2007 Values @ The Body Shop Summary!

I'm sure I've missed bits... but these are some of The Body Shop Australia's achievements for 2007. I'm so stoked we can make such a meaningful difference to social and environmental issues at the local, national and international level!

• $21,658 raised for Staying Alive Foundation and 5,000 brochures distributed through our MTV HIV and AIDS 'Spray For Change' campaign.
• Sold 10,000 shower timers at cost and signed up 6,500 customers for climate change packs as part of our 'Spoil Yourself not the Planet' campaign with ACF
  
• $11,443 raised for UNIFEM through White Ribbon Day sales.
• $80,460 raised for Children on the Edge in East Timor through the sale of tri-massagers.
• Over $90,000 raised for Amnesty International through Christmas card sales.
• Volunteered over 4,500 hours to hundreds of grass-roots charities around Australia through our Community Projects program. That's the equivalent of 1.5 full-time staff members working free for a year!
  

Stop Violence in the Home campaign:

• Launched The Body Shop Australia’s survey of community attitudes, understandings and responses to abuse in relationships 2006 Report.
• Called for Small Grant Applications to distribute $100,000 raised from Daisy Soap sales. A panel of industry experts, TBS Staff and a young DV survivor selected and, disbursed funds to 13 grass-roots organisations working in the domestic violence prevention and care sector.
• Distributed 50,000 “Let’s Air It Out” booklet with stories from DV survivors.
• Collected 4,500 t-shirts with messages written about DV by staff and customers. Were exhibited in-store during the campaign. (plan to present them to the incoming Family and Community Services Minister in 2008).

In addition at our National Retail Support Centre here in sunny Mulgrave, Victoria we:

• Sponsored 15 orangutans from Borneo for four years.
• Sent five big boxes full of Christmas presents to Berry Street.

To all staff and customers involved in helping to make these achievements happen - a massive thank you. Happy New Year everyone, I can't wait to see what we can accomplish next year !!!

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Us Taken-Away Kids

Us Taken-Away Kids, a magazine commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the ‘Bringing them home’ report. The magazine represents artwork and stories from members of the ‘Stolen Generations’ throughout Australia, and serves as a testament to the resilience of Aboriginal people and their ability to triumph in the face of despair.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said: “While there has been some improvements since the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s (HREOC) ‘Bringing them home’ report was released in 1997, including the Indigenous child placement principle in child protection, greater funding for organisations supporting ‘Stolen Generations’ members and a national Sorry Day, we still need to do so much more.”

The below are great examples of some of the inspiring work inside the magazine:

Artist: Beverley Grant
Title: ‘Leaving the Mission’, 2007
Symbolism: Browns, reds, yellows and black represent the people, land, sun and the mission. White represents the spiritual connection between the people and the land.
Story: Leaving the missionaries and the Mission, to find family and to commence nursing in mainstream in 1967- the year of the referendum for Aboriginal recognition and citizenship. Footprints signify return to family, people and homeland.


Excerpt from ‘Us taken-away kids’, by Alec Kruger and Gerard Waterford, Alone on the soaks, IAD Press, 2007...

"As a child I had no mother’s arms to hold me. No father to lead me into the world. Us taken- away kids only had each other. All of us damaged and too young to know what to do. We had strangers standing over us. Some were nice and did the best they could. But many were just cruel nasty types. We were flogged often. We learnt to shut up and keep our eyes to the ground, for fear of being singled out and punished. We lived in dread of being sent away again where we could be even worse off. Many of us grew up hard and tough. Others were explosive and angry. A lot grew up just struggling to cope at all. They found their peace in other institutions or alcohol. Most of us learnt how to occupy a small space and avoid anything that looked like trouble. We had few ideas about relationships. No one showed us how to be lovers or parents. How to feel safe loving someone when that risked them being taken away and leaving us alone again. Everyone and everything we loved was taken away from us kids."

The ‘Us Taken-Away Kids’ magazine is available online or can be ordered from the HREOC publications officer on 02 9284 9600 or here.

The Body Shop Australia has been campaigning for reconciliation since 1998.


Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Sounds Fishy!

