On Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26, Sustainable Living Tasmania (SLT) will be presenting a Big Weekend of Sustainable Living Ideas at Brighton and Bridgewater. This means choosing banking, superannuation and insurance options which support ethical and climate safe investments, rather than those that support fossil fuels. Chris Lang of Howrah volunteers his time to educating friends and family about the importance of considering finances in climate action.
A big weekend of sustainable living
‘Brighton Council invited us to hold an event in their municipality,’ said SLT President Margaret Steadman. ‘They’ve given us the use of the Civic Centre, and MONA are lending us their Botanical Institute in Bridgewater. It’s a free family event, and there’ll be something there for everyone.’
At the Brighton Civic Centre on Sunday, Matthew Evans will be cooking using the battery of an electric car as a power source, there’ll be workshops on how to reduce your electricity bill, and on Saturday afternoon, the Eastside Repair Café will invite people to bring a favourite jumper that needs mending, precious crockery or other broken things, to get them fixed instead of throwing them away.
‘There’ll also be two important forums,’ said Ms Steadman. ‘The one on Saturday is about whether Tasmania can become a circular economy with no waste. And Sunday’s forum looks at the future of food in Tasmania, and how we can feed ourselves and take care of the environment at the same time.’
SLT began in 1972 as the Tasmanian Environment Centre, and is now fifty years old. They held their first Alternative Home Expo in 1999, and had a big sustainability event almost every year until 2016. ‘Since 2016 we’ve been doing energy audits, and working with schools and businesses,’ said Ms Steadman. ‘This is our first big foray back into community engagement.’
At the Botanical Institute in Bridgewater, there will be demonstrations of seedsaving, beekeeping and fermentation cookery, as well as workshops on hot composting and circus skills. Gardening Australia’s Hannah Moloney will demonstrate no-dig gardening, there will be free vegie seedlings and a chance to win a wicking bed, and the local Landcare group will be taking Walks ’n’ Talks along the foreshore.
The theme of the weekend is connection and inspiration, and the organisers hope that people will see how the community working together can solve big problems.
‘It’s easy to become despondent and anxious about the environment, climate change and the future,’ said Ms Steadman. ‘We need to know more than ever that when we work together we can take care of ourselves, one another, and the planet.’
Community group Clarence Climate Action has chosen Sustainable Living Tasmania and the Big Weekend as this month’s Climate Champions. Go to https://www.slt.org.au/events for the full program, or find Sustainable Living Tasmania on Facebook.
Eastern Shore Sun, March 2023, page 16