By Rory View original post on the Camps International Project Blog Its true – human waste is where its at! Its the future you know – dont need any of this extracting gas and oil from the centre of the earth with all its associated detrimental environmental effects – just use what you flush away every day. This is the ultimate in recycling and minimising your impact – so sit back and learn about Bio Gas Collectors – even better sit back and learn whilst contributing to your bio gas collector,...

One month after my last visit, I arrived on Mantanani and was delighted to see the site strewn with impeccable driftwood logs. Albi and his team had scoured the coast and dragged their choice finds through the sea back to the camp site. Some of the logs still lay tethered at the high water line while others where being diligently planed smooth to resemble nothing like driftwood. My romantic dreams of water weathered, silvered and twisted timbers would have to be adjusted, another casualty of the cultural conditioning that...

We can always come up with wonderful ideas for sustainable buildings but if the locals can’t build and maintain it then it’s not sustainable. Camps International are building a camp on Pulau Mantanani, a coral island off the northwest coast of Borneo. Their other two camps in Borneo, at Tinangol and Kipouvo were designed and built entirely by the local communities. This was possible because at Tinangol the camp (a traditional longhouse) was already built and at Kipouvo they wanted a homestay modeled on ‘standard’...

I find myself getting deeper into the shit. I'm not sure how it happened but I have become interested in biogas collectors. This is a device used to collect the biogas (mostly methane) which is emitted when biological waste is digested by bacteria. The biogas once collected can be burned to provide cooking, lighting and carbon credits. The chemistry of burning methane in the presence of oxygen is that it produces water and CO2. Carbon dioxide is a less potent greenhouse gas than methane so that's how we can earn carbon credits. The...