Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n), Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.

The exhibition is on until the 18th of October and if you’d like to stand a chance of winning a ticket, simply add a comment telling us about something you do in your daily life that reduces your footprint on our planet.

This competition ends on Friday 9th of October. Two winners will be drawn out of a hat and notified by email.

In central London on the evening of Tuesday 27th October, 8 green leaders will present their view on the future of their industry. To those in the know, it’s quite a star-studded occasion. Green Tomato Cars will give their view on the future of sustainable transport, Ed Gillespie from Futerra will speak about ethical communication and consumer attitudes, and Terra Plana will comment on how its ethical footwear will evolve. Sam Kimmins, Sustainability Adviser at Forum for the Future, will give his take on the future of sustainable construction. Other presentations will be from Germination (a cutting-edge event company furthering social progress), innovative web community Project Dirt, The Hub (a shared workspace concept for social entrepreneurs) and sustainable lifestyle magazine Sublime.

Each of the 8 presentations will last no more than 8 minutes, and to keep things highly visual, no more than 5 words per slide are allowed. It means that 80% of the ideas in a normal presentation can be communicated in 20% of the time. The evening will be held at St Giles Cripplegate Church in Barbican, EC2. Further adding to the creative spirit, guests are invited to help reduce waste and bring their own reusable vessels for wine.

Inspiration and insight won’t just come from the presenting businesses either. Up to 250 keen, green thinkers and doers are expected to attend, so there’ll be food for thought in the conversations and networking, too.

Want to know more and book your ticket? Here are the details you need to know:

When: Tuesday 27th October
Start time: 6.30pm for a 7pm start (drinks will be available – you’re encouraged to bring your own cup for extra green points!)
Where: St Giles Cripplegate Church, Barbican, London, EC2Y 8DA (for map click here)

Tickets are limited, costing £9.50 in advance or £15 on the door.

You can buy your ticket here: http://futureofgreen.eventbrite.com

To find out more, click on http://www.insider-worldwide.com/trend-evening-green-futures/

The most distinctive quality of the urban environment lies in its landscape. Each individual city has its own sense of character, unique infrastructure, and physical presence. As the urban setting becomes increasingly advanced, we are leaving behind our roots – the tree canopy coverage in the developed city is declining. At present, many of world’s greatest cities lack substantial plant life. This observation isn’t just aesthetic, it is harmful on many levels. An increase in tree canopy coverage may require some painstaking effort to succeed, but could have enormous benefit if it does. Incorporating trees into the urban environment would serve to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn and ease the damage of deforestation – the two main roots of climate change. Right now, homes and other buildings account for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the North America. Design and sustainability, both significant community objectives, can’t be sacrificed for one another. They must work together.

The city doesn’t “breathe” as well as a forest, contributing large quantities of carbon to the atmosphere with few sources of absorption. The earth, in order to give warmth to support life, needs a reasonable amount of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide appears naturally in the atmosphere, exhaled by humans and involved in the photosynthesis of plants. Carbon is kept in check by a natural carbon cycle, a system which creates a balance between the carbon emitters (humans), and the carbon absorbers (plants). Oceans, land and air are all involved in the process.

After the industrial revolution, when humans began messing with the carbon levels in the atmosphere, the earth began to see increasing quantities of carbon being pumped into the system. And it’s been rising steadily since, resulting in a 1.4 degree increase in global average temperature. This might not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that the global average temperature during the last ice age was only 4 – 7 degrees colder than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The increase refers to the average temperature, not explicitly presenting the extremes on either side.

The city has taken a lot less time to grow than the forests. And we can’t undo what has been built. But by adding trees into the urban landscape, we can contribute to the solution of the unbalanced carbon cycle. Placed around a house or on a rooftop, trees can cool a building by 40%. Cutting back on air conditioner reliance means a decrease in the human- made greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbons. An appropriate mix of trees can filter 88% of air pollution in a park, or 70% in a street setting. The benefit isn’t just limited to homes and buildings. On the streets, trees slow rain fall and absorb water, reducing rain flow into our sewers. More trees on the street means less overflow from sewers into the lake.

