Or, How to inform someone that their big, inefficient car is bad.



Have you ever had an argument with someone because they drive a big SUV, or 4WD? Or, are you sick of people complaining about the price of petrol, even though they still drive to work, alone, during peak hour, in an inefficient car?!?!

Well I am. So I decided to compile a list of facts that can be used to shut them up (and if they do happen to be educated along the way, then that’s a bonus).

This sounds a bit cynical of me, but over the years, I have learnt that “preaching” simply doesn’t work. That’s why I am happy to simply shut certain people up with cold hard facts. Lets face it, some people just don’t care about environmental change, and wont do a thing until it wacks them in the face. But just wait, and watch them bitch and moan when the shit actually does hit the fan. Kinda like they are now with the effects of Peak oil just starting to bite. What a surprise.

Anyway, It strikes me as a good time to really nail some points home.  Hit them while they are down, so to speak. How about "giving" them free bumper stickers??


Why so malicious all of a sudden? 

Well, it came to me the other day, that the people who drive big, inefficient cars, are not only costing themselves a fortune (in fuel prices, and reduced resale values), but they are directly increasing MY cost of living (and yours for that matter).  You see, the price of oil is principally controlled by the rules of supply and demand. Not by the government. In addition to this, our entire economy is based on oil. Put simply, unnecessary oil usage increases demand, and therefore its price. In turn, higher oil prices increase the price of food and consumables (i.e. cost of living).

People driving big cars are costing ME money (and polluting my air, and facilitating climate change, and endangering my life on the roads, and so on, and so on..)

Hence, my attempts to arm readers with some useful information that may help “convince” land yacht owners to pull their heads in.

I will start with some basic facts before we move onto some more emotionally charged territory.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

With oil prices continuing to skyrocket, we decided to publish an article with techniques for “dealing” with people who drive big, inefficient cars. But I realised we should probably get some background info in first. I know we have talked about peak oil here before, but figured I should link you to some of the biggest Peak Oil sites on the web for some more insite into the issue.

There is a lot of reading here, but by all accounts, Peak Oil is a forgone, if not ignored, conclusion. Unless we do something NOW, it has the ability to change civilization as we know it. And not in a good way.

Thats why, if you haven’t already, you REALLY should read at least the fist 3 links.

And I apologise in advance for any nightmares this may give you..

• For a terrifying, but well referenced read. try:
  Life after the oil crash

• Don't forget Good old Wikipedia
  Wikipedia: Peak Oil

• Chapter 2 from Plan B 2.0 Book Review: Plan B 2.0. Read the whole book if you can.
  Plan B 2.0

• Watch the crisis unfolding. A blog documenting Peak Oil as it happens.
  Beyond OIL

• You have read the books, now see the movie.
  End of Suburbia

• Finally, if you haven’t already read them, some articles from your favourite Green Blogger:
  Did Peak oil scare me into becoming a hippie? (Not the soap dodging kind)
  Has peak oil scared me into being a hippie? PART 2

I will post something a bit more uplifting soon. I promise. I have been collating a list of solutions for a while now, but haven't compiled them into something meaningful. I will add it to my list..my very, very long list...

As promised, http://www.whatcanonepersondo.com/blog/index.php here are some DIY Install hints for a rainwater downpipe diverter.

First of all, What is a rainwater diverter?

A rain water diverter is a simple device that fits onto your downpipes and redirects rainwater from the stormwater drain onto other, more beneficial areas via a hose. Some diverters have switches or levers that turn the redirection on or off, while others have an overflow system that allows for any excess water not used by the diverter to flow safely down the drain.

A range of diverter designs are available, but most are installed by simply cutting the existing downpipe and removing a span of pipe equivalent in length to the diverter. Most models will then simply slide into this gap, and slot into the remaining downpipe. In some cases, glue or sealants are not even required.

I am sure I will get some angry letters from plumbers after suggesting that this is a DIY job, but I have installed a heap of these things for friends and family, and in my opinion, it’s really not that complicated. Having said that, I don’t want to get sued, so I have to say, install these without a qualified plumber at you own risk. Eww, now I feel dirty.

If you are concerned, ask the people at the hardware what they think.

What is a rainwater diverter good for?

• Filling your pool. In a few areas of Australia, town water use is not permitted for topping up pools or spas due to drought. And depending on where you are based, rainwater will generally only refill about half of the water lost to evaporation. Diverter models with the larger diameter out pipes (about the same width as your downpipe) are ideal for directing the large volumes of water collected during a storm into your pool.

