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5 easiest-ever tips by Sallyanne Flemons, editor of daisygreenmagazine.co.uk

Read the rest of The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Being Green »

It’s that time of year… The sun has been shining (for a day or two at least!) and even up here in the frozen North, people were beginning to think of Spring and maybe even Summer this weekend. I even saw a couple optimistically barbecuing in a park near me last night. That was perhaps a little premature – they were both wearing enormous winter jackets suggesting it wasn’t the most relaxing experience!

Read the rest of Getting Fit For Spring »

As we draw towards the end of 2009, it’s only natural that people start to look back on the year that’s past as well as to what’s ahead.

Here at EthicalSuperstore we were absolutely delighted to learn that the BBC Magazine has placed the word ‘Fairtrade’ into their list of top 20 words, not just of the year, but of the decade. It’s great news all round that people have become so much more conscious of the issues surrounding fair trade, and as more people become aware, then more people will buy fair trade, supporting some of our top fair trade partners including Traidcraft, Cafedirect and Divine Chocolate.

Buying fair trade has pitfalls and dilemmas all of its own as Helen explored in her blog exploring fair trade own label vs fair trade pioneers, but all in all it’s undoubtedly positive that more and more people are opting to support fair trade producers, whether this be in their weekly grocery shopping, or buying fair trade Christmas gifts.

Are there any other ideas for words of the year or indeed the decade out there? All thoughts and reflections received with interest!

At a time when green buzz-words such as ‘food miles’, ‘shop local’ and ‘slow fashion’ are being bandied about by just about everyone with any kind of environmental conscience, doing your shopping online may seem to be the antithesis of all the good work being done, but look a little more closely, and you might just find that the internet is a greener option than the shopping mall.

Shop from home and let us do the hard work!

If you are anything like me, the simple thought of walking down the high street at this time of year will be enough to bring on a severe attack of the nerves. This is where the internet really comes into its own. With thousands of stress free retail outlets just a click away, the days of spending hours trawling round town in the freezing cold hunting for that perfect gift for a special someone is long gone, and it couldn’t have happened sooner. It turns out that my fear of Christmas shopping is good for the environment as well. Bonus!

Read the rest of Shop online to save the planet… »

Lawrence and his beets

When approached by a team of professors heralding the benefits of his beetroot juice, Lawrence Mallinson from James White Drinks was skeptical. However, his drink could be just what is needed to offer a natural alternative to lower blood pressures…

Read the rest of Beetroot Juice and Blood Pressure »

Ethical Superstore presents this exclusive book extract of the new, and hilarious true tale of one man’s journey from self-confessed planet-killing lad to eco-friendly, green-crusader There’s A Hippo In My Cistern. Caught between his conflicting London life of lads and lager and his developing relationship with a radical eco-babe, Pete May tells here of parties at George Monbiot’s in the embryonic days of the Oxford Green movement, as part of his slow conversion from bad football-crazy lad to good greenie a decade later.

In my new Oxford circles the guru of the Greens is George Monbiot. Everyone speaks about him in awed tones and refers to him as simply ‘George’. He’s a Fellow (is that the academic version of being a lad?) at the university and writes columns for the Guardian.

George is the most intellectual man I’ve ever met. His parents are rumoured to be keen Conservatives, but then so are mine. George is a radical with a great grasp of figures and an incisive mind, dedicated to fighting planetary pollution.

He isn’t exactly a football fan though. He says he went to an England game at Wembley once and it epitomised everything he disliked about xenophobia and nationalism. At one of the regular Green picnics we discuss TV. George says there’s so much he can do without watching TV. He could write a column every day there are so many issues to research. He claims that TV is like a boxed fire in the living room. Humans used to tell stories around the campfire but now that oral tradition has been lost.

Read the rest of Last minute summer eco reads »

Green news we loved: In case you missed it first time around, here’s our August round-up of the most talked about, most innovative solutions or simply the most awesome green news to hit the headlines.

One-third of China’s emissions come from exports
Often dubbed the country to overtake the US in carbon emissions, a new study revealed this month that China’s growing export market is responsible for one-third of their emissions – much of it from manufacturing ‘advanced’ electronics goods for developed countries. With International policy at the moment tending to penalise the country that produces rather than the one that consumes the goods ¬- such as US and Europe – we must ask, is it time for a policy change?

Ikea want cheap green tech
Ikea stated they are to invest in green technology in order to apply their familiar low-cost furniture approach to domestic power generation. They are said to be plummeting nearly £40 billion into technologies such as solar, water conservation, efficiency meters and alternative lighting, and are hoping to get products into stores in two to four years time. Will this be affordable green tech for the global masses? Let’s see. Keep an Allen key at the ready.

Read the rest of Green News Roundup August 2008 »

Ethical Superstore spoke with Garden Organic – the leading authority on organic gardening – to find out just what’s involved in owning your own wormery. If this is something you’ve considered, but not sure whether you want a colony of worms in your life, this expert advice on the fascinating composting critters could jumpstart your love for them.

Ethical Superstore: I’m thinking of getting a wormery – will worms recycle all my waste?
Garden Organic: Having your own wormery is perfect for composting kitchen waste, thereby reducing methane from landfill and simultaneously providing you with a rich compost – but don’t expect it to handle vast quantities of garden waste.

ES: How do the worms do it?
GO: Basically, they eat your organic waste, breaking it down in their stomach and produce worm casts – a very nutrient-rich compost. But you need a special species of worm, not any old garden worm can do this.

ES: How much kitchen waste can they eat?
GO: They can eat an incredible half a kilo of waste every 3 to 4 days in the summer.

Read the rest of Worms, eat my waste! »

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German firm DVD-D have launched ‘Einmal’, a disposable DVD format which is designed to facilitate DVD ‘rental’ from coffee shops, service stations and other such locations where movie rental was not previously possible. Retailing at around €3.99 ($6.44 /£3.20), the key feature of these discs is the fact that they are rendered unplayable 48 hours after opening, giving the customer all of the benefits of movie rental, without any of the annoyances such as returning the discs or incurring late fees.

The discs are standard DVDs with a self-destruct chemical coating applied, which reacts with the air once the disc is removed from its vacuum packaging. Once your allotted 48 hours have passed, you will be greeted with a ‘No Disc’ error on your dvd player, leaving you with two options – throw away the DVD, or gain a shiny new coaster for your coffee mug.

What seems to have been overlooked is the environmental impact of such discs. By their very nature these are discs which are designed to be thrown away at the end of their very short lifetime, undoubtedly adding to the landfill problem. The discs are designed to be recycled, but the number that are will no doubt make up a very small proportion of the total number of discs produced. The majority are clearly destined for landfill, and this is a problem. Added to that must be the cost, environmentally, of the production of these discs, and the environmental impact of the processes involved in recycling them. Even with a 100% recycle rate, we still see an environmental negative, as recycling is an energy intensive process which by its very nature creates pollutants.

This latest symbol of our over-determination to make everything disposable is a worrying one, and one which should be noted with caution. Here at How Ethical we can’t help but wonder, will they release ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in this format?