We kick off at Bleach* Street at 11am on the 11th of February at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and Surf World Gold Coast for a full day of activities.

As I’ve mentioned before the good people at Connecting Southern Gold Coast have enlisted Climate Wave Enterprises services to supply advice and hands on sustainable practises for some events during the Bleach festival.

“This street Festival includes, the POP UP Bleach* art galleries in Surf World’s car park, roving performances, children’s workshops and music performances by stellar acts.

Bleach* Street will also see the world theatrical premiere of the much-loved Gold Coast children’s book, The Surfer and The Mermaid. If that’s not enough action for you, peruse Bleach* Street’s outdoor designer market stalls presented by The Village Markets and Coolangatta Craft Markets”.

“Gold Coast City Council’s Active Travel program encourages you to ‘change the way you move’ and make Active Travel choices as part of your everyday life. Why not choose to walk, cycle or catch public transport to the Bleach Festival and you will be contributing to a cleaner, greener Gold Coast”. Active Travel have generously donated bicycle racks which will be located opposite the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary entrance. Everyone that rides their bike will be given an Active Travel reusable drink bottle as a thank you for reducing our carbon footprint.

Now don’t get scared but there will be monsters lurking around the waste & recycling bins, no not to eat you but to keep an eye that we are using the correct receptacles as part of our waste management program. The Plastic Bag Monsters are a part of Surfrider Foundations ‘Rise Above Plastics’ campaign to reduce the amount we use and promote alternatives. Surfrider will also have their plastic wave set up next to Surf World and will be asking patrons to take a pledge to reduce or stop their indulgence with this polluting product.

The Plastic Bag Monsters will be selecting people throughout the event that show recycling prowess and presenting them with wonderful products where you can “experience a natural miracle with the Organic Care personal care range from Natures Organics. Rejuvenate your hair and skin with natural, plant derived ingredients that care for your skin while caring for the environment. Being natural never felt so good”. The other great thing about these products are the containers are made from plant based derivatives and Organic Care is an Australian made product.

The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary will be looking after the catering for the day with excellent food and drinks. If you look closely you’ll notice that no plastic will be seen on site only alternatives, like vegetable based products that do a better job than plastic plates & cutlery and are compost-able.

That’s all for now but keep your eyes on the Bleach* surfing the fringe festival website for the program which runs over 16 days encompassing 55 events.

Look forward to seeing there!

Greg Howell & Guil Araujo

Working with the planet

Sustainability is just such a great word!

You’ve probably been hearing it more in the last few years than you ever have before or if ever. For a start it’s a really nice word to say, go on try it no one’s listening…Sustainability. There didn’t that feel good…be honest now!

Oh well yes firstly you need to know what it means. Silly me it can’t feel good saying a word if you don’t know the meaning.

According to Wikipedia…Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In ecology, sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time, a necessary precondition for human well-being.

So there you go, a beautiful word that rolls off the tongue (I think) can contain such an enormous concept and encompassing environmental, economic, and social dimensions whooo the word needs to be fatter or bigger if it takes in all that.

What do you think; do you know of many other words that mean so much to human beings? If we only considered the meaning of that word earlier in our existence, mmm would be a different place our planet now hey!

Do me a favour ask around between family, friends, workmates, total strangers…ask them if they’ve heard this word ‘sustainability’ and if they know what it means and if they think it is as sexy as I do :)

By promoting this word ‘sustainability’ and the meaning behind it, this planets population will benefit greatly.

Note: this word ‘sustainability’ should not be abused by the media, marketers or green washers.

Greg Howell
working with the planet

The new Indonesian Surfing Championship Tour “Lines” on line magazine is available and packed full of interesting articles and amazing photos. Once again we would like to thank all the crew at ISC for the great work they are doing in sustainable event management. For details about the ISC “Go Green” project. Climate Wave Enterprises reviewed the actions of the ISC and came away satisfied that they are on the right path for a sustainable future of surfing competitions in Indonesia.

It seems to me that the greening of surfing competitions is taking root and has a bright future. From what I’ve read the Rip Curl Pro San Francisco 2011 has been the most sustainable event to date with actions provided by SustainableSurf.org and utilising many components such as bio fuels, alternative catering products and extensive recycling.

