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The Sustainable Hour no. 565 | Transcript | Podcast notes

In this week’s Sustainable Hour, we celebrate the rise of solar energy and look ahead to Geelong’s biggest annual sustainability event – Sustainable House Day.

• António Guterres, United Nations’ Secretary-General, reminds us that “the sun is rising on a clean energy age” as global momentum builds for renewables.

• Bill McKibben shares astonishing figures: in China, three gigawatts of solar are installed each day – the equivalent of a coal-fired power station every eight hours. California has reached the tipping point where batteries and renewables cover demand for long stretches. Bill also talks about the upcoming global event, Sun Day.

• Malcolm Turnbull, former Australian Prime Minister, describes solar power as a “complete revolution in energy” where millions of Australians now generate power from their rooftops.

• Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook takes us to Ethiopia’s African Climate Summit, Bali’s devastating floods, Saudi Arabia’s surprising pivot to solar, and Forest Green Rovers’ vegan football club.

. . .

Our guest this week, Ruth Blackhirst, is a volunteer with Geelong Sustainability and organiser of their extremely popular Sustainable House Day, which has been running for the last 17 years.

This year the event includes eight open homes across Geelong and region on 11 October 2025. Houses on show include a certified passive house, a hempcrete build, a recycled timber design, a renovated Californian bungalow, and a wildlife-friendly garden.

It also includes a seminar on 25 October with guest speakers Mandy Hall, a food waste expert, and James McLennan from Farm My School. More information on this seminar can be found here:

Sustainability in your Home

The Sustainable House Day program also includes a special event with Saul Griffith from Rewire Australia presenting his new book ‘Plug In’ on 16 October at Geelong West Town Hall. The event is about curiosity and inspiration – learning from neighbours, builders, architects and experts, while also discovering rebates and trusted suppliers through the Electric Homes Program.

Ruth highlights the community spirit: visitors leave not just with ideas, but with friendships and a sense of shared purpose.

→ More about Sustainable House Day here: www.geelongsustainability.org.au/shd2025

“At Sustainable House Day, we’ll always be unique. We’re always going to have different houses and one of our draw cards is, and one of my favourite parts about the role is to go out and source those. So finding the new and different ways, and it doesn’t need to be expensive. There’s some really clever design ideas that one of our houses who’s an architect has come up with, which seem so simple, but yet they’re not common practice. Learning all of that, I guess, is the absolute draw card as to why I love being part of the project.”
~ Ruth Blackhirst, Geelong Sustainbility

. . .

SONGS
We premiere a new song inspired by Ruth and her stories about Sustainable House Day:

Sustainable House Day | Lyrics

– A celebration of community, design, and carbon-free living on Sustainable House Day. Inspired by Ruth Blackhirst from Geelong Sustainability.

We end the Hour with the song ‘Growing Houses, Growing Hope.’
→ More songs from The Sustainable Hour

. . .

In the last part of the Hour, we play a TEDtalk segment by Jean Oelwang titled ‘Partnering to save the Planet (again)‘ where she introduces the ‘Planetary Health Check’ – a framework tracking the Earth’s health and showing how humanity still has five years to turn the ship around, if we act together.

The message of the Hour? Be inquisitive, be involved, be curious.

“Our world can be different if we work together.”
~ Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a U.S. priest directing Borgo Laudato Si, a new Vatican-run ecological training centre

“Electric Homes is in its fourth year running. Essentially what we do is we go out there and we do the hard work for you. It’s complex and quite difficult for people to know where to start. We have looked at a number of products and assessed different providers based on a number of criteria. So it’s a pretty rigorous process looking for people who have good quality products, not necessarily the cheapest, but we want reliable, good quality products. And then also the company’s ability to deliver those products, the feedback and their sort of working environment as well.”
~ Ruth Blackhirst, Geelong Sustainbility

→ Subscribe to The Sustainable Hour podcast via Apple Podcasts or Spotify

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We at The Sustainable Hour would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wadawurrung People. We pay our respects to their elders – past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

The traditional custodians lived in harmony with the land for millennia, nurturing it and thriving in often harsh conditions. Their connection to the land was deeply spiritual and sustainable. This land was invaded and stolen from them. It was never ceded. Today, it is increasingly clear that if we are to survive the climate emergency we face, we must learn from their land management practices and cultural wisdom.

True climate justice cannot be achieved until Australia’s First Nations people receive the justice they deserve. When we speak about the future, we must include respect for those yet to be born, the generations to come. As the old saying reminds us: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” It is deeply unfair that decisions to ignore the climate emergency are being made by those who won’t live to face the worst impacts, leaving future generations to bear the burden of their inaction.

