1st prize: SHOOTS by Gabrielle BirkenmeyerIn March 2012, the Eco Design Initiative hosted its highlight events, the Sustainable Design Showcase at City Hall and the Fresh Talent Challenge, a social design intervention that took place in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. (6 to 16 March)

These were the culmination of the Initiative’s second cycle of events, themed “Home is where the heart is”. The goal of the Initiative’s mission to “educate, exhibit, exchange” is to deliver tangible examples of how sustainability and design thinking and processes have the power to make life better - for people, our planet and prosperity.
the sustainable design awards

Have fun with Artjamming this school holiday!

Check out an Artjamming store near you

Artjamming have a great programme this holiday, teaching valuable painting techniques and encouraging your child to create artworks you can treasure. They will also learn about the style and story of artists such as Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and Georgia O' Keefe.

Stop by the nearest Artjamming store this upcoming holiday or book now. Classes cost R155 and this includes all art supplies.

Holiday programme (for June/July)
Mondays: Jamming with art – Learn how music and art work hand in hand
Tuesdays: Colour Awareness – how colour affects everyday life
Wednesdays: Fun with foam
Thursdays: Learn to paint landscapes like Georgia O Keefe

The latest animation movie for kids proves to have a strong green conscience.

Showing at local cinemas now!

If you've never read the book by Dr Seuss - complete with it's fun rhymes and zaney humour - you can now watch The Lorax on big screen! With incredible animation effects by Illumination Entertainment (the guys who brought us Despicable Me) and voices from the likes of Danny DeVito and Zac Efron, you will find yourself touched by the simple story that shows how greed can lead to the demise of nature.

The Lorax himself is a bizarre little creature with a large yellow moustache who claims to 'speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues' - cute or what?

Travelling up to the Harmonic Resonance party to help promote my mums event The Little Green Gathering , we discovered many hidden treasures amongst the otherwise isolatingly spacious and overgrown landscapes of the Garden Route.

Wild Sprit lodge& backpackers (photograph by Julan Briant)

Friday Night:

After a long-winded and rather dramatic 6-hour ride in the dark and rain, we arrive at our friend's off-the-grid home, greeted mercifully by a cup of Organic hot cocoa. This is the kind of house where you take a flashlight to the loo and have to stand in a certain place in the lounge to receive any morsel of cellular phone reception. I slept like a baby.

Saturday:

Come and see sustainable design's "Fresh Talents" - finalists of the Eco design Competition 2011, themed "Home is where the heart is" and their sustainable design concepts and prototypes reflect the Eco Initiative's original call for product, system and service designs that support harmonious development and improve life.

These designs, featured in the Sustainable Design Showcase at City Hall Cape Town earlier this month, include a variety of product, communication campaigns and community projects that address local development challenges, yet have the potential to make a global impact.

Tomorrow, Friday 16 March 2012, the Eco Design Initiative will proudly announce the competition winners that will continue their participation in the initiative's skills and culture exchange with design peers in Sweden when they visit Scandinavia in June 2012.

The more I see how much DIY has become a worldwide trend in recent years - due to lack of money and a growing green conscience - the more I am beginning to believe that the recession has helped to trigger society back into a place of creativity and self-sufficiency.

From the Facebook group ReUseConnection

From making your own cushion covers to creating furniture from the wood of used Christmas trees, innovative creations have been springing up everywhere. And you have only to look to the internet or your own mind for ideas.

What's on this weekend... 17 / 18 / 19 November

Our green guide to this weekend

Carrotmob Cape Town:

Join Climate Smart Cape Town in South Africa's first carrotmob this weekend in the heart of Cape Town. Carrotmob is a global movement aimed at creating social change and builds upon the power of consumers to change the way in which businesses operate. You will be mobbing certain carrotmob businesses, who will in turn agree to invest a certain percentage of the profits into improving its environmental or social impact. It is a “buycott” instead of a “boycott”.

Carrotmob takes place at Maria’s Café on Dunkley Square, Gardens, this Friday 18 November from 5pm till 10:30pm

For more information, click here

Green Expo Cape Town:

The Green Expo in Cape Town takes place this weeked at the CTICC. Expect some to find some great eco-friendly goods, green technologies, earth-friendly products and more.

For more information, prices and contact details, please click here

Inspiring Change:

Inspiring Change is brought to you by Climate Smart Cape Town and runs concurrently with

Inspiring Change: 18 - 20 Nov, CTICC

Running concurrently with the Green Expo this weekend (18th - 20th Nov), the Cape Town Climate Change Coalition is hosting a gathering called Inspiring Change.

Held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 18 – 20 November 2011, this series of talks and demonstrations aims to stimulate fresh thinking and to share ideas about our city.

The gathering includes several cool aspects including the Siemens electric mobility roadshow, Pecha Kucha sessions, inspiring panellists deliberating on Cape Town's role in climate change solutions, site visits and a Carotmob.

The travelling exhibition by Siemens has already been in many parts of the world and makes its

pic: a child's work of art as featured in the calendar

Harvest of Hope (HoH) is currently producing a calendar for our annual art competition. Children from several schools have painted pictures for Abalimi and we have selected 12 winners to be presented in our calendar. The calendars will be spiral bound and produced to a high standard and would be a perfect gift for any loved one for Christmas.

Being an NGO we work to a tight budget and therefore would like to receive orders from our loyal supporters before we print the calendars.
The picture above is one of the twelve included in the calendar all with a gardening/vegetable theme.

If you would like to support Abalimi please purchase one of our beautiful calendars for R 100 by making a deposit into our bank account.

Requiem: Norman Catherine, Requiem, 1994. Oilstick on paper. 130 x 112 cm. Private collection‘Water, the [Delicate] Thread of Life’ opened at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg on Friday 29 July. The exhibition sets out to navigate a course through the many wonders and complexities of water and to challenge the way we think about and respond to one of the most precious substances on earth.

This unique exhibition, which runs until 1 October 2011, seeks to bring home just how fragile and tenuous life on earth would be without sustainable water resources. Through the eyes, minds and creative endeavours of South African artists, it shows how integral and fundamental water is to life. Water is indeed the delicate thread on which life depends.

The exhibition comprises work by a host of