Thursday 21 February 2013

a green sustainable living fling

Last weekend I went to Melbourne to participate in the Sustainable Living Festival (okay, I really went to Melbourne to visit my friend, but I made time for the festival, too).

The festival's *Big Weekend* certainly lived up to its name. The Green Market took over the promenade at Fed Square and featured numerous presentations, debates and workshops on everything from gardening to economics to conservation to energy sources. There were also a number of *Big Names* of sustainability taking part in the festival including Annie Leonard, Bob Brown, Jon Dee, Tanya Ha, Guy Pearse and Clive Hamilton.

I spent a couple sweltering hours wandering through the Green Market snapping pics so I could share some of the most beautiful sustainability products and concepts around. Enjoy! And maybe I'll see you at the festival next year.  xxLisa

A beautiful project bringing beehives to the rooftops of Melbourne, you
can even sponsor a hive yourself.
My friend gave me some from a rooftop in St Kilda, and it's delish!

"Crafted from recycled wood and specially engineered for the time-starved
gardener." These gorgeous, unique boxes are built for your needs, and
use a sub-irrigation system, saving 90% water used in other systems!
Breaking the cycle of poverty in Poipet and features
earth-friendly, reused materials
I just ordered a multi-green door rug for my apartment.


Energy saving experts and community collaboration, what's not to love?


Providing skills to disabled women in Nepal to create and sell beautiful crafts.
I by chance bought a pair of oven mitts of theirs a few weeks ago!



I'm a big fan of their Repower Port Augusta campaign
featuring a solar thermal power plant. Let's give them
our support to get it across the line!


Beautiful reusable cloth wrapping paper for all occassions.

If you must print marketing materials, this is a great
option using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks.

I certainly never gave a second thought to the canvas
covering goods on trucks and road trains, did you?
Luckily the clever folks at Afroblonde did, and they are
upcycling them into funky bags, hats and shoes.

I've been a fan of Apple Green Duck canvas bags for a few
years now, and these hanging jute planters are just delightful!

ACF does so much positive work in the areas of conservation, climate change
and sustainability, I hope you all support them in some way.
And it was fab to hear my friend reminiscing about her time planting thousands
of trees and shrubs back in school to help the habitat of the Eastern Barred
Bandicoot - the numbers which are now thriving!


These folks gave a number of presentations, I saw the one on Urban Permaculture.
Best tip - don't put the garden back in the corner, keep things you use regularly
and that need regular attention in your sights, like on the way to the mailbox.


What's not to love about this cheeky superhero?
Get on board to help progress research on turning
doggie-doo into a power source.


Fancy living in an intentional community? It's not like the communes of
the past. Today there are communities designed to incorporate meaningful
connections among people whilst enabling private space, too.

As someone who is renting again, the information
and support of this organisation is sure to come in handy!

Treadlie partnered with Bikefest to create this event that
featured 'everything you need for a life on two wheels.'




There were dozens of volunteers helping make the
festival possible. We helped this friendly activist from
Environment Victoria with a video petition she's preparing
for PM Gillard, asking to end subsidies to fossil fuel industries.
I wonder if this will be my big break!?


And just a little inspiration until next time . . .

2 comments:

  1. Technical difficulties, so I'll add Amy from EcoChici's comment below:

    Thanks for the feature in your post Lisa. It was also great to see a wrap up of what else there was - this was the first year I wasn't able to get about and see the stalls (apart from the mango pops, I bought quite a few of those) as I was manning ours all weekend! ;) Glad you enjoyed, we're lucky to have such an inspiring festival in our backyard.
    Amy from EcoChici

    ReplyDelete