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Monthly archives: October 2009

Development for everyone

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Right now preparations are intense for a big international conference on development called European Development Days, which will be held here in Stockholm in less than two weeks time.
EDD is held once a year in the country which holds the presidency of the European Union, together with the European Commission. This year climate change is one of the themes of the event.

Between October 22 and 24 around 4 000 persons and 1 500 organisations from the development community will meet at Stockholm International Fairs. Delegates from 125 countries are represented, including heads of state, Nobel prize winners and other interesting people. But one of the unusual things with this event is that everyone is welcome, not just delegates and VIP:s. According to the organizers “Everyone has a say at European Development Days: political leaders and parliamentarians, international institutions, local authorities, NGOs, business leaders, academics, researchers, media representatives and young people.” So if you happen to pass Stockholm…

The climate magazine Effekt that I am working with will be there, and we hope to meet a lot of people interested in discussing how to solve the climate crisis in a globally equal way.

At the same time as the conference there will also be other activities, trying to reach out also to groups of people who aren’t already so involved in these questions. On October 24, which is a global day of climate action around the number 350 (indicating the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that we should aim for), we will arrange a workshop together with several other organisations. This workshop will simulate the negotiations in Copenhagen later this year and gives a sense of how much we actually need to do to get down to levels of CO2 that won’t be dangerous. (I wrote about this simulation earlier this year when I saw it at the Tällberg Forum).

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 12, 2009

Tonnes of food never reaches the consumers

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Photo: Wikimedia commons.

Food worth billions of Swedish crowns is thrown away every year. Earlier the focus has been mainly on consumers, wasting a big part of what we carry home from the supermarkets. But recently the Swedish national radio show Klotet (“The Globe”)revealed facts which show that around 100 000 tonnes of food is thrown away directly at the shops – without even reaching the consumers (some text in English).

Rejected vegetables

Most of the wasted food consists of fruit and vegetables with minor imperfections, which costumers reject, and which therefore goes to the waste containers. But in many food shops also packed food, such as pies, pastrami and meat balls is taken away from the refrigerated counters several days before expiry date.
In the radio feature the two reporters Malin Olofsson and Mikael Sjödell get a big bag of “almost thrown away” but perfectly edible food and cook a delicious dinner on it.

One way to the trash bin

But once the food gets to the refuse bins of the supermarkets, there is no return to the plate. Then the food has turned from being food into being waste, which will either be burnt and used as district heating and electricity, or be composted. Both are pretty good ways of using food waste, but still just taking care of 25 – 50 percent of the energy that was used to produce the food in the first place.
When the radio journalists looked closer on how much energy this actually is, they found that the energy that goes to waste from food that never even reaches the consumer (without counting the energy taken care of through burning or composting) would easily supply 5000 households with energy for one whole year.

Taking care of the food 

There are a few initiatives to take care of the food instead of throwing it away. For example in Lund the cook Karl-Johan Rehmert every day cooks and sells lunch dishes from the food which is about to be cleared away from the shelves. He says it’s very popular among the local students.
This feature has made me reflect quite a lot on how I go about shopping my food. Normally I try not to throw away food once it’s in my kitchen, but I haven’t really thought about what happens with the apples that I reject in the shop because of some tiny little mark on the skin…
The radio journalists present the idea of selling this food for a reduced price. Maybe that could help solving this problem?

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 8, 2009

The wonders of technology

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skype-workshop
Ruth Potts talking from London, for an audience seated in Stockholm.

Right now world leaders are meeting in Bangkok trying to advance before the big climate top meeting in Copenhagen in December. Going there isn’t really an option for me, but thanks to technology there are plenty of ways to follow what’s happening and what the particular delegates who are representing us are doing. For example, climate activists from Global Campaign for Climate Action have each adopted a negotiator from their country and follow their every step. On adoptanegotiator.org Jonathan Sundqvist from Sweden blogs about the EU.

Technology also did a lot of good this weekend. At the big climate forum that I helped organizing here in Stockholm we had two workshops given by persons in the UK. As an organizer I unfortunately had to do more of running around than listening, but it was incredibly inspiring to peek into a room with about 90 persons listening to a lecture given in real time on Skype, with the audience asking questions to Naresh Giangrande from Transition Towns UK and Ruth Potts from New Economics Foundation. This gives a lot of ideas for the future, enabling us to connect the ongoing discussions about how to tackle climate change in different parts of the world – without having to contribute to global warming by sending people around by flight.

 

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 5, 2009

Celebrating a day of ridesharing

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Catching a cycle taxi in Kenya. Photo provided by Jessica Karlsson/Skjutsgruppen.

Tomorrow Sweden celebrates its first Ridesharing day. Behind the day is the organization Skjutsgruppen (“The lift group”), which has gathered more than 5000 members on Facebook. On the Facebook group page the members offer each other a lift if they are going somewhere and have space left. The members seem very active and dedicated – one of them has even composed a song for all public transport users. Listen to it here (in Swedish).

“The ridesharing day is a day when we celebrate ridesharing and all its advantages. No matter how we transport ourselves this day we will do it together: making benefits for both the environment and the wallet – and because it’s really fun. Mode of transport is up to you; celebrate by going by car, cycle, air balloon or by wonderful collective means such as train or bus”, the Lift group writes.

On Saturday I’ll be busy organizing a big climate forum here in Stockholm, where more than 30 organisations will hold seminars, workshops and debates. So ironically enough it seems like on this particular day I will have to leave my bike at home and join a car full of equipment for the forum. But hopefully I won’t see any cars on the streets carrying just one lonely driver…

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

October 2, 2009