Photo: Rebecca Hallas / The Age

The Body Shop would like to join the RSPCA and Animal Liberation in condemning the Ipond (pictured above). According to this article in The Age it's 15 times smaller than the recommended tank size for the fish it contains. The RSPCA has called on the device to be banned because it is too small to provide fish with adequate oxygen supplies and a clean environment.

RSPCA spokesman Hugh Wirth said despite the fighting fish's ability to breathe air from the surface, the tank was far too small for it to receive adequate oxygen. The small volume of water would lead to rapid temperature change and this meant the tropical fish would not live long, he said.

It looks like they have no room to turn around in and to complete the perfect torture box the sound reverberating into the tank would totally stress them out! So, please don't buy one!

Also, if you have two minutes can I suggest signing the Greenpeace & NineMSN Save the Whales petition, which is now over 50,000 people strong.

In case you missed it, you might want to read my rant about the Japanese "whale research with extreme prejudice" post, or watch an interview with the Greenpeace spokesperson for the campaign.

A tip for petition makers and amateur campaigners playing at home: When creating a petition, ask for people's postcode, it will help you sort your petition into electorates thus making it more potent in the political arena.

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Wonderful Website Feeds the Hungry

Photo: BBC

Through my job I am exposed to a lot of media and on occasion find a website or story that I believe is very clever. Today was one of them. I was flicking through Cleo magazine and found an article titled '9 things to put you in a good mood'.

In the article was a site called freerice.com. I was immediately attracted to the site and once I went to it - was in awe. The site helps end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. But there is one catch. You have to do an English vocabulary test and learn new words for this to be possible. It is a genius viral marketing initiative ideal for today's generation. You get to play a game, be educated and give to the hungry. This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the site.

Go to freerice.com and try it out for yourself. You might end the day feeling wiser and prouder!

Polly Viska - PR Coordinator

Human Rights Watch - Open Letter to our PM

Photo: sunrise.seven

Copy & pasted in it's entirety from the Human Rights Watch website...

December 17, 2007

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Re: Australian foreign policy with regard to Burma, China, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea and Australian domestic policy on counter-terrorism, refugees, indigenous Australians, and same-sex relationships

Dear Prime Minister Rudd:

Congratulations on your recent election as Prime Minister of Australia.

Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization based in New York that monitors and reports on international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law issues in more than 70 countries around the world.

We write to you outlining key areas of foreign and domestic policy where we believe that Australia can and should do more to promote and protect human rights. On foreign policy, Australia is a significant political actor and donor in the Asia-Pacific region, so your government is well placed to play a leading role in promoting human rights at a regional and international level. Over the past decade, the Australian government was notably absent or obstructionist in such efforts. The significant international attention paid to your signing of the Kyoto Protocol and your statement at the Bali conference on climate change shows the clout Australia has and the ways in which it can be put to good use.

Any promotion of human rights, of course, begins at home. Your government has an opportunity to distinguish itself on domestic issues by reversing some of the previous government’s policies that undermined basic rights in areas such as refugees, indigenous Australians, counter-terrorism, and discrimination against same-sex couples.

Australian foreign policy

Burma
Your new government should redouble efforts to pressure the brutal military government in Burma, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to respect human rights and begin a genuine transition to civilian rule. The brutality of the crackdown on peaceful protestors, monks, and nuns in September 2007 must not be forgotten. Human Rights Watch welcomes efforts by the Australian government to curtail the financial power of the SPDC, its leadership, senior officials, and their financial supporters through Reserve Bank restrictions on money transfers. We also welcome the decision to deny the appointment of a former Burmese army officer to the post of Burmese ambassador to Australia. We call on your government to pursue other measures which will continue to pressure the SPDC to reform, including:

• Lead efforts in the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Burma, particularly arms transfers that directly assist continued military rule and further military abuses against civilians;
• Lead efforts in the UN Human Rights Council to institute a commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Burma;
• Lead efforts to interdict financial transactions through regional networks which directly assist the military leadership and the army to stay in power;
• Impose targeted sanctions on imports, exports, and new investment in sectors of Burma’s economy that substantially benefit the military and/or are associated with serious human rights abuses. These include the petroleum (oil and gas), mining (gems, metals, minerals), and logging (logs and timber) sectors, as well as hydropower and other major infrastructure projects;
• Institute monitoring of Australian business investment in Burma, particularly energy companies, to ensure that human rights violations are not perpetrated as a result of their business presence and that profits do not flow directly to the SPDC and military.

