Responding to frequent requests from visitors asking what are the favourite educational games, toys and puzzles on www.keen2learn.co.uk. they have published a new monthly list of the top ten games. They change a round a bit as new products are released and classes in school move onto a new part of the curriculum. The list is a measure of all sales and includes what both teachers and parents are buying to support the National Curriculum.

1.    Crystal Rain Forest: This firm favourite uses maths skills and logo programming language to help save the planet. A firm favourite in the class and now available to also play at home.

2.    Alphabet frieze: One for the early learners this great wall frieze is the ideal decoration for the classroom and bedroom wall.

3.    Spelling Board Games. Nobody wants to spell – unless it is part of this popular English games pack.

4.   Bunja: This maths game is based on MP3 technology provides hours of fun and is small enough to fir in a pocket when travelling around.

5.   Feel Good Friends: Parents and teachers have found this game developed to boost the self esteem in children is great fun for anyone to play.

6.   Early Learning Songs: Rhyme and alliteration. Children love playing with words that sound the same. These songs develop their awareness of rhyme and alliteration with repeating words and sounds.

7.   Hand counting puzzle: Learning  to count with this colourful wooden puzzle. Suitable for ages three to five years.

8.    Melody Mix: A great little set. Complete with 10 musical instruments including a xylophone, drum, tubular chimes, triangle, cymbal, bells, maracas, castanet, double guiro, a pair of rhythm sticks, 2 strikers and 1 scraper.

9.    Geopolitical Inflatable Globe: This 24″ Inflatable World Globe includes country capitals, important cities, time zones and important geographic features. Great for school and home use!

10.   Geniass: Revision Game: The unique and exceptional educational revision resource in the form of a board game. It is great fun to play, promotes personalised learning and improves exam grades at Key Stages 3 & 4. Geniass was described in the Times Educational Supplement as an “inspiring game” and was short listed for the Science Museum’s Toy and Game of the Year Award. Parents and teachers alike have described it as a “brilliant idea” that is “fantastic fun”. The best invention since the calculator!

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

The team responsible for Eco Trend Spotter have three aims. These are to provide MoreEco members with;

• Information and reviews on the latest eco, organic, green products becoming available at MoreEco Shops.


• Eco Shopping Buying Guides


• Latest Eco Fashion tips and ideas

If you have a great eco gadget, organic food, or ethical fashion item you wish the Eco Trend Spotter team to talk about, then please send an e-mail to ecoproductreview@moreeco.com or post the item to;

Eco Trend Spotter c/o Sorven Media Ltd

Farncombe House

Broadway Worcs

WR12 7LJ

All product reviews will have;

• A listing on the Eco Trend Spotter and on www.ecotrendspotter.co.uk


• A listing on MoreEco home page


• A dedicated product landing page created detailing which MoreEco shops sell the item. (example)


• A feature on the MoreEco Newsletter

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

Ethical Fashion and Homewares that
don’t cost the earth – Jungle Berry Sale

Ethical retailer Jungle Berry is
running a breathtakingly brilliant spring sale, with loads of
bargains across their exclusive ranges of homewares, rugs, bags and
jewellery.

Sale products include naturally-dyed
rugs, gorgeous clutches, handwoven cushion covers, oil burners and
placemats, as well as fashion jewellery designed by Suzanne Campbell
for Jungle Berry. You won’t find Jungle Berry products anywhere
else!

Beautiful because they’re
beautiful, and beautiful because they’re ethical.

With an extensive product range
designed in the UK and made in Brazil and Mexico, Jungle Berry’s
philosophy centres on the idea that fair trade products should be
intrinsically desirable, not just because they’re associated with a
good cause, but because they’re stylish and beautiful.

A Berry Good Idea

Founded in 2004, Jungle Berry works in
partnership with indigenous cooperatives in the heart of the Amazon
rainforest and southern Mexico to create sustainable livelihoods for
local people by making fair trade jewellery, homewares and
accessories.

Jungle Berry has been recognised as a
fair trade importer by the British Association of Fair Trade Shops
(BAFTS) since 2005.

Review by The Green Familia

I was really intrigued when I saw the
Eco Ezee Paint Tray – it seems such a simple idea. We are currently
renovating our house and are going to be doing a lot of painting.
When I have decorated before I’ve always used the traditional
plastic painting tray and roller. I never liked having to wash all
the paint out of the plastic tray when I finished and was impressed
by Eco Ezee’s claim that their tray can be reused without washing
it out! A brilliant idea! So, I gave it a go to see just how well it
works.

