Once again the Daily Green have come up with a great article on : Patio Paradise: How to start a container garden. by Brian Clark Howard.
Whether you want fresh flowers, veggies or simply some greenery, spruce up your terrace, balcony, deck or other space. Nearly everyone can enjoy the benefits of organic gardening, and perhaps sow seeds of a vertical gardening revolution. Read the rest of this entry »
Sustainability is the new business buzzword but companies benefit big-time from paying more than just lip service.
Evidence is mounting to suggest that organisations that embrace sustainability do as well as, or better than, their competitors. For example, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index has outperformed the market over the past five years.
How can this be so? It costs more to be a sustainable business, doesn’t it?
Surprisingly, many ‘green’ measures adopted by business cost little, if anything. Recycling, and making an effort to reduce your office waste are examples of no-cost greening options.
Other measures that businesses adopt might have a higher initial cost but end up costing less in the long term. Switching to energy saving light bulbs and appliances is an example that comes readily to mind.
Following the “reduce, reuse and recycle” model achieves cost efficiencies for your business. A few of the benefits include greater resource productivity, brand value, reduced risk profile and lower waste management costs. The Stern Report suggests a ballpark figure of 1% of GNP to make significant differences to our present environmental impact. Clearly, being green isn’t really THAT expensive. Read the rest of this entry »
CLEAN Up Australia Day founder Ian Kiernan has stepped up calls for national laws to crack down on e-waste producers, as more than 1 million Australians rolled up their sleeves for the annual litter bust.
Mr Kiernan said it was time the producers of electronic products such as computers and mobile phones were made accountable for the millions of tonnes of e-waste created by obsolete consumer goods.
He wants Australia to follow other countries, such as some in Europe, and introduce national laws that would force manufacturers to take products back once their lifespan expires.
“It’s called extended producer responsibility and when you buy that product the producer of the product has got to have a cradle to grave responsibility for its collection, dismantling and recycling at the end of its life,” Mr Kiernan said.
“This needs to happen right across the board.”
Mr Kiernan said e-waste was being dumped in landfill at three times the rate of other rubbish and was an enormous challenge, particularly with cheap, imported Asian goods that had a short lifespan, and mobile phones that lasted between 18 and 20 months.
Three-quarters of the three million computers bought in Australia every year end up as rubbish, with e-waste responsible for 70 per cent of the toxic chemicals found in landfill, including cadmium and mercury.
Almost 600,000 volunteers took part in the annual clean-up at 7073 sites around the country. Read the rest of this entry »
EPA joins our partners in celebrating National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 7-13.
Ground water flows slowly underground through pore spaces between sand, gravel, and cracks in rock, in underground formations called aquifers. These aquifers supply water that is used for agriculture, feeds our lakes, and recharges our streams and rivers.
More than 90 percent of all public drinking water systems rely on ground water to supply the population with drinking water. And millions of Americans rely on ground water from aquifers to supply their private wells.
The following links can help you learn to protect this vital resource.
If your family gets drinking water from a private well, do you know if your water is safe to drink? What health risks could you and your family face? Where can you go for help or advice?
This Web site will help answer these questions:
The “Citizen’s Guide to Ground Water Protection” encourages citizens to a take an active and positive role in protecting their community’s ground water supplies.
Learn about EPA’s program to protect public health by preventing injection wells, particularly septic systems and shallow drainage wells, from contaminating underground sources of drinking water.
Build your own aquifer in a cup.
Teachers and parents – help kids visualize ground water through this classroom activity. Our Web page provides step-by-step instruction.
The purpose of the rule is to reduce risks to public health associated with disease-causing microorganisms in drinking water.
thanks to United States Environmental Protection Agency: National Ground Water Awareness Week, March 7-13, 2010
How to get involved
There are a number of ways to be part of the 20th anniversary of Clean Up Australia Day. Whether you want to go out and about and do a Clean Up or donate to the organisation, select an option listed below and get involved today.
Be part of Clean Up Australia Day
They are looking for a record number of volunteers for the 20th anniversary of Clean Up Australia Day – and they need your help. Create your own site or find a site to volunteer at, every action makes a difference.
The 3 steps below show you how easy it is to make Clean Up Australia Day 2010 the most successful ever.
Get involved: CHECK OUT THE CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA WEBSITE
Inspiring children to care for the environment is a vital part of Clean Up Australia. Since 1992 Schools Clean Up Day has allowed school students to participate in Clean Up Australia as part of their school community.
The 2009 Schools Clean Up Day saw students from more than 2300 schools take part.
Let’s make the 2010 Schools Clean Up bigger and better than ever!
All registered schools will be posted a Schools Clean Up kit with practical advice to help plan the day.
2010 Green Teacher Award
Know a teacher whose environmental projects inspire their school community?
