In this episode, Janine Strachan, Founder of Tiny House Solutions, President of the Australian Tiny House Association (ATHA) and host of ‘Tips from the Tiny House Guru’ podcast shares what’s driving the growth in the Tiny House Movement, advantages and disadvantages of living in a tiny house, costs and legalities associated with building a tiny house and her best advice for those looking to build and live in a Tiny House.
Lola is a Year 9 student from Exeter in the Southern Highlands region of NSW. She marched as a Year 6 student in the large student climate strikes in 2019 and subsequently joined the School Strike 4 Climate movement. She now leads the School Strike 4 Climate group in her regional town and is actively meeting with her local candidates for the upcoming Federal election to ensure the voice of youth is heard loud and clear.
In this episode my son Matthew will interview Lola, uncovering the information he needs to include in his school assignment on someone who is using their voice for good, but also educating himself more in how students, not too much older than him, are making a really big impact in climate change awareness.
Lola will share what the School Strike 4 Climate movement is and why she decided to join, when and how it was founded, and the impact the movement is having.
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The most wonderful time of the year is also the most wasteful, but that needn’t be the case! In this episode I share five ways you can reduce your food waste this Christmas so the season is lighter on your wallet, waistline and our precious planet.
Resources: Seasons Greenings e-guide
If you’ve been feeling down about the state of the global environment, particularly after COP26 in Glasgow, this episode is for you. I’m sharing a presentation I delivered to around 200 doctors last month at the Doctors for the Environment iDEA 2021 conference. I was invited by Dr Kate Wylie to share a message of innovation and progress so conference attendees could leave the conference with a feeling of hope. I hope the presentation has a similar impact on you too.
There’s plenty of factors to consider when investing in a home. Proximity to schools, shops, health services, family and public transport are some of the key considerations. Smart investors of today are factoring in another consideration – climate change risk – and for good reason.
Climate change risk is impacting the valuation and insurance cost of Australian residential properties and is expected to become more important as time marches on, and the impacts of climate change become more visible. For this reason it make sense to obtain a climate risk report at the same time as you conduct your building and pest inspections.
In this episode, Karl Mallon from Climate Valuation shares how you can assess the climate risk to your home and steps you can take to ensure that your investment is physically and financially sound.
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Money does indeed make the world go round and the type of businesses that we invest in today creates the world of tomorrow. Notwithstanding, the corporate world has a huge role to play in shaping the kind of world we live in.
The traditional mindset of corporates to maximise returns for shareholders is redundant and these days, only companies that are sustainable in the true sense of the word will survive. Think sound environmental practices, a strong human rights record and an inclusive and diverse workforce where every employee can bring their best selves to work.
In this episode I’m chatting all things corporate sustainability with Dr Kaushik Sridhar.
Kaushik shares how he went from being a professional tennis player to a corporate leader in sustainability, what the current state of play of sustainability is in the corporate world and tips and strategies for corporates to become more sustainable.
Resources:
Connect with Dr Kaushik Sridhar on LinkedIn
Learn to live sustainably with Laura in Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs
Dr Marji is a coral reef scientist who aims to teach kids around the world about the climate crisis through interactive play and art. Marji meets kids at their level with play dough and LEGO and isn’t afraid to dress up as a coral polyp or penguin to help get the important message of the climate crisis across to young inquisitive minds.
Dr Marji also runs an international drawing contest for kids at kidscareaboutclimate.org that brings kids around the world together to make their voices heard on this vital issue.
In this episode Dr Marji will share why she’s focussing on educating kids about the climate crisis rather than adults, how she ensures she doesn’t fuel any anxieties the children may already have about the state of our global environment, and how you can get the children in your life involved by drawing a picture of a tree and in turn have a real tree planted on their behalf.
Resources:
Kids Care About Climate Facebook
Climate change has traditionally been viewed as an economic and environmental issue but it is fundamentally a human health issue. In this episode of Eco Chat I’m joined by Dr Kate Wylie from Climate Medicine to discuss the growing health risk to the human population from a warming climate.
Dr Kate Wylie is a GP, a mother and climate activist based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is also the founder of Climate Medicine, a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia and is a Climate Reality Leader. Dr Wylie educates the community and health professionals on the health impacts of climate change.
In this episode Dr Kate will share how the impact of climate change is already presenting in patients in her clinic, what key impacts to human health doctors are anticipating will become more common as our climate continues to change, and what led her to create Climate Medicine.
