Welcome To Our New Email Subscribers

Just a quick note to welcome all our new weekly email subscribers. If you’re reading this for the first time via email it is probably because you signed up to receive our fantastic new free eBook 100 Way To Save The Planet. If you want to unsubscribe, it’s easy from the bottom of every (weekly) email. But why would you? It’s great!

If you want your free copy of 100 Way To Save The Planet, just follow the link

Latest Green News

Neal’s Yard Remedies is to take its natural and organic health and beauty products mainstream with plans to nearly double the chain’s size by 2010. The 28-store chain, founded in Covent Garden, has spent a year testing four shop concepts and wants 50 sites by 2010.

Amazon US has launched a pilot project in Seattle called AmazonFresh, which is to trial the delivery of fresh food to a select group of invited clients. Customers can order eggs, fish, vegetables, meat and other perishable foods, delivered by a fleet of 12 vans. Amazon began delivering dried foods across America last year.

Marks & Spencer claims that work has started on what could be the world’s greenest bra factory. It is being built in Sri Lanka by MAS, using eco-friendly materials, and will make lingerie exclusively for M&S. The factory will open in 2008 and is part of the company’s £200mn plan to make its UK operations carbon-neutral by 2012.

New UK government plans could see millions of households across southern England have compulsory water meters installed in their houses, over the next three years. Some 12 companies in southern England have been labelled as areas of ’serious water stress’ and will be allowed to consider metering for their 23mn customers in an attempt to conserve water, if they can convince Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, that the meters are essential. Consumer groups are worried that this system could leave poorer households with even less money, but water companies say that for the average family, metering has already reduced the annual water bill by £100. The ’serious water stress’ status is based on rainfall, average use and availability and number of households, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said it will make the process of applying for compulsory metering simpler.

The Times reported on the launch of www.localfoodshop.com, a website which will allow hundreds of local producers to sell directly to customers on line. The website, which has funding from the Welsh Assembly, has been welcomed by the National Farmers’ Union as a means of making high-quality local produce more accessible.

The Guardian reported that Sainsbury, Asda and Tesco are all searching for directors of corporate social responsibility to lead their ‘green’ policy initiatives.

The UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is launching a series of initiatives to encourage the industry to be more environmentally friendly. It will supply DMA members with the quarterly publication Green Matters to advise them on issues to do with the environment, such as recycling. The magazine is advised by the Government’s Envirowise programme. The DMA says that more initiatives will follow, and adds that they are in response to consumer attitudes rather than pressure from the Government.

A report recently published shows an increase in annual spending on organically produced food, cosmetics and clothes to £2bn an increase of 20%. The report by the Soil Association will reveal that the popularity of organic products has extended from food to skin creams, lotions and shampoos. The organic cotton market is predicted to be valued at £60m this year. Asda aims to increase sales of organic food by 40% by stocking up to 1,000 green products by the end of the year.

The Daily Mail reports that Co-op is to be the first supermarket in the country to scrap shrink wrapping from its cucumbers. It is hoped that the move will save eight tons of plastic every year.

Bike It Sets Wheels In Motion

A project that encourages more children to cycle to and from school is now expanding. Bike It, managed by sustainable transport charity Sustrans, builds on the success of the project in other UK towns and cities, where average cycling levels of 10% are achieved year on year - the national average is 1%.

Sustrans’ Bike It Officer Gayle Rowson will be working closely with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council’s School Travel team to raise awareness through local schools of the many benefits of cycling and increase cycling levels. Participating schools have been selected for their enthusiasm for cycling.

The great little scheme is aimed at 9-12 years olds and works first by raising awareness about the benefits of cycling. Next, steps are taken to enable the young people to cycle to school - this could be new cycle parking, or cycle training sessions. The third stage is all about action - organising events and incentive schemes to encourage the children to cycle more often, such as bike to school breakfasts and weekly cycle to school days.

It’s a great way to start children cycling early rather than delivered to school in a huge 4×4. You can find out more information about both Sustrans and Bike It at www.sustrans.org.uk

Students Go Green with Paperless Payment

Adam has previously writtern about how to be a green student, and now there is another way that can help. According to a recent survey, UK students favour going green with paperless payments, with more than half saying they would prefer to pay for goods, services and tickets using their mobile/cell phone.

The research, published in late August by LUUP (a mobile payment solution first launched in Norway in July 2002), reveals that over 60% of UK students surveyed would prefer to use paperless payment methods such as via mobile because they are more environmentally friendly. The research shows that as environmental concerns grow there will be more consumer demand for “environmental technology”.

The online survey, was answered by 395 students from more than 70 universities across the UK. It was conducted in order to gauge interest in mobile payments and examine factors that influence the motivation for choosing this type of payment.

Conventional payment methods and ticketing processes pose an unnecessary threat to the environment. Tickets are frequently made using non-biodegradable magnetic strips and laminate, and most transactions usually result in multiple paper receipts. Mobile and online payment systems minimise these wasted resources by making transactions entirely electronic. The results of this survey suggest that as environmental awareness increases, mobile payment systems such as LUUP will make their way to the forefront of preferred payment methods.