“The Indigenous worldview has been marginalised for generations because it was seen as antiquated and unscientific and its ethics of respect for Mother Earth were in conflict with the industrial worldview. But now, in this time of climate change and massive loss of biodiversity, we understand that the Indigenous worldview is neither unscientific nor antiquated, but is, in fact, a source of wisdom that we urgently need.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, weallcanada.org

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

→ The Age – 15 September 2025:
Catastrophic forecast pushes case for Australia to spend big and cut hard on emissions
“Heat deaths will increase more than 400 per cent in Sydney and will nearly triple in Melbourne at 3 degrees of global warming.”

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Transcript of The Sustainable Hour no. 565

Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General:
“The sun is rising on a clean energy age.”

Jingle:
The Sustainable Hour. For a green, clean, sustainable Geelong: The Sustainable Hour.

Tony Gleeson:
Welcome to The Sustainable Hour. We’d like to acknowledge that we’re broadcasting from the land that the Wadawurrung people have nurtured for millennia before their land was stolen. Land that was never ceded, always was and always will be First Nations land. While nurturing that land and their communities before that was stolen by the first white colonisers. They accumulated a great depth of ancient wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge that we can use now as we face up to the climate emergency.

Mik Aidt:
This coming Sunday, it’s Sun Day. Yeah, I know that sounds a bit like ‘yes, and…?’, but Sun Day is an event – and it’s spelled in two words, not one.

It’s a day for celebrating solar power. It started in the U.S., Bill McKibben is behind it, 350.org and Third Act. And there’s now more than 300 events on the Sun Day website, things that are happening around America, in particular, and also here in Australia. And there is a lot to celebrate!

Last Monday afternoon, for instance, Australia broke yet another record with renewables. 76 per cent of the grid here in Australia was powered by renewables, with half of that energy coming from rooftop solar.

Malcolm Turnbull, our former prime minister who is now investing all his time and energy into renewables, talked about this in the Cleaning Up podcast recently:

Malcolm Turnbull on Cleaning Up podcast:
99 per cent of Australians either have solar panels on their roof or know somebody who does. And so to say to an Australian, that renewable energy is terrible and puts your costs up, they’re going to say, no, no, it doesn’t actually brings my bill down or my mate Fred never stops boring me witless about how much money he’s saving. This is what is so exciting. This is a complete revolution in energy. You we’re going from an environment where we had a relatively small number of big central thermal generators to now a situation where millions of people have got their own little power stations at home with their solar panels and their batteries. And not to speak of all of the commercial generation with wind farms and solar farms and so forth.

Bill McKibben on Democracy Now:
The numbers are staggering. May is the last month we have data for. In May, the Chinese were putting up three gigawatts of solar panels a day – a gigawatt being the rough equivalent of a coal-fired power plant. They were putting up one of those made out of solar panels every eight hours. California, which has done more than any place in this country, reached some kind of tipping point in the last 18 months. Most days now, California supplies more than 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy for long stretches. At night, the biggest source of supply on its grid is batteries that have been soaking up excess sunshine all afternoon.

Bottom line: California, fourth largest economy in the world, is using 40 per cent less natural gas to produce electricity than they were two years ago. That’s the kind of number, that may be the most optimistic thing that I’ve, number that I’ve heard in the 40 years I’ve been working on the climate crisis. It’s the kind of number that begins to shave tenths of a degree off how hot the world eventually gets. And remember, every tenth of a degree means a hundred million people moving from a safe climate zone to a dangerous one.

Mik:
That’s 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, who was speaking on the program Democracy Now in New York just a couple of days ago. And Bill McKibben is not only the organiser of this Sun Day on Sunday, he’s also out with a new book, which is called ‘Here Comes the Sun’.

Bill McKibben:
I think that this is not just a possibility for dealing with climate change. I think the fact that we have access now to energy that’s available to everyone everywhere, instead of being something concentrated in a few spots controlled by a few autocrats and plutocrats. Once you’ve built the solar panels, the sun delivers the energy for free every morning when it rises above the horizon. There’s no way to hoard it or hold it in reserve. The same charismatic object in our galaxy that brings us light and warmth and via photosynthesis our food is now willing to provide us with all the power we could ever want. That’s the kind of moment that changes civilisation as thoroughly as learning to harness the combustion of fossil fuel changed civilisation. That’s what we call the Industrial Revolution.

Mik:
We are in a “civilisation-changing moment” and that’s actually pretty exciting! Over to Colin Mockett OAM who I’m sure has been looking at other news from around the world. Colin, what do you have for us today?

COLIN MOCKETT’S GLOBAL OUTLOOK (05:42)
Yes, thank you Mik. And of course Bill McKinnon is no stranger to this program. I quote him frequently. He’s the environment writer for the New Yorker magazine and he’s way on top of everything.

But my roundup this week begins in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, which is currently hosting the second African climate summit, which will put together the continent’s proposals for the upcoming COP30 which opens in Brazil in two months. The African summit was led by a raft of heads of state from most African countries, all headed by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The delegates heard that Africa, with its population of 1.5 billion people, is projected to become home to one fifth of the world’s population by 2030 and yet the continent only contributes 3.7 per cent of global emissions. And despite this, Africa suffers disproportionately the effects of climate change. According to the UN World Meteorological Organization, extreme weather and climate change impacts every single aspect of socio-economic development in Africa, bringing hunger, insecurity and displacement. A defining platform to advance just energy transitions, strengthen climate resilient economics and shape Africa’s priorities are all in the lead up to the COP30 in Belize, Brazil.

