On a Big jet plane

I am a fan of Angus and Julia Stone. #Justsayin.

But I guess as a sustainability campaigner (which is what I note as my occupation on custom forms!), I really ought not to be a fan of big jet planes. But travel is important.

For Norwegian environmentalist, Erik Dammann, travel allowed him to “challenge Western values and lifestyles in order to promote a more responsible attitude to the environment and the third world.”

Dammann returned to Norway with the realisation that the West’s focus on competition for personal gain had more to do with social structure than human nature. He also came back with a deep respect for other cultures and with a sense of responsibility for the way they were being destroyed by the consumption-oriented Western lifestyle and world view. He perceived an immense gap between the stated values of Western society, such as justice, freedom, responsibility and solidarity, and the actual impact of that society on people in other countries and on the Earth.

So for the following month I will be blogging from http://www.travelgreenchic.tumblr.com/, documenting the amazing stuff happening in the UK, Denmark and Germany. I am out to prove being green is simply not all mung beans and no style. Far from it. It's everything we know but just simply tweaked for the better.

*this blog post comes to you from the skys... Emirates A380 OnAir internet... crazy this technology stuff!

In all colors and in all sizes

The festive season tis upon us with jolly times catching up with me this weekend. But I got through it. Maybe it's the excitment I'll be jetting off soon that is helping me push through it. And before you start questioning the "jetting off" aka isn't flying really bad for the environment, I refer you to this post (the start of my travel blog which explains why travel is important).

As I start preparing for my trip, working out what to pack, I realize it's also the perfect opprtunity to do a big clean especially since when I return it'll be 2012, a start of a new year. The big clean involves going through items I no longer wear or use and d0nating them to charity. What always seems to stump me is what to do with bras I no longer wear. Is it rude/offensive to donate used under garments?

Several months ago I remember reading an article about an organization who were collecting bras for third world countries. Thanks to trusty Google I came to find Uplift Bras, an Australian charity that collects and distributes new and secondhand bras to third world countries as well as indigenous communities in the NT.

"It is not just a matter of comfort for these women. There are medical issues as well including back problems and skin diseases particularly for those who are doing hard manual labour."

Check out Uplift Bras and the good work they do.

So in the keeping up with the crazy season and borrowing a quote from Damien Hirst "it's not me but the drink speaking", I asked my girlfriends if they had any unwanted bras they could give me. Given that I am the so-called "hippie" of the bunch, I had to explain they weren't for me... whether they believe me, we'll see come time we exchange chrissy gifts!

Mi Shed Tu Shed

My shed is your shed. And so leads me to add another #collcons business to the list.

Open Shed is a peer-to-peer rental website that allows you to list the things you have around the house, which you might not want to let go of but you also never really have any use for.

There's much benefits to be reaped by not being so precious about your stuff. One namely is that you can make a little cash from renting out your stuff but also you can save yourself a little cash by testing driving items you might want to play with now but maybe not in the future.

Another benefit as well as being in line with the Buy Nothing New Month campaign, a campaign that saw the social media junkie in me come out, is the reduction of waste, thus the reduction of items sent to landfill, thus the reduction of greenhouse gases produced. Wooah and wow, cause it's a win-win-win!

Let's remember, Buy Nothing New Month ain't about anti-shopping, rather it’s pro conscientious consumption, thus it's not ‘Buy Nothing New Never.

In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald Business pages, ‘Will Any One Buy Anti-Shopping Campaign’, a poll was carried out asking readers what they thought of Buy Nothing New Month. Over 10,000 people voted (this is huge for an online poll) with 82% saying Buy Nothing New Month to be a good idea, only 18% suggesting it would harm the economy.

This simply shows that there's a groundswell of people living thoughtfully when it comes to respecting our finite resources. Businesses such as OpenShed help foster such behavioural change in consumption and asset owernship, making it easier for the everyday Joe Blow to cash in on the potential $3,772 worth of unwanted items they have around the home. On an economic scale, this equates to almost $43 billion in potential trade. So hands up if you think not buying new will hurt the economy??

Flexi-ing my bank balance & carbon footprint #collcons

To kick off my Collaborate Consumption life, I got myself a Flexicar Membership via a Green Renters membership. A double win.

A Green Renters membership starts from $25 to $100. No matter which membership you take out with Green Renters, you're guaranteed to score yourself a Flexicar Membership as well. You see, Flexicar is a carsharing business that recognizes there are cheaper and greener ways to car ownership. Partnering with Green Renters highlights Flexicar's committment in paving the way for a more sustainable world.

The 3 major benefits of a Flexicar membership:

• Rid the responsibilities and costs of car ownership such as servicing, car insurance and registration
• Eliminate the fears of purchasing a dud car
  
• Reduce your environmental impact by only using the car when you truly need to

Check out the car locations to see if they are conveniently located near you. I'm pretty lucky, the closet flexicar from where I live is a 2 min walk away. Booyah!

What I'm also loving is I can also choose the type of car I need or want. So if I need to pick up something large like a bookshelf from Gumtree or at the market or on eBay, its so much cheaper and less of a hassle to simply grab the flexicar than to organize a delivery guy (usually $50) or hire a car for a whole day.

Taking out a Green Renters membership helps support the work they do in providing sustainable living advice to those living in rental property.

