If you’re one of the families in the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge and you chose vouchers as part of your incentive package, make sure you check the use-by dates on them. I got vouchers for Cosmo Lighting and Wollongong Wholesale Nursery, and they are both valid only until the end of January. So get out … [Read more…]
We did an interview and some photos with Paul from Wollongong Council for Sustainable Illawarra today. Paul is going around and gathering stories from about 25 different households, putting together some case studies and other materials for the Sustainable Illawarra project. Maybe we’ll end up on their web site, or possibly in a booklet or … [Read more…]
I got a letter in the mail yesterday from Kiama Council – my application to be on the Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee was accepted! I’ll be representing the Kiama-Kiama Heights area on the Committee. I was pretty surprised: although I’m interested in sustainability, I’m not a member of any sustainability groups or anything, except for … [Read more…]
If you’re in Australia and have been thinking about getting a grid-connected solar power system, there’s a really good deal right now with Earth Utility. If you order before 15 December 2008, it’ll cost $2,500 installed (after rebates, RECs, etc and excluding utility connection costs). **WARNING:** Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010) … [Read more…]
This is one workshop I would really like to attend, but unfortunately we’ve got something else on that day! If you go, I’d love it if you could leave a comment below and let us know how it went. – Date: **Saturday 22 November 2008** – Time: **10:00am – 3:00pm** Learn how you can keep … [Read more…]
If you live in the Kiama area, you have an opportunity tomorrow to swap up to 6 old lightbulbs or fluorescent tubes for brand new energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) for free. Just take your old bulbs to the Minnamurra Waste and Recycling Centre (the old Minnamurra tip) between 10am and 2pm tomorrow (Thursday 13 … [Read more…]
On Saturday, I took our two youngest girls to the Glengarry Cottage Gala Day. They had talks and tours running throughout the day on stuff like permaculture gardening, composting, worm farming, etc. There were also some stalls, selling/displaying things like compost bins, worm farms, bags of compost, seedlings, etc. Sustainable Illawarra had a stall there … [Read more…]
The [Sustainable Illawarra event calendar for November 2008](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/pdf/SustainIllawarra_ActivitiesTableNOV08.pdf) is now available. There are some very cool sounding workshops, including cheesemaking, gardening, backyard chook-keeping and water wise gardening. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to a few!
Last night was the official launch event of the [Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/The-SuperChallenge.html), the programme that prompted the start of this blog. It was a great turnout, with most of the 120 or so families participating in the Challenge represented. I was excited to see a few familiar faces – people I hadn’t seen for … [Read more…]
I didn’t realise it until we signed up for the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge, but our local councils and other organisations put on quite a lot of free and low-cost workshops, talks, demonstrations, tours and other events. Just have a look at Sustainable Illawarra’s [What’s On](http://www.sustainableillawarra.com.au/Whats-On.html) page to get an idea. In the spirit of … [Read more…]