Posts Tagged ‘community’
Home Harvest Regional Feast: Seeking Growers
Posted in Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on January 27th, 2012
Source: Sustainable Gardening Australia (SGA)
We are looking for volunteers to grow and supply produce for the first Home Harvest Regional Feast. The feast will be held in Eltham (Victoria), so anyone who can get there is welcome to take part. Sign up as a grower and receive a free seasonal meal created using Grower’s produce at the feast. All registered growers will receive a small gift of vegetable seeds.
When: 22nd April, 2012
Where: Edendale, Gastons Road Eltham, Vic
Who: All growers are welcome, no matter what your level of experience or the size of your garden.
To register head to www.nillumbik.vic.gov.au or phone (03) 9433 3206.
Even if you are not from around the area, you can still click here to download your FREE Home Harvest Booklet of practical information on how to grow delicious, healthy produce in the temperate zone and connect with your local community.
Download a pdf with all the Feast info.
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Thriving Neighbourhoods 2012: Call for papers
Posted in Models, Research, Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on January 26th, 2012
Thriving Neighbourhoods is a conference on emerging approaches to the planning, design and management of local neighbourhoods that are set to radically improve health, social engagement, environmental quality and productivity in communities. Thriving communities have the resilience needed to adapt creatively to unexpected challenges such as climate change, population change, rapid technological change, social upheaval and economic crises.
The complexity of the systems involved in creating thriving communities poses difficult and challenging issues for planners, developers, managers and researchers. But the potential returns on the invested effort and resources are massive. Capturing these returns requires professional collaboration across policy sectors including health, planning, design, infrastructure, IT and the built and natural environments. Communities must also be engaged from the outset, recognising diverse cultural and individual needs.
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We invite papers and presentations on research and practice related to the challenge of creating and supporting thriving neighbourhoods and communities. Work to be presented may be related to the areas represented in the diagram below, on: the challenges; the processes of change and development; the specifics of place; the measurement of outcomes.
2 April 2012: Deadline for Abstracts (400 words)
28 May 2012: Abstracts acceptance notice
Find out more about submitting a paper.
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Veggie Growers Competition
Posted in Events by EcoCentre on January 25th, 2012
| 11 February , 2012 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 2:00 pm |
Port Phillip Urban Food Network – PPUFFN – is hosting its first ever veggie growers competition
We’re searching for the best offerings from edible gardens right across Port Phillip. As well be as well as local food growing entrants, we need spectators to help us decide the winners! There are 5 entry categories, including best-tasting tomato variety, monster veg & most unusual edible plant. Plus an honorary award for the most weird and wonderful looking contribution!
$450 prize pool / winners by popular choice / swap tips with other food gardeners.
So, get ready for some horticultural muscle flexing and join us on the day!
Full competition entry details
Saturday 11 February, 11am
St Kilda Youth Service Training Site, Cnr Pickles & Richardson St, Port Melbourne
(only 5 mins from Bay St shopping st)
Enquiries: paula – 0417 501 383 / gardeners@ecocentre.com
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Environment Victoria’s Flemington Green: Project Update
Posted in Movements, Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on January 19th, 2012
Photos from Flemington Green
From “Flemington women showing the way” from Environment Victoria:
Recruited by our Community Consultant, Iman Barabiaa, another group of Flemington residents have just completed their Flemington Green sustainable living training. The 16 women are from East African countries (Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan), Turkey and Yemen and all reside on the Flemington public housing estate. The women have attended workshops on saving energy and saving water (with a guest presentation from City West Water), held by Environment Victoria at the Flemington Community Centre in November 2011. The group also visited SKM Recycling in Coolaroo to learn about waste and recycling – and we enjoyed a lunch of Turkish kebabs together in Broadmeadows.
