Yesterday was Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Danielle from our Melbourne office was at Off The Grid festival in Melbourne. In the words of Finding Infinity – the group behind the festival – Off the Grid is a celebration of self sufficiency and creativity, dedicated to speeding up the transformation of cities through empowerment.
Off The Grid is a no-waste festival, powered entirely through solar energy. The schedule for the first half of the day was the Palimpsest (taken from Off The Grid: A ‘palimpsest’ is an ancient document that is rewritten and rewritten, over and over again, constantly evolving – much like cities.) A collection of speakers from multiple disciplines presenting ideas and encouraging conversation on creativity and the transition to renewable energy. The second half of the day was a raging party, under the sun and solar panels.
Highlights from Off the Grid
Highlights from our resident Greens member/environmentalist and climate activist Danielle included:
- A spectacularly presented, engaging piece from Tané Hunter of Future Crunch. Spouting optimistic facts about the inevitable switch to renewable energy, alongside a nail-biting soundtrack put together from Edd Fisher. Spoken word, scientific facts, a synthesiser and a song.
- Natalie Isaacs, founder of 1 Million Women, showing us how you can make the switch entirely from consumer or consumer-driver (looking at you marketing managers, strategists and designers) to a climate activist to help get our planet to zero-net carbon. She made the switch from cosmetics manufacturer to full-time activist, encouraging one million women to join her. Nat says“lifestyle change is the elephant in the room and that climate action can’t just be thought about, it must be lived”.
- This thought provoking start to the day – “Is sustainability a trend?” Adele Winteridge, founder of interdisciplinary design practice Foolscap Studio, and Joost Bakker, environmentalist/hospitality genius behind the cafe with no bin, discussed this and also asked do you get more work promoting “sustainable design in architecture”?
- The ever-inspiring Ellen Sandell, State Member for Melbourne and Greens Spokesperson for Climate Change, Energy, Resources, Water and Environment, sharing positive stories from 2016. Hazelwood coal-fired power is station to close. Victoria has placed a permanent ban on fracking. This shows it’s certainly not all doom and gloom here.
How does this tie in with Streamtime?
Here at Streamtime we work in an environment where we are encouraged to pursue our passions. We’re given the freedom to mould our position in the company as well as outside Streamtime according to our passions, skills and desires as you’ll see in the video below.
Danielle will be a part of the ‘How to be a Side-Hustler’ panel discussion in January, presented by General Assembly. She’ll be talking about managing your working day and your side projects (however environmentally friendly) with Streamtime.
Register here for ‘How to be a Side-Hustler’ January 18th in Sydney here.
Register here for ‘How to be a Side-Hustler’ January 19th in Melbourne here.
Thanks so much to Off The Grid for the inspiration. See you at General Assembly in Sydney or Melbourne this January.
