Summer Holidays, Gadgets, Guides and Fashion!!

It looks like summer is here and hopefully it will stay!!
The sun is out, the weather is warmer, sales have started, the kids are about to break up and we have planned our annual summer holiday. In this post the team at MoreEco have put together information on everything you need to know, what to take and where to go, to make sure that your summer eco holiday is sustainable, cool and relaxing.

Eco Travel Essentials Buying Guide
The team at Eco Trend Spotter have created a list of eco items you may wish to take with you on your eco summer holiday. If you are going abroad or staying at home we think that these items will be essential in making your eco holiday fun and relaxing. There are 5 parts to search so take a look!
   
Summer Eco Holidays Travel Guide – UK
Eco-holidays represent the modern face of responsible tourism. The the aim is to support local economies while being environmentally sustainable. An eco holiday offers the opportunity to eat well, smell the grass and gain a new skill or experience without exploiting the environment in which it takes place. The Team at BeMoreEco have put together guides for Singles, Couples and Families.
   
Summer Fashion Sales
Before you go on yout hoiday you should take a look at the latest Ethical and Organic Fashion Shopping offers.
Sales have started early so you have to be quick to make sure you get what you want. Some shope are offer ing up to 80% savings!
   
Top 10 Water Saving Tips
Most of us take water for granted, but in this hot weather we should try and manage the amount of water we consume (and waste).
Taking a few simple steps to increase water efficiency around the home will not only save more of this precious resource, but it will significantly reduce household energy bills and save all the CO2 emissions associated with them.
   
Top Ten Green Festivals
Ten festivals worth digging your wellies and use your eco camping gear for.  Take a break and enjoy the music food and fresh air.
   
Follow MoreEco
MoreEco is now on Facebook and Twitter.  So join our groups today to make sure that you get the most up to date information on latest offers, news and views.

As politicians gather in Italy for G8, TheGINLady.com ladies invite people to gather on Twitter for GIN8 ‘The People’s Summit’.

As politicians propose targets and ways to achieve those targets, the GIN Ladies invite people to make their own targets and propose their own strategies.

The GIN Ladies, otherwise known as former marine biologist, sustainable comms guru and MD of Sustain Your Media Dr. Nicola Thomas and futurist, sustainable innovation strategist, Sustain Your Media’s Creative Director and Societás Founder & CEO Melissa Sterry invite people to put forward their ideas for tackling the economic, environmental and political meltdown.

What do ordinary people think we should do? What targets do people think we should set? Who would the people’s GIN8 leaders be? Do we need GIN8 leaders? Do we need G8 leaders? Let fellow members of the GIN8 People’s Summit know what you think.

The GIN8 online People’s Summit on Twitter kicked off on the morning of 9th July 2009 and it will continue whilst G8 continues.  Read on to find out how to take part…

 To take part all you have to do is…

1. Get yourself a Twitter account here www.twitter.com

2. Think up a few targets and proposals… remember you only have 140 characters to use to post those proposals on your Twitter page.

3. When posting up your GIN8 target or strategy proposal tweet remember to start it off with #GIN8

When the GIN8 People’s Summit 2009 is
finished the GIN Ladies will be drawing up a summary of the summit
detailing the targets the people set, the strategies the people came up
with and they will put it up on TheGINLady.com – so the world can hear the solutions the people propose, as well as those politicians propose.

Send your tweets to @TheGINLady and @Societas_ and remember to put #GIN8 in the text!

ReusableBottle.co.uk
has just been launched by Dan Brousson, the Daddy of the original plastic bag
alternative – Onya Bags. As an opening treat he is offering a 15% discount with
the code RB15.

www.reusablebottle.co.uk stocks
over 50 different bottles from big bottle brands: Sigg, Nalgene, Source and Brita, to more niche: Pure
Hydration, Aladdin and Hydrate for Health.

From
a 1 litre bottle which folds down to the size of a (thin) wallet, to completely
natural charcoal-based water filters, to pretty portable water containers in
pink and an unsuspecting looking bottle which purifies water from normally
un-drinkable sources.

