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“Water has no substitutes. We can transition away from coal and oil to solar, wind and other renewable resources, but there’s no transitioning away from water.” - Sandra Postel, Global Water Policy Project.
By Alexandra and Philippe Cousteau via Reader’s Digest
Consuming less water is easier than you think. Here are some suggestions about making smarter choices.
1. Clean Green
Sixty-nine percent of the rivers and streams analyzed in 2002 contained metabolites of strong detergents, and 66% contained disinfectants, so look for non-toxic cleaning products.
2. Vegetarian Once a Week
Did you know that more than 500 litres of water are required to produce a steak? As an alternative, why not opt for a vegetable casserole or whole grains from time to time?
3. Creative Landscaping
Select local plant species that will thrive with minimal maintenance. Remember to water early in the morning or at dusk.
4. Sustainable Fish and Seafood
If you’d like to be able to still enjoy eating fish in 40 years or so, make discerning choices now. Find fish that are healthy for you and the ocean at m.ed.org/seafood.
5. In the Bathroom
Adjust the thermometer on your water heater to 50 degree Celcius and install high-efficiency toilets.
6. In the Kitchen
Wash your fruit and vegetables in a salad spinner. You can reuse the water on your houseplants.
This Christmas season, grab some great green gifts for your loved ones. Here are some of my favorites.
Elegant Watercolor Silk Clutch
A perfect compliment for all the year-end and new year parties for the diva of your life. This silk clutch from Naturally Knotty is beautifully-crafted out of scraps of silk from the factory, that would otherwise end up at the landfill.
Recycled Jewel-tone Glass Vases
These gorgeous frosted bottle vases made from recycled glasses have such unconventional shapes that will surely brighten up your space with the accompaniment of your favorite blooms. ‘Gift’ them in a set to make a bold statement or individually from VivaTerra.
Red Felted Wool Slippers
I’m totally in love with this cute little pair of wool slippers from VivaTerra! These slippers are handmade in Nepal by a group of women supported by the UN Global Compact’s Program. Plus, they’re made from luxurious New Zealand wool! A good enough reason to keep your loved one’s feet warm this winter season!
Recycled Chopstick Soap Dish
This soap dish has a very creative yet functional design by artist Bryan Parks. Handmade in the Yunnan Province in China from recycled chopsticks, this one makes a great conversational piece for the guests and it’s very affordable at $10 a piece. Here’s a little background story of this design by uncommongoods.
After living in China for several years and witnessing, on a large scale, the wasteful habit of disposable chopsticks, artist Bryan Parks decided he had to do something about it. So, he set to work designing functional, sculptural folding pieces handmade from recycled, sanitized bamboo chopsticks.
And now, to know what NOT to give for this holiday season, hop over to PlanetGreen to read Josh Peterson’s Anti-Gift List.
Hop over to Anil’s blog to find out what’s going on with the country once much-acclaimed Penang Botanical Garden.
Eco-stream or eco-tampering? by Anil Netto
…He said he didn’t know what was so “eco” about it when they are clearing the vegetation from the banks of the stream, raising the level of the banks and putting in some kind of matting for the pedestrian walkway…
The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) recently held its 24th International Air Cargo Forum & Exposition (ACF 2008) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center last week. The Air Cargo Forum is the world’s biggest biennial air cargo industry event that rotates every two years between Europe, Americas, and Asia.
I was assigned to design the floral centerpieces for Emirates Sky Cargo and Mercator, the IT division of the Dubai-based Emirates Group. Emirates had one of the most impressive stands at the convention centre, where they built up a 2-storey display booth complete with reception desks, bars, and meeting rooms.
To complement the Emirates’ logo, the color theme of the floral centerpieces for Emirates Sky Cargo is red, white, and green. For the reception desks and bars, I’ve used a mixture of tropical crab claws, red gladiolus, white dendrobium orchids, and some fatsia japonicas in elegant frosted glass vases.
 
As for the meeting rooms and coffee tables, the main flowers used were red roses, carnations, and Casablanca lilies. The overall look and feel of the floral designs that I wanted to achieve was understated elegance. I refrained from using fancy vases of different colors and shapes, as I wanted the focus to be on the flowers and the round clear vases helped complete the look.
On the left (below): Small round centerpieces for the tables. The texture of the full-bloomed carnations enhanced the visibility of the tiny hypericums.
