Posts Tagged ‘education’
“Fair Miles”: rethinking food miles
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on January 21st, 2010
Source: Food Climate Research Network
“Fair Miles: Recharting the food miles map“ by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) & Oxfam warns that Western concern over climate change can do more harm than good if it cuts demand for food produced in developing nations. The authors say locally produced food can actually cause greater emissions of greenhouse gases, and that consumers can harm the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing nations if they stop buying their produce.
“Climate change will hit poorer rural people in developing nations first, fastest and hardest,” says James MacGregor of IIED. “High-value trade with such nations is critical to build rural economies that are resilient to climate change. The trade in fresh produce is one part of a global solution to this challenge…When consumers focus on ‘food miles’ they are ignoring the other social and environmental issues embedded in their shopping decisions…More than one million livelihoods in rural Africa are supported in part by UK consumption of imported fresh produce. We urge consumers to avoid knee-jerk reactions and think instead of ‘fair miles’ and recognise that there are also social and ethical aspects to choices about where food comes from.”
The researchers are not saying locally grown food is a poor choice. “Eating local food when it is in season is a critical element of a balanced diet, and is complementary to eating development-friendly foods out-of-season,” says MacGregor. The book argues that as farmers in developing nations contribute so little to climate change, they shouldn’t be penalised because we emit more in the West. It says consumers serious about changing their behaviour in order to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions should be cycling or walking to their supermarket.
Tags: behaviour change, education, food miles, Research
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What is Green? Retail Icon System
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on November 23rd, 2009
Source: O2: network for sustainable design
Image: Green Depot
Green Depot is a US supplier of environmentally friendly and sustainable building products, services and home solutions. Its stated goal is to establish sustainable building as cost competitive, and to provide products of the highest quality that are certified green. All of the products Green Depot sells must pass through its proprietary green “filter,” a strict quality and values criteria focusing on health, durability, performance, life cycle, natural resource conservation and energy conservation. This filter is designed to address the issues of greenwashing that serve to confuse and mislead consumers, and ensure an accurate evaluation of each product carried.
In 2008, Green Depot evolved its goal of demystifying green for consumers by developing a system of icons to break down green into five simple categories: air quality, local, social responsibility, energy & conservation. These icons allow customers to choose products that address the aspects of green living that are most important to themselves, their budgets and their families, identifying every product that meets one of the filter criteria. They are displayed as a half-tone if a product performs better than most conventional products but has room for improvement, and full-tone if it truly meets or exceeds standards.
Tags: consumption, education, new systems/services
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Sustainability as a vehicle for education
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on November 4th, 2009
Source: guardian.co.uk
Photograph: Anita Maric/News Team International
From “The sausage squad” by Chris Arnot, 27 October 2009
Gloucester Old Spots are thin on the ground in Coventry, UK. But then so are alpacas, pygmy goats, Jacob’s sheep or, indeed, sheep of any kind. Yet Cardinal Wiseman school, in the north-east of the city, is home to them all. Ducks, chickens and bantams as well, plus a veritable menagerie of parrots, guinea pigs, rabbits and a rare tortoise or two. On the principle set by Noah’s Ark, there are at least two of most species here at the winner of the DCSF award for sustainable schools. Only the Gloucester Old Spot disports itself in splendid isolation, not far from the touchline of a football pitch. It has had even more room to roam since its compatriots were despatched to the slaughterhouse, en route to becoming links in the school’s award-winning brand of sausages.
“We thought we’d keep this one as she’s handsome enough to enter for shows,” says Sean O’Donovan, assistant head, leaning over to scratch the sow’s stomach as she luxuriates in a shaft of autumnal sunshine. Eventually, she’ll get around to chomping the windfall apples from the school’s abundant orchard that year 10 pupils Joseph Stevens and Craig Pears have been scattering about her paddock. O’Donovan looks on approvingly before glancing down at the pig again and confiding: “We’re going to artificially inseminate her soon. In fact, we’re just waiting for the sperm. For some reason it has to come from Ireland.”…
Tags: education, local action, schools, urban agriculture
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Supply Chain Transparency: evolving Online Tools
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on October 6th, 2009
Source: Worldchanging
Image: Sourcemap
From Kirstin Butler’s The Backstory of Stuff: New Sites Enable More Transparency in the Supply Chain
Until recently, visualizing global goods’ sourcing was the domain of contemporary artists and technoactivists. Tracing an object back to its origins could be a time-consuming and frustrating process that meant doing solitary research and creating original interfaces. But the increased accessibility of online mapping tools and wiki-style collaborations have changed the cartography of consumption.
Enter Sourcemap, an open-source application for collective supply chain research and mapping. When WorldChanging first reported on Sourcemap last year the project had yet to launch; now its users have already traced the global travels of products as diverse as cars, granola, and lace (even though the site is still in beta mode). An MIT-based team built Sourcemap’s applications around Google Earth, and its geotagged food, travel, and product maps will look familiar to anyone who has called up a set of road trip directions. Still, while not the exclusive province of programmers, Sourcemap does require some skill with computing language to manipulate data. Most visitors to the site will probably gain the most from viewing supply chains in progress.
Even the pinpoint accuracy of a global map, however, can lack the immediacy of a human story. That’s where high-profile advocacy can take up the charge of transparency for more just and sustainable sourcing practices. A great example is the Enough Project’s Come Clean 4 Congo campaign, which seeks to connect the points between your cell phone and conflict minerals.
Tags: behaviour change, education, enabling technologies, Resource
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Quite Contrary After School Farm
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on September 25th, 2009
Source: Treehugger
Kids in Carrboro, North Carolina USA, can now take advantage of Quite Contrary Urban After School Farm – an after-school program that not only teaches them about food and farming, but it aims to leave the car behind too. This is much more than a petting zoo.
