OGTP... intrigued?

So, OGTP is not some new fancy acronym that the cool kids are using, it is actually just the acronym for the Ocean Governance Training Program that IOI-SA has just finished running... Well, actually it finished last week Friday but recovering from running a 4-week long course takes a little while (and I prefer to blog when the sun is shining - sun makes me a happy person). It is also a partial excuse for my lack of blog posts recently, which at least one person has commented on (THANKS M! I love that someone noticed). 

I want to avoid sound like I am writing up the course report (because I have actually already done that), but I do want to chat about it a little bit. Organising the course was really my main job description so it has been taking up a lot of space in my head and I loved it! When I started here I didn't have a good grip on what 'Ocean Governance' actually is, but now I understand why, it is too huge a thing to get a grip on, it includes everything from shipping and maritime law to alien invasive species and climate change; and yes, we crammed that all in to four weeks. 

Zandvlei

And the biggest perk of this job (for someone who is a nerd like I am) is that I got to sit in on almost all of the lectures, so when I went to watch 'The Martian', (movie with Matt Damon - very good you should check it out!) (I also got free lunch everyday which is pretty awesome). I felt like he was talking about an old friend when he mentioned International Maritime Law. Yes, I know exactly how nerdy that is. 

Zandvlei again.
It was lovely, great
views and lots of birds but also with a HUGE
litter problem (mostly getting
washed down from the informal
settlements, suburbs and
urban areas)... 

So, I promise not to give you a blow by blow account of the course because it is possible that the thought of UNCLOS and ballast water management doesn't make you as it excited as it made me (for at least the duration of the lecture) but I wanted to say that the course really highlighted the HUGE challenges and possibilities that exist in the world. I love that the world has come together recently to commit to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and while I am not naive enough to ignore that the world has come together to make promises in the past (I did after all go to the public parts of the WSSD in Johannesburg) I remain optimistic (actually, there was an advert about it before 'The Martian' and when has there even been an advert like that before a main stream movie?). I hope that good things also come out of the climate change meeting in Paris in December - hold thumbs. I love that these issues are being discussed and taken seriously at the highest level. I also love that this course brought together very intelligent and competent people from all over Africa who will hopefully return to their own countries and carry on the discussion and start making change from within Africa.  

I am aware that people kind of cringe when I sprout on about sustainable fishing or plastic pollution or recycling AGAIN and AGAIN, but I think this is something we should all be talking about - I mean, even Russell Brand is talking about climate change (I saw him in Cape Town recently, (thanks M) and he is really funny while he talks about it). I think one of the mistakes we ALL make is thinking it is someone else's problem, but it isn't. Things change only when there are enough people wanting it to change. I mean people are pretty amazing and inventive but while we actually can't realistically or successfully manage the climate or environment, we can manage people's behaviour. 

The OGTP crew at International Coastal Clean Up Day

I know it is so hard to think about what impact every tiny decision you make will have on the environment, and hard to prioritse in the face of life's insistent immediacies: can afford your bond; what school would be best for your kids; how to deal with that annoying person at work; where to watch the rugby... but we also can't ignore it anymore. OK, enough preaching, thanks for indulging me. The course highlighted a lot of the problems that are out there, which could feel a little overwhelming and depressing, but I am trying to think of it as an opportunity, we can all do something... What are you going to do?

PS I also love that they called me 'Dr Shannon', cheap thrills :)

Taking pollution down to zero - become a planateer!!!

I need your help! PLEASE. 

Do you remember me going on about microplastics and how it would be great to have some way of knowing if you are buying a good or bad product? Well, now you get to help me make that happen for South Africa... yip... all of you (my millions of blog readers... hmmm). There is an app available in other parts of the world that will tell you (when you scan the barcode) whether the product is green (no evil plastics), orange (phasing out evil plastics) or red (evil plastics abound). 

