OMG So much plastic! How to avoid packaging excess

During my time living in Copenhagen I was a member of an organic local veggie association. Every week I used to go pick up my “dose” of vegetables taking with me a canvas bag, filling it up with potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, salad, beetroots – and again a lot of potatoes, beetroots, potatoes, beetroots, potatoes, beetroots… well, that’s what they eat over there :).

Although we are not lacking similar veggie group purchasing in Italy (es. Cortilia in Milan), I didn’t get the chance to become a member of any of those yet. But I think today I will take action against it, as I was completely shocked at seeing the enormous amount of plastic is used in packaging in supermarkets. I mean, I knew it before… but today I looked down to the cart and…

It kind of hurt my eyes…

And my heart. Think about how much petroleum, processing energy, CO2 emissions, transportation costs, toxins and mould on our food we can save, just by avoiding packaged fruits & vegetables.

Next time you are at the grocery store… Think about this post. Let’s make a change together!

“Sorry if we used plastic for packaging, but please do recycle it” – What?! Are you kidding me? Of course I will recycle it.

That’s the least I could do, but you, dear producer, should just stop filling up my house, my fridge and my cabinets of it. You and I, we both deserve to nurture ourselves – and leave on a cleaner, healthier Planet.

Monza Sustainability, Green Lifestyle and Young Entrepreneurs Community on MeetUp

I’m so excited to announce I have opened my first MeetUp group as a facilitator of a local green lifestyle community. I live in a city close to Milan that hosts one of the biggest fenced public parks in Europe, a bomb of energy, natural scents and greenness… Welcome to Monza!

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Oggi ho aperto il mio primo gruppo su MeetUp. Utilizzo il servizio già da parecchio tempo e lo trovo davvero utile per incontrare persone vicino a noi, che condividono i nostri stessi interessi. Se volete salvare il pianeta, e nel frattempo divertirvi ed essere inondati dalla mia energia positiva (chi mi conosce sa… ;-)), unitevi al gruppo qui!

A presto il primo incontro…

 

A presto e buon weekend,

GA

Interview to the guru founder of Transition Towns, get inspired!

Rob Hopkins at Degrowth Conference in Venice tells us what is Transition about and how easily you can start the movement in your own town.

Thanks Rob for the interview!

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Alla Conferenza sulla Decrescita tenutasi a Venezia, ho chiesto a Rob Hopkins di spiegarci il successo delle Transition Twons (città in Transizione – sito italiano) e quali sono i primi passi da compiere per chi comincia.

[Watch more interviews here]

Ecological Economics course in Oxford

The Ecological Economics course I’ve attended in Oxford (17 – 21 December 2012) finally is over and this is how I feel roughly speaking:

• cheated
• frustrated
• robbed
• never enjoyed it

If you are thinking of applying to the next edition of the course – maybe you found this post because you wanted to investigate a little further on the winter / summer school held in Oxford by Dr. Stanislav Shmelev – I would highly recommend not to waste your time and your money on it.

After one entire full time week passed stretching time between tea-breaks and lunch-breaks, listening to hot air superficial and too general lecture-like discourses, neither relevant content was taught to me, nor practical ecological economics tools, nor even applied case studies.

Besides, please keep in mind Dr. Stanislav Shmelev is not a “professor” (in the British meaning of the term), his course is not endorsed by the University of Oxford, Environment Europe is defined as “a sustainability think-tank based in Oxford, UK” yet there there have been no achievements so far.  Finally in my opinion it is such a shame the course is suggested on the International Ecological Economics website among the “education opportunities”: education?? This makes me also think ISEE might not be a qualified international association as it claimed.

If you have attended a similar course, or if you want more info about my experience, you are more than welcome to leave a comment below. Thanks!

What do they do at the Green Office?

How to describe a student-driven university department that is responsible for managing Maastricht University’s sustainability portfolio in not more than 20 words? Thank you Lukas.

Founded a couple of years ago, the Green Office has been awarded several times for the quality of its operations and commitment to the sustainability cause- Among the projects: green electricity, pc power management, the sustainable vending machine, Green Office academy and more.

[The Green Office]

This blog is carbon neutral

Hi, I ‘m compensating emissions from this blog by joining this initiative by Doveconviene.it. They partner up with a German association involved in volunteer tree planting and re-forestation projects. As for the numbers, a blog is believed to contribute with about 3,6 kg CO2 every year to the atmosphere, but a tree can take in up to 5 kg CO2/year. So if you are a blogger, join the initiative or just plant a tree in your garden.

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Ciao, da oggi questo blog è a impatto zero perchè ha piantato un albero per compensare le emissioni nocive generate. Si calcola che ogni anno un piccolo sito sia responsabile di circa 3,6 kg di CO2 emessa nell’aria, mentre un albero ne può assorbire fino a 5 kg. Ogni blog pulito ha un albero, piantane uno nel tuo giardino, oppure segui anche tu l’iniziativa.

[iplantatree.org]

Detox fashion industry campaign

Today I’ve taken part in the campaign by Greenpeace to shake up the world number one retailer Zara to adopt some basic environment safe practices in their manufacturing process. Why should our vanity clothes cause harm, diseases and toxic reactions to people working in East Asia factories? What if it was the opposite?

