Green Drinks: Healthy Homes That Don't Cost The Earth

'Housing and building' has been one of our most popular Green Drinks themes over the past few years where we've dived into the world of designing passive housing, building tiny houses, and reducing construction waste. But what about those of us who don't own land to build a passive or tiny house on, or those of us who aren't regularly looking at construction waste? Well, this month's Green Drinks is for YOU!

This is for folks who are keeping it old school and living in a house that already exists - whether as an owner or a renter. We've got some of the best people in the biz to talk to us about what we can do in our home to make it a healthier place to live AND keep those energy bills down (hello winter in Queenstown!).

Meet the speakers:

🏠 Matthew Cutler-Welsh is the 'Business Development Manager - Residential' at the NZ Green Building Council working with Homestar and HomeFit. Matthew’s mission is to inspire people to make a better place to live and he'll be sharing his 15 years of experience leading residential energy efficiency projects and education programmes in Aotearoa and Australia with us!

🏠 Jessica Eyers is an experienced environmental architectural designer and has been a certified Passive House designer for nearly a decade - designing her family’s home in Wānaka which is NZ’s first strawbale home to gain Passive House certification! She is passionate about thermal design and performance, and ensuring all homes are healthy and comfortable. Jessica was also the Eco Design Advisor for QLDC more than a decade ago!

🏠 The evening will be facilitated by our good friend (and massive Green Drinks fan!), Arthur Lee; local Architectural Designer + Certified Passive House Consultant for Respond Architects.

Join us at 6:30pm at Sudima Hotel to learn what can be done at low cost to existing homes (whether owned or rented) to make them healthier places to live in and cut out energy waste. We'll have time for a panel discussion and Q&As - so please add any questions you have for Matthew, Jessica and Arthur in the space provided when you get your $5 ticket. (Questions can be around anything you experience in your own home that you'd like advice on - condensation? heat escaping? high power bills? dampness? heat pump vs plug in heater vs fire?)

🧡 Huge thank you to the sponsors of this Green Drinks:

Respond Architects - Combining vision, innovative design and technical expertise, their Queenstown branch has sole focus on energy efficient, sustainable architecture from the broader high performance healthy homes to Passive House, Homestar certified projects.

Resene - Named Sustainable Business of the Year 2010, Resene has actively worked with the Green Building Council (founding member), Homestar and the Sustainable Business Network. It has an extensive range of Environmental Choice approved paints and its Resene PaintWise recycling and product stewardship programme takes care of unwanted paint and paint packaging.

Campbell Electric & Heat Pumps - Locally owned and operated since 2000, they are incredibly passionate about Whole Home Heating, Cooling, Water Heating and Ventilation. They have been working in partnership with Mitsubishi Electric for over 20 years to provide New Zealanders with market-leading products that set new benchmarks in efficiency for better buildings and homes.

Terra Lana - NZ-made wool blend insulation designed to ensure comfort and well-being, minimise heating costs while protecting our environment by using a recycled, renewable, natural resource. 


See you on Thursday 18th May - don't forget to grab your ticket and spread the word! All welcome!!