Green has become very in vogue and along with that comes dangers and pit falls of green washing.
At a time when carbon emissions are at an all-time high and climate change is a real threat, Plettenberg Bay-based Rhian Berning has made it her mission to encourage both businesses and consumers to make a difference to their ecological footprint – one click at a time – through her web-based ethical directory, Eco Atlas.
An initiative aimed at pointing people towards restaurants, accommodation establishments and other services that espouse Eco-friendly practices is beginning to find favour among businesses.
Choose with a conscience. Shop informed. Take your power back.
Eco Atlas, the pioneering eco platform invited all of South Africa to snap a selfie of themselves at their favorite eco destination in order to win one of four fabulous prizes and further build SA’s already substantial eco conscious community.
Situated just outside Plettenberg Bay, this offbeat,off-the-grid and utterly charming cottage might just be the perfect place to raise children.
Home is my creativespa ce,” says RhianBerning, standing in a kitchen jumbled with cutlery in jugs,mismatched crockery,wild flowers and rambunctious hounds. She ’s just taken a soup off the stove and put it in a hotbox. For those, like me, who don’t know what a hotbox is, it’s a box (with a lid)that has a woollen beanbag inside it, and is essentially a nonelectric slow cooker.
Rhian Berning decided to run a selfie competition, and put out a call to all South Africans to take a photograph of themselves at their favourite eco-destinations.
“I thought it was a great way to grow the country’s eco-community. So often people and places that are doing good for humanity and the planet go unnoticed. This was a chance for people to get out there and give the big thumbs up,” says Berning, founder and director of Eco Atlas, an online portal for all things “eco” in South Africa.
People have risen to the challenge. Zolani Mahola of Freshly-ground sent a photo of herself and her son with their worm farm; Afrikaans actress Lika Berning loves the raw and vegan meals available at Johannesburg’s Greenside Cafe; and chef Karen Dudley, of Cape Town’s The Kitchen and The Dining Room eateries, sent in a photo of herself at Plettenberg Bay’s cult bakery, Le Fournil.
The competition runs until the end of the month and selfie snappers are invited to post their pics to their Facebook or Twitter accounts tagging @ecoatlas and #ILoveEco along with a sentence or two about the spot.
Prizes include two nights’ luxury accommodation at the Three Trees lodge at Spioenkop in the Drakensberg and a weekend for four at the Ingwe Forest Adventures resort outside Plettenberg Bay. Other prizes include tickets to the Greenpop Hogsback Reforest Fest in mid-September.
Article from Times Live