Edwina Robinson, founder of The Climate Factory, takes us through the creation of her micro-forest business, and discusses the challenges she’s faced and the lessons she’s learned through this experience.
Topics Covered:
- Micro-Forests
- Climate Change
- Landscape Architecture, Community
About Edwina Robinson:
Edwina Robinson, Founder of The Climate Factory Landscape Architect Edwina Robinson, founded The Climate Factory in 2019 after Australia sweltered through its hottest and driest year on record. In early 2019, Edwina visited the rainforest gully at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra and recorded air temperatures. She found the temperature in the asphalt carpark was 37°C, the shaded concrete concourse (34°C) and at the bottom of the rainforest gully was a blessedly cool 26°C. Edwina realised vegetation, water and fab soil preparation could help cool local environs. Then, Edwina stumbled across the work of Shubhendu Sharma of Afforestt in India. He was building dense tiny native forests. She thought, why not trial this method in Canberra? Over 2020-2021 she built two community micro-forests in Downer (1800 plants) and Watson (1200 plants) with a third to be built in 2022. She’s also working with the Moruya, NSW community to build a healing micro-forest. The area was devastated by the Black Summer 19/20 bushfires and she wants to build a micro-forest of the local endangered ecological community of coastal rainforest. The Climate Factory has created an 8 step model to show communities how they can create a micro-forest in their neighbourhood. Our vision is to see a community micro-forest in every urban hotspot in Australia. While our model of dense planting of natives is broadly based on the Miyawki technique we’ve added crowdfunding and participatory community consultation to the mix. In climates like Canberra, likely to be hotter and drier in the future, we’ve integrated simple water harvesting methods to ensure water gets deep into the soil where it’s needed most. At Downer we also trialled tree species likely to thrive in a hotter, drier future. At Watson we’ve incorporated nature play that’s proving popular.
Connect with Edwina Robinson on Linked in here.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.climatefactory.com.au