Living Lightly is a collection of local stories about sustainable living.
The column commenced in 2012 and until 2023 was published in the Border Mail newspaper each week.
The content is community sourced – groups, organisations and individuals have written and contributed each of these informative and entertaining articles – all overseen by a local volunteer coordinator.
We are currently considering a monthly schedule for articles, stay tuned as we explore this option.
Here you can browse and search previous articles or subscribe to receive an email each time an article is published.
The Living Lightly coordinator is always keen to receive articles! Use the link below to find out how you can submit an article for the column.
With a big thank you to all the Living Lightly authors for contributing to this wonderful collection of articles.
By Alan Hewett Since the release of the Finkel report the debate about coal fired power stations has intensified. Putting it plainly, the use of coal in generating electricity is high polluting, uneconomical and harmful to our health. The burning of coal is the single biggest contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas
By David Thurley, Albury If we are to believe the advertisements we see so frequently on TV, we are besieged by bacteria and insects that pose an immediate threat to our safety and that of our children. We are told that every surface in the house is covered with bacteria (which
By Lizette Salmon, Wodonga Albury Toward Climate Health (WATCH) Last month Wodonga Albury Toward Climate Health (WATCH) celebrated its 10th year. A decade with six prime ministers and five Border Mail editors. Changes aplenty, but we’re still here. As a non-partisan climate advocacy group, we began by meeting dozens of politicians
By Nicki Munro, Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability Did you know that just 8.7 plastic checkout bags contain enough embodied petroleum energy to drive a car 1 kilometre? Or that by 2050 plastic items could outnumber fish in the ocean? Australians are the second highest producers of waste per person
By Ann Brain, Wangaratta Sustainability Network Thank you to Wendy Baker for her suggested ways of avoiding single-use plastics (Living Lightly 21/6/17). Plastic Free July is a great way to get ideas and get motivated to reduce plastic in our everyday lives. The challenge is to avoid all single-use plastics or
By Lizette Salmon, Coordinator Repair Cafe Albury-Wodonga Speech pathology student Vanessa has been invited to an 18th birthday. The night before the party she opens her wardrobe, contemplating an outfit. A pretty floral dress catches her eye. But what’s this? It has a split seam. Vanessa doesn’t own a sewing
By Wendy Baker, Benalla Sustainable Futures Group Plastic Free July is an international initiative developed by a Perth council to raise awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives. The challenge is to refuse single use plastic during July. Some of you may think it is too difficult to stop
By David Macilwain, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) When people ‘who already had electricity’ began putting solar panels on their roofs, we off-gridders were a bit sceptical. These people weren’t used to skimping a bit to save power, or even at all, and weren’t about to give up on all those
By Cath Newell Why should you enter the Premier’s Sustainability Awards? Community garden project tells why. New research by Sustainability Victoria shows that over 90 per cent of Victorians want government, business and industry to be involved in environmental projects and to tackle climate change. One of the great ways
By David Macilwain, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) We still get those calls offering help with our electricity bill. “We get our power from the sun” I say – but then they offer a better feed-in tariff. “We’re not connected to the grid!” I say, and that’s usually it – though
By Carolyn Re, Albury If you yearn for a fun-filled shopping spree without spending cash or maxing out your credit card why not try setting up a free ‘swap shop’ at home? A group of my friends did this recently and it worked a treat. Like most people we had assorted
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga On January 31st this year we lost one of the ocean’s greatest advocates and the sharks’ greatest hero. Rob Stewart grew up swimming and scuba diving. It blossomed to a love of the marine ecosystem, leading Stewart to study biology in school at the
