Water your garden at night…
With summer fast approaching, make sure you change your watering habits to the early morning or evening. Doing this reduces losing water to evaporation, and keeps your garden looking green and healthy.
This simple change in behaviour conserves water, and benefits the environment.
At this point, you could be forgiven for anticipating an impassioned paragraph about global warming and its negative effect on the environment. You are probably even expecting the words, “an inconvenient truth,” to make an appearance sometime soon. Not to be.
No matter how you write it, the bottom line is always the same – the planet is in serious trouble. The only question that each one of us should be asking ourselves is, “What am I doing to stop it?”
Cape Union Mart, like most other companies in South Africa, is unfortunately not yet ‘carbon-neutral’ or 100% environmentally friendly. We have a way to go before we’ve achieved our environmental goals but, from this point on, Cape Union Mart pledges to view all its business ventures through a pair of green goggles. This means that we’re constantly asking the question – “could we have done this in a way that has less impact on the environment?”
Whether it is erecting recycling bins around our Head Office, developing fleece jackets made from recycled fabrics, printing on recycled paper, putting pressure on suppliers to change their packaging, or donating money to causes dedicated to the war on global warming, Cape Union Mart is getting involved.
Read on to see what Cape Union Mart has done thus far.
'ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT COMMITTEE'
'Going green' starts at home. That’s why Cape Union Mart formed the Environmental Impact Committee, a group of employees who meet to discuss solutions to reducing Cape Union Mart’s carbon footprint. So far we’ve joined Cape Town’s waste minimization and recycling programme, reduced electricity consumption at our head office, and elected Environmental Ambassadors at each of our stores nationwide.
http://www.capeunionmart.co.za/news/default.php?news_id=115&pg=2
CAPE UNION MART'S ECO RANGE…
Cape Union Mart stocks a selection of eco-conscious outdoor equipment, all of which has been designed with a view to reducing the strain on Mother Nature. This environmentally-friendly gear includes a revolutionary “recycled fleece” jacket, an easily recyclable Polar water bottle, and a series of K-Way Eco sleeping bags, each constructed from 50% recycled material and 50% PrimaLoft virgin fibres – superb insulation at half the environmental impact!
http://www.capeunionmart.co.za/news/default.php?news_id=115&pg=2
THE SEYCHELLES ISLAND FOUNDATION (SIF)
Earlier this year, Cape Union Mart was approached by the SIF, and asked to assist the research team stationed on the Aldabra Atoll with some much needed gear. We had never even heard of Aldabra, but upon further investigation we knew we had to get involved.
Aldabra, located in the Seychelles, is the largest raised coral atoll on earth, and significantly less disturbed than most others. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1982, Aldabra plays home to several endangered animal species, including the giant tortoise, green turtle and white-throated rail – the last flightless bird species in the Indian Ocean.
The SIF specified that they needed tough, functional clothing to protect their rangers, and equally hardy gear to assist them with their studies. Cape Union Mart readily obliged.
Check out photographs of Aldabra. Its value as a World Heritage Site is quickly recognisable.
SEAL ALERT
Seal Alert was founded in the 1990’s with the intention of rescuing and rehabilitating Cape Fur seal pups, and of raising public awareness for the plight of the Cape Fur seal in general.
Cape Union Mart was approached by Francois Hugo, one-man army and founder of Seal Alert. He spends much of his time in the chilly waters of Hout Bay, where he goes about his admirable work of helping the Cape Fur seal population.
ISICONGO
A black woman has yet to summit Mount Everest, but with the sterling efforts of Isicongo this looks set to change.
Isicongo is a project that involves 3 Cape Union Mart employees - Evelina Tshabalala, Zukiswa Matamo and Nomawethu Nika - and their attempts at summitting the 7 highest peaks in the world, starting with Kilimanjaro and ending with Everest.
Each of the 3 mountaineers comes from a disadvantaged background, but through Isicongo are reaching heights that they never imagined possible. They have appeared on Carte Blanche, and in several publications. Check out their website to read more, check on their progress, or help the cause.
