On Monday’s Plains FM GreenBiz segment I took Sheree Grant along to talk about paper and sustainability. You can check it out here.
consumption » Sift BlogPosts Tagged ‘consumption’Last Monday’s PlainsFM podcast now onlineThursday, February 25th, 2010 by AdminTake Stock.Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Admin Simon Evans - Everything I Have One of the key drivers of waste is unneccessary and/or over consumption. A great way for any individual or business to start to reduce waste is to take stock first. There could be boxes of paper in a cupboard you forgot about, half used packets of pasta in the panty, four rolls of tin foil, old cell phones, unused socks pushed to the back of the drawer, a shirt with a missing button that just needs sewing back on, office chairs that could be refurbished, unused stationery etc. So, instead of buying “another one” ‘cos this one has a hole in it/I can’t find it/it’s easier/I can’t remember if I have any/it’s trendy etc… take stock and look around at what “stuff” you have already. Taking stock, making an inventory will help you to work out exactly what you need to buy. You might find that you have last season’s clothes that are perfectly fine to wear again or clothes that need a minor mend, a large stash of stationery, a couch that can be recovered instead of buying a new one, lots of food to eat (reducing your shopping list), a range of office furniture that can be utilised or sold etc. Take stock like artist Simon Evans who created a piece called Everything I Have by taking a photo of every single item he owns. It puts how much stuff you have into perspective. Taking stock is apart of the first step of waste minimisation – recognise what you buy and then what you waste.  Simon Evans - Everything I Have e-waste art from artist Chris JordanThursday, January 21st, 2010 by AdminWhile looking for some images of e-waste art from around the world I came across artist Chris Jordan. His work is thought provoking and makes you feel a little ill at the massive amounts of consumption. The below images are from his Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption. He has just completed a new book called Running the Numbers which looks at the collective consumer behaviours of Americans. New Zealander’s collectively don’t consume anywhere near the same levels as the US but we do consume and for some products in the hundreds of thousands (and millions for cell phones). And where does it all go when it is no longer wanted? When it becomes waste?  Chris Jordan Circuit Boards Atlanta 2004 via Inhabitat  Chris Jordan Cell Phone Chargers Atlanta 2004 via Inhabitat
 Chris Jordan Cell Phones 2007, Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones disposed of in the US every day.  Chris Jordan Cell Phones 2007 Partial Zoom  Chris Jordan Cell Phones 2007 Actual Size Merry Christmas from SIFT.Thursday, December 24th, 2009 by Admin
 RecycleNow.org Cardboard Christmas Tree Merry Christmas to all who have been reading our blog posts for the past few months. Have a wonderful Christmas break what ever you end up doing and don’t forget to be conscious about the waste you will be producing (reduce, reuse, recycle). We are looking forward to relaxing in the Summer weather and recharging for a super busy 2010. We have lots of plans and projects in place to continue reducing the amount of waste that goes to Canterbury’s landfills and look forward to sharing the successes and challenges here. We will be signing off from the blog for a few weeks and won’t be back in the office till the 18th of January. Until then Merry Christmas and all the best for a sustainable 2010. Green Collar Jobs Q&A – SIFT CEO Linda NorrisTuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Admin SIFT CEO Linda Norris with her two boys James (R) and William (Bottom) in the Rangiora Cub Scouts Caravan Due to a few technical difficulties with our blog we are reposting SIFT CEO Linda Norris’ Green Collar Jobs Q&A.We thought it was about time to profile SIFT CEO Linda Norris in our Green Collar Jobs Blog post. Linda has been the CEO of the Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust for about three years and is a passionate advocate for sustainable living. She is always looking for innovative and creative ways for SIFT to have a positive impact on the community and to ultimately reduce waste going to landfill. You can find more information about Linda here. 1. What do you do to live more sustainably (with low impact) in your life? I live on a small farm in Loburn, North Canterbury, where we produce our own lamb and beef, as organic as it can be, and some of our own veges. We compost everything we can through EM Bokashi, and even our new home proudly displays a number of great features from recycled materials like flooring, doors, and of course furniture from the Christchurch Supershed – all good to go with a little TLC. We buy quality goods that last and use local businesses for services, employ local people, and we know most of our neighbours. I drive a low carbon emission diesel vehicle. We help out in our community by doing rubbish clean ups and with environmental projects at the local school. We recenlty picked up a massive 55kg of well concealed waste dumped in our hedgrows in one weekend, about 80% of it was recycled! I have taken a group of four 8/9 year olds to talk on community radio station Plains FM “Green Biz” about their fun waste diversion project through TradeMe. 