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How To Save The World Podcast
Buy Nothing Day (w/ Suzanne McFadden)
This episode is sponsored by Ecotricity - New Zealand's only carboNZero certified electricity retailer. Join Ecotricity now!
To mark Buy Nothing Day (Friday 29 November) we're joined by special guest Suzanne McFadden talk about her one year challenge to buy no clothes except for essentials. Suzanne is also the founder of the online women's sports hub The Locker Room – who are doing a great job of raising the profile of women in sport in Aotearoa. Suzanne rocked her year, she even nailed the Media Awards in an op-shop find.
Buy Nothing Day combats Black Friday, the day of hyper commerce after Thanksgiving - It's the biggest shopping day of the year in the US when stores drop their prices to work up a buying (crowding crushing) frenzy. It started off as an American tradition but now is undertaken around the world, including New Zealand.
Shout out to two other Buy Nothing kiwi heroes: Kristy Lorson and Chris Morrison - both making their living out of selling stuff but would rather you didn't buy it. Kristy is the guru behind zero waste hub Earth Savvy and Chris is the co-founder of Aotearoa's most successful fair trade businesses Karma Cola and All Good Bananas. When asked what the one thing people could do to save the planet is, Chris said “buy less.” Kristy boldly took her shop off line for Black Friday / Buy Nothing Day last year.
If you don't get why you can't buy as much fair trade, organic, plastic free “STUFF” as you want then listen on.
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53:04|Many countries including the UK, Sweden, France, Norway and the Netherlands are phasing out combustion engine vehicles in favour of EV vehicles. Here in Aotearoa, while there isn’t any comparable government declarations (yet), demand for electric vehicles, bikes, scooters etc is growing. This episode explores how EVs compare to fossil fuel cars in environmental terms as well as in terms of price, user experience and convenience. It’s a broad analysis covering the ‘old favourite’ pros and cons of EVs, new technological advancements and a peek into what our near ‘EV future’ could look like.Special thanks to Theo Gibson from NZ EV podcast, Robyn Parkinson, an EV salesperson; and Matthew - EV enthusiast, EV driver and investor – who all generously gave me their time.ResourcesLithium-ion battery recycling drop off in West Auckland: EcoMattersE World Expo: 6 - 8 May 2021, The Trusts Arena, AucklandEV NZ calculators and buyers guidesEcotricity Buyer's GuideLeading the ChargeFlip the FleetRobyn has kindly allowed us to share her EV buyers seminar ppt with you all, which is some of the clearest info I’ve seen overviewing the considerations (Google Slides)2017 video on cobalt minesSourcesGreen House GasesNZ’s GHG emission sourcesEVs EECA Life Cycle Assessment of Electric Vehicles in Aotearoa (warning: PDF)EVs v Fossil cars stuff reportLithiumHow does Lithium mining work, 2018McKinsey &; Company Lithium and Cobalt: A tale of two commodities, 2018CobaltAmnesty’s 2016 Cobalt Child Labour videoGuardian’s 2020 updateBattery techTesla’s Battery Day announcement, 2020, YouTubeEmissions Trading Schemes w/ James Shaw
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36:35|Production Note: Some of this conversation was featured in our last episode. This episode contains the conversations with Jacqui, in its entirety.Waveney chats to Jacqui Forbes (Ngāruahine), the Kaihautū Matua (General Manager) for the Māori zero waste organisation Para Kore. Starting with Poihakena Marae in Raglan/Whaingāroa, Para Kore now has now touch almost half a million participants at wananga, events and presentations.Jacqui is sharing knowledge with and between marae throughout Aotearoa to reduce waste and pass on methods to work with the environment. Her philosophy is steeply grounded in a Te Ao Māori perspective and using mythology like the Māori creation story - borne of the separation of Papatūānuku and Ranginui, we can look at we humans as being the youngest creatures inhabiting the land. Respecting that we are part of nature and thus need to protect our fellow living beings felt very normal to Jacqui from a young age and she shares stories from her upbringing which still inform her approach today.LinksCollapse by Jared DiamondPara Kore's website