How Green Is Your Life

One of the nice things about being home in England is shopping in MARKS AND SPENCERS

2011-12-13T09:38:00.000Z

You have probably heard plenty in recent years about the world’s rapidly expanding movement toward “going green,” which has begun to impact many aspects of our lives. From the development of electronic cars, to increased research toward alternative energy, there are all sorts of changes being made, all with the same common goal of turning the world into a more energy efficient, less wasteful environment. Of course, for this goal to ever be completed, people and companies alike need to recognize the needs at hand and begin to act toward positive change. I've been aware of a lot of GREENWASHING in recent year - corporations jumping on the Green Bandwagon as a way to raise their green image. From talking to friends in those sectors, there are certain companies that are putting their money where their green mouths are. I believe Marks & Spencer – one of the largest stores popular in the UK – has set an example along these lines by implementing a full-scale effort toward becoming the world’s most sustainable retail store by the year 2015.

Marks & Spencer’s plan toward sustainability has been labeled, simply, “Plan A,” (because there is no Plan B) and contains a number of different aspects designed to enhance the “green” nature of the company’s functions. Here is an explanation of the five main strands to the plan :

•    Climate Change – Marks & Spencer is determined to reduce its carbon footprint by lowering emissions. The hope is for the company to be carbon neutral in the UK in another year, as well as to implement the use of renewable electricity.

•    Waste – Marks & Spencer is attempting to limit the number of bags and packages they put out each year by reducing the physical packaging and using recyclable materials – this will, in the long term, decrease waste output.

•    Sustainable Raw Materials – Careful animal welfare will be practiced by the company with regard to the poultry, fish, and general animal-related products sold in the stores. The sources of these animals are to be monitored closely to ensure proper treatment.

•    Fair Partner – This section of “Plan A” relates to the company’s commitment to providing a “new standard in ethical trading,” by buying and selling fair trade products.

•    Health – Marks & Spencer is also making a strong push toward providing healthy options with regard to food and groceries. Harmful food elements like salts and fats are being done away with to the greatest extent possible, and health advisors are being hired. All of this can contribute to generally healthier food options, and, ultimately, healthier dieting habits for customers.

I read a few years ago that since M&S had started charging for plastic carrier bags in their shops, they have saved millions of pounds as the use of those bags was greatly reduced. Customers were bring their own bags. So, as I have always maintained, when a big company sees they save money by being green, that will be the incentive for 'green' action and the sustainability factor will be a by product. Either way the net result is good for all of us and for the planet.

I hope to be blogging more in the new year. There are lots of lovely new design products on the market now, the fashion industry is designing fashion that doesn't look like sackcloth, building greener is always on people's minds with new builds (the homeowners on Grand Designs nearly always incorproate a green/energy saving aspect) and everyone around is working harder to be green....

Have a merry and green Christmas and see you in the new year

Alexandra xx

Have a very merry Christmas

A White (snow) and Green (eco) Christmas!

2010-12-03T08:50:00.014Z

When it comes to eco shopping at Christmas, there is so much choice these days compared to 4 years ago when I started this blog

HERE ARE SOME LOVELY ECO (AND SOMETIMES ETHICAL TOO!) PRESENT IDEAS THAT HAVE COME MY WAY THIS CHRISTMASTIDE...

FROM THE ECO CHIC COLLECTION...

Earrings £76.60

Weekend Bag £150

Also as a special Christmas gift from multi eco award-winning RAPANUI based in the Isle of White,my lovely blog readers can get 10% off any purchase by entering the password "SNOWMAN" at the checkout. SIMPLES!

Gosh! That gorgeous boy can come and dig my garden ANY time ;-)

Eco Living Space in Hong Kong

2010-11-23T22:01:00.005Z

The most amazing use of space!
NUFF SAID!

Is it all GREENWASHING? YOU decide....

2010-10-20T10:24:00.007+01:00

To all my faithful followers, apologies, you will know I've been off the green scene these last few months. I've been very busy with my acting and writing - rent From Paris With Love - nuff said!
One of the other reasons I took a back seat is that it had become increasingly difficult to get enthusiastic about a lot of green talk and products because I felt a lot of big companies were telling how eco/green they were but how were we to tell the difference.

I felt a big green band wagon had been jumped on and wanted to step back from the craziness for a while.
Below is an article based on a survey done that finds out if other people felt the same way...

