters of public policy and encouragement to voters, everything seems more geared to homeowners.  Certainly, little is available for renters - whether they are in the private rental market or renting some form of public housing.  Certainly, there is little or no coercion to get landlords pro-active and providing sustainable measures on their properties.

So what to do?  I believe it is up to us the renters who want to be green, who want sustainability in their lives.  So here is a check list:

1. Do your utmost to be a good tenant in every way.  This is credit in the bank, in a manner of speaking.  There are a lot of bad tenants out there: not paying their rent, doing disappearing acts, leaving premises in poor condition full of horrible old furniture.  Being the very opposite of these sort of people gives good street cred - and property manager cred at the real estate agency.  There is no guarantee that being the best-est tenant will get you what you want but one thing is certain - you won't get to first base in any negotiations without this vital component.
2. Put your thinking cap on and be reflective.  Sustainability is a way of life - in all parts of your life.  You don't establish sustainable life patterns without having a good think and reflecting on what you are doing now and what you might be able to do differently, better, and more sustainably.  So please remember: sustainability starts with you.
3. Look around.  Start with what you have.  For instance, when I moved into my current place the toilet would not switch off and would continue to fill - thus wasting vast amounts of water.  So I called to ask for it to be repaired.  The toilet cistern was a bit of an antique insofaras it was single flush.  So when I asked for the repair, I suggested that perhaps a new cistern with dual flush could be considered.  It was considered and now I have not only a properly operating toilet but a modern dual flush one.  Quite a reasonable transaction and one small step towards a sustainable renting experience.  
4. Garden. Also in the "look around" category is to look at how you might garden at your premises.  You may have a strip of lawn/land/garden.  You might have nothing more than a porch or the back steps.  Get some pots from the hard rubbish or a coolite box from the greengrocers and plant some herbs.  'Growing your own' is a vital part of sustainable living.  You may wonder what difference growing a few herbs in a box is going to make - especially when you can buy as you need it at the local supermarket.  The biggest and most vital difference is to acquire gardening skills.  This is a lifelong pursuit.  Even the best gardeners admit they are still learning after decades of garden involvement.  You need to look at the sunshine and light that plants need - and that herb box may need to be shifted around to different spots at different times of the year.  You learn that not only do you need wholistic food and maintenance, so does soil....and so on. So start your lifelong learning about the natural world right now.
5. Utilities. Electricity, gas, and water are things we can take for granted. We flick a switch and turn on a tap. It's there. We need it. We use it.  There is where Point No. 2 is vital.  The way we use these utilities can be crucial in our care for the planet.  Not to mention that there are major corporations out there making a heap of money out of our utility usage.  So, it's time to have a big think ... and often it will need to be of the thinking outside the square variety. Very few renters are living with solar power on their rooves but I reckon that should be the aim of the green and sustainable renter: to negotiate with the landlord for sustainable power.  
6. Conversations. Humans are social creatures and it is amazing what can be learned when we interact and converse with one another. Conversation, dialogue is the most basic way of exchanging information.  It is also why I plan to go along to ZCM's Carbon Tax Evasion pub night, August 11, 6-8pm, Edinburgh Castle Hotel, corner Sydney Road and Albion Street, Brunswick.  It's why I stay in touch with Green Renters and follow them on Twitter.  If I don't do these things, I might miss out on a vital piece of information or a useful contact which will help me on my journey and make a difference to my life as a sustainable renter.

The six point list above is not exhaustive, I'm sure.  If you can add to this list, please comment below.  More importantly, if you have been able to negotiate with your landlord for sustainable improvements please give us the goss on all of that so we can follow in your illustrious footsteps.

The Sustainable Renter 2011 No. 2 #poverty #renters #resourcefulness

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Picture from here

I think this is a wonderful map - and, for those who haven't stopped to think, please note that Australia is not included in Pooristan but is immediately adjacent to some of its inhabitants.

What has impelled me to post about poverty is to-day's article by the inimitable Ross Gittins.  And in case Networkers would like a point of comparison, I have come across this article about life in Poland. I found slivers of resemblance comparing life in Poland and life in Australia.

