Pile of Old Bikes at Resource Recycling ChCh

The last Friday Favourites for 2010! We all hope you have enjoyed our blogs this year. Have a safe and Merry Christmas and New Year and we shall be back ready for a bumper 2011 on the 5th of January.

• How to reduce waste this festive season from Simple Organic
• Australia’s fantastic plans to help reduce landfill
• Urban indoor gardening
• Sustainable architecture with a twist

*Photo – SIFT

Photo Canterbury Biodiversity website

Photo Canterbury Biodiversity

Following the September 4th 2010 earthquake, many sites within the city which used to be home to large buildings, have been reduced to vacant lots – empty or occupied by rubble. Many of these sites have been turned into car-parking lots, but ECan’s Regional Biodiversity Coordinator, Wayne McCallum, has fronted an initiative which is avoiding the default car parking trend– turning vacant  lots into native plant pocket-parks – Greening the Rubble. The initiative is largely community based, not only transforming vacant spaces into eco-friendly areas, but getting local businesses, schools and organizations, involved and channelling post-quake energy. Currently the vacant Asko area on Victoria Street and the old Para Rubber site on Manchester Street have been selected as pilot projects. Mr McCallum states that not only are the projects an eco-friendly venture, but they also are a good way to “Show community resolve” post-quake.

Keep up to date with the project progress here.

SIFT 2010 Christmas Tree

The 100% Recyclable and Compostable Christmas Tree

Here at the Sustainable Initiatives Fund office we enjoy getting in the Christmas spirit while implementing our core values of sustainability and minimisation of wastestreams. For these reasons, it was fitting for our office Christmas tree to be one which embodies the three R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The ‘tree’ is made from bamboo shoots and assembled with unbleached twine.  We created our own decorations by using outdated business flyers: creating stars, Christmas chain and even a little angel. The decorations were held together and hung with cotton and we added small torn calico bows and finished the look off with a tree-topping star made from old office file dividers. Through creativity we have made a 100% recyclable and compostable* Christmas tree. The finishing product was so good that it will be the face of SIFT’s 2010 Christmas card!

Let us know how you are reducing your waste this Christmas.

Simon Williams

Our latest Green Collar Job Q&A is with Simon Williams. Now, we haven’t actually met (or interacted) with Simon (yet) but we have with Sue Coutts (from Wanaka Wastebusters) who passed on the Green Collar Job Q&A to a few of the people who work for Wastebusters and Simon is one of them. He is the Enviroschools Facilitator, Zero Waste Educator and graphic designer  at Wanaka Wastebusters.

Education for sustainability is Simon’s thing. For the last 3 – 4 years he has facilitated EfS within the Lakes District of Aotearoa, New Zealand, with the local early childhood, primary, high schools, youth groups & community. He delivers the Enviroschools and Zero Waste Education programmes with passion, energy and commitment. Simon loves working at Wanaka Wastebusters, the dynamic and energetic way of working really suits. When he’s not immersed in EfS he uses his graphic design and photography skills to promote sustainable living to his community.

Simon is part of a growing number of people who are using their skills to further sustainable living ideals – thanks Simon for your answers!

1.    What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life?
I try to minimise my waste, am conscious of home energy consumption, I buy quality products that I expect to last a long time.

2.    How do you live more sustainably at work?
Print as little as possible, recycle and compost my waste, make the most of travelling, using the least amount of energy possible, promote sustainable practices to many people  I work with.

3.    What do you  think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand?
That more, big and economic growth are best.

4.    What makes you smile?
snowboarding, amongst many other things, and the colour yellow.

5.    What is your biggest pet peeve?
People talking using only clichés and power terms, it tells me they don’t fully understand what they are talking about and it’s so ambiguous….grrrrrrrrrrrrr

6.  What is your favourite colour and why?
White because it is a combination of every colour…….then yellow because it makes me smile

7.    Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why?
2nd pipe at Treble cone……it’s so much fun

8.    What’s your connection to SIFT?
I don’t have one

9.    Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite?
I’ve had many favourite teachers, the ones who inspire me to change the way I think and question my staid opinions

10.    What do you want to leave behind?
Inspiration

11.    What do you think the future will bring?
Fun and lots of smiles on top of many heart wrenching tears

12.    Who is someone you really admire and why?
Richard Feynman – One of the world greatest thinkers with the ability to communicate amazingly complex things with everyone in a fun and engaging fashion.

13.    What is happening outside your window right now?
I don’t have a window right now.

14.    What is your favourite breakfast?
Full English

15.    What is the best piece of advice you can give us?
Don’t talk to me in clichés

Fashion Trade - www.countryroad.com

Following on from Olivia’s blog on the Lyttleton Harbour Festival of lights and the ‘clothing swap-o-rama-rama’, we have found out that there is another opportunity for eco-friendly fashionistas to pay it forward with their well worn duds.

