Sustainable September Day Twenty Six Kindness

Hello my lovelies,

Can you believe there is only a few days left until the end of the month? This month has flown by... That's for sure! 

So today's kindness was to check out Solar Panels! :) and buy them if you can! Or if you rent like me... you can find other forms of solar power like phone chargers and camping solar panels to help you rely less on Fossil Fuel based power.

Let me show you this awesome place in Denmark, WA! It is the Shires council offices and it's amazingly covered in solar panels!!!!!

That's right all those black things on the roof are solar panels!!!! How awesome is that? 

AWESOME!!!!! :D

I've seen lots of businesses, councils and residences with solar panels and it reminds me we are blessed with some amazing Sunshine here in Australia! (Even if the above photo is taken in the rain!). 

So tomorrow's kindness is ...

Friday – 26 September – Do some research into where your money goes. Do you have super? Do you have an investment portfolio? Does that money go into the production or acquisition of fossil fuels? Is that something you are comfortable with? If not consider looking at Green energy alternatives for investments or companies who deal solely in ethical and sustainable investments like www.ethicalinvestment.com.au or see if your own fund has a “Fossil Fuel investment alternative” or “ethical" or "Green investment option”. 

NOTE: This is not financial advice! This is just something to consider when you are looking at where your money goes, and how that money is helping or hindering the earth. 

I love the video for them though... it explains a bit out the investment company!

Let me know if you already have "ethical" or eco investments! 

Hope this finds you all well! 

Luv Daena x

Sustainable September Day Twenty Five kindness idea

Hello!

How are you? Are you enjoying Sustainable September? I am! :D

So today's kindness was to use your old paper shreddings in either your garden or give them to someone to use for their pets and animals! 

My shreddings make it to my sisters house for her hens to use in their laying boxes...

 

 

The shreddings make nice nesting for the hens. Then I also get to share in the awesome delicious home grown eggs ;) I'm not silly at all! lol

 The Sustainable September Kindness Idea is

Thursday – 25 September – Look into Solar Power. 

If you don't already have it on your house/workplace, research and plan to get solar panels on your roof. SolarGain is a company that works in Australia (this is the link for Perth residents). 

To be honest I don't know too much about solar panels for housing, as I can't use is on my own house. But I imagine each solar company has specialties and price differences. I have shared this link before, to the Synergy website for Solar power, if you want to check it out too, for another perspective.

If you live, like I do, in rented accommodation look at other forms of solar power. I have recently discovered Solar Power phone chargers! You could leave the chargers in your car or on a sunny window and come back & charge your phone from them later. They are very reasonably priced.  This is a link to an iPhone Solar powered Charger and I also found a Solar charger/torch/usb/radio/basically everything which would be awesome in emergency situations. 

There are also Solar Panels that come in portable sizes (Briefcase size & slightly bigger), that are marketed for camping. I have seen some on different camping sites I have visited. They power caravans and other things like camping fridges during the night and day. You can check out this one (of many), link to portable solar panels. 

NOTE: These are not the only websites or products available on the markets but its an idea of what is available. And I do not benefit from sharing these sites over others... they just happen to be the ones I have come across in my travels and have been looking at for my own personal use! :) Hope that makes sense. 

If you get any of the above, let me know what you think. If you have a great brand of solar panel, I would love you to share. I'm still a "newby" when it comes to this whole thing, and any advice would be appreciated.

Much Love to you all, 

luv Daena x

Sustainable September Day Twenty Two Kindness Idea

Hello my lovelies,

I'm trying to get a little more organised... here is a post just after 2pm! YAY! :) heheheh...

So yesterday was to check out the different power sites to find ways to reduce your use of power and then your use of fossil fuels.

"Turn off standby power and save up $150 a year" is one of my favourite ideas from the Western Power website. I do this every evening before I go to bed. I turn off all the power to the TV, CD player, DVD player, Kettle, lamps, Computer, printer etc. I keep the switches off when not using them. Saves us lots of money and power too.

