DEVELOPMENT OF SHORT 'GREEN' COURSES

We are in the process of developing short simple and fun courses aimed at educating people how to lead greener lifestyles. These courses will be made available on our website in our Greenroom and will also be presented in classrooms, community halls, libraries, and other public venues throughout Southern Africa. These courses will be presented in the form of Powerpoint presentations, live practical interactive demonstrations and videos (depending on the resources made available to us at any given time). We are currently working on preparing these courses in our voluntary capacity. These short courses may include: 1. How to shop eco-consciously; 2. How to eat eco-consciously; 3. The basics of growing vegetables in your backyard; 4. Getting to know the source of things; 5. How photovoltaic, wind turbine, grey and black water systems, biodigestors, solar cookers & other RE technology work; 6. Which plastics/other materials products are suitable for recycling and how to recycle responsibly; 7. How to build some of the items listed under point 5 above. 8. Teaching basic life skills to enable people to become more self sufficient in an environmentally friendly way. 9. Innovative tips for how to re-use, conserve energy & water. If you are interested in contributing your short course idea to our initiative, and/or lecturing for FLOE, and/or providing funding for this project, please contact us by using the form on our contact page (please elaborate by completing the 'comment' field of the form).

EDUCATION THROUGH MEDIA

We write educational articles to be published in magazines, websites, and other media in exchange for free advertising space, or to be presented at exhibitions, talks and conferences, in exchange for the free publicity. Should your company wish to enter into such a partnership with FLOE, please contact us via our contacts page.

OPERATION "INVESTIGATIVE GREENISM"

We are working on producing short documentaries about our investigation into various issues affecting 'going green' consumers in South Africa. In choosing a more eco-conscious lifestyle it is necessary for us to become aware of companies who are involved in practices that directly threaten fragile eco-systems and life on Earth. By producing these documentaries, we will be able to keep FLOE members in the loop and will be actively involved in putting a stop to the practices, by exposing them. If you have any suggestions about what we should investigate or should you wish to become involved or fund this project, please contact us via our contacts page.

OPERATION "TELL 'EM HOW IT IS"

We are currently writing letters to business and government bodies asking them what they are doing in terms of 'greening' initiatives with the hope to mobilise them to take proactive steps in putting a stop to their unsustainable habits. These letters and responses will be posted on our website or blog for public viewing. If you have any ideas in mind for this initiative or if you would like to offer your support, please contact us via our contacts page.

THE STORY OF JOSEPH - MAKING PAPER OUT OF ALIEN VEGETATION AND TURNING SO-CALLED 'RUBBISH' INTO AWESOME PRODUCTS!

As soon as I met Joseph, I took an immediate liking to him. So humble, open, honest and full of good energy! On the day I met him I found out that the studio where he works was gutted by a fire. He now needed to find new premises to work from and also lost much of his equipment in the fire. I immediately wanted to help somehow and offered to prepare a proposal for submission to potential funders to see if we could help with assistance in getting Joseph back on his feet (View our full story on Joseph here, and see the cover page of our proposal here). We have not yet heard back from the funders that we submitted the proposal to, however, we are pleased to confirm that a company called ESM Development has stepped in by offering Joseph a loan to purchase small premises. Joseph has very recently moved into his new premises and he is now slowly starting to get back on his feet. There is still some equipment he needs to enable him to be in the position he was in before the fire, but atleast things are improving. During one of our meetings, we discussed some ideas about experimenting with recycled tetrapak (the packaging used for longlife milk and juice cartons) for making a new range of products. The first tetrapak product that Joseph developed was little gift boxes. I gave Joseph his first order for these and used the little boxes for my wedding. Joseph then experimented some more and came up with a great idea to make tetrapak coasters and bookmarks! It will not stop here as Joseph is constantly looking out for new ideas! We have now also helped Joseph by setting up a blog for him on the internet (click here to view!). For more information, contact me on ninette at freelifeonearth. org.

PROJECT "IT INNOVATOR"

This is an educational project which will allow anyone with access to a computer (even at libraries, schools, etc) to take part in an interactive fun educational program which will allow children (and adults) to learn how to lead a greener lifestyle. We are currently looking for a talented web expert who would be prepared to take on the mammoth task of designing the program/web interface for us in exchange for the publicity he/she will receive for having invented the program. We will also require a donor to sponsor the upgrade of our website. We have another name for the project, but will only unveil it once we have finished the project. If you are an IT 'geek' excited to find out more or a sponsor wishing to contribute to upgrading our website, please contact us via our contacts page.

"WA-STAND" COMPETITION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

FLOE is currently hosting a competition for inventive high school students who have a flair for design and/or art and who also share the desire to lead a more conscious lifestyle. We need someone to design an exhibition stand for us made completely out of recyclable waste. Requirements to enter: 1. You need to be a student(s) at a high school in Cape Town or surrounds (Grade 8 to Grade 12); 2. Your design must be original; 3. Waste used must be clean and dry :); 4. The stand must be stable enough and fairly easy to assemble/disassemble and strong enough to be reused on more than one occassion. 5. ALL material used MUST BE obtained from recyclable waste, second hand or reused items. Binding materials (such as glues, etc) used must have no negative impact on the environment. 6. The stand can be made of separate pieces / components, but at the very minimum must include a table. Additional free-standing pieces can be included (ie background, chairs, or other freestanding object[s], display racks, brand identification [for example something showing the name 'FLOE'], etc). 7. The stand size must be 2x2 square metres. COMPETITION CLOSES ON 03 AUGUST 2009. FIRST PRIZE = R1000.00; RUNNER UP = R500.00. The winning stand will be used by FLOE at exhibitions. The winning designer's name will be displayed at the stand. We are currently working on getting sponsors to provide better prizes and will update this website with details as soon as we have this available. If you would like to sponsor a prize, please contact us via our contacts page.

CAPE TOWN CENTRE OF GREEN LEARNING

We have identified a piece of municipal land which would be ideally suited for the establishment of a "Centre of Green Learning" ("CGL"). The idea is to showcase and promote renewable energy and other innovative “green” technology systems / concepts in a “real world” environment. We would involve our Green Partners allowing them the opportunity to showcase their products and/or services on site in an interactive learning environment. We also wish to showcase different natural building styles including example(s) of sustainable solutions for low cost "off grid" easy to erect housing in South Africa including the use of organic backyard vegetable gardening, biodigestors for processing and converting of waste to biogas for cooking, setting up of small scale renewable energy home "power" stations, solar water heaters, solar ovens, rain water collection systems, composting, water recycling and much, much more. This project is temporarily on hold until such time as we receive funding. To view our full proposal, click here.