Sarah recently donated 200 kg of much-needed breadmix to Feedback South Africa. Feedback is a non-profit organisation that has grown from one lone woman’s efforts to redistribute the Cape Town film industry’s excess food to needy groups, to a national organisation that delivers enough food to provide over 14 million meals to hungry mouths in the Western Cape, Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng.

Sarah joined Feedback as they made their rounds and stopped off at the Carl Sithole Social Centre in Soweto, Johannesburg. The centre is home to Bethany Children’s Home, which is a safe haven for over 110 children between the ages of 10 and 18 years of age who have been removed from dysfunctional homes by Child Welfare. It is also home to the to Bethesda House which is a refuge for 36 abandoned children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and includes a crèche that caters for over 75 children.

For Feedback
Dean Hand
Managing Director
dean@feedback.org.za
+ 27 (0) 21 6850484

Sometimes it seems that being more ‘green’ requires a lot of effort and I sometimes feel that I don’t have the energy and time to fit into my day. But, what I am realising is that there are a lot of really simple, easy and quick ways to make a difference. Although many may think, “what difference is my tiny effort going to make?”, imagine the result if every human being on the planet was saving just that little bit of energy?

I found some useful tips on saving energy in the kitchen, and they really aren’t very hard at all!

Stovetops: With an electric stovetop, make sure your pan completely covers the heating element. With gas burners, make sure the flame is fully below the pan; otherwise, you’re paying to heat the air around the pan, not just the pan itself. Also, use the appropriate size pan for your meal. Smaller pans are easier to heat up.

Keep appliances clean. Clean surfaces maximize the amount of energy reflected toward your food. This applies to microwaves, toasters, ovens and other appliances.

Keep a lid on it! Covered pots retain heat and help cook food more quickly.

Take advantage of residual heat. Turn off the oven or electric stovetop several minutes before the recipe indicates. Both will stay hot enough to complete the cooking process.

Don’t preheat the oven unless a recipe requires it.

Use the right cookware. Glass and ceramic cookware conducts and retains heat better than metal. If a recipe calls for a metal baking pan, switching to glass or ceramic allows you to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees.

Don’t peek. Opening the oven door can lower the internal temperature as much as 25 degrees. Use a timer to set the cooking time, and be sure your oven window is clean enough for you to see how your dish is progressing.

(courtesy of www.treehugger.com)

I think that even in my busy day I can make these small changes!

Who is the greenest of them all?

With the oil price climbing higher every month, I think it’s time we all started to seriously think about how we can make a difference to the amount of oil we need in our lives. I came across this very interesting article on What Car? that takes a good look at the who’s who of green. It seems the winner this time around is the Smart Fortwo Roadster.

“Smart Fortwo Roadster is ‘greenest car’
26 September 2007

• New reports says Fortwo is greenest car
• Based on CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions
• Toyota Prius came 12th in survey

The Smart Roadster tops the charts as the most environmentally friendly car, according to a new report.

In the study by Cardiff University and automotive consultants Thames Clifford, researchers gave a car’s carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions 50% weighting in assessing its overall environmental score.

For the other 50%, the researchers ranked cars on their construction, energy used and end of life disposal costs.

By using this scoring system, the green car table was dominated by superminis, topped by the Smart, which is now no longer in production, and followed by other city cars such as Citroen’s C1 and the Fiat Panda.

Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid Prius, a car often associated with environmental friendliness, came 12th in the study.

The report’s authors warned the Prius could move further down the green pecking order as greener versions of conventional petrol and diesel powered cars come on sale.

‘We’re not saying that any car that’s the same size as the Prius is better, but the gap is closing very rapidly, and conventional technologies will pass the Prius,’ Clifford Thames’ Richard Barber told the Financial Times.

Toyota has said its expects its next Prius to have carbon dioxide emissions of between 90 and 99g/km, but it won’t be on sale until 2009.

Currently, Volkswagen’s Polo Bluemotion is the car with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions, but VW plans a Golf Bluemotion - similar in size to the Prius - by the end of the year.

Citroen, Ford, Hyundai and Volvo are also planning greener versions of their small family cars in the near future.

Greenest cars
1 Smart Roadster
2 Smart Fortwo cabriolet
3 Citroen C1 1.0i
4 Peugeot 107 1.0
5 Citroen C1 1.4 HDi
6 Fiat Panda 1.2
7 Ford Ka 1.3
8 Toyota Yaris 1.0
9 Fiat Panda 100hp
10 Peugeot 206 1.4
11 Mini Cooper D
12 Toyota Prius 1.5
Source: Cardiff University/Clifford Thames ”