We are embracing the future of electric cars and apparently, the electric vehicle market has gained enough interest from car manufacturers and everyone is gearing up their Research and Development to come up with the next big thing in the market.

Yes, it is not a car...it is a statement!

So we were stoked when Stuff reported that, “A leading mobile phone company has bought into world-beating technology from Auckland for wirelessly charging electric cars.”

Wireless charging in electric cars is a technological revolution that has the probability of changing our tech world the way Apple did.

Wireless giant Qualcomm has jumped into the electric vehicle market by acquiring the assets of a company called HaloIPT out of New Zealand that has developed wireless electric car charging tech. HaloIPT, a company that commercialized research from The University of Auckland, uses wireless induction for charging and has created a device or mat that an electric car drives over (or drives near), and which can wirelessly charge the car without it plugging in. (Gigaom)

We are in the adjunct of very exciting times as the world turns the tide and embraces cleaner energy and sleeker cars.

We can see that this will be the future of our children and it is good.

Photos via Flickr Creative Commons: Electric Car by Complexify

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SIFT is a proud partner of SCAPE’s “Rebuild a Recyclable City”.  This wonderful initiative uses recycled materials and is a really good educational campaign to raise awareness for our next generation on taking care of our environment .

SIFT believes that this programme is a proactive approach to putting recycling in the frontline of education for our children and also provide a platform for their creativity to show their future vision for our city.

Suitable for kids ages 6-12 years old, FREE art packs for the “Rebuild a Recyclable City” project are available from any Christchurch City Library and SCAPE also has Kid’s Workshops for the “Rebuild a Recyclable City” for those interested to attend.

Rebuild a Recyclable City – Kids’ Workshop

Dates:         Sat, 5 and 19 November 2011
Times:        For both dates, you have two options: 10.30am – 12.00pm and 1.30pm – 3.00pm
Venue:       Creative Junk, 25 Disraeli Street, Addington, Christchurch.
Price:         $5
Bookings are essential because there is a limit to 12 per workshop. Please phone Creative Junk 03 379 4040 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Drawing inspiration from SCAPE Artist Joanna Langford’s The High Country, this project will give the kids an opportunity to rebuild a favourite part of their city out of recyclable materials. We, at SIFT, also believe in the limitless power of creativity and we hope that this will provide a new insight on how to use the recyclables you have around the house as an art project .

SIFT’s vision of  innovative waste minimisation finds support in this great project and we look forward to other creative project partnerships in the Canterbury area. Hand in hand with the kids of today, we hope to raise a new generation of corporate and individual initiatives that will define a concrete way of taking care of the environment.

Photos via Flickr:  Rebuild a Recyclable City by SCAPE Christchurch Biennial

All great products start with great ideas.

Think

Windmill

Bokashi

BPA-free Water Bottle

Do you think your own big green idea has what it takes to be the next green revolution?

A lot of great ideas are shelved under the table because of funding concerns or the weight of financial assistance needed to research its marketability. This is where Sustainable Initiative Fund Trust (SIFT) can help you.

Project proposals for SIFT financial assistance are invited from individuals, businesses and organisations and possible financial assistance could include early stage funding with a grant (or loan) to determine project feasibility, to develop a business plan or proof of concept, a repayable loan for more mature projects or much larger more commercial projects, or by taking an equity position as a joint initiative, or a combination of these.

For more information on how to apply for SIFT’s financial assistance, click here.

Photos via Flickr Creative Commons:  Windmill by Tamburix, Bokashi by Jaydot and BPA-free Water Bottle by ZMCNichols

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I received a draft Central City Plan for the Christchurch Rebuild in my mailbox last week and I am so intrigued with the plans of the Christchurch City Council especially on what my city will look like in the future. The Draft Central City Plan Summary Document August 2011 outlined interesting points and I love:

• The Light Rail System which would really be a great support for public transport patronage around the city.
• The  pedestrian and cycle lanes which will really help identify Christchurch as a walkable city.
• More parks and open spaces, creating a vibrant city that is more interactive and green.

