Dear all,

In the last few weeks we’ve been busy creating some great new schemes and ideas for you to read, listen to, or get involved in:

‘One thing’ survey
What is the one thing that would most improve life in the modern world?  We want to hear your views, and we’re planning to use some of the best contributions in a publication later in the year.  Click here to complete the survey – it should take you less than a minute and you could win a copy of ‘Modern life – as good as it gets?’ by Richard Docwra.  Closing date for entries is the end of February.

Pass it on!
We’re very excited about our new scheme.  It’s a free social/learning network where people get together to teach each other things, learn things and discuss things – and meet new people.

It’s based on the idea that everyone knows something useful that they can share with other people, or has something they want to learn or discuss – whether it’s how to make your home more energy efficient, how to make a brilliant cake or simply discussing the meaning of life.  We’ve already got sessions planned in various locations on goal mapping, a tour of an energy efficient house and a discussion on how to survive modern life – and there are many more to come!

Whatever you’d like to do, you can set up a date, time and venue to do it and we’ll list it on our website and help you publicise it and find other people who want to come along.  You can hold your session wherever you like and in whatever format you like – this isn’t formal teaching!  How about meeting at the pub, going for a walk in the country, running an international session on Skype or just showing a video for discussion? 

At the end of your session, you can then tell the other participants to ‘pass it on’ and encourage them to set up their own sessions on their own topics in the coming weeks.

Visit www.lifesquared.org.uk/pio for more details and to check out some of the sessions that are already planned.  If you’ve got something you want to teach, learn or discuss with people email us now with details of the date, time and venue of your session, plus a quick summary of the topic and whether you’d like to learn about it, tell people about it or discuss it.  We hope you’ll enjoy passing it on!

New FREE audiobooks – including ‘an MOT for your values’
We now have a new set of free courses and audiobooks on MP3 that you can download for free and listen to whenever you want.  They include a new short course called ‘an MOT for your values’, which aims to show you how to take yourself on a quick retreat away from the madness of daily life in order to review how well you’re managing to live in line with your values and what you can do to live more in line with them.  You can download this, and other MP3s, by visiting the Courses section of our website.

Free publications
Just a reminder to visit www.lifesquared.org.uk now and catch up on all the great guides we’ve produced – from ‘Better than shopping’ to ‘How to live ethically’.  All our leaflets and booklets are FREE to download or available for a small charge as a printed version. 

To download our publications, just go through the usual checkout process of purchasing them in our shop – and you will not be billed for them or asked to give any financial details.

Knowledge base
The ‘Good Stuff’ section of our site is quickly becoming a major knowledge base of free ideas, resources, videos and links to help visitors gain perspective on the modern world and live happier, more ethical and more meaningful lives.  The resources include a number of new Life² articles and guides.  Visit them now! 

We aim to add new content every day, and if you become a fan of us on Facebook you will be notified each time we add a new item to this section of the site.

That’s it for now!  Do keep visiting us at www.lifesquared.org.uk to check out our other publications, courses and consultancy and please do help us to spread the word about Life² to anyone else who you think might be interested in our work!
 
All the best,
 
Richard Docwra
Director
Life²
www.lifesquared.org.uk
info@lifesquared.org.uk
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Life² is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Myakka staff have been out to experience two local community projects that the Somerset Community Foundation have supported in the Wincanton area. On Tuesday 16^th February representatives of the Somerset Community Foundation, the Growing Space Project and Penselwood Community Allotment Scheme met the team from Myakka at The Balsam Centre in Wincanton.

The Growing Space is a small community garden situated on land adjacent to The Balsam Centre in Wincanton.  Within this vital community resource, there are spaces for quiet contemplation, socialising, playing and food production.  Activities include advice and guidance for new gardeners, training for individuals and organizations along with therapeutic programmes for those experiencing anxiety, emotional difficulties and for those with disabilities.  Local schools and pre-schools also receive support for the school curriculum and opportunities for work experience.  Funding from Somerset Community Foundation recently enabled the group to go ahead with a project to build a large greenhouse for the site.

