YES!

Come to the non-profit “world cafe” event held at the well-loved local, Cafe Lounge in Surry Hills, on August 2nd.

This is a unique opportunity to gather with new friends over dinner and a glass of wine at a special group-facilitated event. You’ll be guided in small, spontaneous group settings to explore questions like:

• Sydney’s small bar revolution & the role they can play in building communities
• Improvements to public transport & local safety
• Launching local markets and organic trade

Thanks to Helene & Christian for these picture capturing the conversations from Adam Kahane's talk on the 26th of March

Adam Kahane is a best-selling Canadian author and leading international social change facilitator, who for the last twenty years worked around the world on many tough and vital challenges: food security, health care, economic development, judicial reform, peace making, and climate change.

Adam will be looking at the ways in which his theory and practice of social change integrates economic, social and cultural, and environmental sustainability.

Adam is a partner in Reos Partners, an international organisation dedicated to supporting and building capacity for innovative collective action in complex social systems. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Adam is a leading organizer, designer and facilitator of processes through which business, government, and civil society leaders can work together to address their toughest challenges. He has worked in more than fifty countries, in every part of the world, with executives and politicians, generals and guerillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and United Nations officials, clergy and artists.

Adam is the author of "Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities" (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004). Nelson Mandela said: “This breakthrough book addresses the central challenge of our time: finding a way to work together to solve the problems we have created.” and "Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change".

 

Two of the toughest challenges facing us are climate change and peak oil. While Climate Change is very visible in the media, there is a lot less awareness around the issue of Peak Oil. And yet, the imminent decline of fossil fuel availability may seriously impact the economic and social stability needed to mitigate the threats posed by climate change.

A Transition Initiative is a community working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:
"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

The Transition Initiative may be one of the most promising ways of engaging people and communities to build resilience in the face of these two monumental challenges. Come hear a short overview of why the Transition Movement has inspired hundreds of communities across the world to take local, positive and meaningful action.

Sarah Hatcher will lead us through a discussion about Transition Towns at the Difference, 4/120 Sussex St, Sydney on the 11th of March at 6.30pm

Our wish is that similar presentations will then happen in participating cafes through trained facilitators to create conversations that matter...

I have just finished a three day intensive weekend workshop whose purpose was to Create A Viable Australia. This was an extraordinary gathering of diverse folks, with a breathtaking ambition. I was constantly challenged to focus on making possible the kind of system and personal changes that it would take.

A young woman, on the last day, suggested that one of the most powerful change tools would be to create the kinds of questions that could invite others into this endeavour.

Here is my first go:

"What is the next step we could take to nourish this world for our great great grandchildren and for all creatures yet to be born?"

Other questions?

Cheers

Ian

“What would a world-leading sustainable city look like?" Below are elements of the vision regarding the city and transport that emerged during the last MOAC (Mother of all cafes) event:

Reliable public transport

• Public transport... we should not be seeing cars in the city
• We need to say enough is enough and get the public transport that is needed
• Public transport will encourage SPRAWL. There are not the discussions that will help us understand the bigger picture
• Transports - public, bikes, education about safe transport and bikes
• Carless CBD - Car as guests
• Run cars on vegetable oil; Sydney's Cafe Lounge has one customer who comes in regularly to pick up vegetable oil from the cafe and use it to run his car
• Live - Work integration .. walk to work
• Public transport that does not detract from the person's daily experience. The City Rail billboards say that "a lot goes into making a forgettable journey" but they're generally not forgettable. They're traumatic. Especially when linking different types of transport together.
• Public transport - integrated , effective, green, accessible, FREE.

What do you think? How do we go about making it happen?

