The Sustainable Hour

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74 episodes listed below

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Climate urgency from the ground up.

The gist

The Sustainable Hour treats climate change as a lived civic crisis, not a distant science story. Its episodes move from local acknowledgement and moral argument into energy, food security, public policy, extreme weather and practical community response.

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About The Sustainable Hour

The Sustainable Hour is a Geelong-rooted climate and sustainability program that sounds less like a campaign brief than a public meeting with a strong editorial spine. It starts from place. Episodes repeatedly acknowledge Wathaurong and Wadawurrung Country, stolen land and First Nations custodianship, using that grounding to frame climate action as a duty to land, community and future life. The show is direct about the crisis. It talks about wild weather, damaged homes, fossil fuel influence, political donations and democratic drift without sanding down the moral stakes. Then it keeps moving. A typical stretch can pass from local transport habits to global energy systems, from public broadcasting to Australian politics, from electric trucking costs to food security and regenerative development. The pacing is brisk but not slick. It allows repetition, emphasis and the occasional rough edge because the point is public understanding, not studio polish. Recent episodes make clear that climate is treated as a whole-society question. Energy policy sits beside housing and construction. Extreme weather sits beside democracy. Food growing sits beside supply-chain fragility. Public infrastructure sits beside the need for places where people can meet, breathe and rebuild trust. The program is also sharply interested in power. It asks who writes the rules, who benefits from delay, who is left outside the room and why movements that share common interests so often stay disconnected. That gives the show its harder edge. It can be warm with guests and practical about solutions, but it is not neutral about fossil fuels, intimidation, misinformation or institutional failure. Earth Day becomes a prompt for electric cars, solar panels, Earthmarks and ocean awareness. A discussion of fracking can sit beside a climate business mission involving offshore wind, green fuels and sustainable construction. A segment on electric trucking weighs high upfront costs against lower long-term operating costs. Even the hopeful material is grounded in systems, costs, projects and places. The Sustainable Hour suits listeners who want climate coverage that is local, political and morally awake, with enough practical detail to point beyond despair.

Made for: For listeners who follow climate politics, community resilience, First Nations perspectives and the energy transition. It suits people who want practical hope without pretending the crisis is simple.

What sets it apart: The show binds local Geelong concerns to global climate systems, then keeps asking what democracy, land stewardship and cooperation require in practice. Its strength is the way it turns science, systems and news into civic responsibility.

In their own words

Sharing solutions that make the climate safer and our communities more liveable

As heard by us

Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026

The Sustainable Hour connects climate action with land care, local organizing and the democratic choices that shape community life.

The Sustainable Hour begins in Geelong, acknowledges the Wathaurong people and then connects the climate crisis to decisions made on farms, in communities and through government.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

This is the climate show that sends you outside to inspect where the water wants to go.

Press play if you want

  • climate urgency translated into plants, water, and practical land repair
  • renewable energy and citizen pressure without pretending better shopping will fix everything
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
climate crisis and extreme weatherFirst Nations care for countryrenewable energy transitiondemocracy and fossil fuel influencecommunity cooperationfood security and regenerative communitieselectric transport and infrastructurelocal climate action in Geelong

Talks about

Best episodes of The Sustainable Hour

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

DEMOCRACY AT A CROSSROADS – can we reconnect and respond?May 5, 2026

Geelong transport shifts turn into a sharp case for democracy, climate, and collective action.

The Sustainable Hour opens with a Wathaurong Country acknowledgement and uses it to move from history into a current argument about climate, transport, and public responsibility.

RESHAPE OUR WORLD – from positivity to regenerative communitiesApr 29, 2026

Climate frustration gives way to food security, civic planning, and people-first space.

The episode begins with a Wathaurong country acknowledgement and a brisk account of the negativity and anger threading through public life. It is at its strongest when it turns to practical ground: food security, the fragility of the system, and the case for drawing people back…

Working with nature – not against itAug 1, 2025

A climate-minded farming hour that treats the land as a living system.

The Sustainable Hour spends its hour on regeneration, farming, and natural sequence, with Peter Andrews tracing how landscapes build themselves.

HOW MANY MORE MUST DIE? Healing the land with plants and waterJul 16, 2025

A climate hour linking NAIDOC Week, floods, and debate over plants, water, and legislation.

The Sustainable Hour opens on Wathaurong country and moves quickly into climate-crisis territory, tying NAIDOC Week to First Nations wisdom and the recurring question of how many more must die to floods in Texas and Ingham.

Cinematic call to reconnect with natureJun 18, 2025

A climate hour that treats listening as a civic act.

The hour frames climate urgency as a call to listen, to one another and to the natural world. It begins with an acknowledgment of Wathaurong Country, then moves to Nature, a new film used as a prompt to slow down and pay closer attention to what is around us.

