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.

The EcoVillage is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Plush Pants Cloth Nappies has 10% off all Tots Bots Reusable Nappies during November.  The award winning Tots Bots nappies are available in several styles including cotton, organic cotton, bamboo, pocket and all in one nappies.  All Tots Bots nappies are manufactured in Scotland, and Tots Bots recently achieved an Ethicscore of 16/20 from Ethical Consumer, the highest rated nappy company! (Pampers by comparison scored just 0.5/20.)

Our sister website, www.TerryNappies.co.uk, is celebrating it’s first birthday, and offering customers a special birthday discount of 10% when they quote Happy Birthday at the checkout.  Terry Nappies was launched in October 2008 offering specialist advice for parents wishing to use traditional terry squares, with detailed free online folding instructions and helpful information for parents, Terry Nappies consistently enjoys the number one spot on Google.

Reports on the Credit Crunch have indicated that it is affecting women in employment more than in previous downturns.  New website Mothers of Innovation (http://www.moixx.com/) aims to be an antidote to recessionary gloom and a breath of fresh air for working women and mothers in the UK.

Founder Sarah Dawnay, set up Mothers of Innovation after she was made redundant from her  job; with the only available earning options seeming to be corporate roles which make no allowance for women with young families or pyramid selling schemes that were either patronising or expensive, Sarah turned to her own initiative. She says “As a Mum I had already come up with a great design for my little girl when she needed a coat but hated  putting one on – and I realised that there must be many Mums like me, who have great ideas and skills but who just lack an appropriate way to get their products to market; thus Mothers of Innovation was born!”

Sarah is determind that out of her redunancy she will build not only a new career for herself but  a great resource for Mumpreneurs with ideas and help for those trying to start their own business. Also, for busy Mums the site is also a fantastic shopping experience with a huge range of quirky, innovative products inspired by real parents, as well as tips, recipes and fun stories about our children.

MOIXX sells products which have been devised to answer thorny parenting issues. For example, with five young boys how do you juggle them, your handbag and keep the baby’s socks on? How can you carry a baby AND all your belongings on the school run? How do you keep 4 to 8 year olds happy on a rainy afternoon?

Sock Ons are the ingenious little things that keep those socks on; the Baby and All Bag carries all your essentials and baby too! and the incredible Spark Box was designed by a Mum of two to be multi-sensory, educational, interactive and ethical: and at just £15 is a great credit crunch alternative to an expensive day out!

There are many other different products with prices from £5: from cute clothing to stylish things for the home and educational toys. The site allows you to search according to a range of criteria such as fairly trade,d British made, organic and goodies made form recycled materials.

Just in at Sones Organic Baby wear gorgous
new clothes

Unusual and unique patterns, funky and
colourful. Super soft, cosy and
no added chemicals.

Need we say more?

Stop by and take a look.

http://www.sonesuk.com/SHOP/tabid/478/List/0/CategoryID/7/LEVEL/a/Default.aspx

Appearing
this month on the shelves in WH Smith and Borders nationwide, new eco-living
directory BOOK OF GREEN is the most comprehensive guide for everybody to
genuinely and easily green their lifestyles.

With
the general public currently becoming more receptive to living a more
eco-friendly life, this completely free guide points the consumer in the right
direction – it includes hundreds of approved ethical providers in a wide range
of sectors including business services, health and beauty, home and garden,
green energy, travel, parenting and food & drink.  All the companies
in the directory are in some way mostly or completely environmentally friendly,
sustainable, fair trade, organic,  ethical and socially responsible.

Book
of Green is intended to show everybody how to easily reduce their carbon
footprint, live a healthy lifestyle and make  a personal positive 
impact on the environment by integrating truly ethical products and services
into their daily home and family lives.

With
an initial print run of 30,000, the guide comes in a handy A5 format and is
printed in vegetable inks on 100% recycled paper.  An online flip magazine
version is also available at www.bookofgreen.com 
 Book of Green will be available in WH Smiths this July, attached to the
front of Permaculture Magazine as well as distributed across the UK in high
street eco stores, online eco stores, and at events during the summer as well
as at the Eden Project and the Kent Eco Village, the Kent Show by The
Ecologist, July 17-19.

Book
of Green is co-founded by Sue Jueno (founder of Allthingseco) and Katie Keegan
(founder of One Green Earth),
 whose combined experience of 6 years in the eco/ethical business arena
has given them the experience, knowledge and contacts to create a guide for
green living which everybody can trust.

“Being
green is more than reducing the threat of climate change, it’s also about
ethical trading and personal health.  The companies found within Book of
Green provide solutions across all sectors through their products &
services to help build a positive foundation for your family’s future
generations,”  says Katie Keegan.

“With
credit crunch in mind and a passion for promoting green shoot businesses we
have made Book of Green extremely affordable to advertisers and free to the
public to show off exceptional companies that are solving environmental
problems and that will be leading us into the future,” says Sue Jueno.