“What would a world-leading sustainable city look like?" Below are elements of the vision regarding the city, food and waste that emerged during the last MOAC (Mother of all cafes) event:

Greening the cityscape

• Literal greening of everything - buildings have roof top gardens, cars are subterranean
• More trees on every street because a leafy street makes a real difference to the energy of the street
• Green - more plants, parks
• More lush green spaces (i.e. big trees as opposed to manicured gardens),
• Green, beautiful and peaceful
• Green mindset (green inside and out)

Food

• The biggest footprint is food... what about: vertical farms; there is empty space and plenty of sunlight; community gardens; build the community/people together for the community food making;
• Food... how do we make it less impactful eg have the drink AT the place, not takeaway... be part of the community when you eat... rather than leave the community.
• Really getting back to nature with community gardens.
• Green means growing veggie and fruits
• Localization of products (food, energy, etc)
• Square; edible landscapes!!! Overcomes issues of resilience AND involvement, beauty and cuisine.
• Cafe florist with a garden out back. Add a bee hive.

Energy, water and waste

• The government would make renewable energies such as wind and solar power more accessible
• Water harvesting by residents and commercial premises such as corporate buildings and hospitality ventures
• Closed loop systems (zero waste)

What do you think? How do we go about making it happen?

During the last MOAC (Mother of all cafes) event, great ideas and visions regarding Cafés and the way we could minimise waste, recycle, compost and use energy emerged :

Minimise waste and recycle

• Reduce waste. Tell people about it.
• Be transparent about waste, water and energy reduction against targets i.e. be visible in order to educate customers and seek help where needed
• Setting up informal arrangements to manage waste e.g. coffee grinds to local gardeners or recycling packaging to local schools to use for drawing paper.
• Recycling of waste
• Gray water systems
• I need to get the most out of a few square metres... there is no room for sorting, extra bins... I need the garbage to be sorted elsewhere to help me being sustainable. I want to run a transfer station!.
• Advanced technology that turn off appliances but they get hot fast to serve customers in a rush

Composting

• Compost organics, especially coffee grounds
• Recycling coffee beans/waste. Maybe a co-op or something connected/coordinated, because it's so heavy and expensive to organise transport and removal of an individual's cafe's coffee dregs (beans/waste). For eg. one cafe has a compost and maybe they could compost other cafe's waste.
• Thinking about ways waste can be reused - deep fryer oil to fuel cars, food scraps to make compost
• Use husks and grounds back to farms; put back into farms; use those trucks leaving the markets to take waste back to the farms
• Coordinating compost at a community level i.e. donate grounds to community gardens and they give something for that etc. etc. The closed loop system. Or even "green points" to be redeemed! Compost garbage man.
• Sell organic compost to the customers ...

Overcoming disposable cups waste

• The number of paper cups the cafes go through would be reduced with initiatives that allow people to use their own cups
• Where are the reusable cups that fit. (There is now one made here in NSW). (But why are people drinking coffee on the run… this is my business but stupid!)
• Bring your own cup, or not using takeaway cups
• Customers bring their own cups. Incentives for not using disposable cups.
• A new model for take away; compostable cups, reusable cups; financial incentives to bring your own containers
• Compostable take away cups

Starting by using recycled products to build the cafe

• To lead by example: recycling, be careful how cafes are built, use recyclable products
• Using pre-loved objects, recycled furniture, recycled materials.

Energy

• Self producing cafes i.e. what could we produce ourselves, could we produce our own energy, could we recycle our own waste? What can we do onsite that contributes to sustainability and recycling - real innovation though.
• Solar panels on the roof, obvious external sign of sustainability consciousness

What do you think? How do we go about making it happen?

Below are elements of the vision regarding the city, people and communities that emerged during the last MOAC (Mother of all cafes) event:

A living city for people

• Mobile city with people occupying streets and using public transport
• Bringing the life out in the streets
• More tables in the street hosted by cafes and bars; council needs to make easier to facilitate this
• Happier city - because people feel better, less pollution, a healthier body is a happier person.
• 24 hour – life
• Sustainability has to be planned - smaller buildings and less people - to be achieved i.e. review of housing density.
• Places to stop and talk on the streets

Communities

• Socially sustainable communities. Diversity. Equal chance, no disadvantage
• Self-organising hubs for more local events to occur
• Provision of opportunity for work, businesses, education, transport, living choices for all types of people
• Through behaviours which stem from positive attitudes more focused and adaptable resulting in more harmonious lifestyles. Can be achieved through greening the workforce, encouraging entrepreneurial behaviour i.e. grass roots up.
• Housing - design, co-housing, more externalise life (go to the movies together vs buy your own home cinema ...)
• Have to have faith and values
• Connected communities; community gardens in Green
• Whiteboard/blackboard with quote or question of the week to provoke thought.

