The George campus, known for its positive response to addressing energy and waste management on site, launched the Green Campus Initiative, of which the Sustainable Campus Project forms part, to compare three houses equipped with solar energy geysers and rainwater harvesting systems to a sample of identical houses utilising conventional systems.

“The Sustainable Campus Project is an exciting, living example of sustainable living that involves monitoring and comparing the daily energy and household water consumption of two groups of students living in houses on campus,” NMMU George campus marketing manager Alet van Tonder said.

The first step was to fit on-campus student homes with relevant green technologies, such as solar panels for heating water and simple mechanisms to ensure the sustainable use of that water. The research data will be used to raise awareness about “sustainable living”. The campus hopes the results of the six-month project will help to develop a practical model which could be applied to other campuses or institutions.

Neil Moll, owner of the company which donated the solar water heating systems, said: “We are … confident the research will prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that, indeed, it is possible to tread much lighter on Mother Earth.”

by Janine Oelofse

The Whisper Ball is a boat shaped like a ball which floats on the water powered by an eco-friendly electrical engine.

It was recognised as the most innovative boat invention of the year at the weekend.

Peter Jacops, chairperson of the Whisper Boat Building Academy for the Deaf in Khayelitsha, said he was extremely happy and excited at the news.

“Hopefully this will help us and the academy further so that we can take on more deaf youngsters and train them to become professional boat builders so that they can earn a decent living,” Jacops said.

The Whisper Ball is docked at the V and A Waterfront and floats around the harbour.

By Nikita Sylvester

Eskom has announced that, subject to certain conditions, it will substantially increase subsidies through a 15-30% rebate for the installation of approved solar heaters.  This brings the previous rebate figure of R4900 to a new maximum of just over R12 000.

A solar water heater can save UP to 30% of the electricity usage in an average household.  For a family of four with an average electricity bill of R900 per month, a typical solar system would cost between R12 000 and R35 000 to install.  However this system could produce savings of some R300 per month, or R3600 per year – and even more if proposed electricity tariff hikes in the coming years materialise.

The City will make it easier for residents by offering a fixed repayment plan thought their rates account.

For more information visit:  www.eskom.com/dsm

Ben Polley is convinced.

The home builder installed a grey water system last year in the Manitoba Street heritage home he and wife Jen Woodside were renovating.

“Since we’ve installed it we have required zero city water for toilet flushing,” Polley said.

“Grey water” is used water leaving sinks, bathtubs and washing machines. Such water is collected, disinfected and stored in tanks, and then used instead of clean water to flush toilets.

“Most people would agree we don’t need potable water for toilet flushing,” Galliher said, adding reusing grey water can reduce water consumption by 30 per cent, and save homeowners accordingly on their water bill.

The funding will be used to support field testing, which will be done largely by University of Guelph engineering students. Researchers will monitor water quality and survey homeowners to track their satisfaction with the systems, as well as completing cost analyses and examining potential energy savings.

The city’s goal, depending on the study results, would be to install 200 residential grey water reuse systems by 2019.

Polley said he has been “intentionally negligent” with the system at his house to simulate the worst-case scenario of not performing regular maintenance on the system, which mostly involves cleaning out the filter.

He said when the system is not maintained, effluent is simply bypassed into the regular wastewater system “so it’s sort of foolproof. The worst case is you simply don’t realize the benefit from having it.”

Polley said there are a lot of eyes on Guelph to see if the program works, and rightly so.

“This could decrease home water use by 30 per cent if they are mandated to be installed in new homes and retrofitted into existing homes,” Polley said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t all be using grey water.”

The projects have the combined capacity to harvest 36 lakh liters (3.6 million liters) of rainwater annually, benefiting the schools and surrounding communities.

“Rain water harvesting has emerged as a viable option to redirect rainwater into the ground, which otherwise goes waste,” said Dr. Saleem Romani, former chairman of the Central Ground Water Board.  “We need to persuade more people and society at large to take up rain water harvesting projects.”

But the project isn’t a first. Coca-Cola and its bottling partners have installed more than 500 rain water harvesting projects in 22 states in the country, in an effort to contribute to better water management.

In other environmental efforts, Coke and its bottling partners said last month all their new vending machines and coolers are expected to be hydrofluorocarbon-free (HFC) by 2015. The move to HFC-free refrigeration is expected to reduce the equipment’s direct greenhouse gas emissions by 99 percent.

Its best-case scenario it projects a water shortfall in two decades of 2.9 billion cubic meters, rising to 3.8 billion cubic meters if moderate climate effects are taken into account and 5.4 billion cubic meters with accelerated economic growth. Currently water supply is about 15 billion cubic meters.

But it says South Africa can close the gap provided it adopts a mix of solutions, chiefly infrastructure investment in water transfer schemes.

State-owned water utility Rand Water said last month that it faced a R5bn funding shortfall between 2010 and 2015, when it would invest R8.6bn to augment infrastructure.

The report, which looked at demand and supply in China, India, Brazil and South Africa, found that under an average economic growth scenario, world water requirements would surge to 6.9 trillion cubic meters – or 40 percent more than current accessible, reliable supply.