Podcasts like The Sustainable Hour

Episodes

  1. 1

    Mist walls, electric homes and the work ahead

    Sep 29, 2026·1h 7m
  2. 2

    FINDING COMMON GROUND – the parents who refuse to look away

    Sep 22, 2026·59m
  3. 3

    Denmark has moved on from ‘whether’ to ‘how’

    Sep 15, 2026·53m
  4. 4

    ON THE GROUND – practising what comes next

    Sep 9, 2026·54m
  5. 5

    Zero waste in an age of hungry machines

    Sep 3, 2026·53m
  6. 6

    Walking in two worlds

    Aug 26, 2026·54m
  7. 7

    Tinyer homes – bigger possibilities

    Aug 18, 2026·56m
  8. 8

    Lives we overlook

    Aug 11, 2026·53m
  9. 9

    GENTLE AS A MAN – when power learns to serve life

    Aug 4, 2026·51m
  10. 10

    KEEP TURNING UP – as the climate bill arrives

    Jul 29, 2026·52m
  11. 11

    CATCH THE BALL: The 600th episode of hard truths

    Jul 21, 2026·54m
  12. 12

    Country remembers what greed forgets

    Jul 14, 2026·54m
  13. 13

    BLUE ECONOMY: The sea is the limit

    Jul 7, 2026·54m
  14. 14

    Ancient wisdom for a nation still growing up

    Jun 30, 2026·54m
  15. 15

    Learning to share the atmosphere

    Jun 23, 2026·53m
  16. 16

    FROM THE GROUND UP: The connecting link between medicine and farming

    Jun 16, 2026·1h
  17. 17

    Treaty to take us beyond fossil fuels

    Jun 9, 2026·54m
  18. 18

    Justice on Country

    Jun 2, 2026·54m
  19. 19

    FOOTY FOREVER – climate action meets Australia’s game

    May 26, 2026·53m
  20. 20

    The world doesn’t have to be this way

    May 19, 2026·1h
  21. 21

    Democracy, diesel and the true cost of fossil fuels

    May 13, 2026·53m
  22. 22

    DEMOCRACY AT A CROSSROADS – can we reconnect and respond?

    Hidden gem

    The show opens on Wathaurong Country.

    May 5, 2026·59m·2 clips
  23. 23

    RESHAPE OUR WORLD – from positivity to regenerative communities

    Hidden gem

    The Sustainable Hour opens with an acknowledgement of Wathaurong country and a blunt pushback against the sour public mood around climate and politics.

    Apr 29, 2026·53m·2 clips
  24. 24

    EARTH DAY 2026 – voices from ocean to earthmark

    The Sustainable Hour's Earth Day 2026 episode opens with Victorian MP Christian Cossens on the theme "Our Power, Our Planet" and Earth Day's start on 22 April 1970.

    Apr 21, 2026·56m·2 clips
  25. 25

    BE COLLECTIVE – power, climate and the necessity of cooperation

    This episode explores how public broadcasters in Denmark have effectively educated the public about climate change through consistent, non-alarmist explanations of science and solutions, emphasizing the need for cooperation and wisdom to address the climate crisis.

    Apr 14, 2026·53m
  26. 26

    POWER UP – reclaiming energy, democracy and community

    This episode explores how to reclaim energy, democracy, and community by addressing climate change through First Nations wisdom and challenging fossil fuel influence in Australian politics.

    Apr 7, 2026·56m
  27. 27

    POWER OF IMAGINATION in a world on edge

    This episode discusses the urgency of the climate crisis, highlighting recent extreme weather events and emphasizing the need for cooperation and indigenous wisdom to build a sustainable future.

    Mar 31, 2026·53m
  28. 28

    RUN FOR COUNTRY – ice cream in a fight against fracking

    This episode discusses the climate crisis, honoring First Nations values, and a Danish royal business mission focused on renewable energy solutions like offshore wind and green fuels.

    Mar 24, 2026·54m
  29. 29

    FESTIVALS OF CHANGE – from climate worry to community action

    This episode explores how festivals can transform climate anxiety into community-driven action, emphasizing Indigenous wisdom and sustainable energy solutions.

