Riverford Organic Food Delivery Eco Product Review

Riverford Organic Vegetables is a delivery service of food to your front door. Although it has ‘vegetables’ in the name, it also delivers fruit, meat and a multitude of other things - fruit juices, organic beer, eggs etc.

Riverford is the name of the farm where it all started in Devon, in the UK, but it’s now a franchise scheme with various farms around the country delivering fresh, organic fruit and veg to your door. Although pictured is their mini fruit and veg box, we started off with their summer box - full of calabrese broccoli, aranca tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms and so on. The boxes change every week and you can check out the website to get a box that suits you.

Prices range from £7.90 for the mini to £14.95 for the large. You can get extras on top and there’s even a meant box starting at £48.95. That initially seems quite expensive, but once we added it up - and saw the amount we got - it works out quite reasonably.

Probably the best compliment I can give is that although we received out first box free for reviewing purposes, we’ve now become fully signed up members and have a box delivered every week. We’re still working out the ideal size box for the two of us and I think most people will go through that and set up a regular order, if not every week then every other week - the flexibility of the scheme is a great attraction. You can cancel orders while you go on holiday, order more if you have friends round or change the type of box you want each week.

The quality of food is exceptional too - everything’s fresh and tasty. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve never tasted a salad so flavoursome - the mixed salad lettuce had quite a kick. We’ve also found it ‘forces’ you to eat healthily. Every time we look in the fridge we have vegetables to make dinner from. In fact it’s been a bit of a challenge to know what to cook. What I thought were spring onions turned out to be wet garlic, which I didn’t have a clue what to do with. A quick Google search and what site came up second in the list? Riverford Organic Vegetables of course - with a recipe for potato cakes with wet garlic which I duly made. In fact the website is full of ideas what to do with your veg, although I found the search function not to be very effective and Google worked much better.

While some of the fruit and vegetables do come outside of the UK, they have introduced a UK only box so you can choose where your food comes from. All the food is organic though and delivered staraight to your door. While some of the products come in plastic bags - pak choi, lettuce etc, the boxes it arrives in are returned and reused. And our local guy is very friendly too - we’ll be interviewing Chris on Life Goggles soon.

nvohk Crowd Funding Clothing Company Goes Live

The eco clothing company that is managed by it’s members, nvohk, has gone live today. Previously we’ve written about the company here, but in brief members will contribute $50 in annual membership dues to…

• Receive regular business updates and provide ongoing feedback via message boards
• Help make major business decisions including logo design, product designs, advertising, sponsored athletes and musicians, etc.
• Members will be invited via email to login to nvohk.com and read about specific business decisions on the table. Members will then vote on their preferred outcome. when members reach a consensus of 60%+ (active votes), the decision will be executed via nvohk’s management.
• Earn reward points based on 35% of net profits (1 to 1 ratio of dollars to points)
• Identify and select beneficiaries for corporate charitable donations (10% of net profits to environmental charities)

I will be signing up and plan to keep you all updated on the progress of the company and how well things are going. You can join up too for $50 if the idea and terms appeal to you.

Green Store News: Face, Feet and Holidays

At Life Goggles we do a lot of product reviews so have a great deal of interaction with online stores and get loads of press releases. So following on from the previous Green Store News, here’s some more snippets for you.

Natural Beauty
A new holistic beauty store has opened for the UK. The Natural Beauty Store offers organic skincare and beauty products - and the ingredients to make your own. The site also includes a section with articles about natural and holistic beauty care.

Green Feet
Male Organics has started selling shoes. Shoes from Terra Plana, Worn Again & Vivo Barefoot Terra Plana uses a variety of eco-friendly materials including: chrome free leathers, vegetable tanned leathers, recycled materials, pure latex soling materials, recycled rubber soles and recycled foam foot beds. And there’s 25% off if you grab them quick, I’m going to.

