Coffee is one of my guilty pleasures. I absolutely love it, yet I know that environmentally, it's not the best thing to be drinking. It's not grown locally, so already comes with an increased carbon footprint and it has a huge water footprint too. Knowing these facts doesn't outweigh my need for a delicious cappuccino tho. So I limit the amount I drink and I always try to choose organic or fairtrade coffee from Africa. I figure it's at least a step in the right direction.

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This Saturday (5th May) sees another day of climate action from 350.org. They’re calling it “Connect the dots”, and as they put it, they want “to put a human face on climate change” with the use of dots – hundreds (or hopefully thousands!) of photos and videos of people holding dots in areas that have already experienced, or are at risk of, climate change.

It’s a subtle, but clever campaign. There are already hundreds of examples of the impacts of climate change around our world, but people don’t seem to see that it’s all connected. Hence the idea to ‘Connect the Dots’.

After the day of action, the team at 350.org plans to use all the footage they receive from around the world to create a potent call to action, and will “then channel that call directly to the people who need to hear it most.” Hopefully that means the politicians and fossil fuel industry!

Want to get involved? There are events planned all over the world and you can sign up here: www.climatedots.org

In terms of activities in South Africa specifically, if you’re in Cape Town, you can:

• join the 350.org SA team for breakfast on Lions Head in the morning. (Check out the Facebook event too)
• help create dots and clean up the beach at Sunset Beach.
• be part of the One Person, One Spekboom project at Kommetjie Primary School

If you’re in Durban, you have the option of:

• support the Renewable Energy VS Fossil Fuels Soccer Match at the Moses Madiba Stadium
• attending a talk on the effects of climate change on birds and bird populations in Hillcrest
• help collect Yellowwood seeds in the Stainbank Nature Reserve

Gauteng-dwellers can get involved in:

• join Food & Trees for Africa and the learners of the KwaBhekilanga Secondary School in Alexandra develop a sustainable permaculture food garden (on May 3)
• attend a sustainable energy presentation in Florida.

Elsewhere in the country:

• go vegetable gardening in Grahamstown at St Mary’s School
• join an Umgeni River Walk in Howick
• help plant trees in Scottburgh

If you're planning to attend any of these, or simply to hold up your own dot to raise awareness, please let me know in the comments and feel free to send me pics which I will send on to the 350.org SA team for you.

A while back I highlighted a local company, Waste 2 Wow, which repurposes old billboards into funky bags and other products. It just so happened that one of their associates found me on twitter and was so pleased with my article that she organised to give me my very own handbag! How awesome is that?!

I'm super grateful and I simply had to take pics to post up here to share with you. It's really beautifully made, and I know I'll get a lot of use out of - it's the perfect size for me, I love the colours, and it looks like it'll last for ages (unlike the crappy bags you get in the shops these days!)

Pics below - any ideas what billboard it might have come from?

To find out more about this great company and their lovely products please visit their website, or find them on Facebook.

Take a look at this great infographic about e-waste - what is it, where it goes and why we should be recycling it.

Locally you can take your e-waste back to these places:

• computer-related e-waste: any Incredible Connection store
• cellphone-related e-waste: most Nokia Care Centres
• any and all e-waste: all Makro stores across the country

Infographic via: Wellhome.com

Up for a sustainability challenge? Then you need to take part in the BIG Impact Week happening next week (16 – 22 April).

Build it Green together with a host of other sponsors, challenge all South African companies and individuals to implement sustainable changes to their personal and professional lives in the run up to Earth Day (22 April). The best performing individuals and companies stand a chance to win some great prizes such as energy audits, green training courses, rain water harvesting systems and more.

The challenge involves completing daily challenges during the week relating to various areas of sustainability – think energy, water, waste and so on.

I think this is a great idea – by taking on the challenge you’ll improve your green awareness, maybe adopt some new sustainable behaviours, have an impact on your planet, and even win some great prizes! It’s a win-win.

Enter now!

Follow the challenge on Facebook and Twitter too.

As you've probably noticed, I've been helping to promote and encourage people to get involved in Saturday's Earth Hour event, but in all truth, I won't actually be taking part. I'll be out and about and having a fun time in celebration of my boyfriend's birthday.  Which of course means that I'm feeling rather guilty.

So, to clear the conscience, I'd like you all to know that I will switch off everything in my house when I go out on Saturday. That will mean that my home will technically be unplugged, off-the-grid and energy-neutral for at least 4 or 5 hours.

And, to take the message of the campaign further, I have also set up a dare on the Earth Hour youtube channel, which I think you should take me up on.  I will dye blue streaks into my long brown hair if 100 of you wonderful people commit to stop buying and drinking bottled water. I'll even post a photo of it when I get my 100 people so you have proof!

I have a month to enlist 100 of you and your friends. So off you go now - accept my dare!

For love of water (FLOW), a South African organisation that promotes awareness and conservation of water launched a very clever little web/twitter campaign today for World Water Day.

Called "Close the Tap", it's a website that features a dripping tap. To get the tap to stop dripping, people need to tweet the hashtag #CloseTheTap, and as the tweets start adding up the tap starts switching off.

The site allows users to choose between a number of prewritten tweets which raise awareness about the need to save water. It's super simple and very clever, with the tweets being interesting and humorous enough to generate additional interest on their own.

So, if you have a twitter account, go check out the site and put your tweet out to world about how you plan to save water, and help close that tap!

Find out more about FLOW.

It's that time of year again - Earth Hour time!
Join thousands of other people all across the world in a symbolic action for the planet by switching off for an hour next Saturday between 8.30 and 9.30pm.

Here's the official video for this year:

Find out more about local initiatives around Earth Hour at the WWF SA website.