A few weeks ago, a food distribution software review <http://www.softwareadvice.com/distribution/food-and-beverage-distribution-software-comparison/> site started a survey to ask readers whether or not they care about a company's decision to green its supply chain. Based on the 125 responses they received, the answer is a resounding yes, which ought to be a given. After all, shouldn't everyone want companies to try harder to improve their practices? As some of the readers suggest, the best way to grab these companies' attentions is to vote with your wallet. If they follow through on their environmental promises, reward them with your dollars. If not, well, you know what to do.

The most interesting data comes from the choices voters made regarding which aspect of a green supply chain they care about the most. While it is no surprise that old favorites like reducing fuel emissions and shifting to reusable packaging are important as ever, it is certainly interesting to see that the same people who feel so passionately about these topics care less about a company's ability to police its suppliers. What's more important to you?

You can see the results and participate in the ongoing survey yourself by clicking here

OK. It's Alexandra again:
Keep watching the blog again over the next few months. I plan on designing and building a houseboat. SHHHHHHhhhhhhh..... it's in the very early (drawing board) stages, but be assured it will be as green and eco as can be - solar panels, a wind turbine and all the green trimmings.

I will be posting photos and blogging war stories as I embark (save the puns please!) on the green design adventure of a lifetime! And you will be able to read all about it right here. Check out my first elevation....

In the meantime - stay as green as you can!

My Blog Is Carbon Neutral

2010-02-02T17:17:00.006Z

MY BLOG IS CARBON NEUTRAL is an initiative that started in Germany by the MAKE IT GREEN programme. With their goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, they have offered to plant a tree for every eco blog out there. They have invited HOW GREEN IS YOUR LIFE to participate and I couldn't refuse such a kind offer. Eco Warrioress loves trees!

I have posted their logo on my blog (see on the left) and they will plant a tree for me. How kind ! In so doing they have helped me neutralised my blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years!

HURRAH!

I'm always saying 'every little bit helps' and here is a perfect example of that. Every tree counts!

The Nash Goes Green!!!

2009-07-28T15:08:00.005+01:00

Being a bit of a thesp meself I loved this article I read in the Evening Standard last night.
Had to post it here for you!
         National's energy savings can finance a play every year                                               
The National Theatre is saving enough energy to pay for a production every year after a bold environmental drive.
It has met its target of cutting energy consumption by 20 per cent since 2006 and set itself a 25 per cent figure to hit by December.
The savings have translated into an annual financial dividend of £100,000 - which is equivalent to a new show in the Cottesloe, the smallest of the National's three stages. The success has prompted the theatre to consider a bigger long-term plan. Architecture company Haworth Tompkins has delivered a masterplan which includes environmental measures worth £10million that it says will transform the theatre over the next two to three decades.
They include the National using excess heat on site to generate hot water in a system known as combined heat and power, or CHP. The system would cost £1million but would pay for itself within four years. The savings so far have been made thanks to technology such as movement detectors to trigger lighting in the lavatories, so it switches off when no one is there, and a new extractor fan in the car park. The National also stopped a tradition of switching on certain stage lights three hours before curtain-up because they would not work without time to warm up. It found that modern ones were far more reliable.
Partly thanks to a £500,000 deal with Philips, the theatre has also replaced halogen and tungsten lights with LEDs, which are expensive but last a long time and use relatively little power. 
The National last month won a silver medal from Mayor Boris Johnson at the Green500 awards.

New Old Jewelry

2009-06-30T15:17:00.015+01:00

How about this gorgeous cuff I just treated myself to from Verde Rocks available at Planet Threads.

I love it!!

The "Olympia Cuff" I'm wearing is from... "New "old stock" is the term used for vintage components that were made for the jewelry industry years ago and were not used. These were stored away for decades and never circulated for manufacturing! Such a great idea to use what has already been manufactured -- VerdeRocks rocks the light footprint."

Planet Threads doesn't just do jewelry they have lots of eco designers of women's and men's fashions and accessories, handbags, interiors and kids stuff.

Finally designers are coming up with fashion that is fashionable!! I mean I love retro as much as the next person, but too much of the hippy thing can make the flowers in my hair wilt!!

