Transition Town Boroondara Christmas picnic

YOU'RE INVITED........

Date & Time: Sunday 13th December from 5 pm to 8 pm
Place: Stradbroke Park, Melways Ref: 45 K4
Bring: Plate, cutlery, food, drink, friends & family

Click on the image for more info.

What is Carrotmob?

Let’s Talk About Carrot Mob!

After a fantastic turn out to the Transition Town Boroodara film night a couple of weeks ago, with many excited new members joining the group, we thought we’d keep the ball rolling by inviting discussion about CarrotMob. A group of us are really excited about the concept and are inviting you to be involved to plan for our first CarrotMob event!

When Can We Talk?

We know it is coming up to Christmas, so it is busy times for everyone. However, we are holding a Transition Town Boroodara Christmas Picnic this Sunday 13th December (see the blog post for more info). It would be a great opportunity to not only relax and enjoy a nice afternoon, but also to get some casual discussion going around CarrotMob.

What is CarrotMob you ask?

Check out a short video about CarrotMob.
CarrotMob is a method of activism that leverages consumer power to make the most socially-responsible business practices also the most profitable choices. Businesses compete with one another to see who can do the most good, and then a big mob of consumers buys products in order to reward whichever business made the strongest commitment to improve the world. It’s the opposite of a boycott.

You might be thinking – but isn’t consumerism part of the whole problem when it comes to our sustainability issues? Yes, but we now have an idea to make consumer power part of the solution. Let’s use our buying power to influence more environmentally friendly business practice and drive the change we would like to see in Melbourne!

Can’t come to the Picnic but still keen?

Shoot us an email! We want to hold some meetings about CarrotMob in the new year and we’ll let you know. Email: Helen Barclay or Ying Hu

First film night a success

We held our first public event on Tuesday Nov 24th. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but by all accounts the night was a success!

Hawthorn Bowling Club provided a quaint and cosy setting for the excellent turnout of 35 or so people. It was quite a diverse group, particularly in terms of age, which was great to see!

Along with giving an introduction to the Transition Town concept, we showed two videos - The Story of Stuff & Greening the Desert. The Story of Stuff outlined the issues of consumerism and how our finite planet resources cannot support this infinite consumer demand. You can view the Story of Stuff online here.

Discussions got going and it was highlighted that the challenge of consumerism is a challenge of attitudes, values and behaviour. No easy nut to crack. However, we did get talking about CarrotMob - a way of making consumer buying part of the solution for a sustainable future.

What is CarrotMob you ask? Check out the website to learn more . Basically, CarrotMob is a movement that harnesses consumer buying power to influence businesses to make green choices. We want to get a CarrotMob up and running in Melbourne and we want to hear from you if you’re keen too! See our blog post about Carrot Mob.

Next on the movie agenda was Greening the Desert, an enlightening film about how it is possible to successfully garden in salty deserts – no chemicals or extra water required! This promoted quite a lot of discussion, questions and idea swapping about a whole range of areas:

• What is a Swale – can you implement one in your backyard?

• Hard Rubbish in Melbourne. One passionate guest spoke of her frustration with the waste of Hard Rubbish collection. Apparently it is actually illegal to scout around and pick out hard rubbish items off the street (except for in Boroondara). That seems crazy!

• Green wash from companies – need to watch for it!

• Sharehood – a system for sharing stuff in your local area – sounds great!
  

• Gifts – let’s make preloved gifts or recycled gifts cool!

So, the night came to a close with some tea, coffee and tasty treats. There were even some home grown lemons to take on the way out thanks to a good thinking couple.

The Christmas Picnic is our next get together – just something relaxed. However we do hope to have a bit of a chat about CarrotMob and see what we might be able to do next.

More film nights will be happening next year, and we also hope to start getting some little groups happening including a Food-Co op and CarrotMob – if you have any other ideas and want to get involved let us know!