Riaan and Michelle share their wisdom on living a greener lifestyle in their new insightful TV show GREENLINE. The series dispels the idea that going green may seem overwhelming, and demonstrates educated and sustainable steps which have a huge impact on one’s immediate environment, finances and wellbeing.
The former face of SA’s Top Billing and Morning Live, Michelle Garforth-Venter, is today an internationally respected TV presenter, producer and award-winning journalist. Her husband Riaan is a celebrated DIY guru, TV personality and Strictly Come Dancing champion. Last year The Home Channel’s reality show Love & Mortar filmed the couple designing and building their own eco-home.
They also won the You Spectacular Couple of the Year Award – and it’s a suitable honour for a pair so driven to teach others about eco-friendly lifestyle choices.
“Over the course of my career, travelling extensively around the world and documenting the plight of species for local and international television documentaries, it’s hard not to notice the impact we have on the world around us,” says Michelle. “When you are repeatedly exposed to things like wetlands drying up, species becoming extinct, and landfills overflowing, you begin to hear alarm bells. The move to green our lives just happened over time as a process; trying to make a difference at home and at work became fun. And it becomes addictive as you are constantly looking for ways to improve your life and save in the process.”
“At home we started by doing the first easy thing, the only thing we knew, and that was to change to energy-saver light bulbs,” Riaan continues. “Then we moved onto creating a wormery for vegetable waste and planted an organic vegetable garden. Our indigenous garden has brought so many birds it is truly unbelievable and this was probably a catalyst for us to investigate and do more.”