Among those is an impetus to make Africa with its low costs and low emissions base a favorable destination for rich nations to invest in innovative climate change technology. That’s climate envoy Richard Mayangui, who is advisor to the president of Tanzania. He said at the conference, there’s been an increase in investments in some areas, but Africa still needs a lot of finance to be able to be part of the global solutions and to address the challenges we are facing.

Now to Indonesia where widespread flash flooding has affected tourist hotspot Bali. 19 people have died in these floods with five others still missing. That’s according to the official figures. Torrential rain since late last Tuesday triggered floods and landslides in seven districts across Bali with more than 500 people evacuated.

Schools, village halls and mosques have been converted into shelters as the island grapples with its worst flooding in 10 years. Officers are still carrying out emergency response efforts such as searching for victims and managing floods and landslides that have impacted the public, said the National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Abdul Mahari.

While weather cleared up on Thursday, Indonesia’s meteorological agency warned that rain could return this week. And it’s way out of season, as the annual monsoon season in Indonesia typically begins in November and runs until April. And this current flooding also highlighted the nation’s plastic waste problem, with rubbish washing up along the tourist hotspot beaches in Kuta, Samiyak, Legian and Jambaram. Officials say that the island’s rubbish clogged drainage system made the floods worse. The island has long struggled with waste management problems and poor building regulations, both of which were blamed for the flooding.

Now to a piece of news that I’m not really sure if it’s good or bad. It’s from Saudi Arabia where, to the surprise of everyone, the world’s biggest exporter of crude oil is installing masses of solar technology in order to dramatically reduce its consumption of fossil fuels, namely crude oil. This is an extraordinary reversal because since the start of the 21st century Saudi Arabia oil companies, or its consumption, has effectively doubled to 2.3 million barrels a day. That’s greater than the incremental demand from Africa or Latin America. It’s between a quarter and a third of the country’s consumption goes into oil-fired generation that provides electricity to ride out the nation’s summer heat waves. It virtually all goes into air conditioning.

Now the government wants to replace all of that with renewables with a target of 130 gigawatts by 2030. Now that’s roughly the equivalent of all of the solar power that’s currently in India. Such a switch would represent the single largest decline in oil demand over the next five years. That’s according to the International Energy Agency. Since the start of 2024, ACWA Power Company the country’s biggest electricity and water developer, started commercial operations at four solar facilities. Now they total about 4.9 gigawatts at almost five oil-fired units. Now roughly the same amount is due to start up by the end of next year. And last month it signed deals to build another 15 gigawatts to be delivered by the middle of 2028.

The broad plan is to hit 78 gigawatts by 2030, sufficient on its own to provide all the electricity that Saudi Arabia generated from oil last year. Now, thanks to abundant sunlight, Saudi’s solar plants deliver electricity at less than half the cost of its current oil grid. Arrays of panels also tend to be much more simple in engineering terms, than the petrol extraction, transport and refining complex that is built around the kingdom. And one justification that was given by the Saudi Arabian oil company president, Amin Nasser, was that removing oil from the domestic grid would mean that there would be more to export. He said if his country moved completely to solar power, it would boost exports as effectively as if they were to drill an extra well. Then he added that plans to eliminate oil entirely from the grid in Saudi Arabia by 2030 were well on track. It’s strange, I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but it’s news.

And finally, Forest Green Rovers Men’s Team, that’s the world’s most environmentally friendly sports team. They drew 1-1 with Gunthorpe at the weekend, leaving them second on the ladder. That’s one point behind Rochdale after nine matches. And Forest Green Rovers’ Women’s played this week too. They won 2-1 against Poole Ladies. And I like to quote when the Rovers’ Women’s captain was asked if the team were all vegans. She answered: ‘Of course, the whole club is. We decided to become a vegan club because of the huge environmental and animal welfare impact of livestock farming, as well as to improve players’ performance and to give fans healthier, tastier, match-day food.’

And that was a neat way of stating that nowhere in the Rovers New Lawn Stadium can you buy any meat products. And this tasty little morsel finishes our round up for the week.

. . .

Jingle:
Listen to our Sustainable Hour – for the future.

Tony:
The signature event each year for Geelong Sustainability is the Sustainable House Day. That’s coming up in the near future. And we’ve got one of the volunteers, Ruth Blackhirst, on today to tell us about what’s happening, what’s different this time, what’s similar. But it’s something that’s disappeared is look forward to each year with great anticipation. What will people learn this year, Ruth?

