Green Resources

At home | At work | Shopping | Travelling | Energy Consumption | Household waste | Saving water | Act for Conservation


Whoever you are, whatever you are doing, you can help the environment. Start by calculating your carbon footprint on the Climate Action Partnership website here.

Then see how you can live a greener life and help swing the planet back towards a healthy state.

At home 

• Switch off lights, heating and other electrical equipment when rooms are not in use.
• Use draught excluders at doors and windows, and install insulation in the roof in colder climates, and around your hot water tank.
• Adjust your hot water geyser to a setting of 55 - 60°C and switch it off when going away for long periods.
• Install solar panels. The initial cost may be quite high, but you will reduce electricity bills and make up the cost over time.
• Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of ordinary incandescent bulbs. Although more expensive to buy, they last eight times longer and use much less electricity.
• When buying electrical equipment, make sure it is energy efficient - ask the sales representative for energy consumption figures.
• Instead of boiling a kettle repeatedly, use a flask to keep the water hot.
• Don't use the hot water tap unless you actually want hot water and then use as little as possible.
• Compare cooking times in a microwave with the stove, oven and steam cooker and choose the most economical source.
• Defrost food in the in the fridge and not the microwave oven.
• Shower rather than bat.
• Shorten the time on the swimming pool pump

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At work 

• Thousands of trees are used to make the paper and other products which we throw away. Save resources by recycling.
• Save energy and money by switching off lights and heating that is not in use, particularly over lunch hour and after work.
• Is your workplace using environmentally safe products e.g. phosphate free cleaning agents? Promote this as a policy.
• Support the use of recycled paper - this uses less energy and produces less wastage and pollution than virgin paper.
• Does your company or workplace have an environmental policy? Help develop one with other concerned people and make it official policy. If not, start one!
• Encourage your employer to promote water conservation in the work place.

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Shopping

• Buy pump-action sprays, particularly when refills are available. Avoid aerosols unless they state they do not use CFCs.
• If you can, buy in bulk - it saves packaging and money·
• Avoid products designed specifically for a short life span, for example disposable items such as nappies. Rather buy long-lasting items to reduce the amount of urban waste.
• Take your own shopping bag. Billions of non-recyclable or non-biodegradable carrier bags end up in rivers and seas where they can kill or injure wildlife. Re-use them as dustbin liners and take half-a-dozen along to the supermarket for re-use.
• Buy local as far as possible.
• Use products with minimal packaging.

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Travelling

• Where possible, walk or cycle instead of driving.
• Use public transport when possible. If there is not a good service, make sure your elected representative or local authority knows.
• Consider sharing car journeys with friends or relatives or form a car pool.
• Drive more slowly. Reduced speeds lead to less fuel being used and less pollution.
• Have your car serviced regularly - an efficient engine is a clean one.
• Watch out for animals crossing the road, particularly at night when your vehicle's headlights may dazzle and confuse them. Slow down if you think you see an animal at the side of the road.

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Content adapted from Rand Water Board and from The Department of Biodiversity & Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape.

Energy efficiency

Home heating and cooling = 45% of your energy bill! In most households, heating and cooling accounts for the biggest single chunk of your energy bill. The good news is there are many ways to cut these costs.

• Choose energy-efficient furnaces or air conditioners that are the right size for your home.
• Properly insulate your home (especially the ceiling/attic), including the duct system.
• Contact your utility company (Eskom) for a free energy audit.
• A programmable thermostat can cut heating and cooling costs by as much as 20% when you set it to reduce the temperature by 5 degrees at night and 10 degrees during the day when cooling (or raise it an equal amount when heating).

Hot water = 11% of your energy bill! Water-heater technology hasn't changed much in recent years. There are however newer, instantaneous heating models (with no tank) that can save you annually in energy costs, although they cost more initially. Solar hot-water heaters are gaining popularity as an alternative for or supplement to conventional water-heating units.

• Set your water heater to 120 degrees. It can save up to 10 percent in water-heating costs compared to a 140 degree setting.
• Wrap an insulation blanket around your hot water pipes and storage tank.
• Replace showerheads older than 10 years with a low-flow model. It can save up to half the hot water used for showering.

Washing machines and tumble driers = 10% of your energy bill!

• Wash laundry in cold water, which can save up to R1 000 a year. (According to Consumer Reports testers, cold water works well for all but a few types of stains).
• Consider a front-loading washing machine if you're in the market for a new one. Consumer Reports tests show that the most efficient front-loading machines can cut water consumption by about 25% compared with the worst ones tested.

