Frankston Council shows leadership with rate rebate for composting

Frankston Council, Victoria, has a run-away success with it’s rate rebate for composting program, Halve Garbage.   The designer of the program, Alison Winn, says: “I originally designed the ‘Halve Garbage Waste’ program and secured a $100 000 grant to roll out a smaller garbage bin service to residents.  Residents who signed up received either a compost bin or a worm farm and a $20 rate reduction.  I think the smaller bin was a 60L bin.  The program incorporated... Read More

Funny thing, politics

But is this a laughing matter . . .   www.youtube.com…   M    Read More

Public meets to discuss plan to sustain a suburb

The Sustainable Communities Team have arranged a public meeting on Tuesday 16 October at 545 pm to discuss the plan to sustain a suburb, The Sustainable Communities Plan.   They’ve put the event onto Facebook where any person, even if they don’t use Facebook, may visit to see what’s planned.  Here’s an extract from the site:   The Sustainable Communities Panel is a completely free event brought to you by The Sustainable Communities Plan... Read More

Cool streets to cool cities on ABC TV 730 WA

  On Friday 20 on ABC TV 730WA  Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettit, Michael Mobbs and Shani of Hulbert St – where I stayed in The Painted Fish – show how cool streets cool cities: www.abc.net… Citizens; let’s cool our cities by 1 degree by 2020 and take power stations off line; we can do this. M  Read More

Jess gives her first tour of Sydney’s Sustainable House

Two tour people + moi + glasses of rainwater Lamp, history wall – twice is not enough         Last Saturday 7 July Jess Miller gave her first tour of Sydney’s Sustainable House.  We had a lot of fun, shared some useful stories and, as usual, the energy and laughter were high on the agenda. Larger copies of the photos are on the website of the photographer, Peter Pakulski, here:  picasaweb.google.com… Peter and cat on tour                   Lounge... Read More

In conversation with Mayor Pettit, Fremantle 16 July 2012

Event – New Edition Bookshop – Invite If you’re in Perth or Fremantle on Monday 16 July come to a conversation I’ll be having with Brad Pettit, Mayor of Fremantle at 6 for 630 pm, New Edition bookshop. We’ll be discussing growing and buying local food, cooling cities by cooling their streets and, perhaps (for me, at least) one of the real goals of living sustainably, the dignity and delight we may accidentally come upon when we meet strangers or... Read More

Carriageworks Kitchen Garden stall at Eveleigh a buzz

Alice, Vera, Stef and Bob Holy stalls Batman.  That was fun. Yesterday Alice, Vera, Stef and I met so many terrific supportive and energy-full folk yesterday at our community kitchen garden stall at Everleigh Markets. Truly, Earth can give a bloke a good day every now and then and the black dog can be locked up in its kennel. Forty-eight signatures for the Sustainable Communities Plan. Several copies taken away by designers, community networkers . . . we’re on a roll. Citizens... Read More

Fun vid: some Chippo gardeners make a pallet into a vertical garden in an hour for Toby’s cafe

Lovely fun vid of some of our gardeners here: enjoy: vimeo.com… Sustainable Communities Plan vimeo.com… Michael Mobbs has a plan to create sustainable suburbs, and he is coming together with Chippendale residents and City of Sydney to make this ha  Read More

Wonderful writing, great start to the day

  Sometimes, we start the day, and read something that’s out of the ordinary. In today’s Sydney Morning Herald Jessica Irvine has written something which touches both our Chippendale and every community in every city; worth a read and I’ve blogged, facebooked and emailed it: www.smh.com… If you do read it, read James C Scott’s, Seeing like a state; he’s in Ostrom’s class (to whom Irvine refers), or the books by Stephen... Read More

John Connor, CEO, The Climate Institute endorses The Plan

John Connor, CEO, The Climate Institute, has read the Plan to make a suburb sustainable – the Sustainable Communities Plan – and has endorsed it in these terms: ‘Tackling climate change requires ambition and action from all directions: top down; bottom up, and; from all sides.  Your plan is fresh thinking from the ground up and a few laterals thrown in. It persuasively sets out a vision which reveals a prosperity that is smarter, cleaner, healthier as well as... Read More