Quick and Easy Ideas to Save the Environment - One day at a time...
Gardening ideas this time for the use of Australian natives found at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne, Victoria (around a 1 hour drive from central Melbourne).
Use of plants as sculptural elements
Detail in outdoor furniture - designed to blend with the landscape
Gardening for dry landscapes – waterwise garden
The second round of SustainAbility Workshops have just been announced and include an eclectic mix of topics including gardening, bike maintenance, retro-fitting, eco screen-printing, home made jam & Japanese pickling! There is something for everyone, see below for details and to book a place contact projects@ecoaction.com.au or phone 6248 0885.
JULY WORKSHOPS: Planning Your Garden
Details: Many people declare they are ‘no good’ at growing fruit and vegetables. However one of the most important things is to work out where to put the plants and often the major problem is they have simply been put in the ‘wrong’ place and did not have a chance to thrive right from the start. The session will discuss the features which influence the location of the crops, with the principles involved able to be applied to the participants own garden.
Date: Wednesday 11th July
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Retro-fitting for Renters
Details: A workshop full of ideas for renters who want to reduce their bills and make their home more comfortable with simple, low-cost and/or free actions. Landlord responsibilities and steps to ask for energy efficient improvements will also be covered.
Date: Saturday 14th July
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Heating Your Home
Details: Are you left out in the cold when it comes to the best way to keep warm for the lowest cost? Join ABC TV’s Carbon Cop and presenter Lish Fejer for a workshop on portable space heaters and find out the best ones to use for different situations and how you can stay warm without a huge heating bill.
Date: Tuesday 17th July
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Draught-Proof Your Home
Details: We all know we have to draught-proof our homes to keep comfortable and energy bills down but where do you start. Come along to this practical hands-on workshop presented by ABC TV’s Carbon Cop Lish Fejer to find the common places for air leakage in a home and learn some easy and effective ways to fix them. When you’re all sealed and done you’ll notice the difference instantly.
Date: Thursday 19th July
Time: 6pm-7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Home Made Jam
Details: Is there anything better in winter, than snuggling up inside with a cup of hot tea and jam on scones? Why, yes! A cup of hot tea with HOME MADE jam on scones! Come along to this workshop, where participants will learn the basics of preserving seasonal fruits, and take home the jam that they make! You’ll be led through sterilising jars; preparing & weighing the fruit and sugar; checking when setting consistency has been achieved, and bottling.
Date: Saturday 28th July
Time: 10.30am – 1pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
AUGUST WORKSHOPS:
Affordable Retro-Fitting For Home Owners
Details: Don’t think that you can afford energy efficient improvements to your home? This workshop explores simple, low-cost and/or free actions that can reduce your energy use in the home. Topics include winter heating, summer cooling, lighting, hot water, fridges & freezers, cooking and general appliances.
Date: Saturday 4th August
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Seed Sowing & Seedling Maintenance
Details: Seeds sown and seedlings planted often die due to a lack of basic knowledge about ‘how they work’. Come and learn how to get your plants ‘up and running’ successfully. We will sow seeds, examine plant seedlings, sow microgreens. Please bring 2 small pots, 1 larger pot, soil from your garden (enough to fill the pots), english spinach seeds, broad bean seeds & brocolli seeds.
Date: Saturday 11th August
Time: 10am – 12pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Co-Op Tour and Vegetarian Cooking Class
Details: Get to know your local food co-operative through a 45min tour! While they carry local, fresh, organic, sustainable, natural, Fair Trade, ethical, bulk and affordable products, they also boast a fancy kitchen which is where the Vegetarian Cooking Class will take place. This class will show you how quick, easy, healthy & delicious vegetarian food can be! If you are wanting to incorporate more meat-free days into your diet, this is the workshop for you!
Date: Saturday 18th August
Time: 12pm – 3pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: ANU Food Co-Op (3 Kingsley St, Acton)
Chemical-Free Cleaning
Details: Learn how effective cleaning can be, without products made of soaps, chemicals or phosphates, instead using age-old techniques with naturally safe cleaning ingredients that are just as effective, and safe! A must-attend for those that suffer from asthma, rashes, eczema and other allergies!
Date: Wednesday 22nd August
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Japanese Style Pickling
Details: Learn how to make Nukazuke, Japanese rice bran pickles, using traditional techniques. Your naku-bed can provide you pickles in a few hours or a few months for extra flavour. Rice bran is needed for this workshop.
Date: Saturday 25th August
Time: 4pm – 5.30pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
SEPTEMBER WORKSHOPS:
Eco Screen Printing
Details: Got an old T-shirt or pair of jeans that you want to personalise? Or maybe you’ve picked up a bargain piece of clothing at the Spring and Swap sale outside, and want to add your own design? Come to this workshop and learn how to make your own recycled silk screen printers, and then stenciling your own images onto the fabric.
Date: Saturday 1st September
Time: 1pm – 4pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Investing in Energy Efficiency
Details: Due to popular demand, this workshop returns! Would you like to find out what improvements you can make to your home to improve energy efficiency, reduce your bills and increase overall year-round comfort? Topics include orientation, insulation, shading, glazing, window coverings, draught proofing, hot water systems and renewable energy.
Date: Saturday 8th September
Time: 10am – 11.30pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Composting
Details: There are many different ways of composting. Learn the theory behind composting, the different ways of composting and then choose the way or ways that suit you best.
Date: Wednesday 12th September
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Worm Farming
Details: Don’t have a garden for a compost bin? Why not try a worm farm instead? You don’t need a large garden to have a worm farm. Worms can be kept outside, inside, on the balcony or in the garage and are ideal for units. Worm castings are great for composting food scraps, feeding house plants, adding to seedling mixes and potting soils or top dressing around plants. Learn all you need to know about getting started, setting one up, and maintaining one in the long-term.
