Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f or future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling’s. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.

She paid the $460 WoF bill and worked out how much keeping the car in their driveway actually cost them! The car is worth $2000 at most.

They budget $11.46 for licensing, $16.86 for insurance and $50 for petrol per fortnight. AA yearly membership is $79, $39 for spouse as associate, and $71 for son – ie. another $7.27 per fortnight, which totals about $224 (including that WoF bill) to keep the car going each month, or $2,686 pa.

We could have about 14 hours of CityHop usage per month instead and we probably wouldn’t need it so would SAVE!

Yep Liz and best of all the money you save gets spent in your local community. A win-win for all. Oh and not driving your car means your community has cleaner air, less road congestion, safer streets. So many reasons why carshare is good!

We are looking to add some new car parks in Auckland and Wellington. Keep an eye on cityhoppa!

Carla Van Zon, Owain Arthur and Victoria Carter

It began with a big bang, with Groupe F, the French Troupe and their ‘breathe of the volcano’ a stunning visual light and fireworks spectacular with images of Auckland using the museum as a back drop. We’ve had co-productions with ATC, APO, so many local artists as well as impressive international theatre companies.

We’ve been stirred as Kila Kokonut Krew told their story of living in the 70′s with The Factory, Hui,a moving story of the challenge of defying Maori tradition, we’ve sung along at Everything is Ka Pai, even the Governor General looked like he had a ball.

I’m hugely proud of this Festival and what the team have achieved. Festivals don’t spring into life, they take a lot of hard work, enormous co-oriundation and orgnisations, something our team is pretty experienced at. They make the job of running this HUGE event easy!

Thank you to the writer in the Central Leader ‘Off Pat’ who wrote, ” we are so fortunate to have creative inspired citizens who’re prepared both to organise these Festivals and donate their time and money to make them happen. We all know that Wellington – based governments starve Auckland – our biggest population centre – of money for cultural activities, and the success of the Festival is a real tribute to the public spiritedness of generous citizens, inspired and dedicated organisers, both paid and unpaid, who’ve made the Festival happen.

Now we have the challenge of persuading Auckland Council and others that it is time for Auckland to go annual. Brian Rudman of the NZ Herald  wrote a great piece on how Auckland could and should fund it. While Wayne Thompson outlined some of the reasons it makes sense. We’ll let you know what happens. And now Victoria can focus back on her othr job! Encouraging people to drive less and share more!

Oh and in case you wondered Auckland Festival use Cityhop!

Victoria with Patron Sir James Wallace after the exquisite War Requiem with the APO, Youth Choir, Voice NZ Chamber Choir and soloists.

“I guess a New Year is a good time to start something but as we know from the statistics so many people say they want o do something and rarely do! What has this to do with car share? Well quite a bit! Probably lots of people made resolutions to get fit, save more money and the obvious way to do this is through carshare. But every step towards change truly occurs with a small step.

“Thinking about this I read one of my favourite author’s tweets, Gretchen Rubin on “Don’t let the perfect be the  enemy of the good.”

“It makes so much sense, it is so often how we sabotage our good intentions.  As Gretchen reminds far better to do a 20 minute walk than never do the 3 mile run. Have friends over for takeaways is better than having no people to a flash dinner party.

“It’s all about one’s outlook. Same applies to carshare; keep your car if you want but perhaps consider selling one in your family and get a carshare membership and give it a try.

See how easy carshare is, how convenient. First work out what your car really costs and then think about what you could do with that money (not just once but every year!)”

This week’s Time magazine has a fascinating story on the tastiest and healthiest food is also the least expensive and most ordinary!

Written by Dr Mehmet Oz the story explains that food like frozen spinach, peas, carrots are full of goodness and a lot cheaper to buy than the Farmer’s Market variety so if you are on a budget you can still give your family 5 fruit and vegetables a day.

Dr Oz also explains the goodness in bottled and canned foods - another way to get vegetables into your diet affordably.The article doesn’t just spout the virtues of vegetables, it covers the quantities of meat we should eat.  Avoid ‘fried chicken’ an item Dr Oz says best describes where the US has gone wrong,  why would you deep fry a meat that is renowned for being a lean and tasty meat?

He is also a fan of what he calls the ‘downmarket fish and meats found in cans.’ Canned salmon is nourishing and easy to prepare. Tuna is loaded with niacin, selaenium, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids. “A sandwich done lean and right on wholewhrat bread with lettuce and tomatoes is comfort food at its finest with little nutritional blowback.”

Worth reading and sharing!

A charming puppet show, The Man Who Planted Trees, a story about a man who transforms the countryside one acorn at a time will enchant.

A Rhinoceros in Love  performed on a flooded stage by the National Theatre of China will transport you to the life of a 20 year old in Beijing, checking out Facebook profiles to see if you have a job, how much money you have, to determine possible dating partners!