The Penselwood Community Allotment Scheme was established for the local community in this more remote South Somerset village.  Penselwood is not on a bus route and the nearest supermarket is four miles away in Wincanton.  The aim was to create a successful productive allotment producing fresh, affordable food for the community and the grant from Somerset Community Foundation enabled the group to install a water supply to 11 allotment patches.

The Somerset Community Foundation is the only charity in Somerset to be supported by the Government’s Grassroots Scheme.  This scheme means the government will match donations with a 100% top-up.  The charity aims to build stronger communities by encouraging a culture of local giving to enable local community organisations to thrive.  Select this link for further details on the Somerset Community Foundation: www.somersetcf.org.uk.

Myakka, the national furniture and homewares retailer based in Wincanton, joined the Somerset Community Foundation as a Patron last summer as part of their campaign to bring Fair Trade home.  The company are part way through creating a £25,000 Myakka Grassroots endowment fund which once complete, will be used directly to benefit local community projects similar to those visited on Tuesday.  

“Myakka have not just committed financial support as a patron they have shown a genuine interest in the work we do with their local community,” commented Julie Patterson from Somerset Community Foundation. 

Myakka have always supported their suppliers and their local communities in northern India following the principles of fair trade.  This February, they have again donated a proportion of their profits to SKSN School as well as developing further community projects to help empower older children with the ability to support themselves and their families.  “We work closely with our suppliers in India and commit to help the community around them.  We feel it’s just as important to extend that support to the local community around our business here in South Somerset,” commented Simon Whitehead, director of Myakka.

Myakka’s new catalogue comes out at the beginning of March with many new exciting lines extending their range of exclusive Indian furniture. 

Myakka is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Myakka are once again supporting Fair Trade Fortnight, an annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation.  Running between 22^nd February and 7^th March this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight centres on a campaign called ‘The Big Swap’.

Somerset based furniture and home accessories retailer, Myakka are supporting the Fair Trade Foundation’s big swap by encouraging customer’s to swap their plastic carrier bags for reusable, fair trade jute shopping bags.  For every ten plastic bags sent in, Myakka will send customers a brand new, hard-wearing jute shopper completely free of charge.  All the plastic bags collected will be sent for recycling.

“It’s not quite as easy to swap your furniture for a fair trade option as it is your tea, coffee or chocolate but we wanted to show support for this increasingly important annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation and came up with the ‘big bag swap’ as a way of taking part,”  commented Simon Whitehead, Director of Myakka.  

Last year, Myakka’s team were part of the record breaking fair trade banana eating campaign which took place between 6^th and 7^th March 2009. Over 380,000 campaigners each ate a fair trade banana during the 24 hour period, smashing the previous record. This year’s ‘Big Swap’ is aiming to generate over one million and one swaps over the two week period and change the lives of millions of suppliers around the World. Swaps are recorded through the online swap-o-meter which can be found on the Fair Trade Foundation’s website: www.fairtrade.org.uk.

To generate a swap customer’s simply need to send ten plastic bags with a return address to:  Myakka, Tythings Commercial Centre, Wincanton, Somerset, BA9 9EQ.  Customers will then be sent a reusable, fair trade jute bag completely free of charge and encouraged to visit the online swap-o-meter to register their swap.

Simon Whitehead actually flies out to India on 22^nd February, the first day of Fair Trade Fortnight, to meet with key suppliers and visit community projects which Myakka are involved in.  Simon will be approving the latest new furniture samples which will be launched in Myakka’s Autumn Catalogue between visits to SKSN School.  Projects include the supply of desks and benches to the local school, a youth training scheme empowering older children with the skills to earn a living and now an apprenticeship scheme to educate older children in carpentry.

Georgie Hopkins concluded, “Most people associate the fair trade label with tea, coffee and chocolate production.  There are many more items produced following fair trade principles which help to offer the people involved what we in the UK take for granted.  Fair Trade Fortnight and The Big Swap campaign is a great opportunity to raise awareness of this.”