Simply
choose your products, then enter code RB15
in the coupon code box at the checkout and the discount will be deducted.

A recent letter from the UK Advertsing Standards Authority (ASA), (in response to a complaint) tackles head-on the issue of the British Wheel of Yoga (BWY) promoting itself widely as: “The Governing Body for Yoga”.

Well, the ASA’s response seems to indicate that such a claim just does not appear to be entirely, “standing up straight”.

Such
a claim by the BWY appears then to have been “misleading” its members,
(and everyone else) in the UK Yoga community for years.

Now though, “the game is up” – the ASA say:-

“.. the claim BWY is the governing body for Yoga in the UK
could misleadingly imply BWY regulates yoga in the UK, monitors and/or
co-ordinates UK yoga activities and is a British authority on yoga
teaching and/or practice.”

The ASA’s recommendation seeks to clear up a lot of confusion and will help the UK Yoga community grow stronger, as there is now authoritative advice on how the BWY should promote itself from now on:-

“We (the ASA) have asked them to amend the claim to state BWY is a Sport England recognised national governing body“

This
sometimes painful and confusing situation has been with the UK Yoga
community for many years now and it is with some relief that (finally)
it seems to be very close to being resolved.

We recommend that
all Yoga teachers, groups and websites review their active links and
all other marketing materials used to comply with the ASA’s
recommendations as to the correct “wordage” to use when referring to
the BWY – in anticipation of the BWY’s expected compliance with the
ASA’s recommendations in the near future.

More info here.

“Go
Ape” with
our July Paper of the Month,
“it’s bananas!!!” Our
eco-friendly banana stock is made from banana skins and is available
in paper and card weights. The Banana
Paper is
ideal for fruit sellers, milk shake bars, cake makers, health food
shops and any organic and food related businesses. This paper also
looks great for special occasions,
weddings, birth celebrations,
as well as offering something different for everyday stationary.

Along with our more exotic range we print on ’standard’
white cards and papers that are also 100% recycled too!

Our
Eco Policy is Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle and
this should not mean compromising on quality, or for that matter
costing the earth! Eco Print handles all jobs, digital and litho,
specializing in short and medium size print runs. We even have an
experienced graphic designer on board if extra help is needed.

Like
our printing process, every member of the Eco Print team is free from
artificial colours and preservatives and happy to offer friendly
helpful advice. We are an approachable, locally based company, big
enough to cope but small enough to care.

For
more information on us and our range of papers and cards, check out
our stunning website. http://www.ecoprintUK.com
We have just added an FAQ page on
the website
which will answer all your questions in a nice and concise way! You
are though more than welcome to call us on 01722 340350.

N.B.
No monkeys
were harmed in the gathering of the bananas apart from one…the
cheeky monkey wouldn’t give up his bunch.

Sustainability initiatives in
leading organisations are increasingly focusing on transformational
and systemic change, rather than incremental improvements. It
is this link between transformation, and the shift to new levels of
individual and organisational leadership and development that
highlight how can coaching is critical for innovation and
sustainability.

In essence, this research
identifies that:

1. ‘Inner’ (personal
   development, organisational values and culture development) and
   ‘outer’ (organisational, business, market, sustainable)
   development are linked;

2. That real innovation and
   transformation, and the biggest leverage points for integrating
   sustainability, occur in the ‘interior’ of mindsets, values, and
   culture; and

3. Inter-subjective,
   developmental approaches like coaching, are the
   most powerful and effective way to grow
   leaders and support the adoption of new values and culture.

The
most common association with coaching in an organisational context is
with one-on-one executive coaching. This form of coaching arguable
emerged in a cultural context that is very
individualistic, and focused on independence, freedom and
self-actualisation. This sort of culture is legitimate and important
has not always been the norm; and even now it is not the norm across
all cultures. A value system that directs excessive attention to the
individual may best serves us in the face of sustainability
challenges. The shift from seeing individuals as the primary
beneficiary of coaching and primary agent in driving change, to
instead focusing on the impact on the collective, collaboration and
on the reality of our interdependence is aligned with sustainability

There
several different ways in which the same
coaching dynamics can be used to support development that goes beyond
the individual in its assessment and impact. Through our research we
identified means to coach teams, communities or organisations,
through individuals, but not focused on the individuals. In these
cases, individual’s development and enhanced performance is
contextualised as a means to higher-performing or transformed teams
or organisations. Examples include team coaching, whole-of-business
coaching, or hosting communities of practice.

