Dolphins may hold key to health of Perth rivers

Perth’s river dolphins have long provided a spectacular sight for those lucky enough to spot them and researchers now hope they will also provide valuable insight into the health of the waterways. Read article.

As I started kajaking last summer I've seen plenty of dolphins around at the Swan River and I love it! It makes me happy seeing them frolicking in the waves.

Take Back the Filter campaign

Brita is going to announce a recycling program for its water filter cartridges today.
The Take Back The Filter campaign received a call from Brita brand manager Drew McGowan a few days ago alerting that Brita will indeed begin taking back and recycling pitcher filters beginning in January!

I can only see this as a win! Using the Brita water filter myself since we live here, as the water coming from old lead pipes doesn't taste as good, I use the filters far too long to prevent dumping another big piece of plastic... I am looking forward to hear Brita's recycling plan! Keep you informed!

Fellow Aussie designer: Trent Jansen

Trent Jansen: Sustainable Design

Make 15 November Zero Waste Day

Lets call recycling what it is- a fraud, a sham, a scam perpetrated by big business on the citizens and municipalities of America. Look who sponsors the National Recycling Coalition: behind America Recycles Day: Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Owens-Illinois, International Bottled Water Association, the same people who brought you that other fraud, Keep America Beautiful.

Recycling is simply the transfer of producer responsibility for what they produce to the taxpayer who has to pick it up and take it away.

This article on Treehugger is a must read!

Holistic Community Development and Renewable Energy in Rural Nepal

You are invited to attend a VERY exciting presentation and the final Engineers Without Borders event of the year:

Lighting the World: Holistic Community Development and Renewable Energy in Rural Nepal

Alex Zahnd last visited Perth in early 2006, to a sell-out crowd. DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY to see Alex this time! Please print the attached flyer out and display it at your workplace, invite your friends, colleagues and family along to this very special evening with a truly inspiring engineer who has spent the last 20 years working to improve the living conditions of some of the world’s most remote and underprivileged communities.
RSVP early to secure your place!

Where: Engineering Lecture Theatre 1, University of Western Australia (lots of free parking)
When: Thursday 4th December, 2008. 7pm for a 7.30 start
RSVP: wachapter@ewb.org.au

We hope to see you there and promise that you will leave educated and inspired!

Best wishes,
The EWB WA Chapter committee

WALK AGAINST WARMING‏

SATURDAY MORNING 15 November - 10 AM - COTTESLOE BEACH - BE THERE!

Energy Saving Lighting Controls for Green Buildings

At the last Perth Greendrinks we had the opportunity to discuss & learn a lot of interesting aspects of energy saving lighting with Thomas from Evecto Energy Solutions Pty. Ltd. in Perth.
Evecto distributes a range of energy saving lighting controls that are easy to integrate into existing and new buildings.

In comparison to most other aspects of a building (such as heating or insulation), "greening" the lighting and reducing its energy consumption can be quite simple with the right approaches and matching products. Apart from the obvious savings in energy cost, such an improvement can also increase the preceived comfort in a building and therefore dramatically increase the acceptance of energy saving measures by the people who use the building.

The solutions that were on demo focused on very sensitive & very small Occupancy Sensors and their combination with Daylight Dimming approaches and also included zero-maintenance LED Emergency Exit Signs that only consume 1W of power and do not require and change of tubes or batteries. For more details check Evecto's website.

I learned that there is a good and simple solution for all the lights left on at TAFE, and many other buildings in the city. Every Wednesday when I do my evening class there I annoy myself by the neglect of the teachers who left all lights on, often also computers and fan's running, while they went home for the night...

Four new Green Corp projects for WA

The federal government has announced its latest round of Green Corps ecosystem protection projects to commence across Western Australia.

Federal minister for Employment Participation, Brendan O’Connor says the four WA Green Corps projects are among 54 around Australia designed to help young people gain new skills as they conserve and restore the local environment.
Read article or check Green Corp website

Toxins in Perth waterways not a health risk: Department of Water...

Water authorities say they do not believe toxins detected in Perth lakes and drains are posing a health risk.

A draft report by the Department of Water has found what it described as low levels of industrial contaminants in Bibra Lake, Bickley Brook and two Herdsman Lake drains.

The contaminants include polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, arsenic and lead.

John Ruprecht from the Department says there is a possibility the toxins could be present in other Perth waterways but he does not believe they pose a risk.

"The amounts found are considered low, particularly relative to other major cities around Australia and are not really considered a major health risk," he said.

Is this maybe why there aren't any longneck turtles in Lake Claremont anymore??? Are there still turtles in the other lakes by the way???

Gene implants 'turn sugar cane to plastic'

The Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation say it is close to commercialising an unusual by-product of sugar cane - biodegradable plastic.

