Farm Raised Fish Not Safe

Farm Raised Fish Not Safe

Sustainability Explained Through Animation

Makes me want to go back to school…

Click here to see a cool kindergarten school in Japan. http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/green-architecture/coolest-kingergarten-ever-circular-tree-house/

Interesting read …

Every one above 35 should read this.

Tiklop Society of the Philippines

Tiklop Bimodal Ride Calamba Los Baños from bobby fortuno on Vimeo.

We are new members of the Tiklop Society of the Philippines, a group of folding bike riders and enthusiasts that advocates cycling not only because of its health or leisure aspects but more so as a way of life and a practical way of preserving earth’s resources.

Look for “Tiklop Society of the Philippines” on Facebook.

Reforestation Needs Long Term Commitment

Enough of the photo ops. Reforestation requires not just planting seedlings but more importantly, nurturing the seedlings until they are strong enough to grow by themselves.

This is what the amiable Dr. Jose Sargento stressed recently in an interview with a local daily. Sargento is the head of the forests and watershed division of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems (MCME).

The event was the second staging of the Cambantoc River Reforestation Project, a joint project of the Multiple Intelligence International School, the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems (MCME), the Tranca Elementary School and the Forest Club. The project aims to reforest banks of Cambantoc River, a vital part of the Makiling watershed.

Four busloads of students from MI joined the event last 20 September 2011. Quite a few of them were part of the group that planted the initial set of trees last year, hard wood seedlings that are now taller than many of them. This year, the students added fruit-bearing trees.

A Practical Sustainable Transport Alternative

We recently bought several folding bikes from a surplus store in Los Banos. The second hand bikes are apparently brought here in significant quantities from Japan and are sold for as low as two thousand pesos each. The bikes are now used by the Forest Club and FC Eco Camp staff for short errands and are also used in some of the Eco Adventure games.

With the rising cost of gas and the worsening air pollution problem, bicycles are indeed an ideal  sustainable transport alternative.

But though biking has gained a lot of popularity in the country in recent years, most enthusiasts are into it for recreational and fitness reasons. Far less look to biking as a practical commuting option. This is because most of the country is still bike unfriendly. Except for Marikina City and one or two more municipalities in the country, there are no biking lanes to speak of. Secured parking areas for bikes do not exist. Most buildings and malls do not allow entry for bikes. And majority of public transport facilities do not allow bikes into their system.

Through the efforts of some groups though, things are beginning to change. In November 2009 for example, through the joint efforts of the Tiklop Society, the Padyak Project Foundation and the UP Mountaineers, the Light Railway Transit Administration finally allowed commuters with folding bikes to bring their bikes into trains. Several bike groups are currently lobbying Congress to approve Senator Manny Villar’s proposed Senate Bill 2688 or the Bicycle Act of 2011 which among other things, seeks the provision of bike lanes in all major roads and highways.

Meet Our New Food Waste Disposal Managers

We’ now have six native pigs in Forest Club. They are in charge of our kitchen waste disposal.

As venues for corporate team building activities and educational field trips for schools, both Forest Club Eco Resort and Forest Club Eco Camp regularly serve meals to groups with as many as 150 members.  This unfortunately results to quite a lot of food waste, from plate wastes or scrapings to leftovers and spoiled food.

Food waste is a major problem worldwide. The Food Aware Community Interest Company (www.foodawarecic.org.uk) says that 18 million tons of edible food end up in landfills every year. According to the National Solid Waste Commission, food waste accounts for almost half of Metro Manila’s garbage which is estimated at 6,169 tons daily.

Rotten food that ends up in landfills can produce harmful methane gas which if not handled properly can create serious health problems and even, loss of life.

We use native pigs to help solve our food waste problem. We use this in tandem with our mini bio-digester and vermiculture. Food and kitchen waste is collected after every meal and is mixed and cooked in a big pot. This is then stored in large drums and mixed with either molasses or salt which are both known as effective food preservatives. The diet of the pigs is supplemented by fresh kangkong stalks from our gardens.

Signs of the Times

As more and more people become environment-conscious, many companies and organizations are also joining the “green” bandwagon. And this we see in the conservation signs many establishments are posting on their walls.

There are the signs in hotel bathrooms asking guests to lend a hand in conserving water by reusing their towels. Or the signs in public bathrooms proclaiming the urinals to be water-free and thus a big help in conserving the vital resource.

There are signs that call for the less use of plastics, be they plastic bags for groceries or umbrella covers.

My favorite signs though are those of McDonald’s in Hong Kong and C2 here in the Philippines. Both call for the limited use of , get this, plastic drinking straws!

Why the focus on drinking straws? Well it turns out that up to 5% of all the pollutants removed from the Pasig River are drinking straws. Thats a whole lot of straws! And a whole lot of damage it has done to the environment.

Energy from Waste

Our cooking stoves at the Forest Club now use methane instead of LPG. We now produce our own cooking gas from biodegradable kitchen waste, using a compact bio-digester that we built from two recycled plastic drums.

Design was adapted form the Appropriate Rural Technologies Institute of  India. All materials were sourced locally. Our handymen in the club assembled the bio-digester.

Construction was simple. We used two recycled water drums, one slightly bigger than the other. And some PVC plumbings and fittings. The large funnel is where we put in our kitchen waste.

The bio-digester is fed by kitchen waste: vegetable cuttings, fruit peelings, leftovers. These are chopped up into small pieces before they’re put into the bio-digester. This allows for faster decomposition.   The process produces methane which is then used as an alternative fuel source to LPG.

The use of biogas as an alternative cooking fuel is definitely more cost efficient as the price of LPG has increased dramatically in the past few months. But there are other benefits to using bio gas.

For one, since the kitchen waste is fed into and stored in the bio-digester, the hygienic conditions are improved as flies and pathogens are greatly reduced.

Secondly, the use of bio gas also lessens the use of charcoal and fire wood which is harmful to the environment.

Also, unlike fossil fuel combustion, biogas production from biomass is considered CO₂ neutral and therefore does not emit additional Greenhouse Gases (GHG) into the atmosphere.