HOW TO MAKE & USE COMPOST

The
ultimate guide

Nicky
Scott

Everything
you need to know to make successful compost

in
town or country, flat or field.

Composting
is easy, fun, saves you money and helps you to grow lovely plants.

Whether
you live in a flat with no garden or have a family and garden which
generate

large
amounts of food and garden waste, this book shows you how to compost

everything
that can be composted at home, work or school, and in spaces big and
small.

How
to Make & Use Compostfeatures an A-Z guide, which includes a
comprehensive

list
of what you can and can’t compost, concepts and techniques, compost
systems, and

common
problems and solutions. It includes how to:

• A-Z
  guide

• Compost
  your food waste safely

• Get
  the best out of a Dalek-type plastic composter

• Make
  your own seed, plant and cuttings compost

• Create
  liquid feed for your plants with a wormery

• Make
  compost in your flat or on your balcony

• Learn about school
  and community composting

By
making your own compost you can feed your plants, increase the
fertility of your

soil,
and help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill at the same
time.

The
Author:
Nicky
Scott
is
the Co-ordinator of the Devon Community Composting

Network;
as well as composting on his allotment, he helps set up community

composting
groups and advises schools and businesses on how to compost food
waste.

He
has helped in the development of the ‘Scotty’s Hot Box’ and the
‘RiDan’ composter,

both
now widely used for composting food waste. Nicky is a founder
director of Proper

Job
and a Compost Doctor.

ISBN
978 1 900322 59 1 – 234
mm x 156 mm – 128pp
in black and white +
16pp colour plates – £9.95
pb

Contents:

Why
make compost

How
does it work

How
to make compost

Composting
systems: How

much
space do you have?

How
much stuff do you want

to
compost?

Using
your compost

Larger
systems for several

households,
schools &

communities

A-Z
guide

For
further information, please contact Laura Turley:

Email
Laura@greenbooks.co.uk

or
phone 01803 863260.

There are many reasons to visit
Norwich (we have a lot of EJ members in and around that area), if you
do get the chance to go there in the next month or so please look out
for our EJ admin person Kate Corder’s artwork which is part of the
art exhibition East International
taking place at NUCA on
Saint George’s Street. Her work in the exhibition is on Tolhurst
‘stockfree’ vegan organic vegetable growers, a 12-month film
study about the growing seasons and biodiversity of a growing year.
Kate also has two large planters outside in the street that reflect
her video work and contain vegetable plants and companion planting
for public consumption. Norwich City Council worked with Kate and
took the initiative to plant beans and tomato plants amongst their
floral displays at the Assembly House and also on the balconies of
the City Hall (take a telescope to see these!).

The
exhibition is open to the public

Open
Monday to Saturday 10-5pm until Saturday 22 August

Link
with East International

http://www.eastinternational.net/east/exhibition/exhibition.html

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.

Eco car insurance provider, ibuyeco
has pledged its support to three leading environmental charities by making a
donation each and every time they sell or renew a policy. The Converging World
is one of these three charities ibuyeco is donating too.

ibuyeco polled its customers and The Converging World was
proud to discover that they were voted as one of the charities to support. Customers
can choose which of the 3 charities will receive a £5 donation when they
purchase or renew an ibuyeco policy. Allowing customers to choose to donate to The
Converging World when they take out a policy with ibuyeco means people can
support the charities work to generate renewable energy, reduce carbon
emissions and help support developing communities around the world by investing
in projects that support change.

The Converging World is a UK based charity whose objectives
are to tackle climate change whilst supporting the move towards a just and
sustainable world. The Converging World model uses donations to create long
term revenue streams that will both reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to
sustainable development.

The Converging World invests in renewable energy projects in
the developing world and owns wind turbines in India. The turbines produce
clean electricity and Gold Standard carbon credits. All of the profits from
these investments provide long-term funding for vital health, education and
environmental projects around the world.

The Converging World has been recognised as a premium
project in the carbon market by Gold Standard for their outstanding level of
community engagement and the provision of ongoing support.

  For more info visit www.theconvergingworld.org

A new organisation was launched last week to help people overcome the challenges and pressures of life in the modern world.

Life² (Life Squared) helps people to ‘live well’ – to live happy, wise lives in the modern world.  It offers public talks, courses, publications and advice on a wide range of topics – from ‘the history of the universe’ through to ‘how to live ethically’, and from ‘the problem with consumerism’ through to ‘how to be happy’.   Its website can be found at www.lifesquared.org.uk.

