Sydney Green Drinks 6 April

When in Sydney...

otherwise, come to the Perth Green Drinks on 6 April, don't forget to rsvp by 1 April 5pm!

Taking flight with Li Edelkoort

Dutch trend forecaster tours Australia, curator, publisher and educator, Li Edelkoort constantly lives in the future. One of the most sought-after trend researchers in the world, Li will present her latest observations and interpretations at seminars in Melbourne and Sydney.

MELBOURNE April 29Storey Hall, RMIT Building 16, 342 Swanston Street.
SYDNEY May 4Museum of Contemporary Art, 149 George Street.
Price: $350 + GST
More info

I went to the seminar of Dutch trend forecaster Milou Ket in February at the furniture fair in Sydney where she showed all new interior trends and what happened at the international markets at the moment. Very inspiring but I, myself, I don't believe in forecasting trends for years ahead as times are changing to rapidly...

Milou was a fascinating woman to meet though, so if you have the chance to go to one of her seminars at the Melbourne or Sydney furniture fair, please do, they are a fraction of the price of Li Edelkoort's seminars. I must admit, I've never met Li, only heard about her, so I can't advise to go or not. But I do know that it's all about selling trend books full with beautiful pictures... which I think it's the fun of making them yourself!

Perth to absorb 2 million more

Perth will sprawl further than New York City, be clogged with cars and people will live in each other's pockets as the city groans under the weight of an extra two million residents over the next 40 years.

An analysis of how Perth is growing and will grow as more people call the city home also warns that more desalination plants, thousands of kilometres of roads and hundreds of schools will have to be built to cope with the surge in residents.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is forecasting Perth's population to hit 3.8 million from its current 1.7 million by 2050.

For the first time the bureau has looked at what that will mean to Perth residents - and the picture is dominated by sprawling suburbs and long journeys to work.
Read article

POLL: Can Perth cope? Have your say

Full moon set to spark mass spawning

ONE of the state's most remarkable natural attractions - the mass spawning of coral off the WA coast - is set to be sparked by tonight's full moon.
Each year, the March full moon stimulates coral polyps into releasing a huge swathe of egg and sperm to reproduce.

As the sea turns pink with the seed of coral at tropical reefs along the coast, whale sharks have also began arriving at Ningaloo Marine Park in the North-West.
Read article

GreenTag — Eco-labelling for building products

David Baggs the CEO of environmental certification company Ecospecifier, is launching a new generation eco-label for building products called GreenTag.

It involves simple logo which manufacturers can apply to have placed on their environmentally friendlier building product and a complex, detailed and globally accredited cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessments of the environmental impacts of those products.

Under GreenTag, each door, window frame, light fitting, piece of timber, floor covering, paint product or any other building material can be assessed against six summary criteria, and potentially hundreds of other indicators, including issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, health risks of pollutants, impacts on biodiversity and the health and welfare of workers together with social benefits.

For example, each bit of wood in the door of Baggs’ office has had an impact on the environment in 241 different ways. ‘... you look at the energy it took to make the door. You ask how durable the timber is,’ he says ‘Did the wood come from a sustainable source? How was it harvested and what was the waste and energy from that process.’
More information

Japanese probe woodchips

FOUR of Japan's largest paper manufacturing companies are in Hobart for two days to assess woodchips. They want to know if the native woodchips they buy from Tasmania meet appropriate environmental standards.

Officials from Japanese corporate giants, Oji Paper, Nippon Paper Industries, Chuetsu Pulp & Paper and Marusumi Paper held discussions with suppliers and industry stakeholders yesterday to ensure their woodchips are sourced from only environmentally acceptable forest locations.
Read article

Landfill charges to rise sharply

THE cost of dumping rubbish in landfill will escalate dramatically under a state government plan to encourage recycling and create ''green jobs''.
Read article

Microchips, recycling ramped up to cut waste
LOCAL councils are microchipping bins, reducing bin sizes, putting up fees and cutting collections in a bid to get households to dramatically reduce waste.

But environmentalists fear their efforts could be thwarted by the NSW government's lack of planning and spending on recycling and waste disposal.

