Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable

By Richard Moore

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This campaign was successful and closed on 27/11/2017 at 5:00 PM.

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About

Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE Construction To Make Small Superior Sustainable Structures Affordable

Project 2017-10-26 16:06:18 +1300

Poly Palace has succeeded in using our globally unique 100% recycled polystyrene in some of the most innovative, impressive and expensive building projects in the Wellington region; 
With this success we are using crowd funding campaigns to "pay it forward" by helping those at the other end of building construction affordability.
 
Poly Palace in Wellington's Low carbon Challenge
 
Please follow our crowd funding campaign, share it and pledge on it, as we progress the build of SIMPLE small superior sustainable structures and make them affordable for not for profit enterprises.

About our resources and how we value them

As well as our big successes, we believe everything, everywhere, big or small has a value, a purpose, a reason for being...
 

A British-led expedition has discovered sizeable chunks of polystyrene in the Arctic

This image was broadcast all around our planet. We believe the purpose of this small piece of waste polystyrene, seen by so many people, is a sign, a warning. If your children, grand children, great grandchildren and on through the generations visit this place, they will find the Arctic in a very different state, but the tiny piece of polystyrene will still be much the same, a testament to the capability of human engineering for both brilliance and stupidity. 
IS IT YOURS???

Consider that every piece of polystyrene that you ever saw, touched, caused to be created by purchasing material packed in it, is out there still....waiting.
For the last fifteen years Poly Palace has had the single minded vision to give waste polystyrene a purpose in the built environment that matches its durability. To make it too valuable to throw away because we really have no idea where 'away' is.
 
“Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So the disciples gathered them and filled twelve baskets... ~ John 6:12-13

Roman Forum 
Above all else we value our built environment. We judge past civilisations by the built environment left behind. The Romans discovered concrete in 27 BC shortly before they discovered Jesus Christ in Judea. Eventually the Empire fell (as empires do) and the Christians recycled all the marble from the Roman Forum into their new churches and cathedrals, Recycling into the built environment for durability is not new.
 
It is simply a question of where do we want our polystyrene to end up, durable in the built environment or the natural environment?

About Houses, Homes, Earthships and Tiny Houses

The human right to adequate housing is recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in multiple international human rights treaties that New Zealand has ratified:
  • 1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
  • 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
  • 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
  • 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child,
  • 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 
(December 10 is international Human Rights day. It is also the birthday of Richard Moore)
 
As our civilization has grown we have developed and refined enormous manufacturing capacity to produce what our consumer society wants. We are now producing a million throw away plastic bottles a minute. We even manufacture demand to see something as basic as water packed in throwaway plastic,  yet we seem unable to deliver on our need for affordable housing, which for generations has been agreed as a basic human right. 
 
Consumer society delivers what we want, but does it deliver what we need
 
Earthships and Tiny Houses 
Michael Reynolds is a world reknown architect and disruptive influence on conventional building. A modern day prophet on smart sustainable eco architecture. The Earthship building phenomenon that he started, is an inspiration to us all. 

When we build an Earthship out of waste we are harnessing the enormous manufacturing capacity of a wastefull society. By accessing free waste materials the trade-off is the high labour content of building these ecohomes. Earthships are a labour of love. There would be less labour if the factories produced the throwaway materials suitable for their short term use and with easy conversion into a long term after life in house construction. 
 
Should cola come in brick shaped bottles?
 
Where we differ from Michael is at Poly Palace we are a factory and beyond that we have a globally unique high volume capacity to re-manufacture 100% recycled polystyrene waste for wide application in the built environment with zero-waste. By bringing your polystyrene back to our factory then we can use it to make our SIMPLE solution to home afford-ability.
 
This is our first Reward, for $10 contributed to this campaign you get to recycle a car boot full  of polystyrene at our factory, $20 if the back seat is full as well. Clean Polystyrene only, we hope you care about the resource as much as we do and we are building a better world, we are not you rubbish contractor....
You also get:
  • 1 voting right to determine which social enterprise will get the tiny house at the end of the campaign
  • a discount of the same monetary value if you choose to buy the same type of tiny house featured in this campaign during the period of the campaign 
The second disruptive influence to conventional housing is the tiny house movement, but scaling down the floor area does not scale down the complexity of traditional building, it actually increases it. This is why conventional building delivers large 3-4 bedroom homes that are a more cost-effective investment  than 1 & 2 bedroom affordable houses, and those of us who are on the property ladder have been made wealthy by our investment. Banks lend based on wealth and investment so we invest in more property and move up the ladder and the cycle of wealth perpetuates. But have we forgotten or do we no longer believe that a house is first a home, a basic human right, and access to human rights is the measure of a fair society. The Tiny House movement is a reaction to working in the rat race of society to pay the mortgage to move up the property ladder... the ethos of the tiny house movement can be summed up in these three phrases:
  • Live Simply
  • Consume Less
  • Be Happy
Poly Palace have taken the wisdom of Micheal Reynolds and his Earthships and the vision of the Tiny House movement and created the "The Earth Dinghy" - a 'life boat' to rescue us from high cost construction techniques leading to the lack of affordable housing. And we achieve this with SIMPLE construction.
 

About SIMPLE

 
SIMPLE (Structural, Insulated, Modular, Panels, Less labour, Exceptionally efficient.
SIMPLE's as they are called, combine a solid internal surface with a more porous external surface. SIMPLE's are the single home construction solution that spans from the internal surface to the external render or coating. They couldn't be more SIMPLE!
  • Internal Surface : Covered with a low cost open weave light weight mesh (similar to curtain mesh) and painted providing an impact resistant and easy clean internal finish. 
  • SIMPLE Core : 220mm thick, with R5.5 thermal Insulation, double the New Zealand Building Code better practice guidlines. The patent for the SIMPLE system includes 50% Recycled (Polystyrene) or 50% natural product (Rammed Earth or 'Hempcrete') 
  • External Surface : Rendered with any plaster system, the key provided by the porous surface does not require additional mesh or fixings. We prefer the antibacterial and more natural properties of lime renders
 So take the complexity out of home construction and build SIMPLE.

About the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy

The SIMPLE Earth Dinghy
 
Features:

  • Internal Floor Area : 9.68 sqm. (4.4m x 2.2m ~ 4 SIMPLE's x 2 SIMPLE's) No building consent required under 10sqm dispensation.
  • Roof : Lean-to, 10 degree pitch (shown) or Gable Roof 35 degree pitch.
  • Floor : Polished 50mm thick concrete flagstones for thermal mass, on 200mm insulation and drainage.
  • Corner Pillars, 100% recycled faux sandstone block (shown) Other faux finishes are available eg, slate, broken rock, tree trunk bark. Ground anchors hold pillars and the hidden steel bracing system between pillars secures SIMPLEs.
  • Windows : Recycled Aluminum Window Joinery, End Wall 2.04m x 1.24m with one opening pane, Side Wall 1.84m x 1.24m with one opening pane, Celestial Window 0.4m high recycled safety glass(lean to only).
  • Door : CavitySlider recycled safety glass
Benefits:

  • The SIMPLE Earth Dinghy is the extra room for everybody's house or flat, the home extension everyone can afford.
  • Good for you and great for the environment. Exceptionally efficient passive solar design uses a high level of recycled , reused, and natural components and the production method of manufacture is zero-waste.
  • Arrives at your home 'flat packed' on a insulated pallets that become the sub-floor. Everything that comes on the truck becomes part of the build, no mess, no waste.
  • Twice the insulation of the better practice guideline in the New Zealand building code.
  • It doesn't degrade rot or induce mold. By recycling a durable product into a durable application we reduce waste in the natural environment and build a more durable built environment.
  • The lime render coating is anti-bacterial and every surface breathes creating a healthy and warm interior.
  • Earthquake proof due to extremely low mass and tensioned modular construction. The ideal resilient emergency structure.
  • One day construction, on the day it arrives in the truck, you can sleep in it that night.
  • It can be carried by hand onto any section – even passed over a fences and man handled (woman and children handled too) on to any difficult site.
  • When you don’t need it any more, unbolt it and sell it.
Whether you buy it, rent it, rent to buy it, or buy one give one, the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy is the the new paradigm in affordable, sustainable, comfortable living.
 