China
For more than 20 years, Human Rights Watch has investigated and documented extensive human rights violations in China. These include violations of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and labor rights, media and internet censorship, and forced evictions of people from their homes. As a fluent Mandarin speaker with a longstanding interest in human rights in China, you surely understand the severity of the current situation there. Under your leadership, we expect Australia to play a major role in raising human rights concerns with China’s senior leadership in Beijing. The strong trade relationship between Australia and China, which subordinated human rights concerns in the last government, should instead be an avenue to raise such concerns, as will be the period before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As a matter of priority, we urge you to publicly as well as privately raise the following concerns with Chinese officials at the earliest opportunity and call on the Chinese government to:

• Ensure media freedom by enforcing the temporary regulations providing greater freedoms for foreign journalists put in effect in the run-up to the Olympics, so that foreign journalists do not face harassment, intimidation, or detention, extending these rights to Chinese journalists, and making the “temporary” regulations a permanent component of Chinese law;
• End unlawful forced evictions carried out in preparations for the Olympics and ensure all evictions are carried out in line with legal requirements regarding adequate notice, compensation and access to new housing;
• Ensure implementation of the labor law so that all Chinese workers receive their legally mandated pay and benefits, including accident and health insurance, paid overtime, days off, and a healthy and safe work environment;
• End restrictions on Chinese workers’ freedom of association and assembly by allowing workers to form independent trade unions outside of the government’s official All China Federation of Trade Unions.

Indonesia
Australia’s military links with Indonesia’s special forces, Kopassus, are of serious concern given Kopassus’ long history of human rights abuses in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua. We welcome your comments, made in 2003 as Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, against the decision by the Australian government to resume links with Kopassus.

You have talked about the need to expand Australia's counter-terrorism cooperation with Indonesia. In doing so, you should recognize that essential efforts to reform the Indonesian military to make it more accountable have stalled. For example, a 2004 law (Law No. 34/2004) mandated an end to the military’s involvement in business, and set a five-year deadline, until 2009, for the Indonesian government to take control of all the businesses the military owns or controls. Yet a draft government decree selectively defines “military business” to cover only a few companies and ignores business activity carried out by military foundations and cooperatives, gutting the reform process before it has truly begun. Meanwhile, military profit-making continues. In May 2007, Indonesian marines in east Java killed four villagers, including a pregnant woman and a three-year old, in a land dispute tied to the Navy’s local business interests.

This is a crucial test of military reform in Indonesia, but much remains to be done to turn the promise of the 2004 law into real change.

We call on your government to:

• Formally end the military relationship with Kopassus and cease any future planned joint training exercises between Australia’s Special Air Service and Kopassus Unit 81;
• Press the Indonesian authorities to act quickly and decisively to eliminate all military business activity, without exception.

Papua New Guinea
Human Rights Watch welcomes the strong commitment of Australia to sustainable development in Papua New Guinea and to address the country’s rapid increase in HIV/AIDS. Recent research by Human Rights Watch shows that police violence in Papua New Guinea is systemic and widespread, particularly against vulnerable populations such as children, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. This violence has a significant negative impact on the development of a functioning justice system and on the response to the country's rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic.

As the largest donor of foreign aid to Papua New Guinea and given the central role that Australia has played in training and developing the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, the Australian government should be more proactive in addressing widespread police violence. To this end, it should:

• Express concern at the highest level to the Papua New Guinea government over police violence, including torture, rape and excessive force, against vulnerable populations such as children, sex workers, and men who have sex with men;
• Call on the government of Papua New Guinea to ensure that police treatment of all citizens conforms to international human rights standards;
• Ensure that mechanisms, both internal and external to the Papua New Guinea police services, are instituted that hold police accountable for any violence committed;
• Assist local human rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations to develop effective independent monitoring of police violence and provide services and support to victims of any such violence;
• Support a human rights based approach to HIV/AIDS, which adequately supports and empowers vulnerable populations such as young people, sex workers, and men who have sex with men.

