Posts Tagged ‘behaviour change’
Changing Models: Labour-Intensive Farming
Posted in Opinion by Kate Archdeacon on April 27th, 2010
Source: Worldchanging
From Out of the Demographic Trap: Hope for Feeding the World, by Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360
In Africa and elsewhere, burgeoning population growth threatens to overwhelm already over-stretched food supply systems. But the next agricultural revolution needs to get local — and must start to see rising populations as potentially part of the solution.
“I bring good news from Machakos, a rural district of Kenya, a couple of hours drive from Nairobi. Seventy years ago, British colonial scientists dismissed the treeless eroding hillsides of Machakos as “an appalling example” of environmental degradation that they blamed on the “multiplication” of the “natives.” The Akamba had exceeded the carrying capacity of their land and were “rapidly drifting to a state of hopeless and miserable poverty and their land to a parched desert of rocks, stones and sand.”
Since independence in 1963, the Akamba’s population has more than doubled. Meanwhile, farm output has risen tenfold. Yet there are also more trees, and soil erosion is much reduced. The Akamba still use simple farming techniques on their small family plots. But today they are producing so much food that when I visited, they were selling vegetables and milk in Nairobi, mangoes and oranges to the Middle East, avocados to France, and green beans to Britain.
What made the difference? People. They made this transformation by utilizing their growing population to dig terraces, capture rainwater, plant trees, raise animals that provide manure, and introduce more labor-intensive but higher-value crops like vegetables. For them, “multiplication” of their numbers has been the solution rather than the problem. They have sprung the demographic trap.
Transport as SocioCultural Force
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 23rd, 2010
Source: Going Solar Transport Newsletter
From Mutual Benefits and Close Connections: Baseball and America’s Streetcars in the 19th Century, TR News, January-February 2010.
In the late 19th century, public transit via streetcars regularly intersected with baseball, with mutual benefits. Unlike many other enterprises, streetcars served a practical purpose for baseball—delivering large numbers of people to the games easily, quickly, and cheaply. Collaboration between baseball and streetcars therefore was consequential for both. [...]
Baseball became an important way of filling streetcars with “happy-faced occupants.” The comparatively young sport had mushroomed in popularity, and streetcar companies grasped that providing access to the games could enhance their own business. One streetcar executive commented that it was important “to keep in with the baseball people”. Earlier in the century, railroads had established a pivotal relationship with baseball. Trains made it possible for teams to travel hundreds of miles to compete and to bring the games to an expanding pool of spectators. Streetcars, however, could offer a transportation benefit that steam locomotives could not, by carrying spectators directly to the ballparks, further expanding the fan base for games. [...]
The streetcar industry, and the role of streetcars in taking fans to baseball games, would continue to grow in the early decades of the 20th century. Eventually many of the vehicles would be supplanted by other mass-transit options, like subways and motorized buses. Still in its infancy in the late 19th century, the automobile likewise would become a formidable competitor.
Nonetheless, the streetcar deserves recognition as the forerunner of those more modern modes and for its crucial contribution to bringing previously far-flung locales closer together. For baseball, streetcars played an important role in diversifying the attendance at games. In addition, hefty investments of money and infrastructure by streetcar executives contributed in the long term to establishing ballparks as permanent fixtures on the American landscape.
These contributions underscore the lasting impact of streetcars on baseball’s growth as a socio-cultural force, even though the clang and clatter of a trolley is no longer instantly and widely associated with the crack of a bat and the cheers of a crowd rooting for the home team.
The study of streetcars in the 19th century illustrates transportation’s time-honored influence not just on destinations, such as ballparks, but on everyday life.
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Managing Ecological Trade-Offs: New Analysis Tool
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 19th, 2010
Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre
From Seeing the Hidden Services of Nature
Following an intense study of agricultural ecosystems near Montreal, a new tool that enables the simultaneous analysis and management of a wide range of ecological services has been developed by Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne of McGill University’s Department of Geography, Elena Bennett of the McGill School of Environment, and (Stockholm Resilience) centre researcher Garry Peterson.
Risk of missing hidden ecosystem services
Environmental management typically focuses on nature’s resources like food, wildlife and timber, but can miss hidden ecosystem services such as water purification, climate moderation and the regulation of nutrient cycling. The researchers show that ecosystems that maximized agriculture offer fewer hidden ecosystems services than more diverse agricultural landscapes. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on March 1, 2010. Landscapes that provide a lot of one services, such as pig production, can be costly because they have fewer of the hidden services, such as the regulation of nutrient pollution, which are also important to people, Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne says. They also show that in some areas high amounts of agricultural production can go hand in hand with the production of other ecosystem services. The researchers framework can be used to help identify “best-practice areas” and contribute to developing effective resource policies.