Optional Extras: (Stretch Goals) 

  • 'Grass' Roof : Poly Palace and Te Rito gardens have been developing a SIMPLE modular system for 100% recycled polystyrene substrate as a lightweight 'grass' roof medium. We need to 'green' the built environment. We believe the slopes of our landfills are ideal public spaces to re-purpose for mass cultivation of light weight modular grass roof systems. Under-utilised, unwanted landfill areas can be beautified and harnessed to create the 'green' future for our increasingly dense urban areas, and all with 100% recycled material diverted from landfill.
  • Solar Panels : Depending on the orientation of the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy's eventual location and in most instances utilizing a gable roof with a north facing surface, solar panels can be integrated into the north facing roof structure. Boguang flexible mono-crystalline 100W solar panels are applied as the weatherproof surface of the roof. 

About the Campaign

 This campaign builds a SIMPLE Earth Dinghy for a local not for profit enterprise, to help them have the basic human right of shelter. As the campaign progresses we will post the stages of construction as we ready the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy for D - Day ~ Delivery Day. So please follow our crowd funding campaign, share it and pledge on it, as we take the SIMPLE concept of sharing resources that to a large degree already exist and are being wasted, and apply them to the build of a SIMPLE Earth Dinghy, the life boat that can rescue a local Not for Profit Enterprise from the sea of complexity of traditional construction.
  • Build Campaign Week 1) 30 October >> 

    WOW what a week. On Tuesday 31 we had the Low Carbon Challenge Showcase at Macs Brew Bar on Wellington Waterfront. 

    Standing room only to watch the six teams launch their campaigns. Poly Palace up 3rd at 37 minutes in.
    My youngest daughter Jasmine there to put the 'family' into family business. Also there, Mike Lee from Arrow Construction, project manager on the Frame Apartment Tower,  Molesworth Street, still in his safety vest, which made him easy to point out during the presentation. What a fantastic event to publicly launch the 'Earth Dinghy' as a product.

    The next day with launch festivities over, back to the factory to let the 'Earth Dinghy' building commence.

    First up, block making. Loading bags of waste polystyrene into the regrinder where they are chipped into 'white rocks'. 'White rock' technology is what Poly Palace has so aptly named the technical process of how we chip polystyrene waste and reform it into 100% recycled blocks and sheets of varying densities to suit a broad range of applications in the built environment,. The unique 'white rock' process is a world first for Poly Palace. From the regrinder the chips are blown through the pipes into the see through 'wonka-vator' to be compacted and steamed into a 100% recycled, solid, high density, 'Ecoslab' block.

    The weather was fine this week so later in the week the blocks were dry enough for cutting. Work began on preparing the SIMPLE's by filling the voids with 100% recycled polystyrene. On Rachael the Robot (CNC hot wire cutter) the corner pillars are cut from our 100% high density 'Ecoslab' Blocks.

    And occasionally above all the all the noise of the factory and the squeaks of the polystyrene, the shrill sound of the cellphone ringtone. It's another email notification from Pledgeme that another pledge has been made. Thank you crowd!

  • Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November

    WOW!!! our first really BIG pledge. 'Polar Moon Equestrian' my eldest daughter Lily's business that is bringing the 3R's of recycling to horse racing, 'Race, Retrain, Rehome', has become the first Pillar of the campaign. This Pillar pledge, is solid and secure support on which this campaign can continue to be built, and Lily will be using the discount on SIMPLE construction to start the SIMPLE build of stables and tack room for her Polar Moon Equestrian business.

    You read your children stories, to set their moral compass, stories such as 'The Piped Piper' ~ The local bureaucracy wanted the pipers service but didn't want to pay, in the end that impacted badly on the children and their future. 'The Emperor has no Clothes' ~ The Emperor is duped by his service providers into thinking he has all the finery when in fact he has none, maybe like our plastic recycling services on landfills with such large volumes of it ending up in landfill, 'The Lorax' ~ and as we are biggering and Biggering and BiGGerinG and BIGGERING our factory we mustn't loose sight of the Environmental implications, and on our path to leaving a polluted world we remember that "UNLESS" people like you care a whole awful lot nothings going to change, Oh no its not...", and my favourite, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ~ the factories manager (Moore than slightly weird and not really a people person), is primarily concerned with who will inherit his world and what will be that persons capability to imagine. A number of children approach that opportunity with traits they have possibly acquired through their parents. Charlie Bucket gets to win in the end despite a few mistakes along the way. As we progress through our lives do we loose or forget our moral compass that our parents told us these stories to create???

    Lily you have always been a pillar of support to our family, a firm and solid anchor that can secure the family through the storm, and you have Charlie Bucket's fired imagination, and in this pledge, the idea that we give to receive, gives me no doubt about your moral compass. Like Charlie Bucket's father I can only look at what you are using your imagination and passion for in awe and wonder, and I am so very proud of YOU.

    Polar Moon Equestrian, & Lily Moore, our First Pillar pledge...WOW!!!

    Meanwhille back at Poly Palace...

    Work at the factory is setting a cracking pace, here are pictures as we progressed the build of the Earth Dinghy's during week 2...

    Earth Dingy build week 2

    Left : Hot wire CNC cutting the raw pillars from our 100% recycled 'Ecoslab' blocks.
    Top Right : Pressing the SIMPLE's in our flat bed press (Yes exactly like the press that finally terminated the terminator in Terminator 1).
    Bottom Right : With the surface of the SIMPLE's filled with 100% recycled polystyrene, the surface is cut flush with the hot wire CNC cutter.

    And a bit about our technology : Our Hot Wire CNC cutter is itself a revolutionary recycled wonder. Called 'Rachael the Robot' she has an end of life XP thin client as a brain, connected through the printer port to two 'Smart-Drive' end of life washing machine motors. These motors have integral gear boxes made from cheap firebrand angle grinders from the Warehouse. Because the bolt pattern of that angle grinder head and the bolt pattern of the washing machine motor mount are the same, they just bolt together like meccano. The motor/gearboxes  then drive with a six tooth chain cog and 1/2 inch pitch chain from tilt-a-door mechanisms with some ten-speed derailleur cogs for tensioning. Accuracy per step over the six meter long cutting bed and two meter vertically is 0.2mm. Even the hot wires are scrap. They are nichrome wire unwound from the elements from old tumble dryers. Racheal is one of my best ever inventions and when her and I are working we call it 'dancing with Rachael'.

     "Racheal, I saved most of you from the scrap-man,  you are 10 years old this year, and I could not have asked for a more competent and capable robot helper." 
     
  • Build Campaign Week 3) 13 November

    Another legendary week for Poly Palace. The highlight was 17 November when in the morning Te Rito Gardens celebrated the blessing of their new site. With a cross section of the community in attendance ranging from Porirua's Deputy Mayor, Izzy Ford, and MP Kris faafoi, and all the volunteers who toil the soil at Te Rito, it was a great morning of celebration. That evening, Poly Palace was moving in another social circle, with the movers and shakers of the Porirua business community at the 2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards, at Te Rauparaha Arena Porirua. With Lily my eldest daughter and largest pledger to the campaign by my side, Poly Palace our family business was awarded the 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award' exactly ten years since we last won this award in 2007.

    2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award'  
    My family and I are immensely proud of this achievement. On accepting the award, I was able to take the audience through the narrative that is at the heart of this campaign, 'that we need to get waste polystyrene out of our landfills and natural environment and into durable purposeful and beneficial application in the built environment, as we build a better, more caring and sustainable world for the generations that follow'.

