Cyprus may have a long way to go in terms of being eco-friendly, but GreenGraffiti has brought it a little closer.

Graffiti may conjure up images and smells of atmospherically harmful spray paints and underground punk rock enthusiasts, but it doesn’t have to.  Well, the punk rockers can stay, but graffiti can be green without sacrificing any of its cool.  Graffiti can be made out of natural materials instead of spray paints, and even be used as a more sustainable form of advertising (instead of wasteful and polluting billboards).

And that is the message that GreenGraffiti, a sustainable communications company that helps companies advertise through eco-friendly graffiti, is trying to promote.  That, and the idea that you can have “profits with principles”.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Founded in Amsterdam in 2007 when Jim Bowed challenged Dutch green guru Eckart Wintzen to create marketing materials without paper or ink, GreenGraffiti has developed into a communications leader that has created over 150 campaigns and worked with multinational corporations such as Starbucks and Domino’s Pizza.

Instead of printing advertisements on standard billboards, GreenGraffiti uses templates to sustainably imprint messages all over the urban landscape.  It does this through a few different media: chalk and milkpaint (seen below), moss, sand, snow, and reverse graffiti (seen above).

As shown in the video clip, reverse graffiti is a process by which a message is “cleaned” onto a sidewalk using a template and a power washer.  Advertisements created this way can last between two weeks and several months, and the water used by GreenGraffiti to create them is offset through the GreenAdsBlue foundation.  (GreenGraffiti is completely carbon neutral.)

“Using our business as a tool for social and environmental improvement, we aim to be the world market leader in sustainable communication,” says GreenGraffiti.  “And make the world a little better along the way.”

Now that GreenGraffiti has arrived in Cyprus, hopefully it can make the island a greener place too.

:: GreenGraffiti
:: Cyprus Mail

Read more about Cyprus:
Cypriot Law Threatens to Discourage Cycling
1 Million Migrating Songbirds are Killed for Pickled Dish in Cyprus
Bike Sharing Launched in Nicosia, But Environmental Commissioner Has His Doubts

Greenpeace Israel calls on Jerusalem and other municipalities to stop recycling their promises and start recycling trash.

Recycling has improved over the past decade in Israel.  Hiria, a large garbage dump in Tel Aviv, has transformed into a recycling center, metals are starting to be recycled, and some urban recycling bins have become targets for artists.  But there is still a long way to go.  Organic waste still ends up in Israeli landfills for the most part, despite the promises of several municipalities.  Greenpeace Israel is starting a new campaign tomorrow morning to call these municipalities’ bluff.  Their first target is Jerusalem.

Before the municipal budgets for 2012 are finalized, Greenpeace Israel intends to call on all Israeli cities to implement more sustainable recycling and composting solutions.

“City by city, we will ask mayors to take responsibility and implement a plan to separate waste at the source and install two bins (organic and dry) for each home, building or business in the city,” writes Greenpeace Israel.

Of 251 local authorities, only 31 have implemented the Environmental Protection Ministry’s project and requested assistance in separating waste at the source.  Of these 31, only one – Emek Hefer – has actually succeeded in separating organic waste throughout the entire municipality.

Seven other municipalities are currently in various stages of separating organic waste at the source in certain neighborhoods.

These are success stories, but on too small a scale.  According to Greenpeace Israel, these are “miniscule amounts in relation to the great quantities of garbage, and residents cannot properly recycle if the municipal authorities do not create an appropriate infrastructure to separate waste.”

Read more about the Greenpeace campaign on the event’s page on Facebook (in Hebrew).

Read more about recycling in Israel::
Organic Waste Collection and Composting in the Works for Israeli Municipalities
Recycling Bins Take the Form of Art in Tel Aviv
Finally, Koala Recycling Solutions Offers A Way to Recycle Aluminum Cans and Other Metals in Israel
Hiria: A Garbage Dump Turned Recycling Dream

Image via: Leah Jones

I dream about living in a car-less city like Vauban. But my love affair with the Middle East keeps me dreaming. Rampant with air pollution, every fall cities like Cairo get covered in a black cloud from burning rice paddies. Tehran’s air kills some 27 people a day. Amman’s air had my eyes watering, my nostrils inflamed. But there may be a silver lining to city pollution, after all. According to new research from Tel Aviv University inhaling low levels of carbon monoxide can reduce the impact of environmental stress. Wah?

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a tasteless, colorless and odorless gas. It is not only a danger to the environment but also highly toxic to human beings. Found in the exhaust of vehicles and generators, CO has been dubbed the “silent killer” because excessive inhalation is lethal, poisoning the nervous system and heart.