Waste solution left to rot as landfill capacity runs out
SYDNEY'S rubbish dumps will be full within six years, according to an independent report which the NSW government swept under the carpet after receiving it a year ago.

It's cheaper to bury than recycle: councils
COUNCILS with state-of-the-art recycling technology claim they are being penalised by the NSW government and may have to revert to simply burying their waste.

At Port Macquarie 66 per cent of all waste is recycled and what is left is only sent to landfill after it has been biologically stabilised and compacted so that it gives off little methane gas and does not become wind-blown litter.

Now in the Eastern states... can we prevent this in WA by taking the rigth measures?

Solar scheme powers on as batts bow out

KEVIN RUDD'S roof insulation program may have sent the nation temporarily batty, but the state government's solar power bonus scheme is shaping up as a big success.

The scheme, in which households who install panels can earn average electricity credits of about $1500 a year, was running well ahead of expectations, the Energy Minister, John Robertson, said.
Read article

Check this website for WA rebates.

Germans put sunny Australia in the shade
Germany may be a cloudy country - but it has 50 times as much solar power as sunny Australia.

Population boom to strain Perth

West Australians will have to embrace recycled water and suburban infill as the population doubles to around 3.5 million people by the middle of the century.

The warning from the State Government's planning guru Charles Johnson comes as the Department of Planning updates its population forecasts for Perth based on a sustained period of between 2 and 3 per cent annual growth fuelled by an ongoing resources boom.
Read article

Earth hour in Perth

Photos by Megan Lewis.

In Australia, over 4,200 businesses, and 1,100 schools and universities registered their participation using our website. You were one of over 44,000 sites who pledged to do "lights out" for Earth Hour.

I must honestly admit that I slept through it... as I'd turned off everything electronical we had only a few candles burning and fell asleep on the sofa to wake up at 11pm.

Fossel fools day

Garrett approves Jandakot Airport expansion

Environment Protection Minister, Peter Garrett, has approved, with strict environmental conditions, the future development of Jandakot Airport in Western Australia.

The approval conditions include significant offsets, measures to protect the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, threatened orchids, bandicoots and wallabies, as well as the creation of a conservation area on airport land.

“Before giving my approval to this project, I thoroughly considered the impact the development would have on the whole of the environment, including threatened species,” Mr Garrett said.

“I am satisfied the airport expansion can proceed without unacceptable impacts on the environment or nationally protected species, particularly with the strict conditions imposed and the significant offsets detailed in the approval conditions.

“As a condition of the approval, Jandakot Airport Holdings must buy and protect more than 1,600 hectares of Carnaby’s black cockatoo habitat as well as provide $150,000 per year towards recovery and research activities for this species. I am pleased to say this is one of the best environmental outcomes achieved in a Western Australian development for the Carnaby’s black cockatoo.

“The company will be required to rehabilitate about 110 hectares of land next to the airport for a conservation area of more than 600 hectares, with local council agreement. The company must also develop conservation plans to manage, map and monitor native species, treat dieback, and control weeds and feral animals.
Read article

Design for Sustainability

When you are in Melbourne:

The three workshops will present design strategies to assist in the reduction of environmental stressors during each phase of the design cycle. The cycles in these sessions include; manufacture and material selection, use phase and the end-of-life of a product.

2010 free Workshop Dates
Design for Sustainability: Manufacture and Material Selection
Tuesday 23 March, 8.30 am – 12.30 pm

Design for Sustainability: Use Phase
Tuesday 20 April, 8.30 am – 12.30 pm

Design for Sustainability: End-of-Life
Tuesday 18 May, 8.30 am – 12.30 pm

More info here.

Funk for Da Fish! 26 March 8pm in Leederville

RSVP @ http://www.facebook.com/saveourmarinelife

Perth Sun Fair Sunday!

The Sun Fair is aimed at introducing the people of Perth to sustainable living concepts, technology and lifestyles. Major themes of the fair include renewable energy, energy efficiency, environment conservation and natural living.

On Sunday 28th March 2010 people from all walks of life will come together on the Oak Lawn at the University of Western Australia to share information and experiences so they can return to their homes with a knowledge that they can make a difference to the future of the welfare of this planet and all its living systems.
Check website for more information and make sure you check out the free seminars!