They’ve told us they’ve learn a lot. Many participants, being new to Australia and having lived in countries where water and sanitation conditions are quite different, were very impressed to learn that Melbourne’s tap water does not have to be boiled before drinking, and said they’d keep that energy saving tip in mind. The visit to SKM showed the sheer scale of recycling that happens every day in Melbourne and the vast amounts of energy these processes require. Many participants said they’ll be talking to their friends about the need to recycle carefully and to reduce the amount of rubbish we throw away. Not all Flemington residents have the luxury of being able to recycle at home, but with the new recycling pilot program on the estate continuing to progress well, more and more will gain the opportunity.
After the energy saving workshop, each participant told us she went home and started taking action, such as switching off appliances at the wall; unplugging the mobile phone charger when it’s not being used (it still draws power even when it’s not charging); talking to her sister in her home about energy-guzzling down-lights and giving a presentation about ways to save energy in her English class.
New knowledge and motivation, and new environmental action – these Flemington women are showing the way for their community to take green action.
>> Find out more about Environment Victoria’s Flemington Green project.
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If it’s broke – Fix it!
Posted in Events, Movements, Seeking by ecoApril on January 17th, 2012
| 19 February , 2012 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 3:00 pm |
Photo from the 2011 Repair Workshop by Fernando De Sousa
A free, friendly workshop to repair (or reimagine) broken household items will be staged for this year’s Sustainable Living Festival at Melbourne’s Federation Square.
Collaborative Fix it! repair sessions are hosted by community members who believe there are better options than sending broken objects on a one-way ticket to landfill. Fix it! was founded by locals April Seymore, Renae Crosthwaite and Chandra Sundareswaran with the support of Sustainability Victoria and Metropolitan Waste Management Group. The friends want to share skills and build public confidence for repairing items that otherwise literally go to waste.
“We hear so much about our current ‘throw away society’ and we want to change that thought process,” said April. “Part of the Fix it! philosophy is to inspire participants to host fixing get-togethers in future. So while we will repair items at the Festival at no charge, we will also demonstrate how repair is achievable, affordable and help everyone feel capable. Helping people hem their garment or gain the self-assurance to repair a basic electrical item could make a huge difference to the amount and types of things that are clogging up landfill, dumped on nature strips, or donated broken to Op Shops who don’t have repair capacity.”
Recent repair, creating and upcycling events in Melbourne have met with enormous success. Artists and technicians at the July 2011 Repair Workshops rescued 3 tonnes from landfill, and this year’s Mini Maker Faire® sold out tickets almost immediately. Repair novices and gurus alike are welcome to drop into the festival workshop to sample repair projects. To BYO project, register your lamp, clothing, or woodworking repair request via email. Or simply share your fixing photos or questions with the Fix it! team via Facebook (Fix It Community) or Twitter (@FixItMelbourne).
There will be three themed Fix it! areas: Stitches—focusing on textiles; Switches—examining electrical appliances; and Splinters—woodworking with hand tools.
Get Involved: Fix it! is looking for skilled volunteers (Fixers) to assist in each of the focus areas at the Sustainable Living Festival. If you can lend a hand in the stitches, switches or splinters areas contact the team at fixitmelbourne@gmail.com.
The Sustainable Living Festival runs from 11-26 February, with Fix it! held from 11.00 am – 3.00 pm on Sunday the 19th at Federation Square in the city.
For further information and photo opportunities email fixitmelbourne@gmail.com
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Insight: How the Dutch got their cycling infrastructure
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on December 28th, 2011
From “How the Dutch got their cycle paths” by Sarah Goodyear for Project for Public Spaces:
Given the reputation of the Netherlands as a cyclist’s paradise, you might think that its extensive cycling infrastructure came down from heaven itself, or was perhaps created by the wave of a magic wand. Not so. It was the result of a lot of hard work, including massive street protests and very deliberate political decision-making.
The video [click through below] offers vital historical perspective on the way the Netherlands ended up turning away from the autocentric development that arose with postwar prosperity, and chose to go down the cycle path. It lists several key factors, including public outrage over the amount of space given to automobiles; huge protests over traffic deaths, especially those of children, which were referred to by protesters as “child murder”; and governmental response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, which prompted efforts to reduce oil dependence without diminishing quality of life.