On the right (below): One of the floral displays for Mercator, a blend of golden ramsies and green dendrobium orchids, and fatsia japonicas.
 
 It is every woman’s dream to have a diamond ring presented to them by their man, at least once in their lifetime. The notion that “diamond is forever” or that “diamond is the symbol of love, beauty, and purity” has long been fed to us from the advertising agencies.
Each year, diamond producers spend millions of dollars in advertising to promote their diamonds. Decades of heavy advertising and “brain-washing” had resulted in heightening diamond’s value in the eyes of consumers.
Today, diamonds are often associated with power, wealth, and status in the society and it is a “must-have” item if you’re planning to propose to your girlfriend. But is diamond really that valuable? Do you know the origin of your diamond ring? Is diamond worth your “investment”? I was clueless and ignorant about diamonds until I watched the movie - Blood Diamond. I did some research online about the issue, and it totally opened my eyes about the diamond industry.
According to Wikipedia, “Blood diamond (also called a converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond or a war diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, in order to finance an insurgency, invading army’s war efforts, or supporting a warlord’s activity, usually in Africa.”
Although not all diamonds originate from the conflict war zones, at present, the diamond industry and government authorities have yet to commit themselves in having a fully transparent diamond monitoring and standardization process. Even with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) established, we can still never be sure of the origin of the diamonds sold in our local jewelry stores today.
Monitoring the Kimberley Process
The biggest weakness of the Kimberley Process is how it is monitored. Any country can become a member of the Kimberley Process just by sending a letter to the organization’s president, currently, the European Commission. Whether or not the country meets the standards of the Kimberley Process, it can still become a member.[16] This means that many conflict diamonds are still getting past the Kimberly Certification Scheme because some countries don’t meet the requirements of the Kimberley Process. However, as of 2007, it is estimated that its share in total trade of rough diamond has come down to only USD 10.2 million.
via Wikipedia
Here are 10 reasons why we should resist the “diamond temptation” by Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist - The Ultimate Field Guide to the US Economy.
Campaign Against “Blood Diamonds”
Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One
1. You’ve Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond
The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.
2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value
The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.
3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value
Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers’ advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original “value.”
4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS
Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.
5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats
Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.
6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People’s Rights
Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.
7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds
More than one-half of the world’s diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.
8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa
There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.
9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors
Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.
10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling
Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 billion small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.
It is not just simply a case of eliminating CONFLICT DIAMONDS ie diamonds produced and sold to finance armed conflicts and gross violations of human rights. We also need to look at what is happening in those non-conflict zones, in the mining of diamonds and human rights violations for the workers in the mines.
Quote from one of the commentators of the movie, “Check out Blood Diamond, your bling may never look the same again”. Very much indeed!
Further readings:
Combating Conflict Diamonds
De Beers Sees Threat of Blood Diamonds
The Jewels in September Elle Come at an Extremely High Price
De Beers Pleads Guilty in Price Fixing Case
History of Single Life: Diamond Engagement Rings
Namibia: Exposing The Corrupt Practices Of The De Beers Diamond Cartel
Why De Beers Wants You ‘Blood Diamond’-Savvy
Am please to introduce the LeFiores Designer Cards. These cards are hand-painted by our designers. The idea is to reduce paper wastage by not pre-printing too many cards which might get “discarded” once they are out of fashion.
The watercolor design above is painted on high quality 200 GSM acid-free watercolor paper.
 The “Vase Bouquets Collection” finally made its debut! This is one of Lefiores’s eco-friendly solution to curb the ever-increasing paper and plastic usage in Malaysia’s floral industry. I for one, strongly believe in living towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Every choice that we make, no matter how insignificant, matters. Saving the environment means ensuring a brighter future for generations to come.
Now, there’s a greener way of sending flowers to your loved ones. If you are used to sending hand-tied bouquets, you might want to know how sending flowers in vases helps you to save more money and save our environment. Here are 5 reasons why you should send flowers in a vase.
For starters, our Vase Bouquets collection consists of dendrobium orchids and imported long stems red roses. These bouquets come together with signature glass vases. Delivery within Klang Valley (Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur), Melaka and Pulau Pinang is free, yup, even after the petrol hike. For Singapore deliveries, please email me directly at ammie@lefiores.com.
Tell your loved ones how much you love her and the earth by sending a vase bouquet today. Together, we can make a difference towards a greener Earth!
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