But now in a surprising twist, Prof. Itzhak Schnell from Tel Aviv University has discovered that low levels of the poisonous gas can have a narcotic effect that helps city-dwellers cope with other harmful environmental factors of an urban environment, such as off-the-chart noise levels, like what’s found in Tel Aviv.

This finding indicates that CO, in small doses, is a boon to the well-being of urbanites, better equipping them to deal with environmental stress. The research has been published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

The discovery was made in the context of a wider project designed to study the impact of environmental stressors on the human body. Prof. Schnell and his fellow researchers wanted to measure how people living in an urban environment confronted stressors in their daily lives. The results were a surprise.

Surveyed real people, real stressors

In the study they asked 36 healthy individuals between the ages of 20 to 40 to spend two days in Tel Aviv, Israel’s busiest city. The test subjects travelled various routes to sites such as busy streets, restaurants, malls and markets, by public and private transportation or by foot.

Researchers monitored the impact of four different environmental stressors: thermal load (heat and cold), noise pollution, carbon monoxide levels, and social load (the impact of crowds).

Participants reported to what extent their experiences were stressful, and their input was corroborated with data taken from sensors that measured heart rate and pollutant levels.

Noise pollution emerged as the most significant cause of stress.

The most surprising find of the study, says Prof. Schnell, was in looking at levels of CO that the participants inhaled during their time in the city. Not only were the levels much lower than the researchers predicted — approximately 1-15 parts per million every half hour — but the presence of the gas appeared to have a narcotic effect on the participants, counteracting the stress caused by noise and crowd density.

A perfect “urban” ecosystem?

The results showed that living in a major city might not have as negative a health impact as the researchers were expecting. Though participants exhibited rising stress levels throughout the day, CO had a mitigating influence, and extended exposure to the chemical had no lasting effects.

The study’s next step is to investigate how environmental loads impact the more vulnerable segments of the population, such as infants, the elderly, and those with medical conditions such as asthma.

“We would be able to tell more accurately under what conditions vulnerable people shouldn’t go out, and more importantly, identify areas that are still safe, helping to increase freedom of movement,” Prof. Schnell says.

But for now, urban dwellers can all contribute to making their environment a less stressful one by turning down the noise, he suggests. The findings indicate that most of the noise in an urban landscape is generated by human activity, and if individuals made an effort to reduce the noise they were making, they could help to reduce the environmental load placed on their neighbors.

Above image by Tafline Laylin @greenprophet.com

The autumn olive harvest is still in full swing, and those of you who are now enjoying picking and preserving this ancient Middle Eastern fruit are surely aware that this year’s crop is much better than the poorer crop years of the past years when olive crops in both Israel and the Palestinian areas were much less. I have been engaged for several years now in an “urban harvest” where people grow and harvest their own fruit and veggies in the middle of populated urban areas. Here’s how I do it.

Syrian olives “on the tree”

Many people living in Israel and Palestine  are lucky enough to have olive trees growing in their own neighborhoods or even their own backyards.

My apartment project has a number of olive trees planted in our building garden, as well as in nearby parks. Most of the fruit from these trees are either the narrow and pointed Syrian olives or the round Mission and Manzanillo olives which are both  good for either pickling or oil.

I pick them both and afterwards pickle them, using a recipe that I fondly refer to as ” Olivias de Mauricio”.

Picking one’s own fruit is a very important part of this endeavor, and I recommend doing this as otherwise, most of the fruit on these “park trees” wind up falling to the ground or sidewalk as the case may be.

My pickling method for green olives is very simple. After picking, sorting, and washing the fruit (try not to mix varieties, if possible) soak the olives in clean water for 10 – 12 days, changing the water daily. I recommend using either water from an under the sink filtration unit or a Brita water filter, to rid the water of chlorine and minerals which can affect the taste of the olives. These nasty chemicals can also affect our health.

The fruit is ready to be put in jars for picking when it changes color and begins to have an “olive” color and odor to them. The water soaking process takes a lot of the bitterness out of the fruit.

Soaking olives: change water daily

For the pickling process use clean jars in good condition and with lids that are not rusty. Cleaning the jars with hot soapy water and then rinsing in hot water is recommended as well.

When pickling, I make a brine consisting of water, rock salt, vinegar, and taste conducive ingredients like lemon slices, clean olive leaves, and pieces of fresh garlic.

