Just went to a lecture at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the big smoke. It was a training event for work and involved a whole series of talks from architects and others about sustaining identity and using the local identity of a place in modern architecture.

It is such a privilege to be able to do this sort of thing at all. It was such an honour to hear presentations from some of the world’s leading and up and coming architects, from all over the world.

There were speakers from Australia, USA, Venice, India, Sweden, South Africa, Chile, UK + the introductions were given by the Guardian’s architecture and design correspondent; Jonathan Glancey, who was very passionate and motivated.

The things which really stood out for me was, firstly, the talk by Jonathan Kirchenfeld (SA). He had made a detailed character analysis of the architecture of Cape Town and was a passionate advocate of this approach to design (which I am also). he had built his own house + his parents and it was just such a relief to hear about this approach being supported by all the speakers.

Another included social housing projects in New York + a floating swimming pool, which is being floated around NY to disadvantaged areas where there are few facilities.

The Venice talk was amazing and was by Jane da Mosto, from ‘Venice in Peril’, who are researching the environmental situation there – this is really bad and is getting much worse, very quickly. essentially, there is a net movement of silt out of the large lagoon within which the main island sits. This has doubled the quantity of water in the lagoon over the last decade leading to increased erosion of the land. The man-made channels out of the lagoon also speed up the process.

Climate change is also meaning water levels and flooding are increasing and we are potentially going to see one of the most important historic urban areas on the planet disappear (literally sink and get washed away).

Finally, the two founding architects from Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Chile) presented their ‘themes’ which are used in their projects. Awesome work from them and such a strong local production type and rough character (see images).

out

I was curious to find who the genius or geniuses behind the development of carbon credits were and how the whole thing got into play on the world stage.   So I did some digging and this is what I found…..

In 1992,  in Rio de Janeiro Brazil the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held and this where the birth of Greenhouse gases as a tradable commodity began.

The conference  known as “The Earth Summit” was headed up by Canada’s Maurice Strong and he had made the revolutionary suggestion why not pay people to keep carbon out of the atmosphere!

Now you know how the ball started rolling on this subject!  Check out my other posts for some insight into Carbon Credits and Offsets.

PS

108 Heads of States or Governments were there when the idea was proposed!

Newsweek is out with a good interview of world famous NASA Climate Scientist James Hanson regarding Copenhagen and the recent release of controversial e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

Hanson brushes off the significance of the dust-up over the e-mail release:

Do the e-mails indicate any unethical efforts to hide data that do not support the idea of anthropogenic global warming or to keep contrary ideas out of the scientific literature and IPCC reports?

They indicate poor judgment in specific cases. First, the data behind any analysis should be made publicly available.  Second, rather than trying so hard to prohibit publication of shoddy science, which is impossible, it is better that reviews, such as by IPCC and the National Academy of Sciences, summarize the full range of opinions and explain clearly the basis of the scientific assessment.

On the question of Copenhagen and current US policy , Hanson is even more clear:

How serious a setback would it be if no agreement on a climate treaty is reached in Copenhagen, where 192 countries are meeting starting Dec. 7?

It’s not a setback at all if it allows a careful reassessment of what is needed. The cap-and-trade scheme [that the Copenhagen negotiations were working toward] is just not going to be effective at controlling greenhouse emissions. Political leaders have to realize that the fundamental problem is that fossil fuels are the cheapest form of energy, so they will continue to be burned unless we put a gradually increasing price on carbon emissions [through a carbon tax]. That’s a much better approach than national goals for emissions reductions, which will probably not be met.

What do you think of the climate bills now before Congress?
They’re disasters. We can’t allow the polluters to write the bill, but that’s what happened. What’s needed is putting a price on carbon, not cap-and-trade.

I can’t agree with Hanson when he calls for increased use of nuclear energy, for all the reasons cited here.

But in general, Hanson has it exactly right on how to address climate and energy issues through public policy – put a real price on fossil fuels through the tax system and offset that tax with reductions in regressive taxes like the payroll tax which stifle our economy and discourage jobs creation.

