Blogs

V&A Waterfront wins ETA Energy Efficiency Award

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0100

South Africa’s iconic V&A Waterfront has been awarded the coveted Eskom 2012 ETA Award in the Commercial Category.

Beautiful Burman Bush - One of the Green Zones in KZN

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0100

The Durban municipal Open Space System (D’MOSS) is a system of open spaces, some 74000 hectares of land and water, that incorporates areas of high biodiversity value linked together in a viable network of open spaces.

A taste of how your child can play with a box before you recycle

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Super ideas for parents and teachers! The holidays are coming and it would be wise to play with what you have.

Krill Oil

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0100

‘Save the Whales’ has been the rallying call of greens for at least three decades. Now we can actually do something significant to help Baleen whales, penguins, seals, albatrosses and petrels all of whom rely on krill (a tiny crustacean) which is found in the Antarctic.

BEAUTIFUL BURMAN BUSH – ONE OF THEGREEN ZONES IN KZN

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Infographic: How Eskom is crippling our water

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Coal-fired electricity is a major threat to South Africa’s already stressed water resources – and Eskom’s new mega coal plants are set to make matters even worse.

Theory made practical

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Theoretical chemistry is an unlikely realm to offer alternatives to experimentation on living organisms but work conducted by Dr Isabelle Navizet a post doctoral fellow in the department of chemistry at Wits university, suggests otherwise.

I think the Fat Lady’s going to sing...

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:00:00 +0100

I prefer to write humorous articles, but I’ve found it very difficult lately because there’s so much that needs to be done to mitigate for the future of our kids, yet almost no-one seems to really want to do anything.

Trees for Zambia 2012: where me became we

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Volunteers from all walks of life gathered in Livingstone, Zambia during July 2012 and found common ground in a passion for the environment. Initiated by Cape Town-based Greenpop, we spent three weeks planting 4135 trees; in joining the "treevolution", everyone arrived with something to give, and took away with them a little more ......

Trekking 3000km for trash

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Camilla Howard and Michael Baretta will be spending seven months from October 2012 to April 2013 traversing 3300km of South African coastline on foot. With bins on their backs, these social-change adventurers plan to clean up the beaches and put a spotlight on the hazards of litter. Howard, co-founder of Chez Gourmet, and Baretta, strategic business manager at The Creative Counsel, are ordinary South Africans who have a passion for adventurous travel and a strong desire to drive positive socia...

One small dig in the garden, one giant leap to family freedom...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Aiming to be self-reliant is rarely comfortable or easy. I re-discovered this while cursing flying woodchips mixing with the icy rain running down my neck. A sudden especially cold gust shocked me into remembering that this uncomfortable task was what I had chosen in pursuing this path: to be solely responsible for my family’s warmth and comfort rather than handing that over to some salaried individual far removed from our needs....

Sustaining the energy of hunger as we campaign

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 22:00:00 +0100

In Madiba's foreword of the book so carefully crafted and researched by Anna Trapido calledHunger for Freedom: The story of food in the life of Nelson Mandela, he wrote'I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born to be free. Free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my Mother's hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mielies under the stars........

Who needs merchant bankers when the well’s dry?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:00:00 +0100

We lived for some years in Marin County in California, home of mountain-biking, the hippy movement, organic markets and the Farallones Institute (who converted a suburban house in Berkeley into a fully self-sustaining environment just to prove it could be done).

Evil Spirits killing endangered cycads.

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:00:00 +0100

The presence of cycads on the list of endangered plants is simply another note in the growing litany of plants we might lose and the statistics are bad with 79% of the 261 species of cycads in global decline.

A Few DIY Green Beauty Recipes

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 22:00:00 +0100

It’s always great to spoil yourself at home so I found a few DIY beauty recipes to try on a night in plus they are all so simple.
Glam and Green I'd say!

A few simple tips on how to be Glam and Green

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:00:00 +0100

Small changes, it’s true, the smallest shift in what you do and how you do it can make the world of difference. Here are a few tips on how to become more Glam and Green - easy tools that will help the environment but won’t make a drastic change to your routine.

It’s not easy bein’ green

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:01:00 +0100

You can make fun of Kermit the Frog all you like – he knew what he was talking about. Living an organic (or even eco-friendly) lifestyle isn’t something you can just fall into – it takes a certain amount of effort and dedication. I’ve heard so many people say “Oh, I’ve been meaning to start recycling/buying organic food/using eco-friendly products…but it was just too complicated.”...

On sunshine, cooking and community building

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 22:01:00 +0100

For World Environment Day, SAFCEI staff decided to cook a renewable energy powered office lunch. The idea was to inspire faith communities to follow suite. This simple idea turned into quite an elaborate project!

Hyper spectral remote sensing and the control of invasive water hyacinths

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:01:00 +0100

Gauteng is celebrating the purity of its water which is an achievement of no small measure given the state of our untreated water sources. Whilst we hear how safe our water is what we do not hear is what problems those managing our water face.

Planting trees with Greenpop

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:01:00 +0100

Greenpop is a relatively new organisation whose mission is to plant trees in schools, communities and deforested areas in sub-Saharan Africa. They are based in Cape Town, but are expanding their efforts with an upcoming tree-planting mission to Zambia.

South Africa’s disappearing Frogs

Sat, 19 May 2012 22:01:00 +0100

Frog populations are viewed as ecosystem canaries. Their sensitivity to ecological and climatic change is well established. Until recently SA prided itself on what was thought to be a relatively stable and healthy frog population. A young scientist at Wits, Emily Botts, together with fellow scientists, Barend Erasmus and Graham Alexander recently challenged that assumption....

Do you know what’s in your daily products?

Sat, 19 May 2012 22:01:00 +0100

A supermarket aisle is the ideal place to see people’s priorities illustrated.

Down the food aisles, people are reading ingredients list- checking for artificial colourants, the fat content, is this bag of lettuce organic?

The Big (Green) Issue

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:01:00 +0100

By: Marce du Toit “Hemp” is simply the name given to certain strains of the cannabis genus of plant that does NOT contain the psychoactive cannabinoid delta-9-tetrahyrdocannibol (THC) which is responsible for getting you high; on the contrary, these “industrial” strains contain high amounts of Cannabidiol (CBD), another cannibinoid that has actually been shown to block the effects of THC on the nervous system. So why the big fuss, or why should we fuss over a plant that’s only going ...

Testing the waters: Why there is a need for correct information for eco research

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:01:00 +0100

By: Linda SchonknechtMisinformation is a very dangerous thing. Without access to different angles and perspectives and solid research, we are left with nothing more than rumours, name calling and misdirected anger. Often, when research projects are involved, there can be an overload of misinformation from every angle. Here I offer my personal opinion as to why this is the case....

How to survive the need to thrive

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:01:00 +0100

By: Sophie Whiteley Sometimes we just feel like giving up. Even though our dreams might be grand and would make us happier than anything, the pressure of trying to attain them and the anxiety of having to wait for them to materialise is sometimes just unbearable. It seems as though we are stagnating or, even worse, moving backwards....