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New Zealand’s guide to sustainable living

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June-July 2008

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Good start

15 Editorial

sets the agenda

16 The goodies

Meet the green team

18 Good times

Your chance to get involved

20 News

Stories from around the globe

32 The Good book backlist

Good reads: Get up to speed with our backlist of books and films

34 Robyn Malcolm

My green journey: She is New Zealand’s best-loved actress but has many more talents to offer. Passionate about the environment, Robyn not only knows her stuff but she walks the talk. Just don’t try to impress her with the size of your engine …

36 Greenish envy

Eco-worrier:  reports co-trends from the fourth-to-top rung of The Ladder of Virtue

39 Activist

Local heroes: Meet 88-year-old activist Margaret Jones

40 Good stuff

Our pick of the products

40 Tree-hugger

Local heroes: Meet green-fingered teenager Emma Bowering

42 Air-dryer vs paper towels

Good choice: It’s the classic public loo dilemma. Air-dryers are slow, noisy and seem to burn through electricity. But that bin overflowing with damp paper towels is going straight to landfill. What’s a soul with wet hands and good intentions to do?

42 Climate change

Convenient truths about: Watch out, there’s sceptics about

43 Why do supermarkets shrink-wrap cucumbers?

Good question: Packaging, lightbulbs and floppy cucumbers. We have all the answers

Features

48 Back to the source

Take back control of your food supply, save money, and do your health and the planet a favour. It’s time to declare food independence! Here’s how.

60 Can this woman fuel the world?

Take the world’s most reliable, constant and universal waste product, and use it to fuel cars, planes and homes. Sound far-fetched? Vicki Buck, ex-mayor of Christchurch, is doing just that

66 Science will save us ... right?

Taking cues from nature, Star Trek, Easy-Yo and The Simpsons, scientists the world over are pushing the limits of possibility.

74 Watch this place

New Zealand’s small towns have some big ideas. Determined to wean themselves off oil, communities are coming together to plan for more sustainable futures. visits one of our Transition Towns.

The goods

82 Sunny side in

Home: A bright and cheery Christchurch renovation proves you don’t have to leave the suburbs to go green

91 Happiness is a warm home

Consumer guide: Insulation: boring? Yes. Important? Very.

94 Global worming

How to: The humble worm turns everything it eats into nutrient-rich fertiliser—even industrial waste. One scientist is bringing worms to big business, reducing rubbish and saving our soil in the process.

96 DIY: worm whare

How to: DIY worm whare with "worm lady" Linda Lee

97 Bust germs, repel vampires

Garden: Plant garlic, now!

98 Warm tarted

Food: Hot tarts and fresh bread

102 RIP rabbit ears

Technology: Want to buy a big flat TV? Read this first

103 All that Jazz

Technology: A tiny car for a boy racer

104 The tree's knees

Travel: Our glamorous editor eats grubs at the luxurious Treetops Estate and Lodge

107 Get into hot water

Travel: Take a hot bath in a thermal spring

107 Eco-chic ... Wellington

Travel: Eco-chic in the Capital

108 White moonshine

Health: Heifer madness: the black market for raw milk

110 Sheets, roots and sleeves

Style: Bamboo: this fast grass is being fashioned into stylish and sustainable products

115 Turn your kids green

Family: Ten ways to tint your kids mint

117 The (solar) power of one

Business: The bottom line isn't just profit anymore. reports on the evolution of business

118 Get what you give

Business: How charity can pay you back

121 Garage brand

Business: Ecostore founder Malcolm Rands is taking clean green Kiwi know-how to the world. caught up with him on the eve of a massive US expansion

122 Green means go

Business: Close your eyes and think of a taxi. No, you can’t order one that way—but chances are you’re thinking of a New York City Yellow Cab or London Black Cab. What you don’t think of are New Zealand’s ubiquitous white sedans.

122 Drink yourselves green

Business: Any business worth its weight in salt now knows it needs a sustainability plan

Good bits

125 Does being green make you happy?

The green room: , senior psychology lecturer, believes so. In the first of our Green Room discussions, she tells us why integrity matters.

127 Talk to your supermarket

Action: Talk to your supermarket, welcome some worms into your life, help a small business, drink green and more ...

128 Ruth Paul

The good life: Off-the-grid with Ruth Paul

More Goodness

The Good blog
  • Imagine all the people

    Amazing what can change in a week, eh? Two elections down, and the world's got two dynamic new leaders poised to make all of our hopes and dreams come true.

  • Just don't drop your clothes

    What do you get when you cross a washing machine with a toilet?

  • The Sweden Files: clean cars

    With 700,000 cars in the city of Stockholm (population: 1.3 million), the Swedes love driving almost as much as New Zealanders. But by the end of the year, some 90,000 of those cars will be driving ‘clean’, using alternative fuels or emitting less than 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Here’s how Stockholm did it.

Good magazine
  • The Braungart interview
    article illustration

    Vincent Heeringa interviews Michael Braungart, co-author of Cradle to Cradle, about the world's bright green future, and how New Zealand can brighten up.

  • Well preserved
    article illustration

    You’ll no doubt know a citrus tree groaning under the weight of its currently ripe fruit. Don’t let good grapefruits and oranges rot into the ground. Grab an armful or two and turn them into a delicious preserve

  • Whistle-blower
    article illustration

    Dr Elvira Dommisse, biotechnologist ... and genetic engineering whistle-blower

Good Cause
article illustration

Latest issue

It's time to get into some clean clothes—free from pesticides, worker exploitation and unnecessary mileage. Issue three of Good has ten pages of spring eco-style to inspire you ... and a weather forecast for the 2090s. It's getting hot in here!

Go MAD

Intrepid Volunteers Challenge
GoMad

To celebrate and support New Zealand’s volunteers, Good magazine and Intrepid Travel have created the Intrepid Volunteers Challenge (gomad.co.nz) and social networking site, so charities and volunteers like you can connect and bring change.

The big idea is simply to reward our unsung heroes and make it easier for new volunteers to find a project that suits them. The Intrepid Volunteer of the Year will win a $5,000, all-expenses-paid Intrepid Travel volunteering holiday to any destination in the world, with spending money from Good magazine.

 

Latest comments

  • Annabel McAleer on Sun spots and mosquitoes:
    Our gardening guru Paul Thompson came to my rescue! Check out his guide to insect-repelling plants in the December/January issue of Good, ou  
  • Annabel McAleer on Meet you on the web:
    Now Gmail's in on it too... as of today Gmail users (with webcams) can video chat in their webmail window. Here's how it works:To get starte  
  • Alessandra on Just don't drop your clothes:
    Wow! I love it!
  • Tony Coburn on The Sweden Files: clean water:
    It seems that many countries have been unwilling to ratify the Ballast Water Management Convention because the performance standards set in  
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