The Artists' Press guide to green living

Introduction

In the print studio, guesthouse and homes we are continually looking at ways to lighten our footprint. Here are some of the environmental efforts that we have made, please copy at will and let us know how we can improve.

Studio:
Printing involves the use of solvents, acids and chemicals, we try to use as little as possible and are always on the lookout for processes that use the least amount of toxic ingredients. Our lithography presses are hand operated (gives the printers a good physical workout!) and many of the methods that we use are centuries old and thus are not heavy on dangerous chemicals.

Profits from the studio are spent on expensive environmental initiatives such as installing the solar geysers and the micro-hydro plant.

What follows is a list of things that we as a family of four have done to live a little more sustainably. It has been an exciting road to start travelling along and instead of lowering our standard of living it has vastly improved it. We have become rather evangelical about what we have done because it so much fun and is saving us money.

The idea with this list is that hopefully you will copy it, tailor it to your world with your inputs and forward it to friends and family. It would be great if local lists like these start popping up all over the place. This one focuses on the Lowveld and on White River and Nelspuit in particular.

Power

The building that hoses the turbine is built out of sandbags (citrus fruit bags filled with sand from the site). Theuns Naude is the local expert in this technique. Call him on 082 808 9684.

STOVE:
We cook on gas, as it is more environmentally sound than using electricity. We do not have an electric kettle in the kitchen, they waste loads of power, so use the kettle on the stove to heat the amount of water that you need. When cooking keep lids on your pots, use the right size pot for the flame and turn the gas off when you food is almost ready and let the heat already in the pot do the rest of the cooking for you. We bought our gas stove from Midco Gas (they have a branch in Nelspruit and one in White River) 013 7513876, this was after getting quotes from the Western Cape and Gauteng, only to find that local is not only lekker, it is also cheaper.

To cook without using any heat source we are delighted to have two Wonderbags in our kitchen. These are snazzy updated versions of the hay box. You cook your food briefly on a stove top and then transfer the hot pot into the wonderbags that then seals the heat inside the pot and cooks the food for you. It is brilliant for cooking beans, samp, mielie pap, stews etc. They are made by Natural Balance who are registered for carbon credits as well as being a women's project in JHB. These make great gifts for friends, family and staff. Take a look at: Natural Balance Wonderbag

SOLAR WATER HEATERS:
Our adventure into reducing our electricity usage started in earnest in 2007. There was only one supplier for solar water heaters in the lowveld then and they only installed the flat plate heaters. We patched together a system and after much agony (via Gauteng) installed our system that uses vacuum tubes. We decided on tubes as they are more efficient, the tubes can be replaced as singles if something goes wrong and they are more resistant to breakage (we have had some hectic hail and all our units are still fine). The geysers that store the water are ultra high temperature ones used in industry (Ngodwana uses them), the reason for this is that solar heated water can get really hot, much hotter than a regular electrical one. Luckily a number of suppliers are working in the Lowveld now. Some numbers you can try are Bruce Kirk of Solartec of White River 083 367 8766: website www.setsa.co.za Greenray in Nelspruit 013 752 5441 or 082 575 2849 also do solar.

HEAT PUMP: One of the buildings on our property is thatched and we were unable to put solar heating onto it. After consulting with Myron Ginsberg we decided to put a heat pump in.It works by taking heat out of the air and using it to heat the water in your existing geyser (a bit like air con in reverse). The great thing about it is that it works through the night and on cloudy days aswell. Give Myron a ring on 083 267 1900, he does the installation and is a plumber of note.

LIGHTS:
We have installed LED lighting in our guesthouse and in about half of the rooms of our house. The light is of a better quality than that of CFL globes and the electricity usage is even less than the CFL's.

For the rest we use cfl globes. They use much less electricity than the old style light bulbs and seem to withstand the power surges that Eskom indulges in much better than incandescent light bulbs. Remember to dispose of them responsibly; they contain minute amounts of mercury that is released when the glass is broken. Most Pick 'n Pay supermarkets have recycling bins for cfl globes.

COOLING DOWN AND HEATING UP:
All our roofs are insulated with Isotherm, a South African product made out of recycled soft drink bottles; you can buy it from Cashbuild, where we have heard staff refer to it as amaduvet. This means that we do not need air conditioners. If the weather is really hot, open windows and doors at night, to allow the cooler air to bring the temperature of the building down. In the morning close it all up and keep the heat out and the cool in (this really works, promise!).

We have painted our workshop's corrugated iron roof white to reflect heat. It means that the building is about five degrees cooler in the summer and is a great passive way of cooling things down.

