I thought I'd pick up some rubbish on my walk from my hotel to the Trellis Impact 2026 conference in San Francisco. The streets are fairly clean already due to the great work of the Yerba Buena partnership. But I still picked up a small bags worth of over 20 bits of rubbish.

About to attend my first session at Trellis 2026 in San Francisco. Extended packaging responsibility, so quite relevant for greenbrand.org and all the KFC and Starbucks rubbish that's left in my street back home!

On way to Trellis Impact 2026 in San Francisco. Also testing location verification.

Test for laptop location verification

Checking out the truth verification code Soyun has created. Very exciting development in establishing truth on the internet

I came along to the New Farm Park clean up event run by Serve the City and Parents for Climate groups. Met Fiorenza there and had a great chat about Serve the City and Greenbrand. I picked up over a hundred pieces of rubbish, which would have filled a shopping bag. The park was pretty clean compared with many others around Brisbane, but it is even cleaner now!

One person can make a difference. First picture is the Rochedale Biobasin in June 2021 totally overgrown with glycine, when I first started to care for this spot. After a month council came in and cut everything. Since then I’ve maintained it, weeded, planted and picked up rubbish. On average I’ve spent less than 30min per month. It’s now the only Biobasin thriving out of the 4 in the area. Have a happy Queensland Environment Day. And know that each person can make a positive difference with very little effort. Just a will to do so.

Tomorrow is Queensland Environment Day. I visited the Biobasin and spent an hour collecting one bag of rubbish, removing juvenile glycine vine and planted 3 trees, a Gossamer Wattle, Firey paperbark and a Lilly Pilly, all of which are native to Brisbane. So nice to see my previous tree plantings growing so big.

Had a great time learning about the UQSIC food forest. More to come! Thank you Jordan and Milan and Keshav

On Friday I caught up with Aditya and Milan from the UQ Sustainable Innovators Club to talk about the club joining Greenbrand.org. We had a wide ranging chat which included a visit to my old stomping ground at UQ, the Steele Building, to see their hydroponics project. Brought back some old, faint memories lol Thank you both for a great meeting.

Planted another 7 trees on Lamb island. 2 firey paperbarks, 3 Lillypillies, a gossamer wattle and a forest gum. The others are growing well! Showers over the past couple of weeks have made a difference 😊

Sat for one hour keeping watch over a small koala that’s been in the same tree for 4 days that looks to be sick. A trap has been set so when it comes down it can be taken to the wildlife hospital.

Attending the Rotary Tri District conference at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast. Handed out 10 trees so far. Looking forward to see the stories on where they get planted!

Made friends with Asi from Sun Engineering, learnt lots about PNG and the company. Looking forward to tasting some Highlands grown coffee!

I’m here at Blackbird’s Sunrise 2026 event. Hope to be inspired.

I’m attending the Rotary Tri Division conference at Royal Pines this weekend. I collected today 110 native seedlings that we are giving away at the conference. To receive a plant, just join the platform and commit to writing a story about planting the tree.

Spent 3 days up at Woodgate catching up with my dear friends from university days. Went on numerous walks and it so so nice to less weeds than I’d normally see around Brisbane. Still, I can see Glycine taking a foothold in the casurinas along the beach, and if nothing done they’ll totally smother the trees and it’ll cost thousands to remove. I pulled out a few by the roots (easy due to being in sand) and picked up a few items of plastic rubbish. Not enough to record work on here, but I felt much better doing a little to help, rather than walking by and do nothing.

I spent Sunday morning at the planting day site alongside Norman Creek in Greenslopes. I see this area every time I catch a bus into the city. The day was planned by the Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee, and the youth volunteer group Co-Exist provided many of hands required to get the 720 trees into the ground in very quick time! I only planted the one tree, but it was whilst I chatted with Kurt, CEO of Co-Exist. The rest of the time I learned so much about the area, and issues to consider like flooding and contaminated soil, by speaking with Tom from N4C, Luke from Emu and Michael from Brisbane City Council. I also helped Stef pick up rubbish and I saved a paperbark from glycine vine. A productive and wonderful community day 😊

I visited the Rochedale biobasin for the first time in ages. I picked up 3 bags of rubbish. There were also 5 balls that had been washed into the bed via the drain. I left them at the gate in case someone wanted them for their dogs. I also pulled out a few glycine vines trying to make a comeback. But the overwhelming feeling I had was happiness that I had made a difference. The casuarinas I had planted 2 years ago were now over 6m tall! The first photo is the basin with the collected rubbish. The second is how it looked 5 years ago. If I had left it, it would look as desolate as the others are in this area. Even a small investment by one person can make a huge difference!