mike ceola: living communities

“What I’ve learnt at Dimension Data has had such a positive impact on my life. If we all do lots of little things, then together we can make a big difference.”

Living Communities is a sustainable living education program facilitated by not-for-profit organisation OzGREEN. The program aims to strengthen local communities, bring people together to adopt more sustainable ways of living and encourage green principles on both a corporate and a personal level.

Living Communities trains volunteer eco-teams to facilitate the program within their own community and to spread expertise on topics such as water, recycling, ecological footprint, energy, food and shopping.

“I was initially introduced to many of the issues about the environment in 2006 at the Living Communities workshop held at Dimension Data,” says Technical Consultant, Mike Ceola.

“These workshops got me interested. I have three young children. I don’t want to use up everything now; I want to ensure there is something left for them, by encouraging simple things – turn off the lights, turn off the TV and have quick showers.

“On the home front, we’ve done a number of things. We have a grey water system that takes the water from our laundry to water our backyard. In our showers there are low-flow valves which reduce flow from 20 litres a minute to 9 litres a minute. We grow some of our own vegetables and buy local produce from Victoria Market. I try to cycle to work two days a week. By doing this we are also educating our children to be environmentally responsible.

“What I’ve learnt at Dimension Data has had such a positive impact on my life. If we all do lots of little things, then together we can make a big difference.”