Trade-offs and costs must be recognized
Bennett believes Quebec manages its environment fairly well, but that there are still trade-offs and costs to be recognized. The big local message is that in terms of the landscape we have to be thinking about more than just one thing — we can’t just see corn, we have to see deer hunting, nutrients, and tourism, too, Bennett says. The area surrounding Montreal was selected because it is typical of near-urban agricultural landscapes in many parts of the world. I hope these methods can be applied to many other landscapes around the world, Peterson says, adding the tool will help decision makers trying to balance the goals of farmers, rural villagers and exurban commuters.
Read the full article.
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Social, Ecological, Economic: Design Futures
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on April 14th, 2010
Source: Doors of Perception
From “Design, regions, and the two economies”
The stated ambition of Cornwall, in the the far south west of England, is to become a “green peninsular”[sic]. It’s an evocative concept, but people there interpret the word “green” in different ways. … The development of Newquay Airport, for example, is promoted by some business and tourism interests as a vital element in Cornwall’s regeneration; they want it expanded to handle more than a million passengers a year within 20 years. But others oppose airport expansion not only on environmental grounds, but also because it would lead to an even greater demand for second homes in Cornwall.
Cornwall’s Eden Project finds itself in a bind here: It struggles to reconcile its position as an environmental showcase with the fact that so many of its million-plus visitors go there by car.
A few years ago, persuasive alternatives to big-ticket, high entropy regeneration projects were thin on the ground. But today, a competing Cornish economic reality is emerging in the form of social and ecological projects right across the county. The region is filled with groups actively involved in the restoration of ecosystems, teaching each other environmental stewardship, recycling buildings and equipment, cultivating fungi, swapping seeds, growing medicinal plants, planting community fruit and nut tree nurseries. There are courses for families on green woodworking, permaculture, and blacksmithing and bushcrafts such as wild food foraging. This emerging social-ecological economy is restorative, self-reliant, and steady-state.
The question facing last week’s DottCornwall seminar on ‘emerging design practice’ was therefore a tough one: where can, and should, designers aspire to make difference? As Jeremy Myerson, the event’s chair, pointed out: “Designers have done well out of globalisation; the challenge facing designers now is whether they have the skills and sensibility to make a meaningful contribution at a local scale”. ….
Read the full article on Doors of Perception.
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Stepping Up: Public Sector Leadership on Sustainability
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 5th, 2010
Source: Forum for the Future
Download the report Stepping Up: A Framework for Public Sector Leadership on Sustainability
As we begin to see signs of recovery in the private economy, the hard times are just beginning for the 5.8 million public servants in the UK and millions more around the world. Faced with severe budget cuts, can public sector organisations stay true to their commitments to carbon reduction, sustainable regeneration, ethical procurement, greener healthcare and a wealth of other new practices and initiatives?
In theory, yes. If sustainable development thinking is no use in times of austerity, it is no use at all, and hard times should be when it proves its worth. But for providers of public services, it’s very tempting to drop expensive-looking ‘green’ activity when you have to cut spending overall.
It’s much braver to use sustainability principles to guide where to make cuts, and to use the same thinking to find efficiency gains, new ways of working, and deliver greater public value.
E-Waste Take-Back: Retailer Service
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on April 1st, 2010
Source: Ecolect
Post: Don’t forget to e-cycle by Elizabeth Soucy
Best Buy (USA) has a new service that, no matter where you bought it, they’ll recycle it, to encourage customers to bring in their old electronics. E-waste is a growing problem in third world countries where many “recycling” programs ship our used devices to be sorted by the surrounding communities.
Best Buy certainly made a statement with their advertising. Their billboard in Times Square is composed of reclaimed electronics. To check out more on how to recycle through Best Buy and the ethical and environmental standards they strive to uphold with their program, click here.
Slowing Down for Better Business: Maersk
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on March 1st, 2010
Source: Treehugger
From Danish Cargo Ship Fleet Cuts Fuel Use 30% By Going Half Speed, by Brian Merchant
Until two years ago, the Danish shipping conglomerate Maersk had been sending its cargo ships across the seas at full throttle, vying to get supplies to their destination as fast as possible–and every other shipping company was doing the same. It seemed at the time the most efficient way of doing business. But in order to do so, the company was running its ships at far beyond the maximum fuel efficiency levels. So, two years ago, Maersk decided to slow things down. Now, a trip that used to take 3 weeks instead takes a month. But they’re reaping huge savings in fuel use, costs and greenhouse gas reductions–by as much as 30%.
The New York Times reports:
In a global culture dominated by speed … the company has seized on a sales pitch that may startle some hard-driving corporate customers: Slow is better. By halving its top cruising speed over the last two years, Maersk cut fuel consumption on major routes by as much as 30 percent, greatly reducing costs. But the company also achieved an equal cut in the ships’ emissions of greenhouse gases.