I think Australia, in the last couple of decades, has become a nation of whingers and whiners.  The well-heeled and -clothed upper middle class complain when there is a cut off of government assistance or advantage at an income of $150K.  There are complaints about the number of refugees coming in an unauthorised manner to that locale of ill fame: Australia's Migration Exclusion Zone.  However, the whingers and whiners don't take into account the very tiny percentage of people who arrive in Australia this way - and how the majority of migrants enter this country.  As well, I haven't noticed any whinging and whining about Australian educational providers, shonky and legitimate (i.e. universities) who bend over backwards to provide a backdoor entry to many, many would-be migrants.   

Australia has become a highly individualistic nation and, certainly in urbanised areas, the idea of community and how it functions is on the decline. Even those seeking to reclaim the concept have difficulties - because so many of us have that highly individualistic trait firmly embedded us.  Many of those who wish to jump on the community bandwagon have difficulty suppressing individualist ambition to the common, greater or less technological good.

Australian civil society - as with many western countries across the planet - has become highly segmented and stratified at a more complex level than ever before.  While Australians might be unhappy with their politicians, part of the reason why we are suffering the complexities of a hung Parliament at the Federal level is the complex and segmented nature of Australian civil society.  Our Parliament is a reflection of our society, not just our political proclivities.

Which brings me back to Gittins and what I see of myself in this article.  Gittins says, among other things:

The groups with the highest risk of facing ''deep exclusion'' are (in declining order) unemployed people, public renters, lone parents, indigenous Australians and private renters.

I am represented in some of the above categories.  I am not employed.  I am a recipient of the full aged pension.  I live alone.  I have been widowed for the past 21+years.  I am a private renter.  If all you see is dollars, a fancy house/apartment, late model car, then I fail miserably.  I do live in poverty - a poverty greater than those living on $149,000 per annum.  

But am I poor?

I cannot honestly say I am poor.  I consider I am in my current situation for three reasons: widowhood (that pall of grief and sadness still hangs over my life after more than two decades); chronic illness as I have aged - including some serious stuff - which prevented stable employment; some poor financial decisions.

I am well-educated with a range of skills, particularly in public and corporate administration.  I have a generalist university degree gained as a mature age student and undertaken externally while living in remote north-west Queensland.  This makes me sufficiently opinionated to blog and twitter across a wide range of topics.  I have never been sure whether the degree helped me to get a better paying job since none of the jobs necessitated a degree and doing it externally, in relative isolation, didn't give me the sort of contacts that are developed in the standard passage through university. 

I am a member of two faith communities so I have a wide range of people coming into my life.  Because I have only lived in Melbourne for six years, I have only a few close, intimate friendships here (I do try to maintain contacts in other places). I am a member of a number of environment and social justice organisations which have kept me involved, stimulated, social and feeling useful - all in good causes.  This year though, I have found that I need to withdraw from almost all these activities because my health has not been good. I feel that I can't pop off to meetings in the city and inner suburbs as I did just a short while ago. As well, even concession memberships place a strain on my very limited budget.  Is isolation creeping into my life?  Only time will tell - but I am savvy enough to know that social isolation is a peril and I must do my part to hold it at bay.

Above all, I am resourceful and I am solution-oriented.  I am planning for a garage sale in a month or two as we come closer to spring with finer and sunnier Saturdays.  Hopefully this will allow me to divest some superfluous possessions and sell some of my gleanings and herbs.  A little extra money can go a long, long way.  I rely on the public health system and I am most grateful for the dental package brought in by Tony Abbott when he was Minister for Health.  This came none too soon for me.  I am grateful that the ALP, in spite of its intentions, has not been able to overturn this.  This package, I believe, has set my dental health on an even keel which can be maintained in the years ahead.  

