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Friday Favourites and a new trustee

Admin — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:27:54 +0000

Transglass Bottles via This Is Glamourous

Yesterday at the SIFT July Board Meeting the Trustees voted in a new trustee. We welcomed Dairne Poole to the team which now brings the trustee numbers up to 5. Hopefully, in the near future we will do a little post on her and her thoughts for SIFT but for the moment we welcome her as a great new addition to help SIFT achieve its objectives.

Here are a few cool links we have found this week:

Gorgeous re-designed glass bottles from Transglass via ThisIsGlamorous.
Love these simple yet stylish reusable food storage systems via ReNest.
The MfE announced that it will be funding a $700,000 grant for Envirocomp (nappy composting) through the Waste Minimisation Fund to develop a plant in Wellington – go Envirocomp!
Heard of Poetry Bombing? Check out this great video of a poetry bomber in Miami, USA via Good USA.
Another bit of stylish design – this time a flat pack DIY beehive (via ReNest).
Slow Living Essentials looks into Sow.Give.Grow- leaving packets of seeds around the neighbourhood/city for people to take – great idea for expanding and growing the use of own-grown food. More here.

Have a great waste free weekend.

Goodbye Arthur

Admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:56:45 +0000

Arthur Williamson

With his 80th birthday just around the corner in May and after seven years on the SIFT Board of Trustees, it is time to say good bye to Arthur Williamson as a SIFT trustee. Arthur has a breadth of knowledge which has seen him play an integral role in over-seeing the governance of SIFT and our many and varied projects over the years. As the former head of Chemical and Process Engineering and Dean of Engineering at the University of Canterbury, as well as being the founder of one of New Zealand’s leading manufacturers of solar heating equipment, Thermocell Limited, Arthur not only has a valuable science background, but also holds a vast knowledge on what it takes to successfully run an environmentally sustainable business.

We spoke to Arthur to find out about his favourite SIFT projects, what he hopes for Canterbury’s sustainable business future and what his plans are for his retirement years.

Do you have a memorable SIFT project that you enjoyed working on the most?
The Waste 2 Energy (W2E) project that we have on at the moment because it has developed so much over time and the project itself presents some very interesting opportunities.

Is there a particular environmental issue facing Canterbury that you like to see tackled by a local business?
Not specific to Canterbury, but the country needs to get onto overall renewable fuels and transport systems; otherwise we will be in trouble in the very near future.

Do you have any specific hopes for Christchurch’s central city rebuild?
I hope that a group will get together that will produce an integrated sustainable development programme for the city.

What are your plans for the future, now that you have retired from your position on the Board of Trustees?
Do a few more things that I want to do!

Many thanks to Arthur from the Sustainable Initiatives Fund board of trustees and management for his advice, support, expertise and excellent engineering and energetics knowledge that have been very useful. We hope that you enjoy doing all that you now wish to do.

Our office

Admin — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:50:30 +0000

The cordon in Christchurch CBD was reduced yesterday afternoon allowing many residents and businesses to return to their homes/offices to secure buildings and get what they needed from them. Being in Green Zone 1 I was able to go into town yesterday afternoon to assess the damage and pick up work and office things in order to make it easier to work from home.

The carpark is full of silt, dust and mounds of liquefaction that didn’t crack through the surface of the concrete. Every office has a broken window where the building assessment teams got in to check the stability and safety – thankfully ours has a green sticker – and the whole place just has a massive emptiness to it.

SIFT is still operational even though we are not working out of that office at the moment.

Here are some photos of the inside of our office:

You can’t quite see it from the photo above but the office desks have moved about half a metre out from the wall.

The glass board table took 5 burley blokes to move in pieces. This one middle section piece of glass will need to be lifted by at least 4 people in order to put it back in place. It has moved out a couple of inches and I think the whole table moved towards the right wall.

And although this was a shock to look at it is nothing compared to the destruction of other buildings, people’s homes and the lives of the residents of Christchurch. It will take a long time to rebuild.

SIFT Office Closed

Admin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:08:32 +0000

Due to the earthquake in Christchurch on Tuesday the SIFT office is closed until further notice. But we are still online so if you need to contact us please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . All our staff are safe and well. Our thoughts go out to the people of Christchurch dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake and to those people who are helping our city at this time.

New Trustee – Darren Patterson

Admin — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:14:34 +0000

New SIFT Trustee Darren Patterson

Darren Patterson starts as a new trustee for SIFT this month. He has a wealth of experience within the waste industry, with 10 years working at ECan looking after various aspects of the Waste Portfolio – the Pollution Prevention Programme, managing and implementing the Canterbury Hazardous Waste Management Strategy and general advice and guidance for the council on waste management. Darren now runs his own consultancy PattersonEnvironmental. He is also an active board member of WasteMinz. We look forward to working with him more to help support our charity’s goals and endeavours.

