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.

The Honda Insight, a new family-sized hybrid that is already providing stiff competition for the ubiquitous Toyota Prius, has been named Green Car of the Year 2009 by the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).

The least green car was found to be the 8-litre Dodge SRT-10 sports car. A year’s driving in the Dodge emits the same amount of CO2 as is absorbed by 322 mature trees – the equivalent of an acre of oak forest. *

The ETA examined over 1300 models of car currently on sale in Britain and compared their power, emissions, fuel efficiency and even the amount of noise they produce to create a definitive guide to buying the greenest vehicle.

A fully searchable database of the results and full details on each car will be published at www.greencarawards.co.uk on Wednesday 17th June 2009.

Green Transport Week is (13th – 21st June 2009)

Best and worst by category (C02 g/km)

Greenest car overall: HONDA Insight 1.3 IMA ES (101g/km)
Worst(least green) car overall: Dodge SRT-10 (488g/km)
Large Family – best: BMW 3 Series 320d with particulate filter (144g/km)
Large Family – worst : BMW M3 (309g/km)
Supermini        - best: TOYOTA Yaris 1.4 D-4-D 6-speed (109g/km)
Supermini        - worst: RENAULT Clio Renault Sport 200 (195g/km)
Small Family – best: Honda Insight 1.3 IMA ES   (101g/km)
Small Family – worst: VOLKSWAGEN Golf R32 4MOTION (255g/km)
City – best:  TOYOTA iQ 1.0 VVT-i (99g/km)
City – worst:  FORD Ka, Post 2006 1.6 Duratec Sportka (182g/km)
Sports – best: VAUXHALL Tigra 1.3CDTi 16v (124g/km)
Sports – worst: Dodge SRT-10 (488g/km)
MPV – best: S-Max 1.8 Duratorq TDCi (164g/km)
MPV – worst: MERCEDES R-Class R63 AMG (387g/km)
Small MPV        - best: RENAULT Modus 1.5 dCi 86 Quickshift 5 (119g/km)
Small MPV        - worst: MERCEDES Viano 3.5 (284g/km)
Executive – best:       BMW 5 Series 520d saloon with particulate filter (136g/km)Executive – worst:    CADILLAC CTS-V (350g/km)
Off road        - best: SUBARU Outback AWD (153g/km)
Off road        - worst: CADILLAC Escalade 6.2 V8 (383g/km)
Luxury – best: JAGUAR XJ 2.7L Diesel Saloon (209g/km)
Luxury – worst: Bentley Brooklands Coupé (465g/km)

Andrew Davis, director at the Environmental Transport Association,
said: “The discrepancy between the greenest and the least green cars
in Britain today is striking, but the market is changing and a combination
of consumer pressure alongside government leadership will result in
an increasing choice of environmentally-sound cars.”

“The big problem is not the Dodge SRT-10s and Lamborghinis because
there are not many of them on the road,” explains Andrew Davis, director
of the ETA.  ”The concern is that people are continuing to buy cars
that are much too big for their real needs. “

The popularity of large 4×4s like the Porsche Cayenne, which is many
times more damaging to the environment than for example a BMW 320d,
winner in the Large Family Car category, is already on the decrease;
a new system of emissions-based road tax means owners of gas guzzlers
pay over £400 per year.

“With the increasing costs of motoring and the threat to the environment
there has never been a more important time to choose greener cars.”

Why do diesels do well in this survey?
Half an hour of sniffing diesel fumes in a busy city street is enough
to induce a “stress response” in the brain, according to scientists
who measured volunteers. The response continued to increase even after
they had stopped breathing the fumes. There is speculation that the
changes in the brain may trigger other body responses to diesel fumes,
such as oxygen deprivation in the heart. Previous studies in rats
have shown that minuscule soot particles can make their way directly
to the brain via nerves in the nose.

There is a popular belief that because of their lower average CO2
emissions, diesels are better for the planet. Unfortunately it appears
that it is people, particularly those in built-up areas that might
be paying the price.

However, the advent of diesel particulate filters (DPF) such as fitted
to some of the category winners heralds a dramatic improvement in
the environmental rating of diesels. DPFs remove all trace of soot
form the exhaust gases.