Goodbye, GM by Michael Moore

2009-06-05T10:50:00.007+01:00

Greenies,
I don't often get political here on How Green Is Your Life but....During the eight unbearable years of the Bush Administration, film maker Michael Moore (Bowling For Columbine, Roger and Me, Fahrenheit 911) was one of the few liberals brave enough to be the tall poppy in a field of bitter left rhetoric that lost the Democrats two elections.
Michael Mooore, along with architect William McDonough, is one of my eco heroes.
Here he is talking about the demise of the American Motor car and what the (potentially bright) future holds for an industry that needs to move with the times...as we all do.... I love some of what he has said here and wanted to post it for those of you not on his email list.

Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore

June 1, 2009

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

The Book Of Green

2009-05-29T13:25:00.008+01:00

My friend Katie at One Green Earth is publishing a fab FREE directory that lists pretty much all the green resources you need from soup to nuts!!

If you have a green or eco business and would like a listing, the deadline is fast approaching, but here's the link

Book of Green is a paperback eco directory that’s given to the consumer for free
UK wide distribution of 30,000 copies plus online flip magazine (with seo & clickable links)
The best of both online & printed media promoting the green marketplace to a wider audience

Watch out for it.
The Book Of Green will be distributed by leading green magazines The Ecologist and Permaculture Magazine, plus available at WH Smith, The Eden Project, CAT, high street eco stores, online eco stores, and at eco shows throughout the summer.

Eco Warrioress says HURRAH!!

Darryl Hannah and Eco Warrioress = BROWN SISTERS!!

2009-03-13T09:20:00.011Z

Further to my GREENWASH rant a few blogs ago, a reader sent me this article from OFF GRID.net about Darryl Hannah who clearly feels my pain...read on...

“I can’t stand the word “green,” says actress and biofuel campaigner Daryl Hannah. And she’s not the only one. All over the environmental movement we’re sick of Greenwash, and we’re not going to take it any more.

“It’s become a pedantic, smug, judgmental word that is unrelated to the rest of one’s life,” she tells The Guardian newspaper. The word ‘green’ “is being so overused as a marketing tool that it has no credibility,” says Hannah.

She is right, of course. Advertising people love the word Green – they have rendered it almost meaningless – reduced it to a mix of lifestyle choices, expensive organic whimsies, unaffordable building codes and ridiculous gadgets such as an over-designed composter for your marble kitchen counter-top.

Their shade of Green is the color of Astroturf – synthetic, ugly and potentially damaging.

Porter Novelli, the global public relations firm, says, “even the tardiest marketers are scrambling to make green attributes and launch new products and services positioned as more responsible alternatives.”

It's time that environmentalists re-appropriated the language of ecology – seized it back from the new army of marketers and consultants who are reassuring us that we can all go “green” while we continue to consume as much as before – grow the economy as much as before, just so long as we do it in a new “green” way.

This time we need something the marketers will never want to appropriate – and that’s why Brown may be the new Green. It’s the color of the Earth, of dirt – it reminds us that things smell as they compost, it reassures us that we do not necessarily need to put on a clean white shirt to go to work. But Madison Avenue does not like stains. Try saying “Brown Huggies.” It will never take off.

The Green Party could change its name to the Brown Party and Greenpeace become Brownpeace.

Hannah is proud of growing her own food (not all of it surely?). But as she says:” We’re in the midst of a massive population explosion, a credit crisis, there’s climate chaos, poverty, unprecedented loss of species, loss of open wild space, resource depletion and growing dead zones and yet we still act slowly, if at all. What’s wrong with us?”

And what would she save, apart from her family and friends, come the floods?

“My critters, seeds, eggs, medicinal spores and worms.”

Brown eggs, I hope, Daryl.

Self Container-ed Housing

2009-03-11T20:48:00.020Z

I just love these dwellings made from recycled shipping containers. Had to share.
From bijou lake houses to shelter for the Third World. Take a look....

I WAAAAHHHNT ONE!!!

Eco - Schmeeco!!!

2008-11-29T09:36:00.021Z

I know I know where the Eco Heck have I been??

Well between you and me I have been a little disillusioned with the eco world I profess to love so well. It started at Christmas when the fabulous and oh-so-eco-stylish Lupe and I met on a dark and rainy Saturday afternoon in Spitalfields to forage for more fab eco stuff that I can share with you.

