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Darebin’s Climate Emergency Conference
Tuesday 11 & Wednesday 12 September, Northcote Town Hall
Darebin City Council is convening a Climate Emergency Conference in order to demonstrate leadership in climate emergency action and work to engage, empower and mobilise other levels of government and our community to take meaningful action on this issue.
The broad purpose of the conference is to bring together other councils, levels of government, organisations and the community to identify opportunities for strategic and collaborative action to address the climate emergency.
The conference emphasises the current state of climate emergency and the consequent need for large-scale and prompt mobilisation. It will also draw upon experts who will share with the audience lessons in whole-of government and community responses to crises, best practice in communicating and engaging in order to mobilise, and solutions that can be deployed now to produce genuine results in reducing the impacts of climate change.
For more information and to register for the two day conference, click here.
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Jeremy Heimans, founder of GetUp! is coming to Darebin.
6.30pm to 8.00pm, Tuesday 11 September, Northcote Town Hall
Do you want to know how to create a social movement?
A world renowned writer, speaker and leader of social movements, Jeremy Heimans will address a community audience in a special evening session during Darebin City Council’s Climate Emergency Conference this September.
Jeremy has spent a lifetime thinking about and creating social movements through which ordinary people can create real change in their societies. He has co-founded several online campaign groups and citizen activism initiatives in Australia, including GetUp!. He is currently CEO of Purpose, an organisation headquartered in New York that builds and supports social movements around the world.
For the conference, Jeremy will be talking about building a movement around the climate emergency; however, his work is relevant to many issues and causes for which we may want to gather support and momentum. A particular theme in Jeremy’s work is technology and its centrality to modern social movements. He calls this ‘digital activism’. The #metoo movement is but one of many such examples.
You can read more in his recent book, New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You (co-authored with Henry Tims, 2018).
This event is ticketed separately to the two-day conference and, while free, bookings are essential.
To register and for more information about Jeremy Heimans’ presentation, click here.
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Check out Melbourne's newest food hub!
6.30pm to 1.00pm, Monday 17 September, Melbourne Innovation Centre, 2 Wingrove Avenue, Alphington
The new Melbourne Food Hub is joint initiative of Sustain: The Australian Food Network and Melbourne Farmers Markets. You are invited to tour the site of the Hub in Alphington, as well as neighbours and collaborators Farmwall, Life Cykel and The Practical Beekeeper.
Enjoy a seasonal grazing lunch prepared using ingredients sourced direct from the growers and makers of Alphington Farmers' Market, washed down with a glass of La Sirène Brewing beer, local wine and fruit spritzers.
This is a side event to the 2018 Sustainable Communities National Summit.
The ticket price is $70 and includes lunch, a drink, a tour and support for the work being undertaken.
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Food waste recycling in Darebin
It’s been great to see everybody talking rubbish following the second series of the ABC TV show War on Waste. Food waste in particular has been a hot topic.
Did you know that 38% of household rubbish bins in Darebin are made up of food waste? That’s the equivalent of around $2000 being thrown in the bin each year through food waste!
We all know the harmful environmental impacts of food waste going to landfill – wasted water, energy and resources used to grow, pick and transport food, plus increased greenhouse gas emissions. This is why Darebin is taking action!
We recently completed a Food Waste Recycling Trial to reduce household food waste going to landfill. More than 1000 Kingsbury households were invited to participate in the trial by placing their food scraps into the green waste bin and contributing to the creation of compost for Victorian farmers.
Evaluation of the trial is currently underway, with results of the trial set to inform the development of a final food waste collection model for Darebin. Roll-out of the service across the city will be determined by Council later in the year, once evaluation and reporting is complete.
If you’re not a resident of the trial area, don’t worry, you can still recycle your food waste at home! For more information on composting, worm farming or using a bokashi bucket at home, visit our website. Or better yet, use the Food Know How toolkit to avoid creating food waste in the first place!
A final friendly reminder – biodegradable and compostable bags are not accepted in Darebin’s green waste bins, whether you’re in the food waste trial area or not. They do not break down in the in-vessel composting facility used by our organics processor, Veolia, causing contamination in the compost produced.
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Autumn Backyard Harvest Festival
The Backyard Harvest Festival is a celebration of home food growing traditions, and gives residents the opportunity to learn from passionate and knowledgeable local food experts from a diversity of cultures. The festival involves opening home food gardens in Darebin for tours and workshops, to help build a strong sense of community around homegrown and homemade food.
To enable festival goers to experience Darebin’s amazing home food gardens in a different season, the next festival will be held in autumn 2019 instead of in spring / November 2018.
The program will be available after March 2019 at
www.darebin.vic.gov.au/en/Discover-Darebin/Events/Annual-Events-Program
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Another Darebin business goes solar!
Peter Wu from Shiny Embroidery, Australia’s largest embroidery business, has installed solar across the company's three Darebin sites, because it made good business sense. Peter has also upgraded the company's lights to LED and found new ways to reduce water and waste to landfill.
Shiny Embroidery featured at our April 2018 Sustainability Matters Event. Watch this short video to find out more about what they have been doing. Shiny Embroidery is identified as one of Darebin’s 187 Green Businesses. To find out which other businesses are on this list visit our Green Business Directory.
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Vichealth Walk to School - get into step this October
VicHealth Walk to School is on again in October 2018 and Darebin school kids will be walking, scooting, riding along with thousands of primary schoolers around Victoria.
Walk to School is a great way to build healthy habits in our kids, reduce traffic congestion and pollution around our schools and champion sustainable travel to help our environment and address climate change – locally.
This is the fifth year Council has received funding to support our schools and we’ve got lots planned – from free fruit at whole school active events (places for 10 schools), loads of competitions and prizes including bikes, family passes to Bundoora Park Farm, morning teas and the grand prize, a Samba School parade led by Darebin musician and performer Neda Rahmani.
Last year Westgarth PS romped home with the best participation of all Darebin primary schools, who will it be this year?
Check if your school is registered at https://www.walktoschool.vic.gov.au/schools
If not, encourage your school to join in the action!
For information about the program contact the Darebin Safe Travel team by emailing safetravel@darebin.vic.gov.au or ringing 9470 8383. You can also visit the VicHealth Walk to School website.
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Meet your local councillors
Various dates, depending on the ward
Would you like to discuss local issues with your local councillors?
Council is holding informal drop in sessions across Darebin in the coming weeks to give you an opportunity to hear about local projects and discuss issues that matter to you.
Thursday 13 September 2018, 6–7.30pm at the Keon Park Children’s Hub, 1-7 Dole Avenue, Reservoir.
Wednesday 19 September 2018, 7–8.30pm at the Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote.
All are welcome. Tea and coffee provided.
For more information visit www.darebin.vic.gov.au/wardmeetings or call 8470 8554.
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