The organisation is the brainchild of Richard Docwra, author of the
book ‘Modern life – as good as it gets’ and director of ChangeStar (www.changestar.co.uk), a
consultancy and think tank for the not-for-profit sector.  Docwra says:
‘We’re delighted to be launching Life² it has the potential to help
many people.  Modern life can be complex, rushed, stressful and
confusing – particularly in the current financial climate – and Life²
is providing a vital service in helping people to navigate their way
through this and live happier and wiser lives’.

Participants on
one of Life²’s initial courses said “The course has been really useful
in reflecting and focussing on my life and making practical plans to
work towards a future I hope to realise” and “I have thoroughly enjoyed
the course and I have not only made changes [to my life] but now have
definite aims and goals as well as differing perspectives on important
issues”.

Global responsible investment research specialist EIRIS, Centre for Australian Ethical Research (CAER)
and Survival International are supporting a United Nations Principles
for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) programme to facilitate engagement
between investors and their investee companies to promote and respect
the rights of indigenous peoples around the world.

The UN PRI collaborative engagement draws on latest research from EIRIS which explores
the challenges and opportunities faced by major companies operating in
parts of the world where the rights of indigenous peoples are
threatened.¹

According
to the United Nations there are 370 million indigenous people in the
world and 5,000 distinct indigenous cultural identities in more than 70
countries. There are believed to be more than 100 uncontacted groups in the world. Although indigenous people only account for 5% of the world’s population, they account for over 15% of the world’s poor.

Companies
engaging in activities that may infringe the rights of indigenous
peoples, as enshrined within the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, face increasing reputational risks potentially
leading to issues with access to capital, damage to brand, licence to
operate, and operational risks such as the threat of litigation and
increased regulation.

The EIRIS report Indigenous rights: risks and opportunities for investors
highlights the rights of indigenous peoples as a key human rights issue
that companies and their investors should take into account. It covers
companies operating in sectors (mining, oil & gas, agricultural
producers and forestry paper) and countries considered to be high risk
for indigenous peoples. The research also highlights key risks areas
which investors should consider when engaging with companies on
indigenous rights issues such as access to investment capital;
increased regulation; litigation and reputational risk. 

Key findings:

- Big companies at risk: 250 companies (with a total market value of GBP 1.7 trillion)
have been identified as having an exposure to indigenous rights. 17% of
companies have a high risk exposure to indigenous rights issues.

- Few companies report on indigenous rights issues: The
quality of reporting is generally poor: whilst most companies provide a
response to allegations of breaches of indigenous rights few report
voluntarily on areas of non-compliance.

- Fewer than 20% of companies have adopted a policy supporting free prior informed consent² for indigenous peoples:19%
of these companies have a corporate-wide indigenous rights policy. Only
15% of companies have a corporate-wide policy supporting free prior
informed consultation.

- Only a fifth of companies disclose employment data on indigenous people:19% of companies disclose employment data on indigenous peoples.

- Fewer than 10% of companies have a policy for involuntary resettlement:  Just over 6% of companies have a policy covering involuntary resettlement.

Given
the level of NGO and media attention to the issue of indigenous
peoples’ rights and the introduction of laws and regulation in many
countries, companies with strong commitments and effective engagement
processes will undoubtedly benefit in an environment where access to
land and resources is becoming increasingly restricted.

Stephanie
Maier, Head of Research at EIRIS said ‘Indigenous rights is a complex
issue that companies and their investors need to address and is
especially important for extractive companies as they seek to expand
and gain access to land. Our research explores the challenges and
opportunities faced by major companies operating in parts of the world
where the rights of indigenous peoples are threatened. We are very
pleased to be working with the UN PRI and Survival International on
this important area of engagement.’

Stephen Corry, Director at Survival International said ‘Investors
must use their considerable power to persuade companies to respect and
protect the rights of indigenous peoples, otherwise they risk being
charged with complicity in abuses they bankroll. As EIRIS has shown,
this vital issue is chronically under-reported by companies. The United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO
convention 169 should be used as benchmarks for the development of
company policies on indigenous rights. Companies that fail to gain the
free, prior informed consent of indigenous communities affected by
their projects are in flagrant breach of international law.’

Bob Walker VP Sustainability at the Ethical Funds of Canada said ‘The risks from
indigenous Peoples’ opposition to specific projects is real and
material for investors. But corporations also have an enormous
opportunity to contribute to both economic and community development in
the regions where they operate.  This new research from EIRIS is a
useful addition to our toolkit for encouraging greater corporate
transparency that will undoubtedly benefit companies in an environment
where access to land and resources is coming under increasing pressure
globally.’

