This week join Fairtrade Label South Africa in their campaign to promote an ethical alternative for all coffee lovers.

Farmers like the one pictured here benefit from Fairtrade's efforts (Photograph by Natalie Bertrams)

While there are many events and initiatives on the theme of fair trade happening internationally - in correlation with last Saturday's World Fair Trade Day - this will be the second time Fairtrade Coffee Week takes place in South Africa.

“Fairtrade Coffee Week has a special meaning for Fairtrade, both locally and internationally, as it celebrates our flagship product and the thousands of small-scale farmers involved in Fairtrade coffee production worldwide,” says FLSA’s Executive Director, Boudewijn Goossens.

Greenpop chat to me about their festival, carbon offsetting and the awesomeness of vegetarian food...

Greenpop have run many great projects, including Trees for Zambia

Greenpop just hosted its second ever Reforestation Festival this past weekend, where participants plant indigenous trees to help restore the ancient Platbos forest. Around 250 people from the ages of 5 to 65 years joined them in their 'Treevolution'.

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.co.za. 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

Capetonians up Lion's Head - made it to front page of the Sunday Times and the weekend Argus! (click read more for all the pics...)

Join Bill McGibbon's 350.org this weekend in an event near you to connect the dots ()

All across the world people are holding rallies to remind people what has happened in their neighbourhoods, to raise awareness of climate changes, and so connect the dots.

Climate change, says Bill McGibbon in an article written for The Guardian, is actually the biggest thing that is going on every single day...

Leeks, lettuce, lemon juice, lamb, loaves of bread and lovingly made mozzarella. The Dargle Valley is home to many small producers of good food. Most homesteads have a vegetable garden to supply their kitchens and often share the surplus with neighbours.

Dargle Local Living is an initiative aimed at building a better future for our community, starting by listing as much of the food which is locally produced in a small, sustainable way as possible.

At the market held beside ilPostinoResturant, you will find handmade cheese, mixed greens, pickles, jams, quiches, gooseberries, tomato plants, compost, farm yard eggs (duck, quail and chicken), pumpkins, homemade muesli and natural yoghurt too!

Dear Friends,

Across the planet now we see ever more flood, ever more drought, ever more storms. People are dying, communities are being wrecked — the impacts we’re already witnessing from climate change are unlike anything we have seen before.

But because the globe is so big, it’s hard for most people to see that it’s all connected. That’s why, on May 5, we will Connect the Dots.

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:

Probably the most important reason for lowering our impact on ecological systems is to try and reduce the rate of extinctions of species. We rely entirely on the eco-system services which our planet provides us for survival – water, energy, food.

A planet with reduced diversity is an unhealthy and unstable one. If our range of foods becomes too small, there is more risk of disease. We need wild diversity to survive.

What is sustainable living? It is reducing human impact on the ecologicalsystems of the planet, starting with one human in particular – you. As consumers we need to slow down, stop shopping and start living...