On The Road To Copenhagen

This is a bit of a personal blog from me, Tim, the managing director of the KHH Enviros.

I created this group in hopes of helping the expatriate community in Kaohsiung find an outlet for their want to do some good in this world. Most people when they set out from their own country do so to see the world, but few end up getting involved in the community they land in because there are so many barriers to doing so. The most obvious and difficult to overcome is quite obviously the language barrier. Chinese is just friggin' difficult to learn. No doubts there.

But as it turns out through my efforts I managed to re-make a mistake I've been making my whole life: I've stretched myself too thin. Trying to do too many things at once has always been an issue for me, and though I feel I did an excellent job managing the Kaohsiung Massive Football Club, I feel I've done a less than perfect job of running the KHH Enviros.

Now I think I know why. You see, managing a football club with all your friends on it is encouraging. I see my friends 3 or 4 times a week and they're always wanting to know what's happening with the club, so it ended up taking priority over everything. It's not such a bad thing to give priority to because I think it helps a lot of people who arrive to find a family overseas. It's a ready-made community that anyone who feels like kicking a ball around can jump into. That's a good thing.

However, now that my time as captain has ended (I've resigned) it's now for the real challenge of creating something great out of nearly nothing.

I have had loads of help up to now from great people like Renata, Sarah and Kayla and the work we've done with the Senior Girls High School was great, but I KNOW that we're capable of so much more and Kaohsiung is so ready to jump into this enviro movement that's been developing. In fact, my students at Jhong Shan University asked me what they could do to help just last week. They want to create an enviro group at the university. That's awesome! And far beyond what I had hoped or expected. They're so busy with school you see, but then again, isn't every university student?

Coming to the point of this blog, I'm currently in Germany visiting friends on my way to Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December. Thanks to New Life Copenhagen I'll be staying with a student at their university for free! I'm excited but have no idea what to expect. What I would like is to network a little bit and get a bit of that energy and fervor back that I used to have but had put mostly into football.

I know that this world needs the sort of groups that I've made and I feel a bit bad about my half-assed efforts over the past two years in Taiwan but I'm only one person and I don't regret all the work I put into the football team. Plus, it's not like we've done nothing. We've created a monthly newsletter and green tips and videos series. We've run beach clean ups, fundraisers and had some interest in the group from Taiwanese students.

There's lots to build on and I plan on building it up over this next year in Taiwan.

--Tim
khhenviros@gmail.com
The KHH Enviros website

KHH Enviros Interviewed by Taipei Times

Well,
As the old saying goes: if you scream loud enough, eventually someone will ask you "what's wrong?"
It appears that person was Jenny Hsu from the Taipei who interviewed Tim, our Managing director...ahem, me.

The article is now online at Taipeitimes.com but here's a copy just in case you missed it.
Or click here to go to the Jenny Hsu's Interview with the KHH Enviros
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COMMUNITY COMPASS: Canadian on a mission to turn Kaohsiung green
GREENHEAD: Instead of complaining about the smog and the litter, Tim Higgs organized KHH Environs to teach people how to 'greenify' the city
By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Jul 21, 2009, Page 4

VIEW THIS PAGE

For environmental activist Tim Higgs, being a contagious agent who spreads the “green bug” in Kaohsiung is exactly what he has in mind.

The 26-year-old Higgs, who hails from Ontario, Canada, got involved in the global environment protection movement because of his experience working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as in the private sector, on energy and water efficiency in Canada.

“I loved my job because it was something that made you feel good about yourself when you went to work in the morning,” he said, referring to his job in Canada.

“Moreover, I was constantly learning new things each day on the job,” he said, adding that he missed that feeling when he moved to Germany.

But even there, he was inspired by the German government's commitment to green energy and the people's love for the Earth, he said.

When he moved to Kaohsiung last year, he said he was greeted not only by the area's famous southern hospitality, but also by the heavy smog that enveloped the city.

“You don't need a big reason to want to do something for the environment here in Kaohsiung. Just look around you or breathe in the air in the city,” said the English teacher, recalling the time when he lived in an apartment downtown, where he could not even open the windows without smelling exhaust fumes from heavy traffic.

“Within in a day, there would be a layer of dirty black grime so thick that you couldn't dust off. The pollution was in your face all the time and you just couldn't escape from it,” he said.

Instead of moaning and groaning about the constant battle with the smog-filled air and the litter, Higgs decided to roll up his sleeves and go to work by organizing the KHH Enviros, a community-based group to educate the public about ways to “greenify” the city.

Higgs used a technique called “community-based social marketing,” which involves engaging the community from a market perspective.

“What you do is first find out everything you can about the problem you are seeking to solve. Once you have done that, you find out about the barriers that are stopping people from doing a behavior that you want them to do,” he said.

Take littering for example, he said, a big barrier to people disposing their garbage properly is the low number of public garbage cans.

Taiwan's trash pick-up system presents another problem to making people more environmentally conscious, he said.

The next step to shaping public behavior is to get them to change the way they view themselves — from ordinary citizens that are detached from the movement to “green people” who are committed to cleaning up the city in a sustainable manner.

Higgs and his group of volunteers do this by passing out stickers that say “Greenhead.”

“This might sound simple but it is an effective method. Having the sticker on your scooter, you are telling the world that you are an 'environmental person,' which means whenever someone asks you about it, you either have to strengthen the identity inside yourself or discard it. We find that most people do the former,” he said.

In addition to organizing projects such as beach clean-ups, the group offers various “green tips” on its monthly newsletters to raise public awareness that protecting the environment is often easier than many would think.

Higgs said one of the goals of KHH Enviros is to be able to partner up with the city government on different city beautification projects.

Like many NGOs in the country, KHH Enviros faces the twin problems of cash and staffing shortage. For more information on the group and volunteer opportunites, check out www.khhenviros.webs.com/home.html

Radiohead's Enviro Saavyness

This is blog post number 2 and finally I'm able to use this. This is from Brett, the owner of The Lighthosue Pub. We had our fundraiser there a while back and Brett and I chatted about Music and environment. He mentioned Radiohead is very enviro conscious and make every effort to live that way. Brett was good enough to send us this info about Radiohead's enviro friendly actions.
Cheers Brett

The Following is from a Q mag. review of a show last June 2008 in Milan..."On their six month international trek, the band are doing everything they can to reimagine the touring rock bands immediate environment: congruent with Thom Yorke's role as spokeman for Friends Of The Earth's Big Ask campaign, Radiohead are touring with a weather eye on their carbon footprint. This means playing city centre venues with good public transportation links and buying a separate PA that remains in America for when they play there(no onerous air-freight for this band who, in every sense, like to keep their feet on the ground). It also means investing in energy-storing batteries costing 200,000 Britsh Pounds and an innovative, eco-smart LED lighthing rig that uses between a fifth and a 1oth of the power.

Here's an interesting link from the bands web site about calculating the feasabilities of world tours
http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/index.php?a=310

and heres a link about their lighting rig , PA, carbon reduction and "no-air freight policy
http://www.radiohead.com/themostgiganticflyingmouthforsometime/

interesting stuff

Lighthouse Brett
Btw, the Lighthouse is a great place for food and drink and sports if you're into it.
Here's a map to the Lighthouse

New Blog @ KHH Enviros

Greetings all,

This is the beginning of the blog from the KHH Enviros.

This will serve as a forum for anyone who wishes to post something environmental.
To post to this blog, please use the form to the right. If approved it will be posted within a few days.

Thank you
--KHH Enviros team