Climate Change: Take action now!

World Habitat Day

2009-09-30T20:08:00.003+10:00

Let's stand up on World Habitat Day and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere—in our communities, in our towns, in our country, in our world.

This year on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. and around the world, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable. According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security. Take a moment in your busy life to think about these very important issues.

Greenfest - a place for fresh energy

2009-03-03T10:50:00.003+11:00

Greenfest is being presented by Brisbane City Council on June 5-7 at the City Botanic Gardens. Over 100 exhibitors from most industries and government have committed to promote fresh thinking, new clean-tech products and innovative services for a cooler planet.

Some features of the event include:

Free World Environment Day Concert
Heart of Golf Film Festival
Workshops for a cooler future

For more information on the event go to www.greenfest.com.au

Wake up Sydney!

2009-02-26T12:20:00.004+11:00

There is a great event happening in Sydney for people who are interested in contributing to a more kind, conscious and sustainable world...it is called Wake up Sydney! Wake up Sydney will be an uplifting evening of casual elegance blending live music, elevating film, an inspirational guest speaker and mindful awareness - followed by wine & chocolates.

The purpose of the evening is to honour and connect social entrepreneurs, artists, yoga lovers, fair traders, sustainable leaders, educators, social justice groups, dharma teachers, solution journalists, film lovers, cultural creatives, indie bookshops & cafes, organic/eco business, philanthropists, scientists, indigenous elders, holistic practitioners, intelligent optimists, corporate catalysts, green & conscious media, meditators, visionary authors, scientists, peace activists and other good-time evolving souls.

Here are the event details:

Date: Wed 1st April, 2009 (no this is not an April Fool's joke)

Meet & Mingle: 6.30pm

Official Program: 7 - 9pm

Where: Chauvel Cinema - located in the historic Paddington Town Hall, Corner of Oxford and Oatley Road, Paddington

Guest Musician: Bobby Flynn

Guest Speaker: John Milton

Ticket Price: $30

To find out more information and book tickets go to www.wakeupsydney.com.au

Bobby Flynn

Jon Dee and Bayer-UNEP begin search for Australia’s “eco” students

2009-02-19T14:56:00.004+11:00

Australian university students with something “eco” on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

One of the ways the competition is being promoted is through 2 YouTube videos where you are Ideas on How Not to Save the World & Non-Practical Ideas for a Sustainable future.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use.

“What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there,” says Dee. “Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow’s leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today.”

2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply.

Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says: “Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.

“Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It’s opened up doors for me and I’ve created some wonderful friendships.” said Ms Cain.

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand’s hydro and geothermal supply systems.

For those “eco-minded” students who have ever seen something and thought “I could do it better”, this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on (02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

Muster up your old mobiles...we are!

2009-01-29T10:04:00.006+11:00

I was at a business networking event last year called Business goes Barefoot and I got a bag full of goodies. One of the supporters of the event was MobileMuster and so in the bag of goodies was a MobileMuster mobile phone recycle satchel. We have been doing some cleaning up around the office lately and I found some old mobiles downstairs which reminded me of the MobileMuster recycle satchel still sitting in the goody bag next to my desk. I got the satchel, filled it with the old mobiles and put it in the post today. It was so simple and I felt really good doing it so I thought I would give a quick outline for anyone else wanting to recycle their old mobile phones. This is just some info I got off the MobileMuster website:

MobileMuster is the official national recycling program of the mobile phone industry in Australia. Initiated voluntarily by the telecommunications industry in 1999 its overall aim is to prevent mobile phones ending up in landfill. The program collects and recycles mobile phone handsets, batteries and accessories from a network of over 2000 mobile phone retailers, local councils, government agencies and businesses drop off points across Australia. To get a recycle satchel you can pick one up at a participating Australia Post outlet.

World Environment Day Awards 2008 Wiiners announced

2008-06-06T23:24:00.003+10:00

Tonights dinner was an amazing experience- I feel honoured being able to attend the World Environment Day Awards 2008 dinner and being amongst some of Australia's outstanding achievers.

The following organisations should be commended for their work, and a big congratulations to the Winners for the United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Awards 2008.