• Maintaining your garden. How many times has it rained for twenty minutes or so and only just wet the surface? It hasn’t been enough to soak in and do any good. With a diverter and hose, the water collected over the whole of your roof can be focused onto a specific area of garden or lawn, thus allowing a deep and thorough watering of plants that require it. This water would otherwise be lost down the drain.

• Collection in a storage device. A diverter is an easy way of redirecting rain water into a collection device, (i.e. wheelie bin, pond, barrel, ect) for later use.

• Reducing mains water usage and unnatural diversion of water to storm water drains. Diverting stormwater into your soil and plants allows for the more natural flow of rain water into your local environment. By employing the correct techniques, excess water can still flow off your property, but will be filtered by the soil and plants, thus minimising your homes impact on the environment.

A few things to note when choosing a diverter.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

Storing water- In Tanks, Plants, and Soil.

Runnoff rainwater, grey water and tanks.
One of the main Permaculture principles relating to water usage states that water should be used as many times as possible before it passes out of the system (the system being your yard). Another is making sure that any water that does leave your property is as clean as it can be, thus reducing your impact on the environment.

Following these principles, allowing excess rain water, or even used household water, to flow off your premises, unused, is considered a waste. Especially so, in dry climates. In most cases, this water can be stored on-site using a variety of techniques, and in typical Permaculture fashion, unconventional natural solutions are also implemented. For example, storing water in the soil and in biomass (plant growth), is considered as viable an alternative as storing it in a water tank. The excess biomass produced by the increase in soil moisture is considered a resource and a source of mulch, food, or even firewood.

Lets start with conserving rain water.

Tanks & Rainwater Harvesting
Household water tanks are an obvious solution for harvesting rainwater that hits your roof. It only takes an hour or so of light rain to collect several thousand litres of water that would otherwise leave your yard via a storm water drain. This water can be used at a later date, when required, without drawing from the dams.

As a side note, storing and using rain water has more value than just keeping your plants green. It should also be considered as another technique to help decrease your footprint on this earth. Dams are not the greenest of structures and if a population reduces its demands on existing water supplies, then less new dams will be required.

You may not think that residential water tanks and individuals conserving water can make much of a difference. But you would be wrong. As I explained in PART 1 of this topic. I live in a severely drought affected capital city. Water restrictions have been set to 120 litres a day per person (about 32 gallons). Most people have accepted this, and are making every effort to decrease their water consumption as much as possible. Some are even achieving water usage well below posted restrictions. I think the thought of what would happen if a major city where to run out of water is pretty sobering to most.

Its good to see that people have realised that small actions do add up. For example, I know several people who have installed diverters (themselves) on their downpipes so they can top up their pools. Others even bucket tank water into washing machines by hand (I use a hose personally, but I didn’t have the heart to suggest that. They where just so excited to tell me of their water conservation efforts). .

Now, if you still don’t believe that Individual actions like these add up, then consider the following.

• Brisbane alone has more than halved its water consumption in the last few years and is down to about 123 litres a day per person
• since the introduction of water restrictions, households in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have saved 1.1 trillion litres of water -- as much as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane combined used in 2006-07.

Rainwater run-off
What about all that rainwater that hits the rest of the yard and escapes as runoff. This can happen down driveways or even over sloping lawns. There are a few techniques you can employ to remedy this and keep that water in your area.

The most basic Permaculture technique, uses swales (mounds along contours of a slope) to trap water in your soil, and to replenish groundwater.

The bump on the low side of the hill acts like a dam and water pools in the dug out area. This stops excess water from flowing away across the surface by giving it time to seep into the soil. Plants can be planted in the swale to further store water.

Swales increase soils ability to retain water by up to 75% and reduce runoff by up to 85% when compared to bare land. (“Earth Users Guide to Permaculture” by Rosemary Morrow).

Also, any runoff that does leave the property will also be cleaned and filtered of sediment after being filtered through the swales.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

I have been living with water restrictions for years, as have most Australians. It comes from living in a country where 70% of the land is too arid to farm, and most of the remainder is as dry as a dead dingos donger (sorry about that, I just found out that 70% of my readers are international and I feel obliged to propagate silly Australian stereotypes).