2. How do you live more sustainably at work? Our office fitout used almost entirely recycled furniture and we use web-based business tools to minimise cost and maximise reach. We minimise paper usage, reuse what we can, and travel with good IT systems, and any one of us can work from home if need be, reducing emissions. We use suppliers that are carbon neutral as far as possible e.g. Digiweb and Green Cabs, and we use video conferencing instead of travelling out of town. 3. What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand? Maximise our Earth’s resources. We can all do our bit to help the environment. It’s just an excuse to say you are too small to do something. 4. What makes you smile? My children! I have 3 boys, two at primary school aged 10 and 8, plus one aged 41 (sorry Dean!) 5. What is your biggest pet peeve? Unncessary waste: Cheap and nasty “stuff” being sold in NZ that we all know will end up in our landfills. Buy quality that will last and buy a product that can be up-recycled or reused. 6. What is your favourite colour and why? Forever Green of course! A sort of clear and sparkly green. I’ve always loved green – it reminds me of our Earth and is very grounding and so creative. 7. Do you have a favourite place in the workd? Describe why? Ooh tough choice…La Paz in Bolivia, South America – it means Peace, or close to home Totaranui in the Abel Tasman National Park – great family holidays: walks, wildlife & water – we stay at the Dept of Conservation bach – we are soooo lucky, it’s such a special place. 8. What’s your connection to SIFT? Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Initiatives Fund. I’m the chief waste minimiser! 9. Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite? Definitely Mr Calver at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls. He taught me maths at high school level and always used to have a saying “a tick if it’s right, cross if it’s wrong, and if in doubt cross it out!” He was very inspiring; I still love maths as do my children. Teachers are so important as they influence young minds. I went on to train as an auditor with Deloitte; I think that Mr Calvert may have influenced my career choice! 10. What do you want to leave behind? A greener, more peaceful and prosperous world. A happy and content family. 11. What do you think the future will bring? Different political boundaries will emerge; technology will enable different groups of people to help solve world problems; and creativity will leapfrog a real opportunity for innovation in science and the environment. Technology and creativity have to be inextricably linked. 12. Who is someone you really admire and why? Duke of Wellington, the greatest soldier that every lived. 13. What is happending outside your window right now? Beautiful night sky in Loburn, North Canterbury, it’s 1am! 14. What is your favourite breakfast? Homemade meusli, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (organic ofcourse), fruit, live yoghurt. 15. What is the best piece of advice you can give us? Replicate SIFT into the North Island, so that the whole country can benefit from the “Canterbury waste model”. Keep the strong connection between business and community – nuture your people. It’s people that matter and will drive change. SIFT’s Waste SystemThursday, December 17th, 2009 by AdminAt SIFT we are all about waste, reducing how much we have and finding new uses for what we do make. We thought you might like to see what we do with our waste at the SIFT offices. As you can see in the photo below the biggest bin is for recycling plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and cans. All these items are processed with in different ways. Some are processed on shore and some are baled and sent overseas for processing (like glass). This will be emptied weekly into our yellow wheelie bin outside and if we forget to put it kerbside for pick up it can take a month to fill up. Knowing that some of our “recycling” waste goes off shore is also an incentive for reducing this too. The next smallest bin on the left is our compost bin. All our tea bags, tissues, brown paper bags, toilet rolls and left over food from lunches goes into this bin and is taken to Linda’s compost bin on her farm in Loburn. The worms love it. And lastly, the tiny mini wheelie bin in the middle is for Kate Valley landfill. This is everything that can’t be recycled, reused or composted. Things like staples, cellotape, courier bags and filmy plastic. It is kept this small to remind us to reduce what we send to Kate Valley and to remind us that our waste does go somewhere. It probably gets emptied fortnightly into the red wheelie bin outside. We also have a shredder (not shown) for confidential documents and this paper is also taken to Linda’s compost bin. As well as reducing waste we are conscious of what we bring into the office. Being conscious of what you consume, the packaging and where your waste goes is the first step in reducing your waste. We are a small team but still have an impact on waste. We would love to know what you do in your work to reduce waste and be more sustainable too.
