Save Our Icons Australia Day BBQ

Via the Australian Conservation Foundation




Australia Day is a celebration of the things that make this country great. At its heart is the natural environment that affords us our much envied Aussie lifestyle.

This Australia Day, we’re asking you to consider our wonderful Aussie icons – the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray Darling Basin, Kakadu wetlands, even the great Australian backyard – when celebrating our national day on 26 January.

Over the Australia Day weekend, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) will be joining with people all over the country in holding nationwide sustainable BBQs. These events will provide the opportunity to celebrate the special places we love and our famous Aussie lifestyle while also acknowledging that many of these very things are under threat from climate change.

It would be un-Australian to allow our natural icons to be lost due to weak efforts to tackle climate change. Australia has set a target to reduce carbon pollution by just 5 - 15% by 2020 – if adopted globally, this would mean devastation for many of our favourite and most special places.

This Australia Day, tell our Government which part of Australia you couldn’t bear to lose.

Click here to get the rundown and register your BBQ!

ACF GreenHome's top five tips for hosting a sustainable Australia Day

1. If you are looking at investing in a new BBQ, choose one that runs on natural gas as opposed to coal or electric 1 – it will use less power and generate a lot less pollution.
   
   
2. Choose a location that is easily accessible by public transport, is equipped with recycling and composting facilities, and avoid using any disposable products such as plastic plates or individually wrapped food products.
   
   
3. Use organic and/or locally produced products with minimal packaging. If you are cooking fish, try to source sustainably fished varieties (see www.amcs.org.au)
   
   
4. Try to cut down on red meat at your BBQ - one 150 gram steak can require over 200 litres of water to produce and create 5 kg of greenhouse pollution. Try vege kebabs, a few more salads, soy snags or even fried Haloumi cheese. For some great recipes go to http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Grilling-101-Grilled-Vegetables/
   
   
5. Eat what you buy – don’t waste it! Australians throw away more than 10 times the amount of food than we donate in foreign aid dollars.

Learn more from ACF's GreenHome
The Body Shop will be campaigning with ACF again on Climate Change this year from 29 June - 19 July.