Helping towards Plan A

Eco Ezee are pleased to announce the successful roll out of an innovative new shoe box designed for  Marks and Spencer. The shoe boxes have been developed using Eco Ezee’s design and pulp manufacturing expertise supporting M&S’s desire to save on its use of raw materials in its product packaging. This is a significant part of its Plan A commitment to make it the world’s most sustainable major retailer.

The new packaging, when completely rolled out, will consume an estimated 1500 tonnes of recycled material every year producing approximately 10 million shoe boxes. Initially 1.5 million boxes will be produced for its womens shoe range autumn 2011.

Eco Ezee are proud and delighted to be a key component in helping Marks and Spencer reach some of its Plan A initiative ambitions of reducing the company’s carbon footprint and reducing waste to landfill,
as well as providing them with huge cost and time savings.

The new shoe box roll out was first announced in the Business Section of the Sunday Times, 24th April 2011, featuring an article about our company MD Natalie Barnwell. The article detailed the rise of the company from its early beginings with the Ezee Paint Tray, through the additions of its professional quality and sustainable Paint Brush and decorating tools range and the development of the packaging for
M&S.

Congratulations Natalie!!

Eco Ezee Limited is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Nu-Heat was delighted to achieve a win at the inaugural Exeter Business Awards at Sandy Park, home to the Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club. There were eight categories, including Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Innovation of the Year. Nu-Heat was entered for the Small Business of the Year (for businesses with up to 200 employees that have increased their potential over the last financial year, taking into account innovative products, services and processes as well as expansion into new markets and looking at the ‘personality’ of the business).

Dragon’s Den personality Deborah Meaden was Guest of Honour, and spoke about how businesses in the South West have to work harder to be successful as customers are not always on the doorstep as they are in London.. Deborah also asked for support for the South West Child’s Voice Appeal, for which she is currently Chairperson.

There were 11 shortlisted in our category, including Otter Brewery (who did win the Environmental Award) and the South West Children’s Hospice. We were thrilled to receive the award, and to learn that the judges had been unanimous in their choice. Director Adrian Troop said it was great to receive such an acknowledgement.

We shared a table with the Jack in the Green who won Best Tourism/Hospitality Business Award and Flybe, who won Business of the Year. A victorious evening for Table 10!

Nu-Heat is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Teaching resources in our school science class can explain how fossil fuels are produced during  biology, geography and physics lessons. This abundant natural production facility has just one flaw. It cannot keep up with demand. Thus we won’t run out totally but there’s a catch. There will be a slight delay of several million years whilst the next batch of oil is produced.

Whether you agree with the greenhouse effect;  pollution from fossil fuel emissions, political unrest or corruption from third world suppliers, the effect of oil on our lives is colossal. But there is a key feature which should accelerate the swing to renewable energy education. The cost of oil will rise. How much  depends on many factors, dwindling accessible stocks, currency exchange rates, inflation, profitability of oil suppliers, political unrest,  supply route interruptions, cross border transport – all have their two penny worth in the end user price. And and lets leave taxes out on this one because as oil disappears governments would find an alternative source of tax income.

The International Energy Agency’s  World Energy Outlook Report said in 2008 that estimates of remaining proven reserves of oil and natural gas lie between 1.2 to 1.3 trillion barrels, enough to last 40 years at the current consumption rates. Half a lifetime away maybe but  a desperately short period to complete a universal switch over to other energy sources in time. A couple of changes in government, natural human complacency and reluctance to change, and 15 years could easily slip by.  Then with only 25 years left panic measures could set in. Protectionism, hoarding and price hikes that would even outshine banker’s bonuses would emerge. Significant investment is required in university research programmes to assess viable alternatives.

Children in school need to understand the implications  to motivate a progressive swing into science and technology. It will inevitably be up to them to develop the future generations of efficient renewable energy technology. But research should not stop at producing green energy but equally how we use it. Sustainability is equally crucial. Recycling, reuse and upgradability need consideration. We should not be dumping PC and laptops to gain greater performance but be able to pay for component upgrade exchange. Maybe we should be forced to keep electronic goods for 10 years before being able to replace them  or pay a thumping great levy.

