My Green Lifestyle
Noa Guigui, France
Tackling Food Waste
Jonathan Straight, United Kingdom
Trees, Bees and Start Ups
Marco Nadler, Germany
Nature’s Celebration of Diversity
Marcelo Schapo, Brazil
Learning Through Nature
Carlos Chiver, Mexico
My Green Lifestyle
Noa Guigui
France
Climate change is a true source of anxiety for my generation. How can we dream about our future when we know chaos is awaiting us? How can we rethink our happiness when most of our pleasures potentially harm our planet?
I grew up with the dream of traveling and exploring the world, but I now also know that plane travel leaves a huge carbon footprint and I cannot use it as much as I would like. But stopping weekend getaways to other countries hasn't made me less happy. Instead, I've discovered the joys of slow travel. Doing a seventeen-hour train trip makes you recognize the great distance you have travelled, and you feel more in touch with the reality of what traveling actually means.
Each item I find is a true gem or treasure I was lucky enough to discover.
Another domain in which I channel my eco-anxiety is consumption in general. I've found that asking myself if I really need something before buying it and trying to find the most eco-responsible way to consume when I do has assuaged for me the often stressful and unsatisfying urge of always wanting more, cheaper and faster. I now buy only secondhand clothes, and when I shop in a secondhand store, it seems as if each item I find is a true gem or treasure I was lucky enough to discover. It's as if we were meant to meet and the story behind the article makes it even more precious. Just yesterday, I met a girl who was wearing a coat I had when I was in primary school! When she told me she had found it in a second-hand store, she was very moved by the story I myself recounted about this coat she had just bought by chance.
Caring about our planet and adjusting our lifestyle shouldn't be synonymous with pain, but with a change of mentality and the reconsideration of our desires and needs.
Tackling Food Waste
Jonathan Straight
United Kingdom
The environment may well be on the minds of many readers, as we have recently celebrated the festival of Tu B'Shevat – the new year for trees. The festival falls on the 15th day of the month of Shevat, with "Tu" being a numerical representation of the number fifteen.
The Jewish calendar has four new years, and this is one of them. Farmers used this date in biblical times to mark the age of a tree for giving tithes. Tu B'Shevat also marks the point after which people could eat the fruit of a tree; for the first three years, the fruit was termed orla and was considered forbidden to be consumed; many continue to observe this rule to this day. While the observant do not question the rationale for such regulations, it is evident that whatever other reasons there may be, this is good agricultural practice and encourages careful cultivation and pruning. The resulting trees will mature well and give good harvests.
Since the Middle Ages, kabbalists and those of a mystical persuasion have celebrated the festival with a seder – a service during which ten fruits are eaten (representing the ten divine emanations referred to in kabbalistic literature) and four cups of wine are drunk, as at the Passover seder.
Many others adopt the day in Israel and the Diaspora to further environmental awareness. Spring is just around the corner, and it is an excellent time to take stock. There is no doubt that the environment remains one of the issues most people are concerned about for their future and that of their offspring.
We know that the world's big economies produce a lot of damaging greenhouse gasses, and it doesn't take a genius to recognize that the two key emitters are the USA and China. But here is something less well-known: if food waste were a country, it would be the world's third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. That's right – wasted food is one of the most significant contributors to climate change. Research demonstrates that around a third of all food produced ends up in the bin. This is a horrifying statistic, given that more than eight million people struggle to feed themselves adequately in the UK alone.
If food waste were a country, it would be the world's third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide.
Food is wasted throughout the supply chain, from farm to producer to retailer. Yet, at all these stages, action is being taken to reduce waste with a reasonable degree of success. The biggest problem remains household waste: 70% of all food wasted in the UK occurs in the home, and the figure is similar everywhere else in the world. The truth is that most of us buy too much food, with potatoes and bread at the top of the list. Every day, 24,000,000 slices of bread are thrown out, wasting the water, fertilizer and energy used to grow and harvest the ingredients, the energy and labour producing the bread, the transport at every stage of its journey and the packaging used to move it about. Waste like this causes greenhouse gasses, which feed climate change. We can break the cycle by turning stale bread into toast or croutons or simply freezing it until needed.
Understanding food labelling is another great way to reduce food waste. In the UK, a label that says "best before" means just that. The food is likely to be perfectly OK after that date, with a simple sniff test as the best judge of quality. Tinned or dried food can be fine several years after that date has passed. "Use by", on the other hand, is a mark of food safety, and anything past this date should not be eaten.
No one believes they waste any significant amount of food, yet most of us participate in this scandalous activity. A new year often prompts resolutions, so I'm asking you all to open your eyes to the food you might be wasting and change from being part of the problem to being part of the solution. With £19 billion going in the bin each year, it might just save you some money too.
Hope you had a Chag Tu b’Shevat Sameach!
Jonathan Straight is a Yorkshire-based entrepreneur and photographer. Among other roles, he is the brand ambassador and sustainability advisor for Surplus Group, owner of the Approved Food online supermarket selling surplus food and drink. He is a member of the Courtauld 2030 Food Redistribution Working Group, leading action on reducing food waste.
