If you were given the opportunity...

[barefootrim]

A sustainable system includes a passive leadership body with service to the community, surrounding environs, and general wellbeing of all as their mission statement,,, so a suggestion could be for the nobbs that run the joint eg city councillors, majors, state members of parliament etc come to a very deep understanding that their role is not to dictate but to serve,,,not to tell others how it is but to implement and incorporate others ideas, not to hold an assessment of submissions but to realise that the submissions are what is to go into a plan, actually give up their "power" and transpose that power into a vehicle that willingly and unobtrusively allows the betterment of the whole community (nature, growing systems, waste sytems, peoples ) to grow . The community is to be the beneficiary of any works,,, not a few contractors that are mates of the nobbs with a sly backhander under the table... In this way the nobbs stop being nobbs and begin to become passive leaders and constructive community designers. Holding a meeting is not enough to show the community that the leaders are aware and conscious,,, the actual implementation of sustainable works is the sign for such,

Give that a wirl bro,,,and watch em lay a few eggs and howl.

All the best,
Adammz

[springtide]

This might be a bit too basic but in Rockingham WA we have a really good recycling program that will accept up to level 7 (polystyrene, meat trays, etc) for us this means that there is one small bag in the green bin and the yellow bin is stuffed full long before it is due to be collected.
So better a recycling system picked up weekly not every 2. I think this would be useful even for the most unedumakated people.

[Glenn18]

A sustainable system includes a passive leadership body with service to the community, surrounding environs, and general wellbeing of all as their mission statement,,, so a suggestion could be for the nobbs that run the joint eg city councillors, majors, state members of parliament etc come to a very deep understanding that their role is not to dictate but to serve,,,not to tell others how it is but to implement and incorporate others ideas, not to hold an assessment of submissions but to realise that the submissions are what is to go into a plan, actually give up their "power" and transpose that power into a vehicle that willingly and unobtrusively allows the betterment of the whole community (nature, growing systems, waste sytems, peoples ) to grow . The community is to be the beneficiary of any works,,, not a few contractors that are mates of the nobbs with a sly backhander under the table... In this way the nobbs stop being nobbs and begin to become passive leaders and constructive community designers. Holding a meeting is not enough to show the community that the leaders are aware and conscious,,, the actual implementation of sustainable works is the sign for such,

Give that a wirl bro,,,and watch em lay a few eggs and howl.

All the best,
Adammz

Well there ya have it.
And as a bonus,the people will let you keep your over paid and under utilized job.
Very well put Adammz.

[Kardella]

I have just got around to reading through the postings on this thread and am impressed with some really good suggestions. The ideas presented in Greater Bendigo 2036 are definitely worth a look - thanks Markos!

I would also like to add something that really dates from the past but I believe is still relevant and likely to become more so in the future - the cooperative. Cooperatives provide primary producers with a measure of control over the marketing, sale and distribution of their produce and take the multinationals out of the equation. They can be structured so that they reduce food miles and can focus on organic, locally grown or 'manufactured' produce. They can operate in conjunction with farmers markets and ensure that people involved at all levels of the production, distribution and sale of produce are appropriately remunerated. Most importantly, they encourage a sense of community and a more collaborative approach to production.

[milifestyle]

Thanks for all the replies... I had the opportunity to attend the Making Burnie 2030 conference a couple of weeks ago. Around 80 people attended the 2 day conference/workshop. It was an interesting couple of days.

If anyone is ever given the opportunity to listen to Dr Peter Ellyard, do it. I wouldn't say I agree with him in all he says but he's a very forward thinking futurist.

[Pakanohida]

... to attend a conference on the future direction of your town or city, what sustainable or permaculture ideas an thoughts would you want put across ?

Oh my where do I begin.... do you want a 25 page term paper here or the stuff off the top of my head?

If off the top of my head I would start with the watershed, & work from the mountains down. The reason I bring up the watershed first is multi-fold. First, we have a lot of loggers in the area, and up until a decade ago it was thriving, but is cutting down trees to make room for a monoculture thriving when it drives the watertable down? Secondly, is the town of Myrtle Point, and others that do not have the ability to deal with storm surge rains, as such, they constantly dump raw sewage into the river, but ah yes the river. My particular river used to have so much salmon you could walk across it, so much steelhead, sturgeon and black stripepers that you could walk across them to the other side of the river also. People still here depend on that river for food, and more. When the rains come (as they are right now) the water overflows and dumps silt on the roads & boat ramps. This silt is collected by numerous people with all sorts of equipment instantly by locals to mix into the soil at thier homes to grow food... ..the same silt that had raw sewage in it.

I could go on and on and on and on... and that's with only 1 year of observation.