Quite Contrary Urban Farm is offering much more than the usual “here are some cute goats” type of farm experience. Local school kids will be picked up by a “walking bus” and they can then participate in a wide range of activities – from recycling hunts to farm design to selling the produce from the farm at the farmers market. Etiquette lessons are also included (a welcome addition for the rest of the community!), and kids that are dropped off and picked up car-free even get a discount.
Read the full article by Sami Groves.
Tags: behaviour change, children, community, education
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Living Planet City
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on September 8th, 2009
Source: Worldchanging, taken from an Article by Christa Morris
“Welcome to the Living Planet. It’s clean, it’s efficient — and it’s doable. Today.”
WWF Canada’s The Living Planet City’s bright animation of thriving urbanism illustrates 20 big ideas to make any city more sustainable.
In the “west end,” a combined heat and power plant uses “waste” heat energy to provide chilled water for a nearby supermarket. In the “east end,” a municipal waste station feeds into a biofuel plant, complete with solar, green roofs on top. At the waterfront, wave, tidal and wind energy power the city while a rapid transit station ferries people back and forth: all this with plenty of park space.
Clicking around brings up summaries of the technology and provides links to learn more. Once properly informed and inspired, visitors are encouraged to get the ideas out there by sending a link to elected officials, friends, and business owners. You can even send a suggested message to your slated Copenhagen representative.
Good start! But is it good enough?
How do you adapt and perfect a Living Planet City when there are so many varying starting points, and thus, varying challenges? One solution would be to make the city as interactive as its sister site, “the Living Planet Community.”
In the Living Planet Community, you can commit to any number of thousands of climate-friendly actions or add your own, and the site will calculate the GHG reduction you achieve. You can even create groups — of friends, coworkers, or strangers — and set a goal for GHG reduction while engaging in planet-friendly competition.
Why not merge this community and the city? Why not take it further, with a sustainable Sim City-esque program, where, after creating your city, you get realistic feedback on its CO2 output? A well-designed simulation could train leaders (and future leaders) to see the changes necessary to achieve emissions reduction goals in their unique cities.
Read the full Article by Christa Morris, on Worldchanging.com
Tags: education, enabling technologies, Resource
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Sustainable House Day
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on September 2nd, 2009
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Sustainable House Day is on again!
Sunday 13th September 2009. Houses open between 10am and 4pm
This is the 8th year of the successful Sustainable House Day – where houses across Australia are opened to show you how to live more sustainably.
And this year it’s FREE!
Environmental awareness – or being ‘green’ – is great, but putting it into practice around your own home is the best contribution you can make to living in harmony with our planet.
Find out direct from home owners who’ve put sustainable living into practice, about reducing waste around your home, saving water, natural home heating and cooling and more.
http://www.sustainablehouseday.com/
Tags: education, houses, sharing, Urban Design and Built Form
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Water Labels on Food
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on August 19th, 2009
Source: Cleanfood, the Future Climate newsletter
Table from “Water labels on food – Issues and recommendations” Ruth Segal & Tom MacMillan (July 2009)
“A new label proposed in the UK will ask consumers to consider the efficiency and impact of water use on the food products they buy. But rather than detailing figures on the actual amount of water used in production, it will indicate how responsible the company has been in using water. Tom MacMillan, the executive director for UK think tank and advisory body, the Food Ethics Council, admits labels aren’t the answer to everything. “One of the reasons labels can be useful is that actually companies clean their act up before they even stick the label on,” he says. “So it’s not just about giving shoppers information. It’s also about making companies think very seriously about what their impacts are on the environment.”" ABC Rural News.
Tags: behaviour shift, education, Water
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Climate Change Activism in Connecticut High School
Posted in Models by Virginia on June 5th, 2009
Excerpt from the Department of Environmental Protection, Connecticut
Students from Amity High School in Woodbridge have shown what can be achieved with dedication, passion and commitment to an issue.
The Amity High School Global Warming Club has been awarded the 2009 Climate Change Leadership Award in their efforts to promote and educate the community on the effects of climate change. They’ve also succeeded in:
- signing up over 500 households and businesses for CTCleanEnergyOptions at many community events in all three towns.
- requesting the Orange Board of Selectmen to purchase clean energy.
- Earning solar photovoltaic systems under the CT Clean Energy Fund’s “Clean Energy Communities” program through clean energy sign-ups: a 3 kilowatt system for Amity Regional School District #5 (comprising Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge), 3 kilowatts for Beecher Road School (Woodbridge), 9 kilowatts for the Bethany Community School, 4 kilowatts for the Bethany Fire Headquarters, and 2 kilowatts for the old Bethany Fire House.
- A contest at the high school to see which household can lower their electric bill the most between November 2008 and March 2009.
- Letters to the CT General Assembly to support climate change legislation.
- Fund raising for local land trusts.
Tags: education, energy, green energy, leadership, renewable energy, sustainable schools
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Green Schools in China
Posted in Models by Virginia on June 1st, 2009
Excerpt from ARIES (Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability)
China’s Green School Project is an initiative of the Ministry of Education of China (MOE) and is funded by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). China’s Green Schools Program, which started in 1996, is based on the international concept of ISO 14000 and has been informed by the European ‘Eco-schools‘. Since 2000, it has been run by the Centre for Environmental Education and Communications (CEEC) and their local networks.
The program’s key focus areas include whole-school environmental management and protection, EE curriculum and professional development, and greening of school grounds. Schools must undertake a series of steps before applying for Green School awards. Awards are categorised through a staged development process, starting at municipal, provincial and then national levels. To date, upwards of 15,000 schools have received one level of award as part of this program
Tags: China, climate change, education, environmental education, green schools, schools, students, sustainabilty
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