Local Environment Heroes

Siwan Lovett is the Director of the not-for-profit Australian River Restoration Centre, an organisation she established after undertaking a Winston Churchill Trust Fellowship in 2008. Siwan’s work focuses on research and science communication and developing future leaders. She has a PhD from the Australian National University in public policy, majoring in sociology and administration and is the founder of finterest, a website dedicated to telling stories about Australian freshwater fish. She sat down with Julie and Ryan to talk about radical hope, why more meetings should happen in kayaks and why we need to elevate feminine leadership traits in river management.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Rebecca Vassarotti is a member of parliament in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the ACT Greens.  In 2020 she was appointed as the Minister for Environment and Heritage, Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services, and Minister for Sustainable Building and Construction.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Charles Massy gained a Bachelor of Science at ANU in 1976 before going farming for 35 years, developing the prominent Merino sheep stud ‘Severn Park’.  Concern at ongoing land degradation and humanity’s sustainability challenge led him to return to ANU in 2009 to undertake a PhD in Human Ecology.  

Charles has authored several books on the Australian sheep industry including ‘Breaking the Sheep’s Back’.  His most recent book ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’ tells the story of a new and regenerative approach to agriculture and won the Scholarly Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 Educational Publishing Awards. 

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Julie and Ryan catch up for a virtual Sunday afternoon hang out and chat about what they have learnt from the Environmental Heroes so far.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Karissa Preuss is the CEO of ACT Landcare, the peak body for Landcare groups in the ACT.  Karissa works with landholders wanting to manage their farm sustainably, community groups monitoring conservation efforts and stewardship groups improving ACT Government land.  She sees her role as supporting volunteers to care for country and is a firm believer that if we look after country it will look after us.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Mia Swainson is passionate about leadership and waste reduction.  She has worked in government, politics, international development and the non-profit sector and now runs her own boutique management consulting company. Mia is current Chair of the Canberra Environment Centre and of Zero Waste Revolution and her personal challenge to reduce the household waste of her family of five to almost nothing is proof that living a cleaner, greener and simpler life is within everyone’s reach. 

Mia sat down with Julie and Ryan to talk zero waste, passionate leadership and how all of the world’s problems could be solved by inner peace.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Fiona Buining runs Ainslie Urban Farm where she grows microgreens in green houses in her backyard for local restaurants and cafes. Fiona’s property has over 50 fruit trees, nuts, berries, vegetables, two beehives, chickens and working rabbits. Working with teenagers as a teacher she has seen first-hand the physical and mental health benefits of learning to grow food. As a grower she has observed an unmet demand for locally grown fresh food.

Fionais passionate about growing and is inspired to create pathways for future food growers in urban areas. Fiona was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2020 to investigate urban farm ventures that provide vocational pathways for aspiring food growers. Fiona believes that growing good food is one of the most positive actions people can do for their own health and to heal the planet.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Brook Clinton is the founder and operator of Capital Scraps Composting, a not-for-profit social enterprise motivated by the direct climate benefit and wider social benefits of composting at the community scale.  Brook has a PhD in biodegradation and most mornings she can be found riding around the suburbs of Canberra collecting household food scraps before stepping into her day job as the Executive Director of the community organisation SEE-Change.

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Chris Dennis is the man behind Two Before Ten cafes.  From humble beginnings in Aranda Shops to a network of cafes across the city, Chris has made an effort to make business decisions that are in line with the UN Sustainable Development goals.  This has led to the purchasing of an industrial composting machine to deal with organic waste, a truly seasonal menu and a quarter acre urban farm providing fresh produce directly to the kitchen.  

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱

Edwina Robinson is the founder of The Climate Factory, a social enterprise that is empowering people to plant the planet.  In 2020-21 Edwina created Canberra’s first urban community micro-forest which has transformed a dusty, weedy park in Downer into a dense pocket of native vegetation.  There are now community funded micro-forests popping up all over Canberra and Edwina’s mission is to build a micro-forest in every urban hotspot in Australia.  

Julie and Ryan sat down with Edwina to chat about her mission to cool the suburbs, the importance of working with community and why she will never live in a tiny house again!

Local Environment Heroes is a Canberra Environment Centre podcast celebrating the people working to create a healthier, more sustainable and connected community.

Find out more and get involved: canberraenvironment.org

Follow the Canberra Environment Centre on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events, workshops, and stories from our community.

Thanks for listening; environmental change starts with people. 🌱