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One Purpose ... Coming Home ... to the Earth

“A human being is a part of a Whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

Albert Einstein

Only in the last moment of human history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. E. O. Wilson

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Tabs - Two Social Springboards

Two Social Springboards

1. The assymetrical, a-political power of local people power. A truly amazing force for social change and, so, for guidance to the wider community and society. A beacon community, a small group of local people can light the way for untold others. Indeed, its the only way that path has ever been illuminated. (after Margaret Mead)

2. The power, inspiration and nourishment of re-discovering a core aspect of our species being. We humans are hard wired to be social. For thousands of generations we have connected and collected together. Acting on this simple, basic truth, can return us to a sense of who we are. It is a sense of deep satisfaction in this mad, mad, modern world which has replaced a sense of purpose and meaning with competition and materialism. Stuff has replace soul.

NB: The Two Social Drivers are detailed in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, available for sale through the link below. And then, a wealth more detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are available on this website as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.
Three Areas of Daily Focus

This is an intensely complicated time in human history. There are so many modern issues … social, economic, personal, political, but at least the most important of all, the ecological sustainability challenge, is an easy one to tick off.Healing our mother, planet Earth is easy when guided by the Three Areas of Daily Focussed Effort … the 3ADFE … which are … water, waste and energy!

We each make a mountain of Earth Decisions every day, week, month, year. Choices which are directly connected to the magnificent forests, the frozen wilderness, deep oceans, species, habitat, the stratosphere, rivers, sand-dunes, the miraculous natural systems and cycles of the natural world and platypus. Every single strand of life on the Earth is connected to our switches, car keys, socks, undies, tram tickets, globes, rubbish bins, pink bats, taps, shops, the heater, gardens, blankets, etc, ad finitum. Basically, our whole lives, 24/7, fall under the umbrella of the Three A.D.F.E, our personal connectors to nature ...

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Four Stages of Learning & Action …

… of continuous personal & community growth

Mulch, Grow, Harvest, Sow ... or ... Learn, Do, Celebrate then Teach … in a constantly evolving cycle … just like the Earth teaches.

It is a template for "self-determination". A blank canvas for us to individually, or as a Village, decide what we’d like to learn, to do and how to celebrate the very fact that we’re actually on this Earth healing journey together. And celebrate our inevitable accomplishments. Celebrate that we are part of the solution, chipping away at sculpting a new future and creating the DNA of the "coming world".

And then, best of all, Sow!! Deciding on human scale and loving ways to reach out and teach, and learn from others. We are all learners and we are all teachers!! M.G.H.S. fosters a magnificent maelstrom of mentoring, modelling, influencing, inspiring … each other … and the whole world!

After all, as Margaret Mead said, never doubt that a small group of passionate people can change the world, indeed, it is the only way that change has ever been spawned in this World.

NB: The Four Stages are detailed in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, available for sale through the link below. And then, a prolific quantity of other detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are also available on this website, as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.
Tabs - Five Beacons or Blockers

Five Beacons … or Blockers. Our choice.

1. Preciousness of biological diversity.

2. The health of the soil, air and water.

3. Dispensing with waste, the incrdible "eco-flab" which is the pillar of our society and economy and the concept of wasfulness, the dig it up, use it dump it metality ... which is the steel reinforcing of that pillar.

4. Understanding our lazy and deadly "addiction" to fossil fuels, and working to kick the habit

5. Understanding that the population explosion is a matter of justice as much as it is about numbers and arithmetic. Basically, 20% of us in the minority world are consuming and damaging 80% of the Earth.

It’s all pretty huge now that we’ve decided we are going to help save the world. The whole “environment debate” can be very complicated, vested and sadly, adversarial. There are green issues, blue issues, brown issues, there are issues of justice and jobs, vivisection, and then there’s uranium, salinity and polychlorinatedbiphenyls to think about. Two snippets to assist are, firstly, in the words of an SSA Villager, legend and pioneer, Jason, who, at the Robinson Reserve meighbourhood house said ...

1. “Hey, I can’t fix the whole world, but I can sure work on my little bit of it.”

2. Not bad. And then, secondly, the SSA's attempt to contain the whole, huge, environment debate/ challenge/discussion to something more graspable, da dumm, The five Beacons, or Blockers ... and they are just that ... Beacons if we act on them or Blockers if we don’t.