Building Commission Award for Best Sustainable Residential Development
WINNER: Landmatters Currumbin Valey - "The Ecovillage at Currumbin"

Sustainability Victoria Meeting the Greenhouse Challenge Award
WINNER: Global Renewables - "The UR-3R Process"

ITW Industrial Packaging Education/School Award
WINNER: Mount Manypeaks Primary School - "Natural Resource Management Program"

Lincolne Scott Triple Bottom Line Award
WINNER: Sustainable Living Fabrics - "Kiss and Leap: A Business Model with Moral Sustainability"

Szencorp Green Building Award
WINNER: FMSA Architects/Cundall - "St Leonard's College Sustainability Centre - Cornish Campus"

DSE Excellence in Marine and Coastal Management Award
WINNER: Moreton Bay Seafood Industry Association - "Development and implementatio fo an Environmental Management System for Professional Fishers of Moreton Bay, South East Queensland"

Excellence in Water Management Award
WINNER: Randwick City Council - "Randwick City Council's Retrofitting Randwick for Water Conservation"

Business Sustainability Awards

Best Specific Environmental Initiative
WINNER: Greening Australia/Alcoa Point Henry - "Moolapio"

Environmental Best Practice
WINNER: InStyle Contract Textiles - "An Integrated Company Approach to Sustainability"

Local Government Awards

Excellence Overall Environmental Management
WINNER: City of Ipswich - "City of Solutions: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally"

Best Specific Environmental Initiative
WINNER: Fairfield City Council - "Nalawala Sustainability Hub"

Community Award
WINNER: The Community of Castlemaine

Individual Award
WINNER: Dr. John Geoffrey Mosley

Media Award for Environmental Reporting
WINNER: Mark Corcoran, Vivien Altman, David Martin, Simon Brynjolffsen and David Verrechia; ABC TV Foreign Correspondent - "Bolivian Meltdown"

Google Search Trends for Earth Hour in 2008

2008-04-15T12:32:00.003+10:00

Regular readers of my blog may remember a post I did around this time last year showing the search trends on Google for the keyword "Earth Hour" in 2007.

Just a reminder, I'm getting these results from Google Trends, a great tool used to show search trends for a specific keyword, or for even comparing search trends.

Well, this year has produced some amazing results! I thought last year was impressive, but this year the number of searches smashed 2007, with almost 8 times more searches in 2008.

Now lets look at these results a bit closer, breaking them down by region showing the proportion of searches that were made from each region globally.

The concept for Earth Hour originated in Australia, so it's expected for most of the searches to have been made by Australian users. The interesting spike in my opinion is seeing how Canada has moved in to second place, from fourth last year, leaps and bounds ahead of New Zealand, the US and UK.

Another interesting way to look at the number of searches is by city. Here's where the biggest surprise was:

My first thoughts were "Wow - surprising that Earth Hour in Toronto was a bigger event than in Sydney". When you put it in to population terms, Toronto has almost 4 times more residents compared to Sydney, so Earth Hour in Sydney proportionally had more searches per person than Toronto.

These massive results I believe are no doubt due to the big marketing and media push in 2008 following on from the success of the event last year. The amount of news articles showing up in the Google News archive clearly shows this:

All in all it's definately safe to state that Earth Hour 2008 was a huge success with some good energy reductions shown in results for cities around the world in Wikipedia. Kudos to WWF for putting together such a credible event.

I have some big expectations for Earth Hour in 2009, and see this movement as being more than an hour of support, instead becoming more than an annual event in years to come.

Environmental Events Calendar 2008

2008-04-14T21:39:00.001+10:00

It is important for every organisation and business to show the community their support Environmental events. Supporting Environmental events is also a great way to improve your company/brand's image and public perception.

Some of our Promotional Products we recommend to show support for Environmental Events:

All of these products are ideal for Councils, Government departments and organisations who aim to promote a message about improving our environment.

Here's a list of some of the environmental events taking place this year in Australia :

2008

December

(source: Department of Environment and Heritage)

Contact us for help co-ordinating your promotional products and merchandise for your event

If you have any questions relating to environmentally friendly promotional products, please don't hesitate in contacting us. JEM Promotional Products
Phone: (02) 8205 1334
E-mail: enquiries@jempp.com.au
Website: www.jempp.com.au

News Update

2007-09-18T12:11:00.000+10:00

Here's the latest green news:

NSW plans 'greener' waste practices

2007-09-18 Source: Abc News online

:00 The New South Wales Government says waste management is about to become more eco-friendly. Waste-management practices will be simplified and the amount of waste going into landfill will be...

Aussie solar plan $47m funding win

2007-09-18 Source: Australian IT

AUSTRALIAN-US startup Ausra will use more than $US40 million ($47.3 million) in venture capital funds to invest in further research and development on its utility-scale solar thermal power...

China sets renewables target

2007-09-18 Source: EnergyReview.net

CHINA intends to invest US$265 billion (A$315 billion) in renewable energy by 2020, said Chen Deming, vice-chairman of the Chinese Development and Reform...

Source: Green Pages Australia (http://www.greenpagesaustralia.com.au/)

5 actions you can take to reduce greenhouse gases

2007-07-29T13:55:00.000+10:00

In my previous post, I mentioned SITA Environmental Solutions and their newsletter we received.

