I am currently researching and creating a Slideshow for a client on the topic of ‘Obesity’ – the same thing that Jamie Oliver rants about here and the same things that Nicholas Christakis discusses here at TED (which is a great video as her asserts the notion that Obesity is contagious and spreads through social networks!). As an aside … as I bookmark ‘obesity-related’ websites on Delicious here, I am again thinking about how much has changed since I was researching topics at Uni 20 years ago! The most graphic things I have come across (so far) are 2 videos …

I am on a Melbourne bound train and just watched another TED presentation – seems to be my favorite commuter activity these days 🙂 In this TEDcast, Clay Shirky (author of Here Comes Everybody) reinforces my belief that we are living through a revolution in the way people interact and collaborate with each other. I’d love to hear what Clay has to say about the impact that Twitterers within Iran are having right now. Like in his original TED talk, new social media is changing the media landscape and giving the man/woman/child on the street a voice to the world …

Hat Tip to Mark Earls over at Herd for this one … Anyone in the ‘sustainability’ field knows the ‘Use Less’ mantra when it comes to stuff we purchase and throw away. It’s important. Enter Christian Erickson, Chad Hancock and Greg Wurm (aka Zeus Jones). In January 2009, Zues Jones won the Minneapolis regional PhizzPop competition. As a result of winning, they moved on to the national final at SXSW in Austin to compete against the winners of the other regional competitions. The core concept of these regional comps was: a 3-person team conceives, designs and presents a solution to …

After a couple of weeks in the blogging wilderness … I’m back! And I have a whole treasure trove of stuff to write about and explore with you. I have just finished a project called Castlemaine 500. In a nutshell, it was a community behaviour change project that sought to assist 500 households to reduce their household energy consumption by 15 to 30%. Our approach was to work directly with people in workshops and in their homes, provide information and facilitate the develoment of energy action plans. We worked with partners such as builders and hardware stores and ran a …

In the spirit of Improv and Complex change, I have started doing lots and lots of little things to help ‘enable change’ and ‘spark conversations’ about living sustainably at home. The first of these is Green Cow Solutions! A good chunk of my work is in the design and facilitation of projects that bring together people to learn from each other about tackling climate change and living sustainably. These projects have become more about community strengthening and resilience than about the ‘sustainability’ outcomes that flow from action (eg. insulating ceiling space) … I am very comfortable with that too! So …