Permanent winter sprinkler bans announced

The State Government recently announced the introduction of permanent sprinkler bans during winter as a further measure to reduce the amount of water we use.

The bans, which were successfully trialled in 2009, will be in force from 1 June to 31 August each year.

They will apply to scheme and bore water users in Perth, Mandurah and certain parts of the South West.

Click here to view the media release by the Minister for Water.

Downpours bring joy for farmers

Farmers, graziers and pastoralists across the South-West land division celebrated the end of WA's longest dry spell yesterday as thunderstorm rains filled dams and quenched dry paddocks.

On Sunday night and yesterday morning rain pelted on some of the driest parts of the State that until then had experienced their lowest summer rainfall on record.

Widespread thunderstorms through the central and western parts of the Wheatbelt broke the big dry that had many farmers and rural communities carting water to dams for livestock.

The welcome rains filled critically low dams and watered crop paddocks with enough downpour to prompt clover and weed germination, allowing farmers to begin their weed eradication program earlier than expected before seeding next month.
Read article

Ethikl - online green market place

Ethikl is a virtual marketplace where you can discover natural, handmade, fair trade and organic products created by artisan producers.

Founded in 2009, Ethikl was started by Brisbane girl Peita Gardiman who is passionate about ethical living. After a career in Marketing and being blessed with two children, Peita sought a way to be part of the solution to our planet's future. Peita believes that the everyday choices of individuals have the power to transform our world. By living in harmony with our planet and all who share it, we empower ourselves, enrich our lives and enhance our well being.

Check out the Ethikl website if you are looking for something nice and don't forget to visit her blog as well with lots of background stories.

Perth Green Drinks - 6 April

Hello,

You are invited for the Perth Green Drinks on 6 April 2010

Green Drinks is for anyone involved in the environment and related fields. Green groups / NGOs, Freelancers and consultants, Companies, Students, Academics, Government departments, Local Authorities, Younger as well as older people so please forward this invitation to anyone you think might be interested in meeting other people related to sustainability.

Green Drinks is a self-organizing network of professionals, students and enthusiasts working in sustainability who meet up in cities around the world for drinks once a month, or every second month in Perth. Everyone is invited to come and have fun, make contacts, get ideas, share information, find inspiration, and of course, to drink!

Green Drinks is GLOBAL: active in more than 600 cities worldwide!

When: Tuesday 6 April 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Where: Central TAFE East Perth Campus at 140 Royal Street, come by train, just 2 minutes from Claissebrook station. There plenty of free parking available at the back of the building off the Brown Street entrance.

How: Central Institute of Technology is providing one voucher per person for a choice of drink + nibbles on the table. Following drinks non alcoholic.

What: Network, interact, talk, laugh, debate, drink, have fun!

RSVP: Before Thursday 1 April 5pm - rsvp@central.wa.edu.au

SPEAKER: Janet Grogan
Want to learn a bit more about GM?
Janet has been part of the GM Campaign in WA for over 7 years. From the 'Say No to GMO' campaign has grown a state -wide network renamed the GM Free Consumers Network. They closely work with communities, shires, consumers and growers to share their common goal of maintaining the GM Free status of Western Australia, to ensure that a GM Free choice is protected, and demand strict liability to protect all non GM growers.

There’s lots happening – so let’s map our sustainability network
At the close of the GM session and continuing over drinks the Sustainable WA team will facilitate an interactive exercise to start mapping the sustainability network in WA. Facilitator, Rod Griffith, will guide you through an activity to collectively uncover and begin to link the range of organisations, groups and individuals already working on Sustainability in WA.

This is a preparatory activity for the “Big Splash”– WA’s largest and most inspiring conversation for sustainability - to be held on Sunday 23 May.

Hope to see you there!

Wilma van Boxtel
02 liaison Western Australia

Creative Vibe Design Competition 2010

The Creative Vibe design competition was launched in 2006 and is open to entrants from Australia and New Zealand to submit their designs for the theme we outline in our brief.

The judging team consists of Maree Draper, Kevin Brookes, Mathew Sheargold and Amanda Stanaway who review the entries and interview the shortlisted finalists. Two finalists are then selected who progress onto a workshop with the judges where we prototype their designs. Part of the workshop process is to review the prototype, cost structure, marketability, manufacturing and improvements.

