Danielle Klaff is an eco pioneer. Having lived ‘off the grid’ in Wilderness for many years, Danielle moved to Hout Bay Cape Town in 2006 to make a difference. Danielle joined Envirochild in 2007 and hosted the first HOUT BAY GREEN FAIRE. Now, 10 years later the GREEN FAIRE is a successful zero waste event, powered by Solar and Wind power. The GREEN FAIRE promotes easy access to sustainable lifestyle options for all.
Danielle is an Eco Auditor – and she consults businesses, events and restaurants on how to make changes to GO GREEN. Danielle is married to Mikey Dredd and has 2 children – a son Jesse (12) and a daughter Savanna (8), 3 hounds (whippet and rescue grey hounds) and a fab veggie garden to nurture!
- What are you most passionate about?
Teaching people how to go green, whether it is at home, at school, at work, in a restaurant and at events, especially outdoor festivals. I host Eco Club in 2 schools in Hout Bay, and the children showcase what they make at the GREEN FAIRE. I am also an activist, as I love to speak out about corporate or governments that are harming us and the planet for power and greed. I believe in collaboration and people coming together to take action. Motivate Participate Activate!
- What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Last year our funding for the GREEN FAIRE fell through, so we hosted our event with zero budget! However everyone came through for us, especially the service providers, and we were able to proceed with our event successfully
- What makes you angry?
Factory farming and animal abuse, GMO’s and pesticides, oil spills, the nuclear threat and suppression of the solar industry in our sunny country
- If you inherited an acre of land what would you do with it?
Create a child friendly community vegetable garden with compost toilets where keen members of the community could have a space to learn about sustainable lifestyle options and grow organic veggies
- Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?
Definitely a gatherer – I love harvesting my veg fresh from my garden or from the Permaculture farm on our road
- How many pairs of shoes do you own?
About 8 or 9 including boots, takkies and dancing shoes ……
- If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare for us?
A braai – we love braai-ing, especially my vegetarian braai – aubergine steaks, roasted butternut and sweet potato
- How would people communicate in a perfect world?
With respect. If people respected each other, the earth and her animals, we would be living in a better world
- What do you work toward in your free time?
Free time? No such thing, as every moment is about ‘walking my talk’
- If you woke up and had 300 unread emails and could only answer 30 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?
Answer the important ones and wonder about the rest
- Name 3 things in nature you find most beautiful.
The sky
The forests and the trees
Flowers
- Have you used plastic bags for your shopping in the last two weeks?
No no no! Not for ages
- What would you say are some small steps that people can take to improve their relationship to the environment?
Separate your garbage (compost, recycling, landfill), read the labels on purchases to avoid toxins (for self, home and garden), switch off the lights, grow veggies in containers, eat less meat, only eat sustainable fish (SASSI green list), use low flow showerheads, turn down the geyser, insulate your geyser and home, mulch the garden, divert your grey water to water your garden (DIY) and always have a cloth shopping bag in the car
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READ MORE ABOUT THE AMAZING GREEN FAIRE – AN ECO EXPO NOT TO BE MISSED!
