Hello and welcome to the 2nd show of Sustainable Synergy.
I am your host Frederick Malouf. In these programs, I’ll be discussing the industrial side of sustainability, in essence how the waste of one industry can be the fuel of another, and how technology will adapt this to ultimately live our lives abundantly in synergy with the environment and human cultures.
Last week, on the very first show, I gave a very short synopsis on the history of sustainability. If you missed that, I sp
oke about the many books published on and around sustainability in the last 150 years, economic models that incorporate sustainability, and, most importantly, the people behind them that are making that difference.
The vodcast is available on the Sustainable Synergy page which is now on Facebook, not Twitter, and later will be on the new Eastside FM website when it is re-launched. Just keyword search Sustainable Synergy and click on the Australian group. If anyone has a solution to give a FB group a username like you can for people, feel free to leave a message on the page and I’ll follow your instructions.
I spoke last week about some statistics that Bernard Carlan, the Sustainability Director at the DECC, mentioned in last Tuesday week’s City of Sydney’s City Talk at the State Theatre. He stated that in 2005, Australians throw into landfill:
$2.9 billionfresh food
$876m leftovers
And $596munfinished drinks
In total, $5.3 billionfoodis thrown away.
38% is domestic food waste
10% of carbon emissions comes from food waste
As an adjunct, 36% of Australia’s GDP is spent on government services.
Today, I’ll be outlining who’s who in the world of sustainability worldwide, and next week, I’ll concentrate on sustainability in Australia.
But before I do that, let’s go to a quick tune …
Welcome back! The time is 11:3?am. That was The Snake and the Lotus by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra from their Signs of Life Album.
In case you have just tuned in, you are listening to Sustainable Synergy on Eastside FM, your on-air resource of information on sustainability and how it affects our future. I am just about to outline who is into sustainability worldwide and next week it will be on Australia.
Arguably, the sustainable seed sprouted at the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983, the result of which was a 1987 Oxford University Press publication called “Our Common Future”, considered by many to be the bible for sustainable development. They defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. One only wonders what those needs might be.
These days, the main international sustainable vehicle is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Their next meeting, the ninth Conference of the Parties, is this December in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is proving to be the hottest climate change meeting of the decade. (unfccc.int/cop9).
The Kyoto Protocol, developed by the UNFCCC in 1997 and terminating in 2012, has been ratified by 183 countries. 13 others have expressed no opinion and its old news that the USA has not ratified it in order to protect its economy from the onslaught of the Chinese and Indian trajectory.
However, there are a few US companies that have taken sustainability on board and profited from this, one of the most notable being the carpet manufacturer Interface (www.interfaceglobal.com) that has been perfecting its sustainable production for more than 15 years. They really push this difference as a marketing tool. As an example, there is a reference on its sustainable approach on almost every page of its website. Look for founder Ray Anderson’s speech on how sustainability has transformed his business at Technology, Entertainment, Design (www.ted.com). TED is a great resource for current business innovation.
Of course, there are many international organisations with strong interests in sustainability. Just to pick a few from the long list I have here, there are the Environmental Institute, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the World Development Movement, the Worldwatch Institute, The Global Elders, which is the brainchild of Sir Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, and Nelson Mandela. Thinktank The Club of Rome has been in existence since 1968 and has an offshoot called ThinkTank 30, or TT30, if you will, for young new-age thinkers, and LOHAS, the acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (www.lohas.com) is becoming a strong resource with information to achieve exactly that.
Also the Natural Resource Defence Council, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
And the World Green Building Council has developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for sustainable buildings.
Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org) continues to be involved with exposing environmental and human rights issues in a direct action, non-violent manner since 1971, to, and I quote: “ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity.”
And 1% For The Planet organises all participating companies to give 1% of their gross sales towards helping the environment.
Many cities have already been taking on board being sustainable either from the get go or transforming their current unsustainable procedures. An, again, to mention a few:
Kalundborg, Denmark, began its program in industrial symbiosis in 1961 and is still continuing today (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_city).
San Francisco is leading the way of all American cities in its campaign to reach zero carbon by 2020. They already recycle 65% of what would have been landfill.
Vauban, in Germany, completely banned the use of private vehicles in May and its townspeople are amazed at the feeling of community and fitness riding bikes has given them. www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12
The 2 most opposite projects that are developing fully sustainable solutions are Gaviotas, in Columbia, and Masdar, in the United Arab Emirates.
Gaviotas, conceived in 1971 by Paolo Lugari, has built a community of 200 people in the most resource-poor area of Columbia, built on the innovation and invention of scientists. The have created a society that has no political parties, no violence, has built machines for electricity and pumping water that have become businesses, and even created a tropical forest from an initial planting of Caribbean and Honduras pines that thrive in this otherwise arid landscape. Their results are being put to the test with Gaviotas II, which will apply its methods in decentralised towns of 10,000 people but sustain a total of 5 million.
