KHH Enviros - Campaign Ideas #1 -

This is the start of a new series that we're putting together as we've got few resources but plenty of ideas. 

The hope is that someone might see these campaign ideas and use them. 

Most of these campaigns are built on the foundation of Community Based Social Marketing

All of these are made to be simple and done with very little money

Cumulative Peititoning

Petitioning is often hard to do because people feel pressured and they feel singled out. This event is made to alleviate some of that pressure. 

- Ideally 3-5 different groups of people fan out across a city to places which would be friendly to the idea you're trying to advance. 

In this example, we use transit stops because our peitition is about increasing parking costs and better enforcement of parking laws to encourage public transit. These people already use public transit and would be more likely to support increased parking in the city because it would affect them less

1) Mass Advertising

- You need a large sign that can be held up or easily seen over a crowd. Cover the sign in lamenant or plastic that you can use dry erase markers on so that it can be changed quickly. 

- This sign shows in real time how many people have signed up to your petition

2) Real Time Communication

- Ideally using walkie-talkies, but it can also be done with SMS text messaging over cell phone networks (which is usually cheap...ahem...usually) update the other groups every time you get 10 signatures

- Make sure to write it on your sign, the cumulative amount you've gotten between groups

- This helps the crowd see that your number is constantly going up and that it's a dynamic movement

- This also helps your volunteers' motivation because even if there's a low time around you, your other groups are still getting signatures

General Tips

When taking signatures always remember to take pictures if they'll let you, videos are even BETTER! and EMAIL addresses so you can update people and perhaps have an online petition afterward. 

Remember that peititions are a great way to help people feel empowered when they're too busy to change something themselves. Try not to think that you're bothering people, instead think that you're giving them an opportunity to feel in control of their city. 

When you approach people, have this in your attitude and people will respond more positively. 

And for crying out loud never ever say "Sorry to bother you." You sound like a salesperson, even though any salesperson of worth would never say that!

Have some fun, play some music and get people feeling like they're having fun!

--Tim and the KHH Enviros

This past Saturday, July 17th 5 of us Enviros traveled out to Ping Dong to start our Organic Gardening project.

The event was arranged by Sylvia Li, our partner at the Youth Knowledge Network (YKN) and funded by the Taiwan National Science council.  

The project is meant to teach some new skills to some of Taiwan's aboriginals who are living in temporary homes after their villages were destroyed by Typhoon Morakot last year. 

Our first visit we cleared the land with the help of the boys military high school volunteers and some of the locals and their kids. 

After that we solarized the soil by laying down blast cloth, which will sit on the soil for 2 weeks and bake all the seeds underneath. This will create a clean slate for us when we go back to plant in two weeks. 

Ready to work (Leifson and Joy)

要去上班啊

Our site, pre-work, pre-back breaking labor

我們的願意地點，做晚前

This is half the stuff we pulled out of the ground, from half of the site...oh, 我的背不舒服

Garden warriors...we look energetic don't we

看起來很有活力吧

How do we look now?

哪，我們看起來怎麼樣？

 Site half solarized. An entire day, more than 30 people working and we finished half!

一般做好了。一天，30個人一起做工作，只有做一半啊

Fish face or tired face...not sure which

魚臉或累臉，不知道是哪一個

Some of the kids, oh so cute!

那邊的小朋友，好可愛！

Do these military boys ever run out of energy?

他們軍人不會停止

The whole crew!

我們全部都在！

KHH Enviros Newsletter – July 5, 2010

Hello everyone,

Can you tell it’s July yet? Wow, hot hot hot.

Thanks to everyone who helped out to clean up CiJin Beach. That was fantastic!

This month will be spent mostly in planning for our next two campaigns.

One aimed at helping the MRT while reducing air pollution; the other on organic gardening.

If you have any interest in either, ring us up. We’ll for sure need help.

KHH Enviros team

khhenviros@gmail.com

khhenviros.110mb.com

1.  Green News from Around the Island

2.  台灣環保新聞

3.  Green Tip – Shut off your engine at Red Lights

4.    Event Wrap up – Ci Jin 旗津沙灘 Beach Clean Up

5.    Enviro Cartoons----- Exxon’s idea of Greening Up

6.    Youtube – World Cup n’ Green Peace

Green News from Around the Island
Local Enviro News May 2010                                                                       Thanks Kayla Hardin for the News!

 Gaomei suffers from serious oil pollution

The Gaomei Wetlands in Taichung County, central Taiwan, which is one of the most important animal wildlife sanctuaries along Taiwan's coastline, were found seriously polluted by waste several weeks ago by heavy oil dumped. Troops have been deployed in Taichong County, as the Environmental Protection Administration continues to clean-up the spill. Authorities say they are continuing to investigate the cause of the pollution and video footage is being reviewed in the hope of identifying the culprits. The EPA has said the perpetrators face a jail term of between one and five years and a fine of 3-million NT dollars.

Energy efficiency labels required for refrigerators

All refrigerators and air conditioners on display in shops nationwide have to be labelled to show their energy efficiencies starting July.

Pharmacists to start medication recycling

The nation's pharmacists are launching a campaign to encourage medication recycling, as Taiwan's rivers have been found to be polluted by improperly discarded drugs.

Taipei City to launch energy-saving campaign

The Taipei city government announced that it will begin an energy-saving campaign in July in which heavy electricity consumers such as department stores, hotels and office buildings will be asked to keep their indoor mean temperature no lower than 26 degrees Celsius.