More trees would attract wildlife, make the city more aesthetically pleasing, and create more jobs. The benefits are numerous. Trees and urban design are a winning team, combining to reconcile urban culture and nature, a gap that must be bridged in order to achieve a truly sustainable city. Restoring an eco system is slow and demanding process. And unlike simply building a condo, it is unpredictable. But adding these lasting structures to the city’s infrastructure would have a greatly advantageous impact on our environment, our resources, and our money.

The potential difficulties of this goal lie in the nature of plant life. Will the slow growth of trees be frustrating enough for us to scrap the plan and come up with yet another quick and easy solution? Most of the trees that make up the canopy in major established cities have been rooted in place for a century or so, meaning that the skinny ones planted in addition will take equally as long to reach full growth. Cultivation in the urban environment won’t be easy, either. City trees die quickly in the drought of the hot summer months, as they bake against the concrete buildings and roads. If trees are to survive in the city, they would need to be planted in large groups and carefully tended.

Cities are built primarily with humans needs in mind. They create the illusion of a world solely for us. Doubling the tree canopy in the city is within our reach, and the cultivation of these entities will force us to recognize the true value of trees. The greater the esteem we assign them, the greater the benefit they will provide. Urban design and sustainability can no longer afford to clash. A green infrastructure starts with a return to the architecture of the natural world.

Photo credit: jeltovski

Are you one of those people who would prefer not to have a car but aren’t quite sure how life would work without one? Or maybe you’re just dreaming of ways to be greener but don’t have a clue how you can change the way you live? I have a couple of copies of “Do Humans Dream of Electric Cars?” to give away to two EcoStreet readers who would like to know more about liberating themselves from our car culture. To stand a chance of winning a copy, please leave a comment about your favourite form of transport. The draw will take place on the 31st of July 2009. Winners will be contacted by email.

Do Humans Dream of Electric Cars? is a fun book using lively illustrations and some pretty cool art to demonstrate the many alternatives to the car as a form of transportation. There are plenty of positive ideas for individuals, organisations and communities at large to lessen their impact on our planet. The book has a UK bias, but some of the statistics aside, it is as relevant to the South Africa driver as it is to the British, even more so now that we’re going to be getting some pretty fantastic new public transport in the form of the BRT.

Do Humans Dream of Electric Cars? is published by award winning green publisher Alistair Sawday in association with Sustrans, the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity.

The global recession has finally caught up with us here in South Africa and we are starting to feel the pinch. I’m putting some work into finding ways to cut our expenses, all the while staying green, and in some aspects, becoming even greener.

Here are some ideas I’ve had for cutting back spending that will directly influence our carbon footprint.

Electricity

We have beautiful intentions of taking our home in Claremont off-grid as far as electricity is concerned one of these years (i.e. when we can afford to), until then, Eskom is pushing the electricity price to the limit and we are going to have to cut electricity usage to keep our bills under control.

1. Don’t use the tumble dryer.
2. Remind the husband and children that chargers use electricity even when the device is not attached unless switched off at the wall.
3. Close curtains and blinds at dusk to retain heat.
4. Put on a jersey before switching on the heaters.
5. Replace remainder of incandescent light bulbs with low energy bulbs.
6. Switch from using the 30′C cycle on my washing machine to cold wash.
7. Switch off the lights when there’s no-one in a room.
8. Give all worn clothes a good look-over and sniff before despatching them to the laundry basket.

We already have a few good things going for us as far as energy usage goes.

1. We have installed EconoHeat wall heaters in all bedrooms.
2. We run low energy use oil heater on wheels for the rest of the house and the occasional fire in the fireplace.
3. Our roof is very well insulated.
4. The majority of our light bulbs are of the energy saving variety.