Future events all around the world now have no excuse not to participate in these practises, especially when everyone wins! The sponsors gain ‘green’ credentials and boost their corporate responsibility, the local community and environment are enhanced and highlighted…everyone wins.

working with the planet

Greg Howell

The world’s economies have all shown how fragile they can be, and then add a natural disaster and this can have devastating effects on a country. With the announcement of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bid success we have a very real opportunity to diversify our tourism trade in south east Queensland. This subject is in constant discussion in the tourism industry and now we have a real chance of developing a new industry.

The proposed sustainable management for the Commonwealth Games can see a whole new green industry surface which all levels of government are apparently eager to develop. This industry is building in Europe in readiness for the London Olympics 2012 and is already being discussed in Brazil for the FIFA World Cup 2014 & Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016.

With any type of sustainable management the key is how effective is the supply chain. Through this enormous gain we can be attracting sustainable suppliers to the Gold Coast, therefore diminishing the need to purchase products from overseas, which will reduce the events carbon footprint.

Note: Finding sustainable products and services for events on the Gold Coast to date has been an impossibility. I have been searching for Bio Diesel fuel & generators in SE QLD for an age and only just recently found a supplier for the fuel which by the way if he sells it, it must be sold as cooking oil because of red tape.

Industries take time to develop and sustainable industry which is so closely connected with the natural & social environment is no different. There needs to be a holistic approach to its development and discussions must begin now with key stakeholders. Sustainable event management can be a thriving industry and the basic ground work has already been researched and developed in Australia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Sport has shown us in the past that it can have a very powerful effect on its followers/fans and what better way to spread the message of caring for our environment than to main stream audiences.

Q. Are there any downfalls from major events?

A. YES, there can be enormous downfalls from major events such as increased pollution, costs for services and accommodation which can cause displacement of lower socioeconomic groups.

BUT if we learn from previous experience and adapt a sustainable approach these impacts will be greatly reduced and hopefully be a benefit to the community. If you have sustainable products or services aimed at the event industry we would like to hear from you.

So are we ready, steady…go Gold Coast? towards a sustainable tourist destination for all Gold Coasters and our visitors.

working with the planet

Greg Howell

EcoChallenge green surfing event

Perfect weather for a day at the beach, with a bit of swell and lots of action, couldn’t get any better or could it? Well yes it could, through actions taken by event organisers parts of this festival were sustainable. Climate Wave Enterprises was asked to provide advice where needed to this event and we believe the organisers accomplished an excellent result in their first year with a commitment to improve these initial practises.

The surfing event was carbon neutral, with plants being supplied by Forest Tree, for people to purchase and offset their own individual carbon footprints. Other ecological footprints, such as waste and dune care, were minimised by the provision of recycling bins and fenced areas to prevent human impacts on fragile coastal systems. Also there was displays of alternative energy as in solar power and a wide range of educational material.

Plastic bottle wave

Also plastic has been an integral part of events rubbish which costs organisers to remove. If we can use alternative products that are less harmful to the environment this will reduce costs and impacts.

So an event looking towards sustainability at the beach you’d figure that there would have to be music, skateboarding and surfing, well you’d be right. All this took place and with a segment of the surfing component using alternative products to the normal petrochemicals with wooden Alaia surfboards which were demonstrated by Tom Wegener and brought to you by the good people from Golden Days Festival.

working with the planet

Greg Howell

Rocking out at SWU Festival

To get there it was quite easy (if you understand Portuguese). Buses were taking people from Viracopos airport and Campinas’ main bus station at regular intervals, providing an efficient, cheap and quick transportation to the show grounds, which were also close to Paulinea’s main bus station. To get in and out of the festival was easy.

From the entrance I could see how mega the structures were. Multiple stages, shops, food courts and several types of amenities composed one the biggest festivals Paulinea has ever hosted.

As I walked in the first thing that grabbed my attention was a structure with solar panels on the top together with a couple of wind mills to generate energy.

Wind power at Starts With You Festival

I keep going and notice a huge marquee with several environmental organizations and NGOs presenting their work. Greenpeace,…..,……, amongst them and I thought it was really good. Seemed like the education component of the festival was covered. I also found out that were having several forums about sustainability with scientists and music celebrities, including Neil Young, as part of the activities of the festival. However, to be able to attend them you would have to book previously and seemed a bit VIP for my taste as the vast majority of the patrons was ousted from that. And they could have done more sustainable awareness announcements between the concerts.