For over four years, the design to use wave driven upwelling pumps to pull nutrient rich water from the depths to the surface has been spear headed by Phill Kithill, a Native New Mexican inventor. The idea is simple; use the kinetic energy of waves to pull up deep nutrient rich water to the surface allowing phytoplankton to blooms, which in turn provide food for fish and sequester CO₂.

These pumps would operate offshore helping to amplify natural blooms and create algae blooms in dead zones or areas of water with no life in the photosynthetic zone. These pumps do not only sequester carbon and create food, but they create jobs in the countries that choose to produce them and possible carbon credits in the future for those countries or companies.

 Do the pumps work though?

 Karl and Letelier, 2008 research and others support the hypothesis that controlled upwelling can in fact lead to phytoplankton blooms. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton absorb CO₂ and release O₂. Once they are eaten or die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, that CO₂ is sequestered or stored. The key factors determining CO₂ ocean sequestration by N₂- fixation or photosynthesis depend among other things on extra residual Phosphate found at higher concentrations in deep water or up welled water (Karl and Letelier, 2008). If wave driven pumps can be made to bring up Iron (Fe) and Phosphorus (P) to the photosynthetic zones, algae booms or diazotroph blooms will be triggered allowing for CO₂ sequestration and food production (Karl and Letelier, 2008).

Preliminary tests off the coasts of Hawaii and the pacific coast of Mexico show that not only are the pumps feasible, they are functional. In the Hawaiian two-week test, increased fish presence around the pumps was noted as well as the presence of a whale shark (Kithil, 2009). This is not scientifically significant, but indicative of possible increased food sources. To see how they work, please view an interactive diagram on the Atmocean website under pump technology.

Why do we need upwelling pumps?

These upwelling pumps may not only increase productivity but also help stop the spread of dead zones. Due to climate change models, it has been found that increased atmospheric temperatures have created a greater stratification of natural upwelling cycles (Polovina et al. 2008). Polovina et al. 2008 data has also been consistent with previous data that supports increased vertical stratification, limiting natural upwelling cycles of oceans since the 1950’s which remains consistent with output models on global warming. Low surface chlorophyll areas in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have expanded by 6.6 million km² or by about 15% from 1998 through 2006 (Polovina et al. 2008). The North Atlantic with the smallest oligotrophic gyre (less than 0.07 mg chl/m³) is expanding most rapidly at around 4.3%/year (Polovina et al. 2008). These pumps would help amplify natural blooms and limit vertical stratification perhaps reversing the studied trend of increasing dead zones. This is of course in conjunction with increased food sources and sequestered carbon which remain the main goals and purpose of these natural pumps. To see more applications, please visit Atmocean application page.

This is a brief background into how wave driven upwelling pumps work as well as the reason for having them. To find out more about this exciting project or get involved, join atmocean upwelling pumps project found at ECOwaves.org.

 References

 Karl, David M., Letelier, Ricardo M. Nitrogen fixation-enhanced carbon sequestration in low-nitrate, low chlorophyll seascapes. Marine Ecology Progress Series. Inter-Research 2008. www.int-res.com

 Kithil, Phil. Atmocean Inc. 607 Cerrillos, Santa Fe, NM. 2009. Website: http://www.atmocean.com/index.htm

 Polovina, Jeffrey J., Howell, Evan A., Abecassis, Melanie. Ocean’s least productive waters are expanding. Geophysical Research Letters. Vol: 35 L03618. 2008

i love it when i stumble on places like this.

not sure where i’ve seen the until dawn curtain before, but i love it.

There have been numerous changes to MBA programs over the past several years. One of the more refreshing ones is the increasing prominence of an organization called Net Impact. Net Impact is an organization of business students (and interested graduates and others involved in the business community) who believe that the “power of business can be used to improve the world”. From its beginnings as the Students for Responsible Business in 1993 with 6 chapters (in 1994 I started the Penn State chapter of that organization), Net Impact has evolved to over 200 chapters, including over 120 at leading graduate schools across the world.