Ruth Blackhirst:
Thanks so much for having me, Tony. This year, I mean, the format is similar to previous years. This is our 17th year running Sustainable House Day. It’s obviously different every year because we showcase different houses and also different guest speakers. This year, we have three components. We have the main feature which would be the open house day. Now that’s occurring on Saturday the 11th of October and that is showcasing eight different houses across the Geelong and surrounding regions. So we’ve got some really unique and different offerings there this year.

On top of that we also have the seminar which we’re running on Saturday the 25th of October and this year we have two guest speakers. have Mandy Hall who is ex-master chef and formerly the campaign director of the Great Unwaste and also James McLennan from Farm My School. So he’s the CEO and co-founder of Farm My School.

And the theme for this year is sustainability in your home. So we wanted something that was applicable to everybody and really addressed what you can do in your house, whether it’s from a food wastage perspective, which is what Mandy will really speak to, or different regenerative and environmental practices. We’ve got those two guest speakers for the seminar.

And the third part for this year, which is unique, is we’ve actually, and I think I’m announcing this for the first time because it’s not actually live yet, but we have Saul Griffith coming to Geelong. So Saul is on his tour at the moment for his new book, ‘Plug In’, which is brought to us through Rewiring Australia. And he’s going to be joining us at the Geelong West Town Hall on Thursday the 16th of October discussing obviously his new book. The tour itself is called the Faster and Fairer Tour and information will be available on our website shortly through sustainable house day. So there are the three elements. Is there one in particular you’d like me to give you little bit more detail? Would you like to hear more about the houses that we showcasing this year?

Colin:
Yes please, Ruth!

Ruth: (17:47)
Yep. Great. So as I said it’s a similar format every year but obviously very different because the houses are all going to be different because we’re stepping into people of the public’s homes and different innovative builds that they’ve completed. This year we have a couple in Torquay, a recently completed certified passive house which is an architect’s own home.

And also have another house in Torquay, is an architect’s home, which blends recycled timber with the natural environment. they’re both very, they’re very different homes, those two. We also have a house in Jan Juc, which I think would be the first time we’ve showcased a hempcrete home.

Colin:
Now do you have any homes that are updated, older homes? Because that has been my experience, that’s what most people are interested in.

Ruth:
We certainly do. We have a renovated Californian bungalow which is in Belmont. So that’s more of a renovation. And we also have something which, we’ve got a garden this year as well. So quite a diverse line up. We’ve got a garden in Deans Marsh which is one of the volunteers from Garden for Wildlife. So that’s showcasing the different wildlife friendly gardening.

Colin:
Now I’m very much aware that we in Geelong have had huge building impetus over the course of the last 20 years with mansions coming up in new suburbs just about all the way around to our north and to our west and along the Bellarine Peninsula. Are any of those homes now showcasing the environmental benefits that have been added to them in terms of a retrofit. Because they certainly aren’t built environmentally.

Ruth:
Yeah, look, not specifically for this program this year. The retrofit home that we have is, well, it’s a Californian bungalow, sorry, it’s not one of the modern builds on the outskirts. The larger homes that we do have within the program are relatively new. We have one in Geelong West, which is a few years old, but I wouldn’t say it’s at the stage where it’s retrofitting, say, from a decade ago.

Colin:
Look, could I suggest that that might come up at the seminar?

Ruth: (20:33)
Yeah, absolutely.

Colin:
Because I think that’s the way that the future we need to go. We’ve got these huge great developments that really are wanting and needing to be modernised, which is ridiculous, bearing in mind that they’re all modern back mountains.

Ruth:
Yeah, and I think our presenting partner this year for sustainable house day is Winky Energy. And I know that through the electric homes program, they’ve actually undertaken a number of solar installations, not just on the older homes, but some of those more modern ones that you’re speaking of now. It’s certainly occurring from what I’ve seen through our Electric Homes Program, but we’re not specifically showcasing one this year.

Tony:
Where as you mentioned Hempcrete before, what is it about that place you emphasise that? What is it about that product that excites you, or makes it exciting?

Ruth:
Sure, that’s a really good question. And it’s something that I’m still learning. That’s probably one of my favourite things about this program and being involved is that there’s so many things that I’m not across and I have the opportunity to learn about. So I’m actually heading out to the property tomorrow. But some of the benefits, there’s zero landfill when you’re actually making the house, which is really obviously good for the planet.

Another benefit within our environment is that it’s a fireproof product. So the hemp itself won’t burn. It’s also rodent and termite proof, which is another thing which is beneficial within our environment. And then obviously you have the growth of the hemp itself. So it’s the negative carbon footprint of producing the building material. That’s just sort of to give you a broad overview but there’ll be a lot more information from the people involved in the process at that Jan Juck house in October.

Mik:
Ruth, I was thinking, maybe you should try just to give us the overall understanding of what the Sustainable House Day is aiming at. What is the purpose of creating that event? And also a little bit of a description. What is the Sustainable House Day? What does it look like on the day? Is it a festival? How would you describe the Sustainable House Day to someone who hasn’t never heard of it?

