The launch event of a 520 solar system at MACS – Multicultural Aged Care Services in West Geelong – in July 2018 marked the completion of a four-year dream to create a large-scale solar project in Geelong. Listen to an excerpt of the speeches at the event.

The project, titled ‘Geelong CORE 1’ – where CORE stands for Community-Owned Renewable Energy – had been able to raise $150,000 in the community within a week. It also received a $188,000 State Government grant to develop the project’s structure and model properly, so that it can be replicated over and over again.

Geelong Sustainability project co-ordinator Dan Cowdell explained in his speech that his group is now looking at other host sites to start raising funds for and building Core 2, then Core 3, and so on.

Congratulations from myself and @CCouzensMP to @geelongsustain , a @SustainVic #TAKE2 founding partner, for getting the job done. With a combined $188k VicGovt grant and $150,000 from community investors, they’re installing 520 solar panels at #Geelong’s @AgedCare_MACS . pic.twitter.com/vuNQ8lNqiV

— Lily D'Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) July 19, 2018

Cowdell and his CORE team has done a fantastic job in creating a sense of dynamism and passion around this project and renewal energy in general. Geelong Sustainability currently run a number of ‘lighthouse projects’ and they play a really important role in changing the community narrative about renewables – changing the story.

For instance, in conjunction with ShineHub, the group has rolled out a community solar bulk-buy program where 250 residents across Geelong have signed up to have solar panels installed, with about 75 per cent adding battery storage – creating a virtual power plant in Geelong of over one megawatt.

“This project at MACS highlights the potential for community-owned solar to help drive Victoria’s transition to renewable energy,” said Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio. Member for Geelong Christine Couzens added that Geelong Sustainability Group is part of a broad network of businesses, community groups and individuals which are doing great work to reduce the impact of climate change.

Listen to the speeches at the launch event, which was opened by Geelong Sustainability president Vicki Perrett:

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Community-backed solar delivering for Geelong

“Residents living in Geelong’s Multicultural Aged Care Centre Services (MACS) will soon have access to cheaper energy, thanks to a 520-panel solar project funded by the Andrews Labor Government.”

On 19 July 2018, the Victorian government published a media release about two of Geelong Sustai...

An hour about the Melbourne municipality that rose to the challenge of overcoming climate change – and what happened next

Our guest in The Sustainable Hour on 18 July 2018 is climate action campaigner Adrian Whitehead who co-founded Beyond Zero Emissions, the political party Save the Planet, and Community Action for the Climate Emergency (CACE). He has been part of the group of local residents in the Melbourne suburb Darebin who have inspired and helped its City Council create the world‘s first local government Climate Emergency Plan. In September the first Climate Emergency Conference is held in Darebin.

Over the phoneline to Perth, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz explains how we can become more clever and thoughtful about the ways we use plastic. As a local government waste educator she started off the amazingly succesful Plastic Free July campaign, launched together with two colleagues in 2011. 40 people in Western Australia participated that first year. This year, 3.3 million people joined her vision of “a world without plastic waste” – in 159 countries.

Re: Plastic Free July: Geelong Sustainability’s Green Drinks on Wednesday 25 July has Plastic Free Living as its theme – starting at 5:30 at Beav’s Bar in Lt Malop Street.

Colin Mockett shares a global outlook on various countries’ percentages of renewable energy in the electricity grid; we play a Youtube clip with speakers from the We Don’t Have Time conference, ‘These people speak the truth about the urgency of the climate crisis!’, featuring the American economist Jeffrey Sachs; a Youtube clip produced by the Victorian government about ‘Victorians concern about climate change’; and we play the song ‘Erosion’ with peer-reviewed rapper Baba Brinkman.

“The climate emergency message will be unstoppable”

“In Darebin, we’ve got a climate emergency response for the first time rolling out at government level. We are getting a momentum and actual, real change happening. But we need to start getting other councils to do the same. Because once that communication starts pumping out from Darebin, once we start reaching out to the ethnic groups and the churches, through volunteers from the community working hand in hand with council to get a combined approach, I think the climate emergency message will be unstoppable.”

~ Adrian Whitehead in The Sustainable Hour

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 225 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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Future water security lay outside the usual water delivery infrastructure. In The Sustainable Hour on 11 July 2018, our guest is the Victorian Minister for Water and Police, the Hon Lisa Neville MP, who expands our vision on water in a talk about water efficiency and behaviour change, storm water, wetlands and tanks, fracking, climate change and other risks to our water security, and what the the next state election has to do with that.

