Electrify everything, at your own pace

Electrify everything, at your own pace

Would you like to help create a more comfortable, healthier home for your family? Want to promote clean energy? Then you’ll want to start thinking about electrifying your home.   Here in the Inner West, we have access to the cheapest delivered electricity in the world...
Our Green Living Year 2023

Our Green Living Year 2023

We’ve had a terrific year at the Green Living Centre, from the opening of the Inner West Sustainability Hub, to Footprints Ecofestival. See below for some of our favourites.   Also, if you missed the developments of this year’s COP28 agreement, check out...
Fashion this Festive Season

Fashion this Festive Season

Sustainability and fashion can sometimes be an awkward match, and trying to make the right choices as consumers is not cut and dry. For instance, some studies have found that up to 59% of eco-friendly claims by fashion companies are greenwashing tricks of one kind or...
How About Growing Our Own Food?

How About Growing Our Own Food?

Urban agriculture isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a food growing revolution thriving right here in the Inner West. It’s a movement all about increasing ways to grow food locally, getting our hands and seeds in the soil, and growing nutritious, organic fruit,...
Spring into active transport

Spring into active transport

Saving the planet is not going to be a walk in the park… but it might be a walk through the city! Active Transport, for instance walking, cycling or moving your body, is the most sustainable form of transport available to us. The NSW Government estimates there...
Footprints Ecofestival 2023

Footprints Ecofestival 2023

Footprints Ecofestival is on again at Whites Creek Valley Park on Sunday 27 August!   Join us for our annual sustainability festival and connect with authors, repairers, stylists, tour guides and local environmental initiatives. Celebrate with us your shared...
Beat Plastic Pollution

Beat Plastic Pollution

This year, World Environment Day was about ‘beating plastic’, and with Plastic Free July approaching, let’s look at the plight of the war on plastic. Plastic overproduction and waste present a real threat to the health of our species and the planet at large,...
Reconciliation Week

Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week is 27 May – 3 June, and this year is all about encouraging people to ‘Be a Voice for Generations.’ Strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and non-Indigenous Peoples, is at the heart of...
Fashion Revolution!

Fashion Revolution!

Fashion Revolution Week is all about uniting for seven days of action to achieve change in the global clothing industry. Formed in the wake of the Rana Plaza collapse which killed more than 1124 workers in Bangladesh a decade ago, Fashion Revolution is now the world’s...
Sustainable Homes – Green Living at Home

Sustainable Homes – Green Living at Home

On 19 March, Sustainable House Day, a month-long program of spectacular events began. It was coordinated by Renew, a national not-for-profit organisation that has provided expert advice on sustainable solutions since 1980. They describe this annual event as an...
Urban Agriculture month is here

Urban Agriculture month is here

November is the second national Urban Agriculture Month. It’s a month that showcases the richness of Australia’s urban agriculture movement and includes open gardens, workshops, tours and communal feasts. Led by Sustain: the Australian Food Network, this year’s theme...
Beyond COP26

Beyond COP26

The 2021 climate summit is over and the world’s nations have signed the Glasgow Climate Pact. Some positive advances have been made, but there is still a way to go to reduce the most severe impacts of climate change. Some of the successes were:  The goal of limiting...
How to make stylish and sustainable fashion choices

How to make stylish and sustainable fashion choices

As we start to socialise and celebrate over the coming months, we’ll start paying more attention to what we wear and might think we need some new items in our wardrobes. But do we? Before you go shopping consider this:  “In Australia, 6000 kilograms of cheap,...
From the ground up – community environmental action

From the ground up – community environmental action

History Week this year is 4 to 12 September. The theme is ‘from the ground up’ which celebrates the achievements of local groups in creating positive change in communities. The Inner West has a long history of grassroots activism from peace marches to LGBTQI and...
Let’s stop food waste together

Let’s stop food waste together

No one likes to see food go to waste, and yet it continues to on a massive scale. A recent report estimated that 1 billion tonnes of food are wasted across the globe every year. A third of food produced is...
Can you reduce plastic use this Plastic Free July?

Can you reduce plastic use this Plastic Free July?