I try to live frugally - but I am certain it is not yet frugal enough.  I watch my utility spending on electricity, gas and water and I am concerned at the increasing corporatisation of these public necessities and the rising prices that have come in its wake. I run my refrigerator only in off-peak times.  In fact, I now regard it as one big Esky far from those state of the art consumer desirables seen on television. I try to avoid having those blinking lights of electronic equipment when the equipment is not in use.  I have as my water-use yardstick the 60 litres a day of the underdeveloped world.  However, some western practices like washing machines and showers interfere with reaching this target but I try to stay very close to it.  A Smart Meter has recently been installed but - in spite of reading instructions - I can't figure out how to read it.  Can anyone help?  I also wonder if it would be better for me to only run the hot water system occasionally?  Again, I would welcome some advice and someone showing me where to turn it off if I decide to do so.

I am a vegetarian who relies on good old peasant recipes from Asia and Europe to bring welcome variety to my diet.  The vegetarian diet has so much to commend it.  I particularly welcome the relatively low cost by comparison with an animal protein diet and the less mess factor - cooking animal flesh can be a messy, greasy business. 

I have found that some of my shopping ethics have had to take a back seat.  For over forty years, I have always been one to buy Australian even when it costs a little more.  I am no longer able to do that.  I have to buy the cheapest I can while still enabling me to have the quality I can live with.  I am sad about this. Price also means that I can only take organic options occasionally.  But I am still paying more for free range eggs.  I will know I am in a bad place when I have to sacrifice that option.

As far as clothing goes, I was on the receiving end of quite a bit a couple of years ago.  This supply has stood me in good stead and I have bought very little clothing in that time.  I feel the time drawing nearer when I have to make some decisions about clothes.  In September, I will be attending a classy Gold Coast wedding.  I have a stash of fabric and hope I can manufacture something glamourous.  Then I will have to figure out how to get there.  I feel I should start thinking about the wedding present.  That will be an interesting exercise.

I should mention transport.  I have a twelve year old car.  When it ceases to be either affordable or maintainable, I will be car-less. I am a public transport person with a preference for living within walking distance of a railway station. I also live just a block away from a Coles supermarket and a couple of blocks from a major shopping complex.  

The upshot of all this? 

I am not poor - but I do live in a form of frugal poverty. 

The Sustainable Renter 2011 No. 1 #sustainability #renters #foodgardens

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I am back - I think, I hope, we'll see.  I have tried to simplify the look of my blog. And, perhaps, there will be a change of tone. Perhaps a bit more reflective, a little less activist.  This is how my life is at the moment - much more reflective, much less activist.  A sign of increasing years. A factor of problematic health.  While I am an admirer of the hermitage and the desert, I am not one to cut myself off from this wonderful world, this creative planet.

I am reflecting this morning on a remark that was made in conversation after Quaker Meeting for Worship last First Day (Sunday) in regard to "growing your own" while living in a unit and that you can't really do it.   This reflection connects with a post I did on my Oz Tucker blog back at the end of 2008 under the heading of The Sustainable Renter. 

I have downsized.  I am now living - have been in situ for three months -  in a one bedroom unit in the centre of a heavily urbanised Melbourne suburb.  The unit is older - circa 1974 - priced at the lower end of the rental market.  My property manager says that it was a slum.  However, matters have been taken in hand to refurbish the property and install some better tenants.

I looked at flasher, more salubrious units than No. 8.  Even one with a bit of rear garden which could have been brought into production.  However, something kept me coming back to No. 8.  The kitchen was new, bathroom and laundry refurbished.  I like polished wooden floors - but what a pity the landlord didn't authorise a sand and a polish instead of leaving them well worn.  But this did not turn me off. I could live with that.  I'd probably get some rugs in due course.

What won me to No.8 is the fact that it is really a very private one-bedroom cottage.  I am at the end of a strip of eight units. I share no common wall.  I share only a carport which is on one side of my unit and provides distance between my unit and No.7.  On the other side of my unit is another carport.  This carport is of the old Aussie style - concrete slab, four steel posts, and a bit of corrugated iron on top.   Along the length of the unit, there is a path and a strip of lawn and clothes lines at the rear and, in front, driveway but with two semicircles of lawn which have some geraniums growing across the front walls of bedroom and living room.  Between the old carport and the fence is a scrap of lawn - mowed weeds, really - and a conglomeration of greenery (creepers, trees, vines) which forms a veritable bower but which, prior to my arrival, had been neglected and become overgrown and seems to have been used as a place for drunks who left their bottles and associated rubbish behind.  