    At the factory in Week 3 it is a testing time as we structurally test the various component parts of Earth Dinghy, to determine how these components perform under load. With this data we can transform the design concepts of the component parts into meaningful mathematical models that our structural and mechanical engineers can evaluate. Normally manufacturers outsource tests like these to specialist consulting engineering facilities purely for certification purposes. At Poly Palace we have integrated these tests into our research and development processes so we can track our progress in incremental development and continuous improvement.

  • Build Campaign Final Week) 20 November

    A pledger worthy of special mention this week is long time Poly Palace supporter Celia Wade Brown, Celia was the Mayor of Wellington City Council when the Low Carbon Challenge first started, and even years before that as WCC's Environmental Councillor she was one of the early purchasers of Poly Palace palace planks 'thicker warmer' underfloor insulation for her own home. Thank you Celia for you support for all these years.

    The 2nd Pillar Pledge takes us all the way to target. Occasionally in business a new business develops a relationship with a supplier that years later in hindsight underpins the performance and confidence of the young business venture in so many ways over so many years. This has been our experience with our longest serving corporate supplier Fuji Xerox. From Poly Palace's earliest days Fuji Xerox has recycled the polystyrene from its operations in the Wellington Region with us.

    It is an absolute pleasure when having conceived a new product from waste polystyrene, and approaching those who are the suppliers of the waste polystyrene into the business, and asking them to share in the challenges and costs of new product development, it is a credit to the durability of our key business partnerships, that they demonstrate their commitment to recycling with us well into the future by  funding our Earth Dinghy charity build project, as an advance on their future recycling costs. Durability and stability, concepts that underpin the design of the Earth Dinghy, also underpin the business relationships that have helped get this campaign to target. Fuji Xerox, we thank you for you business, we thank you for your confidence in our business relationship  and we so much thank you for your major role in making this campaign a success. Thank you Fuji Xerox. Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable. The first successful property category campaign on PledgeMe... FUNDED!.

About the Social Enterprises chosen : Te Rito Gardens

Entrance of Te Rito Gardens
asert - Tātou Development Trust is a registered Charitable Trust. 
Its mission is “Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whenua, Haere Whakamua” - “Care for the People, Care for the Land, Go Forward.
 
asert - Tātou Development Trust facilitates a training and work environment in which tātou (all people) are
given an opportunity to learn the life skills of: growing food and acquiring an income in a sustainable way. To
empower people with the skills, knowledge and the confidence to “go forward” into a career in the organic
horticultural sector.
 
Te Rito Organics is a Social Enterprise Cooperative growing and selling organic food and creating related products.
Motivated individuals are encouraged to volunteer for a period of time, working and learning in our organic
gardens and workshop. After a period of time a volunteer may be invited, by the current shareholders, into the
cooperative and they become ‘stakeholders’ in their own business (Te Rito Organics) and therefore share in
the profits. This enterprise encourages workers to improve their work ethics and skill level in order to increase
their own income and productivity.
 

Current Activities:
  • Weekly market at which we sell our plants and woodwork items (Sunday afternoon).
  • Community Education Programme – we teach the art of growing NZ native plants as well as organic food gardens sustainably. This is available to those willing to volunteer their time in the gardens. We use aguided, practical teaching philosophy with a focus on “hands on” learning.
  • Teaching basic Woodworking skills and producing products from sustainably sought timber.
  • Developing integrated eco-systems, planting native plants to create shelter and habitats for beneficial microorganisms, insects, birds and lizards. Propagating the appropriate native plants for them to survive in our urban areas. Construction of Skink/Gecko gardens
  • Merging of an organic food growing system with indigenous vegetation allowing both to flourish.
  • Healthy Soil Healthy Kids (organic recycling in Early Education Centres).
  • Consulting, designing and building organic gardens, growing tunnels and compost bins.
  • Research in the areas of: Organic and inorganic recycling, Thermophilic composting, Maximisation of
  • Organic Food Production, Energy generation from sustainable sources, Exploring wet-land/greywater remediation systems, Phytoremediation using plants that grow on soils near waterways rich in pollutants.
 
The SIMPLE life
 

Comments

Updates 4

Earth Dingy Build Campaign Final Week ) 20 November : FUNDED!

26/11/2017 at 11:19 PM

A pledger worthy of special mention this week is long time Poly Palace supporter Celia Wade Brown, Celia was the Mayor of Wellington City Council when the Low Carbon Challenge first started, and even years before that as WCC's Environmental Councillor she was one of the early purchasers of Poly Palace palace planks 'thicker warmer' underfloor insulation for her own home. Thank you Celia for you support for all these years.

The 2nd Pillar Pledge takes us all the way to target. Occasionally in business a new business develops a relationship with a supplier that years later in hindsight underpins the performance and confidence of the young business venture in so many ways over so many years. This has been our experience with our longest serving corporate supplier Fuji Xerox. From Poly Palace's earliest days Fuji Xerox has recycled the polystyrene from its operations in the Wellington Region with us. 

It is an absolute pleasure when having conceived a new product from waste polystyrene, and approaching those who are the suppliers of the waste polystyrene into the business, and asking them to share in the challenges and costs of new product development, it is a credit to the durability of our key business partnerships, that they demonstrate their commitment to recycling with us well into the future by  funding our Earth Dinghy charity build project, as an advance on their future recycling costs. Durability and stability, concepts that underpin the design of the Earth Dinghy, also underpin the business relationships that have helped get this campaign to target. Fuji Xerox, we thank you for you business, we thank you for your confidence in our business relationship  and we so much thank you for your major role in making this campaign a success. Thank you Fuji Xerox. Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable. The first successful property category campaign on PledgeMe... FUNDED!.

Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 3) 13 November : Another legendary week for Poly Palace....

26/11/2017 at 11:14 PM

Another legendary week for Poly Palace. The highlight was 17 November when in the morning Te Rito Gardens celebrated the blessing of their new site. With a cross section of the community in attendance ranging from Porirua's Deputy Mayor, Izzy Ford, and MP Kris faafoi, and all the volunteers who toil the soil at Te Rito, it was a great morning. That evening, Poly Palace was moving in another social circle, with the movers and shakers of the Porirua business community at the 2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards, at Te Rauparaha Arena Porirua. With Lily my eldest daughter and largest pledger to the campaign by my side, Poly Palace our family business was awarded the 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award' exactly ten years since we last won this award in 2007.

2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award'  
My family and I are immensely proud of this achievement. On accepting the award, I was able to take the audience through the narrative that is at the heart of this campaign, 'that we need to get waste polystyrene out of our landfills and natural environment and into durable purposeful and beneficial application in the built environment, as we build a better, more caring and sustainable world for the generations that follow'.

At the factory in Week 3 it is a testing time as we structurally test the various component parts of Earth Dinghy, to determine how these components perform under load, With this data we can transform the design concepts of the component parts into meaningful mathematical models that our structural and mechanical engineers can evaluate. Normally manufacturers outsource tests like these to specialist consulting engineering facilities purely for certification purposes. At Poly Palace we have integrated these tests into our research and development processes so we can track our progress in incremental development and continuous improvement.

Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November: WOW!!! Our First Pillar Pledge...

09/11/2017 at 8:17 AM

 Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November


WOW!!! our first really BIG pledge. 'Polar Moon Equestrian' my eldest daughter Lily's business that is bringing the 3R's of recycling to horse racing, 'Race, Retrain, Rehome', has become the first Pillar of the campaign. This Pillar pledge, is solid and secure support on which this campaign can continue to be built, and Lily will be using the discount on SIMPLE construction to start the SIMPLE build of stables and tack room for her Polar Moon Equestrian business.

