• 80% of our electricity comes from coal
• Coal mining and export make large profits

In Sustainable Communities SA we give attention to the implications of coal and confront the question – What do we do?

• We use as little energy as possible
• We use renewable energy
• We use banks which do not invest in the coal industry

Because

• Coal is a causative factor in heart and lung disease; asthma; stroke; reduced life expectancy; mercury and other heavy metal accumulation and poisoning; accidental death and injury
• Coal mining depletes and may poison water sources
• Coal is a leading factor in carbon emissions, climate change and consequent death and destruction

(information sources: contact Ray Mylius rmylius@chariot.net.au)

2012 will be a new year of development and growth in Sustainable Communities SA.

The plans that we are working on for 2012 are the monthly workshops for facilitators and 2 or 3 members of the Community Groups where we will be working on issues of Better Meetings and Supporting each other, Public Outreach, Learning and Research and Behaviour Change. These are the themes that were finalised through the Planning for 2012 Workshop in November.

We will also be working on our communication systems as we grow in numbers of members and numbers of Community Groups and variety of actions and ideas. The Quarterly Reports shared between the 22 Community Groups have provided many new ideas and motivations as do the sharing of activities at the Workshops. This will be expanded through our website with more of this information being put on our blogs and in the newsletter. We will be encouraging you all to visit the website at least once a week to read the blogs, make your comment and use the resource papers to answer your questions.

There is enough produce for those who want it, the community respects the program and does not take advantage of it. One of the initiators of the program, Pam Warhurst noted in the Daily Mail article that rather than the program leading to abuse or other crime it has improved community relations, reduced crime by an incrementally higher amount every single year since it first started.

This public garden program is another way of ensuring our food security. Communities of 15,000 are ideal for our localisation plans too.

Twenty four of us collected at Twelftree Reserve, Hackney on 20 December to hear a presentation on Natural Burial by Rodney van den Brink of Signature Funerals. We gathered under a canopy as we would have done had it been a genuine funeral! Two hearses were parked on the street.

Rodney worked with Kevin Hartley a few years ago to design a ‘transporter’ for taking a body, wrapped in a shroud only, to a burial site. At present, the only natural burial site in SA is Wirra Wonga at Enfield Cemetery. For natural burial, a body is buried in a shallow grave (3 feet deep) which facilitates decomposition much faster than when the body is buried ’6 feet under’. Wirra Wonga has been cultivated using native plants from the adjacent Folland Park.

Traditionally natural burial means that the body is buried on a neglected piece of land. The remains act as a fertilizer and the land is revegetated with native vegetation. Natural burial is thriving in the UK where it has been happening for some years. There are 200 Natural Burial sites dotted around the UK and 8% of deaths involve natural burial. In Australia, there are natural burial sites in SA, WA, Victora, Tasmania & NSW.

There were moves a few years ago to create a natural burial site at Aldinga. Given repeated positive indications from State and Local Governments, there was confidence of a positive outcome. Unfortunately Onkaparinga Council elected not to be involved in the project (or any other cemetery development at all) despite the offer of the land from State Government and the general shortage of burial space in the South of Adelaide.

One of the hearses contained a coffin used for a ‘green’ cremation – the coffin made out of recycled materials. By law it has to be lined with plastic for transportation.

Cremation is a significant polluter, emitting 160kg of CO2 to the atmosphere for each cremation, equivalent to 10 million kg per year for Australia. But conventional burial contributes even more CO2, given the high ongoing maintenance requirements. In contrast, a natural burial carried out within the confines of a low maintenance natural burial site, will likely contribute less than 30kg of CO2.

Conventional gravesites generally have a 50 year lease in Adelaide, at Wirra Wonga the lease is 99 years. There was considerable discussion around the issue of the length of these leases when soft tissues in a body can break down in 6 months. What was also interesting is the potential of rural cemeteries and private freehold land for natural burials. Regulations for burial in rural areas are much more relaxed.