Resources:
www.climatemedicine.net
If you’re looking for educational sustainability books for the children in your life, you’re in the right place. I’m joined on Eco Chat by Patricia Newman, author of several educational books on environmental and social justice issues including Eavesdropping on Elephants; Sea Otter Heroes; Neema's Reason to Smile; Zoo Scientists to the Rescue; and Plastic, Ahoy!
Translating complicated scientific research into something the average fourth grader can understand is one of Patricia’s gifts. Every Newman title includes hours of research, location travel, and authentic voices sharing the latest scientific discoveries.
Patricia released her latest book, Planet Ocean with photographer Annie Crawley in early March 2021 to much acclaim. Planet Ocean is currently #1 on Amazon in Children’s Australia!
In this episode Patricia will share what led her to write Planet Ocean, how we need to stop thinking of ourselves as existing separate from the ocean and how to start taking better care of this precious resource.
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If you’re looking for an internet search engine that gives back, look no further than Ecosia. Ecosia is quite literally, the search engine that plants trees. Ecosia donates 80% of its profits to non-profit organisations that focus on reforestation, considers itself a social business, is CO2-negative and supports full financial transparency and protect the privacy of its users.
In this episode Hannah Wickes will share how Ecosia came about, how it works and how you can easily make the switch to ensure your web surfing is creating change for good.
Visit www.ecosia.org or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
And if you are growing an eco business check out the Eco Business Collective where I combine my extensive environmental engineering and business experience to support you.
If you’re looking for commercial cleaning products that are toxin free, plastic free and are made in Australia by a social enterprise, look no further than Resparkle. Pearl Chan is on a mission to create a plastic free future for our families and she’s helping people get started in their homes. In this episode Pearl will share her journey from being a corporate banker to founding and growing an eco business that’s become a leader in toxin and plastic free home cleaning products.
Resources:
Laura’s Home Detox Cheat Sheet
While 2020 saw Covid-19 ravage human populations and communities around the world, there were many positives throughout the year for our local, regional and global environments.
This New Year, as many of us continue to struggle to process the year that was 2020, I thought I’d take the opportunity to highlight five positive environmental news stories. It’s my intention that they give you some hope for 2021 and beyond.
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If your business, company or organisation wishes to become carbon neutral to reduce their environmental impact and demonstrate a strong commitment to sustainability, this episode is for you. I'm joined by Polly Hemming from Climate Active to discuss steps business or organisations need to take to become certified carbon neutral and the associated costs and auditing requirements.
This episode follows on from episode 155: How to Offest Your Carbon Emissions with Louise Tarrier from Carbon Positive Australia which also discussed carbon neutrality, but for individuals and organisations not seeking certification. In contrast, this episode is for businesses seeking carbon neutral certification.
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This past month I presented at the online Ecopreneur Summit, sharing tips and strategies for how to how to make your business more sustainable. It’s this presentation on How to Grow a Green Business that I share with you in this podcast episode.
I also share details of my new Eco Business Collective, a major focus for me for 2021 and beyond. Eco Business Collective will become the premier online membership community for ecopreneurs and eco business builders. Members receive personalized coaching support and a network of connections to help them grow a thriving and profitable eco business online.
If you’re growing an eco business and would like the support of an experienced environmental engineer and eco business coach (that’s me!) plus the support of a growing community of eco business builders, click HERE for more information on the Eco Business Collective.
For a limited time you can take advantage of a FREE 30-day trial and lock in foundation member rates for the duration of your membership!
This year I was invited to join the judging panel for the Australian Non Toxic Awards, a role that involved testing and critiquing a large range of zero waste products for the home. The full list of winners can be found on the Australia Non-Toxic Awards website, but I wanted to take the opportunity to showcase a few of my favourite zero waste products. I encourage you to support these eco businesses so you can reduce your environmental impact and in turn, help them make a bigger impact.
For strategies and support to ditch single-use plastics, join my FREE 5-day Plastic Free Challenge. In just five minutes a day for five days you’ll learn how to break up with single-use plastics in and around your home and while out and about.
If you’re keen to reduce your toxin load AND you love cooking, this episode is for you. And if you use non-stick pans and your lining is damaged or you’ve accidentally overheated your pan and created fumes, this episode is especially for you. I’m discussing toxins you need to be aware of in traditional non-stick cookware and share some safer alternatives for you.
Click HERE to download my Home Detox Cheat Sheet
Click HERE to join my Home Detox Bootcamp
If you’ve changed some of your habits and have embraced a sustainable lifestyle, but you want to go one step further by offsetting your carbon emissions this podcast episode is for you.
I’m joined by Louise Tarrier, CEO of Carbon Positive Australia. Louise will share how individuals and organisations can easily offset their carbon emissions to become carbon neutral and create a better future for us all.
