Archive for the ‘Eco-Ideas’ Category

We’re proud to be supporting the Rainforest Foundation’s 12 Days of Christmas Auction this year by donating a set of bambu bowls and an EarthLust bottle. The auction is on ebay and started on the 12th November (for 12 days!). Our products have already had a few bids and everything raised will go towards the protection of the world’s threatened rainforests. We’ll let you know how much they raise. www.ebay.co.uk/12days

We’ve just started receiving fruit and vegetable deliveries from a local branch of Riverford Organic after seeing them at the village fete. Much of the produce is grown locally and the selection changes each week so delivery day is quite exciting (is that sad?!).  It’s also great for the kids to see carrots and potatoes with mud on! But my favourite part of it is the lack of packaging that we now receive. Most things come in open boxes that we return at the end of the week – such an improvement over all the plastic packaging you get from the supermarket. Visit www.riverford.co.uk for details of your local branch.

It’s rare to get an unsolicited email that actually puts a smile on your face but when I was contacted by tapwater.org recently I genuinely thought ‘What a great idea’! They have basically put together a ‘tap water map’ highlighting cafés, pubs and shops that will let you refill your reusable water bottle for free.  There are currently 1020 refilling stations around the UK with more being added all the time. There is even one in the very rural Wiltshire village we live in!

Visit tapwater.org to see your nearest refilling station and there is also a free iphone app so you can check your nearest station when you are out and about.  They do sell reusable water bottles on the site but I’m afraid they are not quite as stylish as our beautiful EarthLust bottles!

I must admit I’m counting down the days until the children go back to school – it has been a long 6 weeks of juggling everything! Uniform is ordered, school shoes need doing this week (gulp!) but one thing I have sorted is lunch boxes. That has been made easier by the fact that we have some great products designed to reduce all that horrible packaging that tends to come with school packed lunches. First a stylish EarthLust water (or squash) bottle so they don’t need expensive juice cartons. Then a selection of our funky Keep Leaf baggies – ideal for keeping sandwiches and snacks fresh without using plastic bags. And finally a cool bambu spork – half fork and half spoon so perfect for whatever happens to be in the lunch box that day.  So a practical (and stylish) lunch kit that just needs a wash at the end of the day and doesn’t end up in the bin. Now I just need to make sure it is all named and comes back home every night!

As mentioned a few weeks ago Green Tulip is proud to be a member business of the alliance 1% for the Planet.  The first of the charities that we have just made our donation to is Young People’s Trust for the Environment (YPTE).

YPTE is a charity which aims to encourage young people’s understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability.  They want to give young people a real awareness of environmental problems, such as disappearing wildlife, the pollution of soil, air and water, the destruction of rainforests and wetlands, the spread of desert regions and the misuse of the oceans. And by raising their awareness they will hopefully encourage the leaders (and consumers) of the future to live in a more sustainable way.

My donation will pay for 200 children to receive a free talk (in their own school) from one of their Education Officers about the issues surrounding sustainable development.  The Education Office will work with the school to fit their talk around the topics that the children are studying – making it relevant and interesting to the discerning audience!

More information on YPTE can be found on their website and there is also a comprehensive database of information that can be downloaded for free (over 3.3 million pages were downloaded in the last year so it is obviously a resource that is being well used).

I’ve read a lot of blogs, articles etc in which people come up with (mostly) great suggestions on how we can all do our little bit to live in a more sustainable way.  However one I read recently really made an impression on me…

“I wish for the return of people that can fix appliances and tech items like computers, TV’s, microwaves, etc. so we can stop throwing them out just to buy new ones. It is extremely hard to find anyone with the knowledge and skills to fix even a toaster now, and it contributes to our whole ‘throw it away and buy more’ mentality.”

I’m sure there are a few ads in local parish magazines for Mr (or Mrs!) Fix-Its but I agree they are really hard to find.  And because of that it can seem easier to go out and buy new.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was a central ‘database’ of local people who could offer these services – making it simplier and quicker for us to do the right thing (which is of course what we all want).

If you know of a website that does this do let me know and i’ll mention it on the blog…

The fact that you are reading this suggests that you believe in buying ethically – a great starting point -  but your choices potentially have much bigger implications that you might realise.

Have you ever thought about how much power you wield as a consumer? In classic economics, demand drives supply. The more of us buy something, the more of it is produced to meet our demand. And, according to the rule of Price Elasticity of Demand, the more popular a product is the less it tends to cost as economies of scale kick in.

But what does it mean in relation to ethical shopping, fair trade, climate change and the environment?

As a consumer you enjoy a great deal of power. The more you demand something, the more businesses will want to supply it to you. So when you buy ethical gifts you’re doing much more than buying responsibly. You’re setting the stage for a future where ethical gifts and ethical products are the norm. You’re playing your part in changing the planet’s economy so it profits more from ethical goods than it does from goods that are less responsibly sourced and manufactured.

Changing the habits of an economy’s lifetime is a challenge. But if you’re ethically minded it’s really good to know that simply committing yourself to buying ethically produced gifts has a small but profound effect on the way the world of commerce works. The more you buy, the bigger the positive effect you have on the future.

We’re not saying that rampant consumerism is the answer. Far from it! But consuming responsibly makes a genuine difference and has far reaching consequences.