The WE ARE THE WORLD! Neighbourhood Hub™: A community education in sustainability model

---

Marta Balan

Mt Battery Unity in Diversity Trust, Australia

: Expert Opin Environ Biol

Abstract

---

An overview of regulations on combating climate change in the world is presented, with special focus on Victoria, Australia. Human integrity is in the roots of climate change, therefore, environmental and social sustainability need to be treated as inseparable. That principle is the basis of our comprehensive Model for community education in sustainability which is innovative in its content and methodology, as well as in regards to the unique architectural design and natural sound properties of the dome structure used. The geodesic dome of a WE ARE THE WORLD! Neighbourhood Hub™ with a 12 m diameter, made of one way glass, may be set up on non-utilized land in properties of city councils, the state or in public housing facilities. Apart from classical educational methods of lectures, workshops, etc. covering a range of topics on combating climate change, the innovative comprehensive educational approach is also based on interactive cultural arts and human values programs, designed to trigger attitude changes by the experience of facilitated active involvement in a communal interaction. The UV protected multiple purpose dome is designed to serve as an organic botanical display garden, wellness sanctuary and base for citizens’ climate action initiatives with a different cultures' foods organic patisserie, but also as a stage for mini WE ARE THE WORLD! Events™. A Buckminster-Fuller dome consists of a strong one way glass, melted with a metal alloy, with low constructing costs and with next to zero emissions. It is a pre-fabricated non-permanent movable smart structure with a low carbon footprint, saving construction time and environmental nuisances. It can be accredited to serve as a shelter in natural disasters. An Application of the Model is presented, tailored to a public housing facility in regional Victoria, by partnerships of government and community organizations and the independent body of citizens living on the premises who initiate climate action, while the community education in sustainability there needs to be partnered by scientific, educational, community organizations and sustainable businesses. The application of the Model in the Victorian High Country would also contribute to the development of eco-harmony-values event based tourism.

Biography

---

An academic in Transpersonal Psychology, Marta has applied her multifaceted artistic skills in pioneering volunteer community work since 1995, initiating interfaith networking in Manningham, Victoria, Australia, and founding the Unity in Diversity, Cosmic Harmony Foundation, and Templestowe Wellbeing Associations. She was a producer, director, and moderator, postulating the Unity in Diversity Events in 1997 as fostering harmony and inclusiveness. In the early 2000s, she founded the Holy Melbourne annual concerts of traditional multi-faith music, the Unity in Diversity Celebrations, the Victorian Shared Values Symposiums, the Victorian Interfaith Networks Annual Conferences, the Victorian Sustainability and Well-Being Expo, and WE ARE THE WORLD! Bring a bell! Concerts. She researched the values of faith traditions, sacred music, and traditional arts and developed the WE ARE THE WORLD! Events Syllabus, which is today applied by the Mt. Battery Unity in Diversity Trust, founded in 2013. She received the Mahatma Gandhi Community Service Award from the Hindu Foundation of Australia in 2008.