In the 63th Sustainable Hour we learn that the core of sustainability is just as much about connecting with your local community, having fun and living well as it is about protecting the environment and caring about our carbon pollution.
Guest in the studio:
• Trish Clayton from Barwon Heads Festival of the Sea 2015 – www.festivalofthesea.org.au
Live phone interview:
• Dr Rob Salter from Live Well Yarra – www.livewell.net.au
Prerecorded segment:
• Costa Georgiadis from ABC’s Gardening Australia speaks at the Green Carpet Awards at Geelong Performing Arts Centre (8 minute excerpt)
Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 63:
» To open or download this programme in mp3-format, right-click here (Mac: CTRL + click)
» Subscribe to ‘The Sustainable Hour’ podcast — via iTunes or via your own podcast/RSS software
Excerpt from the hour
The interview with Dr Rob Salter from Live Well Yarra:
» Rightclick here to download the mp3-file
Livewell project leader Dr Robert Salter has had a varied career working in a range of community organisations and as an academic in the social sciences. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at Perth’s Curtin University, though family ties and a love of Melbourne see him working on the Livewell project from this side of the Nullarbor.
He sees huge possibilities to create communities that work on every level, that are vibrant, interesting, sustainable, healthy, inclusive, fair and participatory, communities that – if repeated the world over – can help to remove the dark threat of climate change that hangs over all of us.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Green Carpet Awards 2015
In this week’s Sustainable Hour we played an eight-minute excerpt of Costa Georgiadis’ speech at the Green Carpet Awards. Listen to his full 15-minute speech here:
» Rightclick here to download the mp3-file
If you’d like to know more about the ‘Green Carpet Awards’ and the festival the event was a part of, Suzette Jackson has written an excellent regional summary of the Sustainable Living Festival in Geelong 2015, including a section about the awards. She writes:
“This year there was again a strong focus on local healthy and nutritious foods, gardening and access to food through food swaps, local farmers produce and the food hub study with community groups and organisations across the region providing events.
The festival culminated with two new highlights the Inaugural Green Carpet Awards and a sustainable seafood dinner held with regional community, Surf Coast Shire and City of Greater Geelong.
Held in the courtyard at GPAC on the Friday evening and hosted by Costa Georgiadis (yes he was everywhere!) local community celebrated the region with a series of ten awards for sustainability actions, leadership and participation with Future Proofing Geelong.
1. Costa Georgiadis “Quiet Achiever”: Lorna Martin
2. Best Community Project: Geelong Sustainability Directory – Geelong Sustainability, and in particular Vivienne Burke and Vicki Perret
3. Low Carbon Growth Plan Community Award: Barwon Heads Sustainability Group for the Community Solar Project
4. SLF Geelong partnership Awards: Healthy Together Geelong for the Active Streets Project, and in particular the Silent Disco
5. FPG Best Sustainable Business Award: Geelong Performing Arts Centre
6. Local Foods Champion: Suzette Jackson, Innate Ecology, for championing local food including the ‘Geelong Food Hub Feasibility Study
7. Community Engagement: Heidi Fog, Balanced Sustainability, for Children’s Woodwork with the Geelong Mens Shed Network
8. FPG Innovation Award – Suzette Jackson, Innate Ecology for the Geelong Better Block
9. “The Golden Chicken” Volunteer of the Year: Vicki Perret, for effort delivering Geelong Sustainable House Day and SLF Geelong activities on behalf of Geelong Sustainability
10. The People’s Choice Award: Costa Georgiadis
» Read more about the festival and the awards on www.innateecology.com
More information
About the the topics we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
Pledge to Turn off my lights for Earth Hour
Posted By World Wildlife Fund / World Wide Fund for Nature
This month we’re celebrating Earth Hour 2015 and we want to make sure you participate.
The world is facing a climate crisis. If we don’t act, then humans, wildlife and the planet will suffer. By turning off your lights for Earth Hour you’re helping us send a signal to world leaders that we want to fight climate change together and we must do it now.
On Saturday, March 28, from 8:30-9:30 PM local time hundreds of millions of people, businesses and cities around the world will turn off their lights for Earth Hour.
Can we count on you to join us in showing a commitment to climate change action?
Take two easy steps to get involved:
- Tell us you’re turning off your lights. It’s important we know how many people are participating because we report this number to leaders across the globe as a show of support for strong climate action.
- Turn off your lights on Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 PM wherever you are and be a part of Earth Hour with millions of people around the globe, committing to a better future.
We know you care about our planet as much as we do, so we hope you’ll join us and make this Earth Hour bigger than ever.
Join the movement and make a commitment to protect the planet ►
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Solar on the roof of South Geelong Primary School
‘The Green Team has a Green Dream’ – excerpt from the school’s newsletter:
“We would like to see a bunch of solar panels on the roof of South Geelong Primary School, and find ways to save our use of electricity.
This semester we hope to turn that dream into reality – and not only will the solar panels provide pollution-free electricity and education opportunities, they will also help to fund great projects and initiatives.