With Christmas just around the corner, this could be the gift of all gifts! "Hey hun, guess who gotcha a car for Christmas?! It's all yours when you need it!"

Challenging the Status Quo with #CollCons

#CollCons, the Twitter hashtag for Collaborate Consumption. A term used to define a way of life in the 21st century as opposed to 20th Century Hyper Consumption where it's about more, more and more. #collcons gives real meaning to less is more.

Christmas being just round the corner means we're also headed towards a new year. Wowzer, another year already? While I'm not a fan of using this phrase but I will, boy time sure does fly. Rather scary actually, there's still so much to do, and yet the years seem to keep passing me by.

I've wasted so much time constantly searching and hoping others will do the right/honorable thing, and while I have the support, I am still seen as a complicated character, or the nicer term would be free-spirited. People simply don't understand why I choose to work part-time and occasionally freelance. I continually get sent full-time job offers and I know it's because they care. But you see, I feel I have more control of my life when I work 2 jobs. Having watched organizations screw people over, I don't need to waste my time worrying if one day I'll be the one screwed over. One job will always be a back up for the other. I know I have a strong work ethic but I also know I don't like being taken advantage of either.

Life ain't a dress rehearsal. And I want to live.

So enters Collaborate Consumption. If I reduce my consumption or if I share my consumption, I can work less and live more.

In the next few weeks, I'll be joining, signing up, registering with #collcons focused businesses to support my life changes. Watch this space. Sustainable behavior change, absolutely!

Dining the way it should be

I probably have mentioned this a number of times that I'm a hop, skip and jump kinda girl. So it says quite a lot when I say I will travel to the otherside just to dine at Little Deer Tracks, a cafe and gallery in Coburg. Two trains will get me there or a rather long bike ride or lets compromise, 1 train ride and a reduced bike ride!

There is much to list as to why Little Deer Tracks has found a way to my heart. I've always had a soft spot for Italian family home style dishes (Da Noi in South Yarra being my ultimate favourite restaurant of all time... get the picture?!), but it also doesn't hurt that the cafe is the brainchild of Marco Sellitto, a veteran known for iconic venues such as the Continental, Marios and the Italian.

You wouldn't know until someone decides to order bacon on side that this is a meat-free cafe. Being meat-free however, doesn't mean boring and blah. Far from it. Spaghetti with lentil ragu, brocolli saffaron lemon fetta risotto, fetticinni with wild porcini mushoon and truffle are a just a few dishes to tempt you with. Yes I love my carbs and naturally those dishes linger in my memory more so than any carb free ones!

Little Deer Tracks is a place where one can expect healthy, fresh food, organic, free-range, pure olive oil used for frying, rennet-free cheeses, homemade and slow cooked but without any of the "hippie" tags or labels. Coz at the end of the day it's all about good food. No "faux" meat, just real food.

Should you cave and order a pasta dish, I recommend that you throw in the towel and load up on the cafe's infamous sourdough bread, which Marco calls ''Pascoe Vale brew'', where he nurtured the starter for four years on his window sill. I would never have thought bread could be sooo amazing but it can.

Btw, staff are mighty charming, unpretentious and knows a thing or two when it comes to dressing vintage!

Quirky love, the cafe is scattered with loads of little piggie figurines. But don't think it's just for decoration, one has gone missing and continues to be soarly missed.

Could I, will I eventually become a Coburgher, who knows? But what I do know is that this is how cafes and restaurants should be. A fine example, something for the government to consider when selling climate change?

Nature's Alternative Soap is A-OK

A while back I purchased a packet of Wild Soapnuts. I had read about them in an Oxfam email blast but it was at one of the many markets I loiter at, that I finally made the purchase. While I may have made the purchase I either forgot about them or there was so much laundry detergent laying around that I just never had the need to use them. I'm all about not wasting anything unless I really dislike it but I will always give it a go first or it's past it's used by date.

Anyhoo, I finally took the plunge and tested these Wild Soapnuts over the weekend. I had finally run out of laundry detergent, outside was washing weather and I was in desperate need of underwear. Everything was going swimmingly until I realized a funky smell on my fingers. These Wild Soapnuts sure are smelly. Not sure if its just the ones I got but lets say I had to wash my hands not once, not twice but three times to rid the funky smell. So I was worried during the wash cycle. Will my precious clothes reek? OMG I hope not.

Guess what? They didn't, actually there was no smell but maybe a clean one! Plus my mascara stained towel was no longer mascara stained. Booyah! I really need to have more faith, don't I?

What are Soapnuts?

The soapnuts I used are from the outside of a macadamia-sized berry found in the Himalayan foothills, which is then cracked open and dried in the sun, producing a dark golden shell. The shells are found to contain a high percentafe of saponins (mother nature's soap), a surfacant, which is found to remove dirt and oils from fabric when dispered in water.

Why Soapnuts?

Soapnuts are a wild harvested product in true organic form. Used for centuries in India, China and Nepal, and has been tested to be hypollergenic, antibacterial, biodegradable. It's on the supermarket shelves in Europe and it's cheaper than the chemical alternatives.

Soapnuts can actually be used as a liquid soap as well, but for the time being I'll just stick to using them to launder with first! For more info check www.wildsoapnuts.com.au