Living Areas: Bedroom & Office
Bedroom
Create a bedroom that is comfortable, stylish and has good environmental benefits.
Heavy weight curtains provide thermal insulation, protecting against heat loss in winter and can help keep a room cooler in summer. Ensuring windows have curtain pelmets will provide added protection against heat loss through convection currents (preventing hot air rising) and velcro tabs to secure the curtains to the wall will increase thermal performance in winter.
Natural, sustainable fabrics, low VOC paints and furnishings, and energy-efficient lighting create an environmentally-friendly comfortable room. Plants improve air quality.
Ensure your bed is supportive, comfortable and low allergy. Natural latex is anti-bacterial, mould-free and naturally dust resistant, preventing dust mites from living in and on the mattress. Natural latex is great for allergy sufferers.
Products in the Live Green House
Cloth fabrics
Cloth fabrics produce contemporary textiles by hand using natural materials.
Curtains and soft furnishings made from hemp provide good thermal insulation. The cell structure of the hemp fibres are well suited to sustainable design. www.clothfabric.com
Natural bedding
Latex rubber foam core mattress is made from 100% natural latex rubber, straight from the rubber tree.
Natural latex rubber foam is antibacterial, mould-free, dust-free, non-allergenic and filled with tiny holes to allow air circulation. It maintains its shape and resists sagging. This bedding is ideal for allergy sufferers. www.naturalbedding.com.au
Office
At home or work, a green office can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving electricity, recycling technology and reducing paper consumption.
If buying a computer, consider purchasing a laptop – they require less material to make and use less energy to operate.
- Recycle printer cartridges and use recycled ink and toner cartridges. www.closetheloop.com.au
- Recycle all your E-waste including old computers and printers.
- Close the Loop specialise in the collection and recycling of electronics scrap to prevent cartridge waste stream from ending up in landfill.
Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox was first to market with printers and copiers made from reused components. Fuji Xerox takes responsibility for all end-of-life products and remanufactures or recycles them to achieve 99% resource recovery.
Fuji's Eco-Manufacturing Centre remanufactures parts and sub-assemblies removed from equipment during service. It is a total waste management centre sorting returned parts, sub-assemblies, cartridges and packaging for resource recovery.
The Centre remanufactures approximately 250,000 parts and sub-assemblies annually to ‘better than new’ condition. For more information: www.fujixerox.com.au
Did you know?
ENERGY STAR home electronics and office equipment use up to 75% less energy because they automatically switch into a power-saving “sleep” mode after a pre-set period of inactivity.
Office products featured in the Live Green House
Pens
manufactured from recycled plastic product.
Staple-less stapler
punches and folds the paper to act as a paper-clip.
Recycled paper
check your paper is made from post-consumer waste.
The products displayed in the Live Green House have been provided by sponsors for illustrative purposes. The inclusion of a product in the Live Green House does not constitute an endorsement by the City of Sydney of a particular branded product. There may be alternative products that are also appropriate choices.
Last Updated: Tuesday 16 August, 2011