What do you think? How do we go about making it happen?

“What would your café look like (whether owner or patron)?" Below are elements of your vision regarding cafes and their role in the community that emerged during the last MOAC (Mother of all cafes) event:

Invite dialogue, be a hub, a container for conversations.

• Be a germinator for ideas to sprout
• Create a sense of belonging and local community feel
• Cosy cafe with a nice smell of coffee, happy people connecting, information about what the cafe does and what people can do, nice music
• Prioritizing non-takeaway - encouraging customers to sit and connect. .
• Acting as a hub for conversations using the World Cafe model
• More live music, local community life in cafes
• Coffee is like a religion in Australia... a dead area will be enlivened by a cafe... Yeah!
• Word of mouth, because cafe owners know everyone's name among their clientele; their dog's names; their children's names. This is an influential positioning.

Providing community services

• Connect people with local production and identify Ride shares, local news sharing, local message boards, own facebook communities accessible in the cafes.
• Create local exchange of goods and services
• Wifi, ways of local communities to share local projects
• Getting support from local council to provide bike racks & trees outside the cafe
• Bike rings out the front. Can safely store personal items.
• There are barriers (hoops) to expand my seating onto the footpath to help us create the community. I loved seeing strangers becoming friends in "my place".

Opening hours

• 9-5 Ha!!!! There is NO where to go after 5. How can I inspire and educate when they are closed. If you want cafes to be part of social culture, cultural nightlife, they have to be open.
• Open and alive till late ... use the space and keep community active till late.
• How can I sustain after hours?? If you come with you and your 20 people after 5, then I will be open!
• We want City of Sydney to focus on certain areas (villages) which are open after 5. Then we will have the critical mass to be open (like they do for certain areas for late night clubs).

Seeding conversations

• Fair Trade Cafe in Glebe Point Road runs a weekly philosophy night. This kind of conversation should be nurtured on a weekly basis in the cafe space.
• Cafes in sydney CBD are host to thought leaders, i.e. political leaders, policy makers, lawyers, financial leaders... so how can we connect these minds and elite leaders to the ideas of a Sustainable Sydney... AND get their ideas as a way of understanding the 'cafe dialogues' i.e. what they really think so we can have conversations at an intimate level
• Engage high-profile cafe patrons - such as celebrities or heads of businesses - to support social change through social media campaigns that call for sustainable practises and the success of social justice causes
• Cafe owners would start hosting special talks and events about sustainability or community-oriented themes. This brings business into the cafe - from new and interesting demographics and suburbs across Sydney - plus people will have the physical environments and infrastructure that will support sustainable thinking and action.
• Daily or weekly meetings (eg: grandmothers on Monday night, knitting on Tuesdays, talk on climate change on Wednesday... get a good mix of people and groups)
• An information night with a guest speaker or film.
• Host conversations like these
• Encourage groups to meet at the cafe on a regular basis;
• Invite producers for discussion - how do they create their products? A social network for producers.

Environments conductive to conversation

• Physically, the cafe seating would be close, "comfy", intimate, sofa-style and communal so that cafe patrons could engage and talk with each other
• The aural environment would be conducive to conversation - music that is at a medium volume, not at a volume that kills conversation

What do you think? How do we go about making it happen?

It has taken some time to write to you following our MOAC (mother of all cafes) as we needed to spend a bit of time to better understand the implications of what we have let loose and to do some preliminary planning for the next steps.
In our deliberations so far, we have come to the conclusion that the roles of Sustainable Grounds include:
· Being a connector to people and organisations who share similar values
· Being a portal into a wide range of products and services to our community network of café owners and their patrons
· Facilitators of events like the MOAC, amongst others
· Providers of education in certain aspects of sustainability, as well as the social processes that help them reach a wider audience