Anyway, due to an ongoing drought, the dams that supply my city of around 2 million people are so low, there are actual phone numbers you can call to report people who are watering their gardens. And people are using them. One guy in Sydney, has even been murdered for watering his lawn. Not being allowed to fill the swimming pool or wash your car doesn’t seem so bad after that.

Well, how do you keep a garden thriving through dry times?

Easy. And Permaculture showed me how. I know this sounds a lot like a sales pitch, the picture below was taken in my front yard, and not an ounce of fresh tap water has ever touched it (or tank water for that matter).As with most aspects of Permaculture, there is no one ideal solution for dry spell gardening, rather a combination of practical and natural techniques are used. And, as if to make things more interesting, every one of these Permaculture techniques has side effects beneficial to other aspects of your gardening.

Aint Permaculture great!

I will be spreading this information over 2 posts so lets look at a list of the issues we will be going into:

Part 1

• Soil improvement
• Trapping water in the soil

Part 2

• Water management
• Water recycling
• Choosing species that are appropriate. This is not always possible if you want to plant Vegetables and food crops.

Soil Improvement

Feed the soil, not the plants, and I don’t mean fertilizer.

Adding compost and organic matter into the soil structure is a great place to start in any garden. Not only does this add nutrients to the soil that are beneficial to plants and replace the need for petrochemical fertilizers, but this also improves the soils water retention quality. As a general rule, this is best done in winter and spring, but any time when planting or digging is taking place in an area is fine. For example, mix compost into the surrounding soil when adding a new plant or garden bed.

Hit MORE below to continue reading.

This is a little left field for WhatCanOnePersoonDo, but I was somewhat stupefied by the blatant misdirection used on the packaging of a brand of eggs sold at my local Fruit and Veg shop (shown above).

Why write about it here, on a green site? Well, it struck me how similar this marketing technique was to those employed by companies guilty of Green Washing. (the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service).

The other reason I wrote this post was because advertising methods such as these make me mad (you may have noticed by now, a lot of things make me mad and when I am mad, I rant). Why? Because GreenWashing (and/or Whitewashing) manipulates good, compassionate people who are trying to do the right thing.

Still Wondering what i am talking about? The label shows healthy chickens, out in the open, running free in a field. No mention of Cages at all on the top of the box. To me this screams (or at the very least, implies) that the eggs in this box come from chickens kept in similar conditions as the ones on the label (or from children, I don’t know much about these things), not from factory farmed cage birds. Here is a larger image big enough to find where Cage eggs is written.

Is this being dishonest? Well, put it this way. Busy people in a hurry to get their shopping done, and that’s most of us, could easily confuse this for a free range product due to the misleading imagery on the label. I personally believe that this was the intent of the company, to trick, for want of a better word, people who are concerned for the humane treatment of animals into buying these eggs. To me at least, that’s dishonest and calculating.

I have noticed similar techniques to this, equally as misleading, that have been employed by a few cleaning products. You know the ones. Labels covered with pictures of rainforests or dolphins, and claiming to contain 100% natural ingredients. Of course the arsenic and formaldehyde they contain are technically natural. Toxic, but natural. So technically, no matter how misleading, they cannot be accused of lying.

The only advice I can give to guard yourself from being fooled by GreenWashing is to pay attention to what you are buying. Be aware of the techniques used. Do research if you have to, and, unfortunately, assume that everyone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. What a great world we live in.

I wanted to work in advertising once, so I whipped up this new label for Jacobs Well Egg Farm. I wish they had an email address so I could suggest this to them.


If you didn’t spot what I did to fix it, notice how I subtly added “cage eggs to the front of the box? Genius! Oh, and if you didn’t spot it, I also changed the picture on the front. The new ones show images taken of factory cage chickens, some standing on their dead friends. Not as nice as kids on a tractor, but I think it works. Then again, maybe that’s why I write a blog now and don’t work in advertising. I always use too much orange.

But seriously, If you are unsure of the difference between cage eggs and free range please follow these links. THIS one is from the RSPCA and HERE is a disturbing video showing a cage egg farm (WARNING: don’t watch it if you don’t want to see dying animals). THIS link highlights some of the practices employed in cage egg farming, including debeaking, forced moulting, and starvation.

Also, I must get around to writing a post about owning chickens in your back yard or their role in Suburban Permaculture.

Someone remind me if I forget. I get easily distracted by shiny things…….

I was going to call this article “Lush green lawns. WTF! We are not in England anymore” but found out that 25% of my readers are actually from the UK. Oops.

