The Greening of Gavin | Sustainable Living in the Suburbs

Greening our business is now second nature for us.  When Kim and I started our Little Green Workshops business, we wanted it to be as green as we possibly could.  We strive to make sure that our personal values shine through when we teach our classes and that all of our ingredients and equipment are as sustainably sourced as possible.  From local milk for the cheese making, to as much locally sourced oils for soap making, and eco-soya wax for candle making.  We reuse things as much as possible and recycle everything that is possible.

During this episode you will hear Kim and I talk about how we started our business and what we teach.  We get a bit off track at the start, but get to the greening part at around the [12:40] mark.  If you just want to specifically listen to greening our business then fast forward to that time mark.

We have carried that through to our on-line business and all our new products where possible.  Additionally, around the office we make sure that we source post-consumer 100% recycled paper, refill our own toner and ink cartridges for printing our booklets and invoices, and of course we use 100% renewable energy here at home.

An as for packaging our products we use recycled cardboard boxes and brown paper for most of our shipping.  We even shred our old tax documents and any other paper we can get our hands on for filler for shipping.  Nothing goes to waste around here.  Boxes that we receive stock in gets reused for our own shipping or cut into soap mould lids or given away to friends.  If we can’t find a use for it, we then recycle into curbside recycling.

We hope you enjoy the show and learn a little bit more about how we try to keep our business as green as possible.

As promised, I managed to have a chat with my son Adam on the last day of his visit.  I was interested to discover how the cultures that he had been immersed in during the last five years viewed sustainability and treated the environment.  Of course there is a caveat in which rightly he states that he could only gauge the vibe from those he mingled with during his stay.

I fully understand that, but I was after his experience, his views, and that is exactly what we got during our chat.  We cover his time in the United Kingdom, Germany (1st time), Canada, and finally Germany again.

We also have some comparison with life in Australia and what people in other countries think of our Government’s current policies.  You may or may not be kind of shocked.

So grab a cuppa and sit back and have a listen to a great episode.

If you have any questions for Adam or comments/observations of your own, we would welcome them via comment below.

It is about this time of year that I have my annual “consumerism gone wild” rant.

Everywhere you look, the effects of Affluenza are clear for everyone to see.  But what is Affluenza?

Now, Wikipedia defines affluenza as;

affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.

affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the Western Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

Now, wait a minute. There is that economic growth example gets thrown around a lot of late. All forms of government seem to keep telling us that we must stimulate the economy, and increase economic growth. But doesn’t growth mean destroying, sorry, squandering the remaining resources we have left on the planet?  That can’t be a good thing, can it?  More on that in another post though.  Lets get back to the subject of Christmas.

We have lost our way.  It doesn’t need to be like this, but economic growth demands it.

Around this time of year, our consumer culture ramps into high gear, urging to buy the next shiny thing with money that we just don’t have.  So what do we do?  We go into debt by using credit cards, and end up with a big fat debt headache in the new year.

So now you know what Affluenza is, have a listen to the show where I will hopefully convince you that there is another and better way.

Once you have played the entire episode, please leave a comment about what you think of Christmas Consumerism.  I would love to read your thoughts on the matter.

How many of you have old electronic goods lying around, or just dump them in landfill?

I am certainly not one to judge, as I have bought a few computers in my time.  However, I dispose of and recycle my computers and electronic goods as responsibly as I can, or at least attempt to extend their lifespan as long as I can by adding new components or get them repaired.

You don’t have throw them into landfill you know.  You can give them a second life or put them to work again.

Links mentioned during this episode;

* Equipment Recycling Network Inc – www.erni.asn.au

* Computer Bank – www.computerbank.org.au

* Mobile Muster – www.mobilemuster.com.au

* 4 Ways to Minimize Electronic Waste – original inspiration for the episode.

Lately you can get devices repaired as there are so many mobile device fix-it shops popping up all over the place.  We have two of these shops in our new shopping mall that I noticed in the last few months.