Click here (http://www.eiris.org/files/research%20publications/indigenousrightsjun09.pdf) to download a copy of the research report.

Press contact: mark.robertson@eiris.org +44 (0)20 7840 5741, +44 (0)7950 931313

     Brief Histories of Almost Anything is the sort of book you keep coming back to again and again. It contains fifty articles (or ‘savvy slices of our global past’) covering a huge range of subjects from A Short History of Food to A Brief History of Megalomania, from The Rich History of Pan-Africanism to Britain’s ‘Adventures’ In Ireland. Each article, written by past and present co-editors of New Internationalist magazine, aims to give a whistle-stop introduction to its subject. Whilst there were one or two that didn’t particularly grab my attention, for example A Short History of Architecture wasn’t really up my street, most of the chapters were fascinating and either introduced me to completely new subjects or gave me a fresh perspective on more familiar ground.

    For myself, the most interesting part of the book covered chapters
20 to 26, Global Issues. This section challenged a lot of commonly held
misconceptions about some important topics, as well as being
entertaining. The chapters here seemed to get the tone exactly right
between being light-hearted enough to read out to friends and yet
serious enough that they stirred compassion and awareness of the
issues’ relevance to the current world situation. I would say the most
frustrating thing about the book is that there is no ‘live update’
option – I found myself several times desperate to know what this
editor or that would make of latest developments in various fields!

   
I also enjoyed the far more objective tone than you usually find on
these subjects in the mass media, as the writers (as in New
Internationalist magazine) did not scruple to criticise America and
Britain at least as much those countries criticise other nations. The
book is obviously written by writers with left-wing views, but they
seemed to be very good at not allowing these views to colour the facts
given. I found the text to be fairly impartial, and although I did not
agree with some of the points raised, arguments were put forward
convincingly and led to many discussions between myself and my husband
once the book was put down.

    One other feature of the book,
which I was sorely tempted to photocopy to carry around with me, was
the Prelude, which gave 13 lists of five themes of the twentieth
century, including unfulfilled national dreams, ridiculous wars,
nonviolent direct actions, and revolutions that raised then dashed Left
hopes. This was a wonderful way to start the book, and I would have
liked to have read further on the issues the Prelude raised.

   
Brief Histories is an essential book for, well, anyone actually. It
should certainly be a starting point for anyone who wants a broad
picture of how the world has got the state it is in today, and where it
is heading. It manages to touch on a lot of issues of global justice,
and the breakneck pace manages skilfully to lead from ancient history
to the modern world in a way that is never dull or dry. It would be an
excellent book to lend to a friend, a source of inspiration for a
writer for example, and a good springboard to find out what interests
you and what to go away and learn more about. And all this for only
£8.99!

Chris Brazier (Ed.)
ISBN 978-1-906523-00-8
New Internationalist; pb; £8.99 

   T-shirt is an introduction to the cotton industry, and how our use of
such a common piece of clothing impacts people all over the world.   

   T-shirt is one of the small books in the Trigger Issues series, whose focus is given as ‘One small item – one giant impact’, and the giant impact of the t-shirt is skilfully revealed in this guide. Troth Wells takes us on a whirlwind tour of the beginnings of the t-shirt itself, through the history of cotton farming and its links to slavery, leading very nicely to the issues surrounding the trade today. In eighty-eight pages she manages to convey a wealth of background information that left me wanting to find out more.

I was very impressed with how detailed the research was, yet the
book was easy to read and kept a sense of momentum right from the
start. I got a vivid impression of Wells’ passion for the subject, and
how relevant the issues raised are for today. I found that there was a
nice balance between statistics, such as in chapter 4 where we learn
how much of the world’s cotton supply each of the main competitors has,
or in chapter 2 where the explosive growth of the cotton trade due to
the Industrial Revolution is outlined; and narrative. I was
particularly intrigued by the development of the t-shirt from its
origins to today’s wardrobe staple, but equally fascinated by, for
example, Charles Ball’s account of slavery in the late eighteenth
century. Another section that I must highlight is also in chapter 2,
when Wells details the role of the East India Company in the
colonization of India. I actually felt slightly sickened at this point,
because it seemed to me to foreshadow the power of the corporation in
the world today. I do not know if this was intentional or not, although
I suspect so, and I do believe that it is an important point to make.