Concept: The Eco Ezee Paint Tray
is designed as an alternative to all the plastic and metal trays
currently available. It is made from 100% recycled waste material.
When you have finihsed painting, there is no need to use water to
wash the tray – just wipe out any excess paint and leave to dry. Any
paint left will soak into the tray and dry.

In use: The Eco Ezee tray is
very easy to use – it is just like any other paint tray. The tray
holds paint well and the roller section helps you get a good coverage
of paint on the roller. There is also a very useful little gap at the
end of the roller section which I found perfect for holding
paintbrushes. I thought the tray might become ’soggy’ when I used
it, but I was pleased to see that it held the paint well the whole
time I was using it. Although I could feel the paint soaking into the
tray, I never thought that it would ‘give’ or tear. It always
felt very strong.

The cleverness of the Eco Ezee’s
design really becomes apparent when you have finished painting.
Instead of having to wash the tray out, I wiped out the leftover
paint (if you have a lot of paint left you could pour that into a can
first to use again). Once all the excess paint was gone I just left
the tray to dry! No washing, which saved me time and water. When I
used the tray the next time, the paint had dried into the tray and it
was ready to use again. As the paint soaked into the tray, there is
no flaking or peeling like you get on plastic trays. The tray was
perfect and ready to be reused.

Positives: I loved everything
about this tray – it is made from recycled waste materials, it’s
easy to use, it can be used again and again and it needs no washing.
It will also last a long time. The paint that soaks into the tray
when you have finished using it, helps to make the tray stronger the
more it is used.

Negatives: None at all.

Cost: The Eco Ezee Paint tray
costs about £1.50, depending on where you buy it, which I think is
excellent value for money.

Where can I buy it?: A list of
suppliers is available on the Eco Ezee website, in the Where to Buy
Section. As well as being sold at Travis Perkins, the tray can also
be purchased from several online suppliers such as Ecotopia and My
Little Eco.

Verdict: 5/5 – a very clever
product.

Young artists from around the world are lending their support to global efforts to combat climate change through Paint for the Planet. London will be displaying the top 10 winning posters at the 3rd annual Green Awards for recognising creativity in promoting sustainability.

Launched in October, the Paint for the Planet website features a selection of stand-out entries from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Children’s Painting Competition.

Showcasing children’s fears and hopes for the planet, the paintings are a powerful plea from children for leadership on climate change before it is too late.

Paint for the Planet will be the launch pad for the ‘UNite to Combat Climate Change’ campaign to support the call for a definitive agreement at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

Five young artists from Burundi, Colombia, Malta and the United States will go to New York for the event to share their message for the planet with decision makers, corporate leaders and the media.

They will officially open the exhibit at UN Headquarters in New York on 23 October. This is the first time the original artwork – chosen from a collection of nearly 200,000 paintings – has ever been displayed.

On 25 October, a selection of paintings will be auctioned at the Harvard Club of New York City to raise emergency funds for children affected by climate-related disasters. The proceeds will be donated to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

In addition to the live auction, the art will also be sold online on eBay.com in partnership with LiveAuctioneers to enable people around the world to participate. Pre-bidding for the auctioned paintings will also shortly be available on eBay, liveauctioneers.com and www.unep.org/paint4planet.

On the 12th of November The 3rd Green Awards for Recognising Creativity in Promoting Sustainability, London will be displaying the top 10 winning posters at reception to be held at The Brewery prior to the awards ceremony.

Kaveh Zahedi,Climate Change Coordinator , United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) responsible for directing UNEP’s climate change strategy and programme will be delivering a speach to 600 guests alongside Baroness Peta Buscombe from the Advertising Association and Simon Counsel, Chair, Friends of the Earth.

Get 45% off Tracey Smith’s The Book of Rubbish Ideas through Sustained magazine

Offer ends 31 October so grab that ideal Christmas gift now!

The Book of Rubbish Ideas
By Tracey Smith

The Book of Rubbish Ideas, or BORI as it’s becoming affectionately known by some, is beautifully written, fabulously illustrated by the wonderful Felix Bennett (think Quentin Blake) and is very well put together by the publisher. Tracey calls on her vast experience of living the green life, and on her many friends, some famous greens and some not so famous, to offer just about every kind of tip you could ever need for de-cluttering your life and reducing the devasting amount of rubbish that we Britons produce. She walks you efficiently yet humorously through the home making the task of de-cluttering and becoming rubbish-free something that can be done in achievable stages. 

