Greening Marion

Greening Marion is a trial project to help us work together for greener, more sustainable suburbs

Are you involved in a greening activity in Park Holme, Oaklands Park and/or Marion? We want to hear from you.

Green yards, streets and neighbourhoods are good for us, and our suburban wildlife. We love and need our green spaces, but the concrete keeps coming, the trees keep disappearing and our cities are getting hotter, drier and greyer.

Greening Marion will trial a new, collaborative approach to tackle this using a Wicked Lab.

We’ll look at:

• who is doing what
• where they are doing it
• how everyone fits in the bigger picture
• how to work more cohesively
• opportunities for the future.

Together we’ll form a network, picture what greener, more sustainable suburbs would look like, and get moving to make it happen.

Register today!

Anyone who is involved in a greening activity that happens in, or relates to, the suburbs of Park Holme, Marion and/or Oaklands Park can take part, where the activity is delivered as part of:

• an organisation or group (doesn't need to be incorporated)
• being an environmentally active individual, where you lead, support or influence others in your community (including informally).

Greening activities might include:

• community engagement and empowerment
• education and information
• grants and investments
• projects, programs and services
• on ground projects (e.g. revegetation, streetscaping, stormwater)
• plans, policies, legislation and regulations.

Activities can be local or part of a larger project..

Take part in Greening Marion to:

• ensure your efforts are counted
• increase your confidence in choosing where to direct future efforts
• connect with others who want to see greener and more sustainable suburbs
• discover new partnership opportunities.

Late 2019

Map activities

Talk to us about your greening activity and the role(s) it plays, so that we can ‘map’ how it fits within the wider network. (One hour conversation, plus potential follow up)

Identify new opportunities

Consider the ‘mapping’ and how your efforts fit within the big picture. What new opportunities exist?

Early 2020

Action workshop

Take part in an action workshop to meet others from the network, explore what greener and more sustainable suburbs means to you, and get moving on creating this future together.

Mid 2020

Project summary

An end of project summary will illustrate the network, future opportunities for working together, and project learnings.

The trial will focus on greening activities that happen in, or relate to, the suburbs of Park Holme, Marion and/or Oaklands Park.

This area was selected for the trial as it has:

• several community hubs including schools
• a green hub – Oaklands Wetland
• a range of demographic profiles
• clear development trends, including subdivision of residential allotments and urban renewal
• environmental data available – including stormwater, development, tree planting and land surface temperatures.

Greening Marion will trial a Systemic Innovation Lab. This is a collaborative process that helps to address complex problems like climate change, obesity and poverty.

The focus is on activities that are already happening to address a complex problem within a geographical area. It supports the people, groups and organisations who are doing the work (the system) to work more cohesively and effectively, and come up with new ideas. It does this by helping people to:

• better understand who is doing what
• see new opportunities for the future
• collaborate with others.

It also recognises that while governments play a key role in supporting change, it’s the people within the system who are instrumental in choosing what changes actually occur – through their decisions about their own initiatives and collaborations.

The Systemic Innovation Lab will be delivered using a process developed by Wicked Lab, a South Australian social enterprise.

The lab will involve creating a ‘map’ of greening activities relating to Park Holme, Marion and/or Oaklands Park.

What makes this ‘map’ different, is that it’s more like a large chart which shows the different types of features (or characteristics) each activity has. For example, it will show which activities do things like:

• ignite passion for people to take action on greening
• strengthen networks
• support people to take action together.

Please provide the following information:

• your name, position (if applicable) and contact details
• name of activity/project
• location/area that your activity relates to
• one or two sentences about your activity.

And send details to either:

Rebecca Neumann, City of Marion or Tania Macdonald, Natural Resources Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges.

Once registered, they will be in touch to make a time to talk about your activity.

Don’t have an activity, but want to stay informed?

Email Tania Mcdonald to receive project updates. You can also email Rebecca Neumann and ask to join the Green Thymes e-newsletter mailing list.