I keep walking looking at the huge public in the tens of thousands, searching for waste stations. All I could see was bins scattered around the place, some colour coded, some with stickers indicating the type of rubbish, some with no indication. I looked inside a couple of them and I see all types of rubbish mixed up, most of the recycled items contaminated with food scraps. Not good. They could’ve done a much better job.

In the food courts, which also provided vegetarian and vegan foods, the catering products including plates, cups and cutlery were made out of plastic, lacking a huge opportunity of improvement in this area. The only green practice I noticed was that they were pouring all the drinks in recyclable cups, retaining the bottles and cans for (I hope) late separation and less rubbish disposal by patrons.

The stages with its mega structures were providing the latest technology in sound and visual effects and I learned that lots of the props and scenography would be recycled after for other shows. The energy for that and for the rest of the event came from the main grid, which in Brazil is provided most from hydroelectric sources making this energy greener.

Restrooms were most chemical toilets and bathrooms already existent in the precinct. Water technologies for taps, urinals and toilet bowls were old with no dual flush systems, motion sensors or dry toilets. And the queues were in the hundreds of meters, especially for the ladies, taking long time, making you wonder if you want to have another drink.

Camping ground was provided as accommodation. But just for the brave. With the heavy rain and astronomical prices did not sound like the smart choice. With hotels in Campinas for half of the price and double the luxury it made me think about the prices for everything in the festival. After all, sustainability is a holistic concept and it should go into all levels of operation.

I went to SWU’s merchandise tent and the cheapest t-shirt was R$ 80.00 (US$ 46.00) and a key ring R$ 20.00 (US$ 12.00). Brazil with prices like Europe! From tickets, merchandise, food and drinks, prices were very expensive, limiting the entertainment for just a part of the population. Not only that, but inefficient security for patrons was a concern as my friend John Brown got his glasses stolen from his face and more people got robbed during the festival.

My overall view of the SWU Festival was that it was an event with good intentions but still a long way in regard to sustainable event management practices. And I am not aware of the legacy for the local community apart from big businesses that profited with the event.

The rest was rock’n’roll and I like it! With the bands Primus and Stone Temple Pilots my highlights.

The Festival Starts With You focusing in sustainability is a good initiative, a step on the right direction, but it is stairway to heaven…

working with the planet

Guil Araujo

Bleach surfing the fringe

The festival will bring together creative pursuits inspired by surf culture, Bleach* Surfing The Fringe will celebrate all art forms kissed by the ocean, encrusted in salt and bleached by the sun. From 11-26 February 2012, music, art, writing, film and photography sharing the common theme of surfing will be on display across the iconic beaches and venues of the Southern Gold Coast.

Ever-changing and fluid like the ocean, the festival will eschew traditional gallery settings in favour of a series of beachside and casual indoor pop up events liberally scattered across the coast, including art housed in shipping containers, mobile music truck concerts, children’s workshops, a street festival, and outdoor light shows and cinematic experiences.

From the spectacular natural rock formations at Currumbin to Coolangatta’s iconic pointbreaks, the Southern Gold Coast’s visually stunning shoreline and world-class waves will provide the quintessential backdrop for a celebration of surfing’s vibrant fringe culture.

There are many exciting sustainable ideas we will be considering for this event including transport, catering and power so we hope to be able to incorporate them. With any new event baby steps are called for and creating the sustainable practises for this event especially spread over a few weeks is a challenge we are looking forward to.

The organisers are still looking for sponsors for various components of the festival who can be contacted through this site. The festival promises to be an integral event on the annual calendar to showcase the Southern Gold Coast surfing community. You can keep up to speed with the festivals growth on face book.

working with the Planet

Greg Howell

Leticia, Meegan & Guil meeting in Sao Paulo

I have to say that the new “Rodoviaria” with its polished granite floors, free Wi-Fi (not working at the moment for some reason… maybe they don’t have the service in the early hours of the morning) looks much better since my last time here and in comparison with Tom Jobim Airport is in much better shape.

