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

A wonderful mosaic stands at the door

In the quiet Cape Town suburb of Plumstead a listed national monument building houses a vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant that specialises in fresh and fantastic lunch buffets.

Michelle Carelse, the owner of Organic at Heart, took us for a walk around the kitchen garden - a space that was car park only 8 months back, now a thriving veg patch - where we discuss companion planting, worm-composting and the joys of eating as fresh as the last pick.

‘I like the idea of sustainable living,’ says Michelle. ‘This garden inspires people to start their own vegetable gardens. It’s not difficult to start growing your own herbs and salads – if everybody could just grow a little bit we could be well on our way to becoming a more self-sufficient society.’

Conscious Babe believes youth deserve more of a chance at self-responsibility where the environment is concerned.

A punter rocks a can-top backpack

Seems that Rocking The Daisies are really putting their money where their mouth is regarding green, setting them apart from your average South African rock festival. Reminiscent of the UK festivals I have attended, I saw numerous green initiatives at the festival this last weekend.

Mathias and girlfriend Zola from MLT drives were giving away solar-popped corn next to the dam, you could charge your phone using the wind generator and some of the stalls were powered by solar power (both provided by Earth Power), a team of 15 were sorting much of the recycling on site, the rest of which was sent to the local Malmesbury recycling centre, all the food stalls used

Conscious Babe talks about the clothes swap she hosted last weekend…

Emma tries on as Mira forages
The idea of a clothes swap – an event where unwanted clothes are swapped for new ones – has been spreading amongst women of the western world during the last few years.
Who knew what sparked off this trend: be it the recession, the spreading of environmentalism, or a silent revolution against the infectious ‘consumerism’ monster, but the implications are countless, from the conscientious shopper aspect to the lightbulb notion of no-money events.

Not only is a clothes swap a great way to interact with other fashionistas in your community, but it also provides women with a very practical opportunity to purge unwanted clothes items, as well as gain new additions to their wardrobe.

It is a generally known cliché that

Today is... recycling day. Actually every day is recycling day (or should be), but perhaps you're not already recycling or want to recycle more. Plastics | SA and the packaging industry initiated an annual Recycling Day for South Africa to raise more awareness about recycling and to get more South Africans recycling.

Our recycling journey started in the late 90's, when you had to drive for miles to find an orange Mondi igloo to recycle your paper. We used to live in Radiokop (near Honeydew) and drove through to the Northriding SPCA a few times a year to donate a mountain of newspaper. Then we lived in the UK for a while and were amazed that all

TrashBack uphinda-phindo! launch in Imizamo YethuAn amazing community recycling initiative was quietly launched in Hout Bay this past weekend. It was not done with much fanfare but this innovative social change solution has great potential to transform recycling in communities across SA.

The brainchild of three students connected with UCT's Green Campus Initiative, TrashBack provides an incentive for locals to clean up their communities. The six month pilot project called uphinda-phindo! was started in Imizamo Yethu, an informal settlement in Hout Bay in collaboration with Green Living and the Hout Bay Recycling Co-operative based at the City of Cape Town's Hout Bay Waste Drop-off facility.

On Saturday afternoon an excited group of kids lined up at the recycling drop off point. Some had plastic bags full of plastic junk, others had crates of old beer bottles, they were queuing to register their details and deliver the recyclables that they had collected in their community over the last couple of days. In reward for their recycling efforts they earned points according to the number of crates their trash filled and how much it weighed.

Masibambane Place Mat

Grahamstown National Arts Festival is a time for late nights, soaking up all the Glühwein and all that’s cultural, and being generally frivolous and indulgent. For some, however, this is also a time of reflection. The artists’ imaginings of the world are reflected back to us and we catch a glimpse of what is, and what can be. For many artists Festival is a time for celebration of the arts, but also a time for introspection, for a re-evaluation of their art and its space in society. They are given a platform to display and delight, and through this help the audiences and themselves contemplate the place of art, to contemplate the flux of its dynamic form.

For Bronwen Salton, a Fine Art Masters student at Rhodes University, Festival offered up just such a place. It was a platform for her to explore a novel medium: plastic crochet. It was a space to negotiate how the techniques she employs can be transferred to the Grahamstown community. It was a time in which she could re-examine (and in so doing help us to re-examine) the notions of what ‘fine-art’ is, to whom it is applicable, and how it can recognize and respond to the problems the world faces.

Coffee Cup Swarm (Photo care of Such Initiative)

If you happen to look up in the courtyard at the RMB building in the Sandton CBD this week you'll see a swarm of bees a-buzzing around your head, swirling up to the highest floors. These bees won’t sting or hover around your sweet drinks, but gently sway above your head in the breeze.

Infecting the city

Beginning Monday 21st, it's time for Spier's fourth Infecting The City. For those who are not familiar with it: never fear, whilst contagious it is not likely to be life threatening.

Infecting The City is Africa's only Public Arts Festival and it involves transforming the public spaces of Cape Town into wonderful works of art that will help us view the city from a different and often informative perspective.

This years theme, 'Treasure', is about appreciating the wonderful gifts that Cape Town has to offer: from the wonderful variety of cultures and historical buildings to the forgotten natural resources and seemingly useless waste...this years festival is definitely worth a wander.

We've picked out a couple of events, tours and installations with an eco-friendly angle and listed them below

In 2008, scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that the carbon footprint of Christmas - including food, travel, lighting, and gifts - was 650 kg per person in England.

In 2008 consumers in the UK consumed approximately 10 million turkeys, 25 million Christmas puddings, 250 million pints of beer and 35 million bottles of wine. The UK spends £20bn on Christmas, with £1.6bn going on food and drink, of which approximately 230,000 tons of food worth about £275 million is thrown away. Let's face it, Christmas is a nightmare holiday when it comes to the environment.

Another large contributing factor to the carbon footprint of Christmas is the