Today we received a letter from Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management (BMRG) CEO David Brown, indicating that our application for funding to cover printing costs and promotion of the SustainaBundy Directory and Guide has been approved. The letter states that our application "satisfied all assessment requirements and demonstrated significant on ground benefits." We're very pleased that BMRG believes in our project as much as we do - we think the directory and guide will go a long way towards connecting and solidifying sustainability efforts in our region.
With financial requirements for the guide now covered, funds from guide advertising and sales will give SustainaBundy a bit of savings for future projects. With a project list as ambitious as ours, this is a critical to ensure our own sustainability!
We're very excited to have formed this partnership with BMRG, and to be a part of their Natural Resouce Management Plan, "Country to Coast - a Healthy Sustainable Future!"
Following is the press release about the guide and funding.
On Tuesday, the Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management Inc. (BMRG) provided Bundaberg-based nonprofit relocalisation organisation SustainaBundy Inc with $4500 to cover printing and promotion costs for The 2008 SustainaBundy Directory and Guide: how to live a GREENER life in and around Bundaberg.
Andi Hazelwood heads up the guidebook project. She said, “it was really important to us to have the SustainaBundy Directory and Guide printed as environmentally responsibly as possible. If BMRG hadn't provided the funding we wouldn't have been able to do that.”
"It's being printed by Fishprint in Victoria, one of only two waterless printers in all of Australia certified as a "Good Environmental Choice," Mrs. Hazelwood said. "They use hundreds of litres less water and fewer toxic chemicals per print job and than conventional printers, and it'll be printed on 100% recycled, Australian made paper."
Articles in the SustainaBundy Directory and Guide will cover everything from how to use fewer toxic chemicals in the home to the benefits of buying local and buying second hand first. Directory listings and advertisers such as Coast Coffee, Biggenden Small Engines and Allsafe Energy Efficient Products will help promote the concept of relocalisation: reducing consumption and sourcing daily needs as locally as possible to reduce dependence on increasingly expensive fossil fuel supplies and to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The 100 page A5 guidebook is scheduled for release in mid March, following the council amalgamations.
Mrs. Hazelwood says funds raised from advertising and guidebook sales will go to continuing SustainaBundy projects and activities. "This will allow us to attend the Future Ready Sustainability Expo and Conference on the Sunshine Coast in April, to get practical information about projects we want to implement here in the Bundaberg region. We're looking at a renewable energy bulk buy initiative, community and school gardens, reskilling workshops, and of course more of our SustainaBundy Garage Sale Parties and SustainaBundy Movie Nights," said Mrs. Hazelwood.