Domestic issues

Counter-terrorism
Australia should amend its counterterrorism legislation to bring it into compliance with international human rights standards. The case of Dr. Mohammed Haneef, an Indian citizen who was detained without charge for almost two weeks in July 2007 under the 2005 Anti-Terrorism Act (he was then charged, but the charges were dropped), highlights the need to revisit Australia's approach to counter-terrorism. In order to combat terrorism more effectively, the government should reaffirm its commitment to human rights principles.

Human Rights Watch recommends that Australia reform the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005 in the following ways:

• Revise control orders procedures to ensure that individuals have access to the information submitted to the courts for the purpose of securing control orders, that control orders are limited in time, and that they do not effectively constitute house arrest. Imposing house arrest through control orders is tantamount to meting out criminal punishment without trial, violating the fundamental right to due process;
• Amend the law’s overbroad provisions on sedition to avoid infringing the right to freedom of expression;
• Modify preventive detention procedures to allow detainees to promptly inform their family members and legal counsel that they are being detained and ensure their communications with lawyers are not monitored by the police;
• In line with the December 2006 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism on Australia, narrow the law’s definition of “terrorist act,” so that it covers only conduct carried out with the intention of causing death or serious bodily injury, or the taking of hostages.

Refugees
Human Rights Watch welcomes the pledge by the Labor Party to end the "Pacific Solution" policy by closing the Nauru and Manus Island processing and detention facilities and to replace the temporary protection visa scheme. We are pleased to note that your government already granted political asylum to seven Burmese refugees who spent more than a year on Nauru Island, and we see this as a very positive sign of your intention to restore Australia’s reputation as a country that provides refuge to the persecuted.

In order to ensure that Australia's refugee policy respects human rights and meets international obligations, we call on your government to:

• Close the Nauru and Manus Island facilities and offer asylum in Australia to any of the 89 people found to be refugees;
• End the policy and practice of mandatory detention of asylum seekers. Introduce community-based supervision for people whose refugee application is pending, with detention used only as a last resort where there is a compelling security risk;
• End the practice of excluding parts of Australian territory from the Australian migration zone through “territorial excision,” which dictates that asylum seekers processed in excised places such as Christmas Island do not enjoy the same legal rights as those processed on mainland Australia. All asylum seekers under Australian jurisdiction should be able to file a claim for asylum and have full access to legal assistance, an independent appeal process, work permits, and community support;
• Not implement the agreement with the United States to “swap refugees” between Nauru Island and Guantánamo Bay;
• Replace the temporary visa protection scheme with a system that accords the same protection to all recognized refugees regardless of their manner of entry into the country.

Indigenous Australians
The quality of life for most indigenous Australians remains unacceptably low, with a 17-year gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, an infant mortality rate that is almost three times higher than the general Australian population, and rates of death from treatable and preventable conditions such as diabetes and respiratory illness ranging from three times to eight times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians. Although they live in one of the world's wealthiest countries, most indigenous Australians do not have access to adequate health care, housing, food or water. Human Rights Watch welcomes your commitment to close the gap in life expectancy, and to formally apologize to indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generation of indigenous Australian children. We call on your government to act immediately to:

• Make the existing Northern Territory National Emergency Response, designed to address child abuse and social breakdown in rural indigenous communities, subject to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. All government action taken should be consistent with the fundamental right to racial equality;
• Ensure, in deciding the future of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, that indigenous Australians are regularly consulted and play a central, formal role in addressing child abuse and social breakdown in their communities.

