Sustainability is not just about the environment - its about people who live in the environment and what great to way to express your opinions and form communities then through street press?!

An opportunity for all of those interested in any aspect of Melbourne’s buzzing Street Press from zines to comics, from magazines to blogs, any genre and any level, all are welcome.

Whether you’re a budding writer, designer, editor, artist, programmer or photographer, there will be a space for you to meet the like- minded, exchange ideas and learn new skills. Come and talk to us and find out more about the project at the Emerging Writer’s Festival Zine Fair at Fed Square on May 11.

The series of eight workshops will commence on May 14: 6pm until 7.45pm
City Library, 253 Flinders Lane in Melbourne’s CBD
They will be FREE.
Visit www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/libraries or call (03)96589500 for more details and to confirm a space.

Join the Facebook group! www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12655958956

The City of Stonnington presents its inaugural Sustainable Living Expo hich continues Council’s commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. The Expo will feature presentations and a range of exhibitors showcasing their products and services for homes and small business - visit the Exhibitors page for further information.

Free event
Friday May 9 to Sunday May 11: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Malvern Town Hall, Corner of Glenferrie Road and High Street, Malvern

Exhibitor expression of interest: complete the Expression of Interest form.
Info: Emma Bentley at Arts Events on 9663 7044, emma @artsevents.com.au or visit http://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/
Hosted by: Arts Events

Please find a list of the courses held at CERES Community Environment Park in the months of May and June below.

Introduction to Community Food Systems With Chris ennis
Sunday 4th May 2008 10am—4pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
What is a community food system? Explore the range of different localised food systems and the environmental, economic and social benefits. Gain a greater understanding of food security and its issues, particularly in an urban context.

Chook Care with Meredith Freeman
Sunday 4th May 2008 10am—3pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
Whether you already have chooks or are looking to start a new backyard flock, this course covers all your basic chook needs. Chooks are great for the garden; they deal with weeds, eat bugs, are great fertilizers and provide the best tasting eggs you’ll ever eat.

Grow your own School or community garden With Justin Calverley
Sunday 10th May 2008 10am—4pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
This workshop follows an Intro to Community Food Systems, and provides an insight into kitchen/community gardens; where to start, challenges, rewards, educational benefits and financial sustainability. This workshop would be of benefit to schools and other organisations looking to create edible kitchen gardens.

Food based Social enterprises With Marissa Wood & Peta Christensen
Sunday 11th May 2008 10am—4pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
This workshop follows an Intro to Community Food Systems, and provides an insight into food based enterprises; where to start, challenges, rewards and financial sustainability. This workshop would be of benefit to schools and other organisations looking to create sustainable food projects.

Intro to Ferro Cement
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th May 2008, 10am—4pm
$180/$160 CERES members /conc
An introduction to the techniques and practices of sculpting in ferro-cement as utilised in the CERES Mosaic Gateway project. There will be a strong emphasis on the basic technical knowledge including the use of oxides in colouration of cement.

Preserves and jams With Seven Stars
Sunday 18th May 2008, 10am—4pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
This one day, hands-on class will concentrate on the principles of making jams and preserves. Experience the satisfaction of learning culinary skills that will assist you in becoming more self –sufficient and self reliant in relation in your kitchen.

Soil food Web systems With Chris Ennis
Sunday 25th May 2008 10am—4pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
Inspired by the work of Dr Elaine Ingham, learn about the soil food web and how to work with beneficial micro-organisms to create a healthy and productive farm or garden. This course uses the history of our local soils to help you understand the soil food web and demonstrates simple tools to create the right soil biology for the types of plants you want to grow.

Food for Families
Sunday 25th May 2008, 10am – 2pm
$88 or $77 conc/CERES Member
Having to prepare food constantly for our families, how do we stay inspired? In this hands on workshop we look at the endless possibilities of nurturing families with food, how to create food cultures and traditions in the home and how to connect with food as a way of building and inspiring families.

JUNE

Healthy Cooking with Seasonal Produce with Sandie Hernandez
Sunday 1st June 10-2pm
$88/$77 CERES members /conc
Learn how to prepare colourful, fragrant and nourishing dishes, delicious drinks and naturally sweetened treats using seasonal produce. Food for health and happiness that is bursting with goodness!

The art of mosaic With Gordan Mandich
Saturday 7th June and Sunday 8th June
10am—5pm
$180/$160 CERES members /conc
An intensive, hands-on introduction to the colourful world of mosaic. You will learn about a variety of techniques with a focus on the “indirect method” and create your own take home piece.