Here's another interesting inclusion -

5 actions you can take to reduce greenhouse gases:

turn lights and other high energy devices off when not in use
sign up for accredited green power. speak to your current energy supplier or visit greenpower.gov.au for a list of green energy providers
get a business energy audit to identify potential energy savings
recycle everything you can! SITA can help you recycled a whole host of differentmaterials including paper, cardboard, glass, timber, steel, toner, cartridges, batteries, and fluorescent light globes
wherever possible - catch public transport, carpool, cycle or walk to your destination

Source: "News and Views - March 2007", SITA Environmental Solutions

Paper Recycling - Quick facts

2007-07-29T13:39:00.000+10:00

We recycle all our paper at JEM Promotional Products, and recently received a newsletter from SITA Environmental Solutions. Check out some of the facts on paper recycling featured in their newsletter.

One tree makes approximately 3077 pieces of A4 paper
Making paper from recycled materials resultsin 74% air pollution and 35% less water pollution
One tonne of paper is equal to 40,000 sheets of paper
87% of recycled paper is used in packaging materials
Recycling half of the world's paper would save 20 million acres of forested land.

Source: "News and Views - March 2007", SITA Environmental Solutions

The UK's first carbon neutral home

2007-06-12T20:58:00.000+10:00

Source: BBC News, "The UK has unveiled its first zero emission home that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in the future."

The home is said to "lose 60% less heat than a normal home" which is quite substantial, as heating costs take a considerable chunk out of electricity bills.

Progressions in architectural sustainability are important, and will have a considerable impact on future emission trends. With the world having to move up a belt size every year, with the growing populated cities worldwide, rebuilding populous areas with "green" efficiency in mind will be a high priority.

Click here to view the full story

BBC News is a great site for up to the minute news across all sectors. This story came under the Business category. Perhaps it could of been considered for Front Page News, as these sort of stories need continued and consistent exposure in the media to make them a top of mind concern for all people globally.

Excellent results from Earth Hour

2007-04-10T08:23:00.000+10:00

Here's some excellent feedback I received from SMH regarding Earth Hour

"More than 2 million Sydney residents participated in Earth Hour on Saturday night by flicking the switch, turning appliances off stand-by and enjoying an hour of quiet darkness, according to poll results from AMR Interactive.

The result: an impressive 10.2% drop in energy usage across the usually glittering CBD, according to EnergyAustralia.

This is double the anticipated energy saving and represents a reduction of 24.86 tonnes of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of taking 48,613 cars off the road for an hour!"

Top stuff!!

SMH "Down to Earth" Environmental Blog

2007-04-08T14:32:00.000+10:00

SMH is taking a very important step as one of the countries sources for news. They are helping to put environmental issues at the forefront of news, with their environmental blog, Down to Earth.

There's been some great posts over the months, and to be honest, I've neglected this blog! I strongly consider having a read through their archive if you get a chance.

Here's a decent post to kick you off:

Curiourser and Curiouser

How to go green guides - TreeHugger

2007-04-01T22:58:00.000+10:00

TreeHugger is a fantastic website. If you've been wondering where to start in your quest to take action against climate change, here's a quick list taken from TreeHuggers go green page.

Earth Hour - link to earthhour.org from your website!

2007-03-23T14:01:00.000+11:00

The JEM Promotional Products homepage currently has a link to the home page for Earth Hour. This is a great way for you to reach 1000's of people, and help them be aware of the cause, and the details in participating in the event.

Please visit the Earth Hour downloads page for information on linking this through on your website.

Earth Hour Google search trends

2007-03-17T01:31:00.000+11:00

Google Trends is one of the coolest new tools Google has released. Its used to show search trends for a specific keyword, or for even comparing search trends.

Obviously with the media hype surrounding Earth Hour, the number of searches for the keyword "Earth Hour" on Google has sky rocketed. I thought I'd do a bit of a quick analysis to see what kind of results Google Trends came up with. Here's a graph reflecting this surge:

The next table is actually quite interesting. This table shows a ranking of the top 10 cities worldwide in terms of search volume for the keyword "Earth Hour":

Sydney is the clear leader, with more than 5 times as many searches than the 2nd ranked city - London, UK. One interesting fact I can gather from this information, is that there were more searches by cities worldwide, then there was by other cities besides Sydney.

The next graph has a top 10 ranking of countries searching for "Earth Hour" (disregarding cities):

It's interesting to see there's a lot of Germans who seem to be interested in finding out about Earth Hour - I would of thought New Zealand would have at least made the top 10!