Lighting = 7% of your energy bill!

• Reduce lighting costs by 67 % by using compact fluorescents instead of incandescent bulbs. They cost less than R10 each, shed as much light as a 100-watt incandescent while using only about 25 watts and therefore take less energy to do more. Compact fluorescents also last 6 to 10 times longer than standard bulbs.
• Save even more by installing electronic photocell on-and-off switches and electric timers to turn lights off automatically when you don't need them. However, compact fluorescent bulbs do contain mercury and should be carefully disposed.

Refrigerators = 6% of your energy bill! Thanks to mandated minimum-efficiency standards, this former energy hog now has one of the daintiest energy appetites in the house. However, there are still ways to reduce its consumption:

• Choose a top-freezer model (the most efficient) over a side-by-side model (the least efficient).
• Icemakers add to energy consumption and potentially to repair bills. Models with icemakers are the most repair-prone according to Consumer Reports surveys.
• Don't open and close the fridge unnecessarily.

Household Electronics = 4% of your energy bill! Your TVs, DVD player, VCR, and all the rest each contribute to your household energy tab. Running a computer and a monitor 24 hours a day (and many people do) uses some 1,100 kilowatt hours annually. If electricity in your area costs 8 cents per kilowatt hour, for example, that translates to R8 800 a year. Putting them on sleep mode could save more than 80 percent of that expense and cut CO2 emissions by up to 1 250 kgs a year. Dishwashers = 2% of your energy bill!

• Wash full loads in your dishwasher, skip the special cycles (like sanitize), and load the machine correctly (for example, heavily soiled items at the back and sides).
• Switch off the dishwasher before it gets to the drying cycle and dry the dishes by hand.

Miscellaneous = 15% of your energy bill! Products such as home-security systems, cell phones, PDAs, small wall-mounted vacuum cleaners, toys, and even those clocks built into so many appliances all consume energy. AC power supplies (power cords with a bricklike appendage that convert AC power back to DC) used on all manner of devices consume a surprising amount of energy-more than 58 billion kilowatt-hours annually, much of that while the products they power are not even in use. That's equal to the annual output of 10 large power plants. It also translates into 40 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, according to Ecos Consulting, an environmental consulting firm. Increasingly, many products consume energy even when they're off. The standby power on many types of consumer electronics accounts for as much as 5% of total household energy consumption, or about 450 kilowatt hours per year.

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Part of this content was compiled by Eskom For more information on how to save electricity visit http://www.eskom.co.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=274

Household waste management

Reduce household waste by:

• Buying less throw away stuff.
• Using waste rather than discarding it e.g. making a compost heap.
• Recycling – separating waste into like materials (bottles, paper, cans, organic matter) and store it hygienically for recycling.
• Use recycling depots. South Africans throw away 65% of all glass products made annually - all of which can be recycled.
• Use containers for keeping food in the fridge instead of plastic wrapping that cannot be re-used. Avoid throwing waste down the sink.
• Use aerosols sparingly and only those which state they do not contain CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons).
• When computer equipment no longer meet your needs, donate it to consumers, schools or nonprofit organisations.

Composting tips:

• Use an aerated waste bin or wooden or wire crate for compost heap, at least 1 m2 in size.
• Include fresh soil in layers as this introduces organisms to help decompose matter.
• Keep the compost heap moist.
• Turn waste regulalry to aerate the heap.
• Do not add meat or dairy scraps as they attract potential pest such as rats and flies.
• Save fruit and vegetable scraps for the compost heap.
• Choose organic fertilisers (e.g. horse manure) and avoid pesticides altogether.

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Save water

• Shower rather than bathing. This saves up to a third of water used.
• Take shorter showers.
• Use water saving shower heads that deliver a max of 10 litres of water per minute.
• Choose shower heads that have a ‘shower off’ button to conserve water while you lather up.
• A medium sized bath about 1 500 mm long is as comfortable and cleansing as a big bath, and uses far less water.
• Install wash basin taps with aerator outlets. The aerator mixes air with water, resulting in a lower flow rate ( 5-10 litres per minute which splashes less).
• Don’t let water run in the basin while you’re shaving or brushing your teeth.
• A pressure control valve controls the fluctuation of pressure through the home's plumbing system and prevents imbalances in the system.Fix those leaky toilets and taps.
• Avoid using colouring for toilet water as these introduce chemicals into the ecosystem, which can be dangerous and costly to filter out.
• Don’t waste water just because someone else is footing the bill, such as at restaurants and hotels.
• Fill a bowl of water to clean vegetables, instead of rinsing them under a running tap.
• A front-loading washing machine uses up to 40% less water that a top-loading model.
• Use a broom, not a hose, to clear leaves from your driveway.
• Report broken pipes, open hydrants, etc. to local authorities.
• Plant indigenous plants – in general, they require less water.
• Water your garden in the early morning to prevent excessive evaporation.
• Don’t buy water toys that require a constant stream of water.
• Cover the swimming pool to slow down water evaporation.