In cold weather make a fire in the lounge (far more romantic than an electric heater), plus wood is a local waste product that becomes ash and is used in the compost heap. Much of the wood we use comes from invader species that have been cleared from the bush. Tom Mokoena supplies cut up firewood in the White River/Nelspruit area (ask for black wattle, it burns brilliantly) his number is 082 434 5247. Tom is also the most expert tree feller, and understands the need to not damage delicate orchids and favorite ferns. If you have some invasive monsters in your garden, he can help.

Food and water

Using a water chlorinator is not great for ones health and also has environmental side effects. Contact H2O in Nelspruit 013 752 4228 for UV units if you want to instal one on your water system. Locally Aqua Amanzi the only water supplier that sell UV treated water, or you can get Nestle water but their footprint is huge.To test the quality of your water take a sample in a glass bottle that has been rinsed out with boiled water to Labserve 013 752 4745 in Nelspruit.

COFFEE:
The lowveld is blessed with two coffee producers, so you can get a caffeine kick that has not got thousands of air miles attached and that provides employment for people in our community.

Our coffee is local and is grown in the hills below Graskop by Boveldt Coffee. It comes in 1kg catering packs and if you are addicted like we are you can get the catering packs by ordering 5kg at a time. Or else club together with others and benefit from the bulk savings, call 013 764 2897

You can also get a fantastic range of coffee from Sabie Valley Coffee 013 737 8169, cell 082 751 3400.

And while on the subject we got sick of replacing our glass Bodem plungers, which seem to break so easily. We were tipped off by Harrie’s Pancakes that they get their stylish stainless steel, insulated plungers from Sabie Valley Coffee (they have them for sale in their Hazyview shop) or else the Crossings Spar in Nelspruit also sells them from time to time. They are expensive but they will outlast your need for caffeine and along with your pet parrot can be put in your will.

FOOD:
We grow as much of our food as we can and it is totally organic. Working in the veggie garden is good exercise (we cancelled our gym membership some time ago) and it is also a great way to de-stress (unless the vervet monkeys have been on a raid). We buy seedlings from Ezigro 013 750 1429 and Brian Law Seedlings 013 751 5088, both White River companies that supply farmers and small fry like us and their prices are really affordable.

Gladys Mgiba harvests and supplies and delivers lathes (thin long straight blue gum poles) and fencing droppers. The lathes are vital to any successful food garden and are reuseable. We use them for beans and peas to climp up, to stop mielies falling over and to put shade net over to keep birds off tasty treats like spinach, cabbage and peas. They also support fruit tree branches when the friut gets too heavy. The ones Gladys supplies are not CCA treated and therefore are free of arsenic (good to keep that stuff out of your food chain). Contact her on 076 2891 827.

We are too lazy to make our own earthworm compost and so we buy from Isabel Steyn who lives near Brondal. Contact her on 082 784 0898. If you think vermiculture is hype, please come and look at the size of our rocket leaves.... We also buy vermipost and compost from Davely Organics in Nelspruit, their website is fantastic take a look at: Davely Organics

Part of the permaculture concept is a chicken tractor. We have made our tractor out of white electrical conduit with a welded square bar base frame. We used bird mesh shade cloth to cover it with and have made the perches out of thin bamboo. The idea is that you move the chicken tractor onto veggie beds that have reached the end of their usefulness for harvesting. The chickens eat the remaining plants, weeds, slugs etc and turn the soil over whilst fertilising it. A laying box in the tractor means that eggs are easy to collect. Collecting eggs enchants every child that visits; it is something that all kids should be able to do. Most of our chickens are hardy “indigenous” ones. Ask your domestic staff if they have contacts to buy your starting stock. We started off with six hens and a rooster and now have a flock of about thirty which produces enough eggs for a family of four with plenty extra to sell or give away. We buy our chicken feed in 50kg bags from Goedgenoeg Voere opposite Strijdom Spar in White River.

For veggies and fruit that we do not grow ourselves we try to support our local farmers as much as we can, especially those who are organic. We also support the vendors who sell along the sides of the roads and on pavements. Their quality is usually excellent (nothing like dealing with your customers face to face) and the prices are low. A favourite is the old man in his blue bakkie who sells fruit near White River Primary. The Fountains Farm products are great and you can get organic veggies delivered to you by The Veg Box in Nelspruit. We also support the local "tuis nywerheid" shops. Get fantastic locally produced cheese from Rietbokspruit in Lydenburg (013 235 4263 or 082 495 4706).