Net Impact’s reach is very impressive. The core of the organization is the chapters. All of the top MBA programs have a student chapter. Many U.S. cities including Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Haven, and several abroad (Seoul, Tokyo, London, etc.) have professional chapters also.

In addition to the chapters, Net Impact also has national and international conferences. The 2009 conference featured the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt as well as Cornell’s president David Skorton, speaking on innovation in a green economy. The European conference a couple of years ago featured the theme: Sustainable Prosperity—Taking on the Global Challenge.” Additionally, numerous organizations use Net Impact as a recruiting vehicle to help with various sustainability efforts.

Of equal interest are the ‘Issues In Depth Calls”. These are conference calls with representatives of companies implementing various types of social engagement—including but not limited to sustainability per se. Upcoming topics for these calls include “Driving Sustainable Growth (Dupont) and “The Holy Grail of Sustainable Culture” (FMYI). Other events have covered very diverse topics, including: “Writing a Sustainability Report”, “Green Jobs”, “How to Develop an Eco-Purchasing System”, and “Green Benefits”, etc.

When I found out about the organization, I eagerly joined my local professional chapter (Philadelphia). I was very happy to find out that it was a very active chapter—with lots of events and programs. The programming schedule has included monthly book clubs, periodic volunteer days, occasional happy hours, panel discussions, research projects, and more. Most important to me, it is local, so I can actually participate in the programs.

Meeting other like-minded people (such as those in the Philly chapter) is a great way to help me incorporate sustainability into my own life. For example, my wife and I love fish. Via Net Impact, I have heard about a seafood store in Philadelphia that specializes in sustainable seafood (Otolith Seafood). I am looking forward to enrolling in their Community Supported Seafood program in the spring. Without Net Impact, I would have had no idea that this program even existed.

A new handmade gallery opened in Downtown Crossing that I hope to go to in the next few days, but I’m going to post a link here in the happy event that anyone else wants to drop by without my physically dragging them. Boston Handmade Downtown features a collection of local artisans and craftspeople with totally handmade, original goods. So if you’re in the mood to shop locally and you’re drifting aimlessly (or purposefully) around New England, I think that this place probably warrants a stop. And after going there, you can walk over to the North End to support a local tiny restaurant or wine bar before jaunting up the artificial hill in front of the Old North Church to recite “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Longfellow. You should probably spend a lot of time in a wine bar first.

Do all of this when it is or isn’t pissing down. For now, I’m going to sit on my mama’s couch and read about rutabegas and try not to vom with the jet lag. I’m a wimp.

This blog is transforming into one big advert for Boston for one week only. Shazam.

I was just thinking about all the talk about the environment: About greenhouse gas emissions produced by automobiles, industry, transportation vehicles, freighters… the list goes on and on… when suddenly I remembered the horrid images in the media from “The War on Terror” in Iraq. How many years ago was it? 2001 was the WTC catastrophe, the first bombs were dropped on Iraq by 2002, and by 2003 we were seeing images of Baghdad being carpet bombed. What’s more, miles and miles an miles of Iraqi oil wells were bombed. Do you remember the plumes of black smoke that burned for… how long? Months? A year? How much pollution was spewed into the atmosphere from that, and how come no one talks about it? Has the world forgotten about it? Was it not a climatic disaster? Is driving my car to and from work worse than the plumes of black, acrid smoke billowing into the sky from those burning oil fields?

It appears oil fields are still burning:

After reading the article in the link above, it’s even more evident to me that the issue will never be resolved. Greed and obfuscation will reign. All living things deserve clean air and water, but humans will ensure that won’t happen. Ever.

Oh, Fuddle Puddle. I just don’t get it.