After two weeks in Rio de Janeiro, I’m still not used to the “new” Rio. Not that is all bad. It is actually better in many ways. People seem prouder about the place, construction is going on all over the city creating infrastructure for what is coming, but the down side are the European prices on everything. Food, rentals, real state, clothing and so forth. Sometimes feels like the Wild West, where people see the possibilities and everyone wants a piece of the action at whatever cost…weird.

For somebody who left Brazil more than 20 years ago mainly for economic reasons, to see all that happening is quite a change. Sometimes I wonder if this bubble will burst or if it’s a definite pathway for the nation’s development.

I arrived in Sao Paulo on rush hour after 6 or 7 hours and the scenery changed completely. The mountains and ocean views are replaced by a horizon of buildings and smog and you can feel the change in air quality.

From the efficient main bus station I get into the metro and it’s quite scary. The crowd is enormous and I miss the first train going in the direction I needed to go, due to overcrowded carriages. I squeezed in the next one which I’d decided to go at any cost and after half an hour later I arrived at Saci Hostel where I was greeted by Leticia Menger, the Brazilian representative of the Sustainable Event Alliance (SEA). She is a warm and friendly lady and we head out for breakfast. As we go via Avenida Paulista (Paulista Av.), the main economic artery in Brazil’s booming economy, the contrasts are visible. Helicopters are landing on top of buildings everywhere and on the street you can see beggars scattered about. The food however is delicious and sipping fruit juices we start to talk about the event scene in Brazil.

Leticia is a well-spoken and dynamic event organiser well connected and engaged in many different projects, aiming now to produce them in a sustainable way. She tells me about some of her events and my impression is that she really knows what she’s talking about and she seems overloaded with work. To initiate the works for the SEA, she tells me that she won’t be able to do everything by herself and is looking for someone to share the load. I offer the services of Climate Wave and we brain storm the possibilities.
Later in the day Meegan Jones, the Australian CEO of the SEA and Green Shoot Pacific arrives and after a little while we are discussing and thinking about what strategies will be required for the implementation of SEA in Brazil.

We arrive back at the hostel and the talks vary in themes, but not in subject. The idea that I start to grasp is that there is plenty do be done here and very few people in the country who know the path to get there. I see that as an incredible opportunity for Climate Wave Enterprises and offer my knowledge and assistance for the development of these ideas.

The next day we engage in more talks and we go out to this city precinct where they have a mega market located in an old building, with food, spices and fruits of all sorts. Next to it, you see many other buildings where you can buy electronic and computer equipment, clothing, etc. We stroll around amidst the huge crowds (living on the Gold Coast for so long I’m not used to that anymore) and by the end of our little tour, we take Leticia to her destination and we part ways. The atmosphere is great and the sense of the work ahead gives me confidence that sustainability of events is something that will be developed in Brazil. The country is still taking baby steps in this area but nevertheless it is walking in the right direction.

On the way back Meegan and I talked more about the development of the SEA in Australia and how we could take the sustainable event management course for professionals placed in New South Wales to Queensland. At the moment the NSW government gives financial subsidies and incentives for the courses taught in this state and we would like to see that happening Australia wide.

Hours later I hop on another bus this time going to Aeroporto Vira Copos (Viracopos airport) in Campinas, a booming city in Sao Paulo’s interior. My destination now is Praia do Forte (The “Fortress” Beach) in the Northeast state of Bahia, local of two of the most successful conservation programs in Brasil. The Projeto Tamar (marine turtle conservation) and Instituto Baleia Jubarte (the Humpback Whale Institute). My intentions now are to meet with one of my best friends from Brazil, Enrico Marcovaldi and to check the harmony between the conservation programs and the tourist development of this now international beach resort town.

Being a native of the Cidade Maravilhosa (wonderful city), but living most of my adult life in Australia, every time I come to Rio, I expect some changes.

Last time I was here Rio was successful in its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2016 and back then it was a cause for happiness and celebration. After all it seemed like an event of this grandeur would bring lots of benefits to this city of over 15 million people. But has it?

