A Sustainable Business in Tourism
- Cooling – The Waterfall System
- Eco Vents
- Greywater Recycling
- Heating with the “Solarium”
- Insulation
- Lighting
- Photovoltaics
- Shade – Natural and Man Made
- Showering Outdoors
- Solar Hot Water
- Why is the roof white?
- Window Treatments
- Winter Sunlight
- Gardening
- Rainwater Collection
- Rainwater Silt Trap
- Yabbie and Frog Ponds
- Salvaged materials
- Transport
- Waste
One of our goals at the Painted Fish is to reduce our impact on the environment, while maintaining a beautiful place for our guests to stay.
A sustainable business in the tourism industry means finding creative ways of reducing our environmental footprint. Visitors often comment that there are many ideas at The Painted Fish that they can use in their own homes.
Several times a year we open The Painted Fish so that members of the public can come and visit and learn about sustainable adjustments they might be able to make to their lives. Open days, gardening afternoons and our annual Street Sustainability Fiesta in September each year make sharing our journey with others an important aspect of our business.
Below is a sample of what we have done at “The Fish” – see our other pages for more information – especially if you are not able to visit yourself!
Solar Power
A 1.12 kilowatt gird connected photovoltaic array produces a great deal of our own power. An evacuated tube solar hot water system with gas booster allows for continuous hot water.
Rainwater
Two large rainwater tanks collect water for garden and household use.
Transport
We provide bikes to encourage guests to avoid car use around town.
Organic and Low Impact
Organic vegetable gardens provide food for us and guests, and for the bobtail lizards who love our strawberries!
We use low impact appliances and cleaning products and promote local, family run businesses.
Sustainable Buildings
Tim has made extensive modifications to the Painted Fish buildings including:
- triple insulated ceilings
- temperature sensitive vents
- use of louvres to take advantage of cooling south westerlies
- northern windows to capture light and heat in winter
- solar pergolas and removable shade cloth to reduce the impact of the sun in summer
- window tinting on western windows
- the use of thermal mass in the studio
- recycling of building materials where possible
- ball valves fitted to outdoor showers to divert the first cold water out of the tap on the garden
- air cooling pond systems
- a solarium to the north of the house
The list goes on every time Tim hears of a new idea!
While we are far from perfect we have endeavored to make some reasonable inroads into reducing our impact on the planet. Hopefully the whole place will grow and improve as we learn more!
“Let work be a manifestation of love. Otherwise go beg in the marketplace”
Has it worked?
Let us know what you think!
