The Sustainable Consumer? Panel of experts to explore. Why don't you come along? Should be a hoot!

Expo gets underway with your questions

Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay will chair the panel of experts with widely differing views at the UNE Education lecture theatre at 6pm on September 25.The panel includes well known comedian Rod Quantock, Armidale retailer Gai Brennan, local resident and environmental advocate Francesca Andreoni, ABC gardening personality Jerry Coleby-Williams, UNE Professor of Environmental Biophysics Iain Young and horticulturalist, journalist and author Meredith Kirton.

Mr Torbay said he was anticipating some divergent and interesting views from the panel.

“It’ll be more orderly than the bear pit and I have not asked for a mute button,” he quipped.

SLEX spokesperson Adam Blakester said the issue of sustainable consumption was not only topical but likely to produce opposing views.

“Some people might say there is no such thing as a sustainable consumer,” he said.

“Others may interpret it as a necessity for consumers to become sustainable through buying more sustainable products and services.

“Or the argument might be that Australia’s comparatively smooth ride through the global recession was through the strength of government-induced consumerism.”

Mr Blakester said members of the panel would bring a variety of perspectives to the subject and should generate stimulating and entertaining discussion on the night.

http://www.armidaleexpress.com.au/news/local/news/general/expo-gets-underway-with-your-questions/1625056.aspx

Sustainable living Expo in Armidale this weekend !!!

Our second Sustainable Living Expo is very close now. 

After the huge success of last year, the Armidale community has once again got behind this event.  So much happening:

Northern Inland Sustainable Business Network (NISBN) Business Forum

The New England Sustainable Living Tour

SLEX Farm Tour 1 - Malpas Catchment: Armidale’s Town Water Supply

SLEX Farm Tours 2 to 6 - Small Acreage Farm Tours

EdFest Day - Friday 25 September 2009

ABC New England North West Live Broadcast

SLEX Film Festival

Native Garden by Australian Native Plant Society

Ultimate Aussie Sustainable Backyard

SLEX 2009 Speakers

Hope you get chance to join us and explore ways to live more sustainably.

See you there, Liz

Our koala update

Thanks to those who asked about our koala. He's had a rough time and underwent surgery a few weeks ago. His eye infection was too severe to treat with anti-biotics and TLC alone. He was transferred to the koala hospital at Port Macquarie. We are still waiting for more news, hopefully good...

Goodbye Blinky-Bill

Why did the koala fall out of the tree? ... Because it had chlamydia. No, its not a joke. We have never seen a koala on our 25 area block of aussie bush, until this week. The kids found this male koala at the bottom of a gum tree, shaking feverishly on its back, having vomited on itself. Very distressing! Dave carried it into the house and we called WIRES (wildlife rescue service). Our friend, Flo asked about his eyes that were all bloated with skin and pus - yuk!

It had chlamydia, a highly infectious disease affecting many koalas. We took him to a local koala care specialist. She was amazing. So committed, with 7 koalas already. This one, she said, would be OK after 10 days of antibiotics and constant eye baths. We look forward to getting him back next week and letting him go back into our nearby bushland. Nice to think that in desperation, he followed his nose to us and we could find such wonderful people to help. Thank you to all WIRES folks and all who support them. for more on caring for injured koalas, see http://www.koalasincare.org.au/index.htm

Baling, baling, baling!

Straw-baling on a Sunday is a wonderful diversion from the tax-time data entry. On this gorgeous winter day, it was soul-food to get out and heft bales into the wall with my family. Dave was on the chainsaw, shaping bales around posts, while our oldest son, Josh and his devoted Tessa (med-student and part-time Grassroots wonder-shopgirl) learned the process of building. I am sure they were not just helping us for no reason - I suspect they have eco-building intentions.

The straw is wheat straw - sharp and coarse, much harder than the rice straw we used in "stage one" of our home. Small bales are getting harder to come by in this area. Most farmers are baling into the big 8'x4'x4' bales lifted only by a machine. The walls go up fast, with a 3m section taking 30-45 minutes to reach ceiling height.

The "mudding" will start soon, that is my earth-mother time. Being connected to my place by the earth is important to me. I feel very grounded by holding each and every handful of earth render as it passes from ground to mixer to bucket to wall. Each surface is sculpted with 3 coats of earth-lime render, taking half a day to cover that 3m section in one coat, on one side. Stay in touch for the mud.