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2.  台灣環保新聞

謝謝Samuel

      099/06/25

台 英環保合作 土壤及地下水保護向前邁大步 由台灣學術、工程及顧問等領域專業人士所組成的土壤及地下水環境保護協會（TSGEPA）訪問團，在台英兩 方政府代表見證下，已於昨(24)日在倫敦......(詳 全文)

      099/06/24

 環 保署監測站設高值觸發自動採樣裝置 有效監控工業區空氣污染物異常排放 有鑑於空氣污染事件不易即時採集樣品，為協助地方環保局追查污染來源，環保署選擇三個鄰近工業區的空氣品質 監測站，包括大寮站、仁武站、台西站，安裝......(詳 全文)

環 保署表揚優良機車檢驗站，宣示改善機車排氣污染 98年度服務優良的機車排氣檢驗站出爐，環保署特別於今(23)日舉辦表揚大會，由沈世宏署長親自出席頒發 獎牌給全國77家優良機車檢驗站。 ......(詳 全文)

       099/06/30

公 有垃圾掩埋場遠端監控系統裝設及99年上半年專案稽查執行成果 大家所熟悉的電影「全民公敵」中所呈現遠端即時監控的效能，已被環保單位大力運用在公有垃圾掩埋場作業管制 工作上。環保署表示，為加強公有垃圾掩埋場......(詳 全文)

      099/06/29

環 保署持續革新管制方式 有效提升工業區下水道系統管理成效 台灣地區目前開發完成且設有聯合污水處理廠之工業區已達66處，其污染物排放量約佔全國事業水污染源之25 ％，有鑑於妥善管理工業區污水下水道系統......(詳 全文)

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/100610/8/277jc.html

tw.news.yahoo.com

世界盃足球賽即將要在南非登場，台灣雖然無法躋身世界舞台，不過這一次靠著「環保創 意」在世界發光；美國、巴西、葡萄牙、荷蘭等9支世界強隊，球員身上穿的球衣，全是MIT，會受....

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Green Tip – Turn off your engine at stoplights

TIP OF THE WEEK
如果我在等紅綠燈要關掉機車，會不會用少一點石油？？？

如果等紅燈的時候熄火，會省一些汽油嗎?

聽說，熄火後重新發動會用掉更多的汽油，是真的嗎?

KHH Enviros有幫我們找到答案，我們的專業技工表示，等紅燈的時間如果多於10秒鐘，那熄火可以省下更多的汽油，同時達到更少的環境汙染。

DOES STARTING MY ENGINE REALLY TAKE MORE GAS THAN LETTING IT RUN?

Ever since I was a boy my father would bravely run out into the depths of the Toronto winter waiting outside in order to "warm up" the car before we were all to pile in on our way to school/work. Having the car sitting in the driveway, running for a while before we drove it was considered healthy for the engine and also for our frozen fingers.

But a question has always rolled around in my head:
"Is it really better to leave your engine running or to simply turn it off?"

A while back I began turning off my engine at stop lights if I knew it would be a long one. A friend of mine had told me "30 seconds or more and it's better to turn off your engine." At the time, gas prices were high and I was a student so I thought any way to save money was fine by me. I didn't think about emissions at the time, though now that I sit in Kaohsiung traffic I can't help but think about pollution.

But I never found out for myself if he was right or not.
So, we at the KHH Enviros did some checking.

According to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation anti-idling primer, there is a roughly "10 second break even rule" where it would be better to turn off your engine if you're going to be running the engine and not moving for more than 10 seconds.
- Because the modern day engine is designed to be driven, not to be standing so this helps save your engine, battery, fuel and pollution -

Just imagine if you're sitting at the corner of Ming Cheng and Min Zu and every engine around you is turned off. How much better could you be breathing?

This 10 second rule has actually been verified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers by an experiment done in Florida you can read about here

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Now here's the tricky part: Does this apply to Scooters here in Taiwan?

Well, the short answer to this is we can't know for sure simply because the research hasn't been done (or made available in English if it has been done).

Two things matter here: 1) Nearly all of the research has been done on car engines, not scooter engines
                                            2) Most scooters here owned by foreigners are older scooters and may not be
                                                  subject to the wonders of modern engineering that makes idling bad for
                                                     your car or scooter

However, there is no denying that stopping your engine saves on emissions. You're doing yourself and everyone around you a favour when you stop your car.

Also, we asked one local Kaohsiung mechanic his opinion. He said that any scooter in decent condition (i.e. you don't need to give it gas to start it), would most certainly be better to turn your engine off rather than waiting 20 seconds or more.

When it comes down to it, you've been around engines all your life, as I have. The quick, easy start up of a scooter takes less than 2 seconds. Does it really make sense that it would take more energy than sitting there having black stuff coming out the back of your scooter?

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So do yourself and everyone else a favour. Turn off your engines if you're waiting at a long stop light.
And make sure others see you do it. Good, sensible behaviour catches on fast.

Drive safely
--KHH Enviros

khhenviros@gmail.com

Event Wrap Up– Ci Jin 旗津沙灘 Beach Clean Up - Part Deux!!

The day started well. A bit hot, but lots of wind to cool us off. We even had a man who offered to lend us his surfboards for free because we were helping to clean up the beach. Lots of people said thank you and we had lots of fun playing in the water after we finished. Great day!

Thanks so much to Ying, Nicholus and their friends for coming out and helping us clean up Ci Jin.

那天天氣很熱，可是風很大所以會比較舒服。

有一個男生請我們免費衝浪。很多人有來所謝謝。

做完了再去玩水。很好玩！

謝謝Nikolaus, Ying 和他們的朋友 J

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Enviro Cartoons

YouTube

http://goodbranchvergara.org/video/Greenpeace-Oceans-World-Cup

This video is a really low budget spoof on the world cup done by Greenpeace international.

Not bad, a bit depressing, but they make a good point.

Take care y’all

--Tim

Managing Director