The Festival raises awareness and provides tools for change by showcasing tangible solutions to the ecological and social challenges we face.

In 2009 the Festival at Federation Square attracted over 124,000 visits and engaged more than 450 community volunteers.

In its eleventh year, the Festival is getting even bigger!

The 2010 Festival will include 2 programs, the Main Event at Federation Square (19-21 February 2010) and the Local Events Program (6-21 February 2010). The new 2-week format will enable individuals and communities across Australia to host and promote their own sustainability event, extending the reach of the sustainability message even further.

The Main Event at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne will continue to celebrate the very best examples of ecological and social sustainability. The event will fuse interactive workshops, talks, demonstrations, artworks, exhibits, films and live performances. In recognition of the climate situation, the Main Event will be inspired by the theme: Get Ready for the Safe Climate Decade!

Our pics (most relevant/interesting to Renters)

Top 10 Reasons to Grow Your Own

How Car Dependence is Turning the Suburban Dream into a Nightmare

Sustaining Fashion? An Open Forum Exploring The Darker Side Of Fashion

GM Free is the way to be

Living Zero Waste

Life Time Affordable Sustainable Housing

Consumer Power-Making the Change

Sharehood Communities

And of course… How to Live Sustainably in a Rental Property yep, we are presenting a talk. It’ll be lots of fun with pictures, samples and demonstrations of things you can make yourself, so please come along . You can also chat to us as part of the Sustainable Living Library

Looking for a local business?
25 Jan 10 @ 07:34am by Julia Irwin

Featured in Darebin Leader

Russell Jarvis (front right) hits the road, moving house by bike.

MOVING house by bicycle might take a little longer than using a man with a van but it’s a lot more fun, says Preston resident Jos Tait. Ms Tait is a member of the Transition Darebin group, formed late last year as part of the global Transition Towns movement, which prepares the community for peak oil and climate change through practical, low energy alternatives. The group is offering a Darebin Bike Move service for those game enough to try. “We’ve already shown it can be done, we (about a dozen cyclists) moved Russell Jarvis from East Brunswick to Heidelberg.” She said the 15km trip took a few hours via the scenic route through Darebin along the Merri Creek. Riding a recumbent bicycle with a trailer, Mr Jarvis led the two wheeled movers to his new address.

“For anyone interested in shifting house by bike, we need to know when they’re moving and what they’re moving and then we’ll drum up some movers and get some bike trailers,” Ms Tait said.

Human Powered Cycles and Loophole in Thornbury loaned the group bike trailers for Mr Jarvis’ move. For more information about Bike Move or Transition Darebin email


transitiondarebin@gmail.com

IF you can’t quite get your head around how this would be possible, here’s a You Tube video of a move from Footscray to East Brunswick

We all know bikes are great, but for a lot of us we have very little space to actually store the two-wheeled-wonders, there are a growing number of small and foldable bikes now which are ideally suited to inner city life and I came across this great round up from Green Tenant…

greentenant.blogspot.com/2009/12/folding-bike-for-urban-apartment.html

No impact man has been mentioned here a few times, and it’s refreshing to see that he’s still gaining a lot of media attention, I came across a post of his recently which is a summary of some of his favourite posts from the past few months, so a great place to dip your toe into the world of No Impact man…

noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/no-impact-mans-environmental-howtos.html

My second post on interesting items found overseas…

I’m sure we all know that one of the biggest ways we can help the environment (and one of the easiest to do, especially when renting) is to abandon your car.

I wont go into any more detail here, I mainly just want to tell you about a great magazine I came across in San Francisco (but published in the Czech Republic) that is published by and supports the ‘World Carfree network‘, they make those ‘one less car’ stickers, so you’ve probably seen their hand ywork around without realising.

The magazine is full of interesting and concise articles on issues such as urban planning, artwork and eco towns, sometimes a little repetitve, but a great read never-the-less.

Find more here.

This is an issue I have been pondering quite a bit recently myself… Personally I feel that if Cyclists did pay a road tax, then we may get more respect from other road users  who frequently consider cyclists to be lower class citizens because we don’t pay a license fee. I’m perfectly aware that most of car driver’s road tax actually goes on admin and to Hospitals for cleaning up the mess they leave behind, but I consider it more of a levelling tax than anything else. I have also been wondering if some sort of licensing test for cyclist would be in order, because as far as I’m concerned, the increase in cyclists has also led to an increase in the amount of dangerous, inconsiderate and frankly stupid cyclists…

Anyway, that’s a discussion for the future, in the meantime, have a read of this article on TreeHugger.

Many residents in the City of Moreland choose cycling as their preferred way of getting around. Its a smart choice with many health and environmental benefits.

With winter approaching and less light, you and your bike must be as as bright as possible.
It’s also a requirement of the Victorian Road Rules.

Lights On Ride On

Commuter Cycles, Lygon Cycles and Moreland City Council are working together to get more riders more visible and:

• replace the batteries if your bike lights are dim, and
• buy new lights if your existing lights have seen better days.

20% discount voucher on selected bike lights in April

Print this voucher (PDF 436Kb) and bring it in to:

• Commuter Cycles, 14 Prentice Street, Brunswick, phone 9388 1319
• Lygon Cycles, 119 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, phone 9387 0412

The voucher is also an entry to win a bicycle service worth up to $100 dollars (parts extra).

Perhaps one of the easiest things to do if you’re interested in leading a sustainable existence in rented accommodation is to cycle everywhere!

When you’ve been doing that for a while, here’s two links that may interest :

Ride to work day, Oct 15th
Around the Bay in a Day Challenge, Oct 19th