So next time you think about getting rid of an electronic device, have a think about where it may end up.  Can you repair or upgrade it instead of replacing it?  It is a much better outcome for your back pocket, and the environment in the long run.

One of my regular Suburban Food Farm updates, this time for late spring.  We, hopefully, had our last frost of the season, so I have been going crazy in the garden planting up this season’s crops.

It certainly kept me busy for most of the long weekend we had here in Victoria.

During the show, I mentioned these links;

* Fair Dinkum Seeds

* Broad Bean and Chorizo Risotto

* Late Planted Potatoes

I also talked about the method I use to harvest broad beans.  I mention the nitrogen nodules that grow on the roots.  For those who have never seen them, here is a photo I took the other day.

Near the end of the cast, I let you know about a recent newspaper interview which should appear in the Melton Leader soon, and a little about a blogging course that I taught last night, which is the reason the podcast episode is a day later than normal.

Also, if you live in the Melbourne area, and are interested in attending a very reasonably priced Blogging for Beginners course ($48 for 5 hour course), leave me a comment so I can gauge interest.  I am in two minds as if I should to run another one due to the fact that it took over 8 months to fill this course.

Thanks for listening to The Greening of Gavin podcast!

Sleepwalking into the future.  These are thoughts that have been mulling around in my head for quite a few years.  I have finally been able to put it down coherently so that I can share it with you today.

As this episode was read from notes I have a transcript for you to read.

 

We live in the age of abundant energy, and we have a lot to be thankful for, but for how much longer, and what are we doing about it?

Humanity has reached a stage in its development where everything we now have is reliant on a source of cheap energy, in the form of fossil fuels. We have transportation that would shock an early 20th century person, as we can get from point A to point B with a minimum of fuss and travel distances in time-frames that would be unheard of only 50 years ago.

Way back then, only the rich could afford to fly, and the rest of us were stuck on the ground or traveled vast distances slowly via the oceans. However, whilst on the ground we spent this precious resource building roads and freeways that have cut the travelling time between cities in half (except for the odd traffic jam).

We have built magnificent cities from steel, concrete and glass (with the aid of oil) that glow in the night that can be seen from space. These cities house many millions of people throughout the world and consume resources from neighboring countryside.

We have a medical procedures that can replace most parts of the body when they get diseased or worn out, except for the human brain, but I am sure we are working on that as well. We live longer than any other time in human history and have the biggest population that increases by 1,000,000,000 people every 25 years.

All because of cheap energy in the form of oil and other fossil fuels.

So, on the down side, at this very moment we are on a plateau of energy production. Our demand for energy is now outstripping supply, and this demand grows with every single human born into existence. Prices rise because of supply shortages, and this in turn continues to feed the woes of the continuing economic crisis which is build on continuous upward growth.

However, with all fossil fuels and natural resources being of finite supply, our economic system is bashing up against natural hard limits. You cannot have a system that is reliant on growth when there is only so much of everything. You cannot change the laws of physics.

Not only fossil fuels are depleting, but things like fresh water with depletion in the form of ancient aquifers, phosphates for fertilization, arable land to grow food on, and global fish stocks.

We do not seem to be awake to the fact that many of the things we take for granted are depleting rapidly, we have no plan to implement a scalable replacement for our energy needs, which drives all other human activities.

Even with all our cleverness, much of humanity lacks the foresight to plan for a future with less of everything. Our population has grown alongside of energy growth, because we have been able to produce abundant surpluses of food. But only in some parts of the world. Over 5/7th of our species do not have a regular meal on the table, or access to clean drinking water.

Recent events do not fill me with joy or hope. Our governments will continue to talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. We will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100. That is totally unpredictable.

It will only get hotter after that. This is already happening now, in our own lifetimes. Surely we can do better than this?

Now that we have hit the 7,000,000,000 mark in population, and that we are constrained by natures hard limits, and the threat of environmental disaster in the form of a changing climate, what are we to do?