To make the app functional in South Africa I need information. I need to know all the different types of toothpaste, soaps, shampoos, body washes etc there are out there and I need to know what they have in them. So, it would be super helpful if you could explore in to the depths of your cupboards and tell me about your stock of personal hygiene stuff. AND ask all your friends to do so too, pretty please. 

I need the following, (but if it seems a hassle, just send me a reasonably good picture of the front and back of the product and I will sleuth what I need from the picture): 

• barcode
• retailer name
• manufacturer
• product name
• plastic ingredients  (do they contain: polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Nylon, Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) or Polythylene Terphthalate (PET)?)

So, get to digging out your body glitter and foot scrub, deodorant and shaving products... I want to know all about them. I promise not to judge and it would be especially helpful if you do happen to have products that have plastic in so I can let people know about it. This needs to be South Africa only (sorry - supposedly barcodes are different in different countries, but I think we should double check this in Namibia because they are similar shops?) 

I look forward to hearing from you, easiest if you email me on shampton@ioisa.org... or my personal email address (that I don't really want to put on the internet for everyone to see). 

Let's BEAT THE MICROBEAD!!!! 

PS: Don't make me resort to pictures of eco-sadness to get you to help me....

I am thinking of adding this to the IOI-KIDS website, still a working process, but have included it here to give you idea of the issues

Consumerist Conservation

DINOSAURS!!!! 

I know that is an oxymoron, but however much we want to stand on a pedestal of conservation awesomeness, we all buy things!!! And it is hard to consistently make responsible decisions (especially on a limited budget). It is particularly hard because you don't always know if what you are doing is responsible or not. 

My recent pet hate is the use of plastic microbeads. The reason I feel so annoyed about this is because I actually have used facial scrubs and it didn't even cross my mind that washing my face would result in hundreds of little pieces of PLASTIC getting washed out into the sewage and possibly the ocean. WHO would think to put plastic in a face wash (or toothpaste). And so because I have looked into this in a very small way, I have also found out that sneaky plastic has snuck into other personal care products. 

What I really want is for there just to be an easy way to know when I am rushing to buy toothpaste because I ran out unexpectedly (pah! I don't run out of things unexpectedly, well... maybe food) that I am not inadvertently killing off hundred off fish and seabirds by buying that toothpaste instead of another. In fact, I would rather just shop somewhere that shares my feelings about these issues. 

My friends have heard my wax lyrical about Woolworths for reasons that have nothing to do with their environmental policies but I like the fact that they support the WWF SASSI campaign (of course, so does Pick n Pay) and they have a sustainability policy (read about it here). I honestly can't really afford to do my general grocery shopping at Woolworths but when shopping I want someone else to do my sustainability thinking for me. Of course, Pick n Pay also has a sustainability policy (which you can read about here and it includes a rad interactive green house). As I said in my last blog, there is pressure on big business to include social responsibility but that doesn't mean that all companies do.  Still, isn't that what we need? An easy way for people to do the right thing?? I mean, some people are willing to go the extra mile to do the right thing, but what we really want is for it to be easy and obvious for everyone.

Snuck into Kirstenbosch... No, I don't get in for free, 
but I do have friends that do! 

So, back to my pet hate, maybe we can make a list like this PRODUCT list for South Africa? Want to help me? (I have been in touch with beat the microbead - I think it is a cool app and important cause).


PS You SEE! Just after posting this I see something that says that a pair of jeans takes 10 589 liters to make... but you have to wear clothes, right? 

Beer anyone?

As you can guess, my default drink is wine but I do like certain beers and I especially like the recent surge in craft brewing and all the variety that that brings. I also like all (seriously, ANY) "how to make xxxx alcohol" tours. I am fortunate to live in Cape Town where hundreds of wineries are easily accessible but I have also been to some breweries in England and a Whisky distillery in Scotland and I find the process really interesting. I promise it isn't just about the drink you invariably get at the end of the tour (especially when that drink is brandy or whisky - I have not acquired those tastes). 