You read your children stories, to set their moral compass, stories such as 'The Piped Piper' ~ The local bureaucracy wanted the pipers service but didn't want to pay, in the end that impacted badly on the children and their future. 'The Emperor has no Clothes' ~ The Emperor is duped by his service providers into thinking he has all the finery when in fact he has none, maybe like our plastic recycling services on landfills with such large volumes of it ending up in landfill, 'The Lorax' ~ and as we are biggering and Biggering and BiGGerinG and BIGGERING our factory we must'nt loose sight of the Environmental implications, and on our path to leaving a polluted world we remember that "UNLESS people like you care a whole awful lot nothings going to change, Oh no its not...", and my favourite, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ~ the factories manager (Moore than slightly weird and not really a people person), is primarily concerned with who will inherit his world and what will be that persons capability to imagine. A number of children approach that opportunity with traits they have possibly acquired through their parents. Charlie Bucket gets to win in the end despite a few mistakes along the way. As we progress through our lives do we loose or forget our moral compass that our parents told us these stories to create?

Lily you have always been a pillar of support to our family, a firm and solid anchor that can secure the family through the storm, and you have Charlie Bucket's fired imagination, and in this pledge, the idea that we give to receive, gives me no doubt about your moral compass. Like Charlie Bucket's father I can only look at what you are using your imagination and passion for in awe and wonder, and I am so very proud of YOU. 

Polar Moon Equestrian, & Lily Moore, our First Pillar pledge...WOW!!!

Meanwhille back at Poly Palace...

Work at the factory is setting a cracking pace, here are pictures as we progressed the build of the Earth Dinghy's during week 2...

Earth Dingy build week 2

Left : Hot wire CNC cutting the raw pillars from our 100% recycled 'Ecoslab' blocks.
Top Right : Pressing the SIMPLE's in our flat bed press (Yes exactly like the press that finally terminated the terminator in Terminator 1).
Bottom Right : With the surface of the SIMPLE's filled with 100% recycled polystyrene, the surface is cut flush with the hot wire CNC cutter.

And a bit about our technology : Our Hot Wire CNC cutter is itself a revolutionary recycled wonder. Called 'Rachael the Robot' she has an end of life XP thin client as a brain, connected through the printer port to two 'Smart-Drive' end of life washing machine motors. These motors have integral gear boxes made from cheap firebrand angle grinders from the Warehouse. Because the bolt pattern of that angle grinder head and the bolt pattern of the washing machine motor mount are the same, they just bolt together like meccano. The motor/gearboxes  then drive with a six tooth chain cog and 1/2 inch pitch chain from tilt-a-door mechanisms with some ten-speed derailleur cogs for tensioning. Accuracy per step over the  Accuracy per step over the six meter long cutting bed and two meter vertically is 0.2mm. Even the hot wires are scrap. They are nichrome wire unwound from the elements from old tumble dryers. Racheal is one of my best ever inventions and when her and I are working we call it 'dancing with Rachael'

 "Racheal, I saved most of you from the scrap-man,  you are 10 years old this year, and I could not have asked for a more competent and capable robot helper." 

Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 1) 30 October >>

07/11/2017 at 12:21 AM

WOW what a week. On Tuesday 31 we had the Low Carbon Challenge Showcase at Macs Brew Bar on Wellington Waterfront. 

Standing room only to watch the six teams launch their campaigns. Poly Palace up 3rd at 37 minutes in.
My youngest daughter Jasmine there to put the 'family' into family business. Also there, Mike Lee from Arrow Construction, project manager on the Frame Apartment Tower,  Molesworth Street, still in his saftey vest, which made him easy to point out during the presentation. What a fantastic event to publicly launch the 'Earth Dinghy' as a product. 

The next day with launch festivities over, back to the factory to let the 'Earth Dinghy' building commence. 

First up, block making. Loading bags of waste polystyrene into the regrinder where they are chipped into 'white rocks'. 'White rock' technology is what Poly Palace has so aptly named the technical process of how we chip polystyrene waste and reform it into 100% recycled blocks and sheets of varying densities to suit a broad range of applications in the built environment,. The unique 'white rock' process is a world first for Poly Palace. From the regrinder the chips are blown through the pipes into the see through 'wonka-vator' to be compacted and steamed into a 100% recycled, solid, high density, 'Ecoslab' block.

The weather was fine this week so later in the week the blocks were dry enough for cutting. Work began on preparing the SIMPLE's by filling the voids with 100% recycled polystyrene. On Rachael the Robot (CNC hot wire cutter) the corner pillars are cut from our 100% high density 'Ecoslab' Blocks. 

And ocasionally above all the all the noise of the factory and the sqeaks of the polystyrene, the shrill sound of the cellphone ringtone. It's another email notification from Pledgeme that another pledge has been made. Thank you crowd!

    Pledgers 72

    Norma McCarty
    27/11/2017 at 2:06pm
    Martin Smithies
    27/11/2017 at 12:14pm

    "As discussed with Richie"

    Kyron Gosse
    27/11/2017 at 11:39am
    Juhi Shareef
    24/11/2017 at 1:33pm

    "Fuji Xerox is proud to have been working with Richard for 15 yrs and are delighted to support social enterprise & affordable social housing."

    Lin
    24/11/2017 at 8:08am
    Lin
    24/11/2017 at 8:07am
    Anonymous pledger
    24/11/2017 at 3:55am

    "Good on you and thanks heaps. "

    Chun Li
    23/11/2017 at 11:39pm
    Celia Wade-Brown
    23/11/2017 at 9:40pm

    "Great project"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    23/11/2017 at 5:12pm

    "Another visitor to Poly Palace recycled their polystyrene with us today"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    23/11/2017 at 5:09pm

    "The people towing a trailer recycled a little bit of polystyrene at Poly Palace today, Every little bit helps."

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    23/11/2017 at 11:36am

    "The people in the bronze car recycled their polystyrene at Poly Palace this morning."

    David Shepherd
    22/11/2017 at 8:46pm
    Chris Livesey
    21/11/2017 at 4:04pm
    Kevin Turley
    21/11/2017 at 8:06am

    "Well done Richie. I admire your tenacity and creativity. I wish you all the success in the world with this."

    Anne V Nicolson
    19/11/2017 at 9:24pm

    "This looks so clever I'd love to see a larger house made from this material. Looks like you have a great community going."

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    19/11/2017 at 4:03pm

    "I drove in my blue car to Poly Palace and I recycled my polystyrene"

    Another Anonymous Buyer of Poly Palace Polystyrene
    19/11/2017 at 3:44pm

    "My Church got three big letters Made at Poly Palace in exchange for this pledge"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    19/11/2017 at 3:41pm

    "A car boot of polystyrene recycled today"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    19/11/2017 at 3:40pm

    "A car load of polystyrene dropped off today no change required"

    Anonymous pledger
    18/11/2017 at 5:54pm
    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    18/11/2017 at 5:16pm

    "Just on closing time the guy in the dark silver car recycling his polystyrene was the last recycling pledge of the day"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    18/11/2017 at 3:53pm

    "The handsome man with the shaved head recycled his polystyrene at Poly Palace"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    18/11/2017 at 3:51pm

    "The wee Nissan March came and recycled its carload of Polystyrene at Poly Palace"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    18/11/2017 at 3:49pm

    "The Animal Medical Center recycled some polystyrene at Poly Palace"

    Justine Pepperell
    18/11/2017 at 1:24pm

    "As we grow our own native plants we don't need more :)"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    18/11/2017 at 12:57pm

    "Two people in two silver cars recycled a boot load in total, now that sharing!!!!"

    Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
    16/11/2017 at 6:41am

    "We drove to the landfill yesterday in our silver car and recycled our polystyrene at Poly Palace"

    Anonymous pledger
    15/11/2017 at 7:27pm
    Anonymous pledger
    15/11/2017 at 5:37pm

    "Thanks for the guided tour and the buckets - good luck from Harold and Marilyn"

    Followers 12

    Followers of Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable

    Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE Construction To Make Small Superior Sustainable Structures Affordable

    Project 2017-10-26 16:06:18 +1300

    Poly Palace has succeeded in using our globally unique 100% recycled polystyrene in some of the most innovative, impressive and expensive building projects in the Wellington region; 
    With this success we are using crowd funding campaigns to "pay it forward" by helping those at the other end of building construction affordability.
     
