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AUT Professor Grant Schofield talks about urban design and health, especially physical activity, reducing sedentary behaviour.

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UK based building products and systems developer, Lime Technology are the market leaders in the development of lime and hemp based, low carbon building products. Touted to sequester 110 kg's of CO2 per cubic meter this is definitaly an appropriate technology for the current ecological and economic climate. The health benefits to people and planet are far too valuable to ignore.

Due to its amazing adaptability hemp can be grown without herbicides or pesticides close to the building markets thus reducing its footprint further.

Now that http://www.facebook.com/WaikatoHempProject are growing Industrial Hemp in the Waikato we may see some of this technology bless our shores in the near future.

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Visit by Prof Guy McPherson

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Dick Smith has been quite outspoken about his views on energy and population, so this event could be an opportunity to have some open honest discussion, on important topics. If you know people in the Queenstown area, please let them know about this.

An Afternoon with Dick Smith & Sam Johnson

hosted by Rod Oram

September 14th, 2012

Don’t miss out on an amazing afternoon hearing Dick Smith talk in Queenstown. Dick Smith is one of Australasia’s most progressive business leaders having founded Dick Smith Electronics, Australian Geographic Magazine, and Dick Smith Foods. Come along to hear him talk about what drives him as a leading entrepreneur and what he sees as the challenges and opportunities for the future.

He will be joined by Sam Johnson, an inspiring and action-orientated young New Zealander who is best known for initiating the Student Volunteer Army in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. One of their current projects is The Concert: A Concerted Effort where youth are asked to volunteer 4 hours of their time in return for a free ticket to the best concert the South Island has seen!

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Transition Towns and Atamai – Common Goal, Different Approach

The Transition Towns movement is about adapting existing communities to the impending challenges of climate change and energy descent, and the resulting economic and social disruption these challenges are already beginning to create in various parts of the world.   One of the challenges for the Transition Towns movement is whether changes to existing communities can o » Read more

For the last four months a team of volunteers has been working on a piece of free software called Loomio, which I think has huge potential to help grassroots groups increase their positive impact in the community.

Loomio is a free open-source web application that helps groups make better decisions together, and remarkably there is nothing else like it. The team is operating on a not-for-profit and open-source basis, and the aim over the coming two months is to get the software to the stage where it can be given away to non-profit groups, with support for how to use it.

If they can get a little bit of support, to put some food on the tables of the programmers, they'll be able to provide this free tool to groups like Transition Towns. They're now in the last few days of a PledgeMe* campaign, to raise enough money to allow two core volunteers to devote all of their time to this project for the next two months.

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