Myakka is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Traditional carving techniques add an element of individuality to solid hardwood furniture. Many companies are striving to have ranges that are clinically consistent, avoiding the issues with varying quality that are often associated with handmade furniture pieces.

With advancements in furniture design it is now possible to have hand crafted individual features within a cabinet which is consistent in both dimensions and quality. The hand carved elements are brought into places where they are focal, rather than structural. By utilising clever design hand carving and other traditional craft skills are being saved from extinction.

An example of this can be found in one of Myakka’s best selling pieces the Thakat Elephant Cupboard where the doors are made up of six individually hand carved elephants. Produced in India following Fair Trade principles the solid Sheesham wood cupboards have been so popular they are being made into a range for 2010.

“The craftsman use traditional tools and techniques to hand carve the elephants into solid pieces of Sheesham wood. It is a skill we are helping retain by creating furniture that is really popular here in the UK. Fair Trade is even more powerful if you can create products that the UK market really want to buy,” commented Georgie Hopkins – Director, Myakka

The hand carved designs combine beautifully with the natural pattern of the timber to create unique pieces of furniture that are consistent in quality and operation.

“The way we meet with our stringent quality control and still add hand carved details into pieces is through the clever integration of man and machine. By using the machines in the production of the furniture carcases we can guarantee consistency in the dimensions of the pieces.” Commented Simon Whitehead – Director, Myakka

For more information images and a video about the process behind the production of the Thakat Elephant Cupboard please follow this address to Myakka’s blog:

http://furniture-home.myakka.co.uk/

Myakka is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Inspired Entrepreneurs will be holding several events in March, featuring both his own expertise and special guest spots from some top international celebrity speakers including Judy Piatkus, Dr Robert Holden, Sarah Alexander and Jackee Holder.  Specialising in encouraging people to take what they know and love doing and turning it into a pleasurable, profitable business, Inspired Entrepreneurs was founded by Nick Williams, best selling author and expert on inspiration both at work and at home.

To celebrate this new start to the year of you – Inspired Entrepreneurs is offering a special trial membership of just £1 – meaning new members can attend each event and get a free book for just £1 each.  Regular monthly members pay just £12.99 per month, entitling them to free entry to the talks as well as the free books. 

All events are held at the International Students’ House, London apart from Success Intelligence which is to take place at the University of Westminster.

Full List of March events:

7 March (10am) – Passions Into Profits with Nick Williams

A half day mini workshop exploring the 11 steps needed to kick start your own business and earning potential by taking what you are passionate about and turning it into a profitable business. 

£99 (£45 members)

7 March (2pm) – Entrepreneurial Masterclass with Judy Piatkus – Reinvent Your Business for Changing Times

Founder of successful independent publishing house Piatkus Books, Judy Piatkus will take you through six critical emerging trends set to shape the business landscape and how you and your business can keep up and take advantage of these opportunities.

£99 (£45 members)

10 March (7.15pm) – Success Intelligence with Dr Robert Holden

A top guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr Robert Holden has written 11 books on success including the bestselling Success Intelligence – How To Create Authentic & Heartfelt Success.  He guest speaks at this event which in particular focuses on how to inspire students to make the most of their futures.  £20 (FREE for members) including a copy of Success Intelligence.

18 March (7.15pm) – Self Care for Inspired Entrepreneurs with Jackee Holder

Expert in how caring for yourself is at the heart of a successful business, author of Soul Purpose and Be Your Own Best Life Coach, Jackee Holder, focuses on practical ways to keep yourself ready for action so your business is a success.  £20 (FREE for members) including a copy of Be Your Own Best Life Coach.

All these events can be viewed and booked online at:

http://www.inspired-entrepreneur.com/Entrepreneur-Events.aspx

Every talk is introduced and presented by the Inspired Entrepreneur himself, Nick Williams, author of five books including the best selling The Work We Were Born To Do and How To Be Inspired.

He has worked with individuals as well as entire organisations across the globe on a personal level, helping them achieve their dreams of success through inspiration and passion.  Nick regularly contributes to the media.