Anyway, as I have said before, unless you live in rainy old England, keeping a traditional lawn lush and green (or even alive) can be a ridiculous waste of resources. This is especially true for people like me who live in arid regions i.e. Australia. Lawns as we know them, where never meant to exist here naturally. We end up having to create resource hungry, artificial environments just for the grass to survive.

Water usage isn’t the only problem either. Arid climate or not, mowing is an enormous polluter, and the amount of herbicides, pesticides, and petrochemical based fertilisers used is enormous. To top it all off, it’s also a big time and money waster. Consider the cost and time spent, mowing, spiking, edging, repairing, weeding, rolling and engine maintenance.

All in the name of aesthetics (figured out that I don’t like lawns yet?).

If you are not convinced yet, cop a load of these statistics before we go into alternatives and green lawn keeping ideas.

In America alone:

• Lawns use 10 times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. $700 million is spent for the pesticides used on U.S. lawns.

• 20 million acres are planted in residential lawns.

• $25 billion is spent for the lawn care industry.

• 30 to 60 per cent of all urban fresh water is used for watering lawns. More than half this amount is wasted, because of inappropriate timing or dosage. Nearly all the water used could be save by appropriate use of native landscaping that does not require any watering beyond natural rainfall.

• $5.25 billion is spent on fossil-fuel-derived fertilizer for U.S. lawns. The majority of this fertilizer is wasted because of improper timing or dosage and becomes a source of pollution to surface or ground water. Most of this expense and pollution could be eliminate by proper timing, proper dosage, or intelligent use of compost and other organic fertilizers.

• Australian lawns occupy more space than any single food crop, and consume vastly more fertiliser, toxic herbicide, fungicide and pesticide per hectare than farmland. They account for 25 percent upwards of household water use.

Gardening columnist Michael Pollan describes manicured lawns as "nature under totalitarian rule".

Now I am a designer, so I understand why people want their homes to look attractive. Bit it is important to know that a lawn isn’t the last word in front yard design. Not by any stretch. The image below shows how feature gardens can replace a traditional lawn and create beautiful, low maintenance spaces.

Nice, but I have to admit, not for everyone. Most households require access to all parts of the yard and most areas need to be able to support traffic.

If that’s the case, another alternative to traditional lawns is to create meadow like areas with a mixture of grasses, lilies, wildflowers and ground covers. Meadows can support the occasional person walking on it, and require less maintenance, less water, and increases biodiversity in your garden. It also barely ever needs to be mowed. THIS site that provides a list of lawn alternative species suitable to Australia. Do a google search for “lawn alternatives” and your area.

Ground covers are another lawn alternative. And a lot can be walked on and are also suitable in low to medium traffic areas (Gardening Australia to the rescue again)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. For some people, a lawn may be the best solution, i.e. if kids need a safe place to play. Following are some techniques explaining how to keep a healthy lawn while reducing its impact on the environment and your wallet.

Hit MORE below to read;
How to green your lawn maintenance.

• More than 100 million trees' worth of bulk mail arrives in American mail boxes alone each year - that's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. (New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics).


• Australians receive on average 7 billion unaddressed flyers, leaflets and catalogues in their letterboxes every year.


• In 2003, 5.4 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream - enough to fill over 420,000 garbage trucks. Only 32% of this ad mail was recycled. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).


• The production and disposal of junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars. (New American Dream calculation from U.S. Department of Energy and the Paper Task Force statistics).

This is just shit. Excuse my language, but these statistics are bloody ridiculous. Especially for something that is completely disposable and non directed. Notwithstanding teenage boys and lingerie catalogs, what percentage of people actually read all the junk mail they receive?? And its not just the paper usage that makes up this huge environmental footprint. It’s the whole process, from the resources that go into the logging, through to printing, delivery, and eventual removal to landfill. All this in the name of unnecessary consumerism.

Thankfully this waste is incredibly simple and cheap to stop (On an individual basis at least). A “No Junk Mail” or “No Advertising Material” sticker on your letterbox can remove you from this wasteful cycle.

You can even get them for free, just do a google search.

Click MORE below to continue reading.

Permawhat?? Is this more soap dodging hippie stuff??

Permaculture is not a term that a lot of people have even heard of, yet alone understood. And those who have heard of it, probably think it is only relevant to farmers and landowners. Or worse, think it’s a hippie lifestyle choice, involving dreadlocks and a fear of bath water.

