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The Sustainable Hour no. 512?| Transcript | Podcast notes

Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no. 512 are Monica Winson from Transition Streets Geelong and Annie Delaney and Mary-Faeth Chenery from WINC – Older Women In Co-Housing

Overview:

00:00 Anthony Gleeson: Acknowledgment of Country

02:11 Mik Aidt: Energy efficiency and insulation in Australian homes

03:40 Colin Mockett: China’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

10:34 Monica Winston – Transition Streets Geelong: Community initiatives for sustainability

33:41 Annie and Mary-Faeth – WINC: Creating affordable and sustainable housing for older women

57:03 Introduction to The Business Revolution podcast

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The 512th episode of The Sustainable Hour discusses various topics related to sustainability, including energy efficiency and community initiatives.?

Colin Mockett’s Global Outlook covers China’s progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewable energy. More details in the?transcript

Monica Winston from Transition Streets Geelong shares their plans for upcoming events focused on community building and networking. www.transitionstreetsgeelong.org

Two members of WINC, a group for older women in co-housing, discuss their project and the challenges of creating affordable and sustainable housing for a group of women. www.winccohousing.org.au

The Business Revolution podcast is introduced, highlighting the need for revolutionary action in the corporate world towards sustainability. www.businessrevolution.earth

“Most of us can’t get housing loans because we don’t work or we’re at the end of our working life. So – we can’t get loans to get mortgages. We’ve had to do it ourselves, basically find the land, which was challenging to find appropriate land that was within the city limit, close to a railway line and also funded ourselves. So that’s a really big challenge for any group thinking about doing this, which we obviously would encourage and want to share information with groups who are thinking starting up but it is one of the big hurdles because there’s not public land available for people to buy into and or government subsidies to buy land so but we have a really amazing piece of land five acres and on the edge of town in Castlemaine where we will be building our houses and doing a lot of revegetation of the the area in the coming years to make it beautiful.” ~ Annie Delaney, WINC Cohousing co-founder

ABOUT MONICA WINSTON

Monica Winston is a dynamic and passionate advocate for sustainability, self-improvement, and community building. She has a rich background spanning over 16 years in environmental activism and sustainable living

Monica is committed to personal growth and takes constructive feedback seriously, always striving to better herself. She believes in seeking support and understanding from friends and colleagues rather than directing frustration towards them, especially when grappling with climate-related concerns.

Currently, Monica is managing a grant to run six events on a tight budget, aimed at saving life on the planet. Her impressive track record includes:

– Founding and running Transition Streets Geelong for seven years, and co-founding Geelong Sustainability, where she played a pivotal role in its growth.

– Overseeing numerous projects such as urban eco-villages, permaculture training, and various community initiatives.

– Securing multiple council grants and supporting colleagues in obtaining significant state government funding for workshops and festivals.

– Running Sustainable House Day for four years, organising regenerative farm tours, and building extensive networks in Geelong.

– Actively participating in community consultations, rallies, and petitions, while providing local environmentally friendly colleagues with casual paid work.

In her personal life, Monica maintains a street library, two compost bins for community use, and has given a street library to tenants. She has installed solar air modules, insulated tenant houses, replaced gas cooktops with induction, installed water tanks, and initiated an edible farm with tenant collaboration.

She has initiated and supervised the building of two sustainable bungalows primarily from waste materials, including innovative features like a working compost toilet, and she has conducted structural work, insulation, and creating an edible garden to retrofit her 1960s home, and also purchased a second-hand electric vehicle.

Monica’s story is a testament to her unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability and community resilience.

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ABOUT ANNIE DELANEY & MARY-FAETH CHENERY

Annie Delaney is a retired academic, she is a long term activist on workers’ rights in the garment industry and the environment and is currently working on a cli-fi novel. She joined WINC to be part of a women led co housing project. She found the land in Castlemaine that WINC is now planning to build the 31 house community with shared common house and other facilities. She is part of the WINC management committee and active in a number of working groups.?

Mary-Faeth Chenery is currently president of WINC – Older Women in Cohousing Inc, a group of around 40 women from 50 years old to almost 80 who are working to create a sustainable, accessible and affordable community of 31 small homes plus common facilities to be built in Castlemaine. Together with Anneke Deutsch, her next door neighbour and co-founder, they are guiding the group through a participative design and community building process to make WINC happen. WINC is striving for a sustainable, energy-sensitive, landcaring community on a hillside near the centre of Castlemaine. The community’s 31 homes will be small – ranging from 50m2 one-bedroom units to 80m2 two-bedroom units and built to passive house standard.

WINC focus on a community that includes women of all income levels, so five homes will be for women eligible for social housing; five homes for women who have too many assets for social housing and too few to purchase outright (their purchase will happen via shared equity from our ‘Middle Women Housing Fund’ – philanthropic donations); and 21 homes for women who can afford to purchase them fully or are eligible for a mortgage to help fund them.

The community will have lots of landcare work, as the land has a small creek running through it, but also major weed infestation there. To regenerate the landscape and creek to a healthy native plant and animal-nurturing condition is a key aim, as is developing permaculture inspired gardens. ?

WINC also hopes to add to sustainability through encouraging other cohousing communities to develop, and freely shares all its documents and processes with others.

WINC has a Facebook page on www.facebook.com/winccohousing

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CLIPS and SONGS:??Details of these can be found in the transcript for today’s show.

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And so ends episode 512 of The Sustainable Hour. How good was to hear three women telling their stories? Stories of women who know that a better world is possible and are determined to work through barriers placed in their way to be a part of achieving just that in their own way.

Try to imagine the difficulties they have faced in achieving their dreams. Yet with determination they have continually challenged these barriers and refused to be defeated by them. In the process they have created models for others to follow. The skills they achieved in this work continues to inspire both themselves and others and makes it easier for people who come after them. In the same way they are standing on the shoulders of women who have come before them.?

We feel so fortunate to chat to these “ordinary” people who are achieving extra-ordinary things in following their dreams each and every week. Continually being inspired by them, their compassion, their determination, their humanity and their refusal to go away. Never have these qualities been so badly needed.

We will be back with more of the same next week. Until then BE INSPIRED and keep looking for your niche in the solutions. When you find it, please come on our show and inspire others with your story.

“If working apart we are a force powerful enough to destabilise our planet, surely working together we are powerful enough to save it.” ~ Sir David Attenborough, addressing world leaders at the UN COP26 climate summit in 2021

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