Ruth:
Sure, okay. So I guess really it’s about opening up people’s homes to the different things that are possible. There’s lots of different options and things that people haven’t necessarily thought of. One thing that I’ve realised through this programme is quite a few of the people who are presenting now have actually attended Sustainable House Day for a number of years. So they’ve been going year after year and taking parcels of information from different homes as they go while they’re creating their dream home. And that ties in to… sorry Colin did you have a question there?

Colin:
Yes, apologies Ruth, it’s not a question, it’s a statement. several years we opened up our house and I can tell you, Mik, that it was a lovely, lovely, fun day because all of the people who come, they’re really interested, they’re really focused on what you’re doing, they’re full of questions and they mostly want to bring in what you’re doing and incorporate it into their life. And you wind up with friends, I mean I’m still friends with people who came around, I think probably in the early years of this century, in the teens, 20 teens, to look at our house. Since then we’ve actually improved even better. We’ve got a completely all electric and carbon free home, but we don’t have the time or the facilities now to open up so we don’t even put our home forward anymore. But it is a lovely day and yes there is a sort of a festival atmosphere. We laid on an urn so you could have a cup of tea while you’re walking around and yes it was a really nice day. Sorry Ruth, I just wanted to answer Mik’s question from my behalf.

Ruth:
That’s so good. It’s great to hear from someone who’s actually had their home open in the past. It is like a little festival. We actually lay the house or schedule the houses so that you can go to as many as you choose. And a lot of people try to do most of them at four in the morning and four in the afternoon. And we’ve mapped it out logistically so that you can start your morning in one region and work your way around. When you get to the houses, we have volunteers from Geelong Sustainability, obviously, but then we also have experts on the day. So they vary depending on the house. They may be an owner builder, they could be a supplier of a specific product, or they may be one of our sponsors who have their installations within the property.

Winky Energy, for instance, have completed the solar for a number of the homes and will be present on the day. We also have Reclaim and Too Hot to Handle who do the hot water heat pumps, which feature at a number of our homes. And then Enviroflex who do insulation and draft proofing. So you have the ability to talk to not just the owners,

Sometimes the builders, other times the architects, and then the people who have their products installed in the house as well.

Colin:
There always used to be, too, information about the rebates that you can draw from governments. I’m assuming that that’s still the case, is that you’ve got the literature for people to pick up.

Ruth:
Yes, we do. So you can obtain that two ways essentially. It’s through our Electric Homes Program. So that program is running a number. We have a number of delivery partners who we’ve engaged who you can put an inquiry through to see what rebate is available for the specific products. So that could be solar, hot water heat pumps, electric vehicles, charging.

But we also, as I mentioned, have some of those delivery partners there on the day. So you could chat to them about the different rebates and they’d be able to tell you what rebate is available for a battery specific to your environment. Or I know that the hot water or the split systems varies depending on what you’re replacing. So they have all that knowledge and can help people with that as well.

Mik:
I think it’s so important what Geelong Sustainability has been able to do in our region to create a sense of trust among those that you have sort of certified, given the blue stamp or the green stamp as companies that Geelong Sustainability recommends. This has been something that held a lot of people back that you don’t really know where to start, who to go to and who you can trust in this field. So thank you for that. Maybe you could just also… I know that’s not your field, but just explain what is this program you’re talking about, the energy program?

Ruth:
Fortunately, I ran the Electric Homes program last year. So I can speak to it. It has changed slightly this year and I am working on Sustainable House Day. Electric Homes is in its fourth year running. Essentially what we do is we go out there and we do the hard work for you. as you said, it’s complex and quite difficult for people to know where to start have looked at a number of products and assessed different providers based on a number of criteria. So it’s a pretty rigorous process looking for people who have good quality products, not necessarily the cheapest, but we want reliable, good quality products. And then also the company’s ability to deliver those products, the feedback and their sort of working environment as well.

It’s a rigorous interview or tender process that Geelong Sustainability goes through for those different product offerings. And from that we obtain delivery partners for the program who then come on board. And how it works is it’s free to inquire. So you inquire through the Electric Homes website, electrichomes.com.au. You inquire as to whichever product you want so it could be solar or you might do solar, a home energy audit and installation and draft proofing and then each of those delivery partners contacts you with a no obligation discussion and quote if you wish to sort of proceed ahead forward.

Colin:
Ruth, I’m interested now in the Saul Griffiths event at the John Westown Hall. What time is it? Do you have to buy tickets? Is there a cost? Can you give us some more details on that? And look, I should point out to the listener that Saul Griffiths is an acknowledged world expert. He was the advisor to Joe Biden and brought in Joe Biden’s whole impetus that’s being quietly dismantled by President Trump at the moment, but he was behind the American impetus for the really booted the world ecological impetus forward by several notches about a decade ago.

Ruth:
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? We’re still shocked that we’re able to

Colin:
So what time is it on that day?