Keen 2 Learn is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

The inaugural People and Environment Achievement Awards (PEA awards) have extended the
date for completed nominations to 14 January 2011 due to increased interest from all sectors
of the green and environmental arena.

As the awards gather pace, the organizers have also just announced that they will be planting a
tree for every entry received with charity partner Project Green Hands, as well as signing up
new partner Green & Blacks, whose co-founder Josephine Fairley is one of the judges.

With the nomination date extended to take account of the Christmas period and renewed
interest in the New Year, the awards event on 2nd March 2011 will see all ten category winners
rewarded with an individual prize each including a £5,000 watch, organic wine hampers and a
luxury treatment package.

Launched to celebrate practical, engaging initiatives taking place in response to sustainability
challenges, the PEA Awards are open to individuals or groups who have made a difference in
the community, or shown inspiration, innovation and perseverance in their various sectors.
The PEA Awards are being launched by the publishers of the quarterly publication GREEN, in
conjunction with Evergreen Events and are also sponsored by World Energy Research, Isklar,
Kyocera and Aquados Simply, Birds Eye and Gigaset.

PEA Award judges include GREEN’s Editor and Chair of the judging panel, Tony Juniper along
with Josephine Fairley, co-founder of Green and Blacks; Richard Hammond, founder of
greentraveller.co.uk; Rebecca Hill, international marketing director of National Geographic; Leo
Johnson, co-Founder of Sustainable Finance and organic entrepreneur Jo Wood.

Enter online or download a form from www.peaawards.com

Other supporters and partners include: Luscombe, Arjowiggins, Gina Conway, Book of Green,
Eco Connect, daisygreenmagazine.co.uk, Ethical Junction and Eurydice PR, Cad & The Dandy
and the Soil Association.

Who are we?

Alex, Ed, Sam, Tom and Lauren. Hi.

Between us we’ve explored every continent, and done almost every adventure sport on the site. Amongst other things we’ve been conservationists, tour operators, students, football coaches, travel agents, web geeks and waiters.

Now we are better known as the guys at muchbetteradventures.com.

Alex and Ed – Where it all began.

We’ve been climbing, skiing and surfing partners since meeting at university 8 years ago. Regularly we found ourselves in the pub with friends after an epic ride, surf or hike, talking about the next adventure. Where to go? Where should we stay? How can we make it count? Someone always turned out to have great suggestion. What if we collected these ideas in one place? The seed was planted..

It grew during our time on the road, on various stints meandering through China and South-East Asia, North and South America, and much of Europe. We were always on the search for new spots and often volunteering on local conservation and community tourism projects along the way. In between we would be working in various areas of the travel industry, asking awkward questions, piecing it all together and saving up to go away again.

We began to see the huge barriers to market faced by small operators, not for profit community or conservation projects in a travel industry dominated by big marketing budgets, large commissions and green wash.

Finally came the straw that broke the camels back. In late 2008 Alex was volunteering as marketing manager on a community tourism project trying to provide an alternative to deforestation in the little visited or cared for Chocó region of Ecuador. Meanwhile Ed was in the Alps working for a ski operator and becoming increasingly frustrated with the environmental impact of the industry, and the lack of interest in this from everyone involved.

It was time to put together everything we had learnt and let that seed put down some roots.

We have personally funded this website with our own savings, putting in some big hours at the computer and working part-time alongside. If we can get established, cutting costs and generating business for some of the amazing people and places we have unearthed, who are leading the fight for a sustainable future, then it will be well worth it. If we can encourage others to follow suit then that’s muchbetter still.

So far things are looking good for the project. We’ve just been joined by Sam, back from 6 weeks teaching football in Ghana after graduating with a Bsc in Sustainable Development….he’s one from the mould!