Trees, Bees and Start Ups
Marco Nadler
Germany
The Jewish new year of the trees, Tu b’Shevat, also called Chag Ha'illanot (holiday of the trees), is named for the date on which it falls, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. Trees are planted in Israel on this day, which also marks the beginning of spring. This fact has inspired me to transform my own environment into a “greener” one, with my
garden in Germany.
My neighbour and I share a community garden, unseparated by fences, with five other neighbours. The neighbour's rabbits are always on our side of the garden, maybe because the grass is greener and they have access to a selection of herbs that they love to eat.
This year we will plant additional trees known as honey plants that provide honeybees with ample pollen and nectar, food for bees. Much of the food we eat such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and even our beloved coffee, would not be available without the bees! Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, "If the bees disappear, man has only four years to live."
If the bees disappear, man has only four years to live.
I have also been thinking for a long time about investing in a high-tech machine from Israel that will assist in making my environment flourish with the help of the busy bees.
To counteract the bee deaths and the mass extinction of the honeybee, an Israeli start-up company, BeeWise, has developed BeeHome, a proprietary robotic beehive that houses twenty-four colonies, allowing beekeepers to remotely treat their hives and care for their bees.
With an app on a smartphone, a beekeeper can monitor the well-being of the small insects in their apiary. We look forward to using our very own honey at our Rosh Hashana table this year.
Arial view of the community garden.
Beehome device that houses 24 bee colonies, allowing beekeepers to remotely treat their hives and care for their bees. Photo Courtesy of BeeWise
Nature’s Celebration of Diversity
Marcelo Schapo
Brazil
Tu B’Shevat is a giant demonstration of how life is valued in Jewish culture. It is also a celebration of diversity, symbolized by the seven species shivat haminim: wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive and date. At the Tu B’Shevat seder, we travel through the four seasons of the year, arriving at the season in which the seeds germinate and everything is plural.
Mother Nature insists on teaching us. Did you know that annual monocultures (the cultivation of a single crop in a given area) are much more susceptible to diseases and pests, requiring a higher amount of pesticides and fertilizers, with a high probability of soil depletion? Polycultures, on the other hand, with their varied ecosystems, provide species diversity, which provides chemical variety, maintaining the cycle of nutrients, which greatly increases resistance to diseases and pests, and requires the use of much smaller amounts of pesticides and fertilizers. We must encourage everyone in our community to evaluate their habits and be aware of excessive consumption, the senseless daily production of waste, and the improper disposal of various materials. We are depleting all our natural resources and contaminating those that remain.
Mother Nature insists on teaching us.
“Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” As an example, I can mention that I am part of a group of residents who maintain squares in the region where we live in the west zone of Sao Paulo. We organize environmental, educational activities for children and plant native species. We also participate in another multi-professional group that contributes with the prefecture/municipal government in collaborative work for green solutions in the fight against floods. In the last two years, even with the pandemic, more than 250 rain gardens were built in the city of São Paulo.
May man learn from nature!
Marcelo Schapo is a Professor and Environmentalist.
Learning Through Nature
Carlos Chiver
Mexico
Learning is an intrinsic part of a person’s development. As a formal process, education is a political act in every cultural context; therefore, all education should be an education for freedom. In the current global context, it is a priority to turn to education as the most important source of socio-environmental regeneration, contributing to political, cultural and environmental action to ensure the well-being of our common future on all levels, from the regional to the global.
We live in a time of extraordinary opportunity. The birth of regenerative cultures and a regenerative human civilization is the most profound transformative innovation that our species has undergone since we began to settle as agriculturalists.
We live in a time of extraordinary opportunity.
In this sense, we need to ask ourselves what the role of a school is within its natural, social, political and economic environment in a regenerative community. How can we contribute, not just as individual human beings, but as living organisms, as a school or a community in order to achieve a more sustainable environment? As a school, we at Merkaz Montessori have asked ourselves these questions, and we are aware of the importance of strengthening our education system with regard to the restoration of the environment, the redefinition of our human value system and our contribution to the regeneration of our individual, collective and natural relationships. And most importantly, we are aware that the answer lies in nature itself. That is why we focus on learning from nature, through nature, the way nature itself does… and we encourage everyone to join us in that journey.
Carlos Chiver is head of sustainability and co-founder of Merkaz Montessori School along with Jessica Sacal.
Contact and connect with us on Instagram @merkaz_montessori or by email Info@merkaz.con.mx
Photos published with permission from Merkaz Montessori School
Copyright © 2024 Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd. / Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
This website shall not constitute investment advice in any form.
For sales outside of the European Union, the United States and Canada:
Development Company for Israel (International) Ltd.
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
For sales in the European Union:
Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH
Competent supervisory authority: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht www.bafin.de
French branch of Development Company for Israel (Europe) GmbH
Competent supervisory authority: Bundesanstalt fuer Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht www.bafin.de, and Autorité des Marchés Financiers www.amf-france.org
Certain of the material on this site may be an advertisement under applicable law.
Site Design & development by HOMAGE