It seems London is being serious about the environment. After introducing congestion charges for cars in 2003, it is now (starting February 4th) introducing the Low Emissions Zone (LEZ), a congestion charge for large trucks.

I like the fact that the City of London is tackling climate change in a communicative way. Their Lightbulb Amnesty or their DIY Planet Repairs campaigns are creative ways of raising the issues in a way that doesn’t alienate its citizens. Obviously, London has severe environmental problems that probably need stronger medicine, but doing something is better than doing nothing.

PSFK
Mayor of London

Fast Company, a business magazine, writes about the economics and psychology of the bottled water industry in this article. Some interesting facts about bottled water:

* Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water last year.

* 24% of the bottled water American consumers buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.

* Americans produce waste from plastic bottles worth $1 billion.

* For the price of one Evian bottle, you can fill the same bottle every day for 10 years, 5 months and 21 days with tap water.

* Half of the price of a typical bottle goes to the retailer, a third goes to distributor and transportation, a tenth is the cost of the water, another tenth is the profit.

* Water-drinker segments include: the “water pure-fectionist”, the “water explorer”, the “image seeker” and the “struggler”.

* The CO2 bubbles in SanPellegrino water are extracted from vulcanic springwaters in Tuscany and trucked the Pellegrino plant in northern Italy.

* Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water. 3 000 children die every day from diseases caught from tainted water.

1. Energy management. Adjust the sleep-time for your screen, harddrive and system.

2. Screen saver. A nice screen-saver like Pixel Breaker makes it less annoying everytime your computer goes idle.

3. Shut down after work. Many people, especially at the office, leave their computers on all the time. Sometimes by habit, sometimes for system backup reasons. At our office, we have set the backup schedule to run during office hours instead.

Part 1: The principle
Part 2: Less sparkling water
Part 3: White glow

I’ve made a simple scheme of this which show the pattern of how the worse option can become the best option by tapping on to another significant macro trend.

Click to enlarge

Also read:
San Francisco bans bottled water
Bottled-water industry fights back

I’ve now replaced six out of ten lightbulbs in my apartment into low-energy ones. Just like tap water, they are very unsexy, but only use 1/6 of the energy. A no-brainer.

Part 1: The principle
Part 2: Less sparkling water

A bottle of my favorite sparkling water, Ramlösa, travels 559 kilometers from Helsingborg in the south of Sweden to Stockholm. That’s a long way. The right thing to do here is to consume less sparkling water, so that’s what I will try to do. I’ll start by not ordering sparkling water at restaurants or buying them in supermarkets and 7 Eleven. Tap water isn’t tasty, but it does the job.

Part 1: The principle

At uni I took an economics course in Sustainability. While this subject tends to be both broad and complex (including the definition of the term), the underlying principle is clear:

Something that is sustainable is something we can continue doing indefinitely without any negative consequences for our existence.

Applying this principle means asking yourself the question: Can we continue doing this forever? If the answer is a clear-cut NO, it’s not sustainable, i.e. it’s bad.

At the moment I’m trying to change my consumption habits into a more sustainable one. I’ll try to present these actions in upcoming posts.

Exploring each city through five thematic lenses – speed, size, density, diversity and form – the exhibition draws on data originally assembled for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale. This unique show presents existing films, videos and photographs by more than 20 artists and architects to offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all ten cities.

Scott Peterman
Born and works USA
Ecataepec 2006
Framed C-print
Courtesy the artist and Miller Block Gallery, Boston, USA

The exhibition takes place between June 20 and August 27. If you aren’t able to visit, I recommend the website which is packed with interesting photos and reading materials.

Tate Modern [via Treehugger]

Here are three blogs I recommend if you want to be updated on the latest trends, news and ideas on environmental slash sustainability issues:

WorldChanging. Check out their Principles collection, very good backgrounders on the core issues of the environmental trend.
TreeHugger
NewScientist Environment blog

Treehugger