Welcome to the team Darren.

Read more on Darren here and check out the Green Collar Jobs Q&A he did for us last year here.

SIFT Green Resolutions #2

Admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:59:35 +0000

For the start of the New Year we have asked the SIFT team for their green resolutions (or just one!) for 2011. This one is from SIFT’s new Administration/Marketing/Research assistant (you need to be a bit of a Jill of all trades at SIFT!) Angela Coley-Brown:

“My new years resolution is to make room for a vege garden in our new home, which is currently being built. The one in our rental has been extremely successful and we love eating our own produce!”

Reuben Brown in his vege patch

SIFT Green Resolution #1

Admin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:17:38 +0000

In the spirit of New Year resolutions we thought we would give our individual resolutions over the next couple of weeks.

Being the General Manager I’m going first:

Scanwood utensils

My green resolution for 2011 is to continue to reduce my use of plastic in my house (and work), most importantly single use disposable plastics, and move to other forms of packaging or products that have less of an impact on the environment (and potentially my health) and are more durable for the long term (e.g. moving from plastic cooking equipment to wood or ceramic).

We’d love to know yours.

So much so that any green resolutions that are sent through to us will go into the draw to win this great Sulo Talbot compost bin (below) that we were given as a Christmas present from the lovely people at Sulo Talbot. All green resolutions need to be sent through to us either via email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or via our Facebook or Twitter by the 31st of January 2011. Please send us your full contact details and address and your green resolution. The winner will be drawn at random on the 1st of February and notified via email (if you let us know by Twitter or Facebook we will get in touch to get your contact details).***Please note that this competition is only open to New Zealand residents – it’s a rather large to post out of NZ!***

We will also post all green resolutions online anonymously.

This Sulo Talbot compost bin is 31cm wide x 22cm deep x 17cm high.

Sulo Talbot Compost Bin SIFT image

Themes & trends for 2011

Admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:43:45 +0000

Through the Woods by Ben Petreath

January is typically the month of reviewing the year that has been and thinking about the year to come. For some businesses it’s about their strategies and how they are tracking against budget and goal achievement (or creating new strategies), for individuals it’s about setting new goals and resolutions. So, last Friday I found myself thinking about how the year was looking for SIFT and then did some general Internet surfing (do we still surf the internet?) around the key themes and trends that others were discussing for 2011.

It seems like 2011 could be the best year yet for sustainable, low impact, healthy earth living. There are many more people consciously thinking about how they live, consume and waste. Most feel that you need to reevaluate, simplify and consume less first to then be able to live a life with more abundance (not stuff but good experiences – actually living life not living life through buying!). That less is better. This is positive.

It is definitely something we have talked about at SIFT. The need for less in order to be more. We have enough. There is a need to be consciously more grateful and really live a life aligned with our values. This will mean continuing to make changes to habits that have been ingrained in us for years (like changing from plastic to other non-disposable products, making your own skincare and homecare, growing your own food, spending more time in your community). It will still be a challenge for some but also super exciting to see a growing number of people thinking and changing. There is hope. Just imagine all of the wonderful solutions that have yet to be thought of and created.

Here are some of the other themes and trends for 2011 I found:

