Mid-Autumn Beach Clean-up: Thanks & Photos

Posted on October 9th, 2009 in Beach Clean-up, DB as a city, Events by Michele Felder

Thank you very much to all the volunteers who joined us at Tai Pak Beach for last Sunday’s post lantern-festival beach clean-up!

As expected, there was an abundance of glow-sticks, plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans, melted candles, lighters and various scraps of paper and plastic items that had been discarded or simply left on the beach after the mid-autumn festivities. But, thanks to the help of over 100 volunteers (an amazing 86 of whom were kids!), the beach was spotless in just under an hour and a half!
Unfortunately, a lot of the litter at community events in Discovery Bay does not get separated, causing perfectly recyclable items to go straight to landfill, or worse, blown into storm drains and/or the ocean due to their buoyant and light-weight nature.  We’re glad to report that all the recyclable waste that we collected was separated and disposed of in the proper recycling bins provided by Winson, who reassure us that the waste will be transported to recycling centers.
We were also able to collect data regarding the types and quantities of rubbish, which will be sent to the Green Council who are compiling the Hong Kong beaches report for the 2009 International Coastal Cleanup.  The consolidated results will be sent to the Ocean Conservancy in the US to be part of their 2009 global report.  Based on the findings of this year’s cleanup, DB Green will be presenting an action plan to Discovery Bay City Management on how to make improvements for next year’s festivities at the beach.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful sponsors of the event for their support and fabulous prizes for the kid’s raffle.  A big thanks to Discovery Bay Marina Club, Dymocks, Hemingways, Kinoa-shop.com, Little Miss Green the Party Queen and Uncle Russ for their generosity.
For all who came, we hope you had a great time, and walked away with a smile and a sense of accomplishment.  Thank you for doing your part, not only for Tai Pak Beach, Discovery Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, but for the global environment!  For those who weren’t able to come this time — see you next year!
We hope to see you again at the next beach cleanup.
Sincerely,
Salina – The Way To Go

Kate and Michele – DB Green

Mid-Autumn Festival Beach Clean-up -Sunday, Oct. 4th, 9am

Posted on September 30th, 2009 in Beach Clean-up, DB as a city, Events by Michele Felder

Every year, after a wonderful night of fun and celebration, beaches in Hong Kong are covered with litter after the Mid- Autumn Festival celebrations. Large numbers of lanterns, candles and wax globs, glow-sticks, lighters, beverage bottles and food wrappers are left half buried in the sand. Not only is this rubbish ugly, but as the tide rises, a lot of it ends up in the ocean.

DB’s very own Tai Pak Beach is one of those covered with litter after the festival. At last year’s clean-up, thousands of discarded glow- sticks, bottles and numerous other items were left on the beach.

This year, come and see for yourself and do your part to help keep our beach clean, prevent marine pollution and protect the ocean. Join TheWayToGo and DB Green for this year’s annual ‘Post-Lantern Festival’ beach cleanup!

Date:  Sunday, October 4, 2009
Time: 09:00 – 13:00
Meeting place: Tai Pak Beach (under the trees, on the Water Margin side)
What to bring*: sunblock, a hat, a water bottle, lots of energy and enthusiasm!

All kids will receive a free beach cleanup crew T-shirt for helping out, and everyone is welcome to enjoy a celebratory post-clean-up barbeque at Hemingways!

See you there!

*Gloves and rubbish bags will be provided. Drinking water will be provided for free refills.

Tree Planting 4 Days this Week!

Posted on June 15th, 2009 in Events, Tree Planting by Michele Felder

Calling all Tree Planters!

This may be your last chance to help with tree planting this year and leave your mark on Discovery Bay for years to come.  We need to get the seedlings in the ground before the end of June.

John and Tiareti have scheduled 4 days this week – must be at least one where you can head up the hill and help out for a couple hours.  Better yet, send your kids who are suddenly out of school and wondering what to do!

 

When:

Tuesday and Wednesday, 16th & 17th  – in the morning

Saturday and Sunday, 20 & 21st – all day

 

Wear sturdy shoes and long pants, bring water and a snack. John has all the tools and 300 trees to plant! 

See you there.

 

-Michele
DB Green

DB Green Newsletter — May 09

Posted on May 25th, 2009 in Beach Clean-up, Events, Group emails past to present, Resources, Tree Planting by Michele Felder

Upcoming DB Green Events
Beach Clean-ups: Sunday, June 14th and Sunday, July 12th
–Meet: Nim Shue Wan beach from 9am- 1pm

Tree Planting: Saturday & Sunday May 30 & 31
–Meet: Golf Course road, path to pagoda, across the stream to the left of the path

Project Updates
Tree planting – Round 2 Complete!
After five Saturdays and Sundays spent digging holes, planting seedlings, watering trees and enjoying picnic lunches, John Horwood with his supportive wife and family, and a long list of volunteers, completed the 2nd round of tree planting in the area near the pagoda, off the golf course road. A total of 360 new trees were planted, with varieties including Hog Plum, Ivy Tree, Hance’s Syzygium, two Chinese Banyan and a few Pomelo. Take a walk to the site and admire the foundations of the DB Conservation Area. Plant some more trees on May 30!