The implications of this for the
detail of the coaching practice are that the focus of the inquiries,
plans and dialogues would be the collective or the whole, rather than
the individual. In practice this might mean that instead of inquiring
into ‘What do you want?’ ‘What motivates and attracts you?’
or ‘What are you grateful for, and want more of?’, then the
individuals are invited to ask, for example, ‘What does the earth
want?’, ‘What motivates and attracts this community?’, or ‘What
is the organisation grateful for, and want more of?’

This type of perspective requires
the individual to take attention away from their own ego and in some
cases identify with something they may consider to be inanimate (e.g.
the earth). But, the exercise of reflecting on how individual
priorities do or don’t support the health of the whole is exactly
the sort of shift that enable next-level thinking and generation of
creative solutions to our challenges. The appeal of this sort of
self-transcendent perspective is evident in many sustainability
definitions and concepts, and is one of the things that attracts
people to this work.ⁱ

When practically applying this in
an organisational context, this can mean
shifting the lines of inquiry to ask ‘What does the
customer/stakeholder/organisation/team/community value/aspire to/need
to be healthy?’ This starts the dialogue from a level in the system
that may facilitate greater consensus amongst individual
participants, and start an inquiry into any dissonance between
individuals’ needs and wants and what appear to be the needs of the
whole.

It is inquiring into this
dissonance that generates transformational and systemic change, and a
shift to new levels of individual and
organisational leadership. The coaching methods that can facilitate
this are documented in greater detail in the full report, as are the
additional benefits for individuals, teams and organisations of such
approaches.

i
Visser, W (2007), ‘Corporate Sustainability and the Individual: a
Literature Review’ in University Cambridge Programme for
Industry Research Paper Series: No. 1, 2007 [Online]. Available:
http://www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/resources/publications/sustainability_research_papers.aspx
[2008, 16.06.08].

Back
to work, Simon de Glanville left the pigeons
in Peckham and headed for sunny Somerset for a seven day photo shoot
of Myakka’s fair trade furniture and home accessories. Myakka’s
annual photo shoot is on Simon’s professional calendar, whereas the
recent national media coverage he received for his photos of London’s
pigeons were taken in his spare time!

The
Myakka
annual photo shoot is an intense week providing the imagery required
for their new catalogue which will be released in the autumn. The
images are also used to promote their latest new products through
their ecommerce website.

“We
have worked with Simon for four
years now and the results we achieve are fantastic. The shoot is
intense and exhausting, but we have a lot of fun along the way!”
comments Georgie Hopkins, Director of Myakka.

Four
beautiful old English properties were used as locations including the
impressive Marston House. The manor house on the outskirts of Frome
was restored in 1984 by the Foster Yeoman family and is currently
used as parent company Aggregate Industries head quarters.

As
with every year,
the smooth running of the shoot is all in the planning which takes
many weeks of preparation prior to Simon arriving with his cameras.
Now the shoot has been completed the catalogue designers are busily
compiling the new Myakka catalogue ready for release in September.

“We
jokingly suggested Simon train the pigeons
he photographs in Peckham! Carrier pigeons would be a very
environmentally friendly way of distributing our new catalogues
across the country, although utilising his training methods we would
get through a lot of kebabs!”
said Georgie.

Myakka
tailors the designs of their furniture for the British market. All
the furniture is made in northern India by skilled craftsman using
the latest German computer controlled machinery ensuring the quality
is second to none. Myakka is an ethical business following fair
trade principles and is a recognised importer and retail member of
BAFTS (British Association of Fair Trade Shops). With a
sophisticated ecommerce website, a Warehouse Outlet in Wincanton,
Somerset and a comprehensive mail order catalogue, Myakka has a large
database of loyal customers across the UK. This summer Myakka is
celebrating a decade of business with a huge 10^th
Birthday Summer Sale.

