World Environment Day is on Monday 5 June – and there’s lots to celebrate on this important day on our calendar!
- World Environment Day – 5 June 2009 – is when the Cape Town Green Map was launched virtually!
- Planting Fynbos to celebrate World Environment Day was held at Majik Forest, Belville.
- Cape Town launches the innovative green Helderberg Environmental Centre to commemorate the day.
Cape Town Green Map
World Environment Day 2009 – this was the first time that the Executive Mayor of the City Of Cape issued an invitation to a virtual launch! And we are talking pre-Zoom days. This totally green launch was promoted as: no speeches – so no hot air; dress – optional, preferably green; at your laptop so no car needed. Bottom line: more than 150 members of the media, local, national and international, logged in to the new website. The Cape Town Green Map was launched on the same day that our global parent, Green Map Systems, launched their website.
The map grew out of Green Goal 2010, the award winning environmental programme of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
There have been 10 editions of the print map, the most recent being the Cape Town Green COASTAL Map.
The Cape Town Green Map encourages you to live and play more sustainably and to make greener lifestyle choices. Green is not alternative, but an informed lifestyle choice.
Planting Fynbos at Majik Forest, Belville.
The City of Cape Town’s Recreation and Parks Department and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Community Service and Health, Councillor Ronel Viljoen hosted a Fynbos planting
event at Majik Forest, Bellville, earlier today ahead of World Environment Day on Monday, 5 June 2022.
World Environment Day aims to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment. The theme for this year is, Only one earth.
The Department collaborated with the local Tygerberg Renosterveld Group to plant renosterveld vegetation and create a biodiversity garden at the Majik Forest Conservation Area.
‘This is an excellent start towards an indigenous and functional biodiversity garden with Renosterveld vegetation. Apart from adding value to the urban environment, the garden will have educational value and the appropriate signage will be erected. Public open spaces plays an important role in today’s challenging time by creating spaces where people can relax, exercise and enjoy nature,’ said Councillor Viljoen.
WHERE: Majik Forest, 42 Artillery Rd, Door De Kraal, Cape Town, 7530 PHOTO: Councillor Ronel Viljoen, Sihle Jonas (Recreation and Parks Ecological Co-ordinator)
City launches innovative green Helderberg Environmental Centre
In commemoration of the upcoming World Environmental Day on 5 June 2022, the City’s Executive Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis and Deputy Mayor, Alderman Eddie Andrews, today addressed a launch event to showcase the City’s Helderberg Environmental Centre, a new state-of-the-art green sustainable centre located at the Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset West. The setting of the reserve on the slopes of the Helderberg, overlooking False Bay, makes it an ideal location to teach communities in and around Somerset West about the Western Cape’s plant and animal kingdom and our impact on it. As such, staff at the reserve identified the need for an environmental education centre where school groups and visitors can be accommodated.
The Helderberg Environmental Centre is a success story of how alternative construction methods and sustainable design thinking can be achieved.
‘The new Helderberg Environmental Centre is truly a magnificent building and provides the perfect setting for the various environmental education programmes the City’s nature reserves offer schools and interest groups. This centre provides us with a practical example of what a green City facility can look like. The project as a whole has proved just how beneficial implementing green construction practices can be, especially if one considers the amount of semi-skilled EPWP job opportunities that were created to assist with the material selection and specific green construction techniques,’ said the City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
‘I am excited about the learners and various groups that will be visiting and benefiting from this facility going forward. The message we would like to get across this World Environmental Day is to ensure our youth understand the importance of biodiversity in Cape Town. The environmental education here at the Helderberg Environmental Centre is a beautiful example of a sustainable building. Protecting our natural assets, our coastline and biodiversity, protected areas and nature reserves is pivotal in ensuring our collective wellbeing.
‘Cape Town has a wealth of nature reserves; greenbelts; parks and public open spaces. These are the green lungs of the city that need to be preserved, but this can only be done with the assistance from our communities,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
The Helderberg Environmental Centre demonstrates green construction methods and sustainable designs.
Many of the conventional materials and methods used in the construction industry have a negative impact on the environment. This includes a high embodied energy, water and waste footprint. The City decided to use this project as an opportunity to ensure that environmentally responsible material is used.
The design of this holistic sustainable facility considered a number of components such as:
• Waste
• Functionality
• Ecology
• Thermal impact
• Ground, waste and storm water impact
• Light pollution
• Reducing carbon emissions.
Some of the sustainability features of the new centre includes the impressive tyre retaining wall; eco brick wall and the integrated water treatment system, which includes the four chamber underground Black Water Treatment System.
In order to demonstrate alternative construction methods, the design showcased three approaches where waste was used in the wall construction. The concept for the enclosure is based on two curved walls, one fitting into the other and were constructed as follows:
The inner curved wall and foundations were constructed from rammed earth and repurposed building rubble.
The outer curved retaining wall was constructed from repurposed tyres. Building rubble and Ecobricks made from plastic bottles filled with plastic waste were used to fill the tyres for the wall. A total of 830 truck tyres were used for the tyre wall, which is approximately 40m long and 3,4m high.
The internal walls are constructed from Ecobricks. The ecobricks are made by filling and compacting plastic waste inside plastic bottles. The bottles were then stacked inside a frame to make the walls. Natural cob was also used to plaster over the ecobricks instead of conventional cement based plaster.
The three wall types showcase the principle of carbon burying. The materials that would otherwise become a burden in a landfill were reused and repurposed and given a new life . This new facility now serves as carbon sinks by sequestrating waste. The idea of repurposing and upcycling materials allows this centre to speak to sustainability. In addition, approximately 176 cubic metres of earth and recycled building rubble were used for the rammed earth walls and foundations as well.
The integrated water treatment system serves the new facility and solves the burden of the waste water generated by the existing facilities. Waste water from the new facility; the nearby restaurant; ablutions; the visitor’s centre and rain water from the new facility are captured and sent to the underground black water treatment system. The black water treatment system takes waste water and passes it through a four chamber process before being stored in storage tanks for the flushing of toilets in the new facility and existing ablution blocks. This ensures minimum water usage and zero water wastage. The treatment system makes use of bacteria and microorganisms to break down solids and treat the waste water, a process that mimics nature without releasing harmful nitrates into the atmosphere.Ma
This new facility is situated close to the parking and entrance of the reserve. It hosts a stage and has a clip-on bedouin tent, which expands the covered usable area of the facility to accommodate larger functions.
WHERE: Helderberg Environmental Centre, Verster Ave, Helderberg Nature Reserve, Cape Town, 7135
INFO: E helderbergnature.reserve@capetown.gov.za
See also Cape Town Green Map