We are mostly vegan, giving all animal protein a skip which has resulted in us loosing weight, getting some of that energy back that seemed to flee when we turned thirty and kicking depression out the door. Animal farming contributes more to global warming than all the forms of transport, combined (yes, that means eating corpse, drinking milk, etc etc is heavier than aeroplanes, ships, cars, trucks ...) Unless we are in Maputo we steer clear of seafood(there is very little of it left in the oceans). If you have to eat seafood sms the name of the seafood to this number to check the status of what you want to eat 079 4998795. The reply comes quickly and gives you info about the fish and whether it is sustainably harvested one can eat it with a clear conscience. We buy as much local produce as we can, fresher, less packaging, lower food miles and supports the local economy. For items that are not produced in our neighbourhood we buy South African where possible.

We are olive and olive oil addicts and buy in bulk from Willow Creek through their agent in Johannesburg, Lesley Rabie Cell: 082 332 7677.

After hearing what gets put into commercially produced bread we decided to start baking our own. With growing veggies and baking bread our trips to the supermarket are a lot fewer, which means that we do not end up making lots of unnecessary purchases, good for the pocket and the waistline! We buy organic flour in bulk from Wensleydale in Gauteng http://www.wensleydale.co.za/ We add organic oats to our bread, the cheapest and South African grown ones can be bought from Checkers in the Riverside Mall, and the brand is Heartlands. While at Checkers stock up on Puccini pasta, it is produced in South Africa and is as good as anything Italy has to offer.

Another weakness of ours in Basmati rice, we buy ours in 5kg packs (much cheaper than the supermarkets) from Valli Spices at the Riverside Mall in Nelspruit. This is also the place to get all your spices, lentils and chickpeas much cheaper than the supermarket and a much more pleasant experience.

We have found two local dairies who produce RBST hormone free milk. Their milk is widely available under the Honeydew label and also Montebello. Buying local milk saves on thousands of food miles and the cost of refridgerated transport.

We harvest honey form our bee hive. There is something magical about watching the golden sweetness ooze from the comb on the frame and soon we will be taking sugar off our shopping list. It is best to put in a used bee hive (it will attract bees quicker than a new one). Raymond Spinney from Lindiwe Honey (based in White river his range of honey is incredible and their honey and ginger is addictive) sells hives from time to time. His number is 013 751 2004. We bought all our other bee kit (overalls, hood, smoker etc) from

Pet food

For the cats we get our local butcher "Vleisland" to mince whole chickens (bones and all), to this raw meat we add taurine, Vit B, Vit E, fish oil, chicken liver, eggs and salt. Mush it all up and freeze. The cats love it and are playful and crazy after eating it, unlike the lazy behaviour vet bought food induces. If you want the specific recipie, email us.

Clean bodies

For deodorant a local company director pointed me in the direction of Pure Beginnings, an all natural, effective, stylishly designed South African product. It is available from Mopani Pharmacy (although a unisex product it is in the men’s deodorant section). You can also get the range from Live Naturally, the fantastic health store in White River opposite the post office and just down from the Happy Hawker (a local business that farms and dries mangoes, bananas etc and is well worth dropping in on). Live Naturally 083 452 7555 also sells a range of South African body care products from The Victorian Garden, Enchantrix etc.

In Nelspruit Victorian Garden products are available from Earthwise at I'langa Mall . The shampoo, body butters, body lotions and face oil and moisturisers are divine and when compared to big name, toxic imported brands cost almost nothing.They also sell the African Organics shampoo and conditioner which wins the organic and local hair care race for us.

MENSTRUAL CUPS:
It is a more or less totally taboo subject but.... the waste from female sanitary products is huge (why is it that we find it much easier to moan about disposable nappies...). A menstrual cup is about the best personal item any menstruating female can have. They are secure, totally comfortable (unlike pads and tampax you do not feel them at all) and last for years. No more running to the cafe in the middle of the night to stock up on expensive unsound pads, and also none of that toxic shock syndrome stuff. I have tried both the imported Moon Cup (from the UK) and the locally made Mia Cup and local is definatly lekker! The Mia Cup is easier to take out and can hold slightly more liquid. An added bonus is that by buying a Mia Cup you are supporting a South African company and South African manufacturers (seems as most of the pads that I used to buy came from obscure East European places). For info and to order go to : Mia Cup

TOILET PAPER:
On the waste subject we have discovered a locally made unbleached toilet paper that sells for less than the unsound puppy print version that we used to use. It is made out of sugar cane waste and is a much sweeter option. Live Naturally stocks it and sell in bulk also. For a supplier near you go to: Green Home Products

Clean house

To clean windows use vinegar diluted with a bit of water, it is what some five star game lodges not a thousand miles from us use, so if it is good enough for them...