It’s that time of year again when we focus on reducing plastic use: Plastic Free July. Over three-quarters of rubbish found in the oceans in a recent survey was plastic, with plastic bags, bottles, food containers/cutlery and wrappers the top four items.   The good...
Living more sustainably in the home

Living more sustainably in the home

More and more people are looking at their personal sustainability, and there has never been a more crucial time to do so. With most of us having spent a bit more time at home over the past 18 months, it is fair to say there has been a welcome increase in consciousness...
Active transport around the Inner West

Active transport around the Inner West

When you went to the local shops, took the kids to school or visited a nearby café today, did you walk, run, cycle, scoot, wheel, skate or even rollerblade? If so, you were engaging in active transport.   Active transport is beneficial for your health, your wallet and...
Our green living year 2020

Our green living year 2020

The Green Living Centre successfully pivoted to working online in this challenging year. It was great to engage with our community through webinars, social media, and some face-to-face workshops. We’d like to share with you some of the highlights of our...
Inner West goes solar

Inner West goes solar

The State of the Climate 2020 report from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO tells us that 2019 was the hottest and driest year on record, and we can expect more frequent and intense heatwaves, longer fire seasons, and shifting rain patterns across Australia.  ...
Sustainable food growing

Sustainable food growing

“Put simply, if we fix our food, we can fix people and planet. If we carry on as we are doing today, it will end badly for both. What is so incredibly exciting is that we know how to transform global agriculture from the planet’s number one threat, to the number...
It’s Plastic Free July!

It’s Plastic Free July!

It’s Plastic Free July, time to look at ways to reduce the amount of plastic we use in our lives.   Why reduce plastic use? Most plastics are made from fossil fuels so if you reduce your use of plastic, you’re reducing carbon emissions. If plastics are not disposed...
Spring photos and walks

Spring photos and walks

Spring Photo Call Out Nature is vibrant and “spring is nature’s way of saying let’s party”. (Robyn Williams, actor) This spring, explore the great outdoors with a visit to your local parks, natural areas and waterways. Inner West Council has an...
Plastic Free July

Plastic Free July

It’s Plastic Free July, a month that challenges us to rethink our reliance on plastic. The impact of plastic on the natural world and humanity is growing: A cartoon by industrial ecologist Roland Geyer shows what’s happened to the 8.3bn tons of plastic produced since...
Q&A with WWF’s Earth Hour coordinator

Q&A with WWF’s Earth Hour coordinator

We spoke to Jasmine Ledger from WWF Earth Hour to find out more about this global campaign.   What does your position at WWF Earth Hour involve? The Earth Hour team is a small but powerful engine; my teammates are incredibly hardworking and inspiring, but my...
How you can take on climate change

How you can take on climate change

Going off the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on the impact of global warming, speedy and bold changes are required by our four global systems- energy, land use, cities and industry. The good news is we can make a difference by...
Let’s talk climate change

Let’s talk climate change

Earth to Inner Westies.  I’m not sure if you noticed, but it is getting hot out there. Extreme weather events and evidence of climate change is becoming more prevalent.  There is “scientific consensus that climate change is happening at an...
Community Leaders in Sustainability

Community Leaders in Sustainability

Making a sustainable difference in their community In September of this year, a group of twenty passionate individuals from the Inner West Community began the Community Leaders in Sustainability Course.  They entered the learning space at Petersham Inner Council...
The Resourceful Bower

The Resourceful Bower

By Stella Robison The Bower bird is a resourceful bird.  In urban environments some Bower birds fascinated with the colour blue, have been known to source man-made objects like blue pegs and blue milk bottle rings to use in their nest building. So it would only...
The Resourceful Bower

Recycling right, recycling now

By Stella Robison Most Australians have good recycling intentions. Ninety percent of us believe recycling is the right thing to do. Even with our thirty years of kerbside recycling experience, a recent Sydney Morning Herald report uncovered that “the most common...
How energy smart are we?

How energy smart are we?

Sun, sun, sun…here it comes! By Stella Robison And we’re not just talking about summer that’s around the corner, but solar energy. It truly is a hot topic! Renewable energy like solar power as well as using energy wisely can help alleviate climate change....