LUUP is a mobile payment system enabling consumers to send and receive payments on their mobile phones or online. Payments can be made from credit/debit cards, bank accounts and the digital cash in account holder’s ‘LUUP Wallet.’ Since all elements of LUUP transactions are electronic, the need for paper receipts or non-biodegradable tickets is eliminated, making the payment process far more environmental. For more information or to sign up, visit LUUP and select your country.

Wake Up Gordon

We’re now in the second week of the Soil Association Organic Fortnight, and they have launched an online game called Wake Up Gordon.

“Play our online game to help Gordon Brown eat an organic, planet-friendly breakfast.

During we’re asking everyone to help Gordon Brown ‘Wake Up!’ to the benefits of organic food and farming, by feeding him an organic breakfast. Typically organic farming uses 30% less energy, so organic food is ‘planet-friendly’ food.

The Government knows this fact, but despite telling everyone to save the planet from climate change by switching to low-energy light bulbs or using their car less, it isn’t encouraging people to take the simple, everyday action of choosing organic food.

Come on Gordon, you know organic is better for people and better for the planet - so why don’t you tell everyone else? Are you just running scared of agribusiness, GM and pesticide companies?

In our new online game, you can feed Gordon an organic breakfast - it will cheer him up, give him the courage to stand up to agribusiness, and help save the planet!

The Soil Association will use the final tally of breakfasts fed to Gordon to put pressure on the Government to get behind organic.”

Resurgence Magazine And Friends Of The Earth Present Four Events

Resurgence Magazine and Friends of the Earth present four upcoming events in the UK on Climate Stability: Addressing the Root Causes rather than just the Symptoms,with leading thinkers, writers and politicians.

* Wednesday September 19 2007
The Economics of Climate Change: The best economy for a stable climate. Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP; Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop. Sadly Dame Anita Roddick died on Monday evening. Martin Blake, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at the Royal Mail, one of the UK’s largest companies will be speaking instead. The Resurgence evening will include a tribute to Dame Anita Roddick; Geoff Mulgan, Director of The Young Foundation; and Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence.

* Wednesday November 7 2007
The Politics of Climate Change: developing an all party approach to mitigate global warming. With Michael Meacher, former Labour Environment Minister; Peter Ainsworth, Conservative Shadow Secretary for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; ChrisHuhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary; and Siân Berry, Green Party National Speaker.

* Wednesday January 16 2008
Food and Climate Change: Food production, distribution and consumption in the context of climate change. Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black’s Chocolate; Jenny Jones, Green Member of the GLA and chair of London Food; Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University; and Patrick Holden, director of The Soil Association.

* Wednesday April 2 2008
The Business Response to Climate Change: how corporations and businesses should adapt to the need for sustainability and climate stability. With Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; Tessa Tennant, co-founder of the UK Social Investment Forum; Nick Robins, Hendersons International Investors and Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.

All four events take place from 6.30pm at Cecil Sharpe House, 2 Regents Park Road, Camden, London NW1 7AY.
Tickets on the door: £15.00 per person per event. £50.00 for all four events. Restaurant and bar facilities are available. Accessible for the disabled.

RSVP: Peter Lang, Resurgence Events Director peterlang [at] resurgence.org or 020 8809 2391. Supported by the Royal Mail.

100 Ways To Save The Planet - Part 10

As usual, you can find other ways to save the planet here.

80. Adopt a glacier. Bit like adopting a panda, but errr colder. The US National Snow and Ice Center allows you to choose a little patch of ice to protect and stop from melting.

81. If you have air conditioning at home (or you can suggest this at the office), you should clean or replace your air conditioning filter as often as possible - even every few days. It’ll save energy and money as it won’t have to work as hard.

82. Make a green investment. There are many companies you could buy shares or invest in that have environmental goals. Your financial advisor should be able to help, or try Light Green Advisors here. And take a look at the list of companies Co-op America have on their Green Pages. Even if you have shares in a non-green focused company, you can still use your vote to push environmental issues.

83. Use soy-based inks in your printer. They’re less toxic than regular printer cartridges and toner itself is a petroleum based product. Major manufacturers are starting to sell soy-based versions now.

84. Water your outdoor plants and lawn in the evening or early morning when it’s cooler and less water will evaporate before it’s soaked up. Sprinklers can use as much water in an hour as a family of four in the day so only use them when absolutely necessary.

85. Ditch the cling film. Use reusable bags wrapped tightly, or reuse materials like cereal is kept in as it will do the same job of keeping your sandwiches fresh.

86. Buy second hand. Vintage clothes, refurbished TVs, toys from friends or charity shops etc. We need to get into the habit of reusing things rather than buying new. Old is the new errr new.

87. Use the library. Sounds obvious I know, but if you borrow books rather than buying them then less are printed and less trees cut down. Also when you’ve finished with the latest magazine you’ve bought, you can often donate them to your local library, they’ll be very grateful.

88. And while we’re at it, libraries often have dvds, audio books and children’s books. Or even if you rent your dvd from a store, it’s better for the environment than buying.

89. Keep bees. Or at least encourage them into your garden with wild and cottage garden flowers like geraniums, foxgloves and lavender. Bees are vital for flowers and if you keep them in a hive you’ll get lovely honey too. Check out www.bumblebeeconservation.co.uk

« Previous Page — Next Page »