Follow Carbon Positive Australia on:
Electric vehicles are slowing making their way into the marketplace across Australia and overseas with companies such as Nissan and Telsa offering affordable entry level electric family car options.
In this episode we are joined by Dan Deleur, Vice Chair of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association South Australian branch to discuss the pros and cons of electric vehicles.
Dan's interest in EVs originated in Auto Racing 10 years ago and is augmented by his desire to reduce his environmental impact. His most recent endeavour is Designing and Building an Independently Constructed Vehicle (ICV) which is predominantly constructed utilising second-hand parts from several manufactures. The most relevant of which is the Electric Motor and Drive train sourced from a 2013 Tesla Model S.
Progress on the EV Project nicknamed ‘Short Black’ and the associated Distractions and Creations that life with so many hobbies provides, can now be seen on Dan’s YouTube Channel
Fresh lemons are a natural, safe and economical way to clean your home (especially if you have your own lemon tree!). By replacing several common commercial cleaning products with fresh lemons you’ll reduce waste, save money and improve your health. In this episode I’ll share six simple ways to clean your home naturally with fresh lemons.
For tips on how to use natural products from your pantry to clean your home, join my FREE 5-day Green Cleaning Challenge
For my complete framework to reduce chemicals and toxins in your home, join my Home Detox Boot Camp
Pure soap is the original general purpose cleaner. In its purest form, natural soap contains no extra additives such as colours and fragrances and biodegrades completely. In this article I’ll share the benefits of using pure soap for household cleaning tasks and my three favourite uses for pure soap flakes.
For strategies and support to reduce chemicals and toxins in your home, including a heap of natural cleaning recipes, join my Home Detox Boot Camp
Did you know that one of the growing threats to our coral reefs lives in your beach bag?
Sunscreen, or more specifically the chemicals found in many sunscreens, are contributing to coral bleaching and the subsequent death of our beautiful reefs.
In this episode I share what to look for in an eco-friendly sunscreen, and in particular how to ensure your sunscreen is reef safe.
Always look at ingredient lists to make sure reef-damaging substances (such as oxybenzone, butylparaben, octinoxate and 4-methylbenzylidine camphor, all of which have been shown to cause coral bleaching even at low levels) aren’t included.
For strategies and support to reduce chemicals and toxins in your home, join my Home Detox Boot Camp.
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In reaching the milestone of 150 episodes of Eco Chat I thought it was timely to take a look back on the past (almost) five years of podcasting and share the top ten episodes, as downloaded by you!
Did your favorite make the list!?!
Be sure to leave a review for Eco Chat in Apple Podcasts to show your love and help other Eco Heros get the tips and info they need to create a healthier and more sustainable home and lifestyle.
Many households who are making an effort to reduce the volume of single-use plastics they consume have trouble replacing one item…..the humble rubbish bin liner. In this episode I’m sharing four alternatives to single use plastic bin liners.
For strategies and support to ditch single-use plastics, join my FREE 5-day Plastic Free Challenge.
Farmers and primary producers are experts in land management and meteorology. They need to be in order to survive. Anika Molesworth is a recognised thought-leader of agro-ecological systems resilience. She is an agricultural science researcher, communicator and works in international agricultural development. Anika is also a passionate advocate for sustainable farming, environmental conservation and climate change action. She is a director of Farmers for Climate Action, a movement that puts farmers on the front lines of climate change and at the front and centre of the solutions.
In this episode Anika and I discuss how climate change is impacting primary producers and how farmers are uniting for climate action.
The catastrophic and unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season, colloquially referred to as the Black Summer, burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres; 186,000 square kilometres, 72,000 square miles), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people (including a number of firefighters). An estimated one billion animals were killed and some endangered species may have been pushed to extinction.
At its peaks, air quality dropped to hazardous levels. Smoke from the Australian fires was detected some 11,000 kilometres (6,800 miles) away across the South Pacific Ocean in Chile and Argentina. The cost of the fires is expected to be in the billions of dollars.
While the fires that ravaged every state and territory in Australia, particular the south-eastern States, are now extinguished and the world’s attention has turned to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot allow the Australian Black Summer to become a memory.
The impacts of Covid-19 will be a speedbump in contrast to the growing impacts of climate change.
It’s time to address the scary reality that the Australian Black Summer signals a new normal for bushfires in Australia and other regions around the world.
In this Episode of Eco Chat I’m joined by former Commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW Greg Mullins to unpack the angriest summer of fires in Australia. We discuss how climate change is impacting the frequency and intensity of bushfires and how communities can reduce their bushfire risk in a warming world.