If you would like to make a booking please contact CERES reception on 9387 2609.
For more information about CERES Community Environment Park visit http://www.ceres.org.au/.
Cnr Robert and Stewart Streets, East Brunswick VIC 3057
Ph 9387 2609 Fax 9381 1844

The event advertised below is being held by Friends of the Earth Melbourne.

The people and ecosystems of Bangladesh face many of the most devastating consequences of climate change and sea level rise – at the same time as international financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank continue to finance projects such as the Phulbari Coal project that directly contribute to climate change and threaten the environmental health human rights of developing communities.

This national speaking tour aims to raise awareness of the unequal impacts of climate change and to voice the urgent need for Australia to support development projects that are socially and environmentally just, rather than destructive.

Speakers:
• Prof Anu Muhammad is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka and has been integral in leading the civil society campaign against the Phulbari mine.
• And local Phulbari residents

International development projects financed through institutions like the ADB can, and have played a significant role in exacerbating climate change and locking Majority World countries into unsustainable, fossil-fuel intensive paths of development. Urgent action is required to direct development efforts away from projects such as the Phulbari Coal project that have potentially devastating social and environmental impacts, and offer no real benefit to affected communities.

The Phulbari Coal Project is currently under consideration for funding by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), yet would require the forced relocation of between 50,000-150,000 people and further affect between 100,000 and 2 million people through increased regional pollution and dewatering of the Barind tract. The mine’s current owners, Asia Energy, have already generated controversy after five protesters were killed and 200 injured when authorities opened fire on 50,000 demonstrators opposing the mine in August 2006.

The tour will visit Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Katoomba and the Hunter Valley.
The tour is hosted by AidWatch, and supported by Friends of the Earth, Oxfam Australia and Amnesty International Australia.

*MELBOURNE EVENT:*
Public meeting: Friday May 23, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Northcote High School, St Georges Road, Northcote, 3070 (just north of Merri creek). Take tram line 112 towards West Preston, stop 27 (full details on tram timetables at: http://tt.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/tt/TTB/20071216-092454/vic/03112Ettb.pdf )
For details on Melbourne event, please contact Cam Walker: cam.walker @foe.org.au

For full details on the tour, including events in other cities, please see
http://www.foe.org.au/climate-justice/media/news-items/front-page-news-feed-1/voices-from-bangladesh-speaking-tour

Please find a message below from Growing Communities.

Dear all across Australia,
It is time to bring the Australian school gardens community together to celebrate our achievements learn from each other’s experiences and examine the role of school gardens in bringing about a sustainable future.

Growing Communities would like to invite you all to the 1st Australian School Gardens Network Gathering & Learning in the Garden Seminar, Brisbane, 13th, 14th, & 15th July 2008.

After our suggestion for a National gathering of the school garden community about a month ago, already 10 people from outside Queensland have said they want to come. So, seriously think about booking your flight and registering as if there are lots of people coming, then will need to adjust size of venue, re-think billeting, etc.

For program and registration details visit http://www.growingcommunities.org.au/litg2008.htm.

All inquires email: litg @growingcommunities.org.au

Hope to hear from you all soon.
Happy gardening.

Growing Communities

Growing Communities
192 Boundary Street
West End Qld 4101

p: 0423 945 621
f: (07) 3844 7322
e: info@growingcommunities.org.au
i: www.growingcommunities.org.au

Growing Communities is a community based cooperative enterprise working to promote the establishment, development and on-going support of school gardens, community gardens and city farms in South East Queensland and beyond.

Village Well in collaboration with the Ethos Foundation, Donkey Wheel Trust, Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES), Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (VEIL) and RMIT invite you to….

Going Local and Making Great Places: A Free Public Lecture with Judy Wicks
Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab. Wednesday 21 May 2008
7.00pm - 9.00pm Storey Hall, RMIT, 342 Swanston Street Melbourne (MEL 579 K7)
RSVP: info @villagewell.org or 03 9650 0080 by Friday 2 May 2008

And

Workshop with Judy Wicks - Going Local: Creating Sustainable & Resilient Business Networks and Communities
8.30am-4.00pm, Thursday 22 May 2008
100 Mile Cafe, Level 3, Melbourne Central 211 La Trobe Street MELBOURNE

Judy Wicks
Inspiring founder and CEO of the White Dog Café in Philadelphia, cofounder and a director of the US-wide Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, Judy is the recipient of more than 40 local, national and international awards. In 2004, Inc. magazine named her one of America’s 25 most fascinating entrepreneurs, “because she’s put in place more progressive business practices per square foot than any other entrepreneur.” Find out how local businesses are meeting the challenge of globalisation, Climate Change and Peak Oil to create sustainable communities that sustain life, economic viability and the natural environment, and are deeply rooted in their natural and cultural place. Business people, entrepreneurs & everyone involved in the design, creation & management of our cities needs to come to this.