In case regular readers have not picked up on this, one of my good points as well as one of my bad points is that I can see good things or improvability in just about anything, including human beings! I saw possibilities for me in this unit besides its convenience to the shopping district.

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The Portable Oregano Plant

This was part of my beginnings.  The oregano is looking a bit bedraggled at the moment as it always does at this time of year.  As we head into winter, the oregano has one long bad hair day. I get radical and cut it back to billy-o, as days warm I feed it with some compost and it gets back into the lovely lushness you see above. Yes, it is still in the same corrugated iron tub.  Along with the oregano has come mint from a wheelbarrow left behind at the last place - into a gleaned terracotta pot.  It looks beautiful.  I brought an old wheelbarrow, empty, which I filled with potting mix and I have spinach and sage seedlings there ready for transplant. 

Friends are an important part of all this. My friend Belinda turned up with unit-warming presents which included herb seedlings. What a doll! 

Needless to say, pots are the mainstay of the gardening renter.  Successful long-living plants in pots mean that when one moves one hasn't left a lot of work and maintenance behind completely.  The pots fill empty spaces and help to make the new familiar.  Admittedly, not everything is appropriate to pots - but an awful lot of useful plants are. Most precious to me are the herbs - because I love going to the back door with the scissors and getting these tasty additions to my evening meal.  This is a habit I don't want to give up.  

The longstanding companion to my gardening is that other G-word, gleaning.  Irrespective of the attitudes of local government, I glean from footpaths.  I refer to gleaning as the third oldest profession.  Gleaners are mentioned in the Old Testament.  This gives us a tradition and a place in the human community extending much further than local government by-laws.

Most of my pots come from gleaning.  A recent trip through an upmarket Melbourne suburb yielded some lovely, large Italian terracotta pots.  Well pleased with that yield, I can tell you.  The parsley is looking good in a large round, pedestalled pot with a decorative edge while the rocket seems to be well at home in the plainer,  modern, architectural style.  

One of the deficiencies is the battle for sunlight.  However, I am philosophical about this.  Every garden has its own micro-climate that the gardener has to get to understand and come to grips with.  I am digging up along the side fence in the small backyard - a distance of about four or five metres.  I have gleaned some concrete pavers to edge the garden but need a few more - so I will be investigating a couple of recycling centres.  

The old Aussie carport has become the potting-painting shed.  This is where my gleanings reside; where painting and potting happens.  I have plans - but that will wait for another post. 

For the green bower, I have gleaned a cane table with a smoked glass top.  I have discovered that The Big Green Box that sells hardware has a system, within its paint department, that is called MisTints.  Dented cans and tints gone not quite right reside here for reduced prices.  I have some selections which include some decking oil which brought up the cane table a treat - thus preserving it against the weather.  I have a couple of dining chairs with metal legs to sit beside the table.  These are gleanings from quite a few years ago. They will get a repaint - and Vinnies have yielded appropriate cushions to go with the chosen colours from MisTints.  

These are just some of the ways The Sustainable Renter can turn thoughts and yearnings for self-sufficiency into reality.  In the end, it is down to us: our choices, our imaginings; our efforts.  

Further reading:

Permaculture, Self Sufficiency  and Sustainable Living Books

Backyard Self Sufficiency

Hard Times Handbook on sale at The Bookshelf of Oz

Other self sufficiency books at The Bookshelf of Oz

How can I be prepared with Self Sufficiency and Survival Foods?

by Isabell Shipard

About Time! Victorian Green Renters' Guide.

Oh, boy!  I thought it would never ever happen - but it has.  You see, Networkers, I am a renter on a low and fixed income.  All the stuff governments seem to dream up is for home owners - the solar panel stuff, the tanks etc.  And there has been no incentive or coercion on landlords to do their bit.  But now there is The Victorian Green Renters' Guide - sustainable living tips for renters.

So pop over to Environment Victoria and get the good green news for renters.