Ecoteer

EcoHab – our future home

Ever since we first saw the EcoHab units we had to find out more. Ecoteer interviews the designer of these space age homes which are a reality in 2010.

1) what inspired you to do this? what was the defining moment?

Buildings and structures have always inspired me (Aidan Quinn – Managing Director and Designer). I have always been fascinated by the great domes of Rome, Venice and Florence. Being a product designer, I have always wanted to build my own house but I wanted to step away from conventional architecture and build something that would appeal to me in every sense. I wanted something that offered me a sense of space without being too extravagant. I wanted something that offered me a sense of style without being too expensive. I wanted something that was efficient, well lit, economical and comfortable; a home that was future proofed against energy costs and CO2 emissions.
2) what is the largest EcoHab you have built and how much did it cost?

Right now, we’re constructing our largest to date, a 3 domed pod for a prestigious client in Cheshire.
This order is to the value of approx £80,000.00. It’s total floor area is 88sq Meters.

3) do you have one?

(Aidan) I have lived for 4 months in one of my dual level prototypes if that counts, but no, I live in a conventional house unfortunately!! I must sell each Ecohab I produce to generate enough funds to continue the project. I do plan on installing one in Spain which I can retire in when the time comes.

4) whats the worst bit about living inside them?
Our office is a 4m diameter dual level EcoHab and the only downside is that you cannot buy standard furniture because of the curvature of the internal walls. The internal furniture must be built and curved bespoke to each build. Fantastic if you love to be different, but it may not appeal to avid IKEA shoppers!!

To find out more speak to Gemma at www.ecohab.co.uk

Go Rubbish free for a year

Check this video out. It has inspired me to reduce my waste!

Day 1 – Going to Tenggol island and walking to Rantau Abang

Coral bleaching

Interview with Capt Mok

Walking Tanjong Jara Resort to Rantau Abang

Sea turtles are “ambassadors of the oceans”, for conserving these animals means protecting the seas and coastal areas. The collection of nesting numbers is vital for their conservation but has never been conducted statewide in Terengganu therefore the walk will provide invaluable data which the decision makers wouldnt otherwise have. The Walk for Turtles event is a 10 day walk which will start, annually, on World Sea Turtle Day (16th June), in 2010 from Dungun to Kuala Besut, visiting every beach along the way (mainland and islands). The team will be collecting invaluable sea turtle data during the walk, visit conservation projects and give awareness talks. The data will be used to identify potential new areas for sea turtle nest conservation in Terengganu. The walk will be further extended in 2011 to cover all beaches in the State of Terengganu resulting in a thorough annual monitoring of sea turtle nesting densities. Raising awareness is the second objective of the walk with the team hosting presentations, meeting turtle conservation experts and visiting conservation projects. The event will be broadcast via the worldwide web, television and newspapers raising awareness throughout the world. The third objective of the walk is to raise RM100,000 for sea turtle conservation projects throughout Terengganu. The funds will be used to support sea turtle conservation in Terengganu, Malaysia.

To find out more walk for turtles

Worst coral bleaching event on record!

I’m volunteering at a Thai University, and have been studying corals for several months now. Naturally, when the opportunity came to go to the Andaman Sea for field work, I jumped at the chance. We were going to survey the extent of what we initially thought to be a local coral bleaching event, and although I knew it would not be pretty, I had seen a few bleached corals before, and wasn’t expecting a shock. My expectations could not have been further from the harsh, stark white reality. Looking from the boat into the crystal clear waters around Ko Adang, it was obvious from the surface that the corals, usually rich tapestry of mixed purple, green, browns, yellows and blues, were all startlingly pale. Closer inspection on SCUBA revealed that almost 100% of corals were affected. Some were bleached only partially, with pale hints of their previous colour or small patches that were less severely affected, but most were all over a brilliant glaring white. Giant clams, anemones, soft corals and zooanthids were all also affected.