Date: Thursday 13th September
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Introduction to Permaculture PART 1
Details: The broad aim of permaculture is to design landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy. Principles 1 to 6: Observe and Interact; Catch and Store Energy; Obtain a Yield; Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback; Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services; Produce no Waste.
Date: Saturday 15th September
Time: 3pm – 5pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Introduction to Permaculture PART 2
Details: Principles 7 to 12: Design from Patterns to Details; Integrate rather than Segregate; Use Small and Slow Solutions; Use and Value Diversity; Use Edges and Value the Marginal; Creatively Use and Respond to Change.
Date: Saturday 22nd September
Time: 3pm – 5pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Introduction to Zoning in Permaculture
Details: When planning a permaculture site, the land can be divided up into zones according to how we use them. The workshop will cover the five zones and how many can reasonably applied in an urban setting.
Date: Saturday 29th September
Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Location: Canberra Environment Centre
Limited places are available, please contact projects@ecoaction.com.au or phone 6248 0885 to book. For workshop locations, please visit www.ecoaction.com.au.
For those based in, and around Canberra you might be interested in joining one of the Winter Workshops being run by the Canberra Environment Centre.
Workshops are run throughout the year and cover a variety of topics, from composting and worm-farming, to bike maintenance and vegetarian cooking classes.
Book in today for one of the upcoming workshops, or for the full program, visit www.ecoaction.com.au.
Workshop topics for JUNE 2012 include:
Affordable Retro Fitting for Home Owners
Details: Don’t think that you can afford energy efficient improvements to your home? This workshop explores simple, low-cost and/or free actions that can reduce your energy use in the home. Topics include winter heating, summer cooling, lighting, hot water, fridges & freezers, cooking and general appliances.
Date: Saturday 2nd June
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: FREE
Introduction to Modern Cloth Nappies
Details: Interested in reusables instead of disposables? This free introductory workshop will help you decipher the world of modern cloth nappies! It will cover the different types of modern cloth nappies available, accessories to make the use of cloth nappies easier, maintenance and washing of cloth nappies, the financial savings to be made, and the environmental benefits that will result. The workshop will be presented by Tamara Ilic from Baby Mumma. Workshop participants will go in the draw to win a giveaway pack of modern cloth nappies.
Date: Tuesday 5th June
Time: 10.30am – 12pm
Cost: FREE
Propagation by Cuttings
Details: Cuttings are a cheap and easy way to propagate plants, and the perfect gardening activity for the colder months of the year. The theory behind how cuttings grow and the different types of cuttings will be outlined. Please bring deciduous ‘twigs’.
Date: Wednesday 6th June
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Investing in Energy Efficiency
Details: Would you like to find out what improvements you can make to your home to improve energy efficiency, reduce your bills and increase overall year-round comfort? Topics include orientation, insulation, shading, glazing, window coverings, draught proofing, hot water systems and renewable energy.
Date: Saturday 16th June
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Bike Maintenance for Beginnners
Details: The Bike Maintenance for Beginners course aims to equip each person with the skills and knowledge to have a well maintained bike so that they can cycle safely and reliably. The talk will be on the fascinating subject of bike forensics and how to approach your bike for clues to problems. Information sheets will be provided.
Date: Wednesday 20th June
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Community Facilitation Skills
Details: Switched On Schools coordinators Eliza Hopkins and Josh Creaser will explore how to effectively mentor and facilitate a community group. Drawing on the experience of the Switched On Schools mentor program, which partners young adults with high school students running environmental initiatives, this workshop will focus on: (1) the key values to being a mentor to an individual or group, (2) how to facilitate and encourage a cohesive group that learns together and creates change in their community, & (3) techniques for managing dynamic group meetings.
Date: Saturday 23rd June
Time: 10am – 11.30am
Cost: $5 Carbon Challenge Participants / $15 General Public
Limited places are available, please contact projects@ecoaction.com.au or phone 6248 0885 to book. For workshop locations, please visit www.ecoaction.com.au.
Are environmental sustainability and climate change issues getting a bit tired? Have we stopped listening and increasingly just want to get on with our lives? Are we hoping that the government or someone else will sort it out, or are we beyond caring?
Interestingly, recent research shows that Australians are increasingly apathetic when it comes to environmental issues. Apparently our interest peaked in 2007 and has been on the wane ever since. There have been many discussions that the environmental movement has lost its way and is too focused on preserving pristine wildernesses (of which there are few) and not tying environmental protection to economics.
Ideally structural reform would allow for broad changes, so individuals wouldn’t need to think about making changes, the changes would be made for us. Suddenly it would be easier and preferable to ride a bike or catch a train, because the economic and built form structures would provide greater incentives than disincentives to change our behaviour.
Our government has now re-worded its descriptions on climate change, to refer to dealing with “the inevitable consequences of climate change”. So yes, we are past the point of preventing climate change, but could still slow it down if we cared!
I have to say the air of futility is catching, but fortunately there are still some enthusiasts out there. To help reignite the passion I have joined the locally run Carbon Challenge which asks you to commit to challenges over a 3 month period, aimed at reducing your carbon footprint.
In the international sphere The Climate Reality Project continues to present and talk about the evidence for climate change and will soon be training the next batch of climate reality presenters.
Reigniting interest may require some rebranding, rethinking and a lot of baby steps. Do you know of any exciting environment focused projects out there, that are really making a difference?
Another climate change cartoon to add to the collection.
This one was used to illustrate a Sydney Morning Herald article about a proposal from Oxford and New York University philosophers that humans could be genetically modified to be smaller, dislike eating meat, have fewer children and be more willing to co-operate with social goals. Climate change utopia or human engineering dystopia?
Read more at Final frontier of climate policy – remake humans.