    Mar 17, 2026·56m
  30. 30

    TAKE ACTION FOR EARTH – defending the swift parrot

    Mar 10, 2026·54m
  31. 31

    BE DIFFICULT – balancing the scales for climate justice

    Mar 5, 2026·54m
  32. 32

    When the emergency becomes our new reality

    Feb 17, 2026·54m
  33. 33

    Inner work as catalyst for outer change

    Feb 15, 2026·55m
  34. 34

    Being a little batty – about responsibility and belonging

    Feb 10, 2026·55m
  35. 35

    Be ready for the climate reset

    Feb 4, 2026·55m
  36. 36

    Paid misinformation, global inequality and permaculture progress in Africa

    Dec 16, 2025·1h 1m
  37. 37

    A YEAR IN SONG: The soundtrack of The Sustainable Hour 2025

    Dec 10, 2025·1h 3m
  38. 38

    CONSEQUENCE TIMES: Communities taking back their power

    Nov 25, 2025·54m
  39. 39

    FORCE OF LIFE: From collapse to connection – organising the periphery

    Nov 19, 2025·57m
  40. 40

    In kindness, respect, understanding and trust

    Nov 19, 2025·57m
  41. 41

    FORCE OF LIFE: The art of enlivenment

    Nov 12, 2025·58m
  42. 42

    Treaty and protestival – listening for change

    Nov 11, 2025·53m
  43. 43

    Fighting Australia’s carbon bomb – choosing courage over cowardice

    Nov 4, 2025·54m
  44. 44

    BE BRUTALLY HONEST. The climate reality we must face

    Oct 29, 2025·54m
  45. 45

    Australia’s transformative, green and ground-up energy revolution

    Oct 21, 2025·53m
  46. 46

    GET LOUD – Women at the heart of the green transition

    Oct 14, 2025·55m
  47. 47

    PREPARE FOR IMPACT – Australia’s climate risk reality check

    Oct 7, 2025·52m
  48. 48

    FORCE OF LIFE: Reinventing our world with a senior uprise, peace of mind, pride, and awe

    Sep 30, 2025·1h 7m
  49. 49

    New relations: Language, love and the roots of our climate crisis

    Sep 24, 2025·1h 2m
  50. 50

    Get involved with the Climate Rescue Accord

    Sep 22, 2025·51m
  51. 51

    Days of sun, sustainability and solutions

    Sep 17, 2025·54m
  52. 52

    Tiny homes, huge hearts – resilience and joy in community living

    Sep 9, 2025·54m
  53. 53

    The Sustainable Climate Song Contest Hour 2025

    Sep 3, 2025·1h
  54. 54

    Green transition, trust and togetherness in Denmark

    Aug 27, 2025·1h
  55. 55

    Bold steps, tiny homes and zero waste futures

    Aug 19, 2025·1h
  56. 56

    THE CLIMATE REVOLUTION: Revolutionary politics rooted in service to life on Earth

    Aug 13, 2025·59m
  57. 57

    Working with nature – not against it

    Hidden gem

    The hour begins with a land acknowledgement.

    Aug 1, 2025·1h·2 clips
  58. 58

    Legal revolution for the planet – and a call from the butt hunters

    Jul 30, 2025·1h
  59. 59

    Wake up and fight

    Jul 23, 2025·1h 1m
  60. 60

    HOW MANY MORE MUST DIE? Healing the land with plants and water

    Hidden gem

    The Sustainable Hour opens with climate alarm and a land acknowledgment from the land of the Wathaurong people.

    Jul 16, 2025·1h·4 clips
  61. 61

    RICHER THAN BEFORE: Building renewable economies

    Jul 9, 2025·1h
  62. 62

    First Nations voices rise for treaty, truth and climate healing

    Jul 2, 2025·1h
  63. 63

    Because local matters

    Jun 25, 2025·1h
  64. 64

    Cinematic call to reconnect with nature

    Hidden gem

    The Sustainable Hour opens on climate alarm and a call to listen.

    Jun 18, 2025·1h·4 clips
  65. 65

    The key of empathy: climate action with kindness and courage

    This episode explores how empathy, courage, and First Nations wisdom can guide climate action, featuring insights from a young activist.

    Jun 11, 2025·1h
  66. 66

    Gas expansion versus people-powered change

    Jun 4, 2025·1h
  67. 67

    Be the demand and the shift will follow

    May 28, 2025·1h
  68. 68

    From collapse to coherence: In preparation for what is coming

    May 21, 2025·1h
  69. 69

    The universal language of our transformation: art

    May 14, 2025·1h
  70. 70

    Growing climate communities with soil, soul, Indigenous wisdom – and banks

    This episode explores how integrating Indigenous wisdom, soil health, and sustainable banking can help build resilient communities to address the climate crisis.

    May 7, 2025·1h
  71. 71

    You, me & democracy: a vote for bullying or for kindness

    Apr 30, 2025·1h
  72. 72

    Play your part and vote the difference

    Apr 23, 2025·1h
  73. 73

    Earth Day reflections from the heart

    Apr 16, 2025·1h
  74. 74

    Rhythms of reconnection and nuclear resistance

    Apr 9, 2025·1h