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart from the National Theatre of Scotland is a story of an uptight academic who is tempted by the Devil while holed up in a bar when a blizzard sets in!

Love music, then check our Every thing is Ka Pai, an evening of whakapapa and home grown sounds. Revitalised renditions by The Yoots, Annie Crummer, even John Rowles and of course, there will definately be  Ten Guitars sung. Pictured below is Annie Crummer and Victoria Carter, chair of the Festival at the launch.

A child enjoying a recycled Webbs auction catalogue!

This month I read in an Ecostore tweet that it’s Buy Nothing New Month! It’s a great idea and in a way carshare members are already living the thinking by sharing cars.

What began in Melbourne is becoming a global movement for collective, conscientious consumption.  In 2011, Sydney Morning Herald ran a poll asking “is Buy Nothing New Month a good idea?”  Over 10,000 voted. 82% said “yes”

Explains the website, “It’s a one month challenge to buy nothing new  (with the exception of essentials like food, hygiene and medicines)
Buy Nothing New Month isn’t Buy Nothing New Never. Nor is it about going without. It’s literally about taking one month off to really think, “Do I really need it?” If I do, “can I get it second-hand, borrow it or rent it? What are my alternatives? Can I borrow from a friend? Can I swap with my neighbour?”
It’s about thinking where our stuff comes from (finite resources) and where it goes when we’re done (often landfill) and what are the fantastic alternatives out there to extend the life of our ‘stuff’. ”

Got Affluenza?  The site refers to a  2005 paper from the Australia Institute by Clive Hamilton Richard Denniss and David Baker tells us “Aussies have admitted to spending over $10 billion every year on goods we do not use: clothes and shoes we never wear, CDs we never listen to, DVDs we never watch and food we never eat and each year in Australia nearly 20 million tonnes of waste goes to landfill. By way of comparison, this amount exceeds spending by Australian governments on universities and roads.”

Today after encouraging my family to have a big sort out at the weekend I delivered  a car load of clothing, sneakers, shirts, even a couple of suits to Edmund Hillary school in Otara (they have a junior, middle and senior school). I also took four boxes of books including a set of children’s encyclopedias. My neighbour had her children go through their shelves too. That is perhaps the best part of Buy Nothing New Month – think about what you don’t need or what you can share.

Enjoy the quotes  As Annie Leonard the author of Stuff reminds: “Recycling is what we do when we’re out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the product first. Firstly: Reduce. Don’t buy what we don’t need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: Share. Then, only when you’ve exhausted those options, recycle.

It’s good for us, will make your  wallet heavier and our planet lighter!

“We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.” BILL BRYSON

Great clip on TVNZ Closeup on how much food we kiwis waste.  http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/taking-new-zealand-s-food-waste-video-5065256

“Not in my household,” says Cityhop founder Victoria Carter. ”My  wheelie bin has no foodwaste ( well maybe the odd lemon!) because it all goes into a HungryBin worm farm!”

The Close Up clip says 1/4 of rubbish in our landfills is food waste. 50 % of most people’s wheelie bins is food waste. We can’t keep building more landfills and with concepts like Hungry Bins there is no need for food waste to go to the dump.  Statistics like this prove that we are buying too much food and it goes off so gets thrown away. Zero Waste say an Australian study showed that the average person throws away about $500 worth of food per year.

Lou Lennane  is seen in the clip delivering food from Countdown to people who put the fruit and vege waste to great use. A public health nurse takes three boxes to homes where children don’t see much fresh fruit and veges.  I am trying to find out more about Fairfood and will follow up. Looks like a great concept.

Seems to me car share and food waste have a lot in common. Once we become aware of our waste ( wasted car journeys and pollution it creates or wasted food and mess it creates in landfills) perhaps the more aware we will be and then the more we will think twice about whether we really need to overfill our trolleys with food or whether we really need to take that car journey or could we walk, bike, bus and so on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKGNhT3rTxo&feature=youtu.be

Says the utube link: “Too many cars in our cities. We need space for street life! Modern Car-Sharing reduces the demand for parking. Let’s reclaim the space for better purposes! The European momo project -lead by the City of Bremen – (www.momo-cs.eu) shows how it works: space for citizens instead for parking. 600,000 cars could be replaced in European cities…”

What could our cities look like. Seeing today’s NZ Herald and its big story on the new layout for Christchurch I wondered how many carparks and whether the city was re-thinking its transport policies?

Thoughts welcome.

Our friends at GoGet Research Department, Australia’s biggest carshare club  have discovered that carsharing makes you sexy!

A new study from l’Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, published in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, has found that people who carshare use a car 3.7 times less than car owners, use public transport 10-20% more often, and walk around 20% more.

By cross referencing this study with another study from St Andrew’s University in Scotland, that claims people find healthier faces more attractive, the GoGet Research Department, has come to the simple, yet radical, conclusion…. carsharing makes you sexier!