And what struck me most was the plan to make a “Green City” by encouraging businesses to build or use “green buildings that are powered by renewable energy, use less water, are made with local and recycled materials and help to visibly green the city with roof gardens and green walls.” (Draft Central City Plan August 2011 – Volume1)

The opportunities for green business is limitless and it is not just limited to green building construction. The areas of green technology, innovation and even green tourism would be the dynamic soul behind these plans.

But what do Christchurch businesses think of the Central City Plan?

I can see a change of our city towards a more sustainable and green future. I love the plans of roof gardens  and green walls and living in a more interactive Green city.

I hope Robert Hammond’s  talk in TED TV about  ”Building a Park in the Sky” will serve as an inspiration. Robert Hammond and  few of his friends decided to save High Line, an abandoned elevated railroad in Manhattan and converted it into a park.

Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: Christchurch Cathedral by Geoftheref

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I have read about a interesting blog about Incorporating Sustainability in Business Reporting and it totally sums up what sustainability should be for a business. We have approached sustainability on a piece-meal basis and have not fully integrated it to the whole of our businesses. Hence, it is not unusual for a company to have an internal corporate sustainability policy but still turn a blind eye on their supplier sustainability.

What really will earn our business a two thumbs up?

The best thing to do is for business to develop their sustainable policies further and their annual report should show transparently and authentically what are their sustainability measures and how it has affected their company.

In the Otago Daily Times quoted by the blog:

The [2009] report was 57 pages, of which 30 to 40 of them were the financials. So, while it was a good report in terms of giving an overview of their financial situation, it didn’t in any way indicate their performance across the four sustainability dimensions – environmental, social, political and economic.

Institutional reporting needs to account for more than just economic reporting, rather [an organisation's] effects on the environment, how they are working with their community, the social impacts of what they are doing, and how they are actually working beyond compliance.

Sustainability isn’t something you bolt on, it’s not something you do on a nice day and it’s not something you do on pages 8-9 of your annual report.

Sustainability is your annual report. (Emphasis supplied.)“

This is the ultimate dream: when a business can say that sustainability is their annual report!

Are you up for the challenge?

Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: Two Thumbs Up by KColwell

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“We need to be the change we want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

Ordinary Joes are overwhelmed by the issues about the environment and coupled with greenhouse effect, CFCs, climate change, and carbon tax, it has become harder to communicate the importance of taking care of the environment. We are trained into thinking that being green is  a crusade or a form of protest but really it is just discovering or re-discovering a new way of living that is in tune with Mother Nature.

If we have a hard look at the big picture, we will realise that the core is actually us – you and me!

So, I want to share with you this inspiring video from TED:

I think we just need a little bit of encouragement and confirmation that we, too, can make our own difference to our world.

Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: Child Trying to Free a Butterfly by Aafromaa

The profit margin has been the major factor in supplier selection for businesses but the call for corporate environmental responsibility has a good number of companies making a rethink of their corporate policies.

Are they sustainable as they claim to be?

Where do NZ businesses stand in this equation?

Stuff reported that,

Whether outsourcing or not, fewer than a quarter of those surveyed for this year’s ShapeNZ Fairfax Business and Consumer Survey said their organisation actively bought goods and services from suppliers who acted sustainably.

Just 19 per cent included social or environmental criteria in their supplier terms and conditions, while 9 per cent had ditched a supplier in the last year for environmental, social or ethical reasons.

Business managers and executives were more likely to say their organisation had a sustainable supply chain – 34 per cent said they included social or environmental criteria and 26 per cent said their organisation had ditched a supplier for ethical reasons. (Gibson, Eloise, “Businesses ignoring supplier sustainability”, 01August 2011)

Sustainability reporting should come full circle and with full disclosure of their suppliers and business practices. But are businesses willing to do that at the thought of lesser profits? Well, that is the $64million dollar question.

Photo via Flickr Creative Commons: Dog reading Newspaper by Seng1011

Final Friday Favourites for July and my last as GM of SIFT. For all future enquiries for SIFT please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

So here are the cool links that we have found in the past week:

• Update from Re-Nest blogger Landis Carey on her goal of living with less
• An idea on how to reuse old materials scraps (via Re-Nest)
• Great idea for the summer – reusing old wine bottles as water carafes – so easily and stylish (also via Re-Nest)
• Some gorgeous Furoshiki over on Frolic Blog.

Have a great waste free weekend.

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.