Ruth:
So it starts at 6pm. It is free. So I would anticipate that the tickets will get snapped up relatively quick. We’ve chosen the Geelong West Town Hall because it is a large venue and we can have quite a large capacity but having said that, from what you just mentioned and knowing how famous Saul is, I think will tickets will go quite quickly yeah so at six o’clock on Thursday the 16th of October.

Mik:
And Sustainable House Day is on the 11th of October?

Ruth:
Correct. Yes, the open homes are on the 11th and then a fortnight later we then have the seminar which is held at the Geelong regional library.

Mik:
Ruth, rounding off, we like to make a little song. We very often use the interviews that we do as inspiration for a little song.

. . .

SONG
‘Sustainable House Day’

Verse 1
Open the door, step inside
See the changes we’ve made with pride
Home of tomorrow, we built our dream
This is where our future lies

Pre-Chorus
Neighbours teaching, neighbours learn
Ideas planted, wisdom turns
Experienced experts, a guiding light
Together, we’re going to get this right

Chorus
Sustainable House Day, this is our day!
A day for showing, for showing the way
Sustainable House Day, it’s a win-win ride
Carbon free and electrified
…to celebrate life

Verse 2
Hemp walls strong and timber reclaimed
Bungalows breathing, no two the same
Power from sun, water saved
Inquisitive children, futures paved

Pre-Chorus
Questions flow and answers grow
Trust in the pathways people show
Sharing our stories, finding the way
Your journey could begin on this very day

Chorus
Sustainable House Day, this is our day!
A day for showing, for showing the way
Sustainable House Day, it’s a win-win ride
Carbon free and electrified
…to celebrate life

Bridge
It’s not just bricks, this is love we share
A greener Geelong, the warmth of care
Embrace new ideas, see what can be
A better life, for you and me

Final Chorus
Sustainable House Day, this is our day!
A day for showing, for showing the way
Sustainable House Day, it’s a win-win ride
Carbon free and unified
…unified as a community

Outro
Sustainable House Day: community
Sustainable House Day: Resilience
Together we’re stronger, come what may
Celebrate carbon freedom – on Sustainable House Day

. . .

Audio clips in the song:

Voice 1:
Come in, come in. And sign in over there.

Ruth:
Sustainable House Day will always be unique. One of our draw cards is the new and different ways, really clever design ideas, which seem so simple, yet they’re not common practice.

Malcolm Turnbull:
99 per cent of Australians either have solar panels on their roof or know somebody who does. This is a complete revolution in energy.

Ruth:
Be inquisitive, because that’s really part of the program: You’re inquisitive, you’re going out to these different houses looking for things that you can take away.

Voice 1:
Everything is so very different when we come together.

. . .

Ruth:
At Sustainable House Day, we’ll always be unique. We’re always going to have different houses and one of our draw cards is, and one of my favourite parts about the role is to go out and source those. So finding the new and different ways, and it doesn’t need to be expensive. There’s some really clever design ideas that one of our houses who’s an architect has come up with, which seem so simple, but yet they’re not common practice. Learning all of that, I guess, is the absolute draw card as to why I love being part of the project.

. . .

TEDtalk on Youtube by Jean Oelwang: ‘Partnering to save the Planet (again)‘: (36:20)
Now can you imagine if you could only get a health check every seven years or so, and then when you did, you had unbelievably alarming results, but no treatment plan. This is exactly what we are doing to the planet. And the planet’s health signals are deeply alarming right now. We’re seeing sea ice declining, we’re seeing water temperatures increase, we’re seeing atmosphere temperature increases, and the list goes on.

It’s almost right now as if the planet has been rushed into the emergency room with systems failure, and there’s a whole bunch of people in that emergency room who aren’t doctors putting band-aids all over the planet. And they’re not working together, they’re working in the dark, and they’re also not collaborating. This is the current operating scene that we need to rapidly change right now in the world.

But the good news is we have something that can be a spotlight on the planet’s health and also on a treatment plan. And that’s the planetary health check. So for the first time in the world, Johan Rockstrom and a group of scientists launched this planetary health check. And the planetary health report is not a good one. The planet’s giving us a high red alert right now. We are nearing a red high risk line that if we cross it, we will go into potential catastrophic and irreversible damage to this planet. But the really good news is that the science also tells us that we still have five years left to go. We still have an opportunity of five years to turn the ship around.

And Shia Bastida, an amazing climate activist and planetary guardian, said it so beautifully at the launch of this planetary health check. She said, I want today to be the day that I look back on in 50 years from now. And I know that this was the moment, this was the red alert that we needed as humanity to change course. And this planetary health check can help us do that because it does three amazing things. One, it helps us track the planet’s health. Second, it helps us understand how we can prioritise our actions. But third, it acts as this opportunity to connect dots so that we can radically collaborate. And this planetary health check is based on the planetary boundary science.