However

The Eco Design Fair in The Old Truman Brewery was indicative of the increasing amount of gatherings with vendors plying their products as ECO or GREEN. My overwhelming impression was of a bunch of ethnicy-slash-crafty stalls all trying to be green because they are selling 'fairtrade' things. I'd like to make the distinction here and now... Of course buying something from a country where the people making the jewelry and knitted hats are getting a living wage. Brilliant. Won't find fault with that but please don't lure me in with the green thing and then be fair trade for the most part. And the source materials? What are they made of? Do they use huge amounts of energy to produce and then they have to be shipped here. That can add up to a lot of carbon footprint...anyway...

What with that and all the TV ads from supermarkets claiming they keep their prices down because they have low energy light bulbs and recycle their packaging......uummmm...little tenuous in my book...SO.... I have been sidestepping writing my blog for want of something to say that doesn't infer that I'm over the whole thing!!

I'm just asking for a little less GREEN WASHING please!!!??

SO I TOOK A STEP BACK!!
OK. Soap Box rant over...

At the Christmas (eco) fair I did find some fab lampshades made from recycled plastic milk bottles by a very talented lady after my own heart - LIZZIE LEE who says.....

"I first became interested in recycling plastics on a trip to India in 1998, where I saw the effect of plastic water bottles collecting in piles on the streets and plastic bags littering the desert in Rajastan. In India they had beautiful buckets , jugs, plates etc made from recycled stripy plastic and they looked so much more attractive than the plain green or beige ones you could buy in this country. When I returned to university I was determined to find a simple way of recycling plastic waste – primarily plastic bottle tops which were not recycled and went to landfill, and hence my little cottage industry ‘plastikrap’ was born, using an oven and an old bookbinding press."

Please check out her work in Highgate at North and South Ideas Gallery.
The opening is this Thursday March 12th

Lizzie is an inspiration as is Jamie Ward the student designer who makes his pieces from discarded furniture he finds in Manchester where he is still at college!! Wow!!

Check it out!!!

America's First GREEN President!

2008-11-14T17:26:00.039Z

How can I blog after the historical election result of November the 4th and not mention OBAMA THE MAN!! I flew back to LA to vote. No absentee ballot for me!!

Waking up in election day I felt a slight apprehension that we still might not prevail. It seemed such a long time since Barack Obama's speech declaring his intention to run for the presidency, the 'Yes We Can' speech that brought me to tears, beating Hilary to the nomination.... and finally, The Day was here. I remember 2004 when we thought we had it in the bag. No-one could be so sure after the other side had 'won' twice against the Democrats estimated odds...

I trotted along to my polling station. (Had to take a pic for proof or something...Check out those lovely late 80's colours... pink and green - nice!!) I stood in a long line of Obama supporters. If there were any McCain-ites in the queue they kept very quiet!! This was Hollywood after all.... Oh I can't tell you how my hand shook as I put my little black dot in the right place for Obama!!

Later that day, I joined Kay The Cook and her hubby Fred at Troy's house to watch the returns. Kay had made us a big pot of Obama's Chilli from his own recipe and we were just finishing up our bowls of delicious but not too spicy (very political!) chilli and settling down to what I thought would be another long election night when... at 1 minute past eight - right after the West Coast polling stations had closed - with no fanfare, no roll of drums, no WARNING!! - a news anchor comes onto the TV screen and calmly announces:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now in a position to announce that the president elect of The United States of America is Barack Obama."

Well for a moment we were stunned. Wait. What did he say? Did he just say The Thing. The Thing we have been waiting so long for, that we couldn't quite believe might ACTUALLY HAPPEN? We had voted in not only a black man to the Whitehouse, but a man who's first job is to work on the ecomony - like anyone would - and who's second pledge after he takes the Oath of Office on January 20th is to do what he can to slow Climate Change and the USA's dependency on foreign oil...this is amazing and slightly unbelievable news for environmentalists all over the world!!

Because like it or not, where America leads, the rest of the world eventually follows.

When I woke the next morning I had the feeling I imagine an Oscar winner might have waking up after all the excitement and elation of the previous evening. I can't imagine you wouldn't glance over at the bedside table to make sure your little gold statue was still there. Had it been a dream all along?

NO!!! IT'S TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUE!!