This is not the case. I have applied the principles of Permaculture in my small inner-city yard for years AND I have short hair. I even bathe on a regular basis (admittedly though, my used bath water ends up in the garden). What I am trying to say is, some of the basic principles of Permaculture are relevant and beneficial to anyone who wants to improve the health of their garden, save a few bucks, and possibly even produce a bit if food.

Oh, forgot to mention the important bit. Permaculture can help homeowners to reduce their environmental footprint and create sustainable gardens.

What is Permaculture anyway??

Permaculture is kind of hard to define. Basically it is about creating sustainable and productive environments in, and around, the areas we live in. This is achieved by working with nature rather than against it. Ecology, the study of natural systems and their interconnections, is the knowledge base that Permaculture draws upon to achieve this. Issues such as water, climate, soil, topology, available space, plants, animals, and even buildings are all taken into account when deciding how to care for any site.

Permacultures’ strong ethical nature is probably why it if often perceived as an alternate, “hippie” lifestyle. With basic tenants such as, caring for the environment, caring for people and reducing consumerism, its approach is often seen as somewhat radical. Especially when compared to the ethics of most big business, and some traditional farmers. Unfortunately, such altruistic endeavours are often “tarred with the hippie brush” by mainstream thinking and media.

On a more practical level however, Permaculture is about the efficient use of resources and space, the reduction of waste, and ensuring long term sustainability.

Now I know this still sounds nebulous and airy-fairy (I said it was hard to define), so let’s simplify things and use an example to explain some of the basic principles of Permaculture. In this case, showing two ways of maintaining a planter box or small garden bed. The first employs a more traditional method. The second implements some basic Permaculture techniques.

Traditional

1. Plants are chosen for purely aesthetic reasons.
2. Plants are fed with fertilisers (good chance of this being petrochemical based, therefore unsustainable). Fertilisers do not improve the soil quality, just feed the plants.
3. If infected by bugs or disease, chemicals are used. These are generally unsustainable & toxic and can kill beneficial bacteria and bugs. If herbs or fruiting plants are in the planter, then the end user will be directly exposed to these chemicals.
4. Water is provided from the tap. This is not always sustainable. Poor soil quality, due to fertilizers being the primary source of plant nutrition, also means water isn’t retained as well as a healthy, humus rich soil. More water is required than for well maintained soil.
5. Prunings and fallen leaves are thrown in the bin. This means that the nutrients required initially to produce the removed growth is leaving the site and needs to be artificially replaced (See step 2).

Permaculture

1. Plants are chosen for aesthetic, practical and productive reasons. Companion planting is used (e.g. dwarf fruit trees with an understorey of legumes (to add nitrogen to the soil) along with insect repelling plants).
2. Soil is maintained and fed with compost made from kitchen scraps and cuttings from the plants themselves (FEED THE SOIL, NOT THE PLANTS). This also cuts down on landfill and unnecessary greenhouse gasses (link). Compost not only feeds the plants, it also improves the soil quality by adding beneficial humus to the mix. Humus can hold the equivalent of 80-90% of its weight in moisture so less watering is required.
3. Healthy plants in good soil are less likely to become sick. Companion Planting can be used to discourage pests. Some companion plants even have shapes that confuse an insect’s recognition ability. Other natural solutions are tried before chemicals are considered. Like this technique for bugs.
4. Water is harvested from the site (tank water). This water isn’t taken away from valuable drinking reserves and stays onsite instead of being channelled away to stormwater drains. Mulch in used to retain the moisture in the soil so even less water is needed. Mulch also adds nutrients and humus to the soil, aiding the soils health.
5. Prunings and fallen leaves are reintroduced back into the soil as compost. (See step 2)

Now you may have noticed that some of the Permaculture techniques are commonly used by any good gardener. That is the point. Permaculture is not magic; it is common sense, applied with a knowledge of natural processes. It has nothing to do with crystals and love beads.

You will also note that a lot of the individual elements of each Permaculture step interrelate with other steps and have multiple benefits. For example, mulching not only reduces water loss, it also feeds the plants, improves the soil (reducing the need for petrochemical fertilizers), reduces weeds (and therefore chemicals), AND uses garden surplus (reducing landfill).

This is an important fact to note as gardens designed using Permaculture focus on the efficient use of space and resources. Anything that has multiple benefits obviously fits into this way of thinking.

