We've already learnt that virtual universe Second Life is about to play host to a Music Festival, but now it's emerged that Stella McCartney and animal rights organisation PETA are to make history when they host the world's first worldwide virtual anti-fur protest.

For one week starting from 12th July Second Life visitors can join the celebration at a special island. Visitors can hang out at the island, buy virtual Linda McCartney veggie burgers, listen to a "live" DJ and enjoy the picnic tables, stables and horse jumps.

Congratulations to our Hippyshopper competition winners who won £100 each worth of custom clothes to spend on Spreadshirt. The winners are:

Caitlin Silberman
Fran Lane
Anthony Oram

They’ll have a right laugh designing their own clothes on Spreadshirt, which has just introduced a range of organic cotton garments for us to splash our imaginations all over. My favourite is the organic babygrow, which as you can see to your left, I’ve been having my own fun with. This will make a brilliant present for any of my hippy friends who have brought forth new life-forms.

Related stories: Spreadshirt DIY clothes | Babba organic baby-tees

You may have noticed a bit of a hiatus in posts this morning, so please accept my apologies on behalf of the Hippyshopper team. We haven't been out enjoying the gentle April sunshine though; we've been hard at work shifting the contents of our old office into the all new Shiny Towers 3.0, just off London's fashionable Drury Lane. We achieved this mostly on foot, though I admit we werent green enough to move some of the larger furniture items without the help of wheels. You have to draw the line somewhere, and a broken back is a good place to start...I was all for highjacking one of these cute little vans, but best not to make enemies of the neighbours.

Once we'd completed the all-important tasks of getting everyone online, bagging desks and locating the toilets, my mind turned to the question of making the office as green as possible. There are going to be some challenges ahead...

Not a day goes by without a new green innovation, theory or must-have product coming into view, and with so much choice, it's hard to know which decisions could change the world for the better. If you're serious about making sure your impact on the world a positive one, it can be tiring knowing where to look - and that's where we can help.

The Hippyshopper team aims to cut through all this 'green tape' with lively, unbiased debate, honest no-nonsense reviews and a selective approach to finding products that are both desirable and genuinely eco friendly. And we're pretty friendly too, so we welcome your comments good and bad to make sure our recommendations and advice stays current and accurate. So why not ensure sure you're always up to speed on the latest green lifestyle issues and goodies by signing up to Hippyshopper for a daily digest in your inbox to peruse at your leisure. It's completely free, and we won't send you any spam. Simply pop your email address in the box to your right, and watch your inbox turn a lovely shade of green.

Some of you may have noticed that there's a new editor in town. Abi Silvester has recently joined the Shiny Media staff and is now the full time editor of Hippyshopper. Camilla Chafer, editor of Bridalwave and regular writer on Shiny Shiny, has also joined the Hippyshopper team, along with some other lovely new contributers. Abi used to work over on magazine Alt.Wear, but now she spends her days searching out green stories, eying up green products and drinking copious cups of tea. You can find out more about her by reading this Q&A she filled in for us.

Name: Abigail Silvester
Aliases: Abi, Absinthecity, or sometimes even 'the Green Fairy'

Shiny Job: Editor of Hippyshopper
and writer for various Shiny sites.

Hometown: London

How green is your home? Not nearly as green as I'd like it to be as it's old and badly insulated, but I'm making improvements, with the help of energy saving gadgets and lifestyle changes like beating housemates into submission over heating usage...

There are 9 million children on this planet who are refugees. Of the 6 billion people alive on Earth today, 2.1 billion of them are children. If you can't do the maths, by our calculations that means that 0.4% of the world's children - or nearly one in every 200 - are refugees.

In an attempt to do our part to help combat this problem, Hippyshopper is taking part in Click4theCause, a collaboration between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Microsoft.

For every web search made using Click4theCause, Microsoft will donate money to the ninemillion.org campaign, which provides refugee children with education and sports programmes.

Well folks, it's all happened: online aliases have been put to faces, deserving winners have woken up clutching their trophies, and we're nursing our hangovers with double-strength fairtrade coffee. Yes, the 2007 Shiny Awards are done and dusted, and I'm happy to report there was a strong ethical focus to the whole shebang.

