Welcome to the fifth edition of your newsletter.  This quarter the focus is on the Environment, something Outward Bound is passionate about.  We are thrilled to welcome Dan Moore, one of the fantastic bunch of Outward Bound instructors to the writing team.  Look out for more from Dan in upcoming editions when he looks to impart his knowledge and wisdom about the environment with you.  Also we have information for you regarding the new anti spam law that will come into effect from September along with something environmental to ponder and some inspiration! 

We get to meet so many people in our travels who have experienced Outward Bound and have wonderful stories.  Please send them to us so that we can share them with the rest of the MyWatchmates community.

Enjoy!

Feature
Why worry about the environment? - Dan Moore

What's New
Hubbards Carbon Crusade - another way you can help the environment

Regular Pieces
Website tips - How to add MyWatchmates to your safe senders list
Inspiration - Who Packed Your Parachute?
Something to Ponder - The World's Water
Where are we for the rest of 2007?

Ko au te whenua, ko te whenua ko au  I am the land and the land is me

A dependence on the natural environment is why, how and what makes Outward Bound New Zealand possible, however it is also what makes our way of life as New Zealanders possible. A fundamental objective of Outward Bound is to expose our students, to a wide and varied number of experiences in the environment, land, fresh air and water; and to provide an understanding of the inter-relatedness of the processes that support natural local, national and global ecosystems.

Also, most importantly, it is to provide an insight into long term sustainability, our personal responsibility towards our environmental behaviour and how this behaviour relates to positive and negative impacts on the environment. 

What do we do?

At Outward Bound we approach this objective in a number of ways, providing experiences in, for and about the environment. Across all our courses we aim to give our students high quality experiences in the natural environment providing learning that considers our use and impact.

The end goal of this approach is to create an understanding and awareness in people that results in behaviour towards the environment becoming more considered and sustainable.

A key part of this process is to provide an environmental toolset of ideas and techniques for you to transfer to real life scenarios.

On a local scale this includes education and involvement in ecological restoration such as planting creek margins and weeding. However, efforts to provide education of national and global importance such as recycling, sewage treatment and using power and water considers our personal use of resources that can affect the nation and the world. We hope your time at Anakiwa exposed a different truth and made you think critically about what you can do to reduce your impact, give something back, and educate others.

What can you do?

Well lots actually!  (See below for information regarding the Hubbards Carbon Crusade). Home may feel a long way from the fresh air and clean water of Anakiwa, but you can still do a lot of things to be close to the environment.
• Try and incorporate recycling and energy efficiency into your life.
• Set up a recycling system at your house that maximises use of the things you buy and use by reducing, reusing and recycling.

You can do this at home, just on a smaller scale! 65% of our rubbish can be recycled.










• Buy environmentally friendly products; more support for these companies means they will become the norm. 
• Think about your use of energy i.e. electricity, petrol, gas and diesel. Walk or bike to work instead of driving; check out the local public transport systems. Wear more clothes instead of using the heater in tee-shirt and shorts. Limit your showers to three minutes….





The OB sewage treatment plant deals with about 3000 people’s sewage every year; and has for 15 years - so that's 45,000 people about the size of Wanganui!!





• Take a proactive approach to restoring a local ecosystem i.e. a stream that runs through your farm or section. Plant lots of different types of trees and plants and encourage biodiversity- the more species there are the more efficiently the world uses energy!! Sounds crazy - but it’s true!

You have helped restore our own stream margin. Over a 40 year period thousands of students have planted thousands of trees to build homes for thousands of insects and clean thousands of litres of water.

• If you’re interested in your local environment go and learn about it. Biodiversity exists everywhere and your local Department of Conservation, Regional and City Council have a mass of information and volunteer opportunities that can help you get involved and learn.
• Value your vote - vote for a political party that reflects what you value about the environment and values sustainable development. 
  