The Last Straw

We are on the tools again! Our strawbale home has been a labour of love for some time now and we are pushing to finish it by Christmas. With Dave on school holidays, we are hoping to get the roof on and bales in for the last stage of the home - our space (office, sitting room and bedroom ... currently sleeping in living room ... lacks privacy, don't you think.)

Dave: What's it like, living in straw? Wonderful - particularly in a cold climate like Armidale. When it's -8C outside, it's still cosy and easy to heat. BEst of all, the house breathes, meaning that the walls absorb moisture during periods of high humidity, like a week of rain, and release it when things dry out. The house never feels damp or stuffy. I'll be making a series of video entires for the building process, so please follow us on the journey of completing our home. It's raining again, so i'll hopefully get our the camera tomorrow.

Welcome to the grassroots-eco-store blog post

Glad you could join me here at the Grassroots Eco-Store Blog! I’m often asked about the products carried in my store—why they’re important, how they improve healthy living, and what environmental characteristics they embody. In a world filled with mixed messages about the current environmental problems faced by our country, I find that many people are confused and looking for real, honest answers.

Through this blog, I hope to help clear the air to make it easier for those in my community and beyond to make truly green lifestyle choices that will improve their health and family lives. I’ll scan the most recent news, watch for developments in environmental health, feature new and exciting eco-friendly products, and keep you up to date on what our government is doing in the area of environmental protection.

Feel free to join the conversation! Since I’m a lifelong learner, I welcome input, comments, questions, and recommendations.

It’s all good.

Liz

Support packaging deposit legislation

Environment ministers in our country will be meeting on May 22 to discuss the possibility of introducing a 10 cent container deposit plan. Consumers would pay the 10c per container fee at the till, but then be able to collect the same amount for returning the packaging to a recycling depot once they’re done with it.

This seems like a great idea and something that we should be supporting. After all, we Aussies consume and discard 3.4 million tones of packaging every year, with only 56 percent being recycled! According to Clean Up Australia, eight out of 10 waste items in the average household are from packaging, making it a significant portion of our household waste.

It’s high time that producers take some responsibility for the packaging waste they create and encourage with the products we buy from them. If they don’t begin to pay for the waste, we as consumers will continue to have to do so instead. Since much of the packaging waste is useless unless recycled, we pay about $50 every year (per household) to cover the costs of dealing with it. Estimates at the savings we could reap by diverting this waste from the landfill indicate that there’s huge potential: Hornsby shire could save $450 thousand annually, for instance.

While there are those who argue that the Container Deposit Legislation (CDL) will reduce participating rates in the kerbside recycling program, experts in the field contend that these two programs can work well together and that side-by-side, they can increase our rates of recycling to between 70 percent and 85 percent.

So if you haven’t already, tell your Local Government representatives, environmental community organizations, and the Environment Movement that you want to see the CDL move forward. It’s about time!

Of course, one of the best ways to beat the challenge of packaging waste is to consume less of it. At Grass Roots Eco-Store, we’ve got lots of reusable kitchen and homeware items that will help you reduce the amount of packaging waste you generate each week.

Get involved in the National tree Day

I just love seeing our kids playing close to nature. They see trees as a resource, a refuge and a living thing in its own right. We all feel better after spending our day in the trees around our home.

On 2 August, the country will unite together to celebrate National Tree Day (Schools Tree Day will be held on 31 July). Started in 1996 by Olivia Newton-John and Jon Dee, the Tree Days have brought together more than 2 million volunteers to plant in excess of 13 million native trees and shrubs in our country.

Trees play a huge role in environmental sustainability. We depend on trees for food and other raw resources, but wildlife also depend on them for habitat, food, and protection. Forests are also important for maintaining our planet’s biodiversity since 90 percent of land-dwelling creatures live in them. Biodiversity is important for warding off pests and disease, bolstering the health of ecosystems, increasing adaptability of species and wild communities, and providing us with resources and medicinal materials.

Of course, trees are also tremendously important for balancing the world’s climate. They breathe in and store carbon dioxide and breathe out beneficial oxygen. Plus, they help soil to retain water, prevent topsoil loss, provide shade for other plants and animals, and generally keep the climate cooler.

The National Tree Day stresses the use of native plants. These species have developed over centuries and are able to survive in the wild without any human intervention. That means that they can thrive without artificial irrigation, fertilisation, pest control, pruning, or propagation. They are therefore ideally-suited for low-maintenance, low-water, low-impact plantings.

