Bees are dying off worldwide and our entire food chain is in peril. Scientists blame toxic pesticides and four European governments have already banned them. If we get the US and the EU to join the ban, other governments across the world could follow, and save bees from extinction. Sign the petition and forward this urgent appeal:

]]> http://greenbuildingcollege.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/the-dwindling-bee-buzz/feed/ 0 flagondry Sign the petition http://greenbuildingcollege.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/please-no-more-coal-fired-power-stations-or-nukes/ http://greenbuildingcollege.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/please-no-more-coal-fired-power-stations-or-nukes/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:37:53 +0000 flagondry http://greenbuildingcollege.wordpress.com/?p=41 ]]> The energy experts at SAFCEI commented a while back that if South Africa were to install 4 million solar water heaters in homes, the demand for electricity would be reduced to such an extent that we would not need Kusile (the massive new power station next up after Medupi). What will it take to get out political leaders to let go of personal gain and invest in the greater good?

And of course we wouldn’t need Medupi, Kusile or any new nuclear power stations if we just implemented reasonable energy efficiency (as defined by Eskom, not the greenies) and invested in renewable energy for which the technology is already available. Despite the strangenesses of the integrated resource planning (IRP) process, it seems that government may be becoming more willing to listen to experts from beyond its own ranks. We certainly hope so, as it’s not only our (taxpayers’ ) money that’s at stake but human lives, if we keep polluting the way we are.

I know this is all rather vague – I’m really just letting off steam. But if you do want figures and details, let me know and I’ll chase them up. (Just not now – it’s heading for 4 am.)

We’re also looking to link up with schools to help them raise funds while promoting energy efficiency – a very cool idea of Glenn’s!  So if you’re connected to a school and  want to know more, contact Glenn on the number on the website, or give me  a buzz if you happen to know me. 

This funding is part of a larger R33-million investment into Matla Solar, which has both South African and Asian partners. According to Matla chief investment officer Chia Chao Wu, the local plant should be able to produce the solar heaters more cheaply  than even Chinese imports, and create 150-200 jobs in manufacturing, distribution and customer support.

ECDC account manager Pinky Madosi indicated that both the Buffalo City municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay metro were planning to accelerate the deployment of solar geysers.

Who would have thought this just a few years ago, when greenies were considered so weird and way-out that we were clutching, white-knuckled, to the fringes? So let’s keep lobbying and begin to reduce our country’s huge carbon footprint, which is partly due to our high reliance on low-grade coal. In case you haven’t noticed, SA towers way above any other country in sub-Saharan Africa in per capita carbon emissions. The only other African country that  comes close is Libya. We have a long way to go, but hey, there’s progress, so let’s keep at it!

The NHBRC gives home builders free training to improve skills such as bricklaying, painting, plastering, roofing and construction & project management.  What I’m wondering, though, is why they are still focusing only on brick-and-mortar building in the low- (or no-) income sector – while upmarket architecture and building is increasingly moving towards sustainable and earth-friendly building methods, which, ironically, are much more cost-effective. Why are we not looking into the obvious options of sandbagging, adobe, wattle & daub, cobbing etc, many of which methods are traditional ways of building in this country? Perhaps that’s where the problem is – that people whose ancestors have always lived in “mud huts” look down on that style of building and aspire to “western” bricks and mortar. Meanwhile bricks are expensive to produce, expensive to transport and, with their poor insulation qualities, offer little insulation from heat and cold, which adds to heating costs (and the associated fire hazard) in winter. And when the building is badly done and cracks appear, homeowners are usually unable to undertake any repairs themselves.  With sandbags and clay, would-be owners can be taught to build their own sturdy homes – and will be able do make any necessary repairs themselves. (Though I suspect that sandbagged walls are much less likely to crack – and if they do, the crack will be only in the outer plaster layers, as the sand inside is held together by the bags.  All it needs then is for the outer layer to be patched with clay/mud and resealed.)

An entrepreneur in Hout Bay (Cape Town) has developed a simple but clever sandbag design and had his structures tested by a university engineering department. Unsurprisingly, they passed with flying colours.  What will it take to get Government  to look seriously into green building as a viable alternative for mass housing? That’s a genuine question, and if anyone reading this has answers – or contacts – please get in touch!  See the first post in this blog if you haven’t yet – this is all part of a bigger dream that could make a huge difference in this country – to housing, employment, education, self-esteem and crime.

Eskom (the main South African electricity supplier) has helped our cause with a significant hike in rates as winter approaches – with further increases expected in the next two years. So people who don’t necessarily care much about the environmental impact of energy wastage are now interested in saving energy because energy costs money – more than ever!

At the same time I am hoping to begin working part-time for an interfaith environmental organisation – more of that later, once the post is finalised.