Ingrid

Watch out you might get what you’re after
Cool baby strange but not a stranger
I’m an ordinary guy
Burning down the house

Hold tight wait ’til the party’s over
Hold tight we’re in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house

Talking Heads, Burning Down the House

I’ve been reading Derrick Jensen’s Endgame. Part one is subtitled The Problem of Civilization. I still have another hundred pages, or so, left to read but there has been something bothering me since I started and I think I have finally pinned it down. (In fact, I noticed the same thing when I read A Language Older Than Words, but it was even vaguer then)

There is a disconnect. Derrick goes to great pains to prove (and I think he does) that ours is a culture of abusers, and that we are abusers because we have been abused ourselves for our entire lives. It is well known that children that have been abused grow up to become abusers more often the not – the trauma being too great for most people to overcome. Not that it is impossible, just that the process of healing from trauma takes a lot of luck (in having people around you that can and will help), a lot of strength of will (to face the abuse and the emotional damage it creates), and a lot of time and willingness to let-self-heal.

On the other side of this is the language of stopping that abuse: stopping them, specifically. And the repeated rejection of the idea of our own responsibility, our own complicity, in this culture of destruction.

If we are all abused and therefor we are mostly abusers ourselves, then who are they and how can we be so arrogant to point our fingers at this supposed other that is to blame?

I have always been very comfortable with pointing at “the system” — and acknowledging that some people embrace the system even as others of us have begun to spurn it. Hell, my parents embrace it, as does my sister, so how can I point at them and still face my own life and loved ones?

But last night I realized two things. First is the shamans mind. One of the defining characteristics of a traditional shaman is the he (sic) can simultaneously hold two contradictory ideas in his mind at one time. More precisely, as I have come to connect more and more with the community of life I have come to see: what our western ethnology sees as conflicting ideas, are in fact not in conflict to the shaman – but rather different facets of the same vista.

So how does this apply?

We ARE all responsible, we are all complicit. Our every action has an impact on the overall destruction of our landbases. There is NO way around this. We are, all of us, victims of abuse and fundamentally damaged as a result. So we are all, forgivable, in that we understand the trauma we have been forced to endure. And, as Dave discussed today, we are all constrained by the system that is civilization. Whether homeless man on the street, peasant in China, businessman in Rome or President of the United States, there are only so many options that we can take in a given situation. If Obama were to announce tomorrow that the dismantling of industrial civilization were to commence on Monday, you can be certain that he would no longer be president by Sunday.

The second thing I realized, that nonetheless, there IS a valid they to point at and reproach. Most of us are constrained into inaction, or simply numbed to the systemic reality of our day to day actions. We don’t know what to do, so we allow ourselves to forget, we refuse to see, we make our excuses and take our daily soma. But there are some, and we probably each know a few, that do not need soma. They are so damaged, so incapable of normal, human empathy, so inured to personal responsibility that they can and do pursue the fundamental goals of the civilizational system with relish. They are, in every meaningful sense of the word, sociopaths. They are not redeemable, they are not curable, and most often, their psychosis leads them into positions of power, simply because they are quite willing and able to use the system as any borderline sane person cannot.

Now, I think Derrick is quite correct that we are all insane. But for most of us that means we are delusional, emotionally unstable, mildly narcissistic, and abusive. But what do we do about those that DO cross over into psychosis? The only answer to that is another question. What does our culture normally do with sociopaths? Or, to be even more blunt, what do traditional societies do with their sociopaths (as rare as they are) if they are determined to be unreachable, unmanageable and dangerous to the community?

Now, I am in no way suggesting that eliminating a few psychotics will “save the world.” In this civilization with billions of humans there are certainly millions that are too damaged to be salvagable. But understanding this is useful in that we can be responsible for our own actions, our own collusion, our own part in the matrix while at the same time understanding that we, also, are not responsible. We can choose to apply our own unique gifts and passions to unmake what has been made, to do less harm, to live as “harmless as a lion”, to create something new and functional and native to our landbases. And we can do all of this without carrying the guilt and hopelessness that civilization offers as our heritage. Because we didn’t do it. But we do bear the responsibility for the choices we make moving into the future.

