I spend a fair amount of time on Living Green and Saving Energy describing how to go green and save money as a result. But as important as saving money is for most people, perhaps it is not the most important benefit of a greener lifestyle.  Green living can improve your health as well.

Here are 5 health benefits you can realize from creating a greener lifestyle:

1. A healthier heart: regular exercise has obvious health benefits. By walking or riding a bike to replace your car for short trips you get some cardio-exercise and save gas and reduce carbon emissions all at once. Even taking the bus or train will help since you can walk or bike to and from the bus stop or train station.

2. A healthier diet: buying locally-produced food saves on fuel for transporting that food to the market, and smaller local growers are more likely to offer organically-grown produce that is fresher as well. Shopping at farmer’s markets is a good way to find these items, making sure your food is pesticide-free. In addition, reducing consumption of meat lowers your carbon footprint due to the greater amounts of energy, water, and resources used to produce meat compared to vegetables. And eating less red meat is good for almost everyone’s health.

3.  Healthier drinking: Bottled water is one of the least green items around. The chemicals used to produce the bottles are largely derived from petroleum, and some of those can leach into the water causing low-level contamination. And regardless of what type of plastic bottle is used, bottled water is not necessarily purer than tap water, just much more expensive. Drinking plenty of tap water, filtered as necessary depending on where you live, is the greenest and healthiest option.

4. Healthier breathing: Planning any remodeling this year? Using low VOC paint (VOC stands for volatile organic compounds) is healthier for your family due to the lower amount of airborne toxins. Your whole family will benefit form this simple step. [Also use air-purifying house plants for a healthier indoor environment]

5. Healthier lighting: Using natural sunlight to light instead of electricity your rooms during the day will definitely save you some money, but there are even health benefits from this simple practice as well. Sunlight helps in the body’s production of vitamin D, assuming some of that sunlight coming through the windows reaches your body directly. Natural light can also be a mood booster, especially during the shorter winter days.

Almost everyone’s health can be improved in each of these five ways by establishing greener living habits. And I probably don’t need to remind you that you will save money as well.

Source: living green and saving energy

Health and environment are inextricably interlinked; polluted environments lead to poor health so it is in our best interests to become more eco-friendly wherever possible.  Clean energy such as solar energy promote cleaner air and water conservation and gray water recycling reduce the pressure on ecosystems.  As the author above mentions, not only does living green promote good health and benefit the environment but it ultimately saves money too (water bills and electricity bills being formost).

Check out Ecovitality, an informative website that recognizes the link between health and the environment.

Water Rhapsody Water Conservation Systems and Yes Solar Mpumalanga offer eco-friendly rainwater collection systems, rainwater tanks, grey water recycling, swimming pool backwash recycling, water-saving toilet flush mechanisms and high quality Solsquare solar geysers.

Contact us for a FREE QUOTE on a solar water geyser, rainwater harvesting system, gray water system or water tank (we are authorised JoJo Tanks dealers and supply and install the full range of JoJo water tanks and JoJo tank stands).  Our water tank prices are hard to beat in the Mpumalanga & Limpopo Lowveld (we also supply high quality Atlas Plastics water tanks and other Atlas Plastics products on request).

Some things we take for granted, like a predictable climate and a temperate earth. Oops. Our carbon emissions are fundamentally changing that climate — faster and more radically than we imagined. Humanity now has an unprecedented choice. Do we deny, ignore and selfishly delay until it’s too late? Or do we rise to the challenge? To reduce carbon emissions, we must demand substantive political action. We must vote climate in 2010.