LAUNDRY:
The detergent that we use in the washing machine is called Triple Orange. Made in South Africa it works well and is not bulked with shredded newsprint (the secret ingredient in commercial detergents!). Deborah Pienaar is the lowveld supplier contact her on 083 635 1968.We do not use a tumble drier (ridiculous in the South African climate), the sun and the wind do the job for us. A ¼ cup of bicarb added to the final rinse replaces fabric softener.

Safe house and garden

FURNITURE:
We buy locally produced furniture directly from the carpenter when we can; otherwise we buy second hand, a major depression was induced by missing out on a fabulous art deco suite that someone else had snapped up at the junk shop below Strijdom Spar. Psychological balance was minimally restored by finding four deco chairs a few months later at Die Kraaines in White River. For standard cupboards and shelving buy SA pine products and paint them to suit the room.

LIGHT FITTINGS:
Yemvelo ( ex Daliwe Designs) make the most fantastic range of light fittings and sconces as well as furniture using invasive species for materials as well sustainably harvested reeds. They are just outside of White River (near the Spur). Call them on 013 750 1684 or 083 540 0500. Mariette at Ariel Interior Design Studio 078 450 9616 (works out of the Farmstyle Centre) makes up the most fabulous lampshades to your specifications. her range of South African fabrics is super funky.

GARDEN:
We have removed most of the alien trees on the property and when we buy anything new for the garden it is indigenous (except for fruit trees for the food forest). We do not use any chemical fertilisers or pesticides. This means that the bees, bats, predator insects, frogs and birds do the work for us. When we have termite and ant infestations we soak them with water.

While on holiday in Kosi Bay we came across some well designed and very sturdy garden furniture made out of recycled plastic (lasts 20 years and needs NO maintenance). It is available in a range of colours, we chose a brown which looks like sunbleached teak. Contact Billy Bond at freebop@mweb.co.za

Every other year we scatter chicken manure on the lawns to get them into shape, contact Heidel Fertiliser 013 750 1927 (they deliver by the ton). Shopping around for quotes I spoke to another chicken farmer who was unable to assist me as he was sending all his chicken droppings up to cattle farmers on the highveld to give them as feed (this was in spring, when the grass was low), now if that is not enough to put you off your mainstream steak...

Waste

You can also drop your recycling off at Uplands School which has a very well run recycling centre. But please make sure that your recyclables have been washed and cleaned where appropriate and do not dump wet waste at any of these sites (that includes kitty litter, disposable nappies, expired medications etc etc)

Pick 'n Pay at the Riverside Mall has brilliant recycling bins at the entrance to the store for recycling ink cartridges, batteries, plastic bags and best of all cfl light bulbs.

BURNING RUBBISH:
We live on a small holding and after years of asking a big industrial farming neighbour to stop burning it’s waste (the stench made us retch, even from a few kilometres away) we reported them to Mbombela Environmental Affairs, speak to Herbert Mbuli 072 080 1821, he and his team are fantastic. The stinky business now has to dispose of their waste in a municipal site. We can breathe again! It is totally illegal to burn your waste in an open pit, so if you are doing it, stop now.... you might live next to someone who gets fed up and reports you.

Environmental activism

Community Trading

Reading List

1) Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
2) Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas H Friedman
3) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
4) Bonfire of the Brands by Neil Boorman
5) Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence
6) Eat Your Heart Out by Felicity Lawrence
7) The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan
8) The End of Oil by Paul Roberts
9) The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow
10) How to Boil a Frog (DVD)
11) The Garbage Warrior(DVD)
13) The Power of Community (DVD)
14) The Last Oil Shock by David Strachan
15) Blood and Oil By Michael T Klare
16) Janes Delicious Garden by Jane Griffiths (organic gardening in South Africa)
17) Affluenza by Oliver James
18) No Logo by Naomi Klein
19) Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller by Jeff Rubin
20) Supersize Me! (DVD)
22) Heat by George Monbiot
23) Eating Animals by Johnathan Safran Foer
24) The China Study by Colin Campbell
25) Cheap, the high cost of discount culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell
26) Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.

Take a look at Treehugger's website for great green updates

A South African Foodies blog (includes veggie garden stuff)

South Africa's top environmental info website, Urban Sprout

Fantastic Australian green website: Green Living Tips

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