So we each have to decide, now and in the future, what choices those are going to be.

Marc Levin’s HBO documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags  was backed by, supporters of NYC’s shrinking Garment District who gathered  for a Save the Garment Center rally. T

here was a sizable turnout for the event at the corner of 39th Street and Seventh Avenue, which was organized by a mix of cit

y officials and led by designers Nanette Lepore and Yeohlee Teng . The crowd spanned the entire northeast side of the block reaching to 40th Street. “The Garment Center is the lifeblood of New York City…and we need to preserve it,” said Lepore, standing on a small stage, to the assembled fashion students, designers, and Garment District workers.

“The city has already lost enough of what keeps us unique,” she added.

Designer and CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg turned up to lend her considerable support, as did Michael Kors, Victoria Bartlett, Maria Cornejo, Rag & Bone’s Marcus Wa

inwright and Chris Benz. “I produce my entire collection here,” said Benz. “For a young designer, the quantities for production lots overseas are enormous. They ask for 1,000 pieces at a time.” Erin Fetherston, who was part of the cause but was out of tow

n filming a broadcast for her line with QVC, had similar thoughts. “The Garment District is so important to New York and New York fashion,” said Fetherston, before the rally. “Big American brands and young designers alike all have access to the same gre

at resources for making clothing.” Or as one of the posters cheekily but effectively summarized, “It’s Sew N.Y.”
—Bee-Shyuan Chang via Style.com

Documentary Preview

I’ve expanded my carbon footprint for the year exponentially by jetting my way to Boston for a week. I never really know how often I’ll get to come home, so when I do, I generally try to cram as many memory-triggering New England activities in as possible. ..In addition to laying in bed eating butternut squash at six a.m., watching news coverage of Black Friday. But I mean. That’s pretty New Englandy somehow too.

Last night while trying to desperately stay awake at ten p.m., I was mulling over my foodie options. And my mom and Bob were asking about just how committed I was to this no-meat policy. I brought up the conundrum of steamed clams. Could I have steamed clams if they were apparently locally sourced? If I were sitting at the Barnacle in Marblehead for example and you know ate some steamed clams that might have oh my god I hope.. come from.. the harbor twelve feet away.. would that be okay? Would it? Would it? It would, right?

And Bob told me that all shellfish sold in restaurants in Massachusetts, even five feet from the Harbor, are first taken from the ocean and shipped up to New Hampshire to sit in chlorinated water for twenty four hours before returning to the shore to be sold. So, even your locally sourced shellfish probably has an enormous carbon footprint.

Guess I can’t weasel my way out of that one. It’s for the best.

Dubai is going under, and the markets are surprised. Again. Just like they were when the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst. Just like they are going to be when the oil price starts its inexorable rise, swamping whatever green shoots have been reckless enough to poke their heads out in the hope that this false dawn was going to lead to a bright new day of endless wealth creation.

It is tempting to write Dubai off as an example of nouveau richeness in a nation swept suddenly from nomadism and subsistence fishing to a centre of global trade, providing goods and services to its obscenely wealthy neighbours who just happened to find themselves living on top of one of the world’s most valuable resources.

Like lottery winners from deprived backgrounds, the tiny Emirate has spent its new-found wealth on show-off buildings, ghastly décor and over-powered cars, and with no thought for the future.

But Dubai’s fantastic vision of a shining city in the desert, with its glass towers, artificial islands and even a snowdome, glamourised by an itinerant population of sports stars and pop singers, was shared by European bankers, who are unlikely to have come from deprived backgrounds and whose ancestors haven’t herded or fished (except for sport) for generations.

Did they truly believe in the Dubai mirage, or did they think they could make a quick killing and get out before the ordure hit the rotating blades? Or were they depending on taxpayers to bail them out if things went prematurely pear-shaped?