And this was years and decades of hard work from 28 extraordinary scientists led by Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, and Will Steffen. And what they created is this unique, holistic, integrated health check at the whole planet’s health. And also what they’re doing now is regularly updating this so that we can see the health ongoing with all kinds of data sources, with Earth observation data. They want to turn this into a dynamic control room for the planet. But what’s clear right now is we’ve already breached six of the nine boundaries.

So they’re out of that green operating space, safe operating space. And if we look in the blood work of the planet, what we can see for the first time is that two of those boundaries are headed in the right direction in a green safe operating space, but the other seven are all headed in the wrong direction towards a high risk zone. But this isn’t just about the planet’s health.

Because the planet’s health is our health. And if we look at the planet’s health right now, if we just take novel entities and how that impacts human health, if we just take this one boundary, this is made up of manmade materials that we’re putting into the world that are impacting all the boundaries. There’s over 70,000 manmade chemicals in the world, and less than a few of them are actually tested for human safety.

And if you just take microplastics, the University of New Mexico recently did a study where they found microplastics in 100 per cent of the brains, the testicles, and the placentas that they tested. But this also isn’t just about human health. We are impacting the health of all living things. And if you look at the biosphere integrity boundary, we are way overreached.

But it’s also not just about extinction of species. We’re also decimating ecosystems. And then we’re putting the resilience of the planet at risk. We’re losing carbon sinks. We are also increasing the the potential of pandemics. And we’re also putting risk into our water system and our food system. So we are basically killing the very, very systems that keep us alive. And as importantly, we’re killing wonder for future generations right now.

But the really good news is that there are tons of solutions that can bring us back into that safe green space. And that’s what the second benefit of this planetary health check is, is that it allows us to prioritise our actions. And if you take just one of the boundaries, again, the biogeochemical flows boundary, sometimes our solutions can actually impact all the boundaries.

Like for this boundary, one of the primary reasons we are way over-breached is because of our overuse of fertiliser. It’s almost like we are giving an overdose of nitrogen and fertiliser to this incredible planet. The EPA called fertiliser the single greatest challenge to water quality. Yet there are tons of solutions in this. There’s things like learning from Mother Nature and using smart agricultural practices to protect the precious soils.

There’s also new technology like nano smart fertiliser and the list goes on and we are seeing this with all the boundaries. So if you look at the climate change boundary, RMI predicts that by 2030, solar and wind for electricity generation would have tripled. So we have the solutions. What we need to do now is we need to figure out how we increase collective investment into these solutions, how we get the right global targets, the right global policies.

But we also need to start calling out the absurd. Like why on earth are we still paying $2.6 trillion every year into environmental harmful subsidies? It’s insane. But the last reason of why this planetary boundaries framework is so important is it allows us to have an organising framework. And I’ve had the good fortune to spend the last 20 years obsessed with how we become better collaboration architects, helping to build some 20 collaborations, but also studying great collective human achievements.

And so when I first saw this incredible framework of the planetary boundary science, it was almost like fireworks are going off my brain, because it was so clear to me that this is the organising framework that we need in order to speed and scale our work together at a rate that we cannot even begin to imagine yet. But this was also to me a story of activated hope. Because we would not be in that green zone if it wasn’t for a collective of human beings who acted and they saved all of our lives. Who in this room knows who discovered and then protected the ozone layer? Okay, a couple. In most rooms, very few people can answer that question, because it wasn’t a single superhero.

It was an amazing collective of people that came together. And it all started with these two extraordinary scientists, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina. And they discovered in 1974 that CFCs, which if you’re as old as me, you’ll know they were in hairspray, they were in deodorant, they were in refrigerators, were actually destroying the ozone layer.

And they felt so passionate about this looming disaster that they immediately published an article in Nature Magazine. And they thought the entire world would react. And instead the exact opposite happened. You had the $8 billion CFC industry attacking their character. You had their fellow peers and their students ostracising them. And this didn’t last just for a day or a week or a year. This lasted for an entire decade.

And I had the good fortune to meet Mario before he sadly passed in 2020. And I asked him, said, Mario, how on earth did you weather these attacks on your character and keep going? And he looked at me and he smiled and he said one word. He said friendship. He said, Sherry and I were so close that we were never gonna stop until the world listened. And they didn’t stop. And a decade later, three friends and scientists at the British Antarctic Survey, Joe, Brian, and Jonathan, proved that there was a hole above the South Pole in the ozone layer. This mobilised an extraordinary collective of people. So you had this fiery Egyptian diplomat, Mustafa Toba, who was the lead architect in the Montreal Protocol. You also had Stephen O. Anderson, who was a larger than life character from Logan, Utah, who helped get companies to phase out CFCs.

They worked together in partnership with a philosophy they called Start and Strengthen, get a small group of countries, get a small group of companies, and then build from there. And they also had an open tent. So they invited into that tent very unlikely environmentalists like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. And then incredible scientists like Susan Solomon convinced them of how important this was. And we would not have the Montreal Protocol. We would not be able to go out in the sunshine without those two. And this is one of the greatest success stories of our time.

