Tuesday 17 March 7.30pm
The Courtyard Hereford

Join in the talks and debate, sample delicious local snacks, share ideas, meet new people –

Alastair Sawday, Sawday Publishing
Elaine Brook, Herefordshire Greenlinks
Satish Kumar, Resurgence Magazine
Brigit Strawbridge, TV’s ‘Not Easy Being Green’
Stewart Wallis, New Economics Foundation
Bianca Madison, Celebrity Health Advisor
Geoff Hughes, Herefordshire Council

plus Green Business Exhibition and networking

Tickets from The Courtyard 01432 340 555 or online > > >

Please vote for us in the Observer Ethical Awards

This kind of thing is a huge boost to the work we do so please take a minute and follow the link to vote for us >>>

Seaslat is now the biggest producer of certified organic cotton clothing in the UK. 

The UK’s biggest Fair Trade weekend event!!
Saturday 28th February and Sunday 1st March
11am to 6pm at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Sauciehall Street, Glasgow
Entry: £1.00 for adults, kids go free!

Highlights include:
Fair Trade speakers from Palestine, Columbia, South Africa and Bolivia
Over 30 stalls selling the best fair trade fashion, jewellery, homewares, books, music, food and drink
Live world music
Fair Trade Comedy
Free kids craft activities and workshops
Free samples and tastings

……and loads of fun, information and inspiration for the whole family

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Albert Einstein

Billions of the UK’s bees are dying from unknown causes and one in
three of honey bee colonies in the UK were lost last winter alone.
Honey bees are vitally important for everyone. In all, they are
responsible for pollinating one-third of all the foods we eat!

Join the Save Our Bees Campaign > > >

Coordinated by the British Science Association, in collaboration with the British Beekeepers’ Association, supported by the
Bumblebee Conservation Trust and sponsored by Rowse Honey. NSEW is funded by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills.

UK AWARE 09 is looking more and more like it’s going to be the green consumer event of the year, especiallly with its rapidly growing green machines area including Tesla, Lotus and Saab. Here’s an article about the green cars in the Telegraph > > >

There’s also a huge list of exhibtors covering just about anything you might need or want: homeware, clothing and fashion, eco-gadgets, ethical finance, conservation, energy, renewables, food and drink, computers, printing, cosmetics, skincare and so much more, not to mention talks from top class speakers, debates, demonstrations, a cinema, cafes, a clothes swap party and workshops.

Tickets are priced at £5 but you can get yours free by using the promotion code UA09EJ at the registration page here > > >

One ticket is allocated per e-mail address. Anyone under the age of 16 can attend the event for free as long as they are accompanied by a registered adult.

Southampton based social enterprise, Jamie’s Computers was one of 14 organisations in the region to receive a ministerial visit, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Cabinet descended on Southampton on Monday 23rd February.  

The computer re-use and recycling project, Jamie’s Computers is a project of Southampton’s largest homelessness charity, The Society of St James.  Jamie’s welcomed Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office to its operation in Northam as part of the ministerial visits which took place in the region.

Minister Liam Byrne said, “Jamie’s Computers is a great example of how social enterprises can
benefit the local community and the country as a whole.  It’s clear to
me that they give vulnerable people real opportunities to realise their
potential and get on in life, regardless of their circumstances.

“In this tough economic climate we need businesses like this that put
ethics first.  This way we can all build a fairer society and a
stronger country.”

The visit followed this month’s announcement of the Government’s Third
Sector Action Plan, which has been designed together with third sector
leaders over the last three months and builds on the wide range of
measures the Government has put in place to support people through the
economic downturn, and on the Government’s long term commitment to
voluntary organisations and social enterprises.

Della Cunio, Operations Director for Jamie’s said of the visit:

 “We were delighted to learn that the Minister would visit the project –
it was a great compliment to the work that we do and a proud moment for
all the staff and service users involved.  

“The importance of social enterprise in the provision of public service
and contribution to the economy is recognised by government and keenly
promoted.  We were pleased to be able to provide a positive case study
for the Minister.”  

For more information about Jamie’s Computers call 023 8063 2198 or visit www.jamies.org.uk.