NB: The Five Beacons are detailed in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, available for sale through the link below. And then, a surfeit of other detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are available on this website as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.
Six Starting Steps

1. Write a Folksy note

2.Pound the beat

3. Have a taster, tester gathering. Dip the toe.

4. Make a Banner

5. Go, go, go. The "offish" launch meeting.

6. Make your first Snappy - short for "snapshot" - a minimal word, best picture or two email, printout, facebook poke, visual tweet, letter to the editor, etc, etc, etc. The simple, SSA secret for fostering your "influence" and "modelling" to go viral.

NB: The Six Starting Steps are detailed in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, which is available for sale through the link below. And then, a gigantic quantity of other detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are also available on this website, as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.
Seven Ongoing Tools

1. Click the Shortcut to Sustainability Street link, below to find ... stories of other SSA Villages, a bevy or ideas, templates, activites for community building, running interesting and fun meetings … as well as the "not shouting ... smiling" approach to the whole environment debate thing.

2. The SSA Nuts and Bolts ... choose a course of learning and action, use the model agendae if you need to and set ap a calendar of events.

3. Create asimple, near wordless Snapshot (The famous Susty St. Snappy) of each gathering.

4. Check in with the Clouds, Rain, Rivers or Oceans tool.

5. Get right into the SSA CommUniversity system ... so emblematic of the Susty St. Approach.

6. Organise to have one of the SSA bonding, heartwarming and unforgettable milestone events!

7. Explore the eco•logical fingerPrint ... an absolute pillar of the Sustainability Street Approach! Note: finger not foot ... points to the future not focused on where we've been. Appraised and endorsed by Dr. David Suzuki.

NB: The Seven Ongoing Tools are detailed in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, available for sale through the link below. And then, an unbelievable, overflowing quantity of other detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are also available on this website, as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.
Eight Principles

1. Biological Diversity is the most precious of nature’s gifts to us, if we want it. 2. Spurn doom and gloom. Notwithstanding the critical importance of issues, spurn the doom and gloom! 3. Imagine the future to be clean, green, and sustainable. We are what we think! It is both a great salve and of great practical benefit to imagin a clean, green, prosperous future. 4. Avoid the ‘Holier than Thou’ soap box. And that’s an order! Only joshing. Really, who wants the finger of another waggling at them while being told what to do? We need to be positive with and supportive of each other, rather than all knowing about the best for others. 5. Enjoy purposeful informality, build relationships and savour new susty street, eco-focussed-friends. The pace of life is so mad! It’s a mad, mad, mad World. The SSA can teach us and provide opportunities for us to instead savour life and the like minded & life minded people in it. Remember be local, local, local, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy and take the time, time, time. 6. Celebrate the ever increasing number of good news stories; Celebrate the exponentially increasing stories of inspiration. They are critical fuel for the journey. There are great sustainability initiatives happening every day in the wider world, not to forget taking pride in our own local achievement. 7. Take baby steps and trust common sense. S’OK to start small and you don’t need a Phd. degree in environment to know what to do. You are the expert because you have common sense. Trust your common sense, we all basically know what pollution and waste looks like. Your gut feeling or instinct will 99.97251 times, be spot on. 8. See and revel in the Enviro-links. Could a major part of the problem be that we are disconnected from the natural world? Profoundly disconnected, despite the emerging research that tells us that experiencing or even thinking about the natural world improves wellbeing, health and performance. Boost this!! When your energy flags, think of and smile at the Burrymis Possum. One beneficiary or two?

NB: The Eight Principles don't really have that much extra in the new manual, The Shorthcut to Sustainability Street; DIY, available for sale through the link below. And then, while not much more is enunciated about The Eight, they speak for themselves really, there is an ocean of other detail, activities, ideas, templates, suggestions to complement the Shortcut are also available on this website, as a free add-on to the Shortcut to Sustainability Street.

Shortcut To Sustainability Street - DI"O"

When the writing of the Shortcut began, it was known as the "DIY" version of the Approach. This evolved to the more pertinent DIO ... O for ourselves ... plural, rather than just the Y, singular.

The Shortcut is the "guide beside, not the sage on stage!" This new SSA manual, V4.1, has evolved to the point of being "the best enabler it can be". It fosters in communities an enthusiasm to "fill our own blank canvas", in ways that are relevant to and driven by us. No two communities are the same and nobody can tell a community how to be a community! The Shortcut is presented along side "The long and winding Scenic Route, to Sustainability Street". A large volume of resource, support and reference material including case studies, stories, templates, conservation shortcuts, guidelines, the ecological•fingerprint and even an environmental course of study and action … for those who need that

Have a look at who helped make it possible ... ethical, interesting and leaders of the NEW economy. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou mecu!

