Browsing: Sustainability

Foggy autumn morning by James Jordan

The 22nd of September is the Autumn equinox, which means that the nights are now longer than the days. Here are some of our favourite things to see and do now that the nights are drawing in…

Read the rest of Autumn at Ethical Superstore »

A plane. Yesterday.

How Ethical’s post on Worn Again designers recycled bags posed the question of what exactly we should be doing with old and disused aeroplanes; a concern which became even more poignant with the recent collapse of the holiday company XL, following swiftly in Zoom’s vapour trail.

Read the rest of A Jumbo Recycling Effort »

As part of our Organic Fortnight Special (6-21 September), Sophie Grigson talks to Ethical Superstore about her solution to cooking organically in times of the credit-crunch, why she loves Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and her long-term devotion to organics.

Ethical Superstore: What first switched you on to organic food?
Sophie Grigson: I’ve always had an interest in organic farming systems but it became more relevant when I had children. You have a huge responsibility to do the best and it made sense to give my children food that was as pure and untainted by chemicals as possible. But as I got to know more, the biggest motivation became protecting our countryside – my children don’t see the diversity of birds and flowers that I saw as a child – and conserving our global environment.

Read the rest of Ethical Superstore meets Sophie Grigson »

The above equation isn’t one which will resonate with most folk. However, the people at Prix Pictet (a major new global prize in photography that focuses on sustainability) have created such a link.

The award is set up in collaboration between the Swiss bank, Pictet, and the Financial Times. According to Treehugger the remit was to produce “works that are of outstanding artistic merit that also communicate messages of urgent global significance”. There has been a world-wide nominations panel of over 40 leading experts in the visual arts, from six continents drawing up a shortlist of photographers and their work which has been announced this month.

Have a look at the Prix Pictet 2008 shortlist for yourself and you’ll find topics including water conservation, natural disasters, and refugees being exhibited.

Send in any photos you may have taken or seen that you feel evoke or represent sustainability, and we could get our very own mini gallery going!

  Photo via Prix Pictet

We’ve just got wind of a great research project being undertaken by Ryan Cunningham, an MSc media researcher at the LSE. It was posted on the New Consumer website; he’s looking into how people receive and respond to information about energy efficiency and their views on terms such as ‘ethical’, ‘green’, and ‘sustainability’. 

I’ve taken the survey myself and it really makes you think of how and where you find out about green issues and the researcher gives you a chance to receive a final copy of the report.

Take it yourself at http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=988583and let us know what you think.

Flooding by marilynjane via Flickr

With threats of floods this weekend and many parts of the UK set for a rainy spell, do we really need to save water? My Dad has always argued that saving water when you live in Manchester is a waste of time. Water is everywhere – why are we trying to save it?

Well the answer is more complex than you might think. To one degree my dad is right – we often have more water than we know what to do with. However, the environmental impact of water goes way beyond its use as a raw material.

Consider the cost of actually pumping water around. While some places in the UK have gravity fed systems – large parts of the South East, South West, Midlands and East Anglia use pumps to move water around. More water used, more power required to move the water.

Consider the cost of handling and treating sewage. According the Environment Agency, 10 billion litres of sewage are produced in the UK every day. The treatment plants use energy and require the delivery chemicals, sand and gravel to make the process work. The resulting sludge often gets taken away by the lorry load for landfill, land reclaimation and farm usage. (Of course it could be used as the input to a bio-gas system – but not much sign of that happening in the UK yet!)

Consider meeting our UK obligations under the EU Habitats Directive where the UK committed to reduce the water usage around the Natura 2000 protected sites by an equivalent amount of water as used by 1.5million people. There are 414 sites in the UK where flora and fauna will be endangered if we do not reduce the ground water abstraction. Back in 1992 the targets for 2010 probably looked easy to achieve – now in 2008 – things look a little tougher.

So it may be chucking it down for all of January but there is still a whole host of good green reasons to save water. If you’ve got an old style cistern on your loo, why not take advantage of the special offer on Hippo the Water Saver at Ethical Superstore?