There’s no set formula for the “spices” as it depends on whether one wants “garlicky” olives or those with more of a lemon taste. You can also add some cut chili peppers for a bit of a “kick”, if desired.

The brine has to contain at least 10 percent salt and an equivalent amount of 5% acidic vinegar (the citrus type is best) for the pickling to be successful.

Processed olives: jar on left has been curing almost a year.

The actual pickling process simply involves putting layers of fruit, lemon slices, olive leaves and garlic chunks or slices until they fill the jar almost to the top.

Then pour in the brine mixture until it reaches just under the top of the jar (about 1/4 inch or 5 cm). Before closing the jar lid, pour enough good quality olive oil in to cover the entire top of the brine mixture.

This keeps mold from forming during the pickling process. After tightly closing the jar and checking for leakage (turn jar upside down to do this) wipe the outside of jar to clean off any picking residue and then label the jar with the date that the picking process was done – this makes it easier to know how long the ingredients have been “working”.

Store the jars in a place away from sunlight (like in a kitchen cupboard) for a minimum of 2-3 months before using.

Ripe olives will cure faster, so bear this in mind if picking ripe or nearly ripe olives.

After opening a cured fruit jar, store it in your refrigerator. Remember that the longer the curing or picking process is allowed to work, the better the olives will taste. And best of all, you have the enjoyment eating olives you picked and pickled yourself.

Enjoy!

Read more on olives and other Mid East seasonal fruit:
Picking Olives for Pickling
Aphrodisiacs of the Middle East: Pomegranate
Olives, Dates and October Seasonal Produce in the Middle East

Green It

As the ecological movement becomes mainstream, more and more businesses cater to the green lifestyle.  We’ve seen this trend develop in the Middle East, with eco-friendly shops popping up in Beirut, fair trade shops in Masdar City, and even specialty stores focusing on one green product – such as organic clothes for babies.  Earlier this month another green shop – called Green It in Tel Aviv – joined the ranks of those other stores with products that it suggests people use for green urban living.  It describes itself as “the first store in Israel offering the best, newest and most advanced eco friendly products available”, and these products range from design, kitchenware, toys, children’s clothing and office supplies to electronics, literature, pharmaceuticals and textiles, too.

Green It was opened by a couple, Tali and Gil Globus, who were having their own difficulty finding eco-friendly products in Israel and so decided to open a store where green urbanites could find everything they needed.  And at a reasonable price.  The products sold at their shop are not only friendly for the environment, but for your wallet as well.

The ecological picnic set, pictured above, was one of the products marketed by the shop for the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) holiday.  It includes biodegradable utensils for up to 25 people, biodegradable sandwich and trash bags, and organic wine – all packaged in a designed burlap bag.

And in case your puppy gets jealous, Green It also stocks “Harry Barker” products – a line of eco-friendly doggie items made from hemp, bamboo, recycled plastic and biodegradable bags (for picking up after your dog).  Check out the hemp dog beds and chew toys above.

Green It‘s products are both local and imported, and come in a very wide range.

: Green It

Read more about other green shops across the Middle East::
Beirut’s “A New Earth” Provides Lebanese Urbanites a Place to Shop for Eco-Products
The Little Fair Trade Shop Shows Masdar Its Big Heart
Katanchic Makes Chic Organic Clothes for Green Babies

200 Beirut residents reminded others that cities can (and should) be green.

Fed up with the absence of greenery in Beirut, 200 residents of the city gathered this past Saturday in a decidedly concrete Sassine Square to collectively say that they wanted to “Green the Grey”.  Beirut has definitely been taking steps towards being “green” in recent years, including opening a popular local farmer’s market and paving bike lanes to encourage non-carbon emitting forms of transportation.   But some city residents believe that greenery itself needs to spread in Beirut, and that more green spaces are necessary.

Dima Boulad, one of the founders of Beirut Green Project (the sponsor of Saturday’s event), said that she helped organize the gathering “because we feel that [green spaces are] a basic right anyone should have in a city… and green public spaces are nonexistent in Beirut.”

“People are not aware how important [green spaces] are,” continued Boulad, “but they reduce pollution in the city and they reduce stress.”

In order to demonstrate the big change that a little greenery can make, the non-governmental organization Green Line temporarily covered a part of Sassine Square with sod, potted flowers, and temporary grass.  People then gathered around the greenery on blankets and enjoyed food and music.