The Netherlands is often perceived as an exceptional nation in terms of its transportation policies and infrastructure. And yet there is nothing inherently exceptional about the country’s situation. As the narrator says at the end of the film, “The Netherlands’ problems were and are not unique. Their solutions shouldn’t be that either.”
Watch the video. It’s inspiring (“…it seems so simple”) and frustrating (“aaargh…it seems so simple!”) at the same time.
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Local Harvest Australia: Connecting and supporting local consumers & producers
Posted in Movements, Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on December 14th, 2011
Local Harvest is a new national initiative aiming to help people find local sources of food and grow their own.
A directory of sustainable food in Australia
A national directory for finding food co-ops, swap meets, community gardens, farmers markets, box systems, organic retailers and more by simply entering your postcode.
Helping you to produce your own
DIY alternatives for food production and meeting essential needs, including resources for growing and making your own.
Local Harvest Challenge
Take up the Local Harvest Challenge, where for one week you attempt to reduce the ‘degrees of separation’ from your food. Based on the Household Action Challenge run in previous years.
There is a fantastic similar resource existing for the USA found at www.localharvest.org on which this project has been based.
Local Harvest will launch in February 2012, and is currently has a funding call-out on Pozible. Check out the website to find out more.
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South Melbourne Commons: Official Opening
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on December 7th, 2011
| 10 December , 2011 | ||
| 10:00 am | to | 4:00 pm |
http://commons.org.au/
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Keep Cup Co-Creator: Melbourne Sustainability Drinks
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on December 6th, 2011
| 7 December , 2011 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
Sustainability Drinks Melbourne is pleased to have Abigail Forsyth as guest speaker for Sustainability Drinks on the 7th of December.
Entrepreneur and mother of two, co-creator and founder of KeepCup, Abigail Forsyth has always been a passionate problem solver. Abigail’s leadership and devotion to finding creative solutions to overcome our impact on the environment has changed the way even the most discerning coffee drinkers enjoy their daily dose and she has since been commended in several globally renowned awards. She was a finalist in the City of London’s Sustainable City Awards (2010), Premier’s Design Awards (2010) and Melbourne Day awards (2010), as well as being shortlisted for the Australian International Design Awards (2010) and the Red Dot Industrial Design Awards Hamburg (2010).
Please note that it is essential to RSVP every month. Due to the ever increasing popularity of the event, it may not be possible to accommodate people who do not RSVP. This is not-for-profit event; i.e. you buy your own drinks, as we choose to come together in the spirit of a shared interest.
6 – 8pm Wednesday 7th December 2011.
Location: Slate Bar & Restaurant Mezzanine, 9 Goldsbrough Lane Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.melbournesustainabilitydrinks.com/rsvp
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Carrotmob Dinner to Fund a Restaurant Veggie Patch
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on November 15th, 2011
| 17 November , 2011 | ||
| 5:30 pm | to | 7:30 pm |
Do you want to go out for dinner this Thursday, maybe a drink too? An Evening Mob with Pizza, Peroni, Music & more….
Il Pomodoro at Fed Square & Carrotmob call on Melbourne to support sustainable food! Il Pomodoro Italian Restaurant located at Federation Square, Melbourne is committing 100% of its profit from 5.30pm-7.30pm Thursday 17th November to the expansion of a Vegie Patch and Herb Garden. So come help us ‘mob’ Il Pomodoro – eat and drink Italian and know that your dollars are helping to support deliciously sustainable cuisine and reduce food miles.
This very first evening mob will feature pizza & Peroni deals, as well as great home-style Italian favourites, al fresco dining and music by Matt Wicking from The General Assembly. Come past for a quick after-work drink, dinner with friends or even coffee and dessert. Take-away available for carrots in a rush.
What’s carrotmob? We harness the power of the consumer dollar to support local businesses to take steps to become more sustainable! We’re the opposite of a boycott!
http://carrotmobmelbourne.wordpress.com/
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