Going on holiday?
Nigel’s Eco Store has a few tips for you to make it as eco-friendly as possible. “British tourists, planning to fly this summer, should make an effort to reduce their impact on the environment because by jumping on a plane, they are adding a huge chunk – nearly a half a tonne for one return short haul flight - to their carbon footprint,” says Nigel from Nigel’s Eco Store. He recommends the FreeLoader or Solio portable solar chargers for PSPs, iPods etc. And for those sun filled afternoons by the beach, he suggests the EyeMax Wind Up LED Solar Radio.

How Many PhoneBooks Do you Get?

Obviously with an ulterior motive in hand (but I don’t mind that), web directory 192.com urges us to abandon the traditional phone book and move online.

I won’t bore you with the details but in the UK legally every household has to receive a phone book free of charge. With more than one phone book being in circulation, households receive an average of 3 per year, and the 3 outdated ones add up to 750,000 tonnes of waste in the UK alone.

192.com have launched http://www.saynotophonebooks.com/ and even a Facebook group in order to encourage you to sign an e-petition to get the rules changed to an opt-in system for physical phone books.

Some more environmental facts about the phone books in the UK: Laid end to end they would stretch over half way around the world (22,500km); 680,000 barrels of oil wasted in phone book production (not including the wasted petrol used for their delivery to your doorstep); 2 billion litres of water is used in the production process (not to mention the amount of water wasted in the recycling process); and 437 million kilowatts of energy used in the production process.

Of course using a computer is sometimes easier than a phone book, it’s usually more comprehensive and up-to-date and with online mapping and directions often makes it easier too. However if the computer isn’t on, I still like to grab the nearest phone book. However, which one, as we currently have six! How many do you have? And do they allow you to recycle them in your area?

Interview With Kate James From Only Fair

Only Fair is an online shop specialising is Fair Trade and environmentally sound products. We caught up founder Kate James to find out a bit more.

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to set up an ethical/environmental business?
Before setting up Only Fair, I had been working as a legal secretary and was on my way to qualifying as a paralegal. In April 2007, months before I was due to qualify, I had just left my job. I’d only been there for three months but I knew it wasn’t right for me. I was sat at home trawling through page after page of job searches and feeling very deflated. My partner and his family have their own business and they suggested that was the way forward. I chose the fair trade route because it was something I felt strongly about and without wanting to sound too corny, it offered me the opportunity to make a difference, however small. So, I went on to set up Only Fair and gained my qualification along the way.

Do the environment and ethics go hand in hand?
Absolutely and particularly with fair trade. Regardless of whether a product is ethically produced or whether it holds Fair trade certification, standards include environmental requirements. It would be very hypocritical for me to be selling ethically produced goods and not give a hoot about the environment.

What standards do you set for the products you sell?
Quite simply, all of my products are fairly traded or hold the FAIRTRADE Mark. Products that are fairly traded are sourced through suppliers registered with BAFTS and/or IFAT. This means that I know standards are being kept to and regular checks are being carried out. The range of products I have is quite diverse but I try to offer as wide a choice as possible. I love seeing how waste materials can be turned into something useful and beautiful, so some of them are made using recycled or waste materials.

Who are your competitors? Other eco-businesses or ‘regular’ retailers?
I would say eco-businesses as opposed to regular retailers. My customers are usually people who are either searching for something in particular or want something that is fair trade that they know they won’t find through a regular retailer.

What changes have you seen in the market and environmental/ethical world as a whole since you started?
While I’ve only been running up a short time, in those few months there has been a huge increase in the number of eco-businesses springing up online. For me, the most interesting change I’ve seen is the campaign against plastic bags. It appears to have really taken off and it can only be a good thing. I’m behind this campaign 100% and have been blogging about it since starting up.

Is it easier to source ethical and environmentally-friendly products these days?
Absolutely. More people are becoming conscious of their impact on the environment and want to have alternative options available to them. The most obvious source for this is the internet but supermarkets are slowly but surely increasing their ranges to reflect this.

Where do you see the market going?
Onwards and upwards!

Who are you customers?
Most of my customers are women who are either looking for a unique gift for a family or friend member or are looking to buy something for themselves.