"Vacuum the dust from the fridge condenser coil at the back of the fridge to help keep your refrigerator running at optimal efficiency," is my favourite idea from the Synergy website. I love that this is an idea I haven't heard before. So cool.


Tomorrows Sustainable September Kindness idea is:

Monday – 22 September – Buy in bulk. Buying in bulk not only saves you money in the long run but reduces the mounts of packaging that goes into landfill.

I usually buy Rice in 5kg Cotton Rice Bags, that I then decant into a Tupperware container for storage. I then use the old rice bags for laundry bags particularly for your “delicates”.

My sister and some of her friends have organised a small co-operative for buying in bulk. They get things like eco/recycled toilet paper (“Who Gives a Crap” – that's the name of the toilet paper), organic nuts, Coconut oil, organic fruit, organic cacao powder and organic cacao butter... and they are just the things my sister has told me about. They have it all arranged to work best for everyone. I like that this is a small community. They have found that buying organic products in bulk is so much cheaper than buying them individually... dramatically reducing the overall cost. 

Who Gives a Crap is a toilet paper company that is both environmentally friendly and world friendly. "50% of our profits [go] to WaterAid to build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world".

Shops like FAL or Cash and Carry usually sell in bulk to supermarkets and retailers, so if you can get your own card to go there, then you can buy in bulk for personal use or organise to share it (dividing both product and cost) among your friends and family. You can also do this directly from wholesalers.

There are so many ways to buy in bulk, with a co-op or individually.

Hope you all go well. 

Luv Daena x

Sustainable September Day Twenty-One Kindness

Hey hey,

Another late post today! But a post none the less! I had a better day today than I did yesterday! I am  still a bit exhausted but I've achieved so much.

Yesterday I got printed 1000 photos (yes that was one thousand) of my round the world trip from last year! Today I've been putting them together in scrapbook albums! Or maybe the better line should be... I've started! Lol! And I've got half an album completed which is pretty awesome! :) only about 10 albums to go! lol. I really do love photos and Scrapbooking, so it's not too bad for me! :) 

So today's kindness idea was to plant vegetables (&/or herbs) in your garden!

Here are some photos of my garden:

In the garden bed I am growing Lettuce, Spinach, Rainbow Chard, Potatoes, Spring Onions & just recently I started growing Beetroot.

Tomato, Basil and Lemon tree.

(Back row from Left to Right) Onions, Blueberries, Olives, Capsicums, Beans
(Front Row) Parsley, 4 Figs (my first try to grow from cuttings), and a white mulberry.

This does not include my front garden, which includes Yellow Passionfruit, Mint, Thyme, and a dwarf peach. I've been sharing all the abundance in my garden with my neighbours. They love it and they now also share their excesses with other neighbours and myself. This season was awesome because it was the first real big crop of Avocados one of our neighbours has been growing for ten years! :) and they were delicious! :)

I have to keep most of my plants in pots because I'm renting but it just shows what you can do! :) 

I hope your expeditions in the garden went well today! :)

For todays Sustainable September Kindness idea it is simply to:

Sunday – 21 September – Look at the Western Power/Synergy websites for ways to minimise your power usage. 

NOTE: for those that don't know Western Power and Synergy are the power companies that run out of Perth, Western Australia. You could check with your local power company for ideas to minimise your power usage.  

If you hove wind or solar power already on your home, then you are already doing well to minimise your fossil fuel usage. :)

Western Power has some awesome ideas of how to save money and save power... after all Saving power is a good idea because "It reduces greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change. While renewable sources of energy, like the wind, play an increasing role in our system, the vast majority of our electricity is still generated from fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal. Therefore reducing our electricity use reduces the flow of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere." Read More.

For more info  on power saving tips check out this link.

Synergy has also got some awesome tips on how to reduce your energy consumption, for ideas click here.  They also have a whole lot of information for those who are considering switching to Solar Power, for that click here. These are both for residential use... but im sure they have commercial links too. 

If you can reduce your power consumption and reliance on fossil fuels you are giving the earth one of the greatest kindnesses. 

Hope you are all well and doing the best you can with the Sustainable September. 

Luv Daena x