Let’s look a few other common and proven concepts that everyone is aware of, but probably didn’t realise are regularly employed and expanded upon in Permaculture design. Click on MORE to continue.

That’s right. In greenhouse gas reduction terms, installing a solar hot water system into a home is the equivalent of taking a small car off the road every year. Wow! That’s in excess of 3.5 tonnes of greenhouse emissions a year

We normally try to stay away from suggesting big “investment” solutions, but hey, these greenhouse gas reductions figures are pretty impressive. Imagine if all of the 500,000 or so old hot water systems that are replaced each year where switched to solar.

The initial outlay for a Solar hot water systems is a bit of a downer (about $1500-$4000), but when you consider that producing hot water can easily account for one third to a half of an electricity bill, you soon realize that a solar system will quickly pay for itself. In some areas, government rebates, make these prices even cheaper.

On average, the cost of a solar hot water system can be recovered within five to 10 years, depending on the system and your hot water usage. The pay off times will be comparatively shorter if you spend a little extra on a solar system over a traditional one when building a new house, or if you have to replace an existing old hot water system. This works because you take the cost of a standard system off the cost of the solar one.

The average Solar hot water systems will easily install onto most existing houses, and from everything I have seen and heard, are very reliable. This is due to the technology they use being so simple. I have heard many stories from people who have had solar hot water systems running for 30 years or more and they are still going strong. Over that amount of time they would have saved thousands and thousands of dollars and saved literally tonnes of greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere.

If you can’t afford the initial outlay for your own system, you could send a letter to your local member or state representative asking why bigger rebates are not provided for people who want to make the change. Tell them that industry figures show that if even half of Australia's households converted to solar hot water it would cut greenhouse pollution by 14 million tonnes - the equivalent of taking 4 million small cars off the road every year.

Go Sun!

Following is a bit more info about solar hot water systems that may be of use:

Companies may have green products, but may not necessarily have green practices.....

A few companies make token efforts towards being more environmentally friendly. Some blatantly lie through clever marketing in order to secure your green dollar. Others even have relatively Green product lines, (eg Toyota and its Prius), but at the same time, sell whole product ranges at the complete opposite end of the green scale (i.e. 4WD’s and SUV’s). It’s a mixed bag.

Regardless, manufacturing companies are driven by market pressures. That’s where an individual can make a difference, as we can all apply pressure at the checkout.

If the option is available, pick the green product from the green company. Reward the companies with the right ethos.

Now here is a subject after my own heart. Beer! Well unfortunately, like many of the things I love (i.e. Steak, Shopping, Seafood, Travel), Beer, is also bad for the environment (i.e. excessive packaging, food miles, energy that goes into making the bottles/cans, ect ect). At least now a greener alternative has become available.

“Cascade Green promises to offset all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of the beer throughout the product's life cycle, from picking the hops to delivering to hotels to the brand's advertising”

“CASCADE GREEN has achieved Australian Government Greenhouse Friendly™ certification. As part of this rigorous accreditation process, Cascade Green has undergone an extensive Lifecycle Analysis, which has been independently verified by DNV and SMEC** and also has an Emissions Monitoring Plan in place to meet the ongoing commitments required of GFP members. Cascade Green has initially purchased certified carbon offsets for the Hobart Landfill Flare Facility, approved under the GFP and developed by AGL Energy Services, and will continue to purchase offsets on an ongoing basis.”

Cascade, I don’t normally accept product samples, but in this case I would make an exception (HINT HINT!). Only problem is that it is made in the other end of the country to me and shipping 20KG of glass and beery goodness all that way for a few hours enjoyment is of some concern. Ahh well, back to the vanilla essence.

Following are a few other tips from around the net to green your drinking habits…

• Think Globally, Drink Locally. Support your local micro-brewery or winery to minimize the food miles. Shipping imported beer or wine from half way round the world is a big no no.

• Drinking a pint of draught beer from a tap rather than out of a bottle is another way to reduce packaging. It’s also a great excuse for going to the pub every night. OR GETTING A KEG OF BEER FOR HOME!!! WOW, what a concept! Now that’s how you make going green fun!

• Homebrewing. People swear to me that they can produce drinkable homebrew. I am dubious and have had a few killer hangovers to back me up on this, but it does remove the transportation and packing factors from your beer consumption.

• One site recommended bottles over cans.
  