Conversely, Masdar will be a 6km2 metropolis where no private vehicles can enter (just like Vauban), will have about 5,000 people living inside its perimeter walls and 40,000 commuting to the city every day. It’s eight phases will be completed between 2014 and 2016, costing $22 billion to build, and will support 1500 businesses that will sell environmental products. Of the 2, what would you prefer? Leave your comments on the Sustainable Synergy page on Facebook and I will tell you the results of that next week.
Let’s take a break with Sting with his tune Saint Agnes And The Burning Train …
Hey everybody. Welcome back! You are listening to Sustainable Synergy on Eastside FM. The time is now 11:4?. I’ve been discussing who’s who in the world of sustainability worldwide. In case you have just joined us, the vodcast will be on the Sustainable Synergy page on Facebook.
There have been and will be many conferences that revolve around sustainability and World Days that celebrate community and the environment. I’ll put links to these on the SS group page, but some that are coming up are:
The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate was a forum hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in April 2009
The Global Business Summit in Paris, was between April 22-23
World Ocean Conference 2009 (WOC) was held in Manado, Indonesia between May 11-15, 2009
World Business Summit on Climate Change was held in Copenhagen, on May 24-26, 2009
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change took place on 1-12 June 2009 in Maritim, Bonn.
Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) WORLD CONGRESS was between 14–18 June
1st International International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements’ Conference on Organic Animal and Plant Breeding will be between 25-29 August in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have many events on through the year. Find them at www.ifoam.org/events/calendar.
The aforementioned Conference of the Parties (COP) no 9 is between December 7-18, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
And amid the COP9 is the Ecocity World Summit in Istanbul, between 13-15 December. I am spoilt for choice.
Some of the World Days still to come are:
World Day of Peace (January 1)
Zeitgeist Day (March 15)
World Day for Water (March 22)
Earth Hour (evening of last Saturday in March)
World Health Day (April 7)
Earth Day (celebrated in the US on April 22, UNESCO on March 20)
World Environment Day (June 5)
World Oceans Day (June 
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (September 16)
World Food Day (October 16)
International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9)
Human Rights Day (December 10)
World Hello Day (November 21). I though every day was a day to say hello. Just do it with meaning.
For the record, there is also a University for Peace in Costa Rica, which was established on the 5 December 1980 (www.upeace.org)
Key sites to find what is happening in the world of sustainability are found at (www.conferencealerts.com/sustain.htm). Believe it or not, there is an event on sustainability happening almost every day, proof enough of the urgency to be sustainable as soon as possible. You can also search the calendar at the Sustainable Living Foundation web site www.slf.org.au/calendar and on CL Creation’s website www.sustained.com.au. They are the publishers of Australian Innovation: Towards a Sustainable Future.
There are many documentaries that remind us of how incredible our environment is, and how much we do our best to ignore that. Ones that come to mind are: The Future of Food, How to Save the World, and The World According to Monsanto. The last easily explains what is slowly happening in Australia and has already affected North America.
Also look for documentaries of our oceanic world by Jacques Cousteau, Watch Luc Jacquet’s March of the Penguins (La marche de l’empereur), and Jacques Perrin’s Winged Migration (Le peuple migrateur). The BBC’s 1997 series Earth is astonishing to watch, and brings to our lounge chairs worlds so few will ever have the chance to see.
There are many feature films that point out the contradictions of economics versus social and cultural development. Ones that come to mind are from my favourite Australian director, Peter Weir, who directed The Truman Show, Mosquito Coast, and the brilliant The Year of Living Dangerously. Don’t forget obscure films like Local Hero, by Scottish director Bill Forsyth, which are impossible to find but I have it, and bizarre films like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. The 1976 film Network eloquently illustrates the extreme effect and influence of media and marketing with profit as a primary motive of any action. Rutger Hauer’s character Roy, in Blade Runner, seems to sum up the core of such issues very well when he says “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.”
Probably the most poignant attacks of our current economic system at present are Peter Joseph’s Zeitgeist documentaries, John Perkins’ Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and The Hidden Agenda For World Government. While these may be perceived as sensational or revolutionary, always cross-reference their information. Documentaries are most valuable as information to make your own opinion.
A radio program is most useful when people participate. Post any feedback, suggestions and ideas on the Sustainable Synergy group page on Facebook. All information and vodcasts will be on that page. Just remember, when you search for it, we will probably be the second one on the list.
Next week, I’ll talk about who is into sustainability in Australia which will also be accessible for you to review, after which I’ll have a series of interviews beginning with Bronwyn Darlington of Rise Up, Andre Leu from the Organic Federation of Australia, and later Michael Mobbs and his sustainable house.
I’ll be leaving you with Jonathan Zwartz’ The Sea, from the album of the same name.
I look forward to your company next Wednesday at 11:30am on Eastside FM. In the meantime: sustain yourself, sustain the world, and enjoy your week.
Listen to the Who’s Into sustainability Globally broadcast here
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