One bugbear at Life Goggles is environmentally-friendly products in unenvironmentally-friendly packaging - is that a problem you face?
Unenvironmentally friendly packaging is a something of a concern for me, as well as excessive packaging. Unfortunately with some of our products, such as the ceramics, there is no choice but to use a lot of packaging. To ease the strain we re-use all packaging sent to us wherever possible. This includes our boxes. For some people, receiving an order in a nice, smartly packaged box is still part of the shopping experience so we will package goods in a new box if a customer contacts us.

How ethical and environmentally-friendly are you at home and in the office?
There’s always more that both individuals and companies can be doing and that includes me. I won’t claim to be perfect or that I’m doing everything I could be but I try to do my best and I’m a firm believer that small changes can help to make a big difference!

Most of it is common sense – not leaving things on standby, turning radiators off when the window’s open, using low energy light bulbs, not leaving the taps running. We’re extremely lucky with recycling in our area and take full advantage of this. We’re also in the process of setting up a polytunnel so we can grow all our own veg and be less reliant on supermarkets, which we try to avoid and support local farm shops instead.

In the office, again I use low energy light bulbs, recycle everything I can and make sure nothing is left on standby. I prefer to use email as I don’t believe in sending out lots of printed correspondence but where it’s necessary I use recycled paper and for any promotional material I use an FSC certified printer.

Green Wedding Presents

We’ve previously talked about green wedding dresses, but you can obviously also get green wedding presents.

Whilst buying a green wedding present isn’t difficult, sometimes I don’t really want to buy more “stuff” for the happy couple. That’s why I think Changing the Present is a good idea. To be more precise they offer charitable wedding gifts/lists, not green ones, but many of the gifts are green. Couples can choose from a full range of over 1,000 charitable gifts from $2 to $5,000 from hundreds of leading nonprofits, such as plant 40 trees, protect wildlife, and educate little kiddies.

It looks like a great idea to me, so please let me know if you’ve used it or have any other ideas for green gifts (wedding or otherwise).

Green People Organic Formula Day Solution Product Review

The thing about doing reviews is that it can be very subjective. Or not. Some products either work or they don’t, but others may be a personal opinion - while I might not like the smell, someone else might. So when I gave Claire this Green People Organic Formula Day Solution I thought she’d like it, after all she loved the Green People Organic Formula Gentle Cleanse. But she didn’t. So in fairness I gave it to my girlfriend to review as well – not knowing whether she’d like it or not. And she did. It’s a funny old world.

Anyway, their contrasting views are below, but a little background is that the day solution is basically a moisturiser that’s “suitable for all skin types. Gentle, alcohol-free day cream rich in antioxidants and essential fatty acids, formulated to balance, nourish and moisturise your skin”. It’s also made from 93.5 per cent certified organically grown ingredients and 30p of every one sold is donated to Penny Brohn Cancer Care.

Claire’s view:
“I’m not quite as impressed with the results of the moisturiser, though my skin is very, very fussy when it comes to moisturisers. Products are usually not effective enough, my skin dries out relatively quickly after applying the moisturiser, or it is too oily, and my skin ends up with a ‘nice’ greasy sheen to it by the end of the day. I found this product very thick and heavy, it didn’t rub in very well and left my skin feeling slimy.

“I find a good moisturiser also works well as a makeup primer, this product however, was not. Because it left my skin feeling slimy, it affected the application and look of my makeup. I also didn’t notice the scent of fairly traded rose geranium!”

The girlfriend’s view:
“I liked the smell, it smelled of plants, a bit herby but really nice. I didn’t find it greasy at all, though it was quite light and rubbed in well. I’ve been using it in the morning and at night and it soaked in well and a small amount goes a long way.

“The bottle is fantastic – pump action works really well – not too much comes out and is great compared to a lot of other products I have. It compares very well with non-organic moisturisers but I will be going back to my old brand as I like one with some sun protection in as well which a lot of moisturisers do have but not this one.”

However, she won’t be going back to her old brand as Green People do have a version with factor 15 sun protection here, it’s just the version I got to test didn’t. Happy days.

So there you have it. Green People Organic Formula Day Solution without SP15 costs £11.99 and with is £12.99 for 50ml.

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