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Oggi ho firmato la campagna di Greenpeace per scuotere il colosso mondiale del fast fashion Zara e convincerlo ad adottare alcune misure base di controllo sui propri  agenti inquinanti. Perchè intere fabbriche di persone in Asia devono ammalarsi o intossicarsi pur di soddisfare la nostra vanità? E se accadesse il contrario?

• Thank you for joining •

[Zara Detox Campaign]

Green city no cars

How many times you – stuck in the traffic jam – have dreamt about giving up the car and slowly walking through a wood, possibly alone… Now the dream is going to get real thanks to English non-profit organization Giveacar teamed up with Trees for Cities! “An average car will pay for around 13 saplings – about the right amount needed to offset a year’s worth of carbon.” – says The Green Thing Blog.

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Quante volte imbottigliato nel traffico hai desiderato buttare via la macchina e ritrovarti d’improvviso in un bosco a passeggiare da solo, in pace… Il sogno sta per diventare realtà, grazie alla sinergia tra due organizzazioni no-profit inglesi: Giveacar e  Trees for Cities! “La valutazione di un’auto usata da rottamare è di circa 13 giovani alberelli, che corrispondono esattamente alla quantità di verde necessaria per compensare un anno di emissioni di CO2″ – come spiega The Green Thing Blog.

•  Do you like this UK initiative? •

[Scrap Car Plant Tree]

Ironic environmental-social infographics #Blame Twitter by Tim Cooley

This won the “Design the Future Infographic” contest run by Poster Brain. Congrats to the author Tim Cooley! He figured out mash up some real data from Twitter and socio-environmental statistics on a death-like scenario background.

The effect is pretty fun, as the numbers indicated are true, but not actually related to each other.

“It’s a classic example that correlation does not imply causation“- as Randy Krum says on its blog.

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Quest’infografica ha vinto il concorso “Design the Future Infographic” di Poster Brain. L’autore ha pensato di mettere insieme alcuni dati raccolti dalle statistiche di Twitter con altri provenienti dalle recenti indagini socio-economiche… senza che i due mondi abbiano in realtà una correlazione!

Lo stile secco e cupo da fine-del-mondo non fa altro che accentuare l’ironia della cosa. Come commenta Randy Krum sul suo blog, questa è un’inequivocabile dimostrazione che “la correlazione non implica un rapporto causa-effetto”… Bravo Tim Cooley!

• Like it? Share it! •

[ Cool Infographics ]

#F27 • It isn’t a GMO code

27 febbraio, 30 nuovi tweet #F27 ogni minuto, da diventar matti a star dietro all’hashtag. E’ il giorno della protesta globale di Occupy Big Food, movimento nato 6 mesi fa a Zuccotti Park, superflua precisazione, sull’onda di Occupy Wall Street. Cosa succede di importante in questa giornata? Non si tratta di un gruppo di contadini che manifestano per chiedere appezzamenti e sussidi. E’ molto di più: il gruppo di contadini si ritrova e si unisce insieme ai cittadini di tutto il mondo che vogliono fronteggiare Lei, l’unica, la grande, la sproporzionata, l’irriducibile Monsanto, l’azienda che ha il monopolio – come dico io – sul pre-food, ovvero su ciò che esiste prima di diventare cibo processato. Cosa fa di male questo colosso? Non è una presa di posizione assoluta contro le bio-tecnologie (ci sono metodi e metodi che approfondirò più avanti), ma un problema di ordine filosofico, sebbene molto pratico. Le sementi OGM, essendo create in laboratorio, non sono portatrici di vita: la loro sterilità le fa cadere al confine con il mondo inorganico. La grande massa dei coltivatori allo stremo delle condizioni (fisiche ed economiche) è costretta a dipendere dal gigante dello smercio mondiale per l’acquisto di nuove sementi ad ogni raccolto – ad un prezzo finalizzato al profitto di chi le produce, come insegnano le elementari leggi economiche di monopolio. Non voglio parlare dei problemi che la produzione e il consumo di alimenti geneticamente modificati provocano alla salute umana e all’ambiente. Vorrei solo gridare, perchè sentano, dall’atra parte dell’oceano, che io sono con loro.

February 27th, 30 new #F27  tweets every minute. All day long – I was going crazy following the hashtag.  It is the big day, the Global Occupy Big Food day – the movement started in New York 6 months ago and spread already over the country and overseas. Why is this so important? It’s not about a bunch of farmers gathering together asking for land and subsidies. Actually they are gathering together (also with dwellers) to face the Big one, the giant of pre-processed-food industry: the Monsanto company. What’s wrong with it? It’s just the most powerful genetically modified seeds producer. Why a seed producer is said to be powerful? After all, seeds grow up naturally. But not if they have been in the lab before being planted. GMO plants cannot reproduce themselves, as they are not part of the “organic world”, they don’t disclose life as Mother Earth would do. Hence, farmers are put in the need to buy them season after season, crop by crop, at more and more expensive price set by big corporations. Don’t even mention GMO related health diseases and environmental harm… Supporting Occupy Big Food!

[Follow the stream via Tumblr • Twitter • The official blog]