Organised by Planet Ark, the National Tree Day event helps Site Coordinators by providing step-by-step guides, tools, and other information for planning a successful tree-planting event. Last year, this event had 312,000 people (including 229,000 school-aged children) participating. Let’s make that number much bigger this year! Get involved in a project close to your home or become a registered Site Coordinator yourself. More information is available at http://treeday.planetark.org or by calling the National Tree Day Hotline on 1300 88 5000.
Another great way to get involved in this project is to plant new trees on your own property. At Grass Roots Eco-Store, we carry a variety of eco-friendly gardening products that help you establish and nurture trees and other garden plants

Get your insulation and hot water rebates now

Get your insulation and solar hot water rebates!

A new program from Federal Government will help homeowners improve the insulation and hot water energy consumption through a couple of different rebate and assistance programs.

In the Energy Efficient Homes Packages, the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts hopes to boost insulation in the ceilings of 2.9 homes by offering a Homeowner Insulation Program rebate of $1,600 for owner-occupiers. This program is specifically targeted at homes with completely uninsulated ceilings, or those with R-value insulation of 0.5 or less. Better insulation may just save you $200 every year in heating and cooling costs.

Additionally, those living in rental properties can receive assistance of up to $1,000 for installing ceiling insulation in their rental home through the Low Emissions Assistance Plan for Renters. Again, this program is for ceiling without insulation or those with R-values of 0.5 or less. It can be obtained by either a tenant or a landlord, although the tenant must receive permission from the landlord to make this improvement before proceeding. Landlords can even access this assistance for multiple rental properties within Australia or its territories.

Both of these programs take effect on July 1, 2009 and will run until the end of 2011. However, if you’re anxious to get going on your insulation project before winter sets in, you can take advantage of the early installation offer from the Australian government.

Another option for improving your home’s energy efficiency is the Energy Efficient Homes Solar Hot Water Rebate. It also offers homeowners the opportunity to receive $1,600 to assist with a solar hot water system installation. Since heating water is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions for most homes in Australia, this has serious potential to help with our climate emissions. These systems can save average homes between $300 and $700 annually!

You can also take small actions to reduce your water heating energy consumption. At Grass Roots Eco-Store, we carry water saving items like shower timers and faucet aerators which help you cut down on the amount of hot water you use on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, you can’t access both the insulation assistance and the solar hot water rebate for the same home. Nevertheless, choosing just one of these home improvements could greatly reduce your home’s energy consumption and save you a lot of cash over the life of your residence.

A revolution of kindness

What a beautiful idea......
The Kindness Revolution.
Kindness toward ourselves, each other and the natural world
Now is the time to wake up Kindness as a fierce and revolutionary force. It's easy and its fun!

Join the 1000's of Aussies who are playing the game of pay-it-forward: anonymously doing something kind to someone and leaving a kindness card behind asking the receiver to do the same.

Imagine....you could drop a cake on your neighbours doorstep, pay for the person behind you at the drive-thru restaurant or send a friend an inspiring CD or book. The feeling is magical! Get your free kindness cards from grassroots eco-store. We will send you one for free!

Is anonymous kindness truly revolutionary? There's only one way to find out! Let's find out!

Australia celebrates fair trade fortnight-bigger than ever

Aussies have embraced fairtrade fortnight more than ever. More of us are become more aware of the issues around what and how we consume!

Just being mindful of our choices, big or little, is part of a collective shift to a brighter future . Our dollars are a powerful vote.

Congratulations to RMIT and Macquarie Universities for leading the way as Australia’s first Fair Trade Universities

Check out this video: Wake Up Sydney! , encouraging Sydney siders to embrace fairtrade.

What is fairtade fortnight?

What happened in Australia during fairtrade fortnight?

Let's make it even better in 2010!

We ae so thrilled to be sourcing more and more fairtrade products for grassroots eco-store.

The availablity of fairtrade products just keeps growing since we opened in October, 2006. It is very exciting to be part of the change we want to see!

We are very passionate about fairtrade being a key element in our selection criteria for the amazing products in our shop.

Enjoying fairness, Liz

Our family appears in March 2009 Country Style

"Our life in the country.A family of six escape the suburbs to build a straw-bale house near Armidale NSW. " page 99-102.
A lovely chance to reflect on our journey in the past 5 years......and some family photos at last!

What do you think about the treechange movement?
Any folks contemplating the move to regional Australia?
Anyone done it? Reflections........