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 Sue Brunskill, Teacher, National Environment Centre, and Wooragee resident People choose to eat meat or not to eat meat for many reasons, and the more you delve into the issue, the less it appears clear cut. Fashions come and go in food and health as well as other areas.
By Melissa Kane, Eco-friendly Mum Recycling your clothes, what a novel idea! Hopefully everyone does it when they clean out their wardrobes. If you’re like the majority of people, have you noticed what good quality you are donating only because it’s last season or no longer fits? The very act of
By Zara Barlow, age 14, Albury As a society we throw away way too many things. Australians produce over eighteen million tonnes of waste every year. On average each Australian discards 330 kilograms of paper, 552 aluminium cans, 118 kilograms of plastic, 74 kilograms metals, 414 kilograms food and 206 glass
By Dr Ben Habib, Lecturer in International Relations – La Trobe University From 13th-23rd July I led a group of La Trobe University students on a study tour to Shanghai and Beijing in China. Among our tour group were Albury-Wodonga students Rebekah O’Keefe and Paul Niklaus. The Environment and Sustainability in China
By Roger Findlay, Gerogery West For the last few months I have been buying the large hay rolls to feed our small flock of sheep. We have found that dispensing the hay by hand, as a daily ration, is the most economical way and minimises waste. Each hay roll costs sixty
By Michelle Wilkinson, Green Waste Diversion Officer, City of Wodonga With our fast paced lives it’s easy to see how various messages about our health, environment and sustainability get lost in the media bombardment. Campaigns get reduced to catchy slogans like ‘think global, act local’, which is a fabulous concept,
By Michelle Wilkinson, Green Waste Diversion Officer, City of Wodonga Are we witnessing a revolution in energy supply and renewable energy sources? Renewable energy technologies aren’t new but more and more communities right across Australia and the world are utilising the power of community to drive exciting projects that
By Diana Nicholson, member of Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) I have never been a sceptic of climate change. When I read the science and found out as much as I could there was no disputing the fact that as a result of human activities, large-scale climate change is under
By Penelope Collis, Halve Waste Education and Assessment Officer When I fell pregnant and a friend suggested I use cloth nappies, to be honest, I felt a bit uncertain. However, with a job in waste management, I felt it was important to ‘walk the talk’, so after a whirlwind 8 weeks,
By Roger Findlay, Gerogery West On my recent holiday in Tasmania I couldn’t help thinking about the many contentious issues that are continually debated by those living on the island. The letters in the papers always include the issues of forestry, super trawlers and wind farms and I enjoy reading them.
By Charlie Robinson, Beechworth Last year my wife and I visited the United States. The deteriorating conditions of their national parks and extreme water shortages on the West Coast highlighted the urgency of climate change mitigation. I’ll give you just two examples: While travelling through Yellowstone National Park it was hard not
By Ali Barlow, age 10, Albury The thing with recycling and vegetable planting, is you’re never too old for it. And when you do you feel good because you’re helping the earth, every little thing you do makes a change. Normally when you finish with a plastic bottle you throw