It's always interesting to monitor these sorts of things (well definately from a marketing perspective!) and I think it would be good to compare these results in 2-3 months to see how each graph varies. Will there be another huge surge in searches for Earth Hour closer to the event? That's more than guaranteed - so lets watch these graphs wiggle about and do their thing over the next few months!

20015 people committed to Earth Hour - and counting!

2007-03-15T09:09:00.000+11:00

With just over 2 weeks to go until Earth Hour, the numbers of participants are starting to look very positive! Over 20015 people have commited to turning their lights off for 1 hour on the 31st March. With over 5 million people living in Sydney, we haven't yet even reached 1% of the population.

To show your support for Earth Hour I strongly recommend you register now!

GreenWatch 2006 report evaluating GreenPower products

2007-03-12T15:41:00.000+11:00

This link : GreenWatch 2006 Report will take you to a GreenWatch 2006 report, evaluating 44 GreenPower products available on the market.

Alot of products claim to be better than what they are, so hopefully this report can help point you in the right direction when choosing your GreenPower provider.

GreenPower: who's using it?

2007-03-12T15:11:00.000+11:00

Here's a handy tool available at the GreenPower website. It uses satellite images and maps to show you who is using GreenPower in your local area, or infact, whereever you were wanting to search. Here's a screenshot:
Here's a direct link to use the tool - have fun!

P.S. I hope your business/home has a little green dot on that map!!

Earth Hour - 20 days to go!

2007-03-11T23:26:00.000+11:00

Earthhour is only 20 days away, with the big even kicking off at 7:30pm, Australian Eastern Standard time (EST). Haven't heard of Earth Hour? Here's a bit of a sum up for you:

What is Earth Hour?
On the 31st of March, 2007, residents in Sydney have been invited to participate in an event to show their commitment against global warming, turning off their lights for 1 hour between 7:30pm and 8:30pm.

What is the purpose of Earth Hour?
Earth Hour is one of a series of events that are part of a campaign which aims to reduce Sydney's greenhouse emissions in 2007 by 5%.

Where is Earth Hour being held?
At this stage, EarthHour is being held only in Sydney, as being able to manage a nation wide event at this stage is not feasible. Plus, the impact of having the entire city participating in this event, will have positive ripple effects, with the hope of all Australian cities & states participating in the future.

How can I participate in Earth Hour?
1. Sign up to Earth Hour - its entirely free! Show your pledge to participate, by filling out a quick and easy online form.
2. Begin by unplugging all appliances that are on standby - vcrs, tv's etc. Their power usage combines to a total of 10% of your total annual power usage.
3. Spread the word!

Blog on Earth Hour (as I have)
e-mail your friends, family and workmates (Send an eCard)
add Earth Hour as your friend on MySpace ,
post videos to YouTube, and photos to Flickr and tag them with 'earthhour2007',
add a banner to your website
Make sure your business, or the company you work for gets involved

4. Start your own Earth Hour event. Here are some suggestions directly from the Earth Hour website:

Get the neighbours together for a BBQ or head out to your local park for the hour
A candle-lit dinner for your friends or family
Dine in the dark - guess the food you're eating!
Have a kids "camp-over" - pitch a tent in the yard and tell ghost stories!

Free Printer Cartridge Recycling & Collection

2007-03-09T16:50:00.000+11:00

Whilst I was at work today, I though I'd take another step towards being completed carbon neutral. One thing I realised, is we have a cupboard full of empty toner cartridges. So, I got on to SITA's website, and I've found out they provide a free cartridge recycling program. Click here for details

See the PlanetArk website for details on other printer cartridge recycling products

Update:

Here's some facts which might stop you from delaying your decision to join a program like this until another day..
"It has been estimated that over 80% of our used cartridges are going directly to landfill.

Australians throw away more than 18 million printer cartridges every year.

This amounts to over 5,000 tonnes of material, including laser toner cartridges, inkjet cartridges, photocopier toner bottles and drums, that will eventually end up in landfill."
Source: PlanetArk

Biodegradeable Eco-Friendly Pens

2007-03-09T12:27:00.000+11:00

Check out this post on Create Your Image with Promotional Products. It features a completely biodegradable pen - an environmentally friendly alternative to normal promotional plastic pens!

Earth Hour promotional video

2007-03-08T17:35:00.000+11:00

Here's a promotional video for Earthhour, a cause which has potential to be the largest national initiative against climate change and global warming. I certainly hope everyone reading this blog will be participating!

Calculate your vehicles greenhouse emissions

2007-03-08T14:09:00.000+11:00

Check out this cool calculator provided by the Department of Environment and Water Resources:

Vehicle Greenhouse Gas emissions calculator

Once you've done this, it wouldn't hurt to offset your vehicles greenhouse emissions, and make your vehicle travel carbon neutral