For
more information about the shoot, Simon de Glanville and Myakka visit
their news blog at www.furniture-home.myakka.co.uk/
or the online shop at www.myakka.co.uk.

Introducing the letterbox Ecoflap, the
Ecoflap is a cleverly designed letterbox draught proofing system that
can be retro fitted to your existing letterbox to totally illuminate
draughts.

With up to 27% heat loss occurring
through the letterbox the Ecoflap will help you to keep your home
warm and save money on energy bills and pay for its self many times
over.

The Ecoflap does not use any springs
brushes or seals to operate, so there are no components to break , it
actually operates using its own weight and the wind to form a draught
proof seal with no rattles

Ecoflap is adaptable to fit various
sizes of delivery items through the letterbox up to A4 size thick
newspapers and magazines.

The Ecoflap is easy to install and
comes in the following colours white, silver or black to suit your
door .

Here at NeonCollective.com we are all about killer heels without the kill. Neon Collective is the world’s first one-stop shop for high-end vegan accessories. We aim to shatter the misconception that vegans aren’t fashionable and provide green alternatives for the modern shopper.

We feel passionate that fabulous footwear can be free of leather and all other animal products but even if you don’t give a stuff about Daisy the cow, the leather tanning industry is one of the most polluting
industries on Earth. So we are joining Paul and Stella McCartney on their ‘Meat Free Monday’ campaign (supportmfm.org) to prove that by cutting down on leather, meat and any other animal products, you are making a positive step to promote animal welfare and are directly cutting CO2 emissions.

Throughout July NeonCollective.com will be specially discounting a different style of killer heels each Monday.

“I think many of us feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, and it can be hard to know how to sort through the advice about what we can do to make a meaningful contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable, healthier world.  Having one designated meat free day a week is actually a meaningful change that everyone can make”

Sir Paul McCartney

Kicking off on Monday 6^th July with the seriously stylish BALANCE £90 (was £139).

With hemp uppers, a platform sole and skyscraper heels these neon brights are essential for any summer wardrobe. Available in neon yellow or electric blue.

There will be a new offer next Monday 13^th so shop now if you just have to bag a pair of these beauties at this special, one-off price!

In
follow up to the recent launch of their Shabby Chic range ‘Bamboo
Chic by Bambienti’ bamboo interiors specialists Bambienti this week
announces that London based retail group Chest of Drawers will be
stocking Bamboo Chic by Bambienti at all of their three stores in
Islington, Chiswick and Kingston.

As an
established retailer who specialises in sustainable furniture Chest
of Drawers came to prominence in recent years when they pioneered an
ethical and environmental rating guide which advises their customers
on the ethical credentials of each and every piece they sell. For
more information please visit www.chestofdrawers.co.uk

Founder
and Director Charles Colbourne said “I am delighted to welcome
Chest of Drawers as a retail partner. To be able to work with such an
established and credible company, one who has led the way for such a
considerable time with respect to responsible and sustainable
sourcing of products is such a boost for everyone associated with
Bambienti. We’re looking forward to supporting them’

Bamboo
Chic by Bambienti is a white range of interiors that is hand-made in
small to medium sized workshops out of Bamboo, a material that offers
strength, style and natural sustainability.

The
popularity of Shabby Chic style interiors, particularly furniture and
accessories continues unabated in 2009. However the problem for many
is that the original sources for this overtly neutral look, namely
antique shops and flea markets have become increasingly expensive.
The result is that more and more people have started to buy new
furniture and accessories that replicate the Shabby Chic look at
cheaper prices but in many cases the source of the wood used is
unknown and can often be found to be logged using unsustainable
methods.

With
the launch of ‘Bamboo Chic by Bambienti’ buyers who are going for
the Shabby Chic look have a naturally sustainable alternative.

For
more information about Bambienti, Bamboo Chic by Bambienti or to find
a stockist closer to home please visit www.bambienti.com and we will
be happy to put you in touch with your local store.

To
find out more about Chest Of Drawers please visit
www.chestofdrawers.co.uk