The wind is howling as I write, bringing in a sharp cold front after a lovely sunny day. Is winter early this year? I don’t know – we seem to be surprised by its appearance every year.

BTW, “geysers” in South Africa are domestic hot water tanks/cylinders, not gushing hot springs.  Just in case anyone is confused. 

Below are a few sites I have a personal interest in:

One of my all-time favourite green sites,  not limited to green building, is Urban Sprout. Run as a labour of love by a young couple living just a few km down the road, this site manages to stay up to date on a huge range of environmental matters of interest to South Africans. The tone is positive, nothing like the guilt-trip-inducing attitude of some environmental activist sites. Visit Urban Sprout when you have lots of time to browse. You can catch up on news, read some of the blogs in the long list on the left, source organic food and environmentally friendly products or find hotels and restaurants that demonstrate a real commitment to eco-friendly innovation.  I posted dozens – possibly hundreds of those entries, and had a great time doing it. It was hugely encouraging to have the opportunity (and a good excuse) to research positive news and, in a small way, pay tribute to what people across the country are achieving  in their efforts to care for the planet and its people.

For anyone in or near Cape Town interested in green building, there’s also www.capegreen.co.za . Iworked on this site for a while, posting loads of products and a few articles. Some were taken from other sites (with permission!); in other cases I summarised articles, e.g. http://www.capegreen.co.za/article.php?id=598 ,  and gave a link to the original.  I’m not sure how active the site is now – at any rate I haven’t been involved for a year or two. It was an one of the first local ‘catalogue’ sites in the green building niche, but we had neither the funding nor the time to develop the idea and monetise the site.

Enough for now!

But enough for now – it’s been one of those busy but unproductive days.

What stands in the way of using this as a building method for the 40 000 or so RDP houses that have to be rebuilt because of shoddy workmanship on the originals? Jonny has built a complete house in one of the  local townships – the plans were approved by the municipality and one can’t see that it’s not built by the normal brick-and-mortar methods. (The sandbag walls are plastered with mud with a reasonably high clay content, which is available locally.)

I wish I had the time and funding to follow up on this. The longer we wait, the more of our tax money we waste on wasteful and inefficient buildings.

One obstacle that became clearer to me recently is that it will probably take a while for the masses to see that going back to the old ways of building with mud is actually the way to go wherever possible. Unfortunately the traditional methods have been jettisoned to a large extent in this country as people have aspired to live like the rich, in brick buildings. So if we as ‘whiteys’ come along with this idea, it is likely to be met with suspicion. A  month or so ago, ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema complained about ‘white Messiahs’ who supposedly were telling black people what to think. So meanwhile we have upmarket game lodges etc built with adobe and cob and making that a selling point, while the poor are still moving in the opposite direction. How does one get people to reconsider their aspirations?  I guess one way is for me to find a way of building a home for myself and living in it; then at least I’ll know first-hand what I’m talking about.   Anyone out there got a spare piece of land for a small eco-community?

One of the things I am planning to do as soon as I can is to go WWOOFing: WWOOF stands for ‘willing workers on organic farms’, which means that one works for 4-6 hours a day in return for board & lodging. This is a great way to learn about organic farming and often also green building, as the two tend to go together. There are several very interesting-looking WWOOF farms in the Western Cape, so I’d probably start around here, then look further afield.

The village was built by the owners of the homes and the students of the college – many of the owners were the first students, and much of the initial building was somewhat experimental.  Since then, the college has gained SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) accreditation and its diplomas have nationwide credibility as part of the NQF (National Qualifications Framework).  Graduates leave with the skills and experience to build their own homes and also to earn a living as green plumbers, electricians, builders etc. The college promotes green building in all its forms – including cobbing, adobe, strawbaling, ecobeams & sandbags, and variations on the wattle and daub theme.

As at 18 October 2009, the college(s), retreat centre, training centre and ecovillage are not yet featured on any map but exist entirely in my mind. They are a work in process. Meanwhile I’m building up a network of people who are interested in this sort of thing and may become part of the team that will realise the vision. I’ll also be promoting green building by publicising eco-villages and green buildings across the world, especially those that give helpful and usable info on how they went about building.

Green building has come a long way in the past few years. Some buildings still look ‘organic’ and earthy (and I love those) – see e.g. The Year of Mud: Building a cob house. Others look like modern prefabs – and are in fact made of prefabricated straw or hemp panels  – see www.modcell.co.uk, in particular their BaleHaus at Bath. (Yes, I love those too!) Here’s another interesting one on sandbag building (or earthbags, as they call them – same thing).

There are loads of books and magazines and guides on green building too, and I’ll give links to the ones I like. Some of the links in this website will be affiliate links: it makes sense to me to earn money by doing what I love, rather than doing what I love in whatever time is left after having to earn.

Enough for now. This was just to kick off  this new blog & site.