A Meaningful Life

My good friend Grant Young had an interesting post today on his Synapse Chronicles blog about water usage not necessarily being just a mum’s and dad’s issue. It’s more about commercial use with respect to irrigation and other uses. I relate to his frustration at making an effort but at the same time seeing the commercial sector drop the ball in this area. I get really frustrated when I walk into the toilets at out office and see urinals running endlessly. To the building managers defense they seem to be having a change in heart which I commend them on. They implemented proper waste management in the kitchens in February this year but this should of been happening a decade ago. They also built water tanks to support irrigation of the grass areas outside. Given the concrete areas usually found around large building like ours that can collect water, this is an absolute no-brainer. Last week I was up at the Hyatt Coolum in the Queensland which is a beautifully landscaped resort. They would really impress me if they attended to a few key water saver and waste management issues they have (I’ll email them) :

• there were no shower flow restrictors
• the toilets didn’t have half flush option
• there weren’t any recycling bins in common areas or the rooms
• they spray down hard surfaces
• toiletries had a lot of useless packaging

The WWF Human Habitat project is finished. Check out the bi-product of their efforts at their Future Makers website. In all it was a very interesting project. It really made us think about how we do things around the house and at work beyond what efforts we already make.