It has successfully inserted genes into cane that make the plant produce a form of biodegradable plastic in its leaves.

Centre chief executive Dr Peter Twine says he is now looking for investors to turn the research into a viable business venture.

He hopes biodegradable plastic extracted from sugar cane will be used to produce a multitude of products in around five years time.

"It could be used for any form of plastic where you want to get rid of it at the end of the day," he said. "It can be injection-moulded or it can be created into sheet plastic."

Computers versus cars... another way of thinking

Gates vs. GM

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........ Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

Fremantle Urban Ecovillage‏?

Alex Hyndman likes to invite you to a presentation about the potential for a Fremantle Urban Ecovillage:
- Ecovillages and Sustainable Development - The Future of Property in Australia
- Presented by Paul Antonelli, Founder of the SomerVille Ecovillage and Greenedge Ethical General Manager
- Wednesday, 12th November, 7pm
- CUSP Institute, 3 Packenham St

Plastic waste...

Still too lazy to take a few sturdy shopping bags into the supermarket?
Or maybe grabbing a cardboard box? Which supermarkets should provide freely like in other countries as they've plenty after restocking their shelves every night...

Walk against Warming

The Walk Against Warming is WA’s biggest climate change event that sends a strong message to decision makers that climate change is serious and requires bold action. This year the walk will be held at one of Perth ’s most popular beaches to highlight the vulnerability of the WA coastline in the face of climate change.

Join it to spell out a giant human message calling for climate change action on Cottesloe Beach. Stalls, entertainment and special guest speakers will be on the beach from 10am.

To find out more, or if you would like to help volunteer, contact Carolyn or Owen at the Conservation Council of WA on 9420 7266 or email

The price of convenience...

- Disposable paper coffee cups aren’t made from recycled paper. Instead, most cups are manufactured using 100% bleached virgin paperboard.
- During the manufacturing process, cups are laminated with a plastic resin called polyethylene.
- The process involved with manufacturing paper cups is extremely resource intensive.
Read more about it here.

eWater workshops

eWater Cooperative Research Centre is a technology development initiative set up by the Australia's water resource management and research sector through the Australian Government’s CRC Program.

eWater’s core business is building water management tools and bringing these tools to Australian and international markets. All our products (except one MUSIC, which has a nominal licence fee) are available free to use.

MUSIC Model for Urban Stormwater Improvement Conceptualisationis utilised by urban stormwater engineers, landscape architects, environmental scientists, planners and managers in consultancies and state, regional and local government agencies to predict and evaluate:

· the quality of urban stormwater from catchments of varying land use and characteristics;

· the performance of alternative stormwater management scenarios, in terms of water quality improvement, flow attenuation, and lifecycle costs; and

· ecosystem responses to alternative stormwater management scenarios.

Essentially, MUSIC is utilised to help design stormwater quality improvements within a development (existing or retrofitted).

As Western Australia has a history of WSUD we are bringing the MUSIC Training Workshop to Perth end November. MUSIC is utilised extensively in the eastern states of Australia and was developed from Australian research. This is the first time this training will be offered in WA.

Regards

Luke McPhail
Manager – Catchment Modelling Toolkit

Look out for cyclists!

Youth travel habits revealed

Gen Y not as green as it thinks

Contiki is the biggest youth travel company in Australia and it takes the pulse of the market with an annual survey. This year the much-talked-about issue of green travel is the focus, with Contiki attempting to find out whether talk about responsible travel is just hot air.
Read the report

Better Place partners to bring electric vehicles to australia

Better Place, a company seeking to implement an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure around the globe. Together with AGL Energy and Macquarie Capital Group, Better Place announced today the deployment of an Australian electric vehicle (EV) network powered by renewable energy. As the world’s sixth largest country, Australia was selected to show that the Better Place model works in any country, regardless of size. If Australia can do it, so can others.

AGL will provide all of the renewable energy—from wind and other sources—needed to power the electric vehicles and work with Better Place to optimize the network. Macquarie will provide financial advice to help raise AUD $1 billion for the initial network build.

Ban Formaldehyde

As we know Formaldehyde exposure is not a good thing. It gets worse; a new study links it to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. As we know energy efficiency is a good thing, which is why they promote Energy Star houses, which have effective insulation, high-performance windows and tight construction.

One would think that a standard coming from the EPA would care about health and air quality instead of energy (isn't that another department?) but no, they recommend tightly sealing houses to reduce air leakage, the biggest energy loser. A leaky old house might change the air once an hour; a tightly sealed house designed for Energy Star might be as little as 1/100 of an air change per hour.

What happens when you don't change the air enough? The concentration of toxic chemicals gets higher. Formaldehyde, as an example, found in particle board, MDF, (medium density fibreboard) fabrics, glues and paints, and most fiberglass insulation.

Read more about formaldehyde in wood here.