Host a sustainability workshop

Would your club, community group, school or kindergarten like to host a free sustainability workshop?

The City of Boroondara has a limited number of free Living for our Future sustainability workshops for eligible community groups, clubs, schools and kindergartens to host in 2011 - 2012.

These informative, fun and highly interactive workshops are designed to introduce your members and/or school community to simple and effective actions to live more sustainably.

Most workshops run for approximately two hours and can be booked now for dates up to 30 June 2012.

What workshop topics are available?

Energy in the home

A two hour workshop with activities presented by Trevor Plumridge, National Centre for Sustainability

The workshop aims to answer lots of common questions about energy in the home. It includes interactive activities and practical tips to help you reduce your energy, particularly electricity use. This has been one of our most popular workshops providing ideas and easy to adopt actions that lead to energy savings and save you money.

Healthy homes

A two hour workshop with activities presented by Bridget Gardner, Fresh Green Clean

If you're interested in how to make your home a healthier one, come along to this fabulous workshop. Learn how to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in the home, find out how green cleaning benefits allergy sufferers, discover easy recipes for safe home-made cleaning products and explore other useful tools for increasing cleaning effectiveness. Bridget is an inspiring presenter and you and your members/community group will leave this workshop equipped with ideas, information and resources!

Sustainable shopping

A two hour presentation by Nick Ray, The Ethical Consumer Group

Would you be surprised to learn that almost 82% of our ecological footprint is associated with the goods and services we consume? This popular workshop introduces participants to the key issues associated with shopping sustainably and ethically and practical strategies to help you do this in your own lives without feeling overwhelmed. This workshop includes great opportunities for discussion and exploring various issues including environmental impacts, fair trade, packaging and waste, multinational vs Australian ownership of companies, food miles plus more!

Sustainable supermarket tours

A two and a half hour presentation by Nick Ray, The Ethical Consumer Group

This workshop and tour covers much of the information above but also includes a supermarket tour where participants put their practical know-how into action! Participants need to bring a small amount of money (approximately $5) to purchase some food to share with the group.

Sustainable gardening feasts

One hour presentations by Sustainable Gardening Australia staff

These short presentations are perfect for groups who would like to host a lunchtime session or include this as part of an existing community meeting. These workshops are especially great for community organisations, kindergartens and schools who want to develop their gardens but need some inspiration. Topics on offer include:

Get down and dirty! – organic soil management
Sustainable design – understanding the elements of a sustainable garden
Compost from scratch – an overview of common composting systems
Gardens for wildlife – attracting wildlife to your garden
Organic pest control – running a chemical free garden.

Who can host a workshop?

To host a workshop your group must:

be a community organisation, club, school or kindergarten or school group operating within Boroondara
be confident of securing an audience of at least 20 people
have a venue and seating for the desired number of attendees
have access to tea and coffee facilities
have a screen or wall suitable for projecting images and access to a data projector if possible
be prepared to ask participants to complete a short feedback form
open your workshop to interested members of the public.