Show Dad you care about him and the environment – choose a stylish eco-friendly gift from Love Eco’s Father’s Day collection and get 10% off plus FREE delivery. Simply enter the following special promotional code when prompted at checkout and we’ll do the rest.

YOUR SPECIAL 10% DISCOUNT CODE IS: ECODAD6
*valid until 18.06.09 (order before midday on 18.06.09 to ensure delivery for Father’s Day)

www.animaltails.co.uk

Come and see
our wonderful collection of babies and children’s clothes at

Bubble
Kids Trade Show, Islington Business Design Centre, London, UK

21-22
June 2009

STAND
D40

Stunning
colours, incredible screen prints and fun story labels telling amazing
facts
about the endangered animals featured.

Childrens
clothes have never been so bright, stylish and educational

Animal Tails
designs are now stocked throughout the UK and internationally in
leading
boutiques and department stores including Fenwicks and Adili.com

Climate
change is a very high profile topic with everybody trying to jump on
the
bandwagon, and financial institutions are no exception. Ethical
investment is a
great opportunity for conscientious investors to help with the future
of our
planet, but are all the funds that claim to be ethical really committed
or are
we just seeing a token burst of green wash?

www.investing-ethically.co.uk

You
might think climate change is the single biggest issue facing us, and
perhaps
you agree that it needs a huge financial input to even scratch the
surface of
the problem. If you are thinking about doing your bit by investing in a
climate
change fund, you may be surprised if you look below the surface and
discover
just how ‘green’ some of these funds really are.

‘Climate
change’ is a broad term that is applied to any fund that claims to be
investing in companies that have something to do with tackling climate
change
issues. They range from very general funds that invest in almost
anything
(including arms and tobacco) as long as it has a suitably strong
recycling
policy, to very specific funds that invest only in one specific part of
one
specific sector such as renewable energy.

They
are different from traditional ethically screened funds because they
are not
concerned with negative screening or engagement. They positively
screen, some
very specifically whilst others are very vague.

To
throw a little light on this subject, we have reviewed 12 climate
change funds
and revealed some interesting facts:

8
out of these 12 funds invest in the nuclear industry – claiming that
its
better the world doesn’t fry, even if it means risking another
Chernobyl!

One
invests in BAE Systems, presumably on the basis that they are
developing less
environmentally harmful bombs.

One
fund even has the following negative comment:

• “Extremely
  inclusive fund with exposure to arms, tobacco, mining as well as
  nuclear – 10% of fund goes into companies that could be deemed to be
  connected to climate change in any meaningful sense.
• Short
  track record.

• Very high (and
  unreasonable!) ongoing costs with the performance related fee

The
best performing fund was the Schroder’s Global Climate Change fund
- the worst the Guinness Alternative Energy Fund with a 44%+ difference
in the returns.

So
are climate change funds “ethical funds” in the traditional sense?
Not really, but perhaps they fall into the “Socially Responsible
Investment” camp. The jury’s out on this one so we suggest you
judge for yourself.  We’ve made the report available on our web site
(www.investing-ethically.co.uk)
and I’d be very interested in your comments.

With unemployment at its highest rate for years, who wouldn’t want to find a job they enjoy that helps the environment at the same time? With Reusable Nappies currently making the comeback they deserve, Natalie in South Wales tells us how she found new and rewarding work as a Nappy Guru with Fill Your Pants.

Natalie says “I chose to become a Nappy Guru after
using cloth nappies on my youngest son. As I was staring at our
overflowing black bin once again I decided enough was enough and
something would have to change. I’m passionate about the environment
and take the view that if we don’t look after it then what will it
become for our future generations?”

“I decided that Fill Your
Pants was the company that I wanted to become an advisor for because
they are a modern company which understands family life and we share
the same values, plus they have the biggest range of nappies I have
ever seen!
Oh and it’s a great way of socialising while working too!”

Every UK baby will spend approximately 25,000 hours in nappies and need about 6,000 nappy changes between birth and potty-training- around 8 million disposable nappies are used every day in the UK alone. Apart from the huge environmental impact, what many people don’t realise is how much money they could actually save. For example, by ‘going cloth’ your family can incur a direct saving of up to £500, and even more for baby number 2, 3, 4, or even 5.
A family run business Fill Your Pants’ commitment to customer service, and the fact that they will only stock and recommend the nappies they are happy using on their own children has led to a huge expansion in the business despite the economic climate.

New Nappy Gurus are required to have experience in using real nappies so they can fully appreciate the benefits and pass on their experience to others. Gurus are encouraged to demonstrate the nappies to potential purchasers and organise ‘Nappuccino’ coffee mornings dedicated to offering the help and advice central to the company’s ethos. Fill Your Pants already offers National email and telephone assistance and the Nappy Guru programme would mean more people could benefit from the one-to-one meetings currently offered in the Leicestershire area.

So if you love real nappies there’s no need to fill your pants if you are feeling the pinch or are looking for extra income- try Fill Your Pants instead.

Laura Tanner on 0116 279 3089 or info@fill-your-pants.com  www.fill-your-pants.com 

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.