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 WATCH (Wodonga & Albury Towards Climate Health) Bah, humbug. There, I’ve said it. Yes, I’m afraid I’m one of those people who doesn’t really relish the Christmas season. With every passing year I get more down about how commercial Christmas has become. I can’t help but
By Matthew Charles-Jones Matthew is a member of Yackandandah Sustainability A real challenge with the idea of ‘living lightly’ is how we define ‘lightly.’ This is as much an ethical question as it is a practical one. It is ethical since it is a decision about the level of environmental impact
By Karen Retra Border Eco-Living Program I am a novice beekeeper with a bee hive in my suburban backyard. For me, the big draw card bees offer is pollination, particularly for fruit and vegetable plants. Harvesting honey is a bonus, not the primary motivation for me. Previously I encouraged bees
By Shae Gillmartin Shae is a Change the Dream facilitator Environmental and sustainability issues have been explored, researched and publicised to illustrate it is time to change the impact humans are having on this earth. I feel passionate and inspired by the hard facts to live lightly, consume less, cycle
By Zoe Twist Hi my name is Zoe and I am eleven years old and have a real passion for protecting the environment. From a kid’s perspective, the environment is very important but sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start. So here are some small things you can do
By Narelle Vogel Narelle is a committee member of Riversong Steiner Playgroup If we want our community to live lightly on this planet then we need to keep a discussion going with everyone about why nature is so precious, so wonderful and to be enjoyed, protected and preserved. Young children
By Matthew Charles-Jones Matthew is a member of Yackandandah Sustainability Straw bales may offer a beautiful solution for those planning a new home or extending an existing structure. There are many examples of people creatively using straw to construct garden walls and decorative features using straw. Bales can also be
By Lauriston Muirhead Lauriston is chair of WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) What do Playboy, the latest bodice ripper and the Bible have in common, apart from some boring bits and some jolly good bits? They all need a good light to be thoroughly enjoyed. Daylight is the best
By Erin Mathews Erin is a former Border Eco-Living Program participant Everyone has different motivations for going local with their food. To be honest, the driving force for me was number 5. 1. Shrink your eco footprint 2. Support the producers in your community 3. Save money and cut down
By Lauriston Muirhead Lauriston is chair of WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) It wasn’t just Lady Chatterly’s greenhouses that got hot. Greenhouses also get hot because light enters easily through the glass, but when it bounces around in the greenhouse some of the light changes to heat which does
By Shae Gillmartin Shae is a member of the Border Permaculture Association So what is a food forest? It is an edible garden that uses the model of a forest to meet people’s needs of food, medicinal plants and an enjoyable setting. Food forests have a diverse range of plants
By Ben Habib Ben is a member of WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) Part of living lightly involves acknowledging that some of our ideas that have served us well in the past are no longer appropriate for the times we are moving into. One of these sacred cows is
