Blogs

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ aiming to be the “greenest” football World Cup yet, newer, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly projects are being given the go-ahead. The most recent of these is a R15 million project to irrigate the Cape Town-based football stadiums.

Many Capetonians are unaware that there is an official Green Goal 2010 programme, a greening programme that will make the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ as environmentally friendly as it can be.

 

The programme follows an action plan that focuses on the stadium and greening initiatives throughout Cape Town.

The first Internet-based green building product-verification tool, known as 'Ecospecifier' was launched in Cape Town recently.

Essentially, the free-to-air product has been developed to provide information on how to design and deliver buildings, interiors and surroundings using environmentally preferable products.

Up until now the general perception of Tetra Pak (the cartons in which one buys fruit juice, long-life milk, custard etc) is that they cannot be recycled.

The good news is that they can be recycled, provided you are prepared to make the effort to wash and take them to various collection points around the city yourself

Cape Town's 3,2 million residents produce up to 6 000 tons of waste per day – which works out at an average of almost 2 kg per person per day. With waste generation growing at 7% per annum – Cape Town’s landfill sites at Vissershok, Bellville South and Strandfontein are almost filled to capacity.

The Cape Town-based company, Optimal Energy, behind Africa's first fully electric multi-purpose urban passenger vehicle - known as Joule - has secured the funding needed to begin mass production of the vehicle. We can look forward to seeing the Joule on our roads and around the globe from 2010.

Edith Stephens Wetland Park will host a stargazing evening on Saturday 4th April along with the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and Primary Science Programme.

It is part of a worldwide initiative to encourage people to look at the night sky continuously for 100 hours, and has been organised in celebration of 2009's status as the International Year of Astronomy.

Cape Town has been named one of the top 29 cities in which to live by AskMen.com – an online men's magazine.

The cities on the list are diverse, but they all have one thing in common – they're great cities for men to live in. In other words they have much to offer in the way of women, culture and entertainment to offset the current financial crunch, which also influenced the final decision.

First there was the Darling wind farm, then the Koekenaap facility - the 100-megawatt wind farm on the West Coast near the town of the same name, set to begin construction later this year, despite hiccoughs. And now a third wind farm has been earmarked for St Helena Bay.

Delft just went green with the creation of over 250 food gardens by a group of hundreds of activists who rolled out the vegetable gardens in the area over five days during the latter part of March. Part of the N2 Gateway development and home to former residents of informal settlements and backyard dwellers, Delft residents were happy that they no longer need to buy vegetables for their families.