Dubai World, like all of the world’s biggest companies and most of its governments, appears incapable of imagining a world without SUVs or snowdomes or same-day-return business flights or shopping malls crowded with credit-worthy consumers willing to splurge on this month’s fashion must-haves and imported kitchen gadgets and overpriced sushi.

It’s over, china. Get used to it.

El 4 de Diciembre tendrá lugar Cineforum, una conferencia en Londres que reune expertos en sostenibilidad y a personas interesadas en participar, con el objetivo de llevar los resultados del “collaboratory” a la Conferencia de la ONU sobre el Cambio Climático en Copenhagen, donde presentarán un mapa de acción junto con  Ecotopia, una película que resumirá las conclusiones del encuentro.

El programa consistirá en una serie de charlas, debates, proyecciónes y workshops que explorará estrategias “Desde” nuestro sistema actual “Hacia” sistemas más sotenibles. Las conclusiones se volcarán en un documento de mapa de acción que sintentiza los puntos claves de esta ruta y en una película llamada Ecotopia que presentarán en Copenhagen.

El debate explorará estas 5 áreas:

1. Carbón y Desarrollo Humano: Reducir emisiones a la vez de mejorar condiciones sociales
2. Sistemas Económicos: Desarrollo de índices quantitativos de bienestar progreso y felicidad
3. Energía, Tecnología y Regulación: Desarrollo de circuitos cerrados de producción y consumo
4. Protección de la Biosfera: Proteger el medioambiente por una cuestión de lógica y respeto
5. Comunidades y Comunicación: Colaboración entre comunidades, sectores y culturas para inovar.

Partcipantes incluyen desde pioneros como la fundadora del Rocky Mountain Institute Hunter Lovins, expertos y activistas diversos, hasta ciudadanos de a pie comprometidos con la misión. La entrada de casi £4oo no es exáctamente asequible para cualquiera, pero dicen que quieren asegurar la calidad del grupo y ofrecen un descuento considerable para para personas involcradas en iniciativas de sosteniblidad.

Para aquellos que no podremos participar, será igualmente interesante ver el resultado de este “colaboratorio” y el impacto que pueda tener Ecotopia en la conferencia de Copenhagen.

En la web de Cineforum, vale la pena ver su selección de documentales que proyectará durante el evento, para aquellos siempre en busca de información y reportajes sobre sostenibilidad.

via Treehugger

Though green roofs are reemerging in the most advanced building designs around the world, for centuries, people constructed buildings out of materials immediately available to them in their surrounding environment.

For a long time there were neither straw nor trees on Læsø. On the other hand there was plenty of eelgrass and driftwood on the beach. The wood was used for timber framing in houses and the eelgrass was used for the roof. In fact, this wasn’t as unlikely as it sounds: both the seaweed and timber had been impregnated with saltwater, and a seaweed house could therefore stand for several hundred years.

(via ecoworldly)
(photo’s courtesy of seier+seier+seier’s wonderful flickr photostream)

Dai singoli negozi, alle catene, fino alla grande distribuzione una tendenza importante, in relazione a valori di responsabilità e sostenibilità, sembra essere quella dell’abolizione del packaging, che implica un nuovo (o vecchio, se si pensa a 50 anni fa) modello di esperienza per l’utente. La vendita di prodotti sfusi, che è il dato di servizio che qui interessa, implica nuove modalità di relazione con l’utente, azioni diverse nel punto vendita e a casa, informazioni comunicate diversamente, condivisione di un sistema di valori diverso. E’ chiaro che se la scelta di prodotti sfusi,  oltre a soddisfare il desiderio di un comportamento responsabile, può dare un vantaggio dal punto di vista economico, allo stesso tempo implica anche un maggiore impegno dal punto di vista del tempo e dell’organizzazione (conservare i vuoti, portarli al negozio, ricaricarli,…). Se quindi non si è fortemente motivati, probabilmente la scelta di un acquisto tradizionale prevale. Sicuramente l’arrivo di queste soluzioni nella grande distribuzione porterà un contributo importante, ma anche l’apporto del design può essere fondamentale. Il design infatti può contribuire a creare un’esperienza interessante e di qualità, anche dal punto di vista estetico, rendendo più competitive determinate scelte di acquisto e coinvolgendo quindi, grazie alla “bellezza” dell’esperienza, anche chi non mette al primo posto comportamenti responsabili.
I casi presentati di seguito sono un esempio della diffusione della vendita di prodotti sfusi e possono essere confrontati anche dal punto di vista delle scelte (o non scelte) di design.

