Sustainability Made Simple

Large scale sustainable practices are extremely difficult to gain support for and implement.

Are you wondering what you can do in your everyday life to help protect the planet's future?

The California Academy of Sciences has produced a set of suggestions of everyday choices we can make to make a difference. The document is broken up into home, transport and food.  Each section has an easy, medium and difficult range of solutions to diffuse the problems the planet is facing.

Documents such as these would be incredibly effective in educating the public about simple measures they can take to help the environment in ways they may not have thought of before.  The government needs to fund the spreading of information on these issues such as this document, to begin to make real changes.

http://www.calacademy.org/sustainable_future/pdfs/sustainability_made_simple.pdf

Sustainability can also be marketed to the public by way of advertising. This was successfully achieved by New Zealand banking company Westpac who released a serious of advertisements on sustainability.  The company most likely had an alterer motive of gaining more clients through becoming sustainable and 'green', however it is still a step in the right direction, providing information to the general public about sustainability.

If Westpac can do it, why can't the government? A 30 second ad in prime-time TV would surely get the message across...

In the space of a 1 minute ad, they cover waste reduction, pollution issues, the importance of volunteer work and reducing power. Another interesting point to note is that the information is coming from a child that has learnt about sustainability at school.  It is the children that are concerned, and the adults that aren't doing anything to stop it. Here one of the Westpac sustainability advertisements:

Zero Energy

The Pearl River Tower due to be complete sometime this year is said to be the "worlds greenest skyscraper".

The 2.3 million square foot and 309m high tower redefines what is possible in sustainable design. 

The structure integrates sustainable design principles by incorporating passive solar and wind design, sustainable technology and structural techniques to create a near zero energy building that is "as beautiful as it is green". The tallest ever zero-energy building is likely to generate more power than it consumes on the grid.

How is the Pearl River Tower sustainable?

• Strategically located to take advantage of solar and wind patterns
• Designed in a way to funnel wind into integrated internal wind turbines
• Integrated photovaltaic panels (keep heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems energised)
• Rotating motorised louvres to keep the building cool
• Double-skinned and triple-glazed
• Grey water collection system

The list goes on...

Green designs such as this one are iconic.  If Auckland was to establish a building like the Pearl River Tower, the future of the city would be headed in a direction of cutting-edge sustainable design.

Green Launches. (2010). http://www.greenlaunches.com/architecture/chinas-pearl-river-tower-will-be-the-worlds-tallest-zero-energy-building.php

SOM. (2010). http://www.som.com/content.cfm/pearl_river_tower

Inhabitat. (2010). http://inhabitat.com/worlds-greenest-skyscraper-pearl-river-tower-almost-complete/pearl-double-pained-glass/