Slow Living – living a mindful life, slow working, slow food and generally just taking the time to breathe and be human. More here.
Moving from ownership to accessibility (sharing more) – do we all need our own lawnmowers, power tools, tents (just examples) – why not share. Less waste from this too! Like Zilok.
Co-working (many businesses working in the same space. With the technology we have all we need is a desk really). More here. This allows for more flexibility and nimbleness as an organisation.
Bikes. Yay bikes! More and more bikes. I think many would love Christchurch to be more bike friendly and there is a definite need in New Zealand for more access to European style urban bikes that many are loving in the UK, US and Europe. Like these. Some believe bikes will “save us”. They will keep us healthy, help us to be in our communities and reduce our carbon emissions massively. Frocks on Bikes is a good example of growing interest in this. Another favourite is Copenhagen Cycle Chic.
Creativity & Amateur Design. Like Etsy and Felt and DIY and MIY (make it yourself) at home. And the Self Repair Manifesto. This comes from self-responsibility for who we are and the impact we have as well as a desire to feel more fully each day in our lives.
Minimalism and maximalism. Separately and both at the same time. A move to reduce the amount of stuff you own (like the 100 thing challenge) while at the same time living a life of more. More genuine, authentic life experiences. This is what is important not stuff. More here and here. Nick Potter from Re-Be writes more on this here and discusses this article on Less is More by the NZ Herald’s Rebecca Barry.
For textiles and clothing it will be about buying quality vintage or second hand clothing, refashioning and repurposing, ethical clothing and sustainable textiles as well as the trend to shopping from your own wardrobe. This will drastically reduce the amount of textile waste. And also more technology to recycle the clothing that we no longer want.
Consumer responsibility. Be conscious about what you buy and where from (ask questions about the manufacturing, packaging, waste disposal, environment and social impacts of that product’s production). Can you buy something else for equal or better performance and have a better outcome for those who made it and the environment? Also consumer responsibility is about demanding change from the producers, manufacturers, importers and retailers. Ask, ring, write, step up and take responsibility. Like – Can chip packets come in other packaging that can be recycled or composted? We know there are solutions to styrofoam meat trays so why aren’t more people using them (or not using them at all!)? And if cow’s milk can come in plastic (recyclable) containers why can’t other forms of milk (instead of the unrecyclable tetrapak)? Or why not go back to reusable glass milk bottles…at the supermarket! Also, don’t forget to support your local farmer’s market.
Producer Responsibility. On from consumer responsibility is producer responsibility (also called Product Stewardship Schemes – like the Agpac Plasback Programme we funded). Those companies taking responsibility for the full lifecycle of their products from manufacture to disposal will find this will add to their brand value and consumer trust – we need a lot more of this. All companies need to ask how can they lessen the impact (or create a positive impact) of the products that they produce? It is now no longer okay to not do this.
Cradle to cradle design. William McDonough and Michael Braungart wrote the book Cradle to Cradle a few years ago and some online were saying that this type of intelligent design will start to occur more this year. William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about intelligent design, that sustainability is just the minimum to start from, that waste=food and to just eliminate the concept of waste altogether (we like this one) and that what humans produce should be life supportive and “good for all children and all species for all time”. This is where we need to head to now. A good video on this here.
Collective Impact & Collaboration. The key to making the changes that need to be made for a healthy earth future is lots of little actions all connected, for lots of organisations of different types to come together with individuals and communities to achieve a single goal. We can’t do it on our own.
The widening of kindness and generosity. Moving from thinking about your small sphere of family and friends to how your actions impact your community, the communities and people of those who make what you buy, eco systems and other species. Moving from disconnect to a realisation that we are all connected (even if that link isn’t recognisable) and we are nature. What we do will ultimately impact on us.
Green Economics and total costing. There will be progress towards including all of the costs of each aspect of a products lifecyle from production to disposal and the environmental impacts in the cost of buying that product. For many products this will show that buying local is a lot cheaper than imported. This will help to develop green technologies and the ability for those working in unsustainable industries and jobs to move to sustainable jobs.
Redesign & Regeneration – It’s coming together but it looks like a redesigning of how our societies operate and what we value as communities and individuals is starting to emerge. Slowly. Very slowly. But there is a future. We will also start to place more emphasis on regeneration of the eco systems and species that have been depleted (many now lots) like sustainable fishing for fish for the future.

So, that is just some of what I found last week. Many of these elements we will need to foster, encourage and expand across all people in order to meet the challenges that we will face in the coming decades (two big ones – Climate Change and the Economy). SIFT will be involved in many elements from collaboration with other organisations, funding new R&D for new technologies to reduce waste through utilising recovered materials before they get dumped or creating new products that don’t get wasted. We will be keeping an eye on how things are trending across the globe.

*On the statement “We have enough” this is more about the resources we already have and should be using more efficiently and distributing more fairly.

Happy New Year!

Admin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 23:11:15 +0000

We’re back and ready to go! Hope you had a great holiday and a happy new year.

Lots of plans at SIFT for 2011 but mostly we will keep on doing what we did last year: providing vital financial assistance to projects that reduce waste to landfill for Canterbury. Hopefully though there will be an increased awareness of the need to reduce consumption first and foremost (and secondly to demand more environmentally healthy package i.e. less plastic). This, by far, is the quickest and easiest way to reduce the amount of waste that is produced.

Here is a quick look back at our favourite/most interesting blog posts from 2010:

Phew – what a year! Looking forward to seeing what 2011 will hold for us both locally, nationally and globally. Don’t forget to check out all the great links from the regular Friday Favourites and the Green Collar Job Q&A’s from earlier in the year.

WasteMinz Conference 2010 Photos

Admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:02:08 +0000

Pelletised recycling plastics from Mastagard

It has taken a bit of time to get around to organising the photos I took from the WasteMinz Conference a few weeks ago but they are all now uploaded on the SIFT Flickr site.

Featured organisations include:

Sulo Talbot Bin Man

Mastagard Stand

Owens Illinois stand

Villa Maria Winery Mangere

Ministry for the Environment

MfE Stand

and of course WasteMinz who put on an excellent, highly informative and productive conference. Next year it will be in Rotorua and if this year is anything to go by will be just as important to those in or associated with the waste and recovering materials industries.