The event took place on the day before World Environment Day, an annual event established by the United Nations in 1972.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, World Environment Day was marked by bike tours and a joint UN/Lebanese American University project titled “Think before…”

: The Daily Star

Read more about Beirut::
Samir Kassir Square Blends the Organic with the Urban in Beirut
An Insider’s Experience of Exploring Beirut by Bike
Beirut’s Souk el Tayeb Farmer’s Market Celebrates Healthy Local Food Traditions

Image via: sacks08

“The city is not the problem, but the solution,” says architect Jaime Lerner.

Throughout history, philosophers have been dreaming about the utopian city.  The current age is faced with environmental challenges, and so many of today’s thinkers are dreaming of the sustainable utopian city.  Mayors, visionaries, academics, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers and architects will all gather at the Design Museum in Holon, Israel this Thursday (April 7th) to discuss the concept of urban sustainability at a conference sponsored by the Design Museum, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Holon Municipality.

Sustainable cities make a great deal of promises to their residents.  They promise: greater balance between the material needs of their residents and the preservation of the natural environment; the use of non-polluting and renewable energy sources; the establishment of non-polluting transportation systems, and more.

The agenda of this week’s conference will include the following speakers and lectures (among others):

• Green Berlin – Professor Frederic von Boris (Germany)
• The City is the Solution and Not the Problem – MK Dov Henin
• Sustainability as an Economic Stimulus – Professor Yehuda Kahana (Tel Aviv University)
• Green Construction in Israel – Rafi Raish (Ministry of the Interior)
• Promises and Realities – An open discussion among mayors and municipal authorities from Holon, Rishon Lezion, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Omer, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem
• Hiria, from Garbage Dump to Recycling Park – Doron Sapir
• Resources Stay in the City – Gilad Ostrovsky (Adam Teva v’Din)
• Smaller, Faster, Smarter – Architect Yotam Avizohar (CEO of “Israel Bike Paths”)

To learn more about the conference visit the Design Museum website (information about the conference in Hebrew only).

Read more about sustainable cities::
Planning the Sustainable City: Lessons from Bogota, Colombia
Yoav David, City Architect of Tel Aviv, Goes “EUREKA” about Urban Sustainability
Brazil’s Jaime Lerner Says “Cities are the Answer,” And Provides Hope and Model for the Urban Middle East

How can eco-friendly transportation be improved in the suburbs?

When contemplating whether to live in a city or in the suburbs, most people weigh the pros and cons of having more space or less space, being closer to better schools for their kids or having the convenience of everything nearby in an urban environment.

But not normally at the top of everyone’s list of issues to consider is the environmental impact of living in the suburbs.  Suburbs mean more space, remoteness from the city, and therefore also necessitate more transportation (and often wastefulness).

Chances are, if you are moving out of the city and into the ‘burbs, you will have to give up your urban car-free existence (like Green Prophet’s Arwa) and get a vehicle (with so many cars going green now, hopefully an energy-efficient one).  You can try to cut your car costs a little searching around for some cheap car insurance, but at the end of the day your carbon footprint costs will still be much higher than when you lived in the city. Here’s why:

Urban dwellers can usually get around fine with a combination of walking and public transportation.  The density of city living means that distances are smaller, and there are usually multiple forms of public transportation to accommodate folks without cars (such as buses, trains, taxis, and sometimes bike rental services).

Living in the city can be expensive, but when you take into account the seriously reduced costs of urban transportation it seems to balance out a little.

When walking and public transportation don’t cut it, city folk have more car-sharing (and now bike-sharing) options than suburbanites.  But maybe these options could be brought to the suburbs.

Bringing the idea of collaborative consumption (or, in other words, sharing) to the suburbs where people often take great pride in their possessions may not be easy, but it could be possible.  A combination of car-sharing services such as Car2Go, carpooling into work, or even renting out/sharing personal vehicles with neighbors could significantly reduce the environmental impact of commuting from the ‘burbs.

Read more about sustainable transportation:
Doha and Tel Aviv Launch Two-Wheel Options for Urban Transportation
How to Live a Car-Free Existence
My Parents and the Pleasures of Owning a Prius in Israel

Image via: Chris Willis

Two more streets in center of Tehran will be changed to pedestrian streets. These two are Bab-Homayoon and Naser-Khosro streets in highly busy center of Tehran. According to Zone 12 of the Municipality of Tehran, the project for changing the function of streets will be started soon.

Another part of the city that have both historical value and also a corrupted urban and social problems is Marvi Alley. There are some plans for this old alley too. As the managing director of the Beautification Organization of the Municipality of Tehran says, the regeneration plan of Marvi Alley is being considered. More projects like these could reduce smog holidays.

