Beat the crowds, go green and get it ALL in just one gorgeous online place

With the crowds abandoning the High Street for the comfort of online shopping, there’s still the issue of visiting several different stores to get everything you need for Christmas gifts for friends, family and colleagues. There is a great – and green – solution now, with online ethical store Get Ethical www.getethical.com

Not only will this department store style shopping site sort out every gift from grandma to the bin men, every single item on the site is guaranteed ethical, eco-friendly or environmentally friendly – meaning it won’t cost your wallet OR the planet! Increasingly shoppers are turning more and more towards sustainably and conscientiously produced products for gifts and everyday use and online shopping is increasing in popularity.

Get Ethical is newly partnered and run by longstanding online organisation Ethical Junction. Get Ethical is one of the longest running ethical stores, originally started in 2001 by The Big Issue as an impartial portal to the world of online ethical merchandise, and now crucially featuring only Ethical Junction members’ products and services, in a bid to be the most comprehensive, ethical shopping place in the whole of cyberspace.

Easy to navigate, Get Ethical is divided into “departments”, including fashion, beauty, home, health, children’s, stationery, garden, food & drink, jewellery, gadgets and books. Top ethical companies you can buy from on the site include Arabella Miller, Beauty Naturals, Red Robot Clothing, buyOrganics, Boutiko, EcoGadgets, Ethical Babe, The Recycle Warehouse, Hatti Trading, Jungle Berry, the Chocolate Truffle Co, Energise Your Life, Monkey Drum, Chicken Bus and the Visionary Soap Company.

Says Tom Barnett of Ethical Junction, “All the vendors on the Get Ethical site are screened and regularly reviewed by Ethical Junction, meaning that buyers on the site can be assured of 100% eco-friendly, ethical purchases, whatever category they are shopping from.”

Get Ethical – get relaxed and go eco!

UK has unique opportunity to develop world class marine legislation

BWEA, UK’s wind, wave and tidal association, today welcomed the inclusion of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill into the Queen’s Speech, but cautioned that renewable energy interests must be protected in final legislation.

The Bill promises greater confidence and economic benefits for marine developers through simplification of the legislative framework. It should help balance the interest of all the users of the marine environment, from conservation to renewable energy by promoting sustainable development.

Maria McCaffery MBE, Chief Executive of the BWEA: “The Marine and Coastal Access Bill is a pioneering piece of legislation, but we must ensure that it allows for the expansion of marine renewable energy, including offshore wind, wave and tidal.”

While BWEA recognises the scope and ambition of the Government’s long awaited Marine Bill, it has also raised 4 issues:
the timetable of the Bill must be complementary with the Round 3 offshore wind energy delivery process; the Marine Management Organisation must be fit for the purpose: well resourced and with sustainable development clearly defined within its remit; Marine Policy Statements must explicitly include renewable energy targets.

The new network of Marine Conservation Zones should be designated by the new MMO, as is proposed in the legislation being considered in Scotland. The designation process must consider the impact on all future use in terms of renewable energy developments.

“The Marine and Coastal Access Bill has been long time coming. We will be the first country in the world to have such legislation. We must get it right,” added McCaffery. “It would be a pyrrhic victory if short term conservation undermined long term sustainability and our ability to tackle climate change”.

Also of interest to the renewables sector was the Education and Skills Bill, particularly the provisions to create a new National Apprenticeships Service and secure a demand-led adult skills system, driven by learners and employers. The industry hopes the Bill will help alleviate skills shortages in the renewable energy sector.

This week two groundbreaking Brits will start their attempt to break a new speed record in the most advanced wind powered vehicle ever produced.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity MD, and engineer, Richard Jenkins, will attempt to break the 116.7mph land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle (WPV), held currently by an American team, on Australia’s Lake Lefroy.

The Greenbird is a highly-evolved vehicle that uses a combination of technology found ordinarily on Aircraft and Formula 1 cars to achieve staggering speeds- with no engine in sight.