The message applies to all nations.  There are some environmentally aware politicians in South Africa; seek them out and vote for them on local, regional and national levels (see environmental plan for the Western Cape).  Politicians who genuinely promote environmental issues are generally intelligent,  trustworthy leaders that represent well-balanced, moderate political viewpoints in other spheres.  Voting for an eco-friendly government is not enough; we all need to become proactive.  Two relatively easy things that we can do that save money and the environment in the long term are saving water and using less electricity that comes from fossil fuels.  Rainwater harvesting (store rain water in water tanks for household use) and grey water recycling along with water saving habits can help to make you water self-sufficient (and save water bills).  Becoming energy self-sufficient is within reach now too: solar power (solar panels, solar geysers)  is ideal for sunny South Africa.  Climate change is here; we need to react to it appropriately to ensure our actions don’t contribute to the negative effects of climate change.  Contact us for impartial advice and a free quote! Re: thinking water, re: thinking energy.

The way that humanity reacts to climate change may do more damage to many areas of the planet than climate change itself unless we plan properly, an important new study published in Conservation Letters by Conservation International’s Will Turner and a group of other leading scientists has concluded.

The paper Climate change: helping nature survive the human response, looks at efforts to both reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and potential action that could be taken by people to adapt to a changed climate and assesses the potential impact that these could have on global ecosystems.

In particular it notes that one fifth of the world’s remaining tropical forests lie within 50km of human populations that could be inundated if sea levels rise by 1m. These forests would make attractive sources of fuel-wood, building materials, food and other key resources and would be likely to attract a population forced to migrate by rising sea levels. About half of all Alliance for Zero Extinction sites — which contain the last surviving members of certain species — are also in these zones.

Dr Turner said: “There are numerous studies looking at the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, but very little time has been taken to consider what our responses to climate change might do to the planet.”

The paper notes that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by constructing dams for hydropower generation can cause substantial damage to key freshwater ecosystems as well as to the flora and fauna in the flooded valleys. It also notes that the generally bogus concept that biofuels reduce carbon emissions is still being used as a justification for the felling of large swathes of biodiverse tropical forests.

The report also reviews studies examining the complex series of outcomes in historical examples of climate change and environmental degradation, and humanity’s efforts to adapt to changing circumstances. Migration caused in part by climatic instability in Burkina Faso in the late 20th century, for example, led to a 13 per cent decline in forest cover as areas were cleared for agriculture, and a decline in fish supplies in Ghana may have led to a significant increase in bushmeat hunting.

Dr Turner added: “If we don’t take a look at the whole picture, but instead choose to look only at small parts of it we stand to make poor decisions about how to respond that could do more damage than climate change itself to the planet’s biodiversity and the ecosystem services that help to keep us all alive.

“While the Tsunami in 2004 was not a climate event, many of the responses that it stimulated are comparable with how people will react to extreme weather events — and the damage that the response to the Tsunami did to many of Aceh province’s important ecosystems as a result of extraction of timber and other building materials, and poor choices of locations for building , should be a lesson to us all.”

Although the challenge of sustaining biodiversity in the face of climate change seems daunting, the paper notes that we must — and can — rise to the challenge.

Turner adds: “Climate change mitigation and adaptation are essential. We have to ensure that these responses do not compromise the biodiversity and ecosystem services upon which societies ultimately depend. We have to reduce emissions, we have to ensure the stability of food supplies jeopardized by climate change, we have to help people survive severe weather events — but we must plan these things so that we don’t destroy life-sustaining forests, wetlands, and oceans in the process.’

The paper concludes that there are many ways of ensuring that the human response to climate change delivers the best possible outcomes for both society and the environments, and notes that in particular, maintaining and restoring natural habitats are among the cheapest, safest, and easiest solutions at our disposal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and help people adapt to unavoidable changes.

Dr Turner said: “Providing a positive environmental outcome is often the best way to ensure the best outcome for people. If we are sensible, we can help people and nature together cope with climate change, if we are not it will cause suffering for people and serious problems for the environment.”