The Winner of the General Entry division receives $5000 prize money, their prototype to keep, and royalties if their design is chosen to be part of the Creative Vibe portfolio.
More info website

Save our marine life - Sandcastle comp 21 March Scarborough

Teams of 5 people will each build a sandcastle letter to spell out 'Save Our Marine Life' in a giant message at Scarborough Beach. There will be awesome prizes for the team that makes the best marine-themed sandcastle!

While the judges make their decision, we've got stalls, a band, and a sausage sizzle BBQ happening. :-)

Register today - Call 9420 7255 or email wa@wilderness.org.au

Don't have a team of 5? Don't worry! We'll be making up teams, so if its just you and your mate, that's ok.

See you there!

RSVP @ http://www.facebook.com/saveourmarinelife

Creating a Culture of Green Design

For global companies that face the challenge of embedding green design into the thinking of a vast network of operating personnel, project managers, design institutes and construction contractors, one particularly successful strategy involves creating a common set of “sustainable engineering guidelines” and making these accessible through a company-wide, online portal.

While a commitment to green design is often shared, bringing this to life often requires overcoming practical considerations. Construction companies tend to be comfortable with traditional building designs; procurement may not have pricing agreements for sustainable materials and everyone will be concerned about bringing a project in on time and on budget. Each of these tendencies can work against the inclusion of green design in existing buildings and new construction.

There are several considerations when building a platform that will ensure a consistent approach to green design across a global organization.

First, Operations and Engineering representatives from across the company should work with their engineering vendors to offer analysis that helps create shared guidelines. This analysis should answer common questions as to the best approach to take when confronted with environmental tradeoffs.

For example, how do you answer the common dilemma of choosing to install paper towels versus hot air blowers in facilities’ restrooms? Both approaches have their advantages and colleagues will likely be choosing among multiple competitive vendors.

The engineering solution may be surprising. After significant investigation and debate, for instance, PepsiCo analysis revealed an answer: If you can create an effective compost program for waste paper, then paper towels edge out hot air blowers in terms of net sustainable impact.

Second, organizations often require similar answers to questions that are answered in an inconsistent way – for example, which lighting application is ideal in which circumstance, what is an acceptable level of fly ash content in concrete walls, under what conditions are variable speed drives not desirable.

When left to the local design institute or construction company, the application of sustainable guidelines can vary significantly – especially across international locations. This lack of consistency delays, and can even undermine, the transformation to green design. Offering a corporate point of view, in the form of common standards, creates the direction and clarity that helps move a company’s sustainability strategy forward.

Third, the portal should be visually organized in a way to give the user access to company endorsed international solutions. It is vital that all interested parties can rapidly find what they are looking for and especially helpful to integrating these with an electronic reporting tool, such as Microsoft SharePoint software.

In PepsiCo’s experience, a simple and effective organizational structure is set around Categories, Guidelines and Solution Sets. Categories include Site Selection, Building Materials, Water Stewardship and Lighting Systems. Guidelines organized by Planning, Design, and Construction activities, largely mirror those found in the USGBC LEED program, with some customization for manufacturing operations. Solution sets are in the form of a menu of customized projects that have been proven in the field. Additional resources include training videos, company access to useful external websites like BuildingGreen.com, and forms and score sheets for tracking LEED certification.

Fourth, users of the Sustainable Engineering Guideline Portal will also notice that this tool can be invaluable in reducing the time and cost associated with LEED certification. Not only can the portal contain on-demand LEED training for users, the commonly used documentation needed for point certification can be collected and be made available to users of multiple projects.

As many of us have experienced, the consulting charges associated with LEED certification can be prohibitive on smaller projects or in international locations. By establishing a common database of solutions and documentation, an organization can build short cuts to reduce the consulting fees and time associated with a certification upload. For example, a non-smoking policy is fairly standard on all new sites – there is no need to create customized documentation for each LEED project.

Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, the interest in Sustainable Engineering Solutions is not contained to subject matter experts. In PepsiCo’s experience, making the guidelines easily available prompted thousands of employees to access the web site. Casual users have researched everything from green office furniture vendors and ideas to reduce energy for office temperature control to innovative ways to establish recycling and composting programs in their plants and offices.

