After sailing more than 8,000 nautical miles and spending 128 days crossing the Pacific, the world’s largest ocean, in a boat made of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, the Plastiki expedition and her crew have safely and successfully reached their planned destination of Sydney to cheers of welcome and support.

Plastiki in Sydney Harbour

Arriving at Sydney Heads at 11.10am local time with a 12knot south south easterly breeze, the Plastiki triumphantly sailed into Sydney Harbour to cheers of welcome and support from a small spectator flotilla… The historic expedition was completed in four legs : San Francisco – Kiribati – Western Samoa – New Caledonia before reaching the Australian Coast (Mooloolaba) on Monday 19 July and continuing on to Sydney.

“It’s an incredible feeling to finally arrive in Sydney. We had great faith in the design and construction of Plastiki and while many people doubted we’d make it, we have proved that a boat made from plastic bottles can stand up to the harsh conditions of the Pacific.” expedition leader, David de Rothschild said.

De Rothschild, 31 from the United Kingdom, paid tribute to his fellow adventurers, Jo Royle (Skipper), David Thomson (Co-Skipper), Graham Hill (Founder of Treehugger.com), Olav Heyerdahl, Matthew Grey, Luca Babini (Photographer), Vern Moen (Myoo Media Film maker), Max Jourdan and Singeli Agnew (National Geographic Film makers) for their skill and commitment during the voyage.

“Jo and the rest of the crew did a remarkable job sailing the Plastiki safely across the Pacific and it is due to their collective efforts that we’ve been able to raise global awareness of the issue of plastic waste in the world’s oceans.

If there’s waste, it’s badly designed in the first place, and we need to start taking a serious look at the way we produce and design every product we use in our lives,” De Rothschild said.

Over four months ago on March 20, 2010, under the watchful eye of a global audience, an inspiring yet experimental and innovative one-of-a-kind catamaran set sail under the shadow of San Francisco’s world famous Golden Gate Bridge. Carrying a crew of six intrepid explorers, the Plastiki set out on an epic and demanding mission described by the San Francisco chronicle as the “adventure of the century”.

The pursuit of this audacious and unrivalled ocean expedition: to alert the world to the shocking and unnecessary effects of single use plastics on the health of our oceans and its inhabitants. According to Expedition Leader and founder of Adventure Ecology, David de Rothschild, this is a complex, challenging and now hugely catastrophic issue that scientists estimate is causing devastation on an unprecedented scale – every year at least one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they become entangled or ingest plastic pollution.

David de Rothschild and the crew of the Plastiki have been on a mission to not only beat waste but to create a global message of hope by spotlighting some of the real world solutions. After braving the full extremes of the Pacific Ocean one of the largest and most challenging oceans in the world, the crew have fulfilled their ambitious quest to effect a “global message in a bottle”, while setting a new precedent within the sailing and adventure community.

“To achieve this lessening of humanity’s increasingly destructive stranglehold on our natural environments is going to require a radical shift in the current system and the stories that we tell ourselves and each other. No longer is it acceptable to continue just articulating our Planet 1.0 failures, we must now show leadership and vision to support the stories, individuals and initiatives that help us to dream bigger, undertake more compelling adventures and fundamentally inspire, motivate and innovate solutions. Our failure to achieve such an outcome will undoubtedly leave humanity’s ability to live on this planet, as we know it, in the balance. The time to give ourselves a chance of survival is truly upon us,” David de Rothschild said.

THE PLASTIKI STORY:

Tens of millions of people are now aware of the Plastiki and her message. Since launch over 90 media interviews have been conducted from the vessel, resulting in more than 300 print articles, 200 radio and TV broadcasts, including the Oprah Winfrey Show. There are over 800,000 search terms relating to Plastiki and 52,200 related images on Google.

CONGRATULATIONS FROM GREENNOVATE TEAM

Our movie night has become very popular, and we are overwhelmed by the nice people and the refreshing atmosphere. This week’s film ‘Earthlings’ was suggested to us by a movie night guest. If you have a suggestion for what we should play, be it a short or long movie, just let us know!

We get so many visitors now, that from next week on, we will introduce a reservation system. Our cozy rooftop can only accomodate 35 movie watchers, so we ask you to make a reservation in order to attend the event.

Maybe we will bring a few tables and chairs in the next, so you can sit down and chat about the exchange. After the the movie, we will have a little discussion on the topic of the film. The intention is to make everyone get the most out of the movie.
Hope that the concerns of interest to our friends, click greennovate sponsor, facilitate timely information to the movies to look good to you!

Next wek, we will watch: An Inconvenient Truth

Synopsis: An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, “I’ve been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as if I’ve failed to get the message across.” The film documents a Keynote presentation (dubbed the slide show) that Gore has presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore’s exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change and its potential for disaster with his own life story.

Invite your friends! To participate, please complete the registration form on Douban.com: http://www.douban.com/event/12272628/

Bring your own drinks and snacks!

Looking forward to see you on our green rooftop next week!
Flora

Dear friends of Greennovate,
Our latest “Greennovate Movie Night”—”Earthlings” is over. At first, we would like to express our appreciation to all the guests in our events. It’s because of you that we are more motivated to do it!

If you want to know more about this movie, please go to Greennovate’s douban’s homepage: http://www.douban.com/host/greennovate/

We and our lovely rooftop just can’t wait to see you again, no matter if you are our old friend or first-time guest. Please bring your own snacks and drinks, so that we can appreciate this great movie!

Time: Wed, 14 July, 7pm
Location: Shanghai, 528 Kangding Road, Building 1 (on the roof!)

If you are a Chinese reader, please click our host homepage on douban.com. Thanks^^

As the preparations for GreenCup@Expo are under way, we want to introduce the AIESEC project teams who will take part in the competition for the GreenCup Trophy and a prize of 5000 RMB!