Press Contact: Lisa Jackson, Eurydice PR

lisajackson@eurydicepr.co.uk

 01440 709460 / 07702 415187

 www.eurydicepr.co.uk

 Gorgeous you – beautiful world

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The CEW beauty awards sponsored by Boots on the 22^nd February will be judged by the members of the association following a showcase at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria London.

Natural Empathy will be represented in 4 categories with 3 key products, namely ‘Everybody’ luxury hand and body lotion, Shea Luxury body butter, Care and Repair signature moisturiser for men and will also compete in the ‘best new brand’ section.

The Directors of this family owned natural skincare brand, Beverley Stuckey, Madelaine Stuckey and Philip Stuckey will represent the business personally along with experienced beauty therapist Valerie Baldwin.

We hope to see some of our fellow Ethical Junction members there but it is worth remembering that it is a ticket do!

Info from alice@cewuk.co.uk

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Suvarna sell 100% natural hair dyes which give lovely natural colours.  They are much safer and healthier – for your body and the environment – than the standard commercial chemical dyes.

Logona Natural Hair Dyes contain henna and other natural plant ingredients such as indigo, hibiscus and walnut shells. They feel nice to use and don’t have a strong chemical smell. They give a subtle natural-looking tint to your hair whilst improving the condition of your hair, increasing volume and shine.

Aubrey Organics hair dyes are similar to Logona. They are based on henna and indigo and they also give a lovely condition to your hair.

Palette by Nature Hair Dyes contain 100% natural and 50% organic ingredients.  In general they are more potent than the Logona and Aubrey hair dyes and give stronger colours and better coverage on grey hair.

At Suvarna we offer advice on choosing the right hair dye for you – contact us here or call 01695 728286

The Hazards of Conventional Chemical Hair Dyes
Conventional chemical based hair dyes contain highly toxic ingredients which can have very severe reactions such as rashes, burning swelling of face and neck and some reactions can be so severe that it requires hospital treatment and steroids, injections etc.  A bad reaction to hair dyes can happen suddenly even after someone has been dying their hair for 20 years and not had any previous history of allergies.

 p-Phenylenediamine (PPD)
p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) is the most common ingredient in hair dyes to cause allergic reactionsIt is a sensitizer that can instigate immune system response that can include itching, burning, scaling, hives, and blistering of skin. p-Phenylenediamine is a suspected carcinogen and mutagen.  PPD can also be known as phenylenediame, phenylenediame dihydrochloride or benzenediamine dihydrochloride or aminoaniline dihydrochloride.

Ammonia is used to open up the cuticle and allow the p-Phenylenediamine based dye to penetrate the hair shaft. In high enough concentration this can irritate the skin and damage your hair.

Other Toxic chemicals in hair dyes are Peroxide, Parabens, Resorcinol and Propylene glycol

BEWARE Of Some So-Called Natural Hair Dyes
Even some natural hair dyes which claim to be natural and are sold in health food shops or Asian shops can still contain chemicals such as PPD.  Before using a so-called natural hair dye always study the full ingredients list very carefully.

For more information visit our website http://www.suvarna.co.uk/natural-hair-dye.html

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The Ecovillage would like to help support fellow EJ members to promote their baby products at our Ecovillage at The Kent County Show, Maidstone, Kent from 16th-18th July 2010.

This year we will be expanding our baby changing & fed facility within the show and wanted to offer the opportunity for baby product supplies to showcase their products through samples available for mums and dads at the baby change & fed area.

The show runs over 3 days and based on last years figures expects to see around 90,000 visitors many of which are families with children.

If you are interested in providing free samples please email us at info@theecovillage.co.uk alternaltively send us any proposals, literature, queries etc to:

The EcoVillage, PO Box 293, Whitstable, Kent CT5 9AN.

For further information on The EcoVillage please visit www.theecovillage.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks.

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The TV “Dispatches” documentary programme broadcast last night showed the alarming poor performance in maths learning in primary school. The recovery may lie in the recruitment of specialist maths teacher resources but this will take years to effect. In the meantime tens of thousands of children are moving up to secondary school each year with little hope of succeeding.

