Ethical & green gifts
Want to make sure you don't get the requisite garish pair of socks and large box of non-vegan chocolates for Christmas this year? Fed up with people forgetting your birthday? You could do a lot worse than making your way to the award-winning Natural Collection website. Once you're there, you can browse the fabulous range of products and make yourself a Gift List filled with deeply desirable eco-friendly treats.
With goodies ranging from beautiful items of fairly traded jewellery to handy and affordable eco-gadgets, and from eco-friendly baby accessories to green accessories for the office or study, I defy anyone not to find something they want on this site. Start securing yourself a Cool Yule now, and ward off the mouldy old Quality Street and the nasty socks before they're even a twinkle in the mother-in-law's eye!
Energy saving
Susi Weaser writes...Sometimes you can be too good. Case in point: the HY Mini is a wind-powered charger for your gadgets, so that when you attach it to yourself when your running or your bike whilst you're riding it collects power. You can then connect it to your mobile, PDA or MP3 player and use the juice to eek out a little bit more talk or listening time.
Apparently, riding your bike for an hour gets you an extra 15 minutes on your mobile. Alternatively, attach it to your car window and drive for the same amount of time and you can get 40 minutes. But then that would kind of defeat the object.
Product page: $50 here
Post originally from Shiny Shiny
Green News
We tend to think of solar panels as being shiny, flat and all looking much the same, but a Japanese company called Kyosemi is working hard to change our preconceptions about solar panels. In fact, its new flexible, spherical panels could be a lot more efficient at trapping light than the conventional sort.
Apart from the fact that they look futuristic and cool, spherical panels are more effective than flat ones because they can absorb sunlight at any angle. They optimize the use of direct and indirect light and convert energy with nearly 20% accuracy, far ahead any flat photovoltaic technologies.
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Green News
In what is believed to be the first move of this kind taken by a local council, St Albans City and District council have transformed a 1950s semi-detached house into an ecohome and opened it to visitors. The house's impressive range of energy-saving features includes a 1 kw wind turbine, solar thermal roof panels and a 4,700-litre rainwater-recycling tank.
The project has been awarded the Green Apple award for Environmental Best Practise by The Green Organisation. The Green Organisation is an independent company which seeks to recognise and confirm environmentally-aware practices in business and government. They state their aim as being to provide a service which operates not as an 'environmental watchdog' scheme, as so many other organisations do, but rather as a more positively focused, reward scheme system.
The contractor, Borras, also won a Considerate Constructor award for its successful use of so many recycled demolition materials in the creation of the house.
Ethical & green gifts
The government has pledged to almost completely eradicate the use of conventional light bulbs by 2012, with the phasing out process beginning in earnest next year. The move, which was announced at the end of last month by environment minister Hilary Benn, is said to have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than six million tonnes a year.
The government is also at pains to stress that, despite that fact that energy-saving light bulbs cost more to buy than their non-energy-saving counterparts, their use will ultimately save homeowners money, as they last up to 12 times as long as normal light bulbs and use nearly 80% less electricity. Just replacing one conventional light bulb with an energy-saving equivalent could save a household £7 a year.
Green News
Energy-saving lightbulbs may help the environment, but it seems they are not yet quite up to scratch in other areas. In June it was revealed that some epileptics are reporting dizziness and discomfort as a result of using energy-saving bulbs. The cause of this is something of a mystery, given that the bulbs don't flicker at the rate usually considered necessary to cause effects in epileptics.
According to an article published yesterday in The Scotsman, concerns are now also emerging that energy-saving lightbulbs are not the safest option for those with poor eyesight - particularly those who are also elderly and not very steady on their feet. The very slight delay which energy-saving bulbs experience before reaching full brightness can prove a problem for these people.
Green News
In a bid to shake its image as an evil, money-grabbing multinational, and show that it cares, the world's largest retailer, Walmart, has launched a campaign to become a more environmentally friendly company. Plans are in place to improve waste reduction and energy efficiency measures across all its stores, factories and transportation vehicles. It has even launched a website, Walmart Green, where it showcases the energy efficient appliances, recycled furniture and organic cotton clothes and bedding that it now sells.
Critics are saying, however, that simply going green is not enough to win Walmart the status of an ethical company, and that they are using it as a diversion tactic to draw attention away from the fact that they refuse to improve conditions and wages for their workers.
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