Source: Science Daily

As a species, we need to move from changing the environment to suit our needs to adapting to our environment like most other species on our planet.  Unfortunately in many cases, we’ve modified our environment without forethought and the long-term effects of our behaviour has led to degraded ecosystems with limited natural function.  Whether climate change has been man-induced and hastened by our activities or whether it is a natural cyclic event, we need to ensure that our ecosystems that sustain us are in the best shape possible to endure the effects of climate change.  We can reduce our environmental footprint by conserving water and using less energy.  A shift from using fossil fuels to sustainable, renewable energy is inevitable; the deciding factor of whether we will survive as species is how quickly we can change.  Solar energy is developing rapidly as solar panels increase in efficiency; this renewable energy source is possibly the most accessible type to the average person.  Yes Solar have sourced a variety of high quality solar water heating systems and solar geysers to suit a wide range of applications and budgets.  We offer impartial advice and all our solar power systems are Eskom-approved and are installed by Eskom-accredited technicians (so are eligible for substantial Eskom renewable energy rebates of up to R8000).  Our Water Rhapsody water systems are backed by nearly 17 years of experience and expertise.  Water Rhapsody is simply number one in South Africa for rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling systems.  Integral to many of our water conservation systems are water tanks; we supply and install the full range or JoJo water tanks and water tank stands (we are authorized JoJo Tank dealers in South Africa).  Contact us for a free quote!

]]> http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2010/08/worst-impact-of-climate-change-may-be-how-humanity-reacts-to-it/feed/ 0 http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2010/07/recycling-vs-reusing-is-there-a-difference/ http://www.rainharvest.co.za/2010/07/recycling-vs-reusing-is-there-a-difference/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:50:20 +0000 admin http://www.rainharvest.co.za/?p=2463 Tweet

As the world becomes more environmentally aware, recycling & reusing energy, water and other natural and man-made resources is becoming more commonplace.  What is the difference between reusing and recycling something? The two terms are often used interchangeably but in some cases, they are really quite different.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines recycle as v. 1 convert (waste) into reusable material, use again. 2 return (material) to a previous stage in a cyclic process and reuse as v. use again or more than once, n. the action of using something again.

Both recycling and reusing materials are important, environmentally friendly actions.  However, if something can be reused as well as recycled, it can be better to reuse it rather than recycle it.  The reason being that reuse implies less processing and thus less energy consumption than recycling.  During the recycling process, a material is usually broken down into something that can be reformed and made almost from scratch.  This implies a manufacturing process that could, indirectly or directly, cause harm to the environment (e.g. use of chemicals and polluting by-products) in addition to energy consumption, water consumption and carbon emissions.  An example is where glass bottles are either returnable (reused) or are non-returnable but can be recycled (glass sorted by colour, crushed, impurities removed, heated & melted then reformed and shaped into glass bottles or other glass products).  So remember this when purchase you next lot of beverages (see Eco-Friendly Drinking).

Here’s an example of one company’s glass recycling process:

Glass recycling is the process of turning waste glass into usable products. Depending upon the end use this commonly includes separating it different colors. Glass normally comes in a number of colours. The major types are: – Flint glass (clear glass) – Green glass – Brown-amber glass

Glass collection points are very common near shopping centers, at civic amenity sites and in local neighborhoods. They commonly stand besides collection points for other recyclable waste like paper, metals and plastic bottles. Local, municipal waste collectors usually have one central point for all types of waste in which large glass containers are located.

Most collection points have separate bins for clear, green and amber/brown glass. Glass reprocessors require separation by colour as the different colours of glass are usually chemically incompatible. Heat-resistant glass like Pyrex or borosilicate glass should not be disposed of in the glass container as even a single piece of such material will alter the viscosity of the fluid in the furnace at remelt.

Glass is an ideal material for recycling and where it is used for new glass container manufacture it is virtually infinitely recyclable. The use of recycled glass in new container, brick and ceramic manufacture conserves raw materials, reduces energy consumption and helps nations meet their energy efficiency obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, and reduces the volume of waste sent to landfill.