Alarmed at what we had seen, we contacted people over a wider area and my fields at Ecoteer informed me that Malaysia has also suffered severe bleaching. It seems that the entire Indian Ocean has been affected, from Mauritius right across South East Asia to Papua new Guinea. There are even predictions that this event, caused by an extended spell of calm, warm weather conditions, may be even worse than the widespread mass coral bleaching of 1998 which is the worst on record. Both 1998 and 2010 are El ninio year’s, where prolonged hot weather creates stressful conditions for marine life. In response to the stress, corals eject their symbiotic algae, known as zooxanthellae, which give them their bright colours. They then appear ‘bleached’ and have transparent tissues, leaving the white skeleton clearly visible. However the zooxanthellae give corals part of the energy they require to survive, and without them the corals soon die.

We do not expect our bleached reefs to be able to survive much longer. Unless the temperature cools quickly, all that we can do is monitor any recovery. But perhaps we can give the reefs a helping hand… by working with local communities as a ‘coral dating service’ to help enable the few surviving colonies connect with one another when they are able to spawn again! Re-growing coral reefs is a slow process though, and ultimately reducing our carbon emissions to stop the trend of increasingly severe and frequent El nino event is the only hope for recovery of our precious coral reefs.

If you have bleaching reports, or would like more information on what can be done please contact Cat Wilding at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. cat.wilding@hotmail.co.uk

volunteer abroad

Walk for Turtles

Sea turtles are “ambassadors of the oceans”, for conserving these animals means protecting the seas and coastal areas. The collection of nesting numbers is vital for their conservation but has never been conducted statewide in Terengganu therefore the walk will provide invaluable data which the decision makers wouldnt otherwise have.
The Walk for Turtles event (organised by Ecoteer and Help Our Penyu) is a 10 day walk which will start, annually, on World Sea Turtle Day (16th June), in 2010 from Dungun to Kuala Besut, visiting every beach along the way (mainland and islands). The team will be collecting invaluable sea turtle track and body pit data during the walk, visit conservation projects and give awareness talks. The data will be used to identify potential new areas for sea turtle nest conservation in Terengganu. The walk will be further extended in 2011 to cover all beaches in the State of Terengganu resulting in a thorough annual monitoring of sea turtle nesting densities. Raising awareness is the second objective of the walk with the team hosting presentations, meeting turtle conservation experts and visiting conservation projects. The event will be broadcast via the worldwide web, television and newspapers raising awareness throughout the world. The third objective of the walk is to raise RM100,000 for sea turtle conservation projects throughout Terengganu. The funds will be used to support sea turtle conservation in Terengganu, Malaysia.

Please follow us via our facebook group and twitter to get latest video blogs and tweets.

You may donate to the turtles of Terengganu through Ecoteer

Can You Live Without Money?

It has been said – money is the ruler of people, businesses and all things!

But not for Mark Boyle. This UK resident, since 2007, sold his house boat and began to live a new life – without money! Yeap – absolutely zero.

Though received much criticism from online readers, his never say die attitude spurred him to go even further. He no longer drinks Starbucks for breakfast – he settles it with nettle and cleaver tea, in which he says has high nutrients. He grows food on an organic farm and bathes in a solar powered shower.

Extremist or not – well, you’ll be the judge!

Read an article by CNN of Mark Boyle, here.

Who Is Matthias Gelber?

Matthias Gelber is a global environmental speaker and entrepreneur. His passion is in protecting the environment using some of his personal practices including reduction of consumption, living without a car, recycling, using energy efficiency strategies and other practical environmental actions. Ecoteer had the opportunity to seek an interview with him.

Matthias, some people may know you as the Greenest man on the planet, how have you won this accolade?

Around 700 people from all over the world participated in the contest. It was a about green lifestyle and green contributions. They called it American idle for green people. I was not sure what my chances would be in this contest and I kind of started to take it serious once I ended up in the last 50 for the online voting.
I then made a video about my green lifestyle, business and pension; you can still see it here on YouTube.

I asked my friends and contacts to vote for me, I ended up the final 5 and then won the contest. I think the winning formula was:

- green low carbon footprint lifestyle
- green work, pension system, investments and overall passion
- ability to mobilise people to vote for me

What inspired you to go that extra mile to not only talk the talk but walk the walk when it comes to responsible living?