Green Depot

Green Depot è un marchio newyorkese che distribuisce prodotti per l’edilizia e soluzioni per la casa ecosostenibili, che come mission si propone di facilitare stili di vita “verdi” in modo semplice, economico e gratificante. Tra le proposte, si trovano prodotti ecologici per la pulizia della casa venduti “alla spina”, lampadine a basso consumo, vernici a basso contenuto di VOCs, bidoni per il compost e progetti a basso impatto ambientale di designer esterni all’azienda.

Quello che risulta particolarmente interessante dal punto di vista del service design, oltre all’elevata qualità dell’immagine e della comunicazione, è la coerenza nella declinazione del concept in tutte le scelte di allestimento e l’attenzione al tipo di esperienza che lo store offre. Sono, infatti, presenti delle aree di sperimentazione dei prodotti, come per esempio le cabine buie che permettono di valutare i tipi di luce delle lampadine, l’area delle vernici per la creazione del proprio colore o i distributori di detersivi sfusi. L’esempio di Green Depot è sicuramente significativo per comprendere come il design possa “tradurre” valori, anche impegnativi, di un marchio, rendendoli interessanti ed appetibili per un mercato ampio.

Foto store: 222 Bowery, New York, NY  10012

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Simply Sma

Inaugurato all’inizio di settembre a Milano (via Novara, 15), il Simply Sma è un supermercato interamente basato sui concetti di ecologia e responsabilità sociale, che si applicano sia ai principi costruttivi e di arredo, sia ai prodotti in vendita.
Le soluzioni tecniche adottate per il risparmio energetico riguardano l’illuminazione, l’impianto freddo alimentare, l’impianto di condizionamento/riscaldamento e la fornitura energetica (per approfondimenti: b2b24.ilsole24ore.com). Per quanto riguarda invece arredi e accessori (cestini, carrelli, cartellini,…), sono realizzati in materiale riciclato proveniente dal riuso di 32.000 bottiglie di plastica.
I prodotti proposti, coerentemente con l’idea di fondo del supermercato, sono principalmente biologici ed equosolidali, con una presenza di prodotti a basso consumo energetico o 100% in fibre naturali. La proposta della sfuso riguarda alcuni alimenti (caramelle e cereali) e i detersivi.

Fonti: b2b24.ilsole24ore.com / greenme.it
Illustrazioni: retailforum.it
Immagini: 100ambiente.it

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Effecorta

Vai al post “Un format di supermercato “alla spina”: Effecorta“

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Progetto Riducimballi

Riducimballi è un’idea di Ecologos (http://www.ecologos.it/), ente di ricerca torinese che si propone di promuovere stili di vita sostenibili, tra cui l’eliminazione dei rifiuti alla fonte, tramite una serie di progetti applicativi che vengono proposti a enti pubblici e strutture private e commerciali.

> Negozio Leggero

Il primo Negozio Leggero è stato aperto lo scorso aprile a Torino (via Napione 37) e ci si va con i propri contenitori da riempire. Tutto quello che può essere venduto sfuso, infatti, lo è: pasta e legumi sono all’interno di vaschette circolari e acquistabili a peso, il caffè viene macinato sul posto, i detersivi sono alla spina e anche i cosmetici non hanno packaging, ma sono ridotti a capsule da inserire direttamente nelle trousse.