As a young, forward-looking kinda company, responsible living has been a fundamental part of Shiny's ethos from the start, so the winners of Green Gadget of the Year were chosen carefully by the team. For newer readers, this is the prize that was scooped last year by the very cyber-punk Voltaic Systems solar powered backpack. And in a year that's seen ethical consumerism take up residence firmly in the mainstream, there was more competition than ever...

The Shiny boys’ tuxes are back from the dry cleaners, while the girls are fending off calls from major Italian fashion houses.

Yep the awards season is on its way. And up there with the Globes, the Oscars and the south Suffolk Marrow growers' Vegathon is the annual Shiny awards.
Each year Team Shiny, in conjunction with a crack posse of gadget know-it-alls from The Sun, Guardian, Q etc get together to vote for the best and worst gadgets of the year.

Among the categories are serious stuff like Green Gadget, Best Smartphone and Web 2.0 innovation as well as a few more entertaining contests which we’ll let you know about very soon.

Welcome to the first Carnival of the Green for 2007, and being the first one in three weeks, it's triple packed.  Up top we've got word from Carnival founder and Hippyshopper emeritus Al Tepper, who was tapped to write Blogbridge's 'Green Planet' expert topic guide.  His list, in alphabetical order: Eco Worrier from Times Online, ecorazzi, Greenpeace, Gristmill from Grist, Hippyshopper (!), Joel Makower, RealClimate, The Oil Drum, Treehugger and WorldChanging.  Wow.  That's amazing company to be in and thanks are due from me and (again, alphabetically) John, Katie, Ken and Sarah.  Now, on with the carnival!

Seventh Generation and TreeHugger have put out a call for entries for Convenient Truths: a green video contest.

Videos should show easy, practical and creative ways of reducing your own carbon emissions in everyday life and be between one and two minutes long.

You've got until the end of February to get yours in and there is nearly $30,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. So beg, borrow or steal* a camcorder and have at it.

*Not really. That would be bad.

Related: A Year of Living Generously

We're looking for more writers for Hippyshopper, so if you're interested get in touch! We need someone who can post a couple of times a day (5 days a week) about green issues, products, reviews and news. We're after someone who is based in the UK, ideally near London, so that you can attend product launches and press annoucements. There's potential for this job to grow as Shiny Media is currently expanding at a rapid rate, and if you'd also like to write for any of our other sites, make sure you let us know.

If you're interested in writing for us, please send over an email telling us about yourself along with a few sample posts for Hippyshopper. Emails should be sent to me (Katie) at editor[at]shinyshiny.tv

I look forward to hearing from you!

BRANDISH, Shiny Media's new site for men dedicated to The Coolest Stuff in the World is now live and kicking, so check it out and spread the word. It'll feature must-have gadgets, fashion that won't make you look like a metrosexual arse, illegally fast cars, fine Cuban cigars, Japanese robots, that sort of thing.
Shiny People

if you live in the United Kingdom and you haven't yet filled out the Shiny Media survey, please take five minutes to give us your views. We'll make it worth your while - there are MP3 players, a limited edition Star Wars phone and a portable DVD player up for grabs just for ticking a few boxes and leaving your email address.

For the full list of prizes up for grabs click here.

To take the survey click here.

Our Shiny Media survey may not constitute the most fun you've ever had online, but if you spend five minutes of your life answering our questions you might just win yourself a:

Toshiba 9-inch Portable DVD player
Nokia 3220 - Orange - Star Wars Special Edition Mobile Phone
Creative MuVo TX 256MB Music Player (eight of these to give away)
Sony 1GB Bean music player (we've got four of these to give away)

Go on! - it won't take you a sec and we'll love you forever.

Click here to take survey

[Non-UK readers: Sorry - it's not open to you. It's nothing personal, we promise!]

Now here's something for everybody!  WikiGreen is a community for "Sustainable living, Intentional communities and life Off the grid. You will find here the personal experience of Alternative energy, Back to the land and Do-It-Yourself people, as well as regular folks wanting to live more Green."  I'm a little surprised to not have run into any green wikis before because the whole philosophy is about community - if you've got one, please do share.  The great thing about wikis is, they can be whatever you make them - and since WikiGreen already has nearly a thousand articles posted, it looks like its making itself into something very useful indeed.