Introducing the launch of Fashion Trade on 1st July, being run by Country Road in co-operation with the Red Cross. Fashion Trade is a clothing donation program that focuses on rewarding Country Road customers, and their social conscience, by giving a $10 Country Road voucher to be spent in store on any item over $50 in value, when clothes are donated to the Red Cross (must include at least one Country Road item of clothing). Country Road is an international brand with 11 stores throughout New Zealand. The clothes are going directly to the Red Cross which has 6 shops in the Canterbury region, so you can be sure that your donation is reaching people in who are in need. More information on Fashion Trade here.  Or to find out more about the work of Red Cross visit www.redcross.org.nz

Spare a thought to the effects textiles have on local landfill every year: Textiles waste accounted for 4% of all waste to landfill in the 2007/08 year, which to make more tangible  equates to approximately 126,000 tonnes. Think about every time you overfill your suitcase to go on holiday (it is about that much added to landfill per person per year).

Follow Country Road’s lead, and ask your favourite clothing retailers what they are doing to minimise the amount of textile waste that is landing in Canterbury’s landfills. As the consumers, our power is in our wallets; by preferring to spend with the brands that instill a social conscience and are actually reducing their impact on the environment, than less environmentally aware brands who are sure to follow suit.

This got us thinking of all the cool ways to reinvent your current wardrobe, or tips to reduce the amount of textile waste that is being sent to landfill.

1) Have a swapping session – (This really is one for the ladies!) – but it requires no money to change hands, just a big enough lounge to sprawl all of your no longer worn clothes, and sitting room for who ever else is invited to swap your clothes with. Beware, it can get ugly!

2) Quality over quantity. In a buy now society, sometimes it is hard to resist opening up the wallet and splurging on the current must haves. Restricting your buying to fewer, higher quality purchases, will ensure that they last beyond one winter and will take a lot longer before they reach landfill.

3) Be environmentally conscious when choosing what your clothes are made out of – We have wools from numerous animals,  bamboo, mercot, cotton and hemp to name a few, these natural fibers wear beautifully – and if you shop carefully, a lot of labels are now listing their fair trade inclusion – so you know the farmers and manufacturers are getting a just deal too. So you no longer need to buy anything with poly in the ingredients list.

4) Buy vintage and second hand. There are lots of great second hand and vintage stores around Canterbury including places like Save Mart and also online like Trademe.

Ordance Survey Womhole - Lucy Martin via How to be a Retronaut

Today is Earth day – a day to recognise our home, how we live in it and how we can take care of it. I spent the morning visiting a couple of key players in the Canterbury recycling industry to get a first hand account of what people are doing and will post about those visits later. But, for the moment it is time to take a deep breath in and look around at our environment, our life support and how we can make it healthier. Recycling, reducing our consumption to reduce our waste, positive sustainability actions in your local community and taking a moment everyday to be on Earth are just some of the ways that you can live Earth Day everyday.

Here are some pre Friday Favourites links just for Earth Day:

• Here is a link to the Earth Day Action Centre where you can have your green action counted and get lots of other ideas.
• Re-Nest – 10 items that we could all live without.
• Add the Earth and all its resources on your #GratitudeList from No Impact Man.
• Look to reduce your carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 – we can all do it.
• Need more earth friendly living ideas – check out Project Litefoot.
• For local resources and education check out the Sustainable Living organisation.

The first step is to recognise where your resources for living come from (local, national, global), how you use them (efficiently?, share?) and then what happens to them when they become waste (where does the waste go? what impact does that have?). Start wondering and asking questions. At every point in your life you are having an impact on the Earth and it is time to reduce that impact and improve the health of the planet for the generations to come.

Happy Earth Day!

Brenda Harkin is the National Communications Manager and the Manager of the Central & Southern Regions for the Sustainable Business Network, of which SIFT is a member. The Sustainable Business Network pomotes sustainable business practices, helps businesses to become more sustainable  and provides a forum for people to talk about sustainble business practices, tools and ideas. You can find out more about what they do here and become a member here. The Sustainable Business Network is a valuable organisation for a sustainable future for New Zealand. Here are Brenda’s answers to our Green Collar Job questions:

1.    What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life?
I endeavour to incorporate sustainable living choices in all areas of my life; from choosing eco-friendly cleaning products, to growing organic vegetables with my homemade compost.  During recent home renovations, I researched sustainable options with regards to hot water heating, showerheads, and insulation and so on.  We have two children so we spend time educating them around sustainability and helping them to understand the potential positive and negative impacts our choices have on our environment.