NASA predicts that by 2065, the ozone layer will be largely healed. But it is also a huge story of success about when we came together as humanity across all kinds of divides and did something extraordinary. And that success was due to this small group of friends who had three things. They had deep connections with one another. They had an intoxicating purpose and vision and they had an unstoppable sense of urgency. And we’ve seen those three things in all the collectives that we’ve built and that we’ve studied.

We now have this planetary boundaries framework and the planetary health check as an organising framework to bring together business, not-for-profits, governments, citizens, to speed and scale at the need that this moment demands. But first, we have to have a relationship reset with each other and with nature. We need to move from one of transaction and extraction to one of true partnership mentality. And we need to really listen to nature and learn from her. And we need to really listen and learn from indigenous peoples who have lived in that safe operating space for generations and generations. But we also need to have a framing shift because this isn’t about sacrifice living within planetary boundaries.

This is about an exciting new pivot that will be towards a world that is way better than the one we currently live in. But we can’t do this alone. Which takes me just to finish with the story back from 2013. Because I had the very good fortune to support a group called the Elders. And they were in Johannesburg with Nelson Mandela. And they didn’t know it at the time. But it was going to be the very last time they were together with him before he sadly passed later that year.

And I remember watching this group of friends at this table, and there was laughter and love and joy and tears. And then at the end of the lunch, Mandela stood up at the table, and he was well into his 90s at that stage, and he still had more stature and grace than any human being I’ve ever met. And he left the table, and he turned to walk out the door. But before he got to the door, he turned back and he looked at this extraordinary group of friends. And his eyes and his smile just lit up the entire room. It was as if he was saying, you’ve got this, you’ve got this now. And then he gently turned and walked out the door.

So as I stand here in front of this incredible group of people, all I can think of is we’ve got this. We’ve got this now. So go out and find that incredible group of friends. Go out and find your intoxicating purpose. Make sure that you have that bonfire in your belly. But most importantly, never, ever, ever give up. Thank you.

. . .

Mik: (50:08)
That’s all we could fit in one Sustainable House Day Hour. Thank you very much, Ruth, for explaining everything for us and we look forward to the 11th of October and the other events that we’ve been talking about. Rounding off, we always have like a ‘Be-section’ of The Sustainable Hour where we say ‘Be’ …something. What would you say we should be?

Ruth:
Inquisitive, maybe. Yeah because that’s really part of the program you’re inquisitive you’re going out to these different houses looking for things that you can take away.

Ruth:
Yes thank you, Colin that’s good.

Colin:
I like that. Be involved!

Mik:
And also: be curious. Go out and explore the houses.

. . .

SONG
“Growing Houses Growing Hope”

[Verse 1]
We powered our way into trouble and heat,
Smoke in the sky, flames at our feet.
But now we’ve got tools, and we’ve opened the gate,
To flip the script and regenerate.

[Chorus]
We’re growing houses, growing hope,
With bamboo, hemp, and microscope.
From food scraps rise our veggie farms,
Right in the city, safe from harm.
We’re building dreams that clean the air,
With microbes spinning meals from care.
We’re farming nature, not just crops
Forests bloom where logging stops.

[Verse 2]
We used to cut, now we regrow,
Wetlands thrive where rivers flow.
Our rooftops shine with solar light,
Our buildings breathe, the future’s bright!

[Bridge]
We powered our way in,
Now we power our way out.
With science and spirit,
We’re turning it about.

From cornstarch walls to protein dust,
We’re feeding the planet with balance and trust.

[Final Chorus]
We’re growing houses, growing hope,
With bamboo, hemp, and microscope.
The planet’s healing, day by day,
Because we found a better way.
So sing it loud, and plant the seed,
A world of care is all we need
We’re cooling down, and rising up,
Together strong, and full of love.

[Outro]
Growing houses, growing hope
One green step, one shared road.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Events we have talked about in The Sustainable Hour

Events in Victoria

The following is a collation of Victorian climate change events, activities, seminars, exhibitions, meetings and protests. Most are free, many ask for RSVP (which lets the organising group know how many to expect), some ask for donations to cover expenses, and a few require registration and fees. This calendar is provided as a free service by volunteers of the Victorian Climate Action Network. Information is as accurate as possible, but changes may occur.

Petitions

→ List of running petitions where we encourage you to add your name

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Live-streaming on Wednesdays

The Sustainable Hour is streamed live on the Internet and broadcasted on FM airwaves in the Geelong region every Wednesday from 11am to 12pm (Melbourne time).

→ To listen to the program on your computer or phone, go to www.947thepulse.com where you then click on ‘Listen’ on the right.

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Podcast archive

Over 570 hours of sustainable podcasts.

Listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows as well as special Regenerative Hours and Climate Revolution episodes in full length.

→ Archive on climatesafety.info – with additional links
→ Archive on podcasts.apple.com – phone friendly archive

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