Are you a little bit sceptical? Subdued? Lost hope? Or just getting cynical about the global initiatives for Climate Change and making human society sustainable within the boundaries of our planet?
Did you know that the purpose and foundations of PhycoHealth was that
- Return 1,000,000 ha of land to regeneration of NPP and remove fossil carbon use for production of that area
- Recover and recirculate rogue nutrients, including nitrogen pollution, along coastal ecosystems
- Reduce water use and dependency in food production
Earth Day offers a moment of reflection and understanding that we can, and are, making a difference. The choice for change is here today, not in the future. We just need to make those choices more often and spread the word. Everyday - and to make it easy with daily choices that are simply better.
Earth Day gives you an opportunity to reflect on making a change and we want to help you distil the hope from hype. If you want to better understand the rationale behind seaweed science and claims being made around seaweed today you can read more in our blog on Seaweed as a Service.
You can and probably are already making choices today on a number of levels, from food to packaging to light bulbs and car and energy technology, that will progressively make a change. Collectively our consumer decisions are already making a difference and we need to use our buying power more selectively.
There are so many tangible examples of how each of us has an impact that, in the end, is bigger than that of a government meeting or the technological solution itself. Even if and when these things are in place, we are the ones who make the change happen at a global scale. Just be inspired by....
The power of changing your lightbulb!
The classrooms of the Technical University of Ambato (UTA), in Ecuador did a measured and peer-reviewed exercise when they changed their lightbulbs to low energy LEDs.
Just by doing that, they reduced 40% of the energy consumed, decreasing the emission of almost 200 tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
Look at the packaging!
The world needs to eliminate single-use plastic, and we have a VERY long way to go. It is not easy. As a manufacturer, of products, we work hard at PhycoHealth, every week, on sourcing and testing of materials that are the best that they can be today. But we still have a long journey working with packaging suppliers and constantly change our choices based on who has come up with the next best packaging solution.
For example, Our PhycoBites, Phettuccine, SeaSpirals, PhycoMuesli, are all packaged in fully home compostable cellophane and paperbased materials. We ship them to you in cardboard and paper tape packaging. You can just put this packaging in your compost, or recycle the carboard. Rememebr that our pasta has 10% less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional pasta!
Our other products Phukka, PhycoDamias, PhycoSalt, Phybre are all made with 70% recycled materials and are also fully recyclable. Just put it in your recycling bin. This packaging is improving each year and soon this will be fully compostable material.
See below how PhycoHealth will help plastic bag reduction this week with your purchase.
Community effort feels good
I am proud that in my own local area we have a wastewater recovery system that services over 600ha of land, including 14 dairy farms, two golf courses and several sporting grounds with reclaimed water for irrigation.
The world is heading to a scenario of severe water scarcity, and soon up to 40% of people will suffer without adeqaute water in this way. So support local initiatives that make a difference.
Our local community initiative has saved over 280,000,000,000L of water locally. If replicated globally this would have a massive impact, in addition to reducing the pollution that renders water undrinkable. Even accelerating the change to low flush toilets will make a massive difference.
You can wear that shirt - just one more time....
Over consumption starts on our bodies – with clothes. The rag trade, or fashion industry, is responsible for over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions; more than international air transport and shipping combined! In Australia, we buy 27kg of clothes each year, and throw away 23kg each year!
Even if made from ecologically friendly materials, buying more clothes than we need creates overuse of energy, water, land use for the production of materials and waste problems. Once again, if we just focus on spending the same amount of money on better, but half as many clothes, I am sure we could learn to live with being seen one more time in that “old dress”.
You are already a part of walking the talk! So keep your heads high and know that you are the biggest part of the solution when you live and purchase the change. We are doing it today, and will be doing it better tomorrow. That is all it takes, one light bulb at a time; one bite at a time.
The has already identified the primary goals to live by, and in a series of blogs after this one, we will distill the hype from help that you can make with seaweed each day.
Then message that we can make a change is simple
– choose wisely, bon apetit!
