2013 Coffs Coast Sustainable Living Festival

The 2013 Coffs Coast Sustainable Living Festival will be an inspirational celebration of all things sustainable. The Festival aims to engage and inspire ways of living more sustainably through a range of engaging and fun activities including performances, stalls,...

Tidy Towns ~ Sustainable Communities Weekend in Armidale

Since 1981, the Tidy Towns – Sustainable Communities Program has been rewarding and recognising the civic pride, community spirit and environmental commitment of regional communities across NSW. An award based program, Tidy Towns celebrates the achievements of...

The Tucker Patch ~ Gloucester NSW

The Tucker Patch is a demonstration Garden in Gloucester NSW. It’s a place where small and largescale crops are being trialled as a model for sustainability while at the same time providing fresh local produce. It forms part of a larger initiative ~ The Gloucester...

Biochar Trial for Australia’s Top End

This week an organic farm at Lambells Lagoon, near Darwin, has spread biochar onto a two hectare block of zucchinis, cucumber and watermelons. Biochar is essentially charcoal, and is created by converting biomass or feedstock into a charred product under...

Inland rail gains momentum

The Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail Alliance (MBIRA) and the Border Regional Organisation of Councils (BROC) co-hosted a Strategy Meeting in Moree to identify ways to support the creation of an inland rail line and logistics system for freight movements in the vast...

HyperVillage ~ The New Rural

The HyperVillage is an idea for an alternative to uber-urban-cities, which seem to be the predominant view of many commentators as the most sustainable future way of living for humans. But what about rural and remote communities? HyperVillage is about imagining a...

Materialism vs Sustainability

Australian’s have one of the highest environmental footprints per capita in the world. If everyone in the world lived like Australians, we’d need more than four Earths worth of resources and capacity to satisfy the demand. Yet despite the absurdity in that...

Global fossil fuel incentives top $2.4 trillion per year

In the hotly politicised energy arena, public attention is rarely drawn to the fact that fossil fuels receieve incentives which are far greater than those provided to support clean and renewable energy. Government incentives are widely accepted as being critical to...

Earth Overshoot Day comes earlier again in 2013

August 20 was Earth Overshoot Day 2013. This marks the date when globally we have consumed all the resources the earth has created for the year. Our consumption and footprint for the rest of 2013 will be further degrading the planet’s capacity to support life – ours...

95% likelihood of human created climate change

A leaked draft of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has revealed scientists are almost certain human activity is causing global warming. Drafts of the fifth assessment report says it is 95 per cent likely that humans were the...