It may have slowed us a bit, but all this work hasn’t stopped us getting out there and living it either. Based in the Alps for much of the year, we’re still skiing, climbing, kayaking and cycling. If we are not having muchbetter adventures, how we can expect other people to?

Plans are already afoot for a global, overland, self-propelled research tour. Who’s joining us?

Why is this ‘muchbetter’?

We are collecting the world’s local adventure travel choices in one place.

When we find them, we invite them to be here for free, so you can get in direct contact with them, read latest reviews from travellers like you, and you both save money on commissions.
That’s why you will find adventure choices you won’t find anywhere else and we can claim to building the ultimate free resource for adventure seekers.

We exclusively support small independent businesses, community run projects, not for profits and charities who can’t normally appear on sites like this.

We make the most ethical choice easy thanks to our independent, unbiased sustainability vetting system. That way we reward commitment to sustainable practice, and incentivise others to follow suit. We even provide the advice and tools to help others get started.

Quench your thirst for adventure and help us build a world where your adventure sports directly support conservation and local communities.

Recommend Somewhere 
Check out our blog
Or join us on Facebook and Twitter

Much Better Adventures is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

This blog highlights 7 things to check before you install a solar hot water system. For those who prefer, theres a video version of the blog.

1.  The most important thing is to have a suitable roof for the collectors (panels). South-facing is idea, but anywhere between south east and south west is ok. 

2.  Is the roof is strong enough?

3.  How we get the pipe work to where the cylinder is.

4. Is there space for the larger cylinder needed by a solar thermal system (or space for a cylinder, if there’s a combi boiler).

5.  Lots of people ask for the cylinder to be sited in the loft – it’s important to check that the floor is strong enough to hold it, and the roof is high enough for it to fit in.

6.  Is the house suitable – will the occupants use enough solar-heated water to make it viable? If the house has electric showers and a dishwasher, it often has a low hot water consumption and it’s not suitable.

7. Holiday homes, or homes where there are long gaps where residents are absent, are not suitable.  

About the author: First published on the YouGen blog. Gabriel Wondrausch is founder and director of SunGift Solar, which installs solar thermal and other renewable energy systems in the South West of England.

YouGen is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Schumacher College has joined with RESET and the UK’s foremost experts in the design and construction of living roofs and walls to present a course this November.

Dusty Gedge has been a campaigner and professional designer and consultant of green roofs for over a decade, and has been invited worldwide to speak on green roofs as ecological habitats and landscapes. He was instrumental in developing and writing UK policy on living roofs, to the extent that London now has a distinct green roof policy and other cities and areas in the UK are developing similar approaches to encourage the uptake of green roofs. He is President of the European Federation of Green Roof Associations and lives in south London.

Gary Grant is a chartered environmentalist and ecologist with 30 years’ experience involving several hundred projects of ecological survey and assessment, biodiversity action planning, habitat creation, wetland restoration, regional planning, green infrastructure planning and site design and management. He designed his first green roof in 1992 and is an expert on green roofs and living walls, is a contributor to the London Plan Policy on Living Roofs and Walls and to the Green Roof Guidance for Greater Manchester. Projects have included the Westfield living wall, London 2012 Olympic Park, the Natural History Museum Wildlife Garden, the South East Wales Networked Environmental Region, Bedford River Valley Park Framework, Deep Bay Link in Hong Kong, Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and Education City in Qatar. Gary lives in Devon with his wife and two daughters.

John Little John has always loved plants and what they can do for people. In 1995 he built his own green roof home. This was the catalyst for a career change and in 1998 John founded the Grass Roof Company. He has since designed and built over 40 small green roof buildings in Thurrock, South Essex, often combining the living roofs with habitat walls. John also looks after the green space in several local schools and the Clapton Park Estate, Hackney, East London and in 2007 was awarded Silver Gilt at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the maintenance work they pioneer for the green spaces within social housing, followed by the Sustainable Housing Award in 2008. He now runs workshops on green roof design and construction and with Dusty Gedge is writing a guide to green roofs to be published by Permaculture Publishing. Most recently he launched a range of small green roof shelters based on second hand shipping containers. John lives in Essex with his wife and two children.

