In Green Living, we talk about a more natural & human way of living in the city. So we try to make elements of the show reflect that.
For graphics, we asked Paolo to draw some objects we could use as icons or just design element in the text we superimpose on the video.
We think it makes the show look more natural & personal.
Architect Gelo Manosa was our first interview for the first episode of Green Living. During the shoot, all of us behind the camera were amazed with how you can build a sustainable home that works with the environment.
So just to share, here are some of the eco-friendly ideas on building a green home that I picked up from Gelo:
1. You can angle your house so that the wind stays a little before it flows out.
2. Having a fountain or pool by the path of the wind cools the air by half a degree.
3. Windows that open upward are perfect for the Philippines. You can keep them open when it rains and the volume of air isn’t reduced.
4. You can make a solar tube that funnels bright sunlight into a room. It’s basically free light.
5. If you use locally available material (Gelo used the adobe dug up from his lot!) you reduce your cost and carbon footprint.
6. You can save water by recycling it. Basically using grey water for gardening and flushing toilets.
Here’s what’s showing tonight (9:30 pm on ANC)
We meet Chef Sau del Rosario who talks about organic food, healthy preparation and how eating right has positive effects not just on the body but also in one’s disposition.
We visit the Resurrection Gallery – they take old furniture refinish or repurpose them.
And Paolo walks us through the basics of composting and makes a small composting bin that you can use even if you don’t have a garden.
Green Living airs tonight (Tues) at 9:30 on ANC. This week the replay schedule is: Wed 4am & 2:30pm, Sat 3am & 5:30pm, and Sun 12:30am & 9pm
A couple of weeks ago I joined a PEDALA courier Choy Calunsod on one of his deliveries. I ride my bike a lot for recreation and fitness but it’s a different experience riding point A to point B knowing that you have a specific purpose, which was to deliver a package. It was simple, dispatch send the pick-up and drop-off details to the courier, he shows up at point A and pedals the package to point B. Simple, no muss, no fuss, job done. It was such a slap-your-forehead moment to see that a old-school pedal-courier system that has worked for ages in developed cities like New York and London has gone largely unexploited here in a country where simple solutions to big problems are really needed. Here was a same-day courier service that didn’t add to the pollution and traffic problem we already have, costs less than the petrol you’d need if you were to do it yourself and required little more than the cost of a decent bike for someone who might wanna get into the business and make some sort of a living. Sometimes to move forward, we gotta look backwards. Point A is where we are now, lotsa pollution, lots of road congestion, and suffering from the high cost of petrol. Point B is the less polluted and less congested future that we wanna be in…keep on pedaling folks, we’ll get there eventually.
We’ll meet up with Robin Da Rosa — formerly an actor, currently an interior designer. He reuses and recycles old wood for all his projects. Paolo checks out Green Rides – a waterless carwash. And he walks us through making a tasty and healthy snack — a fruit smoothie.
Catch all these starting this Tuesday, 9:30 pm on ANC.
I’ve been going to the St. Luke’s hospital in the Fort lately. Some bathrooms have this sign. I’ve been there regularly this past month and every time I’ve opened the doors to these bathrooms, the lights have been off.
It’s a simple idea with great implementation — they tell you the behavior and the impact… and it seems to be working.
Another look at how we do things behind the camera. Every week, aside from the main segments, we shoot Paolo’s intros to the shows — which we call spiels. In the past we would print the spiels and give it to our go-anywhere-do-anthing host. Today, probably because of the nature of our show, we no longer use paper. We find a way to read the spiels on location without paper. In our first episode shot in Mercato Centrale at the Fort, Paolo used his iPad.
We had a lotta people ask about the web resources we featured in episode 2. Here are some of our faves:
inhabitat.com
eco-chick.com
treehugger.com
pinoygreenacademy.com
ecorazzi.com
nationalgeographic.com
We all know we have to save our precious “resources”…start with these. Command-S, people.
No better way to talk about going green in everyday life than looking at a daily habit – getting your daily coffee.
Starbucks encourages those who need a daily caffeine fix to BYOM – bring your own mug. You’ll save on paper cups & those cool cardboard sleeves — you also save P5.00
That, like the P5.00 you save adds up in the end.
This is the one and only photograph from the first shoot ever for Green Living. The subject: Architect Gelo Manosa’s home. In the photo, the crew is taking footage of the second floor while waiting for Gelo to prepare the master’s bedroom, and Jake (on the right) is not thinking about the shoot. He’s looking out the window thinking about his dream green home. Yes, he was dreaming in broad daylight. And in all honesty, so was I.
The subject of the feature evolved and we realized that this one shoot explained everything that we wanted this show to be. Gelo’s interview opened so many doors the minute he open the door to his humble and green abode. I was no longer producing a feature on a home. I was having a lesson on a lifestyle. The conscious effort to make eco-friendly and sustainable choices, knowing the difference between short-term pleasures and long-term happiness… these are just some of the things that we would like to learn and discover, and in the greater scheme of things, share with the audience through this show.
As Gelo told me during the shoot, it’s one thing to know a concept, and another thing to live it.
