One thing that has changed is the Centre for Alternative Technology – founded on a slate quarry of idealism in the 1970s – it’s now not only a top visitor attraction but a burgeoning institute for studies in sustainability.

I came to hear presentations from the current MSC students and to see the new WISE (Wales Institute for Sustainable Education) building which is a giant mud-packed lecture theatre, bar, restaurant, and accommodation carved beautifully into the slate quarry.

The postgrad presentations were a bit like a TEDx in that they were 20 minutes each and focused on specific topics including investigations and experiments in:

• Pro-environmental behaviour changes (it happens through social and emotional connections – as we know from MSC Grad Sam Tyres who studied Tribewanted Vorovoro members in 2008 and discovered similar results)
• Community led approaches to energy reduction in Oxfordshire (showing that the ‘big society’ is happening regardless of ‘big gov’t)
• Local councils reducing CO2 in housing (all housing was sustainable until 1850s, now it’s far from that)
• Potential for bore-hole heating through city parks (it could work but you’d have to dig up the city’s beauty spots)
• Dishwasher frequency & efficiency (hit the eco button I think, impressed this can hold someone’s attention)
• PC management in hospitals (there are too many PCs!)
• Refrigeration in supermarkets (at the moment they’re based on domestic systems which is a little crazy)
• Hemp-lime walls (probably the most experimental but this was a little too close to post lunch fatigue syndrome)
• Wind turbines next to motorways (could make annual profit of 38m quid in UK – call Dale Vince!)
• Renovating 1930s housing (27% of UK CO2 emissions come from 25m homes of which 80% will still be here in 2050 – ie sustainable renovations vital)
• Should gov’t burn straw as biomass? (No. Use it on farms as compost and build more straw bale houses OR make biomass much more efficient)
• How do we get high st shops to be more energy efficient? (Aside from making them go out of business so they close down – thank you Woolworths – you need to give them business case for environmental action, technically known as ‘Ecological Modernisation Theory’ OR turn off the bloody heat blaster outside the front window)

a modern classic with a startlingly persuasive conclusion: ‘McDougall -Born to Run’ (my book of the year)

surprisingly compelling menifestio – if only he could deliver it: ‘Goldsmith – The Constant Economy’

best book I’ve read on the continent so far: ‘Dowden – Africa’

great insight into this social phenomenon: ‘Kirkpatrick – The Facebook Effect’

Like Mother Teresa to Diana, so Wangari Maathai is to Steve Jobs – died at the same time but slipped under the world’s radar as a true heroine: ‘Maathai – Unbowed’

something I should have read years ago: ‘Schumacher- Small is Beautiful’

Gives great meaning to the word ‘footprint’: ‘Pearce – Confessions of an Eco Sinner’

Shows you why he was in No.10 for a decade – a very skillful politician: ‘Blair – A Journey’

Much better than I expected in it’s practical solutions: ‘Gore – Our Choice’

Great idea and opening but lost my attention: ‘Weisman – The World Without Us’

From Freetown to Liberia adventure which I read whilst on the road from Freetown to Liberia: ‘Butcher – Chasing the Devil’

Friends and fans of Crimestopper are sharing their memories, pictures and music

I wrote about how he taught me to live happily by working and playing hard everyday up until the very night before he left us. RIP Tavale.

I am writing to you today from the solar house in Sierra Leone. After nearly a year of discussing a new partnership with Vorovoro, Fiji, we have decided it makes the most sense to step-back from the management of the project and hand over the infrastructure to the local community. I have written to Tui Mali and the Mataqali this week to communicate this.

Professionally for Tribewanted it is the right decision. Personally it was a harder one to make.

Vorovoro was always ambitious – we agreed a lease in 2006 that was, in hindsight, too expensive putting pressure on the project when business was slow in 2010. New lease fees from the government are even higher which is why it does not make sense to pursue a long-term one.

For 5 years we enjoyed being part of something very special on Vorovoro. We learnt a huge amount from our Fijian family as well as ourselves and what it really means to live more sustainably. I will be surprised if I ever meet such a hospitable and beautiful people again. I thank Tui Mali especially for everything he and his family has done to share their culture and community with the ‘Vuravura’ (the world). Living on Vorovoro often did feel like a paradise not so much because of the island but because of the people that came together on it. I’ve not experienced anything like it before or since. Maybe I never will. It was and I am sure will continue to be one of the happier places in the world.

At this moment I also fondly remember those that helped Vorovoro grow but who are no longer with us today: Peta Tale, Raina Jensen, and Justin Martindale.

The Cahills (Tribewanted Project Managers in 2009/10) are now formally seeking a partnership with the Mataqali to continue community tourism on Vorovoro, run locally in Fiji. This is good news. As soon as this progresses I will let you know so that those wishing to return to the island can. I look forward to returning myself. We wish the Cahills, the landowners and the community of Mali the very best of success. Everything Tribewanted and its members built and left on the island will remain to help provide a platform for the next phase of the project.

The idea of Tribewanted has always been to build a new type of international and local community that was sustianble, innovative & significant in its positive impact. This mission has not changed. The momentum and lessons that Vorovoro gave us have rolled on and with a great team we will continue our successful start in Sierra Leone where this week we opened the project at John Obey for season two . In 2012 we will open a new location and based on recent tribe survey feedback will launch an exciting Co-op model through a brand new online platform that is already well on its way to being built.

So, sad as I am not to be making regular trips back to Fiji I know this is the right decision and now feel freer and more focused on taking our tribe forward.

Thank you for playing your part.

Ben

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ben@tribewanted.com