I grew up in a little village in Germany, surrounded by the natural environment. Trees, forests, animals were present in my life. I enjoyed this and built up a connection with it. In winter I had 4 months of snow. This has changed. The current generation only has some days or few weeks of snow and it comes and goest. I can see climate change in my village. And even though there has always been some natural fluctuations of climate in the history of the planet, I feel that the huge impact of humans in the last 100 years is shaking the natural balance of the planet. We take out oil, gas, coal, limestone, forests and much more, burn it for the sake of human development and mother earth is struggling.
I believe we have to make eco action happen in small and big things. I have a responsibility for this planet and future generations. And it is my passion and mission in life.

In this interview there is some more context on my mission.

I am interested in your concrete project, please tell me more?

the manufacturing of cement is responsible for about 6% of the world’s CO2 emissions, which is more than twice of the CO2 that comes from all the planes in the world together. Here in China where I am currently, it is more than 10%. It is unsustainable to burn Limestone (CaCO3) with loads of coal or other fuel and to release the CO2 that was captured in the limestone and to have all of the CO2 emissions from the fuel used. In global average for one tone of cement, we produce one ton of CO2.

There are alternatives to cement for concrete and other products and they look like cement and comparable or better in performance and price. We are working on that. It is hard as this is a conservative industry that does not really want to change and the existing players do not have a lot of interest in changing the way business is done even though it is disastrous for the planet. We have developed a range of high performance low carbon footprint building materials. It has cost us quite some money and we are just starting to see some progress, but it was much harder than we thought.

You can check out a video from a Green Building materials event on:

What are your current projects?

The main focus is my green building materials business. It requires a lot more time and money than I originally thought it would. But the belief that our technology will make a big impact is what keeps me going. My dream is that we can help to reduce global CO2 emissions by 1%.
We are starting to install industrial flooring systems made from our green material and is pushing CO2 emissions down massively. In the Philippines we will do some waterproofing of flat roofs shortly where our product is made from 50% of local waste material which again pushes down the CO2 profile of the material a lot.

Now I am in China to find partners for our Green Concrete. If we can introduce our technology here in an effective manner, then it could have a huge impact. My target are millions of tons of CO2, but I know it is still a long way to go.

Then I am giving talks at Green Building materials events to raise the awareness on the subject. Not many people are aware of this. The focus is mainly on energy efficiency of buildings, but not on the carbon footprint of the building materials itself. I recently read that for the London Olympics more than 60% of the Carbon Footprint will be from the building materials themselves.

Thirdly I am active with our Facebook based Eco Warriors Malaysia movement, which I founded less than 2 years ago. We do restoration of a degraded peat swamp forest, have set up a small tree nursery, have developed a simple condo recycling system that is now rolled out to more than 30 condo’s in Kuala Lumpur – see it featured in The Star, for the recycling system. It should work in most other developing countries as well.

Eco Warriors Malaysia is about volunteers coming together to make a change. We can talk a lot, but critical is the change that we make happen. Find us on facebook on:

One of my short term plans is as well to start some Youtube based eco tv with short and regular contributions from me on a range of eco subjects, that will come shortly.

What role do you feel volunteering has to making this world a greener place?

Volunteering is critical for greening our planet. We cannot do everything through business, we need to give our time for the sake of this planet. Our time is our biggest asset. And when we give it to serve this planet and future generations, then we leave something behind that counts and that makes a difference.
We reconnect with people and with mother earth. I think giving our time is even more critical than giving our money, just do it!

What are your five best tips that everybody can do to reduce their footprint on our planet?

1. Review the use of your time. What do you use your time for, what is your job and work doing? We need more people that do green jobs and use their free time for greening the planet
2. What are you using your money for? What investments do you make and what do you buy? Is it green? Do you need it? Does it make a positive impact?
3. Read your electricity bill – it does not lie. Reduce it through less air con/heating and other energy efficiency and consumption reduction measures
4. How can you do less travel and for the travel that is essential, can you make it carbon neutral?
5. We should not wait for global solutions. We should focus on our lives and our sphere of influence. We should all turn our lives into carbon sinks. Go further than others. Check out my short message after the failure of Copenhagen.