To get 45% off your copy, or copies as this would make an ideal gift, just visit the Sustained website to find out how. By my reckoning that means a copy should cost just £3.85 – bargain!

Ariel has announced the launch of a brand new initiative to donate 80 million litres of safe drinking water to children in developing nations. Working in partnership with the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme and Five and Alive, Ariel will donate 10 litres of safe drinking water for every special promotional pack purchased in the UK from 1 May – the equivalent to a week’s supply of drinking water for a small child in the developing world[1]

The new initiative builds on the success of the Ariel 2006/2007 ‘Turn to 30°’ campaign, which helped to inspire the country to do their bit for the planet and live more sustainably. Working together with Energy Saving Trust, Ariel helped UK households to wash in lower temperatures. The result has been 8 times more loads at 30 degrees to save up to 40% more energy[2].  Now Ariel plans to protect and provide precious water. 

Respected British actress and mother Joely Richardson is supporting the campaign to inspire the British public to help get safe drinking water to families in countries that need it most. Having witnessed first hand the life-saving efforts of the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme in Malawi, Ms Richardson will help to educate people on how their support of the Ariel campaign can truly make a difference abroad. 

Since its launch in 2003, Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme has provided 1 billion litres of clean drinking water for children and their families in need around the world. It has provided clean drinking water to people in 30 developing nations with the introduction of the PUR^TM purifier of water.  Since 2004, Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme has supported Five and Alive’s programmes with an annual contribution of $1.4 million dollars to help further programmes such as distribution of PUR^TM to orphanages in Uganda, school programme in Kenya, clinic programmes and emergency relief response network for Latin America. 

In 2007, the Programme received the Ron Brown US Presidential Award for Corporate Citizenship, the United Nations Association Global Leadership Award, the Grainger Challenge Bronze Award for Sustainability, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Children’s Health Excellence Award. 

Five and Alive is a programme of Population Services International (PSI) – a leading global health organisation. Five and Alive reaches children five and under to prevent and treat malaria, water-borne illness, pneumonia and malnutrition by providing children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries.

In 2006, PSI’s Five and Alive programme treated over 8.6 billion litres of drinking water, averting 4.1 million cases of water borne illness and saving lives of 6000 children through its safe water programmes alone. 

P&G and Five and Alive have been in partnership for the last three years with the goal of providing safe drinking water in the developing world through household water treatment using P&G’s PUR^TM Purifier of Water. P&G and Five and Alive work together to provide safe drinking water with PUR^TM in Uganda, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Malawi, Haiti, Pakistan, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.

Ariel’s safe drinking water donation will be supplied to the countries using PUR^TM technology – sachets of a powder that cleans and purifies water to World Health Organisation standards for safe drinking water, importantly reducing diarrheal illness. Each 4g sachet can purify 10 litres of water, with the campaign aiming to donate a total of 80 million litres of safe drinking water to children in developing nations. 

Greg Allgood, Director of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme, said: "The campaign comes at an important time, with one billion people in many developing countries unable to have access to safe drinking water. With no running water, these families have no choice but to drink from contaminated rivers and streams which leads to more than 4,000 children dying unnecessarily every day[3]. With the British public’s help, we can continue to expand efforts and provide immediate relief to families in crisis in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. The power to make a real difference is within our reach."
 
British Actress, Joely Richardson, calls on the British public to get behind the initiative: "I’ve just come back from a trip to Malawi where I saw first hand how the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme and Five and Alive are saving lives. At home we take it for granted that we have clean drinking water literally on tap and it’s staggering that so many countries still don’t have this privilege.  Thankfully there is something we can all do here that can improve the lives of millions of children." 

The initiative will be in UK stores nationwide from 1 May until 30 September 2008. It forms part of the ‘Be Water Wise with Ariel’ 2008 campaign which aims to raise awareness of the importance of water in our day to day lives, both in the UK and abroad. As part of its commitment to sustainability, Ariel is working in partnership with Waterwise, the UK’s leading authority in water efficiency, to encourage the British public to make small changes in the home that can help to protect one of the world’s most precious resources. 

For water saving tips and advice visit www.ariel.co.uk/water. 

[1] Based on approximately 1.5 litres of drinking water per small child for one day.

[2] Research by IPC has shown that UK consumers are already getting the ‘turn to 30′ message with 8 times more loads now being washed at 30 degrees (from 2% in 2002 to 17% in 2007).

[3] Source – World Health Organisation.