The presentation generated lots of questions and discussion later over Christmas drinks and eats! We are sure it will be a topic for ongoing discussion.

There are two electric bike kits available for people to borrow and try out on your 26″ bike. They are at Beth’s place in Royston Park and can be borrowed for 2 weeks. They are from the Adelaide Hills Sustainable Communities Group Bike Project. Please contact Beth on 8363 2295 or bmylius@chariot.net.au.

Read more here about how the Adelaide Hills Group initiates this project

In late November 2011, Unley Council approved its first Food Security Strategy. The intent of the Strategy is to encourage the growing of food locally. The three key strategies are:

• Growing more food in public spaces. This includes actions like building more community gardens, identifying other types of public spaces where food can be grown (roadside verges and pocket parks), and working with schools in the council area to have school food gardens.
• Growing more food in backyards. This includes actions such as running training courses in topics like effective pruning, composting and permaculture, linking community members needing space to grow food with those who have unused backyards, advertising local businesses which support the growing of food, and supporting disadvantaged households to grow their own food
• Supporting local food distribution and reuse. This includes support for food markets, sharing of surplus food and supporting agencies that recycle food.

Actions on these fronts are commencing and the Council has an initial two-year action plan. Some early steps will be for a new community garden (in addition to the existing Fern Avenue Garden), replacing ornamental tress in some streets by fruit and nut trees, planting fruit and nut trees in an existing council park and training workshops.

The Food Strategy was developed by the Council’s Community Sustainability Advisory Group (CSAG) whose main role is to advise Council on the community’s view on its Environment Sustainability Plan. In addition to two enthusiastic councilors, the group contains community representatives from across the Council area, including Ashley Campbell and I who are both members of Sustainable Communities SA. You know that it’s a different group when the chair (an elected councillor) regularly brings along produce from his garden to share – various types of olives, garlic bulbs for planting etc!

Posting on the website blog is a great way to make information available, not only to our members, but to others who are interested living sustainably. Community Group members who would like to contribute directly to the blog about their activities are invited to contact Rosalie Day so that you can included as contributing editors. Please email to sustainablecommunitiessa@gmail.com if you would like to be involved.

Sustainable Communities has received funding for Natasha Davis from Sustainable Focus to assist us throughout 2012 – and she will facilitate the planning workshop. The workshop will assist us to identify our strengths and areas we would like to develop further - as facilitators and in our groups. We will also share examples of interesting activities community groups have undertaken this year.

Every Community Group is invited to have two people at the workshop and we suggest the facilitator and one other person. We hope that your Community Group will participate with your requests as well as offering your ideas. We are looking forward to this opportunity for planning together the ways in which we can assist all the Community Groups of Sustainable Communities to move forward.

The workshop will be held at Payneham Community Centre, 374 Payneham Road, Payneham  starting at 6pm and finishing at 8.45pm. There will be a shared meal during the program so please bring a plate of finger food.

The Stepney/Norwood Sustainable Communities Group run the Share and Swap stall in the One Planet Market every third Saturday of the month.  November saw active sharing and swapping of the following fresh and tasty home grown produce: cabbages, oranges, leeks, oregano, rocket, white onions, warrigal greens, spinach, rosemary and bayleaves, tomato and pumpkin seedlings, olives, mulberries, parsley in punnets, lemon grass, lemons and sage.

These deliciously fresh items were grown by people in the neighbourhood from Stepney, Marden, Kensington Park, Kent Town, Unley, St Peters, Payneham, Felixstow, Royston Park, Woodforde and Erindale.

So next month  leave your grocery shopping until the afternoon and come along to the One Planet Market in the morning.  Bring along excess produce from your own garden to share and take away with you the freshest and tastiest ingredients possible.

The Share and Swap stall is just one of many at the One Planet Market providing a great opportunity to design your week’s menu around the fabulous range of locally grown and home produced food, fruit and vegetable products.  We look forward to seeing you at the next market:  9am-12 noon Saturday 17 December 2011.