Secondary uses for recycled glass:
In the United Kingdom the container industry cannot consume all of the recycled container glass that will become available over the coming years, mainly due to the colour imbalance between that which is manufactured and that which is consumed. The resulting surplus of green glass from imported bottles containing red wine may be exported to producing countries, or used locally in the growing diversity of secondary end uses for recycled glass.

Secondary markets for glass recycling may include: * Glass in ceramic sanitary ware production * Glass as a flux agent in brick manufacture * Glass in sports turf and related applications (e.g. top dressing, root zone) material or golf bunker sand * Glass as water filtration media * Glass as an abrasive

Mixed glass waste streams can also be recycled and converted into an aggregate. Mixed waste streams may be collected from materials recovery facilities or mechanical biological treatment systems. Some facilities can sort out mixed waste streams into different colours using electro-optical sorting units.

Source: youtube

When it comes to precious resources like water, we must recycle and reuse where appropriate.   The difference between recycling and reusing water can become a little blurred. Collecting rainwater off your roof is in effect ‘new’ water that has been through the water cycle.  Rain water that’s used for household purposes can and should be reused (in the form of greywater) for garden irrigation or for flushing toilets.  Greywater (and even black water – sewerage) can be recycled by a series of processes to render potable drinking water.

Water Rhapsody specializes in water conservation systems that include water collection, water reuse & recycling systems and water saving devices (i.e. where less water is used to achieve the same goal).  We supply and install water conservation products that have been thoroughly tested and are environmentally sound.  We also install high quality water tanks and are official JoJo water tank dealers in Mpumalanga and Limpopo.  Our qualified consultants are trained to assess your water conservation requirements and supply you with the most suitable solution.  Contact us for free quote!

9 Steps to Saving Fuel, Saving Money and Saving the Environment

Hypermiling refers to a collection of driving techniques aimed at improving your car’s fuel efficiency by reducing the demands placed on the engine. Since it’s possible to improve fuel economy by 37% just by changing the way you drive hypermiling is gaining interest in light of high fuel costs. While some hypermiling methods are controversial and potentially dangerous, this article will focus on safer techniques that can still save you gas and money.

1. Drive as if you don’t have brakes. Stopping and starting kills gas mileage. Increase the amount of distance between you and other vehicles, don’t race to red lights or traffic obstructions. Coast as much as possible. On newer cars (Manual Transmission) if the car is in gear and your foot is off the accelerator, the injectors shut off completely, creating FREE mileage at the cost of some minor engine braking. Engaging the clutch and/or putting the car in neutral causes the car to idle, using up gas as opposed to using none. Coast as often as possible, because if you’re smart enough with your coasting, your acceleration won’t even cause a hiccup in your cruising mpg.

This may be frustrating and difficult, however, if other drivers keep cutting in front of you. You should keep your foot ready to use the brake so that if you do need to stop suddenly you can react quickly. If using this technique at night, make sure you have clean headlights and that they are working properly. Obviously, you still need to obey all traffic laws and common sense. For example, you wouldn’t roll through stop signs; the increased risk of a car accident and/or traffic ticket is not worth a few extra cents saved in fuel costs.

2. Be gentle with the accelerator. When you slam down on the gas pedal, it pushes more fuel into the engine, making it run faster (and lowering the fuel economy and increasing your output of pollutants). Push the pedal down slowly, and lift it up as soon as you know you’re going to need to stop (when you see a red light, a stop sign, or brake lights from the car ahead of you) so that you can coast the rest of the way. You should never need to push down the pedal by more than an inch (2.5cm). Some cars are even being designed with pedals that “push back” when you’re accelerating too aggressively!

If you have a choice between various routes, go for the one with the least number of stops; country roads are good because you don’t have to stop (and go) as much and you don’t have to accelerate/brake to get on/off (like with the highway).

