[greenlifestyle] Greenhouse on the Budget

The Jakarta Globe April 22, 2010 Green House on The Budget by Lisa Siregar photo: The house in Bogor doesn’t lack style or comfort, but is carefully designed to minimize its carbon footprint.(Courtesy of Agus Sari) Today is Earth Day, when millions around the world gather to give a moment s thought to the environmental issues facing the planet. Events are run in at least 175 countries. But green entrepreneur Agus Sari doesn’t even need to step outside his own front door to show his lifelong commitment to caring for the environment. When Agus bought a 1,000-square-meter plot of real estate in Sentul City, Bogor, in 1998, he visualized building a house that would take up as little ground as possible and would emphasize the land’s natural elements. His goal was to build a house that wouldn’t shield him from the outside world but would instead serve as a well-fitting extension of it. “I like a place with a good, scenic view,” Agus says, recliningon a sofa in his living room and gazing through open doors across a lake at a panoramic view of Mount Salak. “It has always been a pleasure for me just to sit somewhere with a cup of coffee and enjoy the view.” And though the day is hot, the house is cool, breezy and silent — with the hum of air conditioners noticeably absent. Instead, the house is naturally cooled by cross-breezes blowing through the open doors and extra-large window frames. “Sometimes I do need to close some doors when the wind gets too strong,” Agus says. The lack of a need for air conditioning is one of many details that highlight Agus’s deep commitment to leaving a smaller carbon footprint. The interior of the house he came up with makes it clear that his love for the environment is reflected not only in his education and career but in how he lives from day to day. Environmental issues have been his passion since his days at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied energy and resources. Agus has served on numerous environmentally related scientific and business committees, including the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has followed climate-change issues since the late 1980s, and has served as adviser to the Indonesian delegation for climate-change negotiations at the United Nations since 1997. But it’s in his modest, 350-square-meter home where his passion can be viewed on a personal scale. Consisting of a combined living and dining room, two bedrooms, a guest room and garage, where Agus has built a doghouse for his three golden retrievers, the home is a testament to its owner’s green sensibility. Before finally breaking ground in 2003 — the house took five years to complete — Agus spent the better part of two years examining the natural aspects of his land and strategically designing a structure that would best suit it. “You need to know, for example, which area is going to be the hottest during the day,” Agus says, adding that some natural aspects may be useful as a solution to the heat problem. Agus designated the hottest patch of land as the backyard, where he grows a mango tree along with bushes and pots of flowers. He also planted bamboo a meter away from the guest room to provide shade. And to keep direct sunlight from heating up the living room, he created a natural overhanging canopy of alamanda flowers. “The house’s design is not like it came from a cookie cutter, where [any house] comes out in the same shape,” Agus said. “This house is specifically designed to be built here.” With help from an architect friend, Agus was able to incorporate his thrifty ideas of what a green house should be. “It’s not true when people say that green living is expensive,” he says. He used stones for the floors and walls, cutting out costly tiles and potentially toxic paints. “Stones are also good for the feet,” he says. The basins in the two bathrooms were made from clay in Bali and cost Rp 20,000 ($2.20) each, and the roof tiles came from a local manufacturer. The chairs in the dining room were rebuilt using second-hand wood. All of the furniture in the house is made from certified wood products, highlighting his concerns over deforestation. Although he recently resigned as the policy coordinator for Southeast Asia at EcoSecurities, a carbon trading and emissions reduction company, Agus is planning to write a book about deforestation and climate change and how carbon markets can help. “‘Certified woods’ means the woods are sold from responsible tree planters for business,” Agus explains. The certified wood is the most costly construction material in the house. Agus says he has remained committed to not taking advantage of illegal logging, even though it meant a lower price tag. Other than using environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, the house’s design minimizes the need for electricity, water and waste management and maximizes their efficiency. He uses about 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month — particularly low, Agus says, as he does not turn on the lights during the day, because the room is bright enough with natural light from outside. As for water, Agus takes advantage of the moist climate in Bogor, where it usually rains at least once a day even during the dry season. During the rainy season, it can rain seven to eight times per day. “There is only one week during the dry season where it does not rain at all,” he says. Rainwater is collected in rooftop gutters that funnel into a basin behind the house. He says that he collects enough water to cover 98 percent of his needs, including laundry, housekeeping and gardening. A reverse-osmosis machine in the house filters it enough to make it safe for drinking, though he still uses a water service company for some needs. “I still use PAM for drinking and showers, but with the machine, I actually have no reason to subscribe to PAM,” he says. On the second floor is a small garden where Agus plants spices, fertilized by compost from his own organic garbage. Some rooms are built in rumah panggung style, which means they are raised above the ground, preserving the soil’s ecosystem, including grass, ants, worms and moss, which also helps to absorb the heat from sunlight. Agus says he also wanted his house to be a good ecosystem for living creatures, and it is a literal home to the birds and the bees. If he needs honey, he takes some from one the beehives outside. And if his alarm clock fails, about 50 birds chirp him awake every morning from the rooftop of his house. “I like to share my living space with all the creatures who live on and in this land,” he says. Agus is keen to advocate running an environmentally friendly house as an easy and enjoyable way to contribute to saving the planet. By prioritizing natural ecosystems and reducing consumption of fossil fuels, one can help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. “Electricity is produced by burning coal. The less people use electricity, the less they produce electricity, which means less coal consumption,” Agus says. While the houses satisfies his own environmental conscience, however, he is still stuck like everyone else when it comes to Jakarta’s polluting traffic gridlock, admitting that he only stays in Bogor at weekends, as weekday commuting into the capital was “unbearable.” During the week, he stays at an apartment in Park Royale in Central Jakarta. But the small house keeps his worries away. And even though it sits empty for much of the week with no fence, Agus says he isn’t worried about burglars. “What are they going to take?” he asks. “The TV probably, but that’s all.” Agus Sari invites everyone to discuss the environment with him. Follow him on Twitter at @agussari