If your organization is interested in embedding green in your DNA, companywide sustainable engineering guidelines may be the answer.

David Walker is Director of Environmental Sustainability for PepsiCo, www.pepsico.com

The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations

A familiar situation to anyone that has done freelance work, especially in the creative sector!

Electric cars charged for trial

THIS year, the first Australian Electric Vehicle Trial will take place in WA and the first Australian EV fast-recharging network will be installed in several places in the Perth metropolitan area.

This is a large step forward for the introduction of electric cars in Australia. Ten government and local industry fleets will each take one car. As there are no electric cars on the market yet, Perth companies with experience in the EV sector will convert the cars from petrol to pure battery-electric drive.
Read article

Australian beach life under threat

For many Australians the beach is an important focus of daily life and around 70 per cent of the country's population lives on or near the coast.

But rapid coastal erosion is threatening some of the country's most iconic beaches.

Environmentalists say Australia's coast is becoming increasingly vulnerable as climate change brings higher tides and flooding.

IBM makes Earth-friendly plastic from plants

IBM researchers on Tuesday said they have discovered a way to make Earth-friendly plastic from plants that could replace petroleum-based products tough on the environment.

The breakthrough promises biodegradable plastics made in a way that saves on energy, according to Chandrasekhar "Spike" Narayan, a manager of science and technology at IBM's Almaden Research Center in Northern California.

The "green chemistry" breakthrough using "organic catalysts" results in plastics that could be repeatedly recycled, instead of only once as is the case with petroleum-based plastic made using metal oxide catalysts.

Plant plastics could also be made "biocompatible" to improve the targeting of drugs in bodies, such as cancer medicines aimed at killing cancer cells but sparing healthy ones, according to IBM.
Read article

German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel

Germany's largest fishing vessel will leave the Netherlands this week, towed by a giant kite harnessing trade winds for South America that will help cut its fuel consumption by up to a third.

The 15,000 tonne 'Maartje Theadora' is the first fishing vessel to use the system, in which a 160 square metre blue and white kite similar to a paraglider pulls the ship on a 300 metre rope, assisting its main engine.

"The challenge for us is to see how it works during trawling, because then the ship is not moving from A to B but it's turning and moving around," said Diederik Parlevliet, head of fishing firm Parlevliet & Van der Plas, operator of the ship.
Read article

WA has country's worst recycling rate

A new report has shown that West Australians produce the most waste per capita in the nation but recycles the least.

The State of the Cities report by Infrastructure Australia provides a snapshot of the 17 largest cities in the country with the aim of improving the liveability, sustainability and productivity of each one.

The report found that Western Australia produced almost 2500 kilograms of waste per person.

It also found that Western Australia has the worst recycling rates in the country with just 33 per cent of total waste being recycled from 2006 to 2007.

Bill Mitchell from the WA Local Government Association says the data does not provide an accurate representation of household recycling in WA which he says is the best in the country.

He says the state's construction and demolition industry has the worst rate of recycling in the country, and that drags WA's average down.
Read article

Plan to log 500-year-old trees

The WA Government is embroiled in a new logging controversy with the revelation that a Dardanup forest containing 500-year-old jarrah trees will be logged and part of the timber burnt for charcoal.

Taxpayers stand to make as little as $160,000 from the sale of wood from 372ha of forest - about the size of Kings Park.

Locals claim the plan will destroy the last pocket of isolated, ecologically significant bush in the area, taking down some of the remaining centuries-old curly jarrah trees and endangering the rare western ringtail possum.
Read article

100 Great Twitter Feeds to Follow Green Tech

Much like Google and Facebook before it, Twitter has become an overnight sensation. Bringing microblogging – where bloggers share posts of no more than 140 characters – to the forefront of the internet, Twitter users number in the millions and can spend hours at a time posting and keeping up on tweets.

With so many users, do you still feel like the only tech lover with a green frame of mind? No more with the help of these great 100 Twitter feeds to follow green tech. Whether you love the technical or environmental aspects, or even both equally, your Twitter time just went up.
Check them out here

Aussiebum goes bananas

Australian underwear company AussieBum has been monkeying around and the result is a range of men's underwear made with bananas.

