Live Smart - Save Money & Your Planet
The wonderful thing about saving water and electricity and reducing waste is that it will save you and the City of Cape Town much needed money. The actions recommended in this book are easy and relatively cheap.
The City of Cape Town’s Smart Living Handbook and associated campaign guide people on how to be resource efficient and sustainable in their daily lives and practices.
Where an item may be a bit more costly, we offer information on the long-term savings. Also worth considering is that when you buy an appliance, you pay more than just the selling price – you commit yourself to paying the cost of running the appliance for as long as you own it. These energy and water costs add up quickly.
Therefore remember, when you buy a new appliance, rather switch to one that will be energy and water-efficient. These usually cost no more than their less efficient counterparts, but will save you money over the years.
The themes covered include energy, waste, water and biodiversity. The Smart Living Handbook has recently been updated with 30 additional pages of information, an exciting new cover and a fresh, new layout.
Background to the Smart Living Handbook
The City of Cape Town has a partnership with the City of Aachen in Germany that specifically promotes sustainable development in a practical way. One of the partnership’s projects implemented in Cape Town was the 21 Households project with families from Khayelitsha, Manenberg and Wynberg. Over a period of a year, households met monthly to learn about sustainable living through practical, interactive workshops and outings. Eco-audits were done in their
homes at the start and end of the project to determine the main focus areas that had to be addressed and the eventual impact of the training.
The project was a great success in the local communities. It was repeated in different areas, and everywhere, households felt that they had been empowered to make better decisions that would improve their lives and benefit the environment. The participating households believed that it was important to get the message across to the broader community, and suggested that the workshop notes be printed in a handbook format.
Subsequently, the Smart Living Handbook was developed on behalf of the City of Cape Town by AMATHEMBA Environmental Management Consulting and Sustainable Energy Africa. It was based on the Home Environmental Management Guide Book by AMATHEMBA and The Energy Book by Sarah Ward, and was first published in 2007.
Minor updates and reprints were done in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Steadfast Greening and Icologie undertook an extensive update and review of the handbook, and compiled the complementary Smart Events and Smart Office handbooks.
Download a free copy at www.capetown.gov.za/smartlivinghandbook
Background to the handbook’s creation