This weekend we went on the SAB Brewery tour in Newlands. (I have been to the SAB tour in JHB and really enjoyed it but always thought it was a little silly that I live so close to the Newlands Brewery and have never done their tour - so, that's one tick on the CT bucket list!) The tour completely changed my perceptions on SAB and so I think I should tell you why. 

Right up front I am going to say, I am not a huge SAB beer fan. In my younger days I drank Black Label because I was trying to seem hardcore (this is difficult for me because I have chubby cheeks, a high-pitched voice and tiny fingers and even with ever increasing wrinkles I mostly just look young and on good days - I hate this - cute). Then I realised that there are much nicer things to drink and no one actually thinks you are hardcore for drinking beer anyway. And then I discovered (or my Brother-in-Law did) Goblins Bitter which was my introduction to the wonderful world of beer variety and, following that, craft beer in all its beautiful subtle varieties. 

Having said that, this tour, made me realise, that we should be drinking more SAB beer, and by the quart - because quart bottles are fully recyclable. In our world of increasing waste and overflowing landfills it is awesome to find a product that you can fully recycle. (They even give you a bottle deposit back - when did that stop with other types of bottles?) 

They also try reuse or sell on all of their by-products which is fabulous. Newlands Brewery uses clean coal burning technology, (yes, I know coal is evil, but they are keeping it clean as possible) and the excess ash goes to the cement industry. They use normal beer ingredients, of course, and try to source those ingredients locally. (Although due to regulations, they need Italian maize for Peroni - so stick with the local stuff). Once the hops and grains have been used they are sent to cattle farmers to supplement feed. Even the excess CO2 is used to make cooldrinks fizzy. 

The best thing is instead of the standard 5L water for every 1L of beer, they have adjusted their process to be 1.5L of water for every 1L of beer. (On the back of the bathroom doors at the Two Oceans Aquarium they have infographs of the amount of water that is used to make things, and the alcohol stats have always made me feel guilty because, let's face it, I am not going to stop drinking wine). The water is spring water - and actually the reason that the brewery (which was established, under a different name, shortly after Van Riebeek came to our shores) is where it is. (And you can go collect spring water from Newlands free of charge). 

Finally, after the tour and beer tasting, I was able to bring myself to ask a question about the filtering process. You see, on one brewery tour in the UK I found out that they use isinglas to filter their beers. Isinglas (I remember the name because it sounds like Isengard from Lord of the Rings) is a fish product - to be exact - the dried swim bladders of fish and given that I don't eat fish (any, ever) this horrified me. I had unwittingly been eating fish in my beer. Luckily, Newlands Brewery uses a totally fish-free filtering system (that didn't sound like a place in Lord of the Rings  so I forgot what it was called)! 

I failed to take photos of anything
other than the free drinks...
This was huge, a combination of
milk stout and
ginger and apple brutal fruit. YUM

While I was listening to the lovely and well-informed tour guide I was thinking about all the times that I have had people tell me that all the big fishing companies (insert the first name that comes to mind) are to blame for over-fishing, and how I have tried to explain that generally, the big fishing companies are the ones that stick to the rules (and work with management and science and fund research - mine included) because they have names they have to protect. They are the companies that are monitored and audited and they are the companies that can't afford a scandal. (Having said that, I am not saying what any fishing industry does is perfect, but usually I am having these conversations while trying to promote MSC, which puts the power into the consumers' hands - through peer-pressure which we all know is effective - ask the cigarette companies - but is mostly initiated by big fishing companies).  

I know that Newlands Brewery has to portray an image of responsible environmental practice (particularly given that it is in the middle of a middle-class suburban area), and I am aware that these practices help keep costs down for them so they make economic sense, but I am not judging motives, I am just glad it is happening. And I am sure someone will find ways to criticise any industry, but I think we should shout out loud about positive practices so that more and more industries start to feel the peer-pressure to do the same. 

PS Did you know, Brutal Fruit is actually BEER! They just add fruit juice - real fruit juice made from fruit they squeeze themselves - to the beer. Ditto Redds - totally beer - they add apple to the maize.