Villages, Australia Wide

The Sustainability Street Approach (SSA) has fostered the emergence of many, many hundreds of local SSA Villages around Australia. More than that, since the Institute has promoted copyright free access to non-commercial, volunteer based individuals and groups, operating to benefit community and nature ... there are unknown other DIY Villages also out there, like Sustainability Street Murwillumbah in NSW, Winston Hills in Sydnet and others

Auckland Sustainability Street.

The Sustainability Street Institute

welcomes the City of Auckland …

to the SSA "community".

Resources and pre-prequisites for local practitioners & prospective Mentors … click the Read More ...

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Downloads

Download the SSA Prospectus - The Approach is available for free to volunteers and for modest cost to licensed partners.

Find Out about the EcologicalFINGERprint.pdf - appraised and endorsed by Dr. David Suzuki. NB: that's finger, not foot!! Where we are going not where we've been. Very positive and future focussed.

Evaluation & Media

Since 2002, more than 250 local Sustainabilty Street Villages have accomplished remarkable benchmarks in both environmental impact reduction and social connectedness. The second proving "bio-rocket fuel" to the first. Humans are hard-wired to smile, look after each other and the Earth upon which our physical and spiritual health depends. Visit and download form a selection of University Studies, participant stories, local Council reports, etc.

Vox Bandicoot

… "first in Australia, still unique in the world". Established in 1988 Vox has an abiding passion for education & community empowerment for change. Dedicated to ecological sustainability, through a judicious mix of learning, arts, aesthetics, science, humour, and common sense, in a magical mix designed to foster the maturation of culture. Seriously, what is it with a of culture which presides over the loss of extinction of entire species of life at the rate of two or three per hour? The Vox Bandicoot team created the Sustainability Street Approach as a blueprint for empowerment, a blank canvas for crafting the future. Visit voxbandicoot.com.au

Watch New Villages Grow

	Shire Of Muswellbrook: The first LGA in Australia to be based on v 4.1, The Shortcut to Sustainability Street; DIO … not DIY, the O being for Ourselves. Our group, community, street, family, neighbourhood, club, church ... etc. Using the basic "pump priming" tools supplied by the Institute, local sustainability officer Kylie, has now presented numerous *Info & Invite* sessions, complete with SSA engagement tools, localised to perfection. Muswellbrook's Sustainability Street roadshow has been taken out to the meeting places and human spaces throughout this end of the glorious Hunter Valley ... and the rest, as they say! So, as molly would say, do your selves a favour … watch this project grow! SEE MORE ...
	The City of Monash, the 43rd Municipal area to join the LGA Sustainability Street movement. Monash will evolve, completely guided using the new manual v 4.1, The Shortcut to Sustainability Street; DIO … (not DIY, the O being for Ourselves) Call James ... +61 3 9518-3561 See more pictures, detais and local relevant bits..
	The Shire of Mornington Peninsula ... great initiativesfrom Rye to Redhill. Call Nicci to get involved ...+61 3 5950-1259
	Bendigo Sustainability Group. Q. What did one Kitchen Table say to the other Kitchen Table. A. We can change the world ... in fact, it is the only way real change has ever begun.
	The City of Whitehorse, a pioneering, model SSA Council, is also home to the first DIY Village in Mitcham, Victoria. This on top of six years of Village building in Vermont South, Box Hill, Larch Ave, Blackburn Lakes and the list goes on. The Institute is also very Grateful for the advocacy role that this City has played in being always ready and willing to discuss their SSA experience with other municipalities. Call Miho ...+61 3 9262-6433. Read More.

One Purpose ... Coming Home ... to the Earth

Tabs - Two Social Springboards

Two Social Springboards

Three Areas of Daily Focus

Tabs - Five Beacons or Blockers

Five Beacons … or Blockers. Our choice.

1. “Hey, I can’t fix the whole world, but I can sure work on my little bit of it.”

2. Not bad. And then, secondly, the SSA's attempt to contain the whole, huge, environment debate/ challenge/discussion to something more graspable, da dumm, The five Beacons, or Blockers ... and they are just that ... Beacons if we act on them or Blockers if we don’t.

Six Starting Steps

Seven Ongoing Tools

Eight Principles

Downloads

Evaluation & Media

Vox Bandicoot

Watch New Villages Grow