The chosen name is a nod to Donald Campbell’s all-conquering Bluebird, The Bluebird achieved incredible speeds in a golden age of fossil fuels – when oil was cheap and no one had thought that one day it would run out. Fast forward to today and we are coming to the end of the age of fossil fuels and the dawn of the age of Renewables. The Greenbird symbolises this historical watershed better than anything else.

“Cars of the future won’t be running on fossil fuels they will be running on Renewable sources of energy like the Wind. And with today’s technology we can achieve incredible speeds, using only wind power” said Dale Vince.  

Vince became involved in the Greenbird project as a result of his dedication to wind-generated technology – his pioneering power company Ecotricity introduced the concept of green electricity to the world, and has been building wind turbines and selling green electricity across the country since 1996. Ecotricity now supplies 35,000 homes across the UK.

The company also directly reinvests money that customers spend into new forms of clean power. Over the last four years Ecotricity has spent an average of £460 per customer, per year, on building and developing new renewable energy sources.

The Greenbird craft is a culmination of 10 years hard work, thousands of man hours and 5 prototype vehicles. For any powered speed record, the basic principles are pretty straightforward: more power means more speed and it is really only a factor of budget, engine size and guts to raise the record.

The Greenbird team saw no challenge in that. “We wanted to develop a purely technical solution that would deliver ultimate performance from a free and available resource – the wind. After 10 years I now have the right vehicle, in the right part of the world with the right team in support. We now just need the weather to cooperate!” said Richard Jenkins.

Dale Vince and Richard Jenkins will be blogging from the outback in the run up to the attempt. Sign up to RRS feeds and follow the team’s progress at the Greenbird website

Fishing Experts Fish4Ever and Marine Connection Join Call for Supermarkets to Add Sustainable Fish to Canned Range

Fish4Ever, the UK’s leading sustainability experts for canned fish, welcomes Greenpeace’s ranking of the major canned tuna brands and urges supermarkets to now address the issue comprehensively.

Fish4Ever has banned FAD’s and all other damaging fishing methods from all its fish from the very beginning and welcomes the recent increased interest in this issue.

Fish4Ever Founder Charles Redfern says: "Up until recently it’s as if the supermarkets commitment to sustainability didn’t stretch to the canned fish counter. We were the only ones to address the issue and we’ve been a voice in the wilderness for a long time so we’re really happy that Greenpeace and others have pushed this issue onto the agenda.

Marine Connection fisheries officer, Lissa Goodwin adds: "Eating fish can be a minefield for many people – dolphin friendly stickers are not necessarily helpful as there are many other sea creatures under threat. The only way to be sure that you are not going to be destroying the ocean habitat or risking the lives of sea creatures is to buy sustainable and ethical options. While some supermarkets are becoming proactive on the fresh fish counter it is time they considered the sustainability and ethical practices in their canned fish aisles!"

Fish4Ever’s approach is as comprehensive as possible: Land, Sea and People.  All land ingredients are organically grown. This has important sea consequences too as pollution and run-off of artificial fertilisers causes major problems to sea life. At sea, Fish4Ever supports better-managed seas, avoids the very serious and widespread issue of illegal fishing and only supports highly selective methods and equipment.  

But it’s the "people angle" which really sets the company apart. The fish resource is abused by foreign industrial boats responding to a global industrial demand system that does not take into account the planet or the producer. Fish4Ever wants to see this trend reversed, to link good consumers with good producers and above all to send a message through to everyone in the producing chain saying it’s not just about price, it’s about what you do and how you do it too.

The company has a comprehensive range of canned fish all sourced ethically and sustainably. The new Fish4Ever Fair Fish Skipjack tuna from the Maldives provides a 10% premium to ensure local communities are not exploited. Skipjack is the biggest fish consumption in the UK, it’s more than 50% of the canned fish market and accounts for a massive 20% in weight terms of all fish consumed! See attached brochure for further information about the hidden cost of tuna!

A hard copy of The Hidden Cost of Tuna is available from the company – contact Marketing Manager Tracy Wright on 01189238763 or email tracy@organico.co.uk and on www.fish4ever.co.uk

Fish4Ever is currently applying for accreditation from the Fair Trade Association.

Marine Connection is a British charity supporting dolphins, porpoises and other sea creatures. See www.marineconnection.org