We’re beavering away here at Ethical Superstore HQ, preparing for the Summer and searching for loads of new eco products to list.  Check out our festivals favourites to see what we’ve found.

One particular brand we found is Nilaqua, who have tackled the question of how to stay clean when there’s not much water about.  People don’t often think about the environmental impact water has at festivals.  In addition to the diesel fumes/transport pollution of using tankers, the water has to be heated (usually with gas burners or generators) you have to dig holes in the ground for waste, you need chemicals to purify and prevent disease, then you have to collect the grey water and tanker it away again. Overall, festival showers are a large cost and detriment to the environment.

Nilaqua is kind and gentle to the skin and contains no parabens or alcohol. Simply apply the liquid directly to the hair or body, massage to lift dirt and grease, then remove by thoroughly towel drying! These alcohol free goodies are not only far better for the environment than washing with water but they save queuing, give you a bit of privacy and of course they leave you sparkling!

We have Waterless Body Wash and Shampoo in handy 200ml or handbag (or man-bag!) sized 65ml bottles.  Both are great for refreshing after a day moshing and removing the inevitable mud-pack treatment that is synonymous with British summer festivals to leave you ready to rock another day.  There’s also a convenient Hand Sanitiser to keep your hands clean germ-free on the go!

Check out this video and see how easily Nilaqua cleans with absolutely no water involved.

As Easy As 1 2 3 4!

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So, why do 1 in every 7 people still go to bed hungry? This World Environment Day (5th June) the theme is ‘Think. Eat. Save’.  It’s all about encouraging us to become more aware of the environmental impact of the choices we make about sourcing our food, and what we do with it.

It’s estimated that global food production occupies a quarter of all habitable land, accounts for almost three quarters of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, all of which hamper biodiversity and have a huge environmental impact.

Did you know, it takes over 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk? It also takes about 16,000 litres of water (in feeding a cow) to make one hamburger. The amount of natural resource it takes, as well as the resulting emissions from the cow right through to powering industrial chilling cabinets that keep the food cool each our of each day. We waste an awful amount in the quest for convenience.

That’s why it’s important for us to take on the message of World Environment Day this year, and purposefully choose foods with minimal impact. Whether it’s locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables or organic products that don’t use chemicals in their production process, the food we buy must be responsibly sourced and sustainably made. Choosing ranges like our organic Suma food are a great way of thinking of the environment with our buying. Organic food is not a preserve of the wealthy; it’s simply a way of farming using no synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilisers, solvents or food additives. It ensures that harmful chemicals do not pollute our food, our planet or ourselves.

With the population of the world set to increase by almost 30% in 2050 (to 9 billion!) it’s more important than ever we look after this floating ball of rock we all call home.

You can find out more about World Environment Day here.

To see what you can buy more responsibly, you can also shop organic food right here at Ethical Superstore.

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11th May 2013 is World Fair Trade Day

Today is World Fair Trade Day – a day when we celebrate the contribution that fair trade producers, importers, retailers and consumers are making to changing the very rules of trade. Rules which are stacked against the poorest people around the world. Rules that often leave them in abject poverty despite working long hours, in sometimes terrible conditions. Fair Trade seeks to redress that imbalance. Fair Trade is a movement to empower those who have little power in the world’s supply chains.

The terrible tragedy that occurred just outside Dhaka in Bangladesh reminds us of what happens when we put cheap prices ahead of treating people with dignity and respect. With more than 1000 people now confirmed dead, it is difficult to comprehend that there is a direct link between our cheap cloths and this unprecedented tragedy. While many bigger businesses now need to give serious and urgent consideration to their supply chains, you can buy confidently from fair trade suppliers knowing that they already are putting people first.

So what are we going to do from today onwards to make the world a fairer place?

Why not buy commit to switching one product you buy to a fair trade alternative?

• Love coffee? Have you tried Cafedirect rich roast and ground coffee? It’s what we drink in the office and we’re pretty fussy when it comes to what we drink.
• What about chocolate? If your chocolate isn’t Divine Chocolate then you are missing out on a heavenly experience.(Sorry couldn’t resist that pun!)
• Or how about making your tipple a fair trade tipple? Whether you love you “blancs” Sauvignon or Chenin, or your reds Merlot or Cabernet then we have a box of delights for you. Our half case of mixed fairtrade wines brings you the best of South Africa and South American ethical wines delivered free to you front door. What could be fairer than that?
• Still not sure? Then why not look at the hundreds of other products that are working hard to make the world a fairer place – our full range of fair trade and ethical products can be found here.

Or how about committing to supporting those organisations who go the extra mile for the marginalised and disadvantaged growers and producers around the world? Fair trade pioneers like Traidcraft, Cafedirect, Divine Chocolate, Equal Exchange, People Tree, Tearcraft, Clipper Teas, Pachamama, Tropical Wholefoods, Zaytoun and Pants to Poverty.

Also make sure you support those campaigning to make trade fairer at a global level. Organisations like the World Fair Trade Organisation, the Fairtrade Foundation and the World Development Movement.

And finally, if you’re going to be in London on 8th June, join the Enough Food for Everyone If campaign to lobby world leaders to make the world a better, fairer place.