  “Generally speaking, aluminium is an incredibly energy-intensive material (Aluminium manufacturing uses 13 per cent of Australia's electricity)… the transport-energy implications of glass are much higher because it's heavier but that's still outweighed by the production amounts. If you recycle aluminium you get a lot more benefit than from recycling glass but, overall, glass is better [for the environment]”
  
  It’s a lot more detailed than this, but if it's on the internet, then it must be true. In any case, buy the biggest containers of alcohol you can in order to reduce the container packaging required. Now if that means buying a mini keg every Friday, then so be it.

• Tetra pack wine is slowly making their way into bottle shops and it appears they are more environmentally friendly. They supposedly require 75 % less greenhouse emissions to produce compared to glass or PET bottles. I am assuming (because assuming is always good) that cask (box) wine would have much the same stats, but the wine in these things generally tastes like ass. Admittedly, I and haven’t drunk it since I was a starving student, so things may have changed. But be careful, a lot of bulk wine like this is made in Chile. Definitely not local (unless you are from Chile).

• A second fridge, (especially just for beer) is. If you must have two fridges, the use of newer and smaller energy-efficient models helps. But really, if a second fridge can be avoided………

• Buy Organic Wine and beer. Organic farming reduces erosion and ground-water pollution and it significantly reduces the impact on wildlife.

• Buy Vegan Wine and beers. Seriously. I drank some nasty stuff when I was a student, but have you ever thought what is floating around in your drink? Some beers, ciders and wines are clarified using the swim bladders of fish (isinglass) or gelatine (boiled animal bone, skin and tendons). Yummy.
  
  Most spirits are animal-free, (except this tequila I had once which had cactus grubs in it). I think I am allergic to grubs cause I woke up in the morning on the lawn snuggled up to a Chihuahua with a massive headache. Was definitely the grubs.

• Finally and obviously, Recycle your containers. Also, if you are really into it, check to see what your favourite pub/bar/restaurant does with its empties??

Ok, Remember before Christmas when I said we were working on another project that was taking up all our time. Well we where beaten to the punch. We where attempting to start up a Greenwash Watchdog type site that people could use as a resource to check to see if advertised products where actually as green as claimed. The good people at Greenwashing Index have done just that, but bigger and better that we could have managed to bang together.

Unsure what Green washing means? It’s a bastardisation of the term whitewash, or if you want to be posh, “a portmanteau of green and whitewash” La-De-Da.

In any case, Greenwash is a “term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service”. In other words, lying to consumers and users who are trying to be green.

Anyway, as long as someone is doing it, then that’s great. Check them out.

Now, we get a lot of emails asking for product endorsements for some new green doohickie (Wow, according to spell-check, doohickie is a real word) or another. Unfortunately, a lot of these end up being fairly shallow attempts to cash in on the green dollar. It’s for this reason that we have decided to start sharing a few of these with our readers.

We will attempt to give an honest, and unashamedly green biased review of any products we deem particularly good, or just as importantly, particularly bad. So, BE WARNED (said in a scary voice) anyone who wants WhatCanOnePersonDo.com to endorse their product as we wont be pulling any punches with the review. (If nothing else, this should hopefully cut down on the amount of email in my inbox).

As I said, we get sent a lot of green washed garbage. A prime example is an item that was sent to us a while ago. I won’t mention any names (this time), but the product was a carry bag made of bamboo fabric that was touted as a green alternative to the plastic shopping bag. The supplied literature implied it was sold out of a “pristine rainforest” in coastal Australia. In theory, this all sounded great, but on further investigation through correspondence, things didn’t look as rosy. To start with, everything was made in China. I have an ethical problem with this unless certain precautions are taken. At the time, no accreditation was given to how the Bamboo was harvested or farmed and nothing was mentioned about the conditions of the workers (this indicates standard sweatshop practices where used). And finally, the bamboo was turned into a fabric chemically, rather than mechanically (Chemically produced Bamboo relies on strong chemical solvents to cook the bamboo before it is reconstructed into cellulose fibre for weaving). In the long run, if I had done the figures, I would imagine that a locally produced plastic shopping bag may have won out in the environmental footprint stakes. Things may have changes since then, but I believe before a company uses the environment as a marketing tool, they seriously need to do their homework and not just paste “green” into the marketing.

So, to the best of our knowledge (and that should be a warning to anyone) we will attempt to go into as much detail in our reviews as a few simple schmucks with an internet account can. And please, if anyone has anything to add to any review, the comments section is always open.

Now on with our first review.