Emelie and I have, so far, refused to monetise any of our content or accept placement of ads. Unfortunately that doesn’t stop the hosts from adding them… rather frustrating. But there are other ways of making a business from ethical or sustainable living and over the past few weeks we have caught up with some people doing just that.
Austep Energy – Profits for Purpose
Asher and partner Adele have chosen to remain child free. This is perhaps more controversial for some of our audience than their other ethical choices: Strict veganism, in Adele’s case, and freeganism for Asher. They are carbon positive in their home and are growing a food forest. But of most interest to me, was Asher’s success at running an electrical contracting and energy efficiency business as a social enterprise. This means taking on contracts based on shared values and sharing half of the business’s profits with the world’s poorest people through effective giving.
Last month we joined Asher and Adele for a tour of their garden, an urban foraging expedition and dinner at their home in Brisbane. For more information take a look at their website Austep Energy.
Live More with Less – Likeness in Name and Values
Courage, creativity and community. Three themes that come up time and again when talking to people about living a life of meaning. While we were brainstorming names for our project we encountered several others with similar ideas and reached out. Alison and Will have made a business out of their suburban permaculture plot in Palmwoods, Queensland. A desire to let go of the ever increasing work-and-spend cycle and connect with community has opened one door after another. Alison shares how it took a personal crisis to give her the courage to take the leap.
Community Engagement
This month we participated on a panel for the New Economy Network Australia‘s Post Growth Futures week. I shared a “day in the life” that I had previously made some notes on. The other panel member was Ted Trainer, an Australian academic and long term proponent of degrowth. His core message is that we must rapidly and drastically reduce our material and energy consumption to avert a catastrophic collapse in wellbing. More info and practical inspiration can be found at Ted’s website The Simpler Way.
Emelie and I also undertook the first step of training with People for Nature on the Climate Fresk workshop. This rather will designed process is aimed at bringing the reality of climate change to everyone, in an accessible way. It is intended to leave the participants feeling aware, inspired and with small number of immediately actionable outcomes. So far, it has reached about 2 million participants worldwide. When we have completed our training we will start running workshops in our community too. If you are interested in participating in something like this you can see upcoming opportunities here (Australia) or here (rest of world).