The new eco-friendly banana range of undies incorporates 27 percent banana fiber, 64 percent cotton and 9 percent lycra, AussieBum's Lloyd Jones said on Friday.

The banana fiber used in the underwear is made from a bark weave from the banana plant and makes the underwear not only lightweight, but also very absorbent, he said.
Read article

Super Tuesday Bicycle Count 2010

Initial analysis shows strong rider numbers in all states. The following data provides a snapshop of rider numbers in the 7 - 9am peak at key sites in the non-VIC states:

•In Brisbane, despite the torrential rain people are still riding: 310 riders were counted on the SW side of the river at the Goodwill Bridge/Stanley St junction.
•In NSW, 755 riders were recorded at the Burton Street approach to the Harbour Bridge
•In Hobart there were 299 riders on the bike path at the Domain Hwy/Tasman Hwy intersection.
•In Adelaide, at the King William Rd/Greenhill Rd junction, 415 riders were recorded.
•In Perth, 699 riders were recorded on the Riverside Drive path at the Kwinana Fwy site.

Lush - Fresh ethical cosmetics

Best 100 Companies - Times Online

At no other company do employees think their organisation does more to protect the environment — with a score of 88% positive Lush ranks first on this question. It ranks eighth — with a score of 70% — for staff not thinking the company's support of worthy causes is driven by a desire for good publicity, and at 76% Lush is fifth in the survey for profit or budget concerns not being the only things driving the organisation. There is another top 10 score (83%) for the company making a positive difference to the world.

It is not just the environment and good causes that are nurtured, team relationships are among the strongest on the Best Companies list.

I've written about Lush before as I am using their shampoo bars and deodorant blocks for years now and I am still a very satisfied customer, not only do I prevent heaps of plastic bottles I also save lots of money! At the moment I am using Karma for my hair and it smells fabulous! Try it, Lush has a shop in the city of Perth in one of the malls between Murray and Hay street.

TEDxPerth March

At Scitech on Tuesday March 22nd

TEDxPerth is back in March for the first episode of a brand new era in TEDxPerth's life.
- WATCH (inspiring, interesting and incredible videos)
- DISCUSS (conversations based around ideas brought up in the videos)
- SHARE (ideas, inspiration, creativity and food)
- LEARN (by meeting like-minded Perthians and connecting with amazing ideas)


TEDxPerth is striving to build a more aware, inspired and active young population in Perth who are passionate about effecting positive change. Each month at Scitech our TEDxPerth events showcase inspirational videos from the institute named TED, facilitate open discussion, eat and chat together. What we really hope to achieve are the following main things:
- to get young people thinking about what's really important,
- to provide a socialising and networking opportunity,
- to promote local non-profit volunteer opportunities in Perth, and
- to have fun along the way.

More information on TED or join TEDxPerth group page to be notified of future events. For this event rsvp on Facebook here.

Killing another tree at 75 Curtin Avenue Cottesloe

Countless emails to the Premier, Ministers , Councillors and Staff but Mr Trigg just confirmed and was adamant that nothing will stop this tree being destroyed early tomorrow morning at 7:00am

It would help if councillors were better informed about tree benefits and if they inspected the sites before making decisions.

The West and Post might be there. Hopefully I'll be sitting peacefully on the tree roots and reading a book : Australia's RemarkableTrees by Allen and Baker. Company welcome but I realize it's early morning and not easy for most.
Alex Save our trees

My Green Nappy

My Green Nappy is a simple environmental initiative encouraging all families to have one green nappy for their baby to wear. Yes, ONE will make a difference! It will prevent 1 disposable nappy from ending up in landfill each time it is worn by your baby. How simple is that?

My Green Nappy is a nappy nexus for parents in Australia and New Zealand: a collective of all shops offering modern cloth nappies and eco disposables- the environmentally friendly, 'green nappy' choices. From expert advice by ‘Your Nappy Doula’s’ to the latest ‘Mini Trends in Modern Cloth’, and the unique ‘My Green Nappy Guide’, you will be accessing the collective wisdom of the cloth nappy world. You’ll be kept 'in the loop' about all things 'green' and 'nappy' as they apply to families downunder.
More information

VIVID green design award; apply now

Furnitex is now calling all Australian based designers and students of design to submit new furniture products for VIVID 2010, the acclaimed design competition and innovation showcase for new and emerging designers.

