consumption » Sift Blog
Posts Tagged ‘consumption’
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 by Admin
 Green is Life from Flickr: Neirolf (very busy...) There is a new generation of employees who want to work for companies and organisations that align to their values: sustainable business practices, conscious strategies, positive environmental impact, reduction in carbon emissions and resource use, community and social responsibility practices, meaningful work, flexible, nimble and open to change, innovative and no greenwash. (Coined Generation M by Umair Haque).
Do these types of organisations/employers exist in Canterbury? Can employees green their employers or will they have to move and where to? Where are the truly good organisations that are going to lead Canterbury and New Zealand into a future where the way we live will be completely different to the past few decades? A paradigm shift needs to occur in order for us to reduce our emissions, reduce our waste and live more sustainably but who are the organisations that can help us create the new future? SIFT is definitely one of them.
We would love to know where and who these employers and organisations are? Email us or leave a comment of the organisations you are proud to work for or proud to know and why. Is your employer green and environmental focussed or someone who thinks they are green but aren’t?
Tags: climate change, consumption, environmental sustainability, Green Collar Jobs, SIFT, sustainable employment, sustainable future
Posted in Business & Sustainability | No Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009 by Admin
 Source: enniomorry11 Flickr We are now fully into Spring and many people will be getting their vegetable beds and new plants into their gardens. Instead of developing piles of different sized plant pots in your back shed or garage after taking out the plants or seedlings return them to the garden centre you bought them from.
On a recent trip to Southern Woods I noticed that they were now taking back their plastic plant pots for a small discount on your next purchase. This is a great way to reduce your plastic waste and ensure that the pots get reused over and over. And will also lessen the demand for the production of new pots which will reduce the environmental impact of pot manufacturing (energy, resources and waste).
Check with your local garden centre if they have pot take back/recycling scheme (even if they won’t give a discount it is still worth returning them) – just make sure you take back the plant pots that originally came from that garden centre and they are clean and not chipped or broken in anyway.
 Source: willdobson Flickr If you have pots that you can’t take back re-use them in the garden to raise seedlings such as tomatoes, chillies, squash and other plants before planting them in the garden.
With gardening (particularly growing vegetables) becoming more popular there will be a growing number of pots being manufactured and wasted. Garden waste in this form will become more of an issue so it is worth thinking ahead before buying – maybe sow seeds instead for veges.
Reduce then reuse then recycle.
Tags: consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, gardening, plant pots, plastics, recycle, waste
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009 by Admin
Here is a guest blog post from MiniMonos – all about our favourite environmentalist Melissa Clark-Reynolds and her new project MiniMonos.
An Inconvenient Truth for Canterbury kids.
 Melissa Clark-Reynolds Watching Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in a Christchurch movie theatre changed the course of Melissa Clark-Reynolds’ life and led to the creation of MiniMonos, a virtual world for good green kids.
Prior to this, Melissa already had a string of entrepreneurial successes. She established Fusion, a health and safety and ACC consultancy which became New Zealand’s largest private accident compensation insurer. Melissa was the General Manager of Fusion and sold her interest in the Alliance to Southern Cross Healthcare. She had also successfully turned around and scaled previously struggling technology companies.
Deeply moved while watching An Inconvenient Truth, Melissa decided to contact ex-US Vice President Al Gore to offer her help. Having absolutely no idea how she was going to get his attention, she contacted everyone she knew, trusting that somehow six degrees of separation would prevail. After a huge amount of persistence, she remembered that her friend’s husband worked for Mr Gore. Incredibly, when she reached out for an introduction to husband, she found out that her friend was actually Executive Director of The Climate Project, a network of 2,500 climate awareness ambassadors, all personally trained by Mr Gore. In 2007, Melissa became one of only two New Zealanders to be trained to present The Inconvenient Truth, and paved the way for more Kiwi presenters to be trained earlier this year.
 Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Al Gore To date, Melissa’s favourite presentations have been in Geraldine and Lawrence – both organised by the rural communities there. One Geraldine farmer, David Musgrave, approached Melissa after her presentation and was inspired to become a Climate Project Ambassador himself, being selected and trained by Al Gore in Melbourne in July this year.
Melissa’s environmental activism is reflected in her virtual world, MiniMonos (”Little Monkeys” in Spanish). Says Melissa: “We wanted to create a world so that children could have a place of their own, a place that allows them to explore and grow without constant pressure to buy stuff. We also wanted them to have a place that embodies core values like sustainability and generosity, without turning those values into a boring lecture.”
Melissa foresees that global warming will create big issues for Canterbury – especially for its water supply. NIWA predicts that the effects on Canterbury will cause our region to become hotter and drier, which has implications for our dairy industry here. “We have to get really serious about energy use. What if the snow and rainfall doesn’t keep coming to Central and Eastern sides of South Island and mostly falls on the West Coast? This will have a huge impact on energy generation from the hydro lakes. Long term predictions for continued snowfall at Mt Hutt don’t look so good.”
 Melissa Clark Reynolds & Daughter Grace Melissa praises Christchurch initiatives like investigating liquid fuels production and their by-products from the Bromley sewage ponds. “I think ECan (Environment Canterbury) is one of the best Regional Councils in the country, with one of the toughest jobs. They invited me, last month, to talk about implications for Canterbury of climate change – way cool! – the first Regional Council in the country to do so!”