Nominate them for the 2010 Green Teacher Award. Each state and territory winner will receive a prize and go in to the running to win the grand prize as Australia’s Greenest Teacher.
They have never had a nomination from ACT, TAS and NT so this year they are looking for their first nominees! For more information please click here or to nominate a teacher for 2010 click here.
for more information check out Clean up for Schools
South Africa is trying to ‘green’ the World Cup, but local efforts are struggling to balance out the enormous carbon emissions caused by holding the tournament at the tip of the continent.
Natural ventilation, rain water capture, energy efficiency: the new stadiums built for Africa’s first World Cup incorporate top-notch environmental standards.
The cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban have also planted thousands of trees to capture the carbon dioxide blamed for global warming.
Durban is the most ambitious of the nine host cities, planning to compensate for local carbon emissions by producing electricity from hydraulic turbines or biogas emitted by landfills.
Under the system of “carbon credits”, these projects will take two and a half years to offset the emissions caused by hosting the tournament in Durban, said Nicci Diederichs, head of the city’s green programmes. Read the rest of this entry »
The banana is the nations most wasted food, a new report showed.
Fruit, salad and vegetables are the most wasted items in the weekly shopping basket with the banana in top place, closely followed by fresh milk, according to the latest research.
People living in cities generally waste the most food but the worst culprits are city-dwelling single men, aged between 25 and 35, who waste food worth an average of £17.43 a month, the data found.
The countrywide survey by business intelligence company, Retail Active, says the South East of England has the highest food waste tally, second is the North West and the area with the least wastage is Scotland.
It says a family of four throws away an average of £15.70 worth of food every month but people aged over 57 are the least wasteful, throwing away an average of just £3.36 per month.
Retail Actives managing director, Julian Chamberlain said: The amount of food we waste is a serious issue. Our survey helps to pinpoint who are the worst offenders, the most considerate and the most wasted items. The poor old banana came top.
Fresh meat and uneaten prepared food are also high on the wastage list. Tinned food is the least wasted. We used our vast database to conduct a poll of a representative sample of 2000 people and it gives us some fascinating insights.
Nearly three quarters of the responders said they believed their food waste had little or no consequence for the environment. Forty per cent actually think food waste is good for the economy because it keeps production moving. Seventy seven per cent said they do not consider the impact on the global environment when buying food.
The main reasons for food waste were identified as poor planning, busy lifestyles, bad habits, laziness and too large portion sizes for both ready to eat and prepared food.
Only six per cent of the purchasers polled checked sell-by dates but of those that did, the vast majority, 92 per cent, chose food from the rear of the shelf to get maximum food freshness.
Telegraph.com.uk: Banana is most wasted food
The aviation industry is often criticized for contributing to global warming through airplane exhaust. But waste of a different kind also has the potential to create environmental problems.
Even before they board, air travelers throw away trash of all sorts — including paper, plastic and food waste — and airports and airlines recycle only a small portion of it.
An estimated 7.5 million pounds of trash is generated every day. While the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, says that 75 percent of that trash is recyclable, it has found that only 20 percent reaches a recycling center.
“It does not make sense to acquire oil from the Middle East or the north slope of Alaska and turn it into a plastic bottle, use it once and throw it away,” said Allen Hershkowitz, a scientist at the council.
The council’s figures are from 2006, but are the most recent. The lack of current data was one concern of the Air Transport Association and the Airports Council International. They persuaded the Transportation Research Board, an adviser to the federal government, last November to determine what prevented airports from embracing recycling since travelers seemed to want it.
Recycling procedures vary by airline and airport. Environmental programs involve many entities: airports, municipalities, private waste companies and federal security agencies. As a result, each of the nation’s 552 commercial airports has its own way of handling waste. Read the rest of this entry »
Minister for Fair Trading Peter Lawlor and Police Minister Neil Roberts have urged Queenslanders to take care when disclosing their personal and financial details for the launch of National Consumer Fraud Week which starts today.
Minister for Fair Trading Peter Lawlor and Police Minister Neil Roberts have urged Queenslanders to take care when disclosing their personal and financial details for the launch of National Consumer Fraud Week which starts today.
Fraud Week, which will run from 1 – 7 March, aims to raise awareness about the serious threat to personal identity and financial security caused by scams and the increase of attacks being carried out online.
Mr Lawlor said thousands of Australians fell victim to scams each year.
“The Office of Fair Trading received 2173 complaints relating to scams in 2009,” Mr Lawlor said.
“This is an increase of more than 800 compared to 2008.
“1 in 20 Australians will be scammed this year, with consumers set to lose more than $1 billion.”
Mr Roberts said the impact of fraud on the community was often underestimated. Read the rest of this entry »