The post World Fair Trade Day – What are we doing to make the world a better place? appeared first on Ethical Blog from Ethicalsuperstore.com.

There has been some progress on making the world a fairer place but organisations like Oxfam and Christian Aid still believe there is much more to do.

In 2013 the G8 are coming to the UK again and the UK’s biggest aid agencies are planning to keep the goal of ending abject poverty on the world leaders’ agenda.

This year the campaign is called “Enough for Everyone if…” and the campaign has a number of objectives that they believe will help bring about an end to poverty.

The coalition believes that there is that there is Enough Food For Everyone IF:

• we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families feed themselves.
• governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries.
• we stop poor farmers being forced off their land and grow crops to feed people, not fuel cars.
• governments and big companies are honest and open about their actions that stop people getting enough food.

You can find more details about the campaign on the Enough Food for Everyone IF website but we particularly enjoyed this video produced by the campaigners:

The big event will be on June 8th in London so get the date in your diary now.

Of course, here at Ethical Superstore we are working hard to be part of the solution to poverty too. A number of our suppliers and partners including Liberation, Divine Chocolate, Pants To Poverty, Traidcraft and Fairtrade Foundation are members of the coalition. Buying fair trade goods and supporting organic agriculture are actions we can all take that will help to reduce poverty and allow people the dignity of earning a fair wage for their labour.

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Online Sales and Marketing Manager

Have you got what it takes to tell the world about ethicalsuperstore.com and its sister sites? Do you know your PPC from your SEO or your CPM from you CPA? If so read on.

Spark Etail owns and operates a number of multi-channel (online and print) ethically minded brands which operate in a growing ethical market in the UK (including ethicalsuperstore.com and naturalcollection.com). We are looking for a Sales & Marketing Manager who has first-class experience in e-commerce, working with external agencies and growing sales through targeted, tactical marketing.

As the Sales & Marketing Manager, you will have oversight and input into our entire e-commerce strategy. You will set budgets, create marketing plans and sales forecasts and analyse marketing activity and return on investment of multi-channel campaigns from top-line down to individual customer level.

You will work with our existing team and with external agencies on everything from PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing, PR as well as Email and Catalogue Marketing.

• Apply via Linkedin »
• Apply via Jobsite  »
• Apply via Indeed  »
• Apply directly via Spark Etail Careers site »

The post Fancy joining the Ethical Superstore team? appeared first on Ethical Blog from Ethicalsuperstore.com.

It has remained at the centre of what we do at Ethical Superstore since we started out in 2005. Whilst also offering a range of other ‘ethics’ by which we select and support the products we sell, Fairtrade has, by far, the strongest and most increasing presence not only in our own product range but also more and more on the high street.

The importance of the route by which Fairtrade goods reach our homes is key to the success of the initiative.  Given the ongoing revelations surfacing during the current horse meat scandal that has rocked some major retailers recently, a product’s route to market is very much at the forefront of consumer awareness.

The Fairtrade Foundation says that in most cases, Fairtrade products, including Fairtrade coffee, nuts and spices, are required to be fully traceable. They have to be marked and kept isolated at each part of the journey from the farmers to the retailers. That said, when The Fairtrade Foundation tried to introduce similar rules for produce such as sugar, cocoa, tea and juice, they found there was little physical traceability in the way these sectors worked.

A good example of this is the chocolate industry. Here, farmers are not always able to keep Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade produce separated in production, from the cocoa field to the final bar. Cocoa beans are delivered en masse by farmers and unavoidably mixed during shipping and manufacturing.

To avoid losing Fairtrade sales opportunities for many small farmers, Fairtrade ensures that manufacturers wishing to use the Fairtrade Mark are required to buy the exact amount of produce they need from Fairtrade farmers for the final product. For example, if a chocolate bar uses 100 tonnes of cocoa, the manufacturer must purchase 100 tonnes of cocoa from Fairtrade farmers and are obliged to include an additional $200 premium per tonne. This way, even if the produce is later mixed with non-Fairtrade produce, Fairtrade farmers still get 100% of the benefits and the better deal that the Fairtrade Mark represents.

The Fairtrade Foundation’s aim is to provide support to farmers and workers in the developing world so they can increase their share in the global markets. The stringent inspection and auditing systems implemented by the Fairtrade Foundation are there to ensure the amount of Fairtrade product manufactured exactly matches the amount of Fairtrade product purchased.

By supporting Fairtrade, Ethical Superstore is able to help you, our ethical consumers, Buy What You Believe and make sure that every human being along the supply chain is fairly paid, fairly treated and have the opportunity to grow their businesses to become independent. This is something we take for granted in the “developed” world but we believe that the movement is strong enough to provide the demand and help level the playing field for everyone involved.

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Like it or not, those living in the Mediteranean region enjoy a longer life that we Northern Europeans.  This could be for a number of reasons; increased exposure to the Sun, for example but many credit the mediteranean diet with the this much sought-after longevity.

This is where Ateronon comes in.  It has been said that the Medeteranean diet can now be found in capsule form, harnessing the power of a compound called Lycopene, found in the skin of tomatoes and other red fruits.