    Poly Palace in Wellington's Low carbon Challenge
     
    Please follow our crowd funding campaign, share it and pledge on it, as we progress the build of SIMPLE small superior sustainable structures and make them affordable for not for profit enterprises.

    About our resources and how we value them

    As well as our big successes, we believe everything, everywhere, big or small has a value, a purpose, a reason for being...
     

    A British-led expedition has discovered sizeable chunks of polystyrene in the Arctic

    This image was broadcast all around our planet. We believe the purpose of this small piece of waste polystyrene, seen by so many people, is a sign, a warning. If your children, grand children, great grandchildren and on through the generations visit this place, they will find the Arctic in a very different state, but the tiny piece of polystyrene will still be much the same, a testament to the capability of human engineering for both brilliance and stupidity. 
    IS IT YOURS???

    Consider that every piece of polystyrene that you ever saw, touched, caused to be created by purchasing material packed in it, is out there still....waiting.
    For the last fifteen years Poly Palace has had the single minded vision to give waste polystyrene a purpose in the built environment that matches its durability. To make it too valuable to throw away because we really have no idea where 'away' is.
     
    “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So the disciples gathered them and filled twelve baskets... ~ John 6:12-13

    Roman Forum 
    Above all else we value our built environment. We judge past civilisations by the built environment left behind. The Romans discovered concrete in 27 BC shortly before they discovered Jesus Christ in Judea. Eventually the Empire fell (as empires do) and the Christians recycled all the marble from the Roman Forum into their new churches and cathedrals, Recycling into the built environment for durability is not new.
     
    It is simply a question of where do we want our polystyrene to end up, durable in the built environment or the natural environment?

    About Houses, Homes, Earthships and Tiny Houses

    The human right to adequate housing is recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in multiple international human rights treaties that New Zealand has ratified:
    • 1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
    • 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
    • 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
    • 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child,
    • 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 
    (December 10 is international Human Rights day. It is also the birthday of Richard Moore)
     
    As our civilization has grown we have developed and refined enormous manufacturing capacity to produce what our consumer society wants. We are now producing a million throw away plastic bottles a minute. We even manufacture demand to see something as basic as water packed in throwaway plastic,  yet we seem unable to deliver on our need for affordable housing, which for generations has been agreed as a basic human right. 
     
    Consumer society delivers what we want, but does it deliver what we need
     
    Earthships and Tiny Houses 
    Michael Reynolds is a world reknown architect and disruptive influence on conventional building. A modern day prophet on smart sustainable eco architecture. The Earthship building phenomenon that he started, is an inspiration to us all. 

    When we build an Earthship out of waste we are harnessing the enormous manufacturing capacity of a wastefull society. By accessing free waste materials the trade-off is the high labour content of building these ecohomes. Earthships are a labour of love. There would be less labour if the factories produced the throwaway materials suitable for their short term use and with easy conversion into a long term after life in house construction. 
     
    Should cola come in brick shaped bottles?
     
    Where we differ from Michael is at Poly Palace we are a factory and beyond that we have a globally unique high volume capacity to re-manufacture 100% recycled polystyrene waste for wide application in the built environment with zero-waste. By bringing your polystyrene back to our factory then we can use it to make our SIMPLE solution to home afford-ability.
     
    This is our first Reward, for $10 contributed to this campaign you get to recycle a car boot full  of polystyrene at our factory, $20 if the back seat is full as well. Clean Polystyrene only, we hope you care about the resource as much as we do and we are building a better world, we are not you rubbish contractor....
    You also get:
    • 1 voting right to determine which social enterprise will get the tiny house at the end of the campaign
    • a discount of the same monetary value if you choose to buy the same type of tiny house featured in this campaign during the period of the campaign 
    The second disruptive influence to conventional housing is the tiny house movement, but scaling down the floor area does not scale down the complexity of traditional building, it actually increases it. This is why conventional building delivers large 3-4 bedroom homes that are a more cost-effective investment  than 1 & 2 bedroom affordable houses, and those of us who are on the property ladder have been made wealthy by our investment. Banks lend based on wealth and investment so we invest in more property and move up the ladder and the cycle of wealth perpetuates. But have we forgotten or do we no longer believe that a house is first a home, a basic human right, and access to human rights is the measure of a fair society. The Tiny House movement is a reaction to working in the rat race of society to pay the mortgage to move up the property ladder... the ethos of the tiny house movement can be summed up in these three phrases:
    • Live Simply
    • Consume Less
    • Be Happy
    Poly Palace have taken the wisdom of Micheal Reynolds and his Earthships and the vision of the Tiny House movement and created the "The Earth Dinghy" - a 'life boat' to rescue us from high cost construction techniques leading to the lack of affordable housing. And we achieve this with SIMPLE construction.
     

    About SIMPLE

     
    SIMPLE (Structural, Insulated, Modular, Panels, Less labour, Exceptionally efficient.
    SIMPLE's as they are called, combine a solid internal surface with a more porous external surface. SIMPLE's are the single home construction solution that spans from the internal surface to the external render or coating. They couldn't be more SIMPLE!
    • Internal Surface : Covered with a low cost open weave light weight mesh (similar to curtain mesh) and painted providing an impact resistant and easy clean internal finish. 
    • SIMPLE Core : 220mm thick, with R5.5 thermal Insulation, double the New Zealand Building Code better practice guidlines. The patent for the SIMPLE system includes 50% Recycled (Polystyrene) or 50% natural product (Rammed Earth or 'Hempcrete') 
    • External Surface : Rendered with any plaster system, the key provided by the porous surface does not require additional mesh or fixings. We prefer the antibacterial and more natural properties of lime renders
     So take the complexity out of home construction and build SIMPLE.

    About the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy

    The SIMPLE Earth Dinghy
     
    Features:

    • Internal Floor Area : 9.68 sqm. (4.4m x 2.2m ~ 4 SIMPLE's x 2 SIMPLE's) No building consent required under 10sqm dispensation.
    • Roof : Lean-to, 10 degree pitch (shown) or Gable Roof 35 degree pitch.
    • Floor : Polished 50mm thick concrete flagstones for thermal mass, on 200mm insulation and drainage.
    • Corner Pillars, 100% recycled faux sandstone block (shown) Other faux finishes are available eg, slate, broken rock, tree trunk bark. Ground anchors hold pillars and the hidden steel bracing system between pillars secures SIMPLEs.
    • Windows : Recycled Aluminum Window Joinery, End Wall 2.04m x 1.24m with one opening pane, Side Wall 1.84m x 1.24m with one opening pane, Celestial Window 0.4m high recycled safety glass(lean to only).
    • Door : CavitySlider recycled safety glass
    Benefits:

    • The SIMPLE Earth Dinghy is the extra room for everybody's house or flat, the home extension everyone can afford.
    • Good for you and great for the environment. Exceptionally efficient passive solar design uses a high level of recycled , reused, and natural components and the production method of manufacture is zero-waste.
    • Arrives at your home 'flat packed' on a insulated pallets that become the sub-floor. Everything that comes on the truck becomes part of the build, no mess, no waste.
    • Twice the insulation of the better practice guideline in the New Zealand building code.
    • It doesn't degrade rot or induce mold. By recycling a durable product into a durable application we reduce waste in the natural environment and build a more durable built environment.
    • The lime render coating is anti-bacterial and every surface breathes creating a healthy and warm interior.
    • Earthquake proof due to extremely low mass and tensioned modular construction. The ideal resilient emergency structure.
    • One day construction, on the day it arrives in the truck, you can sleep in it that night.
    • It can be carried by hand onto any section – even passed over a fences and man handled (woman and children handled too) on to any difficult site.
    • When you don’t need it any more, unbolt it and sell it.
    Whether you buy it, rent it, rent to buy it, or buy one give one, the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy is the the new paradigm in affordable, sustainable, comfortable living.
     
