We talk with local residents who have embraced environmentally friendly lifestyles and practices, and invited them to give their tips on how you can do the same!

Peizhi, empowering community into climate action

“Dream big, start small, bring your mates along, and never be alone,” says Peizhi.

Peizhi lives locally in Mitcham and works as a community organiser for Environment Victoria, to engage and empower the Victorian community about climate solutions. He says, “Our Victorian culturally diverse communities have been chronically under-represented in decision making about climate solutions. It’s a great honour for me to work with communities, support leadership on climate issues, and promote environmental and social justice.” In his role, he is coordinating a multicultural outreach program that facilitates conversation on climate change impact and community-led climate solutions.

He thinks that Australia has a beautiful and unique natural environment and was shocked by the devastation of the 2019/20 bushfires and how the then-current Federal Government’s inaction resulted in further community frustration.  “I realised there is much more we can do as a community to progress our climate and environment policy, help protect the environment and to solve the climate crisis,” said Peizhi.

He moved to Australia from China in 2019 and says, “Victorian migrant communities care a lot about environment protection, despite being under resourced in terms of governmental communications and engagement. For example, people often have decent awareness of waste recycling and energy saving, but when it comes to household energy upgrade, people can’t usually get accurate information due to language and cultural barriers. As part of the community, we can live greener by using more public and active transport, or by switching from gas cooking to induction cooking when it’s practical”. 

When asked why he felt it was important to take action, he replied, “We are facing an unprecedented climate crisis. Community is impacted by extreme climate events like heatwaves, bushfires and storms. We won’t reach a climate solution unless everyone in our community takes their part in climate action”.

There are lots of community groups that are involved in climate action. He says, “It’s always great to connect with your neighbour and achieve positive changes. We have lots of localised environment groups here that might have a special focus on animals, local rivers and national parks protection. There are multicultural groups that bring people who speak another language into the environmental movement. Some other groups are issue-based, such as air pollution or coal mining. If you see the big picture in policy making and want to make big impact, joining a national or state-wide environmental non-government organisation to volunteer is a good way”.

Peizhi gives us his tips for people wanting to start their sustainable living journey or wanting to take climate action: “Dream big, start small, bring your mates along, and never be alone.”