Cynics might suggest it’s only for those with the money to pay for the infrastructure, not to mention the skills needed to turn thumbs green.

The debate about climate change has, for some, added an impetus to the thought that mass consumption is no longer sustainable. For others it may well be simply a matter of preferring the home-grown over the supermarket aisles.

“We were going to sell, shift or renovate ... if we wanted to rebuild, this is what I wanted to do,” Jason McHale says of the new house, finished in August.

There’s the obvious items like the solar panels, the 14,000-litre water storage – enough water for two toilets, a washing machine and a garden watering system – the double-glazed windows and the recycled timber window frames.

But to really appreciate the depth of thinking and planning that went into the house you have to dig a little deeper. Perhaps it should be called the iceberg house.

The McHales’ is a “low-embodied energy” house. That is, comparatively little energy was used to produce and transport the materials used on site.

Like our iceberg analogy, there’s yet more detail below the surface that belies the single-storey house’s light, non-invasive appearance.

Jason opens the door on a control panel embedded in the dining room wall. It’s a pandora’s box of high-tech dials, digital screens and buttons.

“I call this the building mission-control system. That’s what it does. It controls window, fans, heating, hot water, the garden irrigation, just about everything.”

It also shows the result of all that planning: it’s 26 degrees outside and a cool 23 degrees inside. The difference is that there’s not a single fan whirring and the airconditioner is idle.

“We were told, ‘You’re going to need the mother of all airconditioners to cool this space’. We haven’t used it once.”

There’s the compressed cement walls made from recycled blast-furnace material, strong and light but fantastic for insulation; the compressed bamboo floorboards in one section of the house; the recycled vegetable oil-based paints; down to the polished concrete floor made from recycled materials that soaks up heat to regulate the temperature of the house.

Then add all the finishing touches like the heavy linen curtains, the anti-draft strips under all doors, the airlocks that separate the living areas from the outside and the low-wattageLED lighting.

Natural light flooding through north-facing windows below the roofline means the family gets up in the morning and doesn’t turn lights on.

Cost them a fortune, right? Not quite. In fact, Jason says, it cost about the same as a new home in one of the new estates in Point Cook or similar. The difference is that you have to be a bit smarter about where you source your materials and find a builder willing to work with different ideas.

Tellingly, the floor space of the new house has not consumed the plot of land. There’s ample land for the vegetable garden in the front yard and the back will be converted to a chicken run and family area.

Jason gives short shrift to the argument that small changes, those made by one person, have little impact on the environment and therefore are not worth the effort.

“Everyone has got to do something and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to do this. To pull our house down with a couple of kids was a big commitment.

“It’s not a matter of can they change; they have to. Everyone has to change their ways.”

Compared to the McHales, Josh and Emily’s project is in its infancy.

Josh, a filmmaker, has documented on his blog their home’s change from the unkempt, and monument to post-war suburbia, to an inner-city green haven.

“There was nothing here,” Josh says, “just knee-high grass.”

Six vegie patches adorn the once-unloved backyard and chickens run free. On the house they’ve installed solar panels and a water tank.

“My grandmother was a massive green thumb,” Josh says. “She would transform every place she moved to a lush, green haven. I’ve learned a lot from her and from reading. It’s a process: if something doesn’t work so well we don’t do it again.”

They estimate they are a few hundred dollars a year better off with solar power and, like the McHales, a supply of fruit, vegetables and herbs has cut their grocery bill.

But ultimately it’s about change, a change in lifestyle and habits for the benefit of future generations.

“I feel that climate change is almost the wrong argument for making changes,” Josh says. “For me, it’s more the logic of leaving our kids the short-term good or that generation is going to look back and shudder to think about what we did.”

Says Emily “Every little thing helps. People might think they aren’t having a big impact, but if everyone thinks like that then there’s no hope.

“A change in mental attitude affects cultural changes and it becomes powerful if we all change little things.”

Leanne McHale observes that the lifestyle change has benefited the family.

“The kids pick snowpeas and hand them out at school. We’ve greatly reduced our fruit and vegetable shopping bill to almost nothing.”

Yet, according to Monash University geography and science senior lecturer Dr Ruth Lane, hip-pocket relief is well down the list of reasons why people go green.

She notes the way people’s perception of nature has changed from a place you visit to a more personal concept.

The result is an awareness that nature and its resources need to be preserved, at the macro level of national parks to the micro level of the backyard.

That, too, has brought about a sense of need to “secure” those resources, Dr Lane says.

“I don’t think any of the drivers [toward sustainable living] can be explained in terms of costs because they haven’t yet delivered significant economic dividends.

“Primarily, people are concerned about securing resources such as water for the vegie patches. There’s also a broader environmental concern and a desire to reduce their carbon impact. A sustainable lifestyle is a way that’s quite personal.

Dr Lane says there’s a limit to how much people will dip into their pockets, and more significant financial incentives provided through government policy are needed to get more people not driven by environmental concerns to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles.

For Jason McHale, the lesson learned in Antarctica was clear: the status quo isn’t sustainable. But he says you don’t have to experience the extremes in climate to see a similar lesson unfolding every day as the outer suburbs spread yet further.

“Try giving it a go. It’s not like it’s getting easier to do things like getting in your car and go to work; we’re at breaking point now.”