    Optional Extras: (Stretch Goals) 

    • 'Grass' Roof : Poly Palace and Te Rito gardens have been developing a SIMPLE modular system for 100% recycled polystyrene substrate as a lightweight 'grass' roof medium. We need to 'green' the built environment. We believe the slopes of our landfills are ideal public spaces to re-purpose for mass cultivation of light weight modular grass roof systems. Under-utilised, unwanted landfill areas can be beautified and harnessed to create the 'green' future for our increasingly dense urban areas, and all with 100% recycled material diverted from landfill.
    • Solar Panels : Depending on the orientation of the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy's eventual location and in most instances utilizing a gable roof with a north facing surface, solar panels can be integrated into the north facing roof structure. Boguang flexible mono-crystalline 100W solar panels are applied as the weatherproof surface of the roof. 

    About the Campaign

     This campaign builds a SIMPLE Earth Dinghy for a local not for profit enterprise, to help them have the basic human right of shelter. As the campaign progresses we will post the stages of construction as we ready the SIMPLE Earth Dinghy for D - Day ~ Delivery Day. So please follow our crowd funding campaign, share it and pledge on it, as we take the SIMPLE concept of sharing resources that to a large degree already exist and are being wasted, and apply them to the build of a SIMPLE Earth Dinghy, the life boat that can rescue a local Not for Profit Enterprise from the sea of complexity of traditional construction.
    • Build Campaign Week 1) 30 October >> 

      WOW what a week. On Tuesday 31 we had the Low Carbon Challenge Showcase at Macs Brew Bar on Wellington Waterfront. 

      Standing room only to watch the six teams launch their campaigns. Poly Palace up 3rd at 37 minutes in.
      My youngest daughter Jasmine there to put the 'family' into family business. Also there, Mike Lee from Arrow Construction, project manager on the Frame Apartment Tower,  Molesworth Street, still in his safety vest, which made him easy to point out during the presentation. What a fantastic event to publicly launch the 'Earth Dinghy' as a product.

      The next day with launch festivities over, back to the factory to let the 'Earth Dinghy' building commence.

      First up, block making. Loading bags of waste polystyrene into the regrinder where they are chipped into 'white rocks'. 'White rock' technology is what Poly Palace has so aptly named the technical process of how we chip polystyrene waste and reform it into 100% recycled blocks and sheets of varying densities to suit a broad range of applications in the built environment,. The unique 'white rock' process is a world first for Poly Palace. From the regrinder the chips are blown through the pipes into the see through 'wonka-vator' to be compacted and steamed into a 100% recycled, solid, high density, 'Ecoslab' block.

      The weather was fine this week so later in the week the blocks were dry enough for cutting. Work began on preparing the SIMPLE's by filling the voids with 100% recycled polystyrene. On Rachael the Robot (CNC hot wire cutter) the corner pillars are cut from our 100% high density 'Ecoslab' Blocks.

      And occasionally above all the all the noise of the factory and the squeaks of the polystyrene, the shrill sound of the cellphone ringtone. It's another email notification from Pledgeme that another pledge has been made. Thank you crowd!

    • Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November

      WOW!!! our first really BIG pledge. 'Polar Moon Equestrian' my eldest daughter Lily's business that is bringing the 3R's of recycling to horse racing, 'Race, Retrain, Rehome', has become the first Pillar of the campaign. This Pillar pledge, is solid and secure support on which this campaign can continue to be built, and Lily will be using the discount on SIMPLE construction to start the SIMPLE build of stables and tack room for her Polar Moon Equestrian business.

      You read your children stories, to set their moral compass, stories such as 'The Piped Piper' ~ The local bureaucracy wanted the pipers service but didn't want to pay, in the end that impacted badly on the children and their future. 'The Emperor has no Clothes' ~ The Emperor is duped by his service providers into thinking he has all the finery when in fact he has none, maybe like our plastic recycling services on landfills with such large volumes of it ending up in landfill, 'The Lorax' ~ and as we are biggering and Biggering and BiGGerinG and BIGGERING our factory we mustn't loose sight of the Environmental implications, and on our path to leaving a polluted world we remember that "UNLESS" people like you care a whole awful lot nothings going to change, Oh no its not...", and my favourite, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ~ the factories manager (Moore than slightly weird and not really a people person), is primarily concerned with who will inherit his world and what will be that persons capability to imagine. A number of children approach that opportunity with traits they have possibly acquired through their parents. Charlie Bucket gets to win in the end despite a few mistakes along the way. As we progress through our lives do we loose or forget our moral compass that our parents told us these stories to create???

      Lily you have always been a pillar of support to our family, a firm and solid anchor that can secure the family through the storm, and you have Charlie Bucket's fired imagination, and in this pledge, the idea that we give to receive, gives me no doubt about your moral compass. Like Charlie Bucket's father I can only look at what you are using your imagination and passion for in awe and wonder, and I am so very proud of YOU.

      Polar Moon Equestrian, & Lily Moore, our First Pillar pledge...WOW!!!

      Meanwhille back at Poly Palace...

      Work at the factory is setting a cracking pace, here are pictures as we progressed the build of the Earth Dinghy's during week 2...

      Earth Dingy build week 2

      Left : Hot wire CNC cutting the raw pillars from our 100% recycled 'Ecoslab' blocks.
      Top Right : Pressing the SIMPLE's in our flat bed press (Yes exactly like the press that finally terminated the terminator in Terminator 1).
      Bottom Right : With the surface of the SIMPLE's filled with 100% recycled polystyrene, the surface is cut flush with the hot wire CNC cutter.

      And a bit about our technology : Our Hot Wire CNC cutter is itself a revolutionary recycled wonder. Called 'Rachael the Robot' she has an end of life XP thin client as a brain, connected through the printer port to two 'Smart-Drive' end of life washing machine motors. These motors have integral gear boxes made from cheap firebrand angle grinders from the Warehouse. Because the bolt pattern of that angle grinder head and the bolt pattern of the washing machine motor mount are the same, they just bolt together like meccano. The motor/gearboxes  then drive with a six tooth chain cog and 1/2 inch pitch chain from tilt-a-door mechanisms with some ten-speed derailleur cogs for tensioning. Accuracy per step over the six meter long cutting bed and two meter vertically is 0.2mm. Even the hot wires are scrap. They are nichrome wire unwound from the elements from old tumble dryers. Racheal is one of my best ever inventions and when her and I are working we call it 'dancing with Rachael'.

       "Racheal, I saved most of you from the scrap-man,  you are 10 years old this year, and I could not have asked for a more competent and capable robot helper." 
       
    • Build Campaign Week 3) 13 November

      Another legendary week for Poly Palace. The highlight was 17 November when in the morning Te Rito Gardens celebrated the blessing of their new site. With a cross section of the community in attendance ranging from Porirua's Deputy Mayor, Izzy Ford, and MP Kris faafoi, and all the volunteers who toil the soil at Te Rito, it was a great morning of celebration. That evening, Poly Palace was moving in another social circle, with the movers and shakers of the Porirua business community at the 2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards, at Te Rauparaha Arena Porirua. With Lily my eldest daughter and largest pledger to the campaign by my side, Poly Palace our family business was awarded the 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award' exactly ten years since we last won this award in 2007.

      2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award'  
      My family and I are immensely proud of this achievement. On accepting the award, I was able to take the audience through the narrative that is at the heart of this campaign, 'that we need to get waste polystyrene out of our landfills and natural environment and into durable purposeful and beneficial application in the built environment, as we build a better, more caring and sustainable world for the generations that follow'.

      At the factory in Week 3 it is a testing time as we structurally test the various component parts of Earth Dinghy, to determine how these components perform under load. With this data we can transform the design concepts of the component parts into meaningful mathematical models that our structural and mechanical engineers can evaluate. Normally manufacturers outsource tests like these to specialist consulting engineering facilities purely for certification purposes. At Poly Palace we have integrated these tests into our research and development processes so we can track our progress in incremental development and continuous improvement.