> Fontana Leggera

Le fontane leggere vengono installate nei Comuni che aderiscono al progetto ed erogano acqua pubblica refrigerata e addizionata con anidride carbonica con cui si possono riempire le proprie bottiglie ottenendo un prodotto a “km zero” che non produce ulteriori rifiuti.

> Furgone dei detersivi leggeri

Si tratta di uno strumento comunicativo che offre informazioni sull’iniziativa e che, durante eventi di piazza, permette di acquistare direttamente detersivi sfusi. Vuole essere uno stimolo per gli esercizi commerciali ad aderire all’iniziativa e vendere i prodotti nei propri punti vendita e allo stesso tempo un modo per creare consapevolezza nei cittadini.

Fonti: riducimballi.it / greenme.it

Immagini: riducimballi.it / greenme.it

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Autore: Lidia Tralli, servicedesignblog.wordpress.com

This month’s issue of Red Pepper magazine is dedicated to the politics of food. Sue Branford talk about the global land grab and climate change, while Kath Dalmeny talks about the failure of the UK Govt to tackle problems it itself identified:

“Just over a year ago, researchers presented the Cabinet Office with a thorough and far-reaching analysis that painted a sobering account of the state of our food system. It presented us with a clear challenge: can we make our food system sustainable in order to feed ourselves, long into the future, without wrecking the planet?

The analysis confirmed that about one fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are from food and farming. It also showed that 70,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year in the UK if people ate a better diet; and that many thousands more could enjoy healthier and more prosperous lives without the burden of diet-related conditions such as heart disease and many types of cancer. At the same time, a more ethical and sustainable food system could play a role in international development to improve the prospects for hundreds of millions of people, ensure better welfare for farm animals and help us adopt a far more responsible approach to issues such as world fish stocks and humanity’s profligate use of water.

Identifying and quantifying the problems ought to have been a promising start. Not since 2002 had such a far-reaching analysis been undertaken. Back then, the government took stock amidst the ashes of millions of farm animals slaughtered and burned due to foot and mouth disease. Its response was relatively encouraging – a sustainable food and farming policy and several initiatives to help improve the sustainability of food buying in, for example, schools and hospitals.”

Farmers and food processors received support to get their products onto supermarket shelves – then considered the best place to invest their effort and trust. Regional government offices and development agencies were charged with implementing the policy. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) commissioned a food industry sustainability strategy. An action plan was launched to support organic farming, which Defra then acknowledged as conferring considerable environmental benefits.

Yet since 2002, key government agencies have dismantled support for projects that address food poverty. Patchy efforts to improve food in public institutions remain ‘islands in a sea of mediocrity’, according to an apt summary by Professor Kevin Morgan of Cardiff University. £2.2 billion of public money is being spent each year on food that rarely meets health or environmental standards and largely fails to invest in reliable farm incomes or sustainable farming practices.

The organic action plan has been abandoned, and some civil servants at Defra now deny that they ever said organic farming conferred significant environmental benefits, preferring to denigrate organic as simply a ‘lifestyle choice’. Frequent calls on government to force supermarkets to treat their suppliers more fairly have met with silence, or vague encouragement for supermarket bosses to act more responsibly.”

Read the full article here.

Source: New Civil Engineer

I blogged a couple of years ago about the Doncaster floods of 2007 being the ‘first 21st century flood‘. The argument was that they had been caused not by high sea levels or accumulated water run-off, but because the water table and local river systems had been unable to absorb the sheer weight of rain that had fallen. There’s an excellent graphic in a story in New Civil Engineer (inserted above, click on it to enlarge) of the Cockermouth flooding which tells exactly the same story. The article also explains why the bridges collapsed.

The killer statistic is that there was 314mm of rain on the fells over 24 hours – compared to a November daily average of 10mm – in other words, 30 times as much rain as the average. One of the features of climate change is heavier and more intense rainfall. Given Cockermouth’s position at the confluence of two rivers, and its recent history of flooding, it made me wonder if it could become the first town in Britain to be  abandoned because of global warming.