Beach Clean-up – May 10th
On May 10th, Mother’s Day, about 30 adults and children turned up for the 2nd beach clean-up of 2009, focused on Nim Shue Wan and Cheung Sha Lan beaches. We concentrated mainly on Nim Shue Wan, with a few hardy souls (Peter Shaw and Tracey Read) venturing beyond to do some work at Cheung Sha Lan. Excellent progress was made on removing both big and small items from the beach, even some left-over from Typhoon Hagupit last year. Afterwards, we all enjoyed a few sausages (including vegetarian) and cold drinks to celebrate our hard work. If you missed this one, don’t worry, the next event is June 14th!

“No junk mail”
As part of our campaign to ‘reduce’ the quantity of paper sent and then discarded, DB Green has kicked off a “no junk mail” project. Residents of Siena 2B received a sticker in their mailbox along with a village newsletter. For those who want to reduce their junk mail (and reduce waste) they can put the sticker on their mailboxes. Magazine racks were also installed in the high-rises to hold a limited number of fliers, allowing people to take only the fliers that interest them and return those they have finished with. We hope other villages will follow this example with Siena 1, Chianti, the Greens and Siena 2A next in line. More DB Green members are needed on the Village Owner Committees (VOC) to help these initiatives make faster progress.

Recycling
The recycling program in DB is ticking along nicely. Dana and Kate have decided to go back to some basics by checking each and every rubbish room in DB to see if improvements can be made in communications or organization. They are starting with tower 2 of the Greens and have written a number of suggestions to Winson and the estate manager, correspondence here. They are implementing some small changes by the end of May to improve recycling rates, and then plan to move on to towers 1 and 3, followed by towers 4, 5, and 6. If you are a resident of the Greens and want to help with this initiative, please reply to this email and we’ll link you up with Dana or Kate.

If you notice your recycling is being mixed with the rubbish, please contact Winson immediately. A training class has been arranged to teach the cleaners what is recyclable. All the cleaners should have participated in it by now, but education is a process and may need reminders now and again. If you or your neighbours need a reminder about what is and isn’t recyclable in Hong Kong, look here

Be the change you want to see in the world!
***Reduce your plastic footprint!***
While plastic has been an amazing addition to our lives, it has also become an increasing environmental challenge – filling our oceans, waterways, beaches, and landfills. Unfortunately, it never biodegrades and only 5% of the millions of tons produced annually, is recycled.

What you can do:
• Say “no thank you” when offered a plastic bag for shopping
• Bring your own plastic drink bottles
• Say “no way” to polystyrene take-away containers
• Recycle everything you can
• More tips here

Links and Resources
• Ever wondered how to say “no plastic bag” in Cantonese? Check out this list of useful enviro-friendly Cantonese and Mandarin phrases.
• List of some organic shops in Hong Kong
• An article on how to reduce your environmental impact by eating more organic food
• DB environment discussion forum on Way-to-Go web site
• Project Kaisei focused on cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean
• LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) Square @ Star Ferry every Sunday- more info
• “All is One” video – we only have one world and everything on it is connected

STAR FERRY CENTRAL EVERY SUNDAY

Posted on April 10th, 2009 in Events by Kate Wade

Opening of LOHAS Square
To be organized every Sunday at Star Ferry Central Pier from 19 April 2009 onwards, LOHAS Square @ Central is the first public platform in Hong Kong promoting the Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. Through a fair-trade market and education platform featuring local production for local consumption, LOHAS Square @ Central aims to promote local resilience on economy, community development, environmental conservation and healthy living. The Square facilitates cooperation between NGOs, social enterprise, conservation groups, self-employed artist, local organic farmers and consumers to jointly develop a collaborative community to enhance sustainability, health and happiness in our every day life.

LOHAS Square Opening Ceremony and “Rethink Waste” Art-piece unveiling
Date: Sunday, 19 April 2009
Time: 11:00-17:00
Venue: The Star Ferry Central Pier
Enquiry: 24837120 / 27392481
E-Mail: tonton@climatechange.hk
Rethink Waste is the theme of first LOHAS Square @ Central on 19 April to urge community actions to collaborative solve the waste problem by reducing waste. Four architecture master degree students in over 400 man-hour made “Rethink Waste” of over 4 tonnes of household waste. Although “Rethink Waste” is a giant art piece covering an area of 50m2, its weight is only equivalent to 0.05% of the household waste produced in Hong Kong in one day! Through “Rethink Waste”, the master students have examined flexibility of using urban waste as building material in the creation process on one hand, and hoping to arouse public to rethink about our consumption behaviour on the other hand.
Theme programmes for 19 Apr 09 include vermicomposting workshop, zero-waste cookery demonstration, road show, craft-making from junk and announcing research finding the TPEA’s Amazing Journey of Waste project. Other regular programmes include One Tonne Challenge to combat climate change, a Organic Farmers Market run by over 13 local organic farmers, energy efficiency display and energy efficient product sale booths, and many others.