Food

Since I stopped working outside the home and am a full-time errant housewife and mother, I have more time to cook, garden and plan. For us this is a big plus while we’re looking at our income dropping.

1. Get our home food garden in full swing. We’ve bought a whole bunch of fruit trees (apple, pear, plum, mango, naartjie (Clementine) and pomegranate) and I’ve sown spinach, chard, lettuce, carrots, onions and peas for winter growing. I will be putting some extra hours into the garden to boost food production and avoid shopping trips.
2. Complete cut out convenience foods and cook from scratch, cooking up double batches and freezing half for easy ready-meals later.
3. Eat meat only once a week.
5. Make a packed lunch for Pete and the kids the evening before.
6. Always take reusable bags to the shops to avoid paying for plastic bags that are bad for the environment.
7. Make my own household cleaners out of bicarb. of soda and vinegar.
8. Buy in bulk. I’m going to chat to a few friends and family about bulk buying and sharing non-perishables once I’ve been to Makro to check out what’s available and compare prices. Buying in bulk is better for the planet because there’s less packaging and fewer trips to the shops in a car.

Transport

When we chose our family car, we decided to buy a car with both 2×4 and 4×4, and it’s a diesel too, making it quite economical on fuel. We only need to use the 4×4 when we’re visiting our holiday place in the mountains, or when we’re away on holiday having adventures.

1. Cut back on trips out to save fuel. Plan shopping trips with collecting children from school and dropping the recycling off at the same time.
2. Use my bicycle more for local trips.

And a few more ideas that don’t fit into the above categories:

1. Sell our clutter. We moved into our new house a couple of months ago and have a store room full of stuff that we aren’t using. Some of this stuff will be despatched via Gumtree or the like.
2. Buy secondhand clothes rather than new. This is something that I often did in England, but haven’t been doing here in SA. But I just came across this great resource for vintage and secondhand clothing shops in Cape Town, and I’m going to give it another bash.
3. Use the library instead of buying books.

It’s the winter school holidays here at the moment, and Piper and I are really enjoying spending some extra time together. I’ve spent less time on the blog of late because there’s too much fun to be had off-line with my darling daughter.

Photo credit: Birdieann

Piper and I have been sowing seeds for winter vegetables this afternoon. It’s fun to do with children of any age when outside is stormy and wet, and inside is a much nicer prospect. Northern hemisphere folks sow summer veg for a school holiday activity.

Learning to grow vegetables is a valuable and important life skill.

10 Easy Steps

1. Find something in your recycling that will make a suitable plant pot. Suggestions: bottom half of plastic milk bottles, yoghurt pots, bottom half of egg cartons.

2. Fill the receptacles with compost. Get organic compost from your local nursery/garden centre or use sifted homemade compost.

3. Plant seeds. Suggested for winter: Swiss chard, spinach, some lettuces, some carrots, onions, peas.

4. Water.

5. Admire.

6. Put in a sunny window.

7. Water daily or when dry.

8. Wait.

9. Harvest.

10. Eat.

Spinach seedlings, cos growing your own is as green as it gets.

Mark Berger put into words a couple of weeks ago something that I’ve been thinking since being back in South Africa, and that is that South African’s appear to be suffering under “a massive countrywide inferiority complex.” One particular area that I’ve noticed this, and one that Mark didn’t include in his blog post, is in South African products vs. imported products. There is a conception here that imported equals better than local.

Inclined as I am to buy local (I like to keep my carbon footprint as small and neat as possible), this idea that buying imported goods (including food) is somehow better (and a whole lot more expensive too, usually) is just preposterous.

If we want to buy local and eat local, it’s super easy here compared to trying to do the same in England, for example. We are spoilt for choice in Cape Town, a veritable locavore’s paradise. So why are we still buying Kerrygold cheese and butter from Ireland, strawberry juice and calamari from China, New Zealand lamb, prawns from India and Woolies snoek from, wait for it, New Zealand??? There’s no rhyme or reason to this silliness when we have beautiful local (and in many cases free range or organic) meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and dairy products right on our doorsteps.

