Sustainable Gardening Australia
Represented by Sharron Pfueller, CEO and President
How does your organisation address climate change?
Sustainable Gardening Australia (SGA) is a volunteer-led not-for-profit registered charity on the Commonwealth government’s Register of Environmental Organisations. It aims to inspire and empower individuals, communities, and organisations to contribute to sustainability through gardens. Through its extensive website with over 400 articles, workshops and webinars, newsletters, and social media It provides scientifically-based information and education on protecting and enhancing biodiversity, conserving soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving water quality, and engaging in local, healthy food production.
What is your organisation doing to create a better future?
Our basic premise is that information and education about the benefits of addressing climate change and ecological sustainability are essential to engage people in positive action for our planet. In our educational activities, SGA continually describes ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester them by maximising tree and other plant growth. We do this by encouraging and informing people how to manage soil appropriately, how to reduce the energy inputs required in the use of synthetic pesticides, weedicides, and artificial fertilisers by using natural and organic methods of growing plants and food. We aim to reduce food miles by encouraging local food production and how to achieve that in home and community gardens and through sharing harvests in local communities. In order to avoid unnecessary energy use involved in the production of commercial goods, we describe how to maximise recycling. On our website and social media articles, we stress the health benefits of how gardens and urban forests ameliorate the effects of higher temperatures on cities, suburbs, and houses.
Since our inception 20 years ago, SGA has been dedicated to reducing human deleterious impacts on the planet. We are not articulating more clearly how all activities in gardens can contribute to addressing climate change. The reporting that we are able to do is related to informing our subscribers and other readers about our educational resources and the extent of readership of climate-related material that we publish and of attendance at webinars and workshops addressing methods of reducing climate impacts.