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Posts Tagged ‘consumption’
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.
Tags: Christmas, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, office, recycle, reduce, reuse, SIFT, waste
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Tuesday, 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.
Tags: community, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, Green Collar Jobs, linda norris, Loburn, SIFT, sustainable initiatives, waste, Waste Management
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by Admin
At 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
Tags: compost, consumption, Kate Valley Landfill, recycling, reduce, SIFT, waste
Posted in SIFT, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 by Admin
 We recently met up with our local Spicers paper rep who gave us all the recycled paper samples available at the moment. She also had this great little booklet called “Paper is the future – Love paper.” Paper is a resource that we consume a lot of and even though it was promoted and touted as the new way to live we have not become a paperless society (with all the new technology). People still print emails (and sometimes you need to), reports, documents, booklets, magazines etc – hundreds of thousands of reams of paper. We love the tactile nature of paper and holding it in your hands. It is also excellent at communicating, educating, motivating and story telling.
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.
Tags: choice, consumption, ewaste, forests, paper, renewable, Spicers, sustainable, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009 by Admin
Now 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
Tags: amnesty, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, money, notepads, pencils, pens, recycling, reduction, save, stationery, unwanted, waste, Waste Management
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Thursday, 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.
Tags: 10% by 2010, bees, Christmas, consumption, cycling, Good Magazine, presents, sustainable living, tips, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Thursday, 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.
Tags: Adbusters, climate change, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environment, humans, International Buy Nothing Day, landfill, purchasing, resources, waste
Posted in Events, News on Sustainability, Waste Management | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by Admin
Radio New Zealand National is somewhat underrated for its level of interesting, informative and on-trend information. This past Saturday This Way Up looked into the amount of food waste that there is each year, where it comes from and what we can do. They state that there are no reliable figures from the Ministry for the Environment for food waste in New Zealand but site a 2003 Australian study that said that 13% of all waste is from food – that’s around $500 per person per year. They go on to say that this ofcourse has a significant impact on the levels of Methane in our landfills which is around 35 times more impactful and damaging than CO2 in the atmosphere.
In 2008, in Christchurch, 23% of our waste is “kitchen” waste which we can assume will be mostly food, that has gone to landfill. That’s 50,000 kg of organics that could have been composted (there are no figures on how much comes from household and how much from producers, manufacturers and retailers).
 Waste by Tristram Stuart This Way Up interviewed Tristram Stuart who wrote the book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal who talks about how the UK government “raked through 2000 homes” in order to see what was in their rubbish and the impact of food waste from retailers and manufacturers. He also discusses how the UK government carried out an educational campaign on how to reduce their food waste (such as food storage, cooking and using left overs) and it worked saving many hundreds of millions of pounds.
This Way Up then they interviewed both Foodstuffs and Progressive (although Foodstuff didn’t give an interview and stated it “didn’t have any figures on the problem” of food waste from the supermarkets). Progressive state that nationally they are sending 20,000 tonnes of food waste to landfill and that “they are actively monitoring and measuring this”.
Interestingly, Progressive are looking to reduce their carbon footprint by 40% by 2014 on 2006 levels and to reduce their food waste by 1%. Progressive are also rolling out a feedstock programme so that their organic food waste goes to livestock and have given manager’s the opportunity to reduce prices that have gone past their sell by date (nothing is sold that has gone past its used by date and they discuss the health and safety around products that have gone past their used by date but could still be okay to eat and they are looking into a programme that can give this healthy but gone past its used by date to the needy). They are also using better food ordering and waste reporting systems.
This is an interesting insight into food waste in New Zealand and we feel there is a quite a gap in knowledge on our food waste.
 Food Waste that can still by eaten Source: Flickr JBloom
Tags: climate change, CO2, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, food waste, Foodstuffs, kitchen, methane, organics, Progressive, RadioNZ National, This Way Up, Tristram Stuart, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by Admin
Only 3.5 days to go to enter the e-waste competition so get your entry in now. We have two iPod Nanos as the prizes and you can enter online here.
We have already had some great entries but would love to get some more ideas.
Tags: competition, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, ewaste, recycle, reduce, reuse, SIFT
Posted in SIFT Projects, Waste Management | No Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 by Admin
 Kiwi Christmas Card from Mapua Trading Co Seems a little odd to be thinking of Christmas this far out but in order to reduce waste for Christmas you need to do a little bit of planning. Here are a few ideas on how to reduce waste this Christmas (and will help save $ too):
- Christmas Cards – Christmas Cards are the first Christmas task to think about (especially with looming postal dates for overseas friends and family (only a couple of weeks to go). The Packaging Accord estimates that 68 million christmas cards were sent last year which is a lot of trees! Look through your house for any unused Christmas cards and send those, or save last year’s Christmas cards and use the front as your card or make your own cards out of card, fabric, buttons, felt, paint, crayons – what ever is already in your house. If you have children involve them too. They can draw Christmas designs on each of the cards. If you need to buy Christmas cards and envelopes buy those made from recycled paper, made with vegetable dyes and can be composted. Try FernbirdEcostore or Vanilla Soul.
- Any left over food goes into the compost bin. Cooked meats are great for sandwiches for lunches following Christmas day or maybe have a vegetarian Christmas for even lower environmental impact (don’t forget to go organic and free range as much as possible especially the Turkey).
- Use old Christmas Cards as present tags.
- For zero waste Christmas Cards send e-cards instead. Try Paperless Post.
- Wrapping paper – use what you have already, use recycled paper or use newspaper. Only wrapping paper that can be recycled or composted (as most traditional Christmas paper can’t be recycled or composted due to the gloss on the paper and the inks).
- Or try furoshiki – the Japanese tradition of wrapping your presents in reusable cloth.
- Give presents with zero to minimal packaging such as “experience” presents or vegetable seedlings, potted plants or baking.
- Bake and make your own candy.
- Buy a potted Christmas tree that you can reuse over and over for a few years. If you buy a cut down tree remember to put in your Green Bin (if it fits!) or take it to one of the ecodepots in Christchurch (or your local refuse station).
- Use only the decorations you have already or make decorations out of paper bits and old material.
- Buy vintage, second hand or regift an old present.
- Or better yet buy a product that has recycled content – made from something else. Some great ideas here from Mapua Trading Co.
- If you need extra plates, cups and cutlery use compostable products not plastic.
- Make your own crackers. Start saving old toilet paper or paper towel rolls, use old wrapping paper, tissue and ribbon for the outside. You can pick up cracker making kits at local craft stores that will have the cracker element and then add some fair trade chocolate and hand write some jokes or quotes ( there are plenty on the Internet). Then the paper, cardboard rolls and outer wrapping can go in the compost bin.
Christmas is more about family, food and being together than having to worry about giving each other more “stuff” covered in wasted packaging. Give a gift because you care but give a gift that is also careful on the environment. A little bit of planning now will make a difference and create a healthier Christmas that everyone will enjoy. Remember to first reduce your consumption, then reuse what you have already and then recycle.
Love this 12 days to a greener Christmas from the Hawkes Bay Regional Council too.
Tags: Christmas, christmas cards, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, furoshiki, landfill, mapua trading co, paperless post, plastics, presents, recycling, reduce, reuse, second hand, vintage, waste, wrapping paper
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
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