Desalination, the removal of salt from sea water, is listed among South Africa’s most expensive options. Van Olst said many people regarded desalination as a “silver bullet” but its carbon footprint was very high and transport costs restricted its use to coastal areas.
The report calls for strong co-ordination and co-operation between water users.

Van Olst believed water would be “high up” the agenda of National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel’s commission.

Manuel earlier this month noted that while alternatives existed to generate energy, there were none for water!

Africa should resist a course of “water for profit” in favor of water “as a right”, but he cautioned: “We’re living on earth in 2009 with the same amount of water that was available in 1900, meanwhile the global population has quadrupled”.

“There were lots of kids gathered around waiting to take a turn on the exercise bike,” said principal Jim Blain.

Not just any exercise bike, but an “eco-bike” designed to light the lobby’s Christmas display.

The idea came from seventh-grade social studies teacher Rob Kaercher, the school’s self-described “tree hugger.”

Here’s how it works: The kids pedal three stationary bikes, each of which is hooked to a car alternator. Like in a car, the alternator charges a battery. Then an inverter converts the power to the proper AC voltage to run the six strands of lights decorating the lobby and Christmas tree.

The goal is a “green Christmas,” and students and their families have bought in. Parents have helped build the bikes out of recycled materials; the kids have lined up to ride them. It’s not easy — even principal Blain lasted only a matter of minutes. But the kids’ pedal power has managed to keep the Yuletide aglow.

During one period last week, Eric Liptak, 13, rode three times. A half hour into the period, he had removed his sweat shirt and was standing to the side when a woman asked if the students were being punished.

“No,” said Eric, “we’re making electricity.”

Recuce Carbon Emissions

2020, but says it will need financial aid  to do so.

The announcement was made as the world climate talks started in Copenhagen.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the announcement had made South Africa “one of the stars of the negotiations”.

The country’s greenhouse gases come mostly from the coal-burning power stations. The government says it is looking at other energy sources.

South Africa said it would lower its carbon emissions to 34% below current expected levels by 2020 and about 42% below current trends by 2025.

“This undertaking is conditional on firstly a fair, ambitious and effective agreement,” a South African government statement said.

“And secondly, the provision of support from the international community, and in particular finance, technology and support.”

The government said developing countries such as South Africa would need financial help from developed economies, with some of the aid being used to acquire the technology needed to reach its target.

From coffins made of recycled cardboard to saying no to embalming chemicals that seep into the soil, people are increasingly searching for ways to make their final resting place a more environmentally-friendly one.

Now cremation, the choice today of a third of Americans and more than half of Canadians, is getting a green make-over.

A standard cremation spews into the air about 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming — along with other pollutants like dioxins and mercury vapor if the deceased had silver tooth fillings.

On top of that each cremation guzzles as much energy, in the form of natural gas and electricity, as a 500-mile (800 kilometer) car trip.

Enter alkaline hydrolysis, a chemical body-disposal process its proponents call “bio-cremation” and say uses one-tenth the natural gas of fire-based cremation and one-third the electricity.

C02 emissions are cut by almost 90 percent and no mercury escapes as fillings and other metal objects, such as hip or knee replacements, can be recovered intact and recycled.

“The target audience are those people who buy organic salmon rather than farmed salmon. Those that buy a hybrid rather than a regular car,” said Paul Rahill, president of the cremation division of Matthews International Corp.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company that makes caskets and other funeral products is planning the world’s first commercial launch of human alkaline hydrolysis in January at a funeral home in St Petersburg, Florida.

The technique is not new but has only been used to dispose of laboratory animals and medical research cadavers at a few institutions.

Its commercial use has been held up partly because of its cost — the equipment is four times as expensive as that of traditional cremation — and because state and provincial legislation may need to be changed, especially laws governing what can be disposed of in the water system.

Overcoming peoples’ squeamishness when they hear the process described, what Rahill calls the ‘ick’ factor, is also an obstacle.

The Catholic Church in parts of the United States has objected, saying the practice “is not a respectful way to dispose of human remains”.

In alkaline hydrolysis the body is submerged in water in a stainless steel chamber. Heat, pressure and potassium hydroxide, chemicals used to make soap and bleach, are added to dissolve the tissue.

Two hours later all that’s left is some bone residue and a syrupy brown liquid that is flushed down the drain. The bones can be crushed and returned to the family as with cremation

“This is the first new alternative to come into the (cremation) market in over 100 years,” said Allen Bessel, president of Transition Science, a Toronto-based company that owns the exclusive rights to the process in Canada. It is targeting a commercial launch next spring.

“It is very quiet, there is no noticeable odor that comes from it and there is no emission. The concerns of area residents would be much less if (an alkaline hydrolysis machine) was being installed than if a crematorium was built,” Bessel said.

Although Rahill says the public response has been mostly positive, an attempt to introduce human alkaline hydrolysis in New York state a couple of years ago was opposed by the Catholic Church and others, and the bill was dropped.