Ateronon is a highly bioavailable, daily lycopene-based food supplement, which helps to support cardiovascular health and healthy cholesterol levels by inhibiting oxidative stress. In clinical studies, Ateronon has been shown to inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (‘bad’ cholesterol) by up to 90% after 8 weeks of daily use.

David Fitzmaurice, of Birmingham University says; “If this modified lycopene really does have an effect on blood vessels, then it could have a beneficial effect on virtually every inflammatory disease process, including things like arthritis or diabetes,”

Ateronon comes in a convenient months supply of 30 capsules at only £29.99.  Get yours today!

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His ideas and solutions touch on a common theme that many of our suppliers work towards, in particular, Rapanui; the degrees of separation between the consumer and the environment.  When we buy stuff, it’s hard to know where stuff comes from, how it’s made or who made it.  Mark focuses on the same problems, he just went down a different road to a solution: by taking money out of the mix.  Along the way he’s found a load of other stuff changes when you reconnect the dots: More personal stuff; not just nature but communities, neighbours and friends.

In six years of studying economics, not once did I hear the word “ecology”. So if it hadn’t have been for the chance purchase of a video called Gandhi in the final term of my degree, I’d probably have ended up earning a fine living in a very respectable job persuading Indian farmers to go GM, or something useful like that. The little chap in the loincloth taught me one huge lesson – to be the change I wanted to see in the world. Trouble was, I had no idea back then what that change was.

After managing a couple of organic food companies made me realise that even “ethical business” would never be quite enough, an afternoon’s philosophising with a mate changed everything. We were looking at the world’s issues – environmental destruction, sweatshops, factory farms, wars over resources – and wondering which of them we should dedicate our lives to. But I realised that I was looking at the world in the same way a western medical practitioner looks at a patient, seeing symptoms and wondering how to firefight them, without any thought for their root cause. So I decided instead to become a social homeopath, a pro-activist, and to investigate the root cause of these symptoms.

One of the critical causes of those symptoms is the fact we no longer have to see the direct repercussions our purchases have on the people, environment and animals they affect. The degrees of separation between the consumer and the consumed have increased so much that we’re completely unaware of the levels of destruction and suffering embodied in the stuff we buy. The tool that has enabled this separation is money.

If we grew our own food, we wouldn’t waste a third of it as we do today. If we made our own tables and chairs, we wouldn’t throw them out the moment we changed the interior decor. If we had to clean our own drinking water, we probably wouldn’t contaminate it.

So to be the change I wanted to see in the world, it unfortunately meant I was going to have to give up cash, which I initially decided to do for a year. I got myself a caravan, parked it up on an organic farm where I was volunteering and kitted it out to be off-grid. Cooking would now be outside – rain or shine – on a rocket stove; mobile and laptop would be run off solar; I’d use wood I either coppiced or scavenged to heat my humble abode, and a compost loo for humanure.

Food was the next essential. There are four legs to the food-for-free table: foraging wild food, growing your own, bartering, and using waste grub, of which there is loads. On my first day, I fed 150 people a three-course meal with waste and foraged food. Most of the year, though, I ate my own crops.

To get around, I had a bike and trailer, and the 34-mile commute to the city doubled up as my gym subscription. For loo roll I’d relieve the local newsagents of its papers (I once wiped my arse with a story about myself); it’s not double-quilted, but I quickly got used to it. For toothpaste I used washed-up cuttlefish bone with wild fennel seeds, an oddity for a vegan.

What have I learned? That friendship, not money, is real security. That most western poverty is of the spiritual kind. That independence is really interdependence. And that if you don’t own a plasma screen TV, people think you’re an extremist.

People often ask me what I miss about my old world of lucre and business. Stress. Traffic jams. Bank statements. Utility bills…

Mark Boyle is the founder of The Freeconomy Community: www.justfortheloveofit.org

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Ecover, one of Ethical Superstore’s most successful cleaning products brands, has made the leap and secured certification of cruelty free practices by being awarded the Leaping Bunny stamp of approval by Cruelty-Free International.

Despite holding policies against animal cruelty, Ecover has, until now, been unable to meet the very stringent criteria, which ensures a company products don’t harm fluffy, cuddly, wriggly or otherwise non-human beasts.

Alarmingly, many countries still do not have adequate animal welfare legislation in place and some companies even see animal experiments as a source of income. Ecover, however, have a long standing policy against animal cruelty and now have the accolade of this certification meaning the world’s largest Eco cleaning company and our beloved animals may live in harmony.

Speaking of the certification, Ecover CEO, Philip Malmberg, says: “Being accepted into this programme is an absolute privilege for Ecover and a great way to show the world that we care. Ecover has been animal friendly since the day it was founded in 1979. The decision to align with Leaping Bunny and provide our customers with household cleaning and laundry products that are certified as safe and cruelty-free was an obvious next step.”

So, go nuts! Take a look at the wide range of Ecover products we stock, safe in the knowledge that each one will fly the leaping bunny flag with pride.

The post Ecover Gets Certified! appeared first on Ethical Blog from Ethicalsuperstore.com.

Check out the range now»

End at midnight Sunday 21 October 2012.

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