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Content adapted from the Rand Water Board and from the department of Biodiversity Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape.

Act for Conservation

• Stop using pesticides and other chemicals, or switch to natural alternatives. Why not try living with the ants and beetles? In this way you allow natural symbiotic relationships to develop, and allow nature to take care of your garden. In South Africa, oxpeckers have become locally extinct in some areas due to environmentally harmful wildlife and livestock dips. Oxpeckers feed on the ticks that in turn feed on the dipped animals, so causing oxpecker mortalities. By simply using environmentally responsible dips, farmers allow oxpeckers to help rid their animals of these parasites
• Participate in the EWT’s Saddle-billed Stork photographic census. The last Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis survey conducted in the Kruger National Park in 1993 suggested that there were less than 60 of these birds left in the Park. The species is classified as Endangered in South Africa. If you see one of these birds, please photograph both sides its face and bill and record the date, time, location, name of nearby water source, bird’s gender, juveniles present and any other notes that might be relevant. Please send all sighting details and photographs to storks(at)ewt.org.za
• Report colour-marked raptors and cranes. The EWT’s Sasol Vulture Monitoring Project implements wing-tagging as a colour-marking method for vultures. To date, more than 1 600 vultures have been tagged, and over 4 100 resightings have been recorded. This data have revealed the extent to which vultures travel and this has fundamentally altered our approach to vulture conservation, resulting in our inclusion of the entire southern African subregion in our activities.Similarly, cranes are fitted with a unique colour combination of leg rings, visible from a distance to allow conservationists to monitor movements of individual birds and gather important information on their breeding and longevity. Please report ringed crane sightings to crane(at)ewt.org.za and tagged vulture sightings to andreb(at)ewt.org.za.
• Report wildlife-power line mortalities.  Common wildlife interactions with power lines include electrocutions and collisions. Large terrestrial and water dependent bird species are prone to collisions with overhead electrical cables. The physical impact with the line results in the bird being injured (i.e. broken leg or wing) or killed. Because of their large wingspans, eagles and vultures are particularly vulnerable to electrocution when they perch or roost on electrical infrastructure. Other animals affected by electrocution include primates, genets and Meerkats Suricata suricatt. Please contact the Eskom-EWT Strategic Partnership (core project of the EWT-Wildlife & Energy Programme) on 0860 111 535or wep(at)ewt.org.za to report birds or animal mortalities related to power lines. More on this project on the EWT website at https://www.ewt.org.za/wep.aspx  
• Report wildlife poisoning incidents. Poisoning affects many species and is currently one of the leading causes of raptor deaths in South Africa. An increasing threat to vultures is their illegal harvesting for use in the muthi trade, and poisoning is commonly used to kill these birds. What’s more, people who eat poisoned wildlife are at risk of being poisoned themselves. Help the EWT put a stop to this practice by reporting wildlife poisoning incidents to our Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Programme on the Nashua Mobile Pesticide Helpline 082 802 6223 or on 011 486 1102 X208.
• Pick up litter. While the aesthetic pollution that litter creates is obvious, few people realise that littered cigarette butts leach dangerous toxins into the ground and our water resources or start potentially life threatening fires, or that decomposing food can breed bacterial diseases in dams, which in turn kills wildlife. For example, African Grass Owls Tyto capensis, a species classified as Vulnerable in South Africa, nest on the ground amongst tall grass during winter. In a natural ecosystem, fires would only be possible in the spring, when storms bring lightning that can burn the very dry grass. At this time the owl chicks have already fledged. Unnatural fires caused by littered cigarettes or pieces of glass can kill nestlings. Diminishing Grass Owl populations mean that their rodent prey species reproduce to numbers that are unhealthy for the ecosystem, and could become a health risk for humans.
• Make the right choices in your daily life. Consumers have enormous power and can change environmentally destructive development   by not supporting mass consumerism and overuse. Don’t buy property on environmentally unsound golf estates, don’t support shopping centres that have been built in wetlands and grasslands, don’t buy fuel-heavy cars and choose products with minimal packaging.