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DESIGN NEWS
[HEADLINE]
Seeing the light
[INTRO]
The Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) leaves outmoded energy-guzzlers in the dark
[TEXT]
Cape Town's electricity crisis has gripped the country, bringing home the importance of conserving energy - literally. Now that the domestic power cuts are (hopefully) over, the big news is that the DME has had the bright idea of phasing out regular incandescent bulbs (which lose 90 percent of the electricity they use as heat) and replacing them with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) that will save you money and last up to 10 times longer. Some South African companies have already seen the light. Pick 'n Pay, Nissan, Spar, FNB, Edendale Hospital, the Midvaal Water Company, Eskom's headquarters and the Harmony Elandsrand Mine are already saving more than R13 million's worth of energy a year by retro-fitting CFLs. Way to go! Don't forget to enter Eskom's Energy Efficient Lighting Design Competition for details visit their website www.eskom.co.za.
[HEADLINE]
Flame fame
[INTRO]
Forget the electrics, light up the traditional way
[TEXT]
Once you've switched your incandescents for fluorescents, try switching off the lights entirely and opting for candles - and designer candelabra while you're about it. The results of Metal 2006, the Carrol Boyes Young Designer Search, were announced very recently and this year the hunt was on for prototypes inspired by the theme "Flame." The third and fourth place winners, Johan du Toit and Wenning Opperman, get a place on our mantelpiece.
[HEADLINE]
In the cut
[INTRO]
Clever Italian upstarts Pervisioni are "functionally re-assigning" Grandma's old cutlery
[TEXT]
Pervisioni and Jim Hannon-Tan are redeeming old knives from the dumpster by sending them through a CNC (computer numeric controlled) machine, and voila! - new bottle-openers that succeed in both concept and execution. The irony inherent in cutting up knives is appealing. Ask for an incision
at info@pervisioni.it.
[HEADLINE]
Raising standards
[INTRO]
Our first major carbon-neutral conference has led to new standards of carbon awareness
[TEXT]
Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA) declared the 2006 Design Indaba Conference carbon-neutral thanks to the fact that 2 000 trees were planted to offset the carbon generated by the event. This has led to the formation of the Carbon Standard (a partnership between FTFA, BP, Toyota, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Edward Nathan and Design Indaba) which will give other companies and events the chance to calculate their carbon emissions and offset them by planting trees.
[HEADLINE]
Tread softly
[INTRO]
Watch your step! You're leaving a dangerous carbon footprint behind
[TEXT]
Carbon is THE most harmful greenhouse gas and unfortunately, each of us - whether it's our company or in our personal capacity - leaves a carbon footprint. Your carbon footprint is the quantity of CO2 you emit into the atmosphere as a result of energy use, transportation and waste disposal. To see how much carbon you produce in one year, make use of the
carbon calculator on www.bp.com.
[HEADLINE]
Tree hugger
[INTRO]
If you thought paper had to come from trees, then there's a local mill that will happily prove you wrong
[TEXT]
With one of their paper mills located in Stanger, near the many sugar mills that service the cane coast of KwaZulu-Natal, it seems natural that Sappi has made the evolutionary leap from trees to cane. Sappi's Triple Green paper uses chlorine-free bleach and consists of 60% locally grown sugar cane fibre and 40% certified wood timber approved by five environmental bodies. Now that's sweet. Incidentally, Design Indaba Magazine is printed on Sappi's Triple
Green Avalon (if, for some inexplicable reason, you
can't keep this copy, then please recycle it). Visit
www.sappi.com. To find out more about hugging trees and other environmental concerns, see radical
website www.treehugger.com.
[HEADLINE]
Waste not, want not
[INTRO]
In an effort to bring "dead tree ware" to life, Waste at Work is mounting a craft exhibition featuring recycled paper products
[TEXT]
One of the main aims of Waste at Work is to minimise paper waste. The organization has teamed up with art consultancy Coeo in asking local crafters to further the cause with some creative solutions. An exhibition of corporate gifts and promotional products made from discarded paper will be on show in Arcadia, Joburg, this September. Visit www.coeo.co.za/waste for more info.
[HEADLINE]
Dis Mooi
[INTRO]
Thanks to consciousness-raising reads like the new collection of stories, The Marquis of Mooikloof, our ecological nightmares are being given a poignant place in fiction
[INTRO]
Talented writer Sean O'Toole - a one-time Design Indaba Magazine editor and regular contributor to these pages - has just launched his first collection of short stories. The Marquis of Mooikloof (Double Storey) contains a green-minded trilogy, entitled A Gift of Stones. The stories were written, Sean says, with the "fucked-up state of our world environment in mind." The narrative covers "a journalist who visits a rural part of Japan to attend a protest rally against the construction of a dam... The story is set in Tokushima, a rural backwater that did in fact have a very controversial protest against the proposed construction of a dam
wall, in 1999. As the story develops and shifts its setting to northern England, and later the northern Cape, other ecological nightmares are mentioned, including the Three Gorges Dam, in China..." It's good to see that today's writers are allowing their audience to work through environmental fears and concerns, and even their own apathy, through the cathartic medium of fiction. These
are much-needed tales for readers with conscience.
Mooi so, Sean. >
[HEADLINE]
No Kak
[INTRO]
A pioneering fashion show that promotes eco-friendly design and textile practices
[TEXT]
There'll be no kak at the Natural and Organic Products Exhibition (Gallagher Estate, 20-22 October 2006), thanks to an environmentally friendly fashion show that'll be strutting its green stuff on the Sunday. The No Kak Fashion Show was coined after a similar event held in Europe called No Shit. No waste, no pollution and no harmful products will be used in the creation of the garments.
[UMBRELLA HEADLINE]
Giveaways
[HEADLINE]
A little bird told us...
[INTRO]
...that one lucky Design Indaba Magazine reader will win a copy of the brand-new Loeries Annual. The full-colour annual is in print for the first time and flights the winning work of all those advertising and design hotshots who caught themselves a coveted birdie. To stand a chance to win, send your name, contact telephone number and delivery address to dimag@interactiveafrica.com. If you would like to order a copy of the book, visit
www.theloerieawards.co.za or contact The Loerie Awards on (011) 326 0304.
[HEADLINE]
Think Drink
[INTRO]
The secret ingredient in this Cola-Cola is… design! And if you're thirsty for a little graphic gorgeousness you'll be happy to hear that a full set of limited edition bottles is up for grabs. We're giving away 10 box sets of The Club Coca-Cola bottles - which were created by designers from five corners of the globe, including South Africa - to the first 10 readers to
email dimag@interactiveafrica.com. Visit www.m5.icoke.com.
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