The choice to buy frozen matters more than organic vs. conventional or wild vs. farmed.
Find out why here: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/global-study-salmon-shows-sustainable-food-isnt-so-sustainable-27545.html
Corporate Social Responsibility News: CSR Minute: Climate Counts Corporate Scorecard; Intn'l Oeko-Tex Assoc/Textile Insight's Sustainability Panel
Modern Manifesto House Made From Wood Pallets and Shipping Containers
by Bridgette Meinhold, 11/20/09
While not totally prefabricated, the Manifesto House by Infiniski utilizes pre-made materials like shipping containers and wooden pallets to create a totally rad modern house. Infiniski’s mission is to build homes cheaply and quickly using sustainable materials while incorporating renewable energy systems. They have many designs already available, which can be interchanged and easily modified.
Built in Curacavi, Chile, for a grand total of 79,000€, the modest home is composed of two 40′ shipping containers and two 20′ containers. The use of wooden pallets on the exterior of the home gives it fantastic texture, but also has purpose — they provide shade and allow the home to be naturally cooled, since air can move freely between the slats. The containers meanwhile, are completely weather tight and provide the necessary structural capacity for the home.
Inside the home is airy and open due to a large living space on the bottom floor created by the placement of the containers. What seems like inexpensive storefront windows are used as the walls, which can be slid open to naturally ventilate the home. There is also a folding screen to create a covered outdoor porch or shade the interior from the sun when folded down. Geothermal heat pumps also help provide heating and cooling. The architects at James&Mau are also the founders of Infiniski, so the designs are not only design-worthy, but practical in terms of build-out.
Via ArchDaily
EXCERPT:
The goal is a tourism economy, but not typically Caribbean all-inclusive “high volume, low cost, keep churning the people through” tourism...
Driptech, a small startup started by a young guy in the US is now helping people on the other side of the planet create a new sustainable irrigation system. Traditionally, irrigation systems are extremely expensive and limited to industrial farms of the Western World, however Driptech has found a cheap and reliable way for farmers in India & China to grow crops with the benefits of drip irrigation at a price that is affordable to these farmers.
This system may not just be for farmers in the developing nations either as a lot of small farms in the US, Canada and Australia, for example, could do with some lost cost solutions to better watering practices and more sustainable agriculture. Drip irrigation is especially relevant to places like Australia that are primarily arid and very weather dependent.
If we’re going to feed the nine billion people projected to be alive by 2050 ethically and sustainably, we all need to eat less meat and dairy produce (both major sources of greenhouse gas emissions and also unhealthy fat in western diets). And when we do eat it, it should have been raised to higher environmental and welfare standards... We could be supporting an army of artisan food producers to take back control of the food system, use sustainable ingredients and open local shops and markets. How better to cut transport fuel than re-creating the ability for people to be able to buy their food a short walk away – and have pleasurable interactions with their community in the process?
Another excellent article from Red Pepper. One fifth of the UK's emissions are from food and farming, but the Government's approach to tackling this problem and increasing "food security" is fragmented, ineffective and often relies on individual businesses and suppliers to "do the right thing". Surely the Government should be taking a strategic lead on this issue.
"...Ahoy, Cool Consumption Yachts! Step aboard the Transrapid Party Train! And get ready for the future of travel, brought to you by the IDEO Munich team, who decided to focus their video sketch on a family grappling with climate change by way of everyday decisions, such as how to spend money (or carbon credits) and where (and how) to travel, with the least amount of environmental harm. ..."
read more and join the discussion here: http://livingclimatechange.com/index.php/2009/11/producing-consumers-carbon-neutral-travel/