Positive News fundraiser Sunday 15th Feb

Posted on February 13th, 2009 in Events by Kate Wade

Hi Friends

Come and join us for a fun fundraising evening this Sunday in town

Positive News has been publishing articles of inspiration, hope and vision for 5 years in Hong Kong. Focussing on green, social and peace activism, we were the first Hong Kong publication to highlight topics such Fair Trade, Earth Restoration, or interviewing HH Dalai Lama on his peace initiatives. We celebrate initiatives that help to create a better world, come and join us as we do so.

Bilingual, and printed on recycled paper using soy based inks from our first issue onwards, Positive News has walked its green talk. Now it needs some help from you to help it keep supplying good news to school children and all its readers.

With thanks
Peter

If you can’t make it please consider taking out a year’s subscription – also $200. Simply send a cheque in the name of ‘Positive News Publishing H.K. Ltd’ to Riverrun, 5a1 Ka Nam Village, North Lamma Island. Or send a bank transfer to HSBC: 808-2-00004 with confirming email and your address.

14th Feb HK Science Museum Talk

Posted on February 13th, 2009 in Events by Kate Wade

There will be a talk at the HK Science Museum in Putonghua on 14 Feb afternoon please, just in case some people would like to be an audience :

Topic : Climate Challenge of China in Past, Present and Future

http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2009/pre0211e.htm

Vicky

Green Drinks- Wed 11th Feb- Fringe Club

Posted on February 11th, 2009 in Events by Kate Wade

Ariane Burgess will be giving a talk tomorrow night at Green Drinks on a related theme to the Japanese Institute for Eco-Agricultural Leadership (ARI) (mentioned recently under ‘Outside Hong Kong’ category). She’s just come from teaching Ec0-Village Education in Thailand for 5 weeks.

Ariane Burgess is a Global Ecovillage Educator for a Sustainable Earth and guest trainer for the UN certified Ecovillage Design programs at The Findhorn Foundation, Scotland and Spirit in Education, Thailand. Based in New York she will talk about Eco-Villages in an urban environment.

The next Green Drinks will be held this Wednesday 11 February at the Fringe Gallery (next to the Economist Gallery), Ground Floor of the Fringe Club at 2 Lower Albert Road, Central.

There is also a speaker talking on the pachamama alliance.

What On Earth Are We Doing?? symposium in Hong Kong

Posted on February 10th, 2009 in Events by Kate Wade

Thursday 26th February, Wanchai – Global ecological challenges – Think solutions for Hong Kong
An event that you don’t want to miss!
The beginning of many answers in shifting the current financial and ecological challenges.
Join international speaking sensations Lynn Twist, Roger Hamilton and Marcia Martin as they discuss powerful ways we can change the world.
Date : Thursday 26th Feb 2009
Time : from 13:00 to 20:30 the event is divided into 3 parts
Part One (1 – 4:30 pm)
Venue : Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wanchai.
Awaken The Dreamer Symposium, an interactive multi-media program hosted by Lynn Twist
The event is free for the public –
See the trailer and register at http://www.triumphantevents.com/worldtour
Look for the Hong Kong section and type your contacts for registration.
An Event Not To Be Missed

‘Our changing climate is placing our planet in peril’ - Barack Obama

‘The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today’
- Richard Branson

Learn how entrepreneurs and world citizens are forging a new financial reality through the current crisis.
Right now groups of wealth creators and thought leaders are forming around the world a movement; and taking matters into their own hands. This movement is changing the world. We invite you to join us.

This FREE half-day event includes the “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream” Symposium, an interactive exploration into discovering new opportunities to make a real difference in world.

The Symposium will be followed by inspiring talks by Lynne Twist , Roger Hamilton and Marcia Martin, three pioneers and thought leaders at the forefront of this new movement.

World Wide Wealth Tour 2009
Hong Kong | Sydney | Auckland | Cape Town | London
26/02 28/02 2/03 4/03 6/03

For full details, film clips, speaker bios and registration : log on www.triumphantevents.com/worldtour
You are humbly Invited to this Free but priceless event.

Pachamama Alliance World Tour

Dear Kate,

We know you totally you care about LIFE on this PLANET of ours. I am sending this particular email to those who already show your concern by your actions and am asking for your help to contact people in your groups to come along and support us to bring this wonderful environmental symposium to Hong Kong – in my opinion, the most needed city on this world tour. But we still need about 200 more people to register before they will confirm us.

Please watch the Video clip on the website then Register NOW to attend this event. And then call your colleagues and ask them to come too. Feel free to forward this Email to as many people as possible.

I promise You will not leave this event without you and your friends being profoundly impacted.

These World Class Speakers will provide Hope and Inspiration and will be a great platform to get more people aware of the environmental challenges and opportunities. As Leaders in the environmental arena, you will be able to assist participants in having an outlet for their new found understanding.

Please Do NOT miss this event!

Yours Sincerely

Les Gordon

Watering Trees 9:30am- email 3rd Feb

Posted on February 3rd, 2009 in Events, Tree Planting by Kate Wade

If you happen to be walking up the hill this morning join John, Tiariti and I for a little nature nurture.
Make your exercise count for more than burning calories- put that energy to good use and help water them trees! Look for the signs on the way to the Lookout.
Cheers,
Kate

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