Audio clips: Dr Jeremy Leggett about fossil fuel companies being taken to court, and The Juice Media about fracking for gas in the Northern Territory.

Music: ‘If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous’ by Sarah McQuaid and ‘Limits’ by the Formidable Vegetable Sound System.

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 224 on 94.7 The Pulse:

The Sustainable Hour this Wednesday was produced by: Colin Mockett, Anthony Gleeson and Mik Aidt

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 #WATER: 

Lisa Neville: Guarding our water

As a minister for Police, the Hon Lisa Neville MP guards our waterways and fresh water resources with an extra level of authority. She is Minister for Water and Police for the Government in Victoria, serving as the member for Bellarine, representing the Labor Party.

Following the Victorian state election in 2014, Neville was made Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water. In May 2016, she then changed to be Victoria’s Minister for Water and Police. In The Sustainable Hour, she explains how this has worked out well for her.

» Lisa Neville’s home page:

www.lisanevillemp.com.au

» Find contact details on www.parliament.vic.gov.au

Sustainable water strategy review

Communities in Victoria’s central regions are encouraged to contribute to the Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy review.

Media release from www.delwp.vic.gov.au on 28 June 2018:

“REVIEWING WATER STRATEGIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Sustainable Water Strategies are long-term plans for water resources across Victoria’s Gippsland, Northern, Western and Central regions.

In The Sustainable Hour on 4 July 2018, we talk with Simon Sheikh, managing director of Future Super, and professor Lesley Hughes, founding member of the Climate Council and a lead author on the International Panel on Climate Change’s latest two reports. We play a peer-reviewed rap song about IPCC for her – by Baba Brinkman.

Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook contains a special message to our listeners, and we play a new video from The Terminator with a special message to both Trump and Turnbull.

The Terminator’s take on renewables

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 223 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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i’m still offering 10-to-1 odds that there won’t be a new coal fired power station generating within 10 years.

no takers? not even you @PaulineHansonOz?https://t.co/yDZLLDpnJh

— simon holmes à court (@simonahac) June 27, 2018

“It’s a shameful fact: The older generation bears the responsibility for climate change but the younger generation will suffer its disastrous consequences.” 

~ Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO, We Don’t Have Time

» Washington Post – 3 July 2018:

Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week

» CNN – 6 July 2018:

Blistering heat wave claims 54 lives in Quebec

“A blistering heat swept through parts of Canada this week, killing 54 people in the province of Quebec, according to health officials. Twenty-eight of the deaths were in Montreal, said Marie-Claude Lacasse with the Ministry of Health. Many of the victims were older than 50, male, living alone and had no air conditioning.”

“Political cesspit in Canberra is utterly failing Australians”

“We are more exposed to the impact of this warming than any other continent. Drought is in full swing, farming land is rendered increasingly unproductive; this process will accelerate, with impact across society. We are totally unprepared for what is now developing. The first priority of government is the security of the people. The political cesspit in Canberra is utterly failin...

Guests in The Sustainable Hour on 27 June 2018 in order of appearance:

• Colin Mockett’s global outlook

• Josh Meadows, media and communication officer, Environmental Justice Australia, about the Beyond Coal and Gas Jamboree

• Dr Chris Atmore, lawyer, author of Environmental Justice Australia’s report ‘Raising a Stink’

• Carol Ride, president of Psychology for a Safe Climate

• Dan Cowdell from Geelong Sustainability and Councillor Margot Smith in a clip from Surf Coast Energy Group’s video about community solar and about Surf Coast Shire’s 25%-renewables-by-2020 target.

• We also play two songs: Andy Paine’s ‘I’m carbon neutral baby’ and Baba Brinkman’s ‘I.P.C.C.’

A headline like this… – and then what?

 #STORYCHANGE: 

$5 billion more to coal and gas

More and more Australians are getting sick and tired of the parliamentarians’ inability to create policies that can protect us from unhealthy, toxic air pollution and the costly devastation from extreme weather events and other climate change related issues.

Polling released this month showed that 84 per cent of Australians want a future powered by clean, climate-safe renewables. But something has gone insanely wrong with our elected representatives. Just like Trump in America, the Federal Government in Australia continues its fight for dirty coal and gas. The other day we heard Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull once again tell the Parliament to get ready for coal to be a part of our energy mix… “forever.”