Which is pretty phenomenal when you think about it–in the midst of a complex global recession and fast-rising oil prices, a solution as simple as easing up on the accelerator was able to help the company drastically cut costs and stay competitive. According to the Times, Soren Stig Nielsen, Maersk’s director of environmental sustainability, says that slowing down is “a great opportunity to lower emissions ‘without a quantum leap in innovation’,” and he notes in presentations to clients that “Going at full throttle is economically and ecologically questionable.” And he’s right.
Just by slowing down, Maersk is able to lower the prices they charge in the face of rising oil prices – something full speed competitors simply cannot do. And the reduced greenhouse gas emissions make this one of the simplest ways for companies to green their supply chains and lower their overall carbon footprint. In other words, if a company is willing to wait an extra couple days for raw materials or goods, it can both save money and tout a commitment to the environment. Just by waiting.
Read the full article by Brian Merchant on Treehugger
Don’t Forget The Green Bag: Rewards-Tagged Eco-Bags
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 24th, 2010
Source: Japan for Sustainability
Image: Toppan Printing Co.
An experimental project to develop and research a system to revitalize shopping districts through the use of eco-bags with Integrated Circuit (IC) tags was carried out in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward in December 2009. 30 stores in the Kami-ita Minami-Guchi Ginza Shopping District took part. The purpose of this experiment included reducing the use of plastic shopping bags by distributing eco-bags to local shoppers, promoting visits to shopping districts, and testing the development and operation method of a distribution system that circulates points accumulated on the IC tag in the community as a form of local currency.
Toppan Printing Co. distributed free eco-bags with IC tags to 300 shoppers. Those who brought the eco-bag to the participating stores between December 7 and 23 received points by holding the bag out to the IC tag reader/writer which is connected to a PC. Accumulated points were saved on the IC tag, while the PC recorded the ID of the IC tag as well as the date and time of the store visit.
After December 23, a gift card draw based on the total points accumulated on the IC tag took place.
Read the full article.
Last Minute Market – A 360° Action Against Waste
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on February 17th, 2010
Source: Food Climate Research Network
From the Current Interview on the Food Climate Research Network:
Last Minute Market (LMM) is a project where shops and producers who have unsold food which would otherwise be discarded are linked with people and charities who need food. Originating in Bologna, it is active in more than 40 Italian towns, with 2 new projects under development in Argentina and Brazil. LMM offers services to enterprises and institutions in order to prevent and reduce waste production at its origin. It also develops innovative services for the recovery and reuse of unsold goods. Since the introduction of the Italian anti–waste law in 2008, non-food items can also be recovered.
LMM has 6 different and interrelated areas of activities:
* Food- unsold food which is still edible
* Harvest- vegetables not harvested which would be rejected by retailers due to cosmetic reasons or weather damage
* Seeds- seeds that do not conform with market standards
* Catering- products not served by public and private catering
* Books- unsold books that would otherwise be destroyed
* Pharmacy- unsold pharmaceuticals which can be used to meet the health needs of socially disadvantaged people
LMM helps:
* companies to manage surpluses in innovative ways, which can reduce waste disposal costs and improve the company’s links with the local community
* public institutions and the community benefit from the reduction in the flow of waste to landfill and improve food availability for the sectors of society that need it
* the third sector reduce operating costs and release resources for other projects
From Freeway to Food Forest
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on February 16th, 2010
From “Building a Farm Where a Freeway Used to Be“, by Matthew Roth
A few weeks ago in San Francisco, a number of urban farmers opened a gate in a chain-link fence at Laguna Street, between Oak and Fell Streets, and entered an overgrown lot that has been unused for nearly two decades. The farmers brought with them steaming piles of mulch, which they cast over the edge of the ramps formerly used by cars to enter and exit the elevated Central Freeway spur above Octavia Street, arranging the soil in rows for planting vegetables and filler crops. Since the Loma Prieta earthquake made the Central Freeway unsafe for travel, leading to its eventual removal and the re-design of Octavia Boulevard, those ramps have been one of the more poignant reminders of a distant vision of San Francisco, with freeways crisscrossing the urban environment, whisking motorists above the unfortunate city dwellers below.
The new Hayes Valley Farm (HVF) inverts the paradigm and reclaims the space for city dwellers, if only temporarily. “We call it ‘freeway to food forest,’” explained Chris Burley, Project Director for HVF and former organizer of My Farm. Burley was joined by nearly fifty volunteers at a HVF work party Sunday. “We’re trying to create a successful, sustainable urban farm in the heart of San Francisco.”
Burley and several other organizers were approached by Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (MOEWD) last year with the idea to transform the unused lot into a farm. The HVF received a $50,000 grant from MOEWD for the first year of the project, money that comes from the operation of parking facilities along Octavia Boulevard. Burley expected to work the farm for between two and five years, depending on when the economy turns around and the land is developed.