How many of these cars are eligible for the scrappage scheme?
Many of the most-polluting cars on British roads, and most of the
worst-performing vehicles in this guide, are  signed up for the
government’s scrappage scheme, an initiative described as ‘green’
because it aims
to replace older vehicles with new, fuel-efficient models. In theory
it means someone who scraps a 1999 Volkswagen Lupo TDi 3L, (81g CO2/km)
and buys a 2009 Bentley Arnage (465g CO2/km) would receive a £1,000
taxpayer-funded payment. The Bentley produces over 5 times as much
CO2 as the smaller car.

The
online, certified organic lifestyle store, So Organic, is running some
fantastic offers on Essential Care products this summer.
For every full size Essential Care facial skin care
product you receive a 30ml Essential Care toner worth £7 FREE.

The OFFERS

Receive
a FREE 30ml
Rose Petal Tonic when you buy a: 

• 150ml Coconut Cleanser
• 50ml Avocado
  Replenishing Cream
• 30ml Superfruit Concentrate
• 100ml Rose Petal
  Tonic

Receive
a FREE 30ml Citric Fruit Tonic
when you buy a:

• 150ml
  Lemon &
  Tea Tree Face Wash
• 75ml First Aid Lotion
• 100ml Citrus Fruit
  Tonic

 Receive
a FREE 30ml Rose Petal Tonic or Citric Fruit Tonic
when you buy a 50ml Rose Moisturiser.

Why
would you like to take So Organic up on this fabulous offer? Essential Care
was the
first skin care range to be awarded the Soil Association’s organic beauty tick
of approval so they know their stuff. Despite their growing popularity Essential Care still produce their
products by hand using formulations that are particularly good for the most super
sensitive skin types. Organic herbs, plant oils and other natural active
ingredients are used to create these very effective products. None of the Essential Care products are tested
on animals and most are suitable for Vegans.

These
offers are only available at So Organic while stocks so hurry
if you’d like one of these gorgeous organic products! 

About So Organic

With
over 2000 products, and of the 50 best organic brands available, So Organic
provide a comprehensive range of quality organic products and award winning
service. The leading organic lifestyle store’s own brand range was recently a
finalist in ‘Top Organic Retailers’
in the 2009 UK Natural and Organic Industry Awards and was Highly Commended in
the 2009 Natural Health Beauty Awards. You can buy online at SoOrganic.com, in the So Organic
Greenwich store or via a freephone telephone number (0800 169 2579). So
Organic’s courier delivery service is carbon neutral, everything comes in
either recycled or compostable packaging and all the gift boxes are fairtrade.

The date for this year is Sunday 5 October from 10am – 5pm. in the Market Hall, Abergavenny. We have backing from Fairtrade Wales as well as local businesses and Abergavenny Council. There will be plenty of local and regional press coverage as well as BBC Wales.

Last year saw a huge attendance and we will increase this year. Stalls last year included – Love Zimbabwe, Goodies from the Gambia, Bag- Age, Bryn – y – Cwm project, Smouldering Sage,Biltong 2 U,Tropical Forest, Fairtrade Abergavenny & Crickhowell, Tools for self reliance, VSO, etc.

We also had fantastic catering from Scrumptious catering and Taste Zimbabwe. We will be having the Fairtrade fashion show again and the drumming workshop from Dave Roberts. Also, hopefully the amazing Chrys Blanchard and Abercapella. We have a school group performing African Dance and hope to be bringing over from Zimbabwe Sam Mtukudzi son of Oliver (Tuku) the most well known Zimbabwean artiste.

There will be a childrens area this year with face painting and a bouncy castle. Music and entertainment will be going on all day and there will be lots more to announce as we get nearer to the date. I realise that it is still relatively early, but it would help us enourmously if those who are interested in taking a stall this year could let me know as soon as possible. Looking forward to seeing you all in October.

Kind Regards,
David and Martha Holman.

Email: fairsfairfairs@mail2world.com
Telephone: 07879400897 / 07774608215 / 01873854055