This course will look at living roofs and walls, from a macro and a micro perspective, and the role that they can play in the adaptation of our built environment to meet the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation, resource depletion and habitat loss. Participants will develop an in-depth understanding of their design, specification and construction, benefits and challenges, and how they relate to planning for the future.

Information will be provided on the history and design of living roofs and walls, and the creation of locally appropriate wildlife habitats including local ecologies. Participants will also learn about the selection and purchase of suitable plants and substrates to be used on a green roof, as well as a discussion on the availability of materials required for their installation. Part of the course will be devoted to gaining practical experience in their construction, with guidance from the tutor.

By the end of the course, participants will have an overview of the benefits and challenges of green roofs and walls, how they are designed and the practical skills necessary to build your own. Information will be provided on the day in the form of a CD-ROM, the DIY Guide to Small Scale Green Roof Construction. The course is led by the UK’s foremost experts in design and construction of living roofs and walls.

RESET will be issuing certication for this course that could be used to count towards CPD.

For more information, or to book a place, please go to http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/using-living-roofs-and-walls-a-macro-and-a-micro-perspective

Schumacher College, Dartington is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Do you promote car-sharing to your staff? Is it an option which is viewed as positively as commuting by bus or train? Because it may surprise you to know that, if a car is full, it is actually more sustainable than public transport!  

So if you’ve not thought about it before – here’s a good reason to do so now. The world’s first ever liftshare Week takes place from 4-8 October. It’s a week when thousands more people will be encouraged and enabled to discover the benefits of car-sharing:

From an environmental point of view, just by sharing with one other person, a driver is cutting the CO2 emissions from that journey by 50% – since one of them is leaving their car at home. As a result, their employers see the company’s carbon footprint drop too.

On a human level, the typical commuter who car-shares every day saves around £800 a year (sometimes considerably over £2,000!) – and reduces their stress levels into the bargain. Not having to drive every day make a real difference: sometimes car-sharers even admit having a snooze while their liftshare buddy drives them home! Car-sharers often report making lasting friendships too. And a member of staff who has driven into work with a friend, saved money and feels less stressed is a happy member of staff: one likely to be productive and stay in their job.

To take part in liftshare Week as an individual, just sign up to the free www.liftshare.com website and search for someone else going your way so that you can share the journey. If one of you doesn’t have their own car, the passenger(s) can just contribute to the driver’s petrol costs. Everyone wins.

To take part as an organisation, why not spread the word by displaying some posters at your office, or giving staff leaflets with more information? You can download them both from www.liftshare.com/business/liftshareweek.asp.

liftshare is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

How can we lower the environmental impact of our economic activity?
What affect is today’s consumerism having on our children?
Best-selling authors Tim Jackson and Ed Mayo lead a thought-provoking new course this autumn.

There is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption in the industrialised world adds little to human happiness – and may even impede it. More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption.

Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment Tim Jackson’s new book, Prosperity Without Growth, tackles these issues head-on, and has been hugely influential in encouraging a radical re-think of economic growth. Tim is teaching on a course at Schumacher College this autumn titled To Buy or Not To Buy: Consumption, Growth and Prosperity that will present his vision of how human society can flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK and previous Chief Executive of the National Consumer Council will also take sessions drawing on research conducted for his recent book, Consumer Kids, which discusses the impact materialism and competitive consumption has on our young people today.
The course is intended for those working in community development, local or national government, education, social enterprise and ethical business, economics students/professionals, and individuals who are concerned about the prevalence of consumerism and would like to understand its economic basis and what constructive alternatives are possible. Why not join in and help redefine the economic system?

The course is now open for bookings and takes place from 4 – 9 October 2010. For more information please go to the Schumacher College Website www.schumachercollege.org.uk or call 01803 865934.

