I've been away,
which explains the radio silence on the Sustainable diary for the past few days.
I've been very busy with my day job and I also did a bit of travelling,
Now I'm here, ready to write.
30 mar 2013
18 mar 2013
Dabba wallas: 4,000 men and 175,000 lunches delivered. A sustainable food delivery system
Today
Sustainable diary writes about the successful system of the Dabbawallas, who manage to deliver food from mothers and wives at home
into the hands of their sons and husbands who are off at work.
“Dabbawalla” comes from the term tiffin dabba, referring to a
tiered lunch box and “walla,” a carrier or vendor.
This
process, how you can see in the video, is complete sustainable.
"In
India, where many traditions are being rapidly overturned as a result
of globalization, the practice of eating a home-cooked meal for lunch
lives on.
To
achieve that in this sprawling urban amalgamation of an estimated 25
million people, where long commutes by train and bus are routine,
Mumbai residents rely on an intricately organized, labor-intensive
operation that puts some automated high-tech systems to shame. It
manages to deliver tens of thousands of meals to workplaces all over
the city with near-clockwork precision".
Dabbawallas's
video is realized by The Perennial Plate, who explain: "Each day
in Mumbai 4000 men in white outfits and matching hats transport
175,000 lunches across the big city. They retrieve the tiffens (lunch
containers) of food from mothers and wives, and bring them (by foot,
train, bicycle and even carried on top of their heads) to the office
buildings of waiting husbands and sons. The Dabba wallas have been
doing this since the late 1800s. Despite the unsophisticated mode of
transport, the lunches always arrive on time (the error rate is 1 in
every 16 million transactions). It's a pretty impressive feat and we
were lucky enough to follow a couple Dabba Wallas for a day in
Mumbai, and see their work first hand."
Despite
the influx of food chains and eateries in Mumbai over the last
decade, demand for the lunchtime service is higher than ever before,
with customers from multinational corporations and hedge funds. If we
thought it was too hard to have a hot, home-cooked meal for lunch
each day, well, this organization proves us wrong.
More info
website The Perennial Plate
17 mar 2013
Sunday's tale: Bottle Masonry. Made house with recycled plastic bottles
Sunday's
Tale: a post from the past
On
Sustainable diary last Sunday we spoke about an amazing building made
with glass bottles, and also today we decide to tell a bottle’s
story.
Plastic
bottle construction is an idea of Andreas Froese, an architect and
environmental entrepreneur. Froese developed Eco-Tec, a method to
utilize plastic (PET) bottles as “bricks” in the construction of
houses, latrines, and water tanks. It is a good idea to address the
problem by putting to use some of the million plastic water bottles
discards each day in developing nations.
The
first plastic bottle construction project in Africa was pioneered in
Uganda by an organization called Butakoola Village Association forDevelopment - BUVAD. BUVAD is located in Kayunga, a district north
of Kampala.
They
teamed up with Eco-Tec to bring bottle construction technology to
Uganda in the form of a latrine block. Students and community
members at a local primary school collected and filled bottles found
throughout the community and together they built a block of latrines
for their school. Constructed in April 2010, BUVAD’s latrine block
was the first of its kind on the continent.
Benefits
of Bottle Construction
Waste
management - A small house can use as many as 10,000 bottles, waste
that would otherwise be deposited in a landfill or burned.
Environmental
protection - Unlike “traditional” bricks, bottle bricks are not
fired, a process which uses much firewood and contributes to
deforestation.
Cost
effective - Building with bottles is typically less expensive than
building with bricks as the main construction material is trash.
Job
creation – The construction process of building with bottles is
work intensive. This means many can be involved in the process,
creating opportunities for employment and community involvement, from
collecting to filling to building. While this method would
potentially be costly in more industrialized nations, where labor is
expensive and materials are cheap, in countries like Uganda,
materials are expensive, labor is cheap, and jobs are in demand.
Shock
resistant – The plastic coating of “bottle bricks” makes them
more flexible than fired bricks. Bottle construction has greater
shock resistance and is well suited for earthquake prone areas.
Long
lasting – It is estimated that it takes a plastic bottle
approximately 300 years to decompose.
More info
website Eco-Tec
Photo credit © Aminu Abubakar
16 mar 2013
Buffalo Project: on-demand mobile electricity. A simple and unique solution
Having
an operational phone means access to services that have improved
banking, health and farming in Africa and Asia. Many millions of
people at the bottom of the economic pyramid are expected to acquire
mobile phones, greatly benefiting their lives, business activities
and access to information. However, most of these new subscribers
will not have direct access to electricity.
In
addition to this, Buffalo provides environmental benefits through
supplying zero CO2 power which translates into increased access to
safe lighting. The system can also be used to provide off-grid power
for a range of uses from medical to educational applications.
It
will help in bringing a considerable amount of economic growth to
hundreds of rural communities around the world.
More
info
website Buffalo Grid
facebook
page
Photo
credit © Buffalo Grid
Buffalo
entrepreneur, Bududa village, Uganda