My analysis began when I arrived at Tom Jobim International airport (named after the composer of “The Girl from Ipanema”, one of the most recorded songs of all time) and saw the precarious condition of the main gate for tourists into Brazil. Since I left two years ago, the main stream media were announcing urgent renovations and upgrades to these facilities, but what I saw was a sad case of disregard and incompetence. Lots of talk but very little action! Everyone seemed excited about the prospects for the city, with countless benefits and prosperity, but I started to see things in a different perspective.

As I travel through the city I can see construction everywhere, expansion of the city metro, new buses and an atmosphere of change. I keep going and I enter into a shop to buy a snack. When I’m charged for what I ate, I got quite surprised with the prices of goods and food. I just paid for a little short black coffee the same amount of a beer. And I thought: What? Am I in the land of coffee and now I’m paying the same amount as I paid in Australia? It seemed very strange… from that point I started to wonder about the real benefits to Rio.

As far as I know an Olympic Games should be first and foremost for the enjoyment of the local people and after that, for all tourists coming to see the games. But I was terribly wrong. Brazil, one of the emerging nations of the world, is approaching the event in a different way. Everything for the “gringos” and whatever is left over, for the locals. Sad but true.

When I start to talk to friends about the cost of living, they tell me that Rio now is the 9th most expensive city in the whole world! It is hard to believe, but after a few days here I witnessed the reality. Prices sky rocketing and most things don’t seem to have the correct price to its value. Home rentals are absurdly expensive, petrol prices and services even more and nothing seem to have a justification to be that expensive. Weird… I never saw the place like that.

That’s when I questioned what real benefits this mega event will bring to the city. The main stream media announces all the goodies but they hide what is really going on. With the rampant corruption established in all levels of government (in 8 years US$ 67 billion was lost) looks like the benefits will be just for a selected group of people, while the rest of the population will keep working like dogs for the entertainment of the world.

It seems wrong and unfair, but it is my impression at this point in time. I will be here for at least 3 more weeks and I hope I will be able to change my mind, but I will not be holding my breath…

So far my thoughts are if mega events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in 2014 cannot bring real benefits for the local communities, I question the main reasons behind all the fuss.

Who really benefits?

Let’s see if I will be able to change my mind before my return to Australia…

for green events

Cheers,

Guil Araujo

Photo: L to R Tipi Jabrik (CEO), Greg Howell, Tim Hain & Lorca Lueras

I have just returned from Bali in what was a relaxing and revitalising holiday. Earlier in the year I suffered an injury which I was told by doctors in Australia that it would eventually come good with appropriate exercise. The injury wasn’t improving hence my need for sunshine and a healthy lifestyle which for me is easier to obtain in Bali.

I arranged a traditional healer and during my treatment I noticed he was wearing the latest competition t-shirt from the Billabong Pro Junior 2011 and knowing he didn’t surf I enquired where he got it. There was then a conversation I was oblivious to partly because it was in Balinese and the other because my muscles were being rolled back into place. This discussion culminated in a friend being called who arrived shortly after and introducing himself as Ngurah from the Indonesian Surfing Championship Tour. We had a very interesting chat through broken English & translation and I gleaned that the ISC were involved in “sustainable event management or SEM’s” at their events and would I like to meet the crew.

Here I was in the suburbs of Ubud a few hours’ drive from any beach discussing SEM’s with an enthusiastic member of the ISC team.

Anything can happen in Bali.

I was looking forward to meeting the ISC team which happened a week later at their Kuta offices with the whole team discussing the next event. I was welcomed into the discussion by friendly faces around the table made up of several different nationalities.

Prior to our meeting I had done some research to see what the ISC were doing already in the area of SEM’s and I was very impressed. I conveyed to them the fact they already had in place wonderful initiatives in recycling, education and on ground logistics and congratulated them for these actions. The ISC has accomplished far more in this field than most other surfing nations. I was able to come up with a few suggestions they might like to try but mostly they had the job in hand. I offered Climate Wave Enterprises services and/or advice if the ISC ever need it and look forward to having some involvement with Tipi Jabrik (CEO), Lorca Lueras, Ngurah Yuda, Tim Hain and the team on future events.

So after that unexpected interlude I went back to my methodical treatment in the hands of Bali’s traditional healer feeling surprised and euphoric that I had met more like minded people and was on the road to recovery.

Kind regards
Greg Howell
Working with the planet