2.    How do you live more sustainably at work?
The whole purpose of the Sustainable Business Network, the organisation I’m employed by, is to help businesses to succeed through sustainability.  Inherently, everything I do links back to this purpose.  On a more personal level, SBN staff endeavour to ‘walk the talk’ at every turn and this manifests itself in managing work/life balance, office purchasing decisions, advancing sustainable action, and so on.

3.    What do you think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand?
The biggest challenge we face around sustainability is apathy.  Inaction and disinterest are the environment’s largest threat.

4.    What makes you smile?
The funny things my children say in complete innocence and at top volume, for example: ‘Mum, why does that woman’s hair look like a lion’s mane?’…oh dear!

5.    What is your biggest pet peeve?
People who complain about the world or their lives, but fail to take a stand and instigate the action necessary to facilitate change.  Paraphrasing Mahatma Gandhi, ‘If you want to see the change, you have to be the change.’

6.    What is your favourite colour and why?
Actually, its green…and surprisingly, it doesn’t relate to any green affiliations; I just like the colour!
7.    Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why?
In New Zealand, it would have to be Matapouri Beach in Northland; one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting.  My partner’s family is from Whangarei so we usually spend Christmas holidays there.  If I’m thinking further afield, then I would have to say that I love returning to my hometown of Dublin, Ireland.  There’s just something special about the view of Dublin Bay as you descend into the airport that makes me feel like I’ve come home.  And as the youngest of seven siblings, it’s marvellous to spend time with my extended family as well.

8.    What’s your connection to Sift?
One aspect of my role with the Sustainable Business Network is Southern Regional Manager.  Sift is one of SBN’s members based in the Southern Region.

9.    Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite?
My favourite teacher was when I was about eight years old – her name was Miss Bergin.  She wasn’t long out of teaching college from memory and she was just so LOVELY; she still had a wonderful enthusiasm which some teachers unfortunately lose over time.  Added to this was the fact that since I attended a Catholic Girls School, a reasonable portion of my teachers were strict nuns!

10.    What do you want to leave behind?
A life well-lived with no regrets.

11.    What do you think the future will bring?
I’m an optimist by nature so I have complete faith that the human race will make the necessary changes to ensure that the world will amend its flawed ways.  There is a huge groundswell evident at present and it’s only a matter of time before we reach critical mass.  Then, the people who care about sustainability will outnumber those who don’t and positive change is inevitable.

12.    Who is someone you really admire and why?
I really admire anyone who is willing to take a stand against wrongful activities, whether that’s where environmental issues or human rights are being concerned.  As a pacifist, I don’t support violent protest, but believe that the way to instigate change is to engage in meaningful dialogue with the affected parties and present reasoned arguments in an undeniably convincing manner.

13.    What is happening outside your window right now?
The sun is shining and, since its school holidays, there are lots of children around town laughing and having fun.  Oh to be young and free again…

14.    What is your favourite breakfast?
Despite being Irish and hating the taste of it upon my initial arrival in NZ, I’m proud to say that I’m now a ‘two slices of toast with marmite’ aficionado.  Now that’s what I call black gold…

15.    What is the best piece of advice you can give us?
Take a stand, embrace sustainability at home, at work and in your community, leave apathy behind…the rewards you’ll reap (environmental, social and economic) will far outweigh the efforts expended along the way.

Thanks Brenda for your wonderful, meaningful and thought provoking answers. We look forward to continuing our relationship with you into the future.

Newspaper as Wallpaper from Re-Nest

Happy Friday! Here are the cool things we have come across this week:

• Recycled Coca-Cola bottles made into a chair on Re-Nest.
• What to do with old books here.
• Emily Harris from Sustainability and the City asks why we can’t opt out of receiving phone books.
• Genius technology that recycles old bricks and concrete into new bricks!
• This is what Christchurch needs – better storage facility for its bikes. Check out what the Japanese are doing.
• Buy in bulk? Here is a great idea so you can reuse your storage containers – from Re-Nest.
• The future of publishing – a great insight into the next generation on the wonderful Minimonos site. Makes us smile!
• Turn a tshirt into a scarf - great winter idea.
• Buildings made of waste here.
• Beth from Fake Plastic Fish discusses how to store food without using plastic here. It would be great to find glass or stainless steel containers suitable for food storage and like the containers Beth links to in New Zealand – we are on the hunt.

