Sustainable House Day 2009

Yes folks, Sustainable House Day 2009 is nearly on our – hopefully ecofriendly – doorsteps [*tah-boom-tish!*].  The day where you can meander round your neighbourhood and get all creepily ecologically stalkerish visit those special greener-than-green dwellings is approaching, so make sure to mark it down on your recycled paper calenders:

“Almost 10 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from households.  But every Australian can make a big difference to the environment and their wallets through simple, cost-effective, everyday actions.  Visit an open home on Sustainable House Day…to find out the practical and often easy steps you can take to reduce your impact on the environment as well as your energy and water bills.”

Sunday 13th September 2009.   Houses open between 10am and 4pm.

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The Vertical Garden @ The Athenaeum

As a rule, the human race aint so spiffy at greening up surfaces of vertical buildings. Green bits + looming walls just don’t seem that ecologically compatible. One green-thumber who is a mind numbing expert at this very “art” is Patrick Blanc, who is:

“…on a mission to transform concrete walls into beautiful havens of biodiversity. His famous Vertical Gardens hang all over the world, from Bangkok to Paris, New York to Tokyo… and now London.”

One lovely example of his handiwork can be found at The Athenaeum in London [see the above link]. More examples can be ferreted out of his Flash site here.

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Eat the Suburbs

One day in the not too distant future the Eat the Suburbs website will be a community hub for co ordinating the research and ideas for what will become a brilliant Energy Descent Action Plan for certain parts of the Melbourne suburbs.  This site also hosts a wiki (under development) – a place where we can structure and develop these ideas, and work towards a coherent plan.

The name Eat The Suburbs was suggested by Asha B – and it captures one of the central themes of dealing with energy descent™: edible landscapes!

Get Involved: you can post comments on the website and have into into how it will develop, get involved in networks active in permaculture activities.

http://www.eatthesuburbs.org/

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Permablitz

Permablitz is a social enterprise committed to improving the sustainability of our cities and suburbs.  Pb use a sustainable design system called permaculture to help communities move away from denial and dependent consumerism to engagement and responsible production.  Our core focus is helping people sustainably grow food where they live, building healthy community in the process.  Rather than depressing people with the bad news, we empower them with the good news – that the solutions are at hand – and get on with having fun rolling them out.
 
Permablitz started in April 2006 with a collaboration between permaculture students and a South American community group in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Since then, over 30 permablitzes have been held and permablitz has gained an international reputation as a successful tool for fast-tracking the suburbs towards sustainability.

Get Involved: check out the events calendar for the next permablitz in a local backyard and come along, get your hands dirty and learn as you go.

web: http://permablitz.net

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Guerilla Gardening – EngageMedia style

As part of the Climate Camp distributed direct action day, Brett organised a Guerrilla-style working bee to kick-start plans to revitalise the space at Webb Park. Bronwyn swung-by to check out the action.

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Guerilla Gardners – Channel Ten – Feb 18, 8pm

When the sun goes down and the city workers retreat to the ‘burbs, the Guerrillas undertake covert operations that transform the biggest eye-sores in the concrete jungle into an oasis of greenery and recreation.

Welcome to the show where The Chaser meets Backyard Blitz. Six young warriors armed to the teeth with attitude and gardening tools band together to make-over the most barren and concrete-filled spaces in our cities.

THE TARGETS
Bleak public spaces, concrete jungles, disused land, roadside wastelands left by councils and developers who don’t care.

THE CHALLENGE
Turn these eyesores into beautiful spaces for people to appreciate and enjoy.

With youth and enthusiasm in their favour, the five Guerrillas will stop at nothing to reach a potential site – they will abseil, rope and parkour (picture the opening scene of Casino Royale) to get to the make-over site on a 20 foot high ledge, or a gated median strip between a freeway and a tunnel. They routinely defy trespass laws and development consent.

The Guerrillas have just 12 hours to transform the ugliest urban eye-sores into an oasis of greenery. And when the sun comes up and workers start to creep back into the city, they sit back and watch the reaction. Job done. Our Guerrillas then blend into the morning crowd and head off to their mild-mannered day jobs.

Some of their best work is also done in broad daylight. Wearing hard hats and safety vests as a disguise, they perform their unique ‘raids’ right under the nose of police, council workers and government rangers.

They have to beat the clock… and the system! Will they succeed? Or will they get caught?
http://www.guerrillagardeners.com.au/

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