Did you know that you can make at least seven effective fertilizers in your very own backyard?  Let me step you through the process of making fertilizers at home.  Here are the ones that I talk about;

* Compost

* Worm castings

* Worm Wee tea

* Liquid Fertilizer

* Urine (yes I went there)

* Chicken manure

* Coffee grounds

All are very effective additions to any backyard veggie patch giving the soil and your plants a boost a couple of times a year.  If you are really interested in Urine which is the easiest and most abundant (after a few home-brew beers) homemade fertilizer, then here is some more info from Wikipedia.

Urine contains large quantities of nitrogen (mostly as urea), as well as significant quantities of dissolved phosphates and potassium, the main macronutrients required by plants, with urine having plant macronutrient percentages (i.e. NPK) of approximately 11-1-2 by one study or 15-1-2 by another report, illustrating that exact composition varies with diet. Undiluted, it can chemically burn the roots of some plants, but it can be used safely as a source of complementary nitrogen in carbon-rich compost.

When diluted with water (at a 1:5 ratio for container-grown annual crops with fresh growing medium each season, or a 1:8 ratio for more general use), it can be applied directly to soil as a fertilizer. The fertilization effect of urine has been found to be comparable to that of commercial fertilizers with an equivalent NPK rating. Urine contains most of the NPK nutrients excreted by the human body.

It really is great stuff and it is such a shame to flush it down the loo.

Well listeners and readers, I hope you found my tips interesting, enlightening, and helpful for your garden.

May your garden grow abundantly and be bountiful!

It has been a sad week.  Kim and I have been grieving the loss of her mother, Pam.  We each have gone about it in our own way, coming together often for hugs and tears.

To reflect and grieve, I have been practicing gardening therapy, which is something that I discovered a while back.  It always helps me get over the blues or a funk that I sometimes get into.

What did I have to lose by thrusting my hands into the soil and by getting stuck into planting more veg or harvesting our winter crops?  Nothing to lose at all, and everything to gain, especially a sense of fulfilment and joy that one rarely experiences from other endeavours in their life.  Well that is how it affects me.

During the show I mentioned a study that may go some way to explaining why gardening helps combat depression and aids in mental health.  It studied allotment gardeners asked to perform a stressful task and how gardening work lowered their stress levels quicker than a control group where were asked to read after the same task.  According to the authors, gardening elicits powerful neuroendocrine responses that relieve acute stress parameters in a very measurable way.  Very interesting indeed.

So please join me by listening to this episode titled Gardening Therapy, and hear how I have been busy getting therapy in my own special way.

We humans all think differently, that is a given, and is human nature.  Our perception of reality is an accumulation of our life experiences and thoughts.

Therefore it is no surprise to anyone that I believe that it takes a different mindset to live a simpler lifestyle. A simple living mindset!

During this episode I take you on a journey.  My own personal journey of how my mindset shifted due to different events, leading up to where I am now.  That is a content and happy man, truly living life simply and honestly.

As I ramble on I cover topics such as;

* Consumer culture

* The Rat Race

* The spark

* My Dichotomy and feeling out of balance

* Awareness of the bigger picture

* Enjoying the little things

* People vs Possessions

* Less stuff

* Needs vs Wants and the power of advertising

* Thinking deeper, and

* Debt reduction due to behaviour change.

A pretty full and well-rounded show covering what I think is the simple living mindset.

Let me know what you think of the show via comment.  I would love your honest opinion.

 

It was a brilliant day at the Royal Melbourne Show.  Join me as I walk you through some of the highs and lows as Ben and I saw it.  From the funny and cute farm animals and my backyard display, to the excessive consumerism and advertising.  It had it all.  Some parts made me cringe, others made my heart sing with joy!

What I loved the most was the My Backyard display.  It was as if my very own backyard was transported to the show grounds!  Chooks, worm farms, veggie patches, fruit trees, the works.  A little bit of sustainable living in the city.

Certainly a day to remember.  Have a listen.  I think you will enjoy the show.