One way to take charge of the food that you eat is to grow your own, but the truth is that not everyone has the spare time or inclination to do that. There are alternatives. If you live in Cape Town you could join the Slow Food Cape Town CSA (before 30th June 2009). Or order an organic veg box from Abalimi Bezekhaya.

Wondering what a CSA is?

Slow Food Cape Town CSA Winter ‘09 – in a nutshell

A weekly bag containing six vegetables supplied by organic small farmers Erick and Eric
Two jars of surprise preserves made by a community project will be included over the course of the CSA
Farm visits organised to meet the farmers and see the farms
Additional resources include weekly email updates and recipes, and a blog
Collect your bag after 1pm on Tuesdays at: Jaqui Daya Good Food Store in Newlands, Millstone Farm Stall in Pinelands or Deer Park Café in Vredehoek
Runs for eight weeks, from 30 June through 18 August
Costs R462 in total: this must be paid in advance

Some local supermarkets stock a wealth of really local South African produce. This morning at the SuperSpar in Rosmead Avenue, Kenilworth I bought cheese from George, cream from Durbanville and stone ground flour from Heidelberg. It’s worth frequenting supermarkets who bother stocking really local stuff, and you will need to make the effort to look at labels and seek out the food from closest by. It’s an effort worth making in my opinion, not only to lower your carbon footprint, but also to support local producers and ensure food security in your neck of the woods.

Other ways to reduce your consumer carbon footprint is to buy South African household appliances (DEFY), South African made clothing (Woolies stocks some or Mnandi Textiles in Station Road, Observatory to name just two), locally made furniture (one example I can think of is Right (the bloke’s name) at the Montebello Design Centre in Newlands Avenue), and for gifts and treats there’s Montebello again, Neighbourhood Goods Market (at the Biscuit Mill in Woodstock) and the Craft Markets at Kirstenbosch and Rondebosch.

We are truly spoilt for choice, so these are just a few options. If you feel there’s something that should be mentioned here that isn’t, please leave a comment.

I’ve just signed up for the Winter CSA, thanks to Pia’s regular prompting.

Our vegetable garden is coming along nicely, we should have Swiss chard and spinach to eat in about a month or so.

What makes this WALL-E robot project so perfect is that in the movie he’s the guy cleaning up after us humans who leave the planet in a jolly big mess, so why not have him clean out your recycling bin at home too. You can see exactly what was used and how to make your own WALL-E robot out of stuff from your bin at Kitten Muffin’s blog, Filth Wizardry (note to self: file as something cool to do for the upcoming school holidays).

Home made recycled WALL-E [Filth Wizardry]

[via elephantjournal]

It’s vegetarian recipe day here at EcoStreet because eating less meat is better for our planet. Today I’m sharing with you a recipe that I improvised after eating something similar at Millstone Cafe at the Oude Molen Eco Village. I’m not 100% sure what goes into their version of this, but here’s what goes into mine. It’s delicious.

Butternut, spinach and feta quiche

1 butternut, cut into cubes
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 big handfuls of spinach (I used a red veined variety)
250ml cream
3 eggs
200g feta cheese, crumbled
salt & black pepper
1 quiche crust (I vary these, often making non-wheat varieties because we have a few wheat-intolerances in the family)

Roast honey and olive oil drizzled butternut in the oven (190′C) for 20-30 mins until tender and slightly browning at the edges (keep an eye on it). In the meantime, make your quiche crust and put the spinach into it. Add the roasted butternut chunks and sprinkle the feta over everything.

Beat 3 eggs with the cream, season with salt and pepper and pour over the rest of the quiche ingredients.

Pop it in the oven at 180′C for around 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it and take it out as soon as it’s looking golden. Let it stand for 20 minutes or so before cutting and serving. Even better the next day.