‘Business is about relationships. Money is simply a tool. Business is about relationships with everyone we buy from & sell to, and work with, and about our relationship with Earth itself.’ Judy Wicks

For more information about these events and to book for the workshop print out the pdf below.
going-local-lecture-workshop-1.pdf

Op shopping is a great way to reuse and recycle, save money and contribute back to the community.

I op therefore I am is a collaborative blog dedicated to Melbourne’s op shopping scene. There are links to the names, addresses and opening hours of some three hundred op shops in Melbourne and surrounds as well as maps showing their locations.

The aims of the blog are to:

- promote and encourage op shopping
- promote sustainability
- encourage different ways of thinking about what we use and get rid of and how we can do things differently.

Have a look at what other people have found, join in and show your latest treasure, or check where your nearest op shop is for next time you want to donate stuff that you no longer use.

A message below from Frank Ryan, Vox Bandicoot.

Dear Special Friends and Colleagues of Vox Bandicoot,

We are living through the truly most critical and exciting time in history. There is still a seriously long way to go, but, being imbued with the optimism which must drive environmental education, we find current movements both inspiring … and rewarding.

Vox began in 1988 and now, 20 years later, the pinnacle of our work has just been published. The Sustainability Street Approach (SSA) is our Magnus opus. It reflects the values, techniques, focus and joys that have driven our little outfit since last century, namely … “… a human scale and judicious mix of humour, science, art, education, sociology and aesthetics … all glued together with a profound belief and sense of joy in and commitment to grassroots ideas and action …” Indeed, the SSA reflects a little bit of the hundreds upon hundreds of communities around Australia with whom we have had the great privilege and pleasure of working. This book is our offering back, based on all that we’ve learned.

“Sustainability Street – It’s A Village Out There; a manual for sustainability culture change” is now available for free or for the recommended retail, or for more; if you wish to further help contribute to our mission – for the next 20 years.

Please check out http://www.voxbandicoot.com.au/virtuemart.html.

FREE PUBLIC LECTURE WITH PETER HARPER FROM CENTRE FOR ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY (CAT), UNITED KINGDOM

Responding to the threat of climate change, governments have set targets for reducing greenhouse gas by 60-80% over the next 40 years. Recent climate science suggests this is nowhere near enough. A 100% reduction in 20 years might be necessary. Is this remotely possible? How might it be done? What technologies would we need? How would we design a zero-carbon – modern - economy? What impact would it have on lifestyles – on food, travel, housing, infrastructure, employment, leisure? Would it be a nightmare? Does it offer opportunities for a revitalisation of society?

30 years of living investigation at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales may provide the answers the world urgently needs. (www.cat.org.uk)

Peter Harper has been part of a team working on these questions at CAT. He can bring an unusual lifetime of experience to illuminating the vigorous debate around a new vision for ‘Zero Carbon Britain’ 2020. Peter Harper is Head of Research and Innovation at the Centre for Alternative Technology, where he has worked for 25 years, with periodic secondments to overseas universities. He was a pioneer of the alternative technology movement and has always tried to relate technological ‘hardware’ with social and personal ‘software’. His main interests have been in horticulture and low-carbon lifestyles. He runs his own home as an experimental ‘lifestyle lab’. He is mildly obsessed by compost.

6-8pm, 21 April 2008 at the Prince Philip Theatre, University of Melbourne. Please RSVP your attendance to Ferne Edwards at fedwards @unimelb.edu.au. More information will be published shortly.

Map of the campus

Green Collect and Baptcare have partnered to recently launch a new ‘ethical and earth-kind op shop’ (eekos) in Brunswick. EEKOS promotes sustainable purchasing through offering reused, recycled, local, fair-trade and environmentally friendly products, including:
* 100% recycled content copy paper and stationery
* fair-trade sport balls, sneakers, tea, coffee and chocolate
* bric a brac, pre-loved clothing, toys and books
* environmentally friendly cleaning products and body care *

318 Victoria St, Brunswick, Vic 3056, ph: (03) 9387 5926
www.greencollect.org