Discrimination against same-sex couples
Australia was at one time at the forefront of international efforts to recognize the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens. Over the past decade its record on this issue has fallen behind many other countries. The lack of legal recognition of same-sex relationships under federal law means that these Australians and their children face disadvantage and exclusion on a daily basis. We welcome the commitment by the new government to tackle this discrimination by implementing the recommendations of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's (HREOC) report, "Same-Sex: Same Entitlements." We call on the new government to remove all discrimination against same-sex couples by:

• Enacting legislation as a first-term priority that implements the recommendations of the HREOC report, so that same-sex couples and their children have equal access to benefits and entitlements in areas such as public sector superannuation, the Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Nets, income tax, and child support;
• Providing for effective educational programs to ensure that all those affected by the HREOC reforms are aware of the changes, particularly Commonwealth employees and agents who will be responsible for administering the new laws;
• Introducing federal anti-discrimination legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity;
• Amending the Marriage Act 1961 so that civil marriage in Australia is available to any two persons, regardless of their gender.

We thank you for your attention to these issues, and hope that your recent election will mark a turning point for Australia’s record on human rights, both domestically and abroad. We look forward to a constructive relationship with your government.

Sincerely,


Kenneth Roth
Executive Director


Cc:
The Hon Stephen Smith, MP - Minister for Foreign Affairs
The Hon Robert McClelland, MP - Attorney-General
Senator the Hon Chris Evans - Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
The Hon Jenny Macklin, MP - Minister for Indigenous Affairs
The Hon Bob McMullan, MP - Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance
Michael Lye - Social Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister

Australia Lacks Courage on Climate Change

Photo: Oxfam. Bangladesh: Shahanara (45) stood in flood water near the camp she has been staying at for five months since her house was destroyed in the floods in the village of Puteakhal.

It feels like we were in the global-political good books for all of one week. Didn't it feel great?! Our new Government came out of the stalls sprinting; signing the Kyoto protocol and our PM personally attending the Climate Change Conference in Bali. Things were really starting to happen.

I hope you enjoyed our brief time in the sun because we're back on the dark side again. Yep, together with the USA (no surprise there), Japan and Canada (!) we are refusing to sign up with the rest of the world for a global emissions cut of between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020 (at 1990 levels).

To recap this is perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen and people are still protecting their environmentally unfriendly industries despite:

1. The IPCC and other studies point to clear-cut ecological and social dangers above three degrees Fahrenheit of additional warming.
   
2. The only way to avoid that threshold, the scientists said, is to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 from their levels in 1990.
   
3. And the only hope of doing that lay in starting now, they said.

Sometimes all the numbers are hard to take in but think about the humanitarian angle. According to Oxfam, poverty will deepen unless we tackle climate change – immediately. It’s already hitting millions of vulnerable people in developing countries – where drought, flooding, hunger and disease are becoming more common than ever.

Oxfam sees the impact extreme and unpredictable weather is having on people’s homes and livelihoods in poor communities all over the world. Poor people will simply get poorer unless something is done, fast.

What can you do?

• If Avaaz collects 100,000 electronic signatures it's going to publish a full-page ad in the Jakarta Post and deliver them directly to country delegates to stiffen their nerve against any bad compromise. Add your name to the campaign now!

• Join Oxfam's pledge to fight climate poverty.
  
  
• Stay informed and outraged about what we're doing to our planet! Tell your local MP!
  

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

What is Beautiful?

Left: Controversial Jennifer Love Hewitt photo. Below: Skeletal Nicole Richie.

Trashy magazines and the media in general, display to the general public what they perceive is beautiful. To me, Nicole Richie with an emaciated chest and an obvious problem with her weight is not inspiring but sad. She does not look good and it is not cool to look like a skeleton. There are a lot of people starving in Africa that would do anything to be able to not look like her.

Today's generation needs to look at beauty in a different way. I find Nigella Lawson cooking a feast real beauty, or anyone that is comfortable in their own skin, the most beautiful thing of all.

A recent story about Jennfier Love Hewitt and her cellulite (it must be pointed out, that she is an Australian size 6!) had her turn around and say "To set the record straight, i'm not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with the their body image. To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini. Put it on and stay strong." Jennifer Love Hewitt is spot on.

In the 90's The Body Shop came out with a campaign with the Ruby doll which stated:


'There are 3 billion women who don't look like supermodels and only eight who do.'

It was such a successful campaign and for once women turned around and said 'how true!'.