AIESEC at Nanjing University
Our project includes workshops on campus about a range of green topics. We wanted to take an interactive approach, not only lecture about environmental theory. Through events such as fingerprinting of students and eco- riding, we impacted more than 500 people.


AIESEC at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan
Our project goal is to spread sustainability knowledge among the young generation. To this end, we organized workshops on green issues, facilitated by Chinese and international trainers. Our sessions have been delivered in 17 high schools, thus impacting more than 2100 students.


AIESEC at University of International Business and Economics, Beijing
Our Waste Paper Recycling Project is about collecting waste and spreading awareness about recycling practices. We organized clean up events on campus as well as in communities. We involved NGOs and media organizations into our campaign, which reached 850 people.


AIESEC at University of Nottingham in Ningbo
The ‘Low Carbon Life’ project is all about reducing your personal carbon footprint. We organized a variety of low carbon activities, including a picnic, recycling, and a no-lights party. We reached more than 10.000 university students.

Also, we will have teams from:
AIESEC at Shanghai Jiaotong University
AIESEC at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou
AIESEC at Dalian University of Technology

We will update the list as soon as more teams confirm their participation!

For the first time, on 24th August 2010, AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization, will hold an environmental themed conference at the Expo in Shanghai, where 10 project teams from all over China will compete for the Green Cup and a prize of 5000 RMB!

The four- hour- event, which is co-organized by Greennovate and AIESEC, supported by FedEx, will attract 140 students from China’s top universities, 13 project teams, 4 distinguished speakers, and several media outlets. Set in the USA Pavilion, this exclusive conference is sure to honour AIESECs achievements of the year 2009/10, and give a strong motivation impulse for the coming year.
In order to participate, you need to be a member of AIESEC Mainland of China. To register, send an email to tom.bley@greennovate.net. See the Flyer for more details.

14/07 – Geennovate Movie Night – ‘The 11th Hour’

Dear friends of Greennovate,
here comes our latest “Greennovate Movie Night”. At first, we would like to express our appreciation to all the guests in our last five screenings. It’s because of you that we are more motivated to do it!

On this Wednesday, our roof-top will stage “The 11th Hour”. According to Chris, the environmental wizard in our office, we will encounter many famous environmentalists in this movie, and Chris will do a little explaination before we show the movie.

If you want to know more about this movie, please go to IMDB.

We and our lovely rooftop just can’t wait to see you, no matter if you are our old friend or first-time guest. Please bring your own snacks and drinks, so that we can appreciate this great movie!

Time: Wed, 14 July, 7pm
Location: Shanghai, 528 Kangding Road, Building 1 (on the roof!)

Movie the Night!

If you are a Chinese reader, please click our host homepage on douban.com. Thanks^^

This upcoming weekend, we will hold another GECKO Training session in our office.

It’s a great opportunity to get started as a volunteer. If you have already attended a training some time ago, it’s nice to get a refreshment. This summer is the time to make impact and spread environmental awareness. Get started now!

You will learn how the program functions, what content there is, and how to deliver it at High Schools. You will also receive access to all the teaching materials. And meet cool people!

To get some background knowledge before the session, please check out the materials on www.greennovate.org/resources

The training will take place on 11 July, from 10am-2pm in Greennovate’s office in Shanghai.
The address is: Room 203, Building 1, 528 Kangding Road, Shanghai.
The easiest way to get there is to take the Metro to Changping Road Station (on line 7). From there it’s just a 5 minute walk.

Please send me a confirmation to of your attendance before Friday, 9 July!

On 7 July, our Movie Night goes into the next round with a screening of “The Age of Stupid”, as our 5th movie of this season. W would like to welcome everyone who is interested in watching it with us on our cool roof-top. Not to feel “stupid”, but to become wiser.

This movie is about revealing mistakes: At the end of a timeline depicting the disasters that our planet had to endure thanks to man’s effect, an image of Earth is shown.

here are some comments from people who have watched it already:
Alvin Du Vernay: In my opinion our use or misuse of resources the last 100 years or so, I’d probably rename that age, something like The Age of Ignorance, The Age of Stupid. We could have saved ourselves, but we didn’t. It’s amazing. What state of mind were we in, to face extinction and simply shrug it off?

Time: Wed, 7 July, 7pm
Location: Shanghai, 528 Kangding Road, Building 1 (on the roof!)
pls log on this link and click ” i want to come”, we will be expecting you then

Bring your own drinks!

Organic Farm employee explaining different sorts of herbs

Having cooperated with Organic Farm before for our Earth Day Event, we were happy to take them up on their invitation to visit their Farm in Shanghai’s Songjiang District. We arrived on a blistering hot Saturday Morning, and were greeted by employees, who gave us an introduction of the concept of Organic Farming, and then showed us around the whole farm.

The farm operates according to principlese which make sure that all vegetables, fruit and meat is produced without using pesticides or fertilizers. A variety of tricks is employed to accomplish this, while still being able to operate efficiently on a large scale. One example is the use of pheromones to prevent crops from being destroyed by pests. Bottles, like the one shown below, are strategically placed throughout the green houses and the open fields. They contain a pheromone, which attracts certain insects, who are then trapped inside the container.

Pest Prevention at Organic Farm

Organic Farm produces many kinds of products. There are fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, beans, herbs, sunflower kernels, peanuts, eggs, milk, yoghourt. We also got to see some live stock, including free range geese, chicken, and goats.

Berries growing in Organic Farm Greenhouse

Everything we saw looked really good, and after a few hours of walking around the large expanse of the farm, we were only to happy to be offered a delicious lunch buffet, made entirely with produce from the farm. Organic Farm regularly receives visitor groups, so if you want to take a look for yourself, visit their website.