 SIFT's Rubbish System L-R Compost, Kate Valley Landfill, Recycling Paper as part of a sustainable future.Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 by Admin
As stated in a previous post we use a lot of paper – 945,499 tonnes (221kg per person per year) in the year March 31 2009 (Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry Annual Pulp, Paper and Production) The pink Spicers booklet talks about sustainable production and that use of paper is good because it comes from a renewable resource and is made from the offcuts of timber not the rounds. There are standards and accreditations that paper mills can go through (and printers too) such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council certified) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and Environmental Choice New Zealand. And some mills even produce their own energy on site and recycle their water. The key is to choose the right paper for your product and even look into the design of your document to reduce wastage. Use paper consciously and recycle what you don’t use. And find an environmentally conscious printer.
Here are a couple of interesting stats from the booklet: “Per tonne of paper produced, energy consumption is down by 21%, greenhouse gas emisions by 22% and water cosnumption by 63% internationally since 1990.” “New Zealanders recycle and reuse 78% of our waste paper and board, the highest recovery rate for used paper in the world.” “Reading a newspaper can consume 20% less carbon than viewing news online” (Swedish Royal Institute for Technology)
We think that using digital technologies to communicate has a smaller footprint than paper but it can have a major impact. Think of all the e-waste (toxins and chemicals leaching into landfill), mining of material to make electronics, the energy used (and emissions expended) to run the technology. When you compare this with the sustainable and renewable paper industry “you can see why the print vs digital issue is far from clear-cut environmentally” says the booklet. Definitely something to think about.
Practical Action – Office Stationery AmnestyFriday, December 11th, 2009 by AdminNow is the perfect time to put the word out in your office for all unwanted and unused stationery to be brought back to the stationery cupboard. Imagine all those pens, pencils, notepads, paper clips and gluesticks floating about in desk drawers that aren’t being used. Once you have the stationery back you can work out what you no longer need to buy. This will save your organisation money and save resources used in making new stationery. And ulimately reduce the amount of waste from stationery because you didn’t need to buy more to add to the pile! Reduction in comsumption = reduction in waste.  Pen chandelier from ecofriend.org The Good Green Christmas Present – Good Magazine SubscriptionThursday, December 10th, 2009 by Admin The Good Green Christmas Present - Good Magazine We love Good Magazine at SIFT so much that we think it is an ideal Christmas present. Packed with well written editorial, articles and features as well as superb recipes and “real” ways to make changes to your life so that you live with a lower impact. Good Magazine is perfecto for those in your family who need to be started on the sustainable living education path, those who are newbies or those that are well on their way. Love it! This months faves are the articles on cycling (we need to change to a more pro-cycling culture), on improving the health and longevity of our bees (we need the bees), on reducing your emissions by 10% in 2010 (totally doable) and the DIY outside cushion seat made out of old plastic jackets and plastic bags. And not to mention the great “The Good Shopping Handbook” with over 100+ Green, healthy and ethical products. Our motto at SIFT is to reduce waste you need to reduce your consumption but when you need to make purchase make sure it is an informed and low impact one. Practical Action – International Buy Nothing DayThursday, November 26th, 2009 by Admin International Buy Nothing Day If reducing your consumption is still a habit that you’re trying to break try not buying anything for just one day to see what happens. The easiest way to reduce the level of our waste going to landfill is to stop purchasing, stop consuming. Full Stop. It’s that easy. (It is also a really good way to tackle climate change). But humans are driven by desires and needs (or wants) and purchasing/consuming can sometimes be fulfilling – at least we think it is fulfilling. But, there are many other ways to live a good life that doesn’t involve consuming and the side effects create a healthier planet and healthier people. So, this week’s Practical Action is to take part in Adbusters’ International Buy Nothing Day. This campaign has been going for a few years now and calls on millions of the world’s population to buy nothing for 24 hours. They are also asking for everyone to unplug as well. Turn off all appliances, lights, cell phones, the internet, computers and anything else that depletes the world’s resources. Adbusters: “We want you to not only stop buying for 24 hours, but to shut off your lights, televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off of your computer for the day. We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.” You never know what the day might bring – closer connection to family and friends, old clothes and “stuff” that you forget you had that you could reuse, finishing that project you have been meaning to get to, a day in the garden, reading your favourite book again, increased awareness of how your actions impact the environment and everything that lives in it, peace and quiet from the world for just one day. You will also have reduced your impact on the environment. After one day of not spending it becomes easier and you might start to find that life is nicer this way! Our motto is to be a conscious consumer when you do consume (question if you really need it, can you use something else, can you buy second hand, fair trade, recycled etc). By not consuming for one day you can move towards this way of life. Start by recognising how you consume and then start to change this. There are lots of different actions happening across the world which you can check out here. Let us know what you get up to for the day. |
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