   
T-shirt is not a book for those wishing to do serious or extensive
research into the issues highlighted, such as slavery or exploitation
or the history of cotton; but then, it doesn’t pretend to be. It is,
however, a book that should be used frequently to start discussions, to
raise awareness of the issues facing workers in the garment industry
today, to remind people of the consequences of their shopping choices,
to promote the fair trade movement, and I could go on and on. I know
that I frequently read parts aloud to my husband, and that he was
almost as engaged in it as I was. T-shirt is also an excellent resource
if you need a quick fact, or to loan or give to a friend to start them
thinking.

    T-shirt  is excellent value for money. Although
it is a small book, this is actually one of its virtues as it means it
is easy to loan around and makes it more likely that people will take
the time to read it. The text is broken up by boxes containing
statistics, facts or ‘bonuses’, such as the account by Charles Ball
mentioned above, and this also makes the book less intimidating than it
might have been, without interrupting the flow and pace of the writing.
I highly recommend it to anyone with even the vaguest interest in the
subject.

Rebecca Brown

5 June
2009

World
Environment Day (WED), 5
June, 2009, is an initiative aimed towards building worldwide awareness
of environmental issues and climate change and is a principle vehicle
for the United Nations to enhance political attention and action

(http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english/). This year’s WED slogan is
‘Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate change’
which reflects the urgent need for an internationally binding policy
on climate change. Although a significant part of the fight against
climate change is the implementation of an international policy, it
also requires individual and corporate actions.

As part of Article 13’s
ongoing commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) commitment, and
specifically our efforts to support the environment and climate change,
we robustly monitor our own environmental impact, as well as show advocacy
and support for its protection. Below are examples of our actions, reporting
and review measures:

• We conduct a monthly audit
  of our usage of paper, electricity, and fuel, seeking to improve our
  impact on the environment. We believe that these small actions contribute
  a positive impact and are in keeping with our corporate sustainability
  and responsibility status.
• Secondly, we volunteer members
  of our in-house team for conservation work, as part of our efforts towards
  the protection and management of environmental resources.
• Thirdly, we create awareness
  and highlight the latest information on environmental technologies,
  policies and conferences through regular advocacy and information dissemination.
• See our UNGC pages for our latest actions and 2009 KPIs

   (http://www.article13.com/csr/ungc_iip_values.asp).

A small selection of
Article 13 resources includes:

• Article
  13 Climate Change Resource centre: http://www.article13.com/csr/climate-change-cont.asp
• Article 13 environmental case
  studies:
• Aviva – reducing and offsetting
  carbon emissions http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1376
• 3M – Development of a life
  cycle management approach http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1312

For information on how
Article 13 can assist you in auditing your company’s practices, developing
environmental action plans, and reducing your business related environmental
impacts, contact Fiona Banyard on 020 8840 4450 or email fionab@article13.com

Money Matters

Putting the Eco into Economics

- global crisis and local solutions

David Boyle

28th May 2009

Published by Alastair Sawday Publishing

Visitwww.sawdays.co.uk to buy a copy

£7.99• Paperback •  ISBN 9781-906136-20-8

From
hedge funds to hyperinflation, credit cards to credit crunch, David
Boyle’s new book demystifies the economic system that has us all caught
in its tentacles. 

Now,
more than ever before, we are worrying about money.  With our
mortgages, savings, credit card bills, loans and pensions, we are all
implicated in a system that operates ostensibly in our name.  But for
something we all use so much of, money is extraordinarily elusive; it
is coins and it is debt, it is a plastic debit card and it is infinite
numbers of bytes in cyberspace.  But where has all the money gone?

Money Matters is
essential reading for anyone who feels in the dark about the economic
situation.  It will brief you for the current financial debate and will
make you look at everything from your bank statement to the coins in
your pocket in a whole new way.

The
book covers the origin of money, the banking system, the stock markets,
trading, the global flow of e-money, debt, mortgages, interest, tax,
pensions, the global currency of oil, forgery, great crashes of the
past, the dot.com
explosion, the credit crunch of 2007 and the 2008 crash, and the
emerging ways to trade in the future, such as Ethical Banking, Local
Exchange Currencies, the Transition Town Movement, and sustainable
finance.

David Boyle has
written widely about money from a green and ethical perspective.  He is
a fellow of the New Economics foundation and editor of their newspaper,
Radical Economics.  His books include Why London needs its own Currency (2000), Virtual Currencies (2001), The Money Changers (2002) and The Little Money Book (2003).