Christchurch City has a Climate Change Change Coordinator, and a real commitment to public transport. Says Melissa: “People need to help their elected officials (i.e. at CCC and ECan) to keep climate change front of mind. If we don’t act sustainably, all the cool stuff we take for granted will be damaged beyond belief. I love the Southern Alps, the lakes and rivers, swimming at Corsair Bay, skiing at Mt Hutt, paddling at Lake Hood. Do we want them there for future generations or do we want to tell our children how Canterbury use to be?”
We’d love you to become part of the MiniMonos community and exlpore MiniMonos Island as it’s being developed – it’s free. Each person who gives MiniMonos feedback in October will give back to a child in need.
Tags: Al Gore, algae biofuel, An Inconvenient Truth, CCC, climate change, consumption, ECan, environmental sustainability, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, sustainable, The Climate Project
Posted in Green Collar Jobs Q&A, Sustainability in Action | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 by Admin
In 2006 3.156 million tonnes of waste went to New Zealand landfills – that’s around 756kg per person per year. 28% of that waste is organic which could be composted at home*. The easiest and most impactful way to decrease the amount of waste that goes to landfill is to reduce our consumption. Here is a great quote from the book Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn (2006) (a bit graphic but you get the point):
“Imaging trying to stem the flow of blood from someone with seven severed arteries using a single bandaid. That’s pretty much what our recycling efforts could be considered as. Often people feel they are doing their bit by recycling plastic bags, glass jars and aluminium cans. There is a false sense of ‘doing your bit’ towards the environment, when it will never staunch the flow, only marginally slow it.”
There are many ways to take action to reduce your use, some we have already talked about. We would love to know what you are doing to reduce waste to landfill.
*Statistics from the Ministry for Environment and Statistics NZ.
Tags: aluminium, consumption, diverting waste from landfill, environmental sustainability, glass, Living the Good Life, plastic, recycling, reduce, tonnes, waste, Waste Management
Posted in Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 1st, 2009 by Admin
 Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff For all those parents at home with kids on holiday here is a great video that they can watch about how our products are made and the process of distribution and disposal as well as the impact on the environment the product has from start to finish. Although from an Amercian view point it is still an eye-opener and makes you stop and think about where every single item you buy comes from, where it goes and how we can be less wasteful and more resource efficient.
Annie Leonard spent 10 years travelling the world asking the questions about where does our stuff come from and this culminated in the wonderfully animated video called The Story of Stuff which you can watch here. It is funny, compelling and makes you want to start changing your ways for a better environment.
When you buy an item whether its food, electronics, clothing or books in its finished state a multitude of processes and people handling has occured (and it has normally travelled around the globe to get to you). When you are thinking of purchasing a product here are some questions to ask first: Where was it made? How was it made? What environmental impacts does the production have on the country it was made in? What were the working conditions like? Were there multiple ingredients from multiple suppliers each with their own environmental impact? How was it packaged to get the shop? What happened to that packaging (did the store recycle it or did it go to landfill)? What is the packaging around the item? How far has it come? Where does all the packaging go once you have unwrapped it? How long will it last before you need to get another one? What happens to the product once you have finished with it? Can it be recycled? If not, why not? What happens to it when it sits in landfill? How long does it take to break down – if at all? What are the environmental effects of your local landfill?….
All these questions (and there are probably more) highlight the complex nature of purchasing a product. And it can become quite overwhelming – it happens to the best of us. Many a time I have stood in the supermarket aisle questioning and comparing products to end up not buying it all or I do buy it and feel guilty because I won’t be able to recycle it or it has a large ecological footprint (you still have to eat).
Here are some ways to get started:
1. Start with one product. Find a good source with reputable social and environmental creditentials who is local and uses recyclable or little packaging and stick with them. Then move on to the next product.
2.Or grow/make/mend your own – much more satisfying than trawling the mall. Scout around the house first for a supplementary item or buy second hand before buying new again.
3. Look for ways to reduce your waste at work or school too.
4. Have a clean out of all your stuff and reduce to what you love, what you use and what you need. Give the rest away or sell on Trademe.
5. Move from valuing stuff to valuing people, your community, your friends and family, your health and the health of the environment. When you are 80 you will remember experiences more than your toaster.
6. Purchase local, organic, sustainable made food and goods.
7. Consume less. Try spending one day a week not buying anything.
By reducing your consumption (and becoming a smarter consumer) you can reduce your waste, reduce your impact on the environment and help to reduce the impact the production of the product has in other countries. Be conscious of what happens to the product to get to the shelves and where it goes when you are finished with it. Start asking questions of your stores and manufacturers. Become informed, question your needs and slowly change your habits for the better. See yesterday’s post for some other great resources.
Let us know what you think of Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff.
Tags: annie leonard, consumption, emissions, grown, holiday, landfill, local, mend, organic, recycle, resource, reuse, SIFT, story of stuff, sustainable, waste
Posted in Sustainability Resources, Sustainability in Action, Waste Management | No Comments »
|
|
   find out more
|
