We've just got one of these really nifty, and pretty solar jars from Consol.

The solar jar has a wee solar panel in the lid of the jar that stores energy during the day. It then releases light at night; a fun and sustainable alternative light supply - great for when the lights go out (they're threatening blackouts again soon).

The solar panelling, when placed in the sunlight, powers the LED batteries for almost six hours before it needs to be recharged.

And it comes with a little click or ‘switch’ so that the light can be controlled - it is not automatically 'on' and working when you don't want it to be.

Great gift idea, and green credentials - the glass jars are 100% recyclable and on average each Consol Glass container consists of 35% recycled content.

cost: R120/R150

where can you get one? At Consol retail outlets in Woodmead (Gauteng) and Stellenbosch (Cape Town) or on the website www.solarjar.co.za

Hartmut Jagau with the generator he designed using magnets from discarded hard drivesThe design for a sustainable wind generator using redundant materials has earned a prestigious international award for Hartmut Jagau, a master’s student in electrical engineering at the University of Cape Town.

Jagau won the Student Poster Presentation award at the 2011 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Energy Conversion Congress & Exposition that was held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, in September 2011.

His design reuses the permanent

City Sightseeing Cape Town, the company that operates the well-known red double decker open-top buses has become the first bus company in South Africa to be certified carbon neutral.

City Sightseeing operate a fleet of continually upgraded, low emission buses that comply with all Euro standards for environmental impact. The fleet has consistently complied with Euro standards since 2006.

City Sightseeing has also made great inroads into greening the rest of the business and has adopted all the latest available methodology and technology to reduce noise pollution as well as energy and water consumption. The company also recycles all of their waste, which has in turn led to the creation of sustainable employment.

domestic wind-turbine unit

As Eskom keeps raising the price of our local electricity, more of us are seeking new, greener and cleaner, independent sources of power. Not only can 'off-the-grid' power save us (a lot of) money, it is also more kind to our environment than the coal-hungry power of Eskom. Although often more expensive upfront, green and localised sources of electricity always pay themselves off… and once that’s done, guess what? You’ve got free power!

pedestrians make use of the new paths in Durban: pic by Luke ReidRapid transit and safe cycling/walking networks are good for both health and climate - and climate experts should consider more systematically how these strategies can reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, one of the world's major contributors to climate change, says a new WHO report.

The new report, Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation - Transport sector was released 6 December, 2011 during the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-17).

The report reviewed over 300 studies on health outcomes from different types of land transport systems to identify those mitigation measures most closely associated with specific health co-benefits or risks.

The review is the latest product of

From time immemorial, mankind’s relationship to nature has been far more adversarial than cooperative or convivial. Man has had to fight and scurry in order to ilk out a meagre living. The contest between man and nature remained vastly unequal until the Industrial Revolution when coal, previously considered “evil” as it came from underground, became widely used and thus changed the face of the earth in many ways. One way was the ability of man to be able to harvest more and more with less and less effort. Technical progress has increased man’s efficiency to such an extent that lately nature’s ecosystems have become overtaxed; they are unable to cope. The result is that these ecosystems can not return to a balanced equilibrium that is necessary to be able to provide  the services that man depends on for survival (clean water, air, arable land etc).

climate smart cape townThe award-winning Climate Smart Cape Town Pavilion at COP17 in Durban was the venue for the launch of ‘Moving Mountains, Cape Town’s Action Plan for Energy and Climate Change’.

The City of Cape Town’s Energy and Climate Action Plan has 11 objectives, with targets and detailed implementation plans involving over 40 programmes and more than 120 projects. The Action Plan is managed and coordinated by the City’s Environmental Resource Management Department, across all Directorates and Departments.

Speaking at the launch on Friday 2 December 2011, Councillor Gareth Bloor, Chair of the City’s Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning Portfolio Committee stated that the City of Cape Town acknowledges climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our generation and seeks to use it as an opportunity to build

The I-WEC Story

How many engineering companies, or any other manufacturing concern for that matter, have a witch as their logo? Not many conventional companies for sure. That I-WEC's full name is a bit of a tongue twister also makes them stand out - Isivunguvungu Wind Energy Converter! Logos and names aside, these guys are working their magic in the local wind energy sector, that's for sure.

I-WEC recently launched it's turbine manufacturing facility with the arrival of a giant mould that will be used to manufacture wind turbine blades in South Africa for the first time. With all the Wind Energy development projects lined up, I-WEC will play an important role in the proliferation of local green-collar jobs.

"Something is happening, something new, something exciting, something with future", says Michael Kast, IWEC Managing Director.

Looking at their launch video, the

Toxic waste hangs around for thousands of years

The Koeberg Alert Alliance organisation goes back as far as 1983, but was reformed by Peter Becker in 2010. A determined man, he spends much of his time sharing the important news of what nuclear means to the people of Cape Town, trying to cut through the smokescreen that is governmental brainwashing and monopoly-driven propaganda.

For Peter, it all started with a poster. Before his anti-nuclear days Mr Becker was into wind power and one day while giving a talk at a school he couldn’t help but notice the crude misinformation on one of the posters on the wall about energy. With a couple of degrees up his sleeve Peter quickly saw through the subtle manipulation tactics scrawled across that school poster, seriously downplaying the potential dangers of Nuclear Energy. He was so disgusted that he

Philips LED street lighting
New street lighting in Durban represents good luminance and uniformity in LED lighting; will create a more livable city with safer roads, increased security and a comfortable outdoor environment.

Yesterday Philips unveiled a new state of the art LED street lighting installation that offers a sustainable lighting solution for the citizens of Durban. The new lighting consists of 149 LED street lights installed in 6 streets around the Durban International Conference Center (ICC). These offer energy savings of 47,4 MWh per year or 26% compared with the older 250W metal halide street lights they replace and at the same time provide