    • Build Campaign Final Week) 20 November

      A pledger worthy of special mention this week is long time Poly Palace supporter Celia Wade Brown, Celia was the Mayor of Wellington City Council when the Low Carbon Challenge first started, and even years before that as WCC's Environmental Councillor she was one of the early purchasers of Poly Palace palace planks 'thicker warmer' underfloor insulation for her own home. Thank you Celia for you support for all these years.

      The 2nd Pillar Pledge takes us all the way to target. Occasionally in business a new business develops a relationship with a supplier that years later in hindsight underpins the performance and confidence of the young business venture in so many ways over so many years. This has been our experience with our longest serving corporate supplier Fuji Xerox. From Poly Palace's earliest days Fuji Xerox has recycled the polystyrene from its operations in the Wellington Region with us.

      It is an absolute pleasure when having conceived a new product from waste polystyrene, and approaching those who are the suppliers of the waste polystyrene into the business, and asking them to share in the challenges and costs of new product development, it is a credit to the durability of our key business partnerships, that they demonstrate their commitment to recycling with us well into the future by  funding our Earth Dinghy charity build project, as an advance on their future recycling costs. Durability and stability, concepts that underpin the design of the Earth Dinghy, also underpin the business relationships that have helped get this campaign to target. Fuji Xerox, we thank you for you business, we thank you for your confidence in our business relationship  and we so much thank you for your major role in making this campaign a success. Thank you Fuji Xerox. Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable. The first successful property category campaign on PledgeMe... FUNDED!.

    About the Social Enterprises chosen : Te Rito Gardens

    Entrance of Te Rito Gardens
    asert - Tātou Development Trust is a registered Charitable Trust. 
    Its mission is “Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whenua, Haere Whakamua” - “Care for the People, Care for the Land, Go Forward.
     
    asert - Tātou Development Trust facilitates a training and work environment in which tātou (all people) are
    given an opportunity to learn the life skills of: growing food and acquiring an income in a sustainable way. To
    empower people with the skills, knowledge and the confidence to “go forward” into a career in the organic
    horticultural sector.
     
    Te Rito Organics is a Social Enterprise Cooperative growing and selling organic food and creating related products.
    Motivated individuals are encouraged to volunteer for a period of time, working and learning in our organic
    gardens and workshop. After a period of time a volunteer may be invited, by the current shareholders, into the
    cooperative and they become ‘stakeholders’ in their own business (Te Rito Organics) and therefore share in
    the profits. This enterprise encourages workers to improve their work ethics and skill level in order to increase
    their own income and productivity.
     

    Current Activities:
    • Weekly market at which we sell our plants and woodwork items (Sunday afternoon).
    • Community Education Programme – we teach the art of growing NZ native plants as well as organic food gardens sustainably. This is available to those willing to volunteer their time in the gardens. We use aguided, practical teaching philosophy with a focus on “hands on” learning.
    • Teaching basic Woodworking skills and producing products from sustainably sought timber.
    • Developing integrated eco-systems, planting native plants to create shelter and habitats for beneficial microorganisms, insects, birds and lizards. Propagating the appropriate native plants for them to survive in our urban areas. Construction of Skink/Gecko gardens
    • Merging of an organic food growing system with indigenous vegetation allowing both to flourish.
    • Healthy Soil Healthy Kids (organic recycling in Early Education Centres).
    • Consulting, designing and building organic gardens, growing tunnels and compost bins.
    • Research in the areas of: Organic and inorganic recycling, Thermophilic composting, Maximisation of
    • Organic Food Production, Energy generation from sustainable sources, Exploring wet-land/greywater remediation systems, Phytoremediation using plants that grow on soils near waterways rich in pollutants.
     
    The SIMPLE life
     

    Comments

    Earth Dingy Build Campaign Final Week ) 20 November : FUNDED!

    26/11/2017 at 11:19 PM

    A pledger worthy of special mention this week is long time Poly Palace supporter Celia Wade Brown, Celia was the Mayor of Wellington City Council when the Low Carbon Challenge first started, and even years before that as WCC's Environmental Councillor she was one of the early purchasers of Poly Palace palace planks 'thicker warmer' underfloor insulation for her own home. Thank you Celia for you support for all these years.

    The 2nd Pillar Pledge takes us all the way to target. Occasionally in business a new business develops a relationship with a supplier that years later in hindsight underpins the performance and confidence of the young business venture in so many ways over so many years. This has been our experience with our longest serving corporate supplier Fuji Xerox. From Poly Palace's earliest days Fuji Xerox has recycled the polystyrene from its operations in the Wellington Region with us. 

    It is an absolute pleasure when having conceived a new product from waste polystyrene, and approaching those who are the suppliers of the waste polystyrene into the business, and asking them to share in the challenges and costs of new product development, it is a credit to the durability of our key business partnerships, that they demonstrate their commitment to recycling with us well into the future by  funding our Earth Dinghy charity build project, as an advance on their future recycling costs. Durability and stability, concepts that underpin the design of the Earth Dinghy, also underpin the business relationships that have helped get this campaign to target. Fuji Xerox, we thank you for you business, we thank you for your confidence in our business relationship  and we so much thank you for your major role in making this campaign a success. Thank you Fuji Xerox. Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable. The first successful property category campaign on PledgeMe... FUNDED!.

    Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 3) 13 November : Another legendary week for Poly Palace....

    26/11/2017 at 11:14 PM

    Another legendary week for Poly Palace. The highlight was 17 November when in the morning Te Rito Gardens celebrated the blessing of their new site. With a cross section of the community in attendance ranging from Porirua's Deputy Mayor, Izzy Ford, and MP Kris faafoi, and all the volunteers who toil the soil at Te Rito, it was a great morning. That evening, Poly Palace was moving in another social circle, with the movers and shakers of the Porirua business community at the 2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards, at Te Rauparaha Arena Porirua. With Lily my eldest daughter and largest pledger to the campaign by my side, Poly Palace our family business was awarded the 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award' exactly ten years since we last won this award in 2007.

    2017 Westpac Porirua Business Awards 'Environmental Sustainability and Ethical Business Award'  
    My family and I are immensely proud of this achievement. On accepting the award, I was able to take the audience through the narrative that is at the heart of this campaign, 'that we need to get waste polystyrene out of our landfills and natural environment and into durable purposeful and beneficial application in the built environment, as we build a better, more caring and sustainable world for the generations that follow'.

    At the factory in Week 3 it is a testing time as we structurally test the various component parts of Earth Dinghy, to determine how these components perform under load, With this data we can transform the design concepts of the component parts into meaningful mathematical models that our structural and mechanical engineers can evaluate. Normally manufacturers outsource tests like these to specialist consulting engineering facilities purely for certification purposes. At Poly Palace we have integrated these tests into our research and development processes so we can track our progress in incremental development and continuous improvement.

    Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November: WOW!!! Our First Pillar Pledge...

    09/11/2017 at 8:17 AM

     Build Campaign Week 2) 6 November


    WOW!!! our first really BIG pledge. 'Polar Moon Equestrian' my eldest daughter Lily's business that is bringing the 3R's of recycling to horse racing, 'Race, Retrain, Rehome', has become the first Pillar of the campaign. This Pillar pledge, is solid and secure support on which this campaign can continue to be built, and Lily will be using the discount on SIMPLE construction to start the SIMPLE build of stables and tack room for her Polar Moon Equestrian business.