Every couple of years for the past decade or so the Scape Biennial of Art in Public Space opens in Christchurch for a number of weeks showcasing “contempory art in public space” by a large and diverse group of artists from around the world. In the past they have showcased art works that have highlighted waste and/or sustainability issues and as we have showcased international waste artists before we thought it would be nice to see what has been showcased in New Zealand.

In 2006 Happy Happy by Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa was positioned under the trees in the serene and picturesque Christchurch Botanical Gardens (lovely spot). It was an interactive piece that asked the public to bring in objects made of plastic in bright colours and attach them to a wire cage. The art was about recognising the number and types of synthetic elements in our lives, our plastic consumption and the “rapidly changing aspects of industrialised and consumer economies”. You can read more about the artwork here.

Happy Happy (2006) Choi Jeong-Hwa

Happy Happy (2006) Choi Jeong-Hwa

In 2008 Tea Mäkipää produced an artwork called Petrol Engine Memorial Park that “honours” the oil and petrol industries and the impact that they have had on the environment and human beings.  You can read more here. This artwork was in the Christchurch Art Centre and included an old car covered in vines as well as memorial plaques placed to highlight our species ability to be destructive both to ourselves, our environment and others. Not strictly a waste related artwork it still had  strong environmental, sustainable living and human survival messaging.

Tea Mäkipää, PETROL ENGINE MEMORIAL PARK: For Mouring the Oil Era and its Victims

Tea Mäkipää, PETROL ENGINE MEMORIAL PARK: For Mouring the Oil Era and its Victims

Tea Mäkipää, PETROL ENGINE MEMORIAL PARK: For Mouring the Oil Era and its Victims

Tea Mäkipää, PETROL ENGINE MEMORIAL PARK: For Mouring the Oil Era and its Victims

Tea Mäkipää, PETROL ENGINE MEMORIAL PARK: For Mouring the Oil Era and its Victims – images by Brendan Lee and copyright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu

Prof. Emeritus Arthur Williamson

Long time SIFT Trustee, Professor Emeritus Arthur Williamson is our Green Collar Job Q&A for this week. Arthur Williamson is the founder of Thermocell, one of New Zealand’s leading solar water heating manufacturer and also former head of Chemical and Process Engineering and Dean of Engineering at the University of Canterbury. He has conducted extensive research on thermodynamics, industrial energy management and solar energy (and taught others on the subjects) for over 30 year. He is a wonderful source of information, expertise and insight to the science, technology and business management  of  SIFT projects. You can read more about Arthur here.

1.    What do you do to live more sustainably (with a low impact) in your life?
I try to reduce my domestic energy consumption by using efficient methods of doing things around the house like heating, lighting and refrigeration. I have solar water heating installed in my home. I also avoid fashion and trends so I wear my clothes until they are worn out – some of my items of clothing have patches especially on the elbows.

2.    How do you live more sustainably at work?
I try to minimise my use of paper but not very successfully and am conscious of the waste produced and turn my computer off when I am not in the office.

3.    What do you  think is the biggest environmental issue we need to deal with in Christchurch/New Zealand?
What relates to Christchurch are things that are of global significance such as vehicle fuel use – our use of fossil fuels for transport. And our expansion of the major ruminants in the interests of economic development which leads to excess water use, waterway pollution and the evolution of large amounts of extremely bad greenhouse gas called methane.

4.    What makes you smile?
Jokes based on incongruity, which most are.

5.    What is your biggest pet peeve?
My biggest pet peeve would be our obsession with monetary evaluation of all decision making processes.

6.    What is your favourite colour and why?
Red because that’s what colours Ferraris are.

7.    Do you have a favourite place in the world? Describe why?
My two favourite places are our holiday home in Bealey Spur and our house in Christchurch.

8.    What’s your connection to SIFT?
I am a long time SIFT Trustee.

9.    Do you remember your favourite teacher and why they were your favourite?
My fourth form science class teacher at High School (Hutt Valley High) because she encouraged me to become a scientist.

10.    What do you want to leave behind?
Your real immortality is your children and your grandchildren.
Whatever else you do is going ephemeral and will fade – almost all of the science I have done has been surpassed and is now out of date. I would like to think I have left behind some things that will influence the country for a better future, what those are I don’t know.

11.    What do you think the future will bring?
I think the future will bring a recognition that we do need to reduce the population of the planet, it’s a major part of sustainability. Whether we can achieve that without killing each other off in resource wars will be a matter for the politicians.

12.    Who is someone you really admire and why?
Bob Scott, one of my former bosses, is probably one of the most honest, clear thinking people I know.

13.    What is happening outside your window right now?
The sun is shining.

14.    What is your favourite breakfast?
Cup of tea, toast and marmalade.

15.    What is the best piece of advice you can give us?
Just keep trying.