The super forest. It’s happening.
Tag Archive for 'Vancouver'
BINNER (BIN – NER): Someone who works scavenging through the garbage bins with the prospect of finding reusable and recyclable items that can be exchanged for cash.
Through pure chance (and possibly magic) I have had the pleasure of listening to inspiring Vancouverite Ken Lyotier, founder of United We Care speak twice in the past week! The first time I heard him talk I literally cried. This man has such a big heart. He compels me to love more, to reach further, and to go bigger.
According to this news article:
A minister at a local United Church secured the two $1,500 from a trust fund. With the money Lyotier and his friend organized a one-day bottle depot at Victory Square and paid people who turned in bottles and cans.
“It was a really good event, but it was a total loser as a business because they were non-refundable,” Lyotier said. “The thing was, it did bring a pile of people together that were kind of like us, close to the street and scratching to try to make any little nickel or dime.”
They formed United We Can, which officially set up shop in 1995 in a 2,700-square-foot space. It employed the “hardest to hire” and even chased after its workers to convince them to come to work. In the early days, the bottle depot reimbursed 150 binners on a busy day.
There is an even more awesome video about Ken and what they do on the United We Care homepage. From their website:
We all know the value of recycling, but what if your recyclables helped alleviate poverty?
Green (sustainable) economic development is a path out of poverty. United We Can has been a pioneer in what is now being called the “Third Green Wave,” a combination of environmentalism and social equity. For fifteen years United We Can has been an advocate for marginalized people and the environment. United We Can provides people with support, training, and “green collar jobs.” These jobs help lift people out of debilitating poverty and help create community opportunities in a place commonly referred to as “Canada’s poorest postal code.”
I love how this idea for binning has been so revolutionary that it has swept the globe. Binners are in every city I have visited. It astounds me to think that there was a time before binning was common practice… before recycling was common! What if we gave all trash the value we gave recyclables and created new exciting projects instead of landfills? Gee whiz, the future excites me!
Good Morning, SuperForest!
We’ve all heard of the Plastiki voyage in which a boat made out of 12,500 plastic bottles sailed from San Francisco to Sydney, but moored at the False Creek Yacht Club in Vancouver, a little raft has also been creating a little splash of its own.
Located near its restaurant partner “C“, this elegant dining room sits on a raft made of 1,700 plastic bottles set in a frame made of reclaimed pinewood. It seats about 12 guests and offers visitors a six-course sustainable seafood meal paired with organic and biodynamic wines. As described by creator, Shannon Ronald, this has all been developed as a way to fundraise for his School of Fish Foundation and its educational aspirations, which includes everything from educating chefs and changing the restaurant business to encouraging schools to collect scientific data from, and work closely with local marine conservation organizations.
After obtaining all of the necessary permits to proceed with his vision, the plastic dining room is now available for the general public to rent and enjoy.
Wins all around!
Shannon Ronald is shedding light on the issue of how plastics are affecting our oceans, and because he is such a clever cat, he’s found a way to create harmony between these enemies. And judging on the success of his little experiment, it is safe to predict several more of these plastic rafts might begin to float about in a port near you.
Have an excellent Monday,
Carla
(via.)
A week ago the Olympic Winter Games began. A big ‘yes!’ for sports freaks since all their favorite disciplines will come by within the coming weeks. To me though the Olympics are about more than ‘just sports’ because whenever I read the paper or watch the evening news I hear about China not liking Obama anymore because he receives the Dalai Lama, I hear about an ever growing mess in the middle east and recently I even heard about a priest who refused to give a homosexual Christian the Holy Communion. But whenever one of our beloved Dutch ice skaters enters the Olympic Oval the entire country seems one, gays seem accepted. And even better; when Mark Tuitert won the 1500 meters there wasn’t a sign of war on the front page of the newspaper.
The Olympics do more than confiscate the front page though. Every time I tune in to watch – I don’t really care what’s on, whether it is speed skating, figure skating, biathlon, alpine skiing or freestyle snowboard – I find it extremely beautiful in a way that’s pretty hard to describe; I’m gonna try to do though.
Probably the best example of extrinsic beauty at the Olympics is figure skating. At the time of writing two Americans are giving me the goose bumps with their dancing on ice. They’re performing the craziest stunts I wouldn’t even dare to dream about while wearing beautiful clothes covered with small shiny stones; it’s ballet on ice.
So far for the obvious beauty, there’s much more aesthetics to figure skating. Look close and you’ll see the clothes waving in the wind generated by the momentum, you’ll see the guy lifting the woman before his head and – without sight – carry her from the one side of the arena to the other. If you’ll look beyond the outer appearances there’s even more. You’ll see a beautiful ‘dance’ between man (two ice skaters) and nature (frozen water leading to almost no friction, making such artistic expressions possible). And if you look close enough you’ll see all these aspects in a certain variety in all sports.
Another good example is freestyle snowboarding, with the U.S. hero Shaun White. I hadn’t heard of him until I read about his new trick at The New Yorker. It appears that he can manage to do the Double McTwist 12 – this is a crazy trick can hardly be described with words, it would be two screws around his vertical and three around his horizontal axis. I think you can better have a look for yourself; the fun starts at 0:28.
So this is what the Olympics are for me, a perfect ballet between people, countries and nature. And if you look close enough you’ll see all.
“What if?”
Evidence of the awesome power of these simple words can be seen everywhere. It’s a question that frequents the minds of the movers, shakers, and creative thinkers of the world. It is a question that has the power to change the world!
“What if…” is exactly what landscape architect, Bruce Hemstock, thought when he looked at the downtown quarter of Vancouver, and this is what emerged as a result…
Located on Vancouver’s downtown convention centre is a 6 acre living roof! This stunning building is home to 400,000 individual indigenous plants, has blackwater treatment systems and desalination machines to water the plants, and boasts a water-use reduction of 60%-70% over similarly sized convention centers!!!
Here is an interview that was filmed recently showcasing this beautiful building as a part one of the “Growing Cities” documentary series.
So, in review: Living Roof+Indigenous Plants+Earth Friendly Watering Systems=Wins for All!
(via Fast Company)
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