When I first started working at The Body Shop, I remember walking through the hall and seeing the back of an old staff t-shirt that said 'You are Beautiful'. It made me feel good. I am definitely not one to wake up every morning feeling good about my body image but if I can say one thing to everyone it is 'You are beautiful!' Smile, laugh and live. That is what beauty is all about!

Polly Viska - PR Coordinator

Berry Merry Christmas Appeal

For many years now, The Body Shop Retail Support Centre (RSC) has had the pleasure of supporting the Berry Street Victoria - Berry Merry Christmas Appeal. Supporting the Berry Merry Christmas Appeal is as simple as picking up an extra gift or two when out doing your Christmas shopping.

Berry Street Victoria has been protecting and caring for children and strengthening families since 1877. Berry Street exist to increase life chances and choices for children and young people who are at risk, or who have experienced the trauma of family violence, child abuse and neglect. Over 1000 children and young people will spend their Christmas with Berry Street this year.

Each year the children from The Body Shop Children’s Centre create a special Christmas tree to assist the staff of RSC in their support of the appeal. Berry Street provides gift tags with suggestions of what to buy for each age group, ensuring the process is simple yet incredibly effective. Most importantly, the Berry Merry Christmas Appeal results in great joy for the children of Berry Street.

If you would like to take part in the Berry Merry Christmas Appeal in the future, contact Jess on 9429 9266 or e-mail info@berrystreet.org.au

Your generosity will ensure the spirit of Christmas reaches many disadvantaged children, young people and families in the care of Berry Street.

Deb Baxter - Values Coordinator

Bali Climate Change Conference

Image: Associated Press

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2007 will start in Bali today. I wonder how Indonesia, the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter (thanks to logging Borneo to make way for palm-oil plantations), gets to host this thing. Anyway, it’s on and it’s a crucial opportunity for Australia to finally join the global community in the leadership and action needed to avoid dangerous climate change.

Why’s climate change such an important issue again?

If global average temperatures go above two degrees here in Australia our agriculture and tourism sectors will be badly hit. We'll face more severe bushfires, droughts, and water shortages. There'll be more disease risk and heat stress, costly damage to infrastructure and low lying housing, and even put the Great Barrier Reef at high risk.

For more nightmares read the WWF’s Dangerous Aspirations: Beyond 3 Degrees Warming report.

What is this Bali Conference all about?

1. This year’s scientific report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made clear beyond doubt that climate change is a reality and can seriously harm the future development of our economies, societies and eco-systems worldwide.
   
   
2. Immediate action is needed to be able to prevent the most severe impacts.
   
   
3. Since climate change is a global issue, tackling climate change and its impacts can only be successfully coordinated at the international level. The UN Framework on Climate Change presents the appropriate forum to do this. It has been expanded by the Kyoto Protocol which includes emission reduction commitments for developed countries over the period 2008–2012.
   
   
4. A new international climate change deal must be put in place in time to ensure that necessary action is undertaken immediately after 2012 when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends. Therefore, comprehensive negotiations on a new climate deal need to begin without further delay. At the Bali Conference, Parties are expected to agree to the launch of this process.
   

What can the Bali conference deliver? (and what not)

The main goal of the Bali Conference is to deliver this necessary breakthrough and get negotiations going on a new international climate change agreement. The Bali Conference will not deliver a fully negotiated and agreed climate deal but is aimed to set the necessary wheels in motion. If you’re into the machinations of international climate change bureaucracy you can watch the webcast of the plenary sessions and press conferences.

We voted in a new greener* Government what can we do now?

Stay together - stay focused! Coincidentally I had a great meeting with the ACF today and they had some ideas for The Body Shop staff, customers and you out there, whoever you are, reading this blog who want to get active with like-minded people passionate about climate change:

• Find a climate action group in your local community or start your own! This grass-roots Climate Movement is run by the Conservation Councils in each state and territory. (I’ve even stumbled upon a Your Water Your Say Action Group if your environmental passion is watery).
  
  
• There’s also the awesome Australian Youth Climate Coalition, which even has a delegation in Bali right now -read their blog.
  
  
• If you care about climate change don’t forget to take a few minutes to put yourself on the Who On Earth Cares map. Try zooming into your street to see if any of your neighbours care too.

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager


*we hope