This dynamic showcase and design competition, now in its 8th year, is the heart of Furnitex at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Southbank, from Thursday 15 July - Sunday 18 July 2010.

Furnitex is Australia’s largest Furniture and Furnishings Trade Fair attracting over 17,000 qualified trade visitors from across Australia and overseas and is a key event of State of Design 2010, Victoria’s Design Festival.

Australian based designers and students of design are invited to apply with their latest Australian made furniture products, all things beautiful, innovative, commercial and fun. Applications close Wednesday 28 April 2010 at 5pm.

Awards for Excellence in Design will be presented in the categories:

VIVID Commercial – for the best new release
VIVID Concept – for the best prototype
VIVID Student – for the best student product
VIVID Green – for the most sustainable product across all selected entries

Click here to download the application form

For further information about the Fair go to www.furnitex.com.au or contact VIVID Curator Uli Hasel on email vivid@aec.net.au or telephone 03 9654 7773.

Level 2, 267 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Telephone 03 9654 7773
Email
Website

Huge Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic Too

Billions of bits of plastic are accumulating in a massive garbage patch in the Atlantic Ocean—a lesser known cousin to the Texas-size trash vortex in the Pacific, scientists say.

"Many people have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," said Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
"But this issue has essentially been ignored in the Atlantic."
Read article

One good chair

The launch of the third annual ONE GOOD CHAIR design competition.

Co-sponsored by the Sustainable Furnishings Council, the World Market Center, and shapeofgreendesign.com

2010 THEME:

minimum/MAXIMUM

How little material can you use to make the most of a chair?

How little packaging can you use to reach the most people?

Can you design a chair that is almost nothing and almost everything at the
same time?

DETAILS:

. Phase 1 (concept): entries due JUNE 15.
. Phase 2 (fabrication): Prototypes for three finalists will be
fabricated, and final decisions will judge the physical chair in FEBRUARY
2011.
. Cash prizes (amount TBD).
. Finalists will travel to the judging and awards ceremony at the
Winter Market in Las Vegas, February 2011.

PHASE 1 JURY:

. Jose Atienza, William McDonough + Partners

. Kate Bolick, author, Deceived With Ornament: The Inner Life of the
American Home

. Shashi Caan, The Shashi Caan Collective

. Helene Cany, finalist, One Good Chair 2009

. John Cary, Public Architecture

. Dawn Danby, Autodesk

. Ingrid Fetell, author, The Aesthetics of Joy

. Pliny Fisk, Sustainable Earth Technologies

. Nataly Gattegno, Future Cities Lab

. Lance Hosey (jury chair and organizer), author, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design

. Toby Israel, Design Psychology

. Janine James, The Moderns

. Wendy Jedlicka, Jedlicka Design

. Jason Johnson, Future Cities Lab

. Antonio Larosa, Savannah College of Art and Design

. Richard Liddle, Cohda Design

. Daniel Michalik, DMFD

. Neri Oxman, Material Ecology

. Virginia Postrel, author, The Substance of Style

. Andrew Whalley, Grimshaw Architects

. Adam Yarinsky, Architecture Research Office

Watch it shred

"The Monster". He eats whole hide-a-beds and super tires, without even taking a breath.
Website

Summer scorcher a freak event

Climate experts say Perth's sweltering summer is the latest extreme weather event to hit Australia.

The past three months - the driest and joint-hottest on record for Perth - have followed a series of record-breaking heatwaves that have hit Victoria and South Australia in the past 12 months, as well as extreme flooding that has lashed parts of Queensland and NSW.

Perth's hot weather continued yesterday, with a maximum 39.1C recorded at 3.39pm.
Read article

Yesterday:

A divided picture of the sunburnt country
A SUMMER of extremes ended last night, in which the nation's west had its hottest and driest season on record and the east recorded its wettest summer in nearly three decades.
Perth had the lowest summer rainfall in 134 years with only 0.2mm over the three months to February.

In comparison Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Hobart totalled average rainfall of 1269.4mm over the summer period.