WESSA Living Green Expo 2008 - Speakers

Jo Onderstall - Gardening with Nature
Jo Onderstall has lived in the Lowveld for nearly 40 years and in that time has made a study of the flora of the region. As a freelance journalist she wrote hundreds of articles on the subject for a number of magazines, including Garden & Home, Country Life, SA Panorama, Farmers Weekly and Rooi Rose, among others. In 1984 she published Wild Flower Guide no 4 : Transvaal Lowveld & Escarpment for the Botanical Society of South Africa's series of guides. In 1996 she published the SAPPI Wild Flower Guide. Mpumalanga and Northern Province , published by Dynamic Ad. Nelspruit. She is currently working as a sub-editor with the Lowvelder.

Gavin Smitsdorp - Principles of Green Architecture
Gavin Smitsdorp started designing eco-friendly buildings long before they became the 'in thing'. He had no choice really, his partner, Fiona Macleod, who is a well known environmental journalist, insisted on it! Gavin has designed and project-managed numerous 'green' homes for clients in the Lowveld, Gauteng and the Western Cape. He has also designed several green lodges, offices and most recently the White River Art Gallery. His work will soon be featured in a book by well-known architectural academic Professor Ora Joubert. And of course he lives in a 'green' house he designed and built in Nelspruit, so he has hands on knowledge of how it all works .....

Donald Kau - How to sell the Need to be Green to all communities
Donald Kau is a communications strategist by profession. He is currently a director and shareholder at Meropa Communications, responsible for strategic counselling to clients in government and the emerging-entrepreneur business arena. He has been a Mail & Guardian 'Greening the Future Panelist'. For five years he was responsible for the management of media and stakeholder relations in the Transnet Group and was the national spokesperson for the National Ports Authority of South Africa. The 33-year old has qualifications in public relations, graphic design and has completed his management advancement programme as well as furthering his studies in media management. He was part of the Communication and Advertising Forum for Empowerment, an industry body that looks after the interests of the advertising industry's empowerment agenda.

William McDonough - TED talk - Cradle to Cradle design
William McDonagh is a 'green' architect who believes that green design can prevent environmental disaster - whilst also driving economic growth. He champions cradle-to-cradle design that considers the full life cycle of a product, from its creation with sustainable materials to a recycled afterlife.

In a 20-year project he is redesigning Fords city-sized River Rouge truck plant and turning it into the Rust Belt's eco-poster child, with the world's largest 'living roof' for reclaiming storm runoff. He is also designing seven entirely new and entirely green cities in China. In 2002 he co-wrote Cradle to Cradle, which proposes that designers think as much about what happens at the end of a product's life cycle as they do about its beginning. (the book is printed on recyclable plastic) He believes that absolute sustainability and economic success can go hand-in-hand.

We were privileged to show a talk he gave at the TED conference in Monterey, California. TED talks are sponsored by BMW. (TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design started ion 1984).

Avena & Brendon Jacklin - Organic composting workshop
Avena Jacklin is the co-owner and manager of Jacklin Organic CC, a certified organic farm in Badplass, since 2004. Activities include compost production from black wattle, crop production, food processing (dried tomatoes and mangoes, sauces) packaging and distribution. Winner of the Informal Markets category in the Mpumalanga Female Farmer awards in 2007 and nominated for the National Markets category this year.

Organizer of the Annual Mpumalanga Indigenous Plant Sale held in Badplass (4th year).