Freitas. What we saw was shock and obviously has no simple or easy solution.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Remediation of Lagoa Rodrigo da Freitas
While visitin in Brazil we had a look at the Lagoa Rodrigo da
Freitas. What we saw was shock and obviously has no simple or easy solution.
Freitas. What we saw was shock and obviously has no simple or easy solution.
Friday, November 12, 2010
On the way to South America
Off to Chile and Brazil for business. Will be seeing clients and suppliers in Chile and in Brazil participating in an Australian Business Trade Mission related to sports to provide sustainable sports fields. Will be interesting to see how the distributor I set up in Brazil has advanced, as well as to see how we can continue to grow and go forward implementing sustainable technologies.
One of the things I always look forward to is learning how they do
things in other countries and how we can apply and incorporate that knowledge in our applications. Always very satisfying is seeing how we positively affect others and in turn the environment of countries and places so far away.
Will have weeks interesting ahead.
One of the things I always look forward to is learning how they do
things in other countries and how we can apply and incorporate that knowledge in our applications. Always very satisfying is seeing how we positively affect others and in turn the environment of countries and places so far away.
Will have weeks interesting ahead.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Added stormwater harvesting to Reclaimed water article on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_water
I find it amazing how this article, in spite of being one orientated to an topic of sustainability, does so little to explain sustainable practices. Sometimes the simplest and easiest things go unpercieved as viable options.
We often see that often people don´t believe or understand and reusing stormwater or rainwater can be so simple, and that effective and efficient use of that water can be made in a cost effective manner.
People want to be able to press a button so that a machine can do something, that something goes in one end and a product comes out the other end, that it should require maintenance, etc...
I believe, or rather know, that if things are designed correctly, they should not really need maintenance because they simple don´t require it, they should also function in a sustainable manner. Going deeper into sustainability is another topic.
I find it amazing how this article, in spite of being one orientated to an topic of sustainability, does so little to explain sustainable practices. Sometimes the simplest and easiest things go unpercieved as viable options.
We often see that often people don´t believe or understand and reusing stormwater or rainwater can be so simple, and that effective and efficient use of that water can be made in a cost effective manner.
People want to be able to press a button so that a machine can do something, that something goes in one end and a product comes out the other end, that it should require maintenance, etc...
I believe, or rather know, that if things are designed correctly, they should not really need maintenance because they simple don´t require it, they should also function in a sustainable manner. Going deeper into sustainability is another topic.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Added Water Sector to the Sustainable Design wikipedia article
Contributed today to wikipedia on the Sustainable Design entry. One of the main things I have observed in water management is the lack of concience in terms of consumption, from a general aspect to what is consumed for drinking.
How can it be that 100% of the water we consume, to water our gardens, wash the car, wash our clothes, etc... has to be of drinking water quality. Only very recently in Australia has some change been seen in this, with incentives to store water with Rainwater Harvesting. However these incentives have several sources, some are quite political and related to water restrictions and the imperative of offering solutions to citizens that seem so obvious.
The concept that is being promoted today is "fit-for-purpose", which seems much more reasonable than what used to managed.
How can it be that 100% of the water we consume, to water our gardens, wash the car, wash our clothes, etc... has to be of drinking water quality. Only very recently in Australia has some change been seen in this, with incentives to store water with Rainwater Harvesting. However these incentives have several sources, some are quite political and related to water restrictions and the imperative of offering solutions to citizens that seem so obvious.
The concept that is being promoted today is "fit-for-purpose", which seems much more reasonable than what used to managed.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Welcome to the ESD blog!
In my career working in environmental systems, it always impresses me how little is known about Environmentally Sustainable Design, even among people who are supposed to manage this concept very well and because of what they do have the ability to affect the lives of many people. The main purpose of this blog is to share views with relevant stake holders who need to know about good ESD or Environmentally Sustainable Design.
One of the things that most impress me is how recent this concept is.
In Australia the first formal government recognition of this concept may date from May 2007 and can be found the Ministry of the Environment website: http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/publications/government/esd-design/index.html
The first article Wikipedia to have the name Sustainable Design was published in April 2003, and was literally only 4 lines long. Today you will see the Sustainable Design entry has changed some.
I plan to educate interested people, step by step, about this and my first action has been to create the Wikipedia entry for Stormwater Harvesting, differentiating it from Rainwater Harvesting.
People may say that this is a small difference, however I would beg to differ. Many of the environmental problems we have today stem from a problem in the misuse of language. We have to call "things" what they are, and not something else.
One of the things that most impress me is how recent this concept is.
In Australia the first formal government recognition of this concept may date from May 2007 and can be found the Ministry of the Environment website: http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/publications/government/esd-design/index.html
The first article Wikipedia to have the name Sustainable Design was published in April 2003, and was literally only 4 lines long. Today you will see the Sustainable Design entry has changed some.
I plan to educate interested people, step by step, about this and my first action has been to create the Wikipedia entry for Stormwater Harvesting, differentiating it from Rainwater Harvesting.
People may say that this is a small difference, however I would beg to differ. Many of the environmental problems we have today stem from a problem in the misuse of language. We have to call "things" what they are, and not something else.
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