Community action

2010 Walk Against Warming Deakin

Many communities are taking local action to embrace green living and care for the environment. These articles provide some examples.

Global

  • The Freecycle network is made up of 4,542 groups with 5,455,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills, and is coordinated by local groups.
  • Center for Advancement of the Steady State Economy’s mission is to advance the steady state economy, with stabilised population and consumption, as a policy goal with widespread public support.

Australia

See Australian climate action groups for a listing of groups in Australia active on climate change

  • Aurora is a sustainable suburb in outer Melbourne, Australia
  • Bayside Climate Change Action Group – formed by parents in the Bayside area, the group goals are to provide a collective voice for Bayside residents for both families and individuals determined to fight for a clean energy future.
  • Blue Wedges Coalition – campaigning against the deepening of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, Australia.
  • Friends of South Surrey Park are working on re-establishing native plants in Melbourne’s South Surrey Park.
  • Geelong Sustainability Group brings together Geelong residents and organisations who want action in our region. They believe climate change is an emergency for our community, our nation and our planet, and that we must get cracking to create a sustainable and vibrant future.
  • Live.org.au — L.I.V.E. is an acronym for Locals Into Victoria’s Environment, a fast-growing group of around 200 hundred concerned Victorians who are coming together to address the threat of global warming. The organization is independent, non-partisan and non-profit and is based in Melbourne’s City of Port Phillip.
  • National riparian land bank is a big idea for a big continent. We need to invest in environmental repair. We can afford it. The dividends will be there for generations to come.
  • Otway Climate Emergency Action Network (OCEAN) is an informed and motivated Otways community taking bold and effective action for climate justice by protecting our coast and country from the threat of unsustainable development
  • Permablitz is a group activity to get people together and have fun learning about, designing and implementing suburban permaculture systems. The focus is edible gardens, and our ultimate aim is to make the suburbs edible enough such that should food become unaffordable, we don’t even notice.
  • Mount Alexander Sustainability Group is based in Castlemaine, central Victoria, and is taking action to combat climate change.
  • Hepburn Energy Hepburn Energy (formerly Hepburn Wind) has been powering change in energy and renewables for over a decade. Starting as Australia’s first community-owned wind farm, they are now working on being the first hybrid wind, solar and battery co-operative. See also The winds of change

United Kingdom

  • Totnes is the UK’s first town exploring how to prepare for a carbon constrained, energy lean world as a Transition Towns initiative.
  • Woking has achieved significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions by introducing innovative energy policies to encourage distributed power generation.

Germany

  • Freiburg has the largest “carfree” development in Europe. The town has developed extensive public transport and cycle paths to give residents the opportunity to live without cars.

Denmark

  • Samsø is a Danish Island that now produces from renewable sources more energy than it was uses.

United States

  • Million solar roofs initiative is an initiative in the United States to install solar panels on roofs to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
  • New York City has set an ambitious plan to go green. It’s called PLANYC 2020.d by increasing our awareness of sustainable ways of living.

Costa Rica

  • Costa Rica aims to be the world’s first carbon neutral country, and has a thriving ecotourism sector.

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