Eco-Computer company VeryPC®, has launched a new eco-efficient, mission critical storage offering

The “L210” storage server supports up to 12,000GB of storage, at speeds of up to 700MB/s, which represents one whole CD worth of data per second. The server is a rack mountable, 2u high device that consumes a tiny195W when fully configured and operating. Similarly specified, non-eco friendly storage units use three times as much electricity!

At peak load the 24 disk 12TB L210 server consumes only 250W and
supports 12,000 I/O operations per second, as measured by the industry
standard IOmeter. The server achieves this efficiency through its use
of VeryPC’s GreenServer Architecture™, ultra high efficiency power
supplies and ultra-efficient disks. VeryPC achieve huge performance
through the use of intelligent technologies to aggregate the
performance of the 24 disks together.

The L-Class server also supports the new intel solid state disks, for
ultra high throughput, high performance storage. When used with solid
state disks, each disk has 32 parallel command queues, allowing the
server to address 768 command queues resulting in hundreds of thousands
of I/O operations. The unit is available as a NAS or as a SAN with
iSCSI, Fibre Channel or Infiniband interfaces.

Memset, the multi-award winning Web host and UK’s first carbon neutral
ISP, have been using the L210 to host their SquirrelSave personal
backup service and are making them available to customers as part of
their range of storage solutions. Kate Craig-Wood, Memset’s MD said:

“We are delighted with the L210. Many of our customers have a
requirement for a high-performance storage array and a dual-CPU server
- the L210 gives us this in one compact box. Not only that, but it is
vastly more energy-efficient than the alternatives, which makes it a
very cost-effective performance-storage solution.”

Customers can purchase the L210 unit through VeryPC or one of VeryPC’s
approved Reseller partners, alternatively customers can rent the
servers along with hosting provision from Memset dedicated hosting.
L210 units start from £3779+VAT, with a 12TB unit costing £6810+VAT.

VeryPC Can be contacted on 08456 170081

Chorlton, Manchester
4 April 2009

Organised by local volunteers this event is being shaped by the help and support of dozens of Manchester based musicians, charities, organisations and community groups. The day wil feature:

• A fancy dress bicycle parade
• a food foraging walk
• A swap area
• A personal well being area
• A variety of topical films
• Lots of locally sourced food and drink
• A wealth of local plugged in and acoustic musicians
• Information and workshop spaces
• A variety of environment related talks

For full details please visit the festival website – www.greenchorlton.org.uk

“UK to Australia without flying is no mean feat – Barbara Haddrill’s determination to cut her carbon footprint leads to a once-in-a-lifetime experience across two hemispheres, simply and vividly told.  An example to us all!” Mark Smith, The Man in Seat 61

“A story filled with joy, intrigue, courage and adventure. A profound experience and a gripping read. Barbara shows the way of low carbon travel and the experience of a true journey.” Satish Kumar

Babs2Brisbane is Barbara Haddrill’s account of her incredible overland journey from Wales to Australia to be bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding.

Published by the Centre for Alternative Technology. Click here to buy a copy > > >

With International Women’s Day coming up I’d like to celebrate the work (aka love) of some amazing women I know, one who I don’t personally know who died in 1996 but whose work is still being continued in her name and one who isn’t a woman . . . yet. The list is alphabetical so as to avoid any hair pulling, face scratching or the like.

• Karen Canard – Queen of Rubbish

• Emmeline Child – Eco-fashionista

• Kate Corder – Art of Nature

• Little Miss Green – Green Princess

• Lisa Jackson – PRfection

• Sue Jueno – All Things Eco

• Diana Korchien – Calendar Girl

• Frances Laing – Lady of the Allotment

• Tracey Smith – Doyenne of Downshifting

• Melissa Sterry – Classy and Clever

• Rachelle Strauss – Green Goddess

• Tracey Todhunter – Low Carbon Queen

• Lorna Young – Fairtrader

• Vera North – My sister who doesn’t have a website but if it wasn’t for her I’d probably be dead, homeless or in an asylum. 

Thank you ladies and all the women just like you.