US chain Whole Foods Market is to be investigated by trading standards officials after a complaint was lodged by Waitrose, according to the Sunday Times.

The Sunday paper said the complaint relates to the way Whole Foods, which opened a store in London last month, defines local produce as food sourced anywhere in Britain. It is also thought there are concerns about labelling.

Kensington & Chelsea Trading Standards is to investigate the London store this week and a report will be issued the following week. David Doctorow, of Whole Foods, said: “Part of our mission and core culture is to support local agriculture. “But we don't have a strict definition of local, that is up to our customers. “We give them the name of the product and where it is from so they can make up their own decisions.”

Reports are appearing all over the internet about a 'new breed of vegan that has evolved in New Zealand: vegansexuals. This is the name given to people who refuse to sleep with people who eat meat.

To an outside audience, this must sound hilarious. But is it really all that much of a shock? Plenty of non-smokers refuse to date cigarette addicts, and I've known plenty of couples who share similar dietary habits and other lifestyles.

Fancy tucking into a tasty mushroom stroganoff tonight? How about fajitas with guacamole and sour cream? Well, having stumbled across Tofutti’s immensely convincing sour cream substitute, Tofutti Sour Supreme, I think I've found the answer to my vegan prayers.

As part of its drive to be greener, British cosmetics company Lush has come up with a great solution for packaging: instead of using polystyrene chips to keep fragile items intact in the post, the chain is now using an edible and far more biodegradable solution: popcorn!

The popcorn packaging, an idea so simple and clever I'm amazed nobody else has thought of it, will be rolled out as of next month. Until now, Lush used shredded paper in the boxes in which it sold soaps, massage bars and other delicate items, so the popcorn packaging will obviously reduce the amount of paper used by the chain. However, a side effect of this is that transport emissions will also be reduced, since popcorn is 60% lighter than paper.

The Italian Health Ministry is urging employers to allow their male staff to take off their ties in the hot weather. The Health Ministry said in a statement that “Taking your tie off immediately lowers your temperature by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius”. That should then mean businesses can turn down the air-conditioning in their offices and save on electricity (and money). Predictably, Italy’s tie makers took a dim view of this edict. One tie maker said "We can now happily continue with our lifestyle, using cars, consuming fuel, heating and cooling our homes at leisure. On one condition: we should not wear a tie while we do so."

The Department of Transport in association with What Car? Magazine has launched a website with details of the most fuel efficient cars in all classes. The website lets you input the type of car you are interested in and it gives you details of the top 10 in the class for fuel efficiency and emissions. The car categories are: Supermini, Small family, Family, Estate, MPV, Compact Executive, Executive, Coupe, Open-top, Hot hatch, Compact 4x4, Large 4x4, Luxury and Performance Car. These categories were developed by What Car? magazine, to cover the majority of cars people will buy.

We’ve had the hybrid car and now Japan is introducing hybrid trains, in the ongoing battle to ward off global warming. The first two-car diesel-electric hybrid train is being put into commercial service today. Trains do not contribute to global warming as much as cars and they are often perceived as impractical because it is awkward making the different parts work together, but the growing popularity in hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius, is generating interest in other hybrid modes of transport.

The entire east coast of Australia is set to become a 'terrestrial version of The Great Barrier Reef' in an attempt to protect some of the countries most threatened wildlife. The 1740 mile strip of land, which will run from the southern state of Victoria right up to the Northern territory in Queensland, will provide a valuable haven for threatened plants and animals, including the gang gang cockatoo (pictured here), the golden sun moth and the hooded robin.

The summer sales are well under way and independent ethical clothing label Tonic t-shirts are offering online discounts to mailing list members, until midnight on Sunday 5th August. If you purchase any full price item you will receive a 15% discount and 25% off when you purchase two or more items. The new Poodle and Monkey Roger, organic, ethically sourced vests are usually £15 apiece but you can snap them up for £12.75 and you can buy the Monkey Roger fitted tee (usually £22) for £18.70. To join Tonic’s mailing list and receive your discounts head on over to the Tonic website.

Summer is the season for sales and this summer is no exception, despite the lack of summer weather. If you want to take advantage of Green Baby’s summer discounts, then head on over there now.

As you probably already know, Green Baby are excellent for organic cotton baby and toddler basic clothes including T-shirts, shorts, trousers, dresses, playsuits and hats, for ages up to about 6 years. I have found them to be the most reasonably-priced organics for children in this age-group and also the most practical and colourful.

Wednesday marks the start of World Breastfeeding Week 2007, which will be celebrated in 120 countries across the planet. Breastfeeding not only helps protect your baby from many illnesses, including ear infections, eczema and obesity, it also helps protect mothers from contracting breast and ovarian cancer. It's also a wonderful way to bond with your baby, not to mention the fact you don't have the expense of formula, or the worries about sterilising bottles! This year World Breastfeeding Week is concentrating on the message that breastfeeding your baby within the first hour of their birth can help reduce infant mortality, and could potentially save around one million babies.

For details of events in your area contact your local health centre, or GP.

Our good friends at Adili have just started their summer sale, and there are all sorts of lovely, ethical clothes up for grabs at up to 50% off while stocks last!

Adili, which stocks clothes for men, women, children and babies as well as jewellery, footwear and home products, is one of the foremost companies showcasing ethical brands in this country, believing that fashion can be something to change lives and give a dignified living to people around the world without harming the environment. And if you’re still thinking that ethical clothing must mean off-white cheesecloth, this is really the place to bring you bang up to date with stylish modern ethical clothing. It stocks products from various big-name ethical brands such as Howies, People Tree, Green People, Tisserand, Cut4Cloth, Hug, Kuyichi, Traid and THTC. With postage free for orders over £40 as well as the current sale prices on a huge amount of stock, it really is time to check out the site if you haven’t used them before, and pay a return visit if you have.

The sun made a very welcome appearance across the UK this weekend, which was especially good news for Ben & Jerry's. The environmentally-concerned ice-cream experts staged their climate neutral Sundae on the Common festival on Saturday and Sunday, and boy was it a great day out. Like many, I vowed afterwards to never touch another scoop of ice-cream again, but I suspect this will soon pass.

So what did this little jolly on the common do for the environment you might well ask? Well, in keeping with Ben & Jerry's green agenda, the event was made carbon neutral, with ticket sales supporting a solar panel project in India. On the day, the Climate Ambassadors were out in force, teaching the hungry revelers important nuggets of information as they earned their free ice cream.

Most people automatically put their daily newspaper straight into the recycle bin once they've read it, but if you're a gardener there's another way you can use them. This Paper Potter gadget allows you to make little biodegradable seedling pots from strips of newspaper. Once the young plants have hardened you can transfer them, in their paper pots, into bigger pots or straight into the ground without damaging their roots, and the paper pots simply degrade. It's a good way to introduce kids to sustainable living, while getting them involved in green gardening techniques. The Paper Potter is made from 100% FSC certified wood and is available from ECOutlet.

Related: More plants and gardens

According to my fashion-savvy colleagues at Catwalk Queen, Collette is the hottest thing happening in Paris at the moment, and lo and behold, they've got a t-shirt with a catchy green slogan across the chest.

The t-shirts themselves are recycled, and bear the legend 'God save the green' in funky retro bubble writing. Designed by WWP, a collective that 'juggles entertainment and ecology', they come in seven colours (which are delivered to buyers at random), and will probably be appearing soon at a festival near you. Buy one now for €55, and 5% of the proceeds will be donated to the Green Cross foundation.