If you’re driving on sloped roads, it’s useful to think about where you should come to a full stop because that’ll affect how hard you need to accelerate:

• Fuel efficient vehicles actually generate better gas mileage when a “brisk” acceleration method is used. Acceleration makes for terrible mileage, so get the acceleration out of the way so that you can cruise (excellent mileage!) Slow acceleration will yield less mileage on efficient cars.
• Avoiding stopping on an incline heading upwards. Starting from a dead stop on a hill is the worst scenario in terms of fuel economy. Stop at the top of the hill, or stop before you climb the hill (if it’s safe).
• When coming down a hill and faced with a red light at the bottom (where it levels out), try to stop well before the light so that you can use the remaining downhill slope to your advantage when you need to move again.

3. Avoid idling. Turning off the engine when you stop for more than one minute can improve fuel efficiency by 19%. In cold weather, letting your car idle to warm up reduces fuel economy and creates additional pollution; all you need to do is drive gently for 5-10 minutes and if you’re following the previous two steps, you’re going to be driving gently all the way anyway.

If you have multiple stops in one trip, plan it so that you go to your furthest destination first and make the rest of your stops on your way back. By taking your longest drive at the beginning, you give the car enough time to warm up for the remainder of the trip; if you took the short trips first, your car would take longer to warm up (because of the brevity of each trip). Since engines do not operate efficiently until they are warm, taking your longest drive first increases fuel efficiency.

4. Go slower up hills, and faster downhill. Going uphill slower allows you to use your momentum to help keep your car from using extra gas to get up the hill. If you plan for a hill by going faster you’ll get further up the hill before you need to use extra gas. While going downhill you can go faster using less gas, as such don’t lay off the pedal completely, use it until you’re going a little faster than normal. If you combine the two in areas with small hills you’ll see much higher mileage.

5. Minimize the engine load. Generally, it’s better for your fuel economy if you maintain a steady speed, which is why using cruise control and driving at or below the speed limit is an important part of hypermiling. If you’re driving on a hill or any kind of varied terrain, however, you need to consider how much work the engine is doing. Sometimes, a steady speed means unsteady strain on your engine, which lowers fuel economy. Let’s say you’re approaching a hill. When you go up the hill, you should slow down, or else your engine will have to do extra work to maintain your previous speed. Practice with caution as you may annoy other drivers.

6. Park for easy departure. Instead of searching for the perfect spot close to an entrance (which will involve stop and go driving, especially with pedestrians involved and other drivers pulling in or out of their spots) pull into a spot that’s further away from the entrance. Look for the parking spot with the highest elevation and park face-out so that when you start the car and the engine is cold (at the lowest efficiency) you can use gravity in your favor without having to spin your car around.

7. Check tire pressure regularly. If the tires are incorrectly inflated, then there will be excess drag, or not enough surface contact with the road. The car therefore suffers a drop in efficiency.

8. Reduce the junk in the trunk. The more weight you’re carrying, the more the engine and drive-train have to work. Removing all of that unused junk in the trunk increases efficiency.

9. In a hybrid, Pulse and Glide. If you own a hybrid car, you can increase your mileage by learning to pulse and glide. Pulse and glide is a technique that can dramatically increase your mileage, but is best when you are on a road where there are few other people around.

• “Pulse” or accelerate up to a speed that is the higher end of a range of speeds that are appropriate. Do this using one of the sweet spots for mileage/power ratio on your car. For the prius these spots are ~15mpg and 25mpg, and correspond to times at which the gas engine is powering the car and charging the battery.
• “Glide” between acceleration, but use the accelerator to provide electric assist. This requires knowing how hard to push and in which circumstances, but is very easy to see on the consumption screen. Get used to the maximum electric assist you can use and you’ll go further between pulses, further increasing your mileage.