Time will tell of course as to how much this guy with so much expectation on his shoulders can actually achieve. We are talking about politics after all. However I, for one, am certainly looking forward to the green blogging I can contribute as 2009 unfolds.

In the meantime I have been writing for the fabulous and brand new SELF magazine, a new publication for Sustainable Lifestyle & Self Build, from the creators of the leading UK magazine for Sustainability, Business & the Built Environment, SUSTAIN.

Go to the website and sign up for a free sample issue.

GORGEOUS GREEN CHRISTMAS THINGS

This evening, I'm going to the launch of my friend's Sarah Baulsh and Lisa Harland's Christmas 'pop up' shop OUR ECO SHOP in Notting Hill. For the first time, eco friendly designers and makers are showcasing their innovative and ethical products together in a single shop, providing Christmas shoppers with truly eco-friendly gifts for family, friends and colleagues. Launching on the 19th November and opening this weekend, Our Eco Shop on Westbourne Grove in London, will be open to the public for the next six weeks until Christmas Eve.

Bags of Change is offering a 5% discount on most items in Our Eco Shop to anyone who shops there with a Bags of Change bag! The full range of bags is available in Our Eco Shop, on their website and at over 70 more shops around the UK. Plus, for every fairly traded Amazon bag sold this Christmas, Bags of Change will donate £1 to Survival, the tribal people’s charity. So there you go.

LOS ANGELES

Not wanting to leave out my Los Angeles chums, my English friend and eco fashion designer, Samantha Robinson, is the owner of RAW EARTH WILD SKY and is having a Holiday Sale this weekend of her Designer Organic Clothing & Hand-Made Jewelry.

Saturday 11/22 - 11.00am to 5.00pm
Sunday 11/23 - 12.00pm to 4.00pm

@ 937 South Mullen Avenue, Los Angeles - 90019
(between Olympic & Wilshire - 1 block east of Rimpau. email Srobinson5@aol.com for full details)

Her entire line is also available online at BTC Elements.

That gorgeous charm bracelet is made from melted down bullet casings poured into Antique Art Deco & Nouveau molds.
Something war-like turned into a thing of beauty!

Eco Warrioress wants one....Y'know, if you are stuck for a pressie idea....?

Goodbye to The Little Blue-Tailed Mouse!!

2008-10-06T15:36:00.027+01:00

You know I like to bring you all the stylish green things out there but I recently I have been raving to my girlfriends about this and now it's time Greenies to talk to YOU about THE MOONCUP!!!

For 30 odd years I have grudgingly been spending God-knows-how-much-money on those awful cotton wool tampon things that are full of bleach and pesticides. I had tried the organic cotton ones - which were useless - I never knew I had an alternative. After all tampons are small and convenient, you can swim and wear white trousers during your period without risk of embarrassment blah blah blah...!!!

I was on the tube about 6 months ago and saw an advert for the Mooncup and to be honest I thought it to be too good to be true. A reusable menstrual cup made from soft silicone rubber. It is worn internally but collects menstrual fluid rather than absorbing like a tampon does. And best of all, unlike tampons the Mooncup is not a disposable product, so you don't throw anything in the bin (or clog up the toilet...and you know who you are). You only need to buy one. Ever.

'How green can you get?' thinks Eco Warrioress.

These handy little cups were invented in the 1920's about the same time as the tampon, but at that time ladies didn't touch themselves 'down there' so the tampon which came with an applicator - much more ladylike - became a money making venture because we ladies are guaranteed to come back for more. Month after month. Pretty smart, guys!

The female journo who wrote about The Mooncup in the Sunday Times article this week couldn't get along with it but I say she didn't try hard enough. I have become much more trusting of my little cup as the months have gone by. I come over all Uber Green every month knowing I'm not wrapping up in toilet paper and throwing away one more nasty thing for the landfill.

Not for the squeamish you do have to use your fingers and to all the chaps still reading, you may want to stop if you don't do girlie period talk... but...the Mooncup, for me, is a panacea!! No more super absorbent cotton nonsense stuffing up your vadge with the potential of giving you toxic shock syndrome but a hygienic, reusable, washable little cup that comes in it's own dinky little organic cotton bag.

You take it out of the cotton bag before you use it, silly!!!

You have a little spoke to help pull it in and out an I have to confess to dropping it in the loo once after one too many glasses of wine - eeewww!! I washed it thoroughly before putting