Sepahsalar Street was the first major street in the center of Tehran that became pedestrian about three years ago.  The governmental authorities and the municipality observed a good feedback from the people, who were tired of busy and noisy streets and thousands of cars. Then some other suggestions like the regeneration and pedestrianization plans, which were mentioned, were presented.

These days, the urban travels have been quite hard for the residents of Tehran. The jobs are centralized in the center of the city and that can be great problem for a city of more than 13 million inhabitants. The result is a very populated and polluted city center. Therefore, the people seem happy to walk in pedestrian, newly renovated streets.

Another old street that is a target of the similar projects is 15-Khordad Street, which similar to Bab-Homayoon and Naser-Khosro and a remainder of the nineteenth-century Tehran. The probable extension of these projects can be developing pedestrian belt around the Grand Bazaar of Tehran.

Tehran_Naserkhosro_Street_1946

Related articles on greening Tehran:

The Difficulties of Developing Cycling Routes in Iranian Cities

Why 27 People A Day Die from Air Pollution in Tehran

Traffic Accidents Deaths in Iran Could Push Greener Transport

Commuter traffic and wasteful buildings are Tel Aviv’s biggest polluting culprits, according to City Architect of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Yoav David.

As one of the events surrounding the EUREKA Israel Chairmanship this week, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv, Asaf Zamir, and Tel Aviv City Architect Yoav David  spoke to visiting European representatives about the city’s efforts to reach a higher level of urban sustainability.  Since the European EUREKA network is planning on launching a “Clean-Tech Initiative” campaign this coming February and it is the subject of much discussion during the representatives’ visit in Israel, the lecture served to illustrate another aspect of striving towards sustainability.

The representatives, mostly National Project Coordinators (NPCs) of the EUREKA network convening after their first day of meetings, were first greeted by Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv Asaf Zamir, who had just returned to Israel from a sustainable development conference in Beijing.  He stated that beyond being the nation’s first “Hebrew city”, and unique in its liberality, size, and pluralism, Tel Aviv is a “city devoted to sustainable development.”

Private Car Orientation A Big Part of Tel Aviv’s Problem

Zamir then introduced Yoav David, who began his lecture with the foundation myth of the city of Tel Aviv on the empty shores of the Mediterranean.  Interestingly, David said that even though Tel Aviv is a fairly young city (it celebrated its 100th anniversary last year), many of its sustainability issues relate to the city’s early planning.  Tel Aviv was always planned as private car oriented, which makes the creation of public transportation difficult in some parts of the city.

Public transportation is a sensitive issue for Tel Aviv, and a problem that needs to be resolved if it is going to improve its urban sustainability.  Over 500,000 cars now enter Tel Aviv daily, 1 out of every 6 Israelis works in Tel Aviv, and 35% of national train trips are either going in or out of Tel Aviv.  (Add to these statistics the fact that Tel Aviv’s long-term plan for a light rail recently fell through and the public transportation issue really starts to look like a mess.)

Green Building Codes

As much as the absence of a good public transportation system within Tel Aviv contributes to the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, though, David said that wasteful buildings were an even bigger problem.

In 1992 during the UN Conference on Environment and Development, the Tel Aviv Municipality decided that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the year 2020.  As part of this goal, David and his colleagues are working towards having every building in the city meet a green code.

The code itself is not fully drafted yet (David claimed that it was in its last stages of completion).  But David boasted that the Bezaron business district already implements green building standards and that the city plans to build new schools according to green standards.  (One could ask whether the construction of new “green” buildings is actually an eco-friendly endeavor and whether it may not be more worthwhile to convert existing buildings, but the lecture unfortunately had no Q&A session.)

Improvement of Pedestrian and Cycling Conditions

Finally, David said that the city is working on improving pedestrian and cycling conditions, aiming to put cycling paths on every major street in the city.  To make walking and cycling more comfortable (especially during the humid summer months), the municipality has doubled the city’s number of trees over the last 10 years.

It also hopes to build a pedestrian bridge over the Ayalon highway within the next two years to encourage more foot (and less auto) traffic.

Image via: Ilan’s Photos

Read more about sustainable urban development in Tel Aviv::

Tel-Aviv’s $60 Million Eco-Office Tower A Go

Tel Aviv’s Annual Architectural Weekend Celebrates Urban Green Spaces

Is Sustainability in Tel Aviv an “Urban Legend”? New Film Challenges City Planners to Think Outside the Box