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 Lizette Salmon, Regional Landcare Energy Expo Coordinator When living in Fiji last year I remained on the email distribution lists of many local sustainability groups. The number and diversity of events offered during 2011 really had me hankering to return home. There were various backyard bee-keeping workshops, an organic farm tour,
By Wendy Cashmore, member of local permaculture and seedsavers groups Many people dislike weeds and find them to be a nuisance. These ‘undesirable’ plants are regularly pulled out and sprayed with toxic chemicals. To look at things from a different perspective, weeds are hardy, clever plants with strong genetics. They
By Dr Ben Habib, WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) One of the exiting aspects of living lightly is the opportunity it provides for community building and connecting with other people. Strong social networks will become increasingly important as we grapple with environmental problems, energy insecurity and financial turmoil at the
By Glenn Wilson, OTG for 16 years In today’s climate of awareness of our personal carbon and energy footprints, much talk surrounds the increasing price of grid supplied electricity. The negative effects of coal fired electricity are widely known so must we look for other ways to generate the energy
By Dr Ben Habib, WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) The sustainability movement has for many years been preparing to confront converging environmental, energy and financial crises. That moment is now here. To adapt with as little disruption as possible, it has never been more important to embrace living lightly. Riots
By Jill Coglan, WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) I’m certainly not a great gardener and nor do I have the time needed to have a fantastic veggie garden. However some good friends of ours have made us an amazing veggie garden and we’re all enjoying its ‘fruits’ as well
By Robin Rhodes, Yackandandah Sustainability It has been easy for us to live a relatively sustainable lifestyle here in Yackandandah. We live in a smallish home that looks like it’s made from mud bricks, but it is really made from cement and sawdust blocks manufactured by Timbercrete in Culcairn. These
By Jenny Indian, Member of NERSA, Landcare and Indigo Shire Environment Advisory Committee “Of all plants they are the most prominent and most permanent, the ones that set the scene and dictate the atmosphere” – I wish I could say that was me but these are the words of Hugh Johnson
By Charlie Robinson, Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability With the copious rainfall we have received over the last two Spring/Summer periods and the consequent effect on grass growth, our fuel bill for the push and ride-on mowers has often exceeded that of our car. This is simply unsustainable in a future
By Matthew Charles-Jones, Yackandandah Sustainability Acts to protect the natural world are all too frequently regarded as naïve. Claims of naivety are a familiar cry when an environmental perspective calls for changes in a particular industrial practice or set of behaviours. Apparently only naïve people don’t ‘get’ the imperatives of humans
By Kirby Browne, Permaculture student, National Environment centre, Thurgoona. Recently I was confronted with a situation of animal neglect, where a pet was being locked all day in a small storage unit. After being largely ignored by the real estate agent managing the property, I was informed by an animal welfare
By Elizabeth Leathbridge, Albury Recently the Atomic Energy Industry Council claimed that, as a result of increasing carbon emissions, the Earth would be 2% hotter in 2020 and 6% hotter by 2050. Shocked, and I admit, questioning their motives, I read Dr Helen Caldicott’s book “Nuclear power is not the answer”.