GetUp delivered more details on the recent moves in parliament: “One Nation and the Coalition teamed up to try and pass a Senate motion demanding we build new coal-burning power stations. It came within two votes of passing. Then the Nationals handed their new demands to Turnbull. At the top of the list: a $5 billion fleet of dirty coal and gas power stations.”

Coal and gas make no sense any longer, not even economically. These statements and calls for public investments and subsidies are so absurd that it’d be hilarious if we didn’t know that the government is gambling with an issue that will impact us all.

As our guests in The Sustainable Hour remind us on a weekly basis, the explanation for the seemingly irrational behaviour among our elected representatives is that many of them are in the pocket of Big Energy. The fact that it is free to pollute and destroy our environment makes fossil fuels profitable, and those who benefit from that profit are fiercely protecting their vested interests.

As scientists predict this shortsighted selfishness will have tragic consequences for life on this planet, the Australian government has lost its legitimacy to govern.

Australia is getting ready for Plastic-Free July – the countdown started today with a major supermarket chain stopping its handing out free single-use plastic bags.

In The Sustainable Hour on 20 June 2018, we talk with Linda Grant, an education officer based in Hamilton for the Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group, who has also started a zero waste group in South West Victoria called War on Waste Southern Grampians – and Katie Traill and Meg Odgers from Towards Zero Waste Geelong.

Before they enter – 16 minutes in – Colin Mockett’s global outlook takes us from Scandinavia over India to a festive event at Rokewood Hotel, where Pat Simons from Yes2Renewables gave a speech as the local community celebrated World Wind Day on 15 June 2018.

“Every journey starts with one step. So just take that one step. Make it something sustainable. And just keep taking a next step. Once you do go, you will want to take the next step. It is a bit addictive.”

~ Linda Grant, education officer, in The Sustainable Hour

Join the challenge and ‘Choose To Refuse’ single-use plastic during July

Plastic Free July has grown from a handful of participants in Western Australia in 2011 through to millions of participants across more than 150 countries worldwide today.

Imagine a world without plastic waste. That’s Plastic Free July’s mission: to build a global movement that dramatically reduces plastic use and improves recycling, worldwide. ​Will you join the campaign and give up single-use plastic this July?

» Accept the challenge

» See the list of Plastic Free July events

Geelong Plastic Freedom event

On Wednesday 25 July 2018 at 5:30pm at Beav’s Bar, Geelong Sustainability organises a Plastic Free July Challenge & Workshop where you can listen to case studies from locals who’ve taken up the challenge and learn how to make beeswax wraps, paper bin liners, deodorant and recycle right plus more.

By the year 2050, there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Made in partnership with @adidasrunning. pic.twitter.com/4rZ8SJDlRx

— ATTN: (@attn) June 29, 2018

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 221 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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Wellness advocates Misty Barth from Witchy Brews and Sarah Bradford from Earth Love Gratitude are our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 13 June 2018.

Colin Mockett shares his global outlook with us – today he examines the new Climate Change Performance Index from Germanwatch and Melbourne’s bikeshare flop.

We interview Parami Peiris from Eco-Friendly Volunteers and Journeys for Climate Justice, and bring a climate emergency speech by The Greens’ Jeremy Buckingham in the New South Wales Parliament.

Youtube-clips with Ethan Hawke talking about the new movie ‘First Reformed’ by legendary ‘Taxi Driver’-director Paul Schrader, with Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki being interviewed by Bill Moyers in May 2014, and with our favourite peer-reviewed rapper, Canadian Baba Brinkman.

One Nature

» www.davidsuzuki.org – More below

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“Taking charge of your health is probably one of the single most important acts you can take to revolutionise the world!”

~ Sarah Bradford, 12 May 2018

Earth Love Gratitude

Sarah Bradford runs and owns Organic Mojo in West Geelong. She is a ‘Lover of Earth’ who is “passionate about connecting with the natural world to create a life full of vitality, abundance and bliss.”

A regenerative hour about stable soil sinks versus ‘coke of the farming world’ – with Chris Balazs from Sage Farm, Cindy Eiritz from Healthy Soils, permaculture singer and songwriter Charlie Mgee from Formidable Vegetable Sound System, and Colin Mockett from 94.7 The Pulse.

“Oil drives you crazy. Oil corrupts politics. Oil buys politicians.”

