Green Fields, Green Spring, Green Horse of course!

While there is quite some truth to Marieke Hardy's article, "The Melbourne Cup: It's a truly revolting spectacle", I still embraced 2010 Spring Racing Carnival festivities. You see the premise of Green Chic is about making small changes first, as small changes are found to be easier to retain as oppose to being hit with big changes. But it's also about generating thought and conversation amongst people who are not of similar thinking. And that is the challenge. To change the behaviour and thoughts of climate change sceptics but to do so in a non-confronting manner.

So, my motto for 2010 Spring Racing Carnival was based around the 3R principles - Reuse, Reduce & Recycle. Attending 2 race days Derby and Stakes, I made only 1 purchase and that purchase was an item that will have much reuse (already reused!). That item being a Derby Day"commissioned neckpiece" by Simply Phoebe (a local designer who uses remnant, reclaimed and vintage fabric to create her wares).

Fun times were had, winnings there were and bonuses there was! The bonus was Flemington's Green Fields initiative, an initiative demonstrating their commitment to raising awareness of environmental sustainability.

Flemington Green Fields aims to reduce the environmental impact of the Flemington racecourse by creating tangible results through;

• Using 100% GreenPower for all racemeetings held at Flemington during the 2009/10 season
  
• Working with SecondBite, in conjunction with Peter Rowland and their panel of accredited caterers to redistributed unused food from Flemington. During the 2009 Melbourne Cup Carnival 1.485 tonnes was collected providing 3,000 nutritious meals to local charities; food that would otherwise go to landfill
• Extending its waste minimization program, recycling 271 tonnes and achieving 54% diversion from landfill (up from 26% in 2008), and setting up recycling stations across Flemington

I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only one at Flemington who happily took a photo of the recycling bins (yes I do get excited over the little things!). But what was also great to see was each marque were given their own personal recycling bins, thus punters had no excuse not to recycle. Nice one VRC!