The teachers at the host school for the TV programme were honest and I expect highly typical of the hard working teams in our primary schools. But the revelation that none had any formal maths qualification was amazing. The correlation between the demands of the job content and a relevant qualification seemed to have slipped by the wayside. The introduction of a retired maths specialist by the headmaster served to equally enthral both children and teachers alike. But just as the momentum has commenced it came to an abrupt stop. The essential practice function promoted by the specialist as a key part of retention in learning abandoned! The reason; SAT’s were looming and of for the sake of the school target achievement the Headteacher understandably to keep his job, switched all teaching over to “Teach to Test.” Three months of valuable learning time forsaken, replaced by how to answer questions in SAT’s rather than understand them.

It made one wince. The efforts of the maths specialist teacher who brought educational maths games into the learning programme were inevitable to be lost. When the teachers were asked, along with a representative sample of teachers from other schools, to answer a past maths  SAT paper only 47% gained a pass mark. An astonishing number failed to any answer questions on fractions and only one teacher completed the whole test paper.

Interestingly Ed Balls, the School Secretary, declined when asked to sit the same test.  Evidence shows that a child’s performance in maths at primary level is indicative of their final performance at GCSE. The critical preparation in primary school is collapsing through the lack of qualified and trained maths teachers. This appalling situation leaves teachers trying to compensate  in other areas,  but results in  children inadequately prepared for secondary school. The thought that what little maths is promoted is sidelined for a three months SAT -blast is ludicrous. The documentary highlighted the plight of one bright girl, who excelled during the teaching excellence of the expert, but subsequently drifted after the maths was switched off leaves me shuddering.

The solution lies in the education hierarchy.  The recruitment of thousands of maths specialist teaching is under way.  But it could take years to effect. In the meantime it is perhaps a golden opportunity for parents to take a lead. There are numerous maths games that can be played at home to boost performance in school. At least the fun element of learning maths can be enjoyed and help provide the essential bedrock currently missing from many of our primary schools.

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YouGen has been voted winner of the green living advice category of the Green Web Awards. The website, which aims to make it easy for people to work out whether or not renewable energy is a appropriate for their house, had been up for less than a year when it was shortlisted.

“To be publicly recognised like this is a huge boost,” said Cathy Debenham, founder of YouGen. “I’d like to thank everyone who voted for us.” It was a nail-biting contest, as we were shortlised against two really good websites: The Guardian’s Ethical Living site, and My Zero Waste. It is a real honour to win.”

The Government’s announcement of financial incentives for people who want to install microgeneration technologies last week, makes websites like YouGen even more vital. “The Clean Energy Cashback (feed-in tariff) makes it likely that more and more people will be tempted to install solar panels or other types of renewable energy,” says Cathy. “More installers will enter the market too, making it harder to identify the good ones. This is where YouGen differs from most renewable energy websites – helping people find an installer they can trust is at the heart of what we do.”

Research by Oxford University’s Enviromental Change Institute and the Energy Saving Trust has  found that the newness of the market makes it difficult for potential buyers to assess what they are being offered by suppliers. YouGen aims to help people overcome that barrier.

We provide practical, down to earth information, in plain English,” adds Cathy. “This means that people have a good understanding of what to ask an installer. They can search for local companies on the site, and we encourage existing microgenerators to rate their supplier under five different criteria, to make it easy for others to choose an installer they can trust to do a good job. In a new market it’s often impossible to ask a friend for a recommendation. Getting one from the YouGen community is the next best thing.”

YouGen has also been vocal in championing early adopters of microgeneration whose income from microgeneration will fall when the feed-in tariffs start in April 2010. “They have been treated unfairly,” says Cathy. “These derisory rates throw all their payback calculations out. The pioneers will be left with even longer payback times, while watching those who played safe and waited getting a healthy return on their investment. We have done our best to give them a voice, and get their message heard.”

First published on YouGen.

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