A Better Rainwater Harvesting Solution

I first heard about this solution about 10 years ago while trying to find a better solution to deal with the fact that we funnel all our rainwater off site one day, and then irrigate our gardens using municipal water the next day.

Arum lilies make great plants for rainwater gardens

If we are really forward thinking, we use green solutions such as water tanks, in which we try to catch as much water from our roofs as possible, store it, and then pump it out into our gardens. This really is a great solution. But I'd like to suggest an even better option.

Our soils were created to be natural water tanks. Depending on their composition, they (like sponges) have the ability to catch and hold water. They catch hundreds of thousands of litres of water, releasing it slowly over a period of time, either upward to the roots of plants, sideways into rivers, or downward into the groundwater below. Good soil is essentially a reservoir for plants to survive through periods of dryness. So why do we funnel it off into tanks, or even worse let it drain away into the stormwater system?

Normal rainwater could be funnelled into the soil where it belongs, and excess water overflows into the stormwater system.

The answer to this problem is actually an age old one, and it lies in using plants, and in shaping the soil to slow down and catch the water.

Instead of using the downpipes to carry water straight into our stormwater system or at least into tanks, the water would flow from the roof down the drainpipes and into a catchment area with plants that would naturally be found in wetlands. These plants can tolerate both waterlogged and dry conditions depending on the season. The water can then drain away naturally into the soil.

Vancouver's innovative stormwater solution

Another application is alongside large paved areas, like parking lots, driveways and roads. The water that comes off these areas usually has a mixture of oils, litter, and other pollutants that end up in our rivers and eventually the sea, creating huge long term problems. We should be creating filtration areas before the water runs into any kind of stormwater system.

This can be a beautiful way of bordering or softening hard areas like parking lots and roads, and in a water thirsty country like ours is an ideal way of conserving water in the place where it should be conserved.

Recycling Your Bulbs

No free give-away of plant bulbs here I'm afraid...but if you're looking for a safe and convenient place to get rid of batteries and light-bulbs, this is the place...
I've been looking for a place to get rid of fluorescent tubes and batteries for a while now - it's amazing how hard it is to do things in an environmentally responsible way in South Africa!

Waste Recycling Unit outside Builders Trade Depot

So I was pleasantly surprised to see this little waste disposal unit for recycling outside the Builders Trade Depot off Umgeni Road in Durban.
If you know of any other places to recycle the rubbish that shouldn't be dumped in a municipal dump, feel free to leave a comment.

edit: Check out this post on The Art of Engineering about the problem of eWaste in SA.

How To Build A Green Wall

I decided last year that I needed to green up our balcony. Space is a premium, so the only place left to plant is on the walls. My plan was to build a Green Wall on our south facing wall.

Photo from Eco-friendly Promos

I had the idea when I saw all the water that was being generated by our air-conditioner just going to waste. I was using some of it to water our plants around our apartment and on our balcony, but I thought there must be another way I could use it. A green wall seemed like the ideal way of planting in a confined space, and using the waste water from our air-conditioner.

After quite a bit of research, I found the simplest method was pioneered by a French botanist by the name of Patrick Blanc.  He calls it Le Mur Vegetal, and its really quite a simple solution. He has built several Vertical Gardens throughout the world, and a few people have adapted his method to create their own. Before I began, I sat down and planned in detail on Sketchup how to build it. If you're interested in building your own one, this is a short video I made to show the steps involved in making your own green wall.

Trash Talk

Sean from Bamboo Geek has a great website on all things green (including bamboo). But he has just started a website called TrashWatch, which is attempting to make companies which generate large amounts of trash take responsibility for their trash that gets spread around the countryside.

This is an American based site, and obviously aiming at American companies, but we in South Africa could take a leaf out of his book, by taking a stand against companies that generate litter and make no attempt to clean it up.

We also have a responsibility to make sure that we don't litter ourselves. I can't tell you how often I see people throwing rubbish out of their car windows as they drive along. Is it that they don't understand, or maybe they just don't care?
How do you educate people? The perception is that government has neither the capacity or will to really focus on this issue.
The companies that generate the rubbish themselves need to take responsibility for education, or better yet - reduce the amount of plastic and non-recyclable materials that they generate.

SA can be proud - Woolworths has just been awarded "Responsible Retailer of the Year" at the World Retail Awards. This is a great achievement, as they stood out from other retailers internationally in their efforts to do 'good business'. Other businesses in SA need to step up and begin to take responsibility for their footprint too. We need to look at how we do business, and how we can do it better from an environmental point of view.

10 Simple Ways To (not) Make An Impact On The Environment

I have been looking at my business lately, trying to figure out how we can reduce our impact on the environment. Being in the green industry, we should really be setting an example to our clients and other businesses.

There are some simple things that I believe we can do, and are doing, but at first glance it seems as if this shift in mindset doesn't come without some cost - whether time, energy or money.

Some of the solutions should have long term benefits, but what are the short term costs?

These are the questions I'm asking us as a business, and should probably be asking my suppliers as well:

1. Are we using sustainable resources?
2. Are we being efficient with our resources?
3. Is there any way of recycling materials (waste or other)?
4. Are our staff being paid a fair wage that can sustain them and their family?

Sustainability is a word that is being over-used in so many contexts, that it's in danger of losing its meaning in the near future. There is also a lot of debate over how to define sustainability anyway.
Broadly speaking, sustainability is defined as :

"Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

But I think we are all guilty at some point of looking for the shortcut, or the lower price, without asking some difficult questions.
For example, do I know whether my suppliers are paying a decent wage to their staff?
When I am buying materials, what guarantees do I have that they've been sourced from a sustainable supply?

Simply put, are people or the environment getting ripped off for my benefit?

Some simple things everyone can do to lessen their impact:

1. Visit Ecofoot.org and do the quiz. Also check out Breathing Earth
   
2. Recycle glass, paper etc. as much as possible. Glass is one of the few things that can be re-re-recycled.
   
3. Replace normal light bulbs with Fluorescent - the use a fraction of the electricity, and last much longer.
4. Support local businesses, farmers, trades-people and products
5. Buy organic foods
   
6. Walk, or cycle where possible
7. Buy re-cycled products
8. Turn off lights and appliances when you're not using them
9. Try to avoid products with excessive packaging
10. My favourite - Plant a tree (Preferably indigenous!)