The Green Living Lab Clothes Swap

Congratulations to Green Living Lab volunteers Lexy Grosse, Cato Bersee, Roos van der Deijl & Shanice van der Sloot for organising the Green Living Lab Clothes Swap this week!

Our dome was transformed into a gorgeous pop-up fashion store for the afternoon, where secondhand items were tried on, swapped & found new homes. All leftover clothing items are being donated to Leger de Heils.

Did you know that research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) shows that the average person wears clothing items just 6 or seven times before throwing them away? And that it would take approximately 14 years to drink the amount of water used to make a single pair of jeans? Extending clothing life by just 3 months can reduce carbon, water and waste footprints by up to 10%. Swapping clothing items not only gives new life to your wardrobe but is a conscious sustainable fashion choice.

For info on Wrap’s research see: http://bit.ly/2gr5MvW

Next week, November 21-27, is #Secondhandfirst Week, launched by the clothes recycling charity TRAID  No better time to check your wardrobe for items you no longer wear that could be enjoyed by others & to bring them to your local secondhand clothing store. Or bring them along to the next Green Living Lab Clothes Swap… details coming soon!

#secondhandfirst #circulareconomy #sustainablefashion #greenlivinglab

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Week 4, The Community Compost School: The Circular Economy Hackathon

 

A BIG thank you to all who took part in the Green Living Lab’s Circular Economy Hackathon, where circular economy ideas, kind to people and planet, were hatched by enthusiastic hackers in the dome!

Enactus VU hosted the event as part of our Community Compost School programme. Enactus president Hanneke van Setten told us how positive social impact & sustainability are central values for their enterprises. We heard about the new Enactus compost collection enterprise, incubated by the Green Living Lab, where students will work together to create value from organic waste in the city. Viewing waste as a resource for value creation is central to circular economy thinking.

We heard from Rowin Snijder about StadsOogst, a circular economy co-operative that he recently set up with partner Chris Mueller, The StadsOogst (City Harvest) team make potting soil from compost made in the city & from waste materials from urban food production. The resulting potting soil will be used to grow food in the city, for the city.

Luana Carretto, founder of Taste Before You Waste, shared her motivations & experience of setting up a circular economy initiative that is focused on preventing urban food waste. By creating & serving healthy, delicious vegan food from food waste, TBYW shows us how a healthy diet, a healthy local food system & a healthy local economy are connected. Taste Before You Waste is now to be found in other cities & towns & offers educational food waste workshops to inform children & their parents how to prevent food waste. Taste Before You Waste are looking for more food waste heroes to help them with their mission to prevent food waste in the city, so if you’d like to help out just get in touch!

Knowledge & Innovation Manager, Shyaam Ramkumar from Circle Economy explained what circular economy means & the importance of systems thinking in designing sustainable products & business models. Shyaam’s examples of innovative local & international circular products & business models really inspired guests – thank you Shyaam!

Then it was on to the Hackathon Challenge! Enactus VU challenged guests to work in teams to think of a circular economy idea that could be applied locally & then to pitch it to our jury. After 4 passionate pitches the judges chose the winning idea, ‘The Magic Lightbulb’, a repair service focused on connecting younger & older generations. The winning team received a Dopper water bottle each, donated by Green Office VU.

We have 2 workshops left on our Community Compost School programme – 25 November & 9th December & everyone is welcome to join us. For info & to reserve your place please get in touch at info@greenlivinglab.org

#circulareconomyhackathon #circulareconomy #circulaireconomy #rethinkbusinessmodel #systemsthinking #biomimicry #wasteisaresource #greenlivinglab #circleeconomy #enactusvu #stadsoogst #tastebeforeyouwaste

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Week 3, The Community Compost School, The Amsterdam Urban Compost Bike Tour

During last week’ s Community Compost School Le Compostier took us on a tour of community composting projects in neighbourhoods and to innovative urban farms in the city.

During the first stop we heard from community composting pioneer Christien how she took the initiative to bring a worm hotel to her street in the Pijp neighbourhood. She told us how composting on the street with her neighbours is both easy and fun.

Next stop, the beautiful green oasis in Amsterdam Oost, Oost Indisch Groen, where volunteers Elco & Sameena showed us how they compost there.

After a cup of tea (thanks Sameena!) we were off to visit the community garden at Zeeburgereiland, where they have a worm hotel for composting used by over that holds 1400 litres of organic waste, making a lot of compost to grow food there.

Wouter Hassing then welcomed us to his urban farm Mycophilia located in Amsterdam Noord, where we saw his state of the art mushroom farm. We also got to check out his biomeiler which provides heat for the containers the mushrooms are grown in.

StadsOogst, a new urban farming cooperative in Amsterdam, are currently making Amsterdam’s first locally produced (& vegan!) garden soil using the substrate of Wouter’s mushroom production.

Last stop of the day, the urban faming complex Noordoogst, home to Metabolic, Beelease, STROOP & the unique No Chateau – Amsterdamse stadswijngaard city vineyard.

Thank you to all of the bikers who rode along & a special thanks to Le Compostier for organising such a special afternoon!

#communitycompostschool #urbancompost #greenlivinglab #stadsoogst

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