Useful links:
General
Ministry for the Environment
www.moe.govt.nz
Department of Conservation
www.doc.govt.nz
Recycling
www.zerowaste.co.nz

Show us you care! Give back to our environment with the Hubbards Carbon Crusade!  Just what you need after gaining motivation from our lead article!

The Hubbards Carbon Crusade is a national series of events, for everyday people, involving walking or running off-road for about 15kms, and planting four trees. It's not a competition, but more about doing something together, and showing that we care.


For more information about dates and places click here.

How to add MyWatchmates as a safe sender in Outlook

It's very easy to add the outwardbound.co.nz domain to your safe senders list with Outlook 2003 (see below)
1. Select the message in your Junk E-Mail inbox and right-click
2. Choose 'Junk E-Mail' from the drop-down menu
3. Choose 'Add Sender's Domain (@example.com) to Safe Senders List'



Hotmail

Hotmail also allow for Junk Mail filtering to help prevent high levels of spam reaching its users. To add the outwardbound.co.nz domain to your Hotmail account settings follow the instructions below.
1. Log in from the Hotmail homepage
2. Click on the Options link to the top right (near the Help link)
3. Choose Mail from the navigation on the left hand side
4. Click on Junk E-mail Protection.
5. Click on the Safe List link.
6. Type the outwardbound.co.nz domain name in the field and click Add (note that the domain does not require any "www" prefix as this is only used to address websites).
7. Log out of Hotmail

Other web mail applications should have similar options to Hotmail. Check your web mail providers help documentation or contact them directly via email asking for assistance.

Yahoo

1.  Log in from the Yahoo homepage
2.  Go to the 'Spam' folder in the left hand folder list
3.  Either click directly on message to select or tick the box on the left of the message to select
4.  Select 'Not Spam' from the top menu.  This will transfer the message to your Inbox.

For more information on whitelisting or Safe Sender Lists please refer to your email application's help section or contact your ISP about whitelisting domains prior to delivery to your inbox.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we overlook the important little things that acknowledge other people - saying hello, please and thank you, giving a compliment or even doing something nice for no reason.

Charles Plumb was a jet pilot.  After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a missile.  Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy lands.  Captured, he spent six years in a prison.  Now he lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, in a restaurant, a man came up to Plumb, and said "You flew jet fighters, and were shot down.  I packed your parachute."

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.  The man shook his hand and said "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did.  If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man.  "I kept wondering how many times I might have seen him and walked straight past, because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours that sailor had spent packing parachutes in the bowels of the ship, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's packing your parachute?"  Eveyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day.  Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual.  He called on all these supports before reaching safety.  His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie ahead.  As you go through this week, this month, this year...recognise those people who pack your parachute.

Water Supply of the World

• The oceans of the world contain 97% of the total water on earth
• The polar ice caps and glaciers contain another 2%
• Rivers contain only 1/100 of 1% of the remaining 1% so-called "available" water on earth
• The atmosphere holds ten times the amount of water as all flowing rivers and streams.

Total Water on Earth Volume (Cu.Miles)
The Oceans . . . 317,000,000
Inland Seas/Salt Lakes . . . 25,000
Freshwater Lakes . . . 30,000
All Rivers (Avg. Level) . . . 300
Antarctic Ice Cap . . . 6,300,000
Arctic Ice Cap & Glaciers . . .  680,000
Water in Atmosphere . . . 3,100
Shallow Ground Water . . . 1,000,000

The Careers and Women's Lifestyle Expo's are nearly over for the year however there is still four to go.  If you would like to spare an hour talking to prospective students about your experience please contact Tracy.

Southland Careers Expo
Thursday 23rd August - Friday 24th August

Wellington Women's Lifestyle Expo
Saturday 25th August - Sunday 26th August

Dunedin Women's Lifestyle Expo
Saturday 22nd September - Sunday 23rd September

Christchurch Women's Lifestyle Expo
Saturday 29th September - Sunday 30th September

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If you would rather not receive this newsletter in the future please click here. 

This email was authorised by Tracy Bowman, Marketing Executive, Outward Bound.

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