To make it happen, The Green Team and South Geelong Primary School is partnering with The People’s Solar and Geelong Sustainability Group to see if we can raise $30,000 to install solar power and LED lighting upgrades.
The People’s Solar provides an alternative to traditional ways of financing energy projects by “crowd-funding” tax deductible donations. Crowd-funding is a public way of raising funds in a community and via social networks.
The People’s Solar trademark is that their projects include a Community Dividend: the financial savings for the life of the solar panels and LED-lighting. The Community Dividend is estimated to $6,000 of energy savings, every year, for 25 years.
In other words: when you support the school’s new solar project, the resulting Community Dividend means you are actually not just helping the school get a solar system up on the roof – you are contributing to a wide range of sustainable school programs and activities at South Geelong Primary School for many years to come. Some of the items that are being considered for the Community Dividend are new bike and schooter sheds, cycling proficiency lessons and a garden program for the school – and more.
» You can make a donation online here:
www.thepeoplessolar.com/sgps
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Festival of the Sea in Barwon Heads
See the full program on www.festivalofthesea.org.au
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Livewell Yarra launch
Livewell is an action research project which was initiated by Curtin University. It is supported by the City of Yarra and Yarra Energy Foundation, and funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living – a national consortium of Australian universities, businesses and government bodies.
The project is called ‘Livewell’ because maintaining and enhancing our wellbeing is important, and the evidence is clear that we can reduce carbon without sacrificing it.
As the first ‘Livewell Cluster’, Livewell Yarra was launched at Fitzroy Town Hall on 5 March 2015.
» Read more on www.livewell.net.au
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The film ‘Origins’
“Four years, 19 countries, and 24 experts in anthropology, medicine, ecology, and health have exposed the roots of our DNA and how to prevent the modern world from making you sick.”
» See the film via the film’s home page: www.origins.well.org
» Trailer: www.youtube.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
More about wellbeing
NEF, the New Economics Foundation, is the United Kingdom’s leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice. They work to bring about a Great Transition – to transform the economy so that it works for people and the planet. They write:
“The UK and most of the world’s economies are increasingly unsustainable, unfair and unstable. It is not even making us any happier – many of the richest countries in the world do not have the highest wellbeing.”
So, NEF has set out to change that. And they have produced some excellent material on the topics.
10 reasons for a shorter working week
There are clear benefits for environment, economy and society:
• A smaller carbon footprint
• A stronger economy
• Better employees
• Lower unemployment
• Improved well-being
• More equality between men and women
• Higher quality, affordable childcare
• More time for families, friends and neighbours
• Making more of later life
• A stronger democracy
» Read the full list on www.neweconomics.org
Report: 21 hours
A ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.
» Download the report from www.neweconomics.org (PDF)
“Imagine if your work week did not take place in the fast lane with 40 hours a week, but 30 hours or 21 hours. How would it be to be waking up on a Tuesday and spending more time in bed, more time with the kids, more time reading, to visit your mother, hanging out with friends, repairing the gutter, making music, preparing lunch, taking a walk in the park? It would be a completely different life, right?”
Quote from an interview with Anna Coote, New Economics Foundation, in the Danish newspaper Politiken
“Climate Knowledge for Climate Action”
23 March 2015 is World Meteorological Day
“Climate knowledge for climate action” is the World Meteorological Organization’s theme for this year. It provides an opportunity to take stock of the climate knowledge built in the last decades as an essential base to support the path towards more ambitious action to address climate change and climate variability.
Podcasts and posts about climate change
Streaming live to your computer
» The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time): www.947thepulse.com (click on ‘Listen Live’)
Hours and hours of sustainable podcasts
» You can listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows in full length and in selected excerpts: Archive
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Promote The Sustainable Hour
Print this A4-poster and put it on a wall or a board at your work place, a local café, shop or where ever you think there’d be people who’d find this information interesting.
Go to our Facebook-page and give us a click on the LIKE-button.
Let the The Sustainable Hour’s listeners know about your green product. To become a business supporter or sponsor, contact: Liz Carr, Marketing & Business Development, 94.7 The Pulse
94.7 The Pulse
» 947thepulse.com – Geelong’s Premier Community Radio Station
The Sustainable Hour on social media
» Facebook: Overview of all podcast front covers
» Catch up on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SustainableHour
» Twitter tag: @SustainableHour
Share on Twitter
» Share this particular podcast on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/SustainableHour/status/576589593119567872/photo/1
Sustainability also means: living well, having fun and connecting with your local community » http://t.co/wA6xv45Aiw pic.twitter.com/NDrwZXxM4N
— The Sustainable Hour (@SustainableHour) March 14, 2015
Share on Facebook
» If you’d like to share this page on Facebook, then copy this link:
(First paste the long link in a field on Facebook, wait until the photo has loaded, delete the link again, and then press ‘Post’)
Share on Pinterest
» Share this page on 
“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
Pete Seeger, American singer