Source: wikihow

Many haven’t heard of the term ‘hypermiling’ but have probably practiced some of the tips mentioned above.  This shows that you don’t necessarily need a green car to drive green.  As a student, I remember trying all sorts of fuel saving tips out of necessity- who wants to spend money on fuel when there are so many other better things to spend it on?  Even if saving money is not the primary incentive, reducing fossil fuel usage reduces your carbon emissions and lessens your environmental impact. The same can be said for water- when you save water, you generally save money too.  Water Rhapsody has a solution to all your water conservation requirements.  See the water systems featured on our product demo and contact us for a FREE quote!  We also supply and install JoJo water tanks (we are authorized JoJo dealers in South Africa).

Green travel is not an easy prospect; the fact that you are travelling means by definition that you are causing damage to the planet. Travelling on planes, by car or on a boat pollutes the atmosphere; grabbing a taxi at the airport in some distant city has its effects.

Getting the balance right

The alternative is to take bicycle holidays direct from home and sleep in a tent – idyllic for many people, but for others not quite the equivalent to hitting Ibiza’s nighttime hotspots.

Therein lies the dilemma: If your idea of holiday heaven is not afternoon picnics in your local park, your holiday plans will involve travel; travel involves polluting the atmosphere and using up the world’s natural resources.

Balanced somewhere between these different approaches, many people are now far more aware of the effects of their two-week annual escape to the sun on the planet and the worldwide environment.

Searching for the greener solution

Many people are searching for a greener solution, but one that does not mean missing out on all the fun. People are looking into ways to reduce the impact their holiday has on the world, as at the moment it seems impractical to have a totally green holiday – especially if it involves travel and a restricted amount of time.

Long-distance travel creates carbon dioxide and other nasty atmosphere-threatening gases, and holiday jets are amongst the world’s worst pollution machines. However, a three-week holiday in exotic Thailand would practicable impossible if you were to take a green transport system that takes five months to get there.

Reducing your individual carbon footprint

There is the alternative of selecting airlines with the latest, more fuel-efficient jets; this reduces your individual carbon footprint. But in the end, this is not a green transport mode. You could offset your carbon footprint by joining one of the schemes that “pays back” what you “spent” in terms of emissions by planting trees in an equivalent amount to the carbon footprint of your flight.

Once you arrive at your destination, your options for a green holiday open up tremendously. You have many options that will allow you to have a holiday that is more earth friendly. In many countries, locally owned eating establishments use locally grown food and make little or no use of pre-packaged foodstuffs, so you may want to select those over international food chains.

Finding green hotels

There are now many green hotels springing up across the world that for example are committed to saving water and power. You may also find that locally owned establishments will follow similar strategies out of necessity, to enable them to be competitive.

Getting around green

You can opt to use local public transport instead of hiring a car or taking taxis. This will save you money, help the planet and very often make for some of the most interesting experiences of your trip. When enjoying activities, for example at the beach, choose windsurfing over hiring a jet ski, most of which run on heavily polluting two-stroke engines.

The same is true of hiring scooters in many countries; consider renting a bicycle in place of a polluting scooter. Most countries now offer eco-friendly tours designed to avoid the damage to the environment that was the reason people visit those locations in the first place.

Most local tourism offices or national tourism boards are happy to assist with information on companies that offer green trips and excursions.

Be responsible when travelling

But green travel is not only where you stay or eat; being responsible while on holiday is simple and should not be an inconvenience. Picking up your own rubbish when leaving the beach, sticking to marked hiking trails and avoiding heavily polluting transport are simple and effective ways of being as green as possible while still enjoying your holiday.

Source: travel-rants.com

The main aim is to do what you can to lessen your impact when travelling.  If there are too many restrictions on what and what not to do, your holiday may become a stressful experience which defeats the point of a holiday in the first place!  If you start with small changes, these will gradually become second nature and you may find that the greener options are actually more enjoyable.  Saving water is often so simple, even when travelling; in water scarce countries like South Africa, your efforts to save water will lesson your impact.  If you are travelling to South Africa for any of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Football matches (expected to generate 8 times more carbon emissions than Germany’s 2006 tournament) please try to travel green and stay in eco-friendly hotels.

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