~ Jeffrey D. Sachs, American economist and director of The Earth Institute

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 219 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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» Sage Farm’s home page:

www.sagefarm.com.au

» Sage Farm on Instagram:

www.instagram.com/sage.farm

» Sage Farm’s address:

2430 Midland Highway, Bannockburn, Victoria

Look for the rusty “La Finca” sign out the front.

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Branding and understanding

After the Hour, we talked with Cindy Eiritz from Healthy Soils who added these three points to the conversation we had:

1) Re: The thin skin of soil which is being degraded and destroyed and may be gone in decades:

The great news is that with regenerative we can rebuild and actually ‘grow’ new soils.

2) Re: Regenerative branding of food:

Two definitive labels nearly ready are: Regenerative Organic, and Era of Regenerative Agriculture including the Australian version of this: LandToMarket.com.au

3) Re: Criticism of farmers:

Cindy Eiritz wrote: “It would be good to try to build more understanding of farmers.

Guests in the Sustainable Hour no 218 are: Claire Ziegler, a member of Geelong Sustainability, the Repair Cafe in Highton and organiser of a World Environment Day event, and Colin Mockett, who is just back from Shanghai and has a great story to tell about what has happened there in the last year.

Over the phone we talk with Dr Martin Rice, head of The Climate Council, and David Holmgren, permaculture co-founder and author. We also play a clip with Jeremy Rifkin and a song by Baba Brinkman.

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DOCUMENTARY TV:

A radical new sharing economy

Watch VICE’s new documentary, ‘The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy’

In a digitally-driven society, social and economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin describes the birth of a new economic system that can address climate change and create a more equitable and empathic world.

Jeremy Rifkin lays out a roadmap for the future to grow our economy and save the environment.

1 hour 40 min well worth watching

» The program was aired on SBS Viceland on 6 March 2018. It can be viewed in SBS On Demand

» And on impact.vice.com

Article about it:

» FastCompany – 26 April 2018:

Will The Third Industrial Revolution Create An Economic Boom That Saves The Planet?

“Jeremy Rifkin’s thinking about how to build a clean-energy powered, automation-filled future is inspiring major infrastructure plans in Europe and China. Can his new Vice documentary convince American business leaders to buy in?”

An existential Sustainable Hour with James McLennan, education program manager at The Farmer’s Place and ResourceSmart Schools coordinator, talking about climate change, leadership, kids with ‘nature deficit disorder’, the idea of taking fossil fuel executives bushwalking and how 60 out of the 250 schools in Barwon South-West are hugely benefitting from the ResourceSmart Schools program.

Listen to The Sustainable Hour no. 217 on 94.7 The Pulse:

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The two most significant sustainable highlights from the week that went was first of all the cross-party Senate Commission report, published on 17 May 2018, which defines climate change as an existential national security risk, and… the delight of an emissions-free royal getaway EV.

Senate inquiry report on climate change and national security

“The committee notes the consensus from the evidence that climate change is exacerbating threats and risks to Australia’s national security. These include sea level rise, bushfires, droughts, extreme rainfall events, and higher-intensity cyclones.”


~ Quote from Chapter 6, ‘Conclusions and recommendations’, on page 99 in the Senate Inquiry Commission report ‘Implications of climate change for Australia’s national security’

Now, once again, we hear the Australian military saying that we are facing an existential security risk because of our unregulated carbon emissions, which keep rising year by year. And we once again observe the politicians in charge listening, nodding… and doing nothing.

So what should be our response?

» Mik Aidt had a look at the report – and here is his blogpost about it with additional comments and responses

Military: Climate change an existential security risk

Royal getaway car: The electric Jaguar

At Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, which was called ‘boundary-breaking’, the royal couple took a symbolic but significant green step into the clean energy future of driving. ‘Concept Zero’ was suddenly talk of the town, big end of town that is.

A commentator wrote: “While the prince’s smart tux and bride’s sleek dress certainly impressed, there was one detail that turned heads more than anything else: the getaway car. The newly dubbed Duke and Duchess of Sussex traveled to their after-party in a silver Jaguar E-Type Concept Zero, a car Enzo Ferrari had once called ‘the most beautiful car ever made’.”

» Fast Company:

Why the electric Jaguar at the royal wedding was a symbolic step forward

» Industry Leaders Magazine – 21 May 2018: