Saturday 9 March 2013

the ethical social network

I feel like I'm walking on air, and I'm chalking up my current floaty-feeling to spending extra time among the ever-growing ethical social network.

I write about the green social network in Sustainability with Style, and the important role groups with shared values and a collective identity play in moving social movements forward. On a more personal level, I find that spending time with the group increases my eco-motivation.

This week I had a lot of contact with environmentalists and other ethical social movement members, and I thought I'd share some of the highlights.

100 Things
I'm starting from the end of the week, because last night's event was definitely the most inspirational of the week.  I attended the Australian premier of the "100 Things To Do Before You Die" documentary based on Sebastian Terry's adventures. 


With the death of a close friend when Sebastian (Seb) was 27, Seb experienced a moment of clarity about his life - he wasn't living the life he wanted for himself. So he started to make a list, and even better, he started ticking things off his list, and best of all, he's raising money for Camp Quality, a children's cancer charity. Currently Seb's raised over $81,000 (why not help him reach his goal of $100,000?).

Whilst watching some of his crazy antics - skydiving naked, getting shot at point blank, and riding an endurance-length tandem bicycle trip - was so entertaining, the largest emotion I felt from the event was inspiration. I've long been a believer in making your dreams a reality, and it's wonderful to meet like-minded souls inspiring happiness and positive change in others. And to be doing it off his own back while also raising money for Camp Quality makes this well-spoken, thoughtful and humourous individual all the more impressive.

What's on your list? Are you living your best life? I hope so!

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Australian Packaging Covenant - Design Smart Material Guides launch
Totally switching gears, this was an industry event I attended along with my friends at Boxer & Co to celebrate the launch of sustainable packaging material guides. The guidelines will be provided free to all signatories of the Australian Packaging Covenant (APC), and it was exciting to be present at the launch since Boxer & Co and I ran our Sustainable Packaging 101 workshop less than one year ago.



I loved meeting the environmental consultants and packaging professionals who are involved in sustainability, and celebrating this important milestone for the APC. There was also a recap on the work being done by APC and their signatories for Clean Up Australia and Green Biz Check. Whoever says that the packaging industry is only adding waste to the environment would do well to learn more about the impressive sustainability efforts being undertaken by a number of organisations.

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Green Cities Expo - The Hub
Going back earlier in the week, I was also going back in time as I attended my first Green Cities as a delegate instead of an organiser. After working on three of these green building mega-events, it was a delight to be able just to visit and learn! And I was so excited to see that Reverse Garbage had aligned themselves more than ever with the conference, designing a beautiful learning hub from reclaimed materials. And hats off to InterfaceFlor, leaders in sustainable design for nearly a decade, for designing a truly beautiful expo space.



I attended the Expo specifically to attend the first Hub session - a 15 minute talk by Dr Matthew Parnell from GreenSynergy on the cultural change needed to roll out green building, and Green Star in particular, out to regional and suburban locales. And of course it was great to see so many familiar faces at Green Cities - congrats on another year!

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Next week's diary is less busy with ethical social network engagements, but I'm not worried about losing this floaty-feeling. I connect with loads of other greenies and social movement members everyday online. I recently provided a guest post to the blog Soul Stories, managed by an Australian writer who is passionate about sharing positive stories through the internet. And don't get me started on the wonderful tweeps on twitter! (Which reminds, I finally joined Instagram @lisa_heinze - I'd love for you to follow me as I snap stylish, sustainable images).

I took this today - a corner of my bedroom featuring
a reclaimed wood frame, rescued and refurbished dresser,
beeswax candles, flowers in a vase made by my hubby, and
a pink beaded Maasai mat purchased direct from the artist!

So don't fret if you can't attend every eco- or ethical-event you'd like to, connect when and how you can, I guarantee you'll quickly feel more part of the movement and you'll be helping change the world as part of this growing ethical social network.

xxLisa

1 comment:

  1. Oh! I forgot to say I won the awesome raffle prize for a 3 night stay down in Kiama at the 100 Things launch. Lucky me!!

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