Cold Wind Blowing

It’s my favourite time of year. We took a bumper honey crop at the beginning of August and, despite the wasps, the bees look in good shape. We’ve finished scything the meadow, which was lovely this year, and seeding a couple of new areas. The kitchen staff (surely some mistake – Ed.) are now wrestling with current and impending gluts of courgettes, apples, plums, pumpkins (!), and, more excitingly, usable numbers of quinces, figs, medlars and pears. We’re cleaning the apple press and might even have enough Perry Pears to think about our first vintage. Huge furry new bumblebee queens have started to buzz the sedum and the bats and swallows are zipping about in celebration of a fecund year in the garage. The new pond we made for our course in April has been extraordinary – the latest excitement there has been the arrival of Anax Imperator.

Basking in the late summer sun I should feel content, and looking forward to what I hope will be a busy month as folk start buying seed and ordering bare-root trees. Perhaps I’ve spent too long in front of my computer recently, but instead I feel rather morose. The economic and environmental news over the last few weeks has, let’s face it, been pretty grim, and there’s worse to come. On the other hand, my resolve is also strengthened. Charities have to find new ways to fund themselves. Small businesses and consultants have to find new ways to market, and the internet should be the perfect medium for them. It should also work well to promote localism generally. This is all very much what Habitat Aid is about.

Most people have been incredibly supportive, but there’s a certain residue of suspicion about what we’re doing, which is understandable. My background was in the City (not a good start), and I have no expertise in many of the areas I’m looking at now, I do know people who have. The idea of a business which isn’t driven by financial profit is still a new idea for a lot of folk; I’m often asked questions like “is your blog commercial?”, or at the other end of the spectrum “who is funding you?” I still feel like we are a tiny boat (coracle?) in a pretty vast and stormy sea, but we are making headway I think. Since we started trading in May last year we have had nearly 100,000 page views, which to me sounds like a lot from a standing start.

Meadows Website

We’re launching a microsite about meadows at www.micromeadow.co.uk. To quote the blurb:

The site is intended to encourage folk to establish smaller scale meadows and to provide access to good quality plants and seeds, as well as to reliable information and advice.

Got it? Have a look and let us know what you think.

Lavender

We’re delighted to announce we are working with Downderry Nursery to sell a range of lavenders from the spring. Downderry are regular Gold Medal winners and owner Simon Charlesworth is a committed conservationist. I met him originally at an open day organized by the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at Sussex University, with whom he is working to trial the best bee friendly varieties.

Adverts

We have started to carry adverts on our main site and blog. Not the usual nonsense, but we are being guided by the excellent Digital Spring. Like us, they occupy an interesting spot in the demi-monde between charities and commerce. They have put together a portfolio of ethically vetted conservation related advertisers – binoculars, birding holidays, etc. – whose ads appear on our sites. We make money, they make money – and donate some to a related charity.

Somerset Pride

We’ve signed up to become an associate corporate member of our local Wildlife Trust. It’s a great scheme, and another example of a partnership between charities and corporates where everyone wins.

Fruit Tree Management Courses

This winter we are hosting two one day courses on managing fruit trees, tutored by respected specialist nurseryman Kevin Croucher, owner of Thornhayes Nursery.

About Us 

Habitat Aid aims to persuade and enable folk to at least partly recreate or help replace key habitats like meadows, wetlands, orchards and woodland. The company also helps a small number of charities. We are partly an online retailer selling mostly trees, plants and seeds sourced from really good quality specialized suppliers who often have a limited or no e-commerce operation themselves. Half our profits from sales go to selected partner charities, which are linked to specific products; this doesn’t just help charities financially, but also helps get their key messages across. We also act as a kind of honest broker. We are building a network of consultants in areas like “wildlife garden” and estate design, meadow creation, and wetland and pond projects. We recommend and introduce these folk to end clients and landscape professionals, to give advice or to design and project manage. We then supply the plants for these schemes. Lastly, we are developing products directly with our partner charities. We are working with the ‘Adopt a Beehive’ scheme and BBKA Enterprises to supply native seed mixes for bees, for example.

Habitat Aid Ltd. is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more