Every day we shape our planet's future when we make small life decisions - what we buy, what we eat, how we travel. The future of the planet is in our hands; the future is man-made. And we are all "Futuremakers". If we choose to live sustainably, we can assure a future for all living things. And we can have some fun doing it too!
This site, created by WWF-Australia, is a place where you can share ideas with other Futuremakers so that we can live more sustainably. We hope the tips and stories here will be useful for you. (More about this site)
To browse the ideas on this site by category or difficulty, click on the icons below.
Just found GreenStyle magazine online - and it seems to be a very useful site. Much food for thought, including a list of “101 ways to green your life”.
No doubt some of the ideas over there will be covered here as well, but worth checking out all the same…
You’ve probably seen this on the news, but just in case… Al Gore et. al have announced Live Earth:
SOS is designed to trigger a global movement to combat our climate crisis. It will reach people in every corner of the planet through television, film, radio, the Internet and Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world’s top musical acts.
Sydney is the Australian city that will be hosting the event. There’s even suggestion that there will be a concert in Antarctica!
The press release has more details, including a list of artists who have been confirmed for the date.
Have you noticed a pile of used printing paper piling up at work with only one side printed? If you’ve got kids, why not take them home to use a scribble paper?
The Australian Greenhouse Office tells us that water heating eats up about 30% of the average home’s electricity bill. And if that electricity is coming from so-called “black” power (produced by burning coal), that means about 30% of a household’s emissions are a result of heating water - or around 5 tonnes each year!
Australia is definitely not short on sun - so it makes sense to use that sunshine to heat your water.
Do you know a place doing something good for the environment - perhaps a local park, organic grocer, eco-friendly cafe, or local recycling depo - then why not tag it as a “CoolSpot” and let others know about it.
Treehugger mentions a sustainable ‘bush retreat’ in the Hunter Valley. Looks very cool (literally and figuratively).
If you’re wanting to check out more sustainable houses - I’ve just picked up a copy of the latest edition of Sanctuary and there’s lots of great designs, from apartments in Queensland to abodes in Tasmania.
The Alternative Technology Association also produces the ‘Home’ DVD. I’ve just had a copy delivered, though I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. Look for a review here soon…
Jason Kottke pointed to this video - a crazy expanding/foldable/recycled chair. According to one of the commenters on YouTube:
The chair was designed by a student from National Taiwan University of Sceince and Technology. The chair is made of recycle honeycomb paper and wood. According to this website, the chair can seat up to 16 people.
Cool! Hopefully we’ll hear a bit more about it soon…
Update: And hear more we did - Inhabitat provides more details…
Update 2: Flexible Love - although I can’t seem to find the link. They’re also looking for regional distribution - can anyone help with that?
An interesting note over at EcoGeek:
Our friends over at EcoIron did some back-of-a-napkin calculation to figure out how much energy would be saved if Google’s main page was black instead of white. They come up with a savings of $75,000 per year (at 10 cents per kWh) and a reduction of 750 Megawatt-hours of power.
Just goes to show how small things can make a big difference if done by lots of people…
Inhabitat has a quick guide to green gadgets in the home - specifically home entertainment and Apple computers.
You might have guessed that I’m into cars (the green variety of course). Well, here’s a couple more green car related links:
The Discovery Channel has produced a 4-part series called FutureCars - taking a punt at what cars might look like in 2030 [via Hugg]. (Seems like a nice companion to this WWF article: What your future will look like in 2030…)
Another Hugg post highlights some folks in the US that convert cars, including classics, to be all electric. We might need to create a new “convert your car to electric” action soon the way these conversions are taking off…
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