Report on Feb 21 at Paul's

Last night (Feb 21) we had an enjoyable evening at Paul Benhaim's place in Mullumbimby over dinner.

Christina Covington of Hari Har Chai had brought her new product - an organic, ready to drink, soy chai for us to enjoy, and told us of how that market is developing in the same way that coffee has developed from instant to people demanding a quality product, and how organic and australian-grown are both selling points.

Mitra Ardron of Natural Innovation led a discussion about the proposed Byron Community Carbon Bank, which would funnel donations from businesses to offset their emissions through projects proposed by local community groups, or through tree planting through Rainforest Rescue. This project was briefly presented last month, and it is looking very positive with several businesses indicating their support. If you want to be involved in this, either by offsetting your own emissions, offering support or help, or with ideas for community projects, please contact Mitra(at)mitra.biz,

Paul Benhaim, who hosted the gathering, showed us some samples of Zelfo and invited all Byron SVN members to the launch which - pending ironing out of some last minute production hitches - will be on March 16th. Email him admin(at)zelfoaustralia.com for an invite, or to RSVP.

Their will be another opportunity to try Christina's Chai at the event, since she is a neighbor to the new plant.

Wadzy told us about the One Stop Green Shop, and its recent outing to the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, where it represented a number of local products. Their store is now online and happy to market your products to the world.

Mitra led a discussion on planning for change. At SLF, a consultant was discussing for example how he led his clients through looking at the Greenhouse targets and how the projections had got tighter, for example 20% in 2050 to 30% in 2050 to 60-90% in 2050. So it was important to not just look at targets, but how those targets changed over time when planning investment, in fact he argued that the only plausible planning for 2050 would have to be based on zero emissions.

Christina, Mitra, Giovanni and Wadzy had all been at SLF so there was some discussion of trends and products seen.

We also had a discussion about the challenges of being chameleon's, of being able to live in the community we all love, while running successful businesses. How the image of the north coast can effect the way our products and services are seen, despite the fact that our businesses are all able to meet the same challenges that city-based services have to meet.

We look forward to seeing everyone next month, the time and date have not been announced yet, 22nd March is likely.

- Mitra

Attending: (13) Paul Benhaim (Zelfo); Mitra Ardron (Natural Innovation); Tim Winton (Permaforest); Wadzy (Generator/One-Stop); Makoto (WOM); Christina Covington (Hari Har Chai); Melissa Hirsch (Fibreart); Amber Wilson (OnQ); Alice Moffet (Rainforest Rescue); Peter Westcott; Martin Ernegg (Zelfo); Urs Furter (Apex Air); Simon Ridgley (Electrical); Rob (Zelfo);

Apologies: Phil Sedgman; Elaine Seiler; Giovanni Ebono; Zara Elwood; Monica Boenigk; Alan Gordon (EcoHut); Ken McLeod (CEF);

Posted by mitra at February 22, 2007 3:03 PM