    You read your children stories, to set their moral compass, stories such as 'The Piped Piper' ~ The local bureaucracy wanted the pipers service but didn't want to pay, in the end that impacted badly on the children and their future. 'The Emperor has no Clothes' ~ The Emperor is duped by his service providers into thinking he has all the finery when in fact he has none, maybe like our plastic recycling services on landfills with such large volumes of it ending up in landfill, 'The Lorax' ~ and as we are biggering and Biggering and BiGGerinG and BIGGERING our factory we must'nt loose sight of the Environmental implications, and on our path to leaving a polluted world we remember that "UNLESS people like you care a whole awful lot nothings going to change, Oh no its not...", and my favourite, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ~ the factories manager (Moore than slightly weird and not really a people person), is primarily concerned with who will inherit his world and what will be that persons capability to imagine. A number of children approach that opportunity with traits they have possibly acquired through their parents. Charlie Bucket gets to win in the end despite a few mistakes along the way. As we progress through our lives do we loose or forget our moral compass that our parents told us these stories to create?

    Lily you have always been a pillar of support to our family, a firm and solid anchor that can secure the family through the storm, and you have Charlie Bucket's fired imagination, and in this pledge, the idea that we give to receive, gives me no doubt about your moral compass. Like Charlie Bucket's father I can only look at what you are using your imagination and passion for in awe and wonder, and I am so very proud of YOU. 

    Polar Moon Equestrian, & Lily Moore, our First Pillar pledge...WOW!!!

    Meanwhille back at Poly Palace...

    Work at the factory is setting a cracking pace, here are pictures as we progressed the build of the Earth Dinghy's during week 2...

    Earth Dingy build week 2

    Left : Hot wire CNC cutting the raw pillars from our 100% recycled 'Ecoslab' blocks.
    Top Right : Pressing the SIMPLE's in our flat bed press (Yes exactly like the press that finally terminated the terminator in Terminator 1).
    Bottom Right : With the surface of the SIMPLE's filled with 100% recycled polystyrene, the surface is cut flush with the hot wire CNC cutter.

    And a bit about our technology : Our Hot Wire CNC cutter is itself a revolutionary recycled wonder. Called 'Rachael the Robot' she has an end of life XP thin client as a brain, connected through the printer port to two 'Smart-Drive' end of life washing machine motors. These motors have integral gear boxes made from cheap firebrand angle grinders from the Warehouse. Because the bolt pattern of that angle grinder head and the bolt pattern of the washing machine motor mount are the same, they just bolt together like meccano. The motor/gearboxes  then drive with a six tooth chain cog and 1/2 inch pitch chain from tilt-a-door mechanisms with some ten-speed derailleur cogs for tensioning. Accuracy per step over the  Accuracy per step over the six meter long cutting bed and two meter vertically is 0.2mm. Even the hot wires are scrap. They are nichrome wire unwound from the elements from old tumble dryers. Racheal is one of my best ever inventions and when her and I are working we call it 'dancing with Rachael'

     "Racheal, I saved most of you from the scrap-man,  you are 10 years old this year, and I could not have asked for a more competent and capable robot helper." 

    Earth Dingy Build Campaign Week 1) 30 October >>

    07/11/2017 at 12:21 AM

    WOW what a week. On Tuesday 31 we had the Low Carbon Challenge Showcase at Macs Brew Bar on Wellington Waterfront. 

    Standing room only to watch the six teams launch their campaigns. Poly Palace up 3rd at 37 minutes in.
    My youngest daughter Jasmine there to put the 'family' into family business. Also there, Mike Lee from Arrow Construction, project manager on the Frame Apartment Tower,  Molesworth Street, still in his saftey vest, which made him easy to point out during the presentation. What a fantastic event to publicly launch the 'Earth Dinghy' as a product. 

    The next day with launch festivities over, back to the factory to let the 'Earth Dinghy' building commence. 

    First up, block making. Loading bags of waste polystyrene into the regrinder where they are chipped into 'white rocks'. 'White rock' technology is what Poly Palace has so aptly named the technical process of how we chip polystyrene waste and reform it into 100% recycled blocks and sheets of varying densities to suit a broad range of applications in the built environment,. The unique 'white rock' process is a world first for Poly Palace. From the regrinder the chips are blown through the pipes into the see through 'wonka-vator' to be compacted and steamed into a 100% recycled, solid, high density, 'Ecoslab' block.

    The weather was fine this week so later in the week the blocks were dry enough for cutting. Work began on preparing the SIMPLE's by filling the voids with 100% recycled polystyrene. On Rachael the Robot (CNC hot wire cutter) the corner pillars are cut from our 100% high density 'Ecoslab' Blocks. 

    And ocasionally above all the all the noise of the factory and the sqeaks of the polystyrene, the shrill sound of the cellphone ringtone. It's another email notification from Pledgeme that another pledge has been made. Thank you crowd!

      Norma McCarty
      27/11/2017 at 2:06pm
      Martin Smithies
      27/11/2017 at 12:14pm

      "As discussed with Richie"

      Kyron Gosse
      27/11/2017 at 11:39am
      Juhi Shareef
      24/11/2017 at 1:33pm

      "Fuji Xerox is proud to have been working with Richard for 15 yrs and are delighted to support social enterprise & affordable social housing."

      Lin
      24/11/2017 at 8:08am
      Lin
      24/11/2017 at 8:07am
      Anonymous pledger
      24/11/2017 at 3:55am

      "Good on you and thanks heaps. "

      Chun Li
      23/11/2017 at 11:39pm
      Celia Wade-Brown
      23/11/2017 at 9:40pm

      "Great project"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      23/11/2017 at 5:12pm

      "Another visitor to Poly Palace recycled their polystyrene with us today"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      23/11/2017 at 5:09pm

      "The people towing a trailer recycled a little bit of polystyrene at Poly Palace today, Every little bit helps."

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      23/11/2017 at 11:36am

      "The people in the bronze car recycled their polystyrene at Poly Palace this morning."

      David Shepherd
      22/11/2017 at 8:46pm
      Chris Livesey
      21/11/2017 at 4:04pm
      Kevin Turley
      21/11/2017 at 8:06am

      "Well done Richie. I admire your tenacity and creativity. I wish you all the success in the world with this."

      Anne V Nicolson
      19/11/2017 at 9:24pm

      "This looks so clever I'd love to see a larger house made from this material. Looks like you have a great community going."

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      19/11/2017 at 4:03pm

      "I drove in my blue car to Poly Palace and I recycled my polystyrene"

      Another Anonymous Buyer of Poly Palace Polystyrene
      19/11/2017 at 3:44pm

      "My Church got three big letters Made at Poly Palace in exchange for this pledge"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      19/11/2017 at 3:41pm

      "A car boot of polystyrene recycled today"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      19/11/2017 at 3:40pm

      "A car load of polystyrene dropped off today no change required"

      Anonymous pledger
      18/11/2017 at 5:54pm
      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      18/11/2017 at 5:16pm

      "Just on closing time the guy in the dark silver car recycling his polystyrene was the last recycling pledge of the day"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      18/11/2017 at 3:53pm

      "The handsome man with the shaved head recycled his polystyrene at Poly Palace"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      18/11/2017 at 3:51pm

      "The wee Nissan March came and recycled its carload of Polystyrene at Poly Palace"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      18/11/2017 at 3:49pm

      "The Animal Medical Center recycled some polystyrene at Poly Palace"

      Justine Pepperell
      18/11/2017 at 1:24pm

      "As we grow our own native plants we don't need more :)"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      18/11/2017 at 12:57pm

      "Two people in two silver cars recycled a boot load in total, now that sharing!!!!"

      Another Anonymous Recycler of Polystyrene at Spicer Landfill
      16/11/2017 at 6:41am

      "We drove to the landfill yesterday in our silver car and recycled our polystyrene at Poly Palace"

      Anonymous pledger
      15/11/2017 at 7:27pm
      Anonymous pledger
      15/11/2017 at 5:37pm

      "Thanks for the guided tour and the buckets - good luck from Harold and Marilyn"

      Followers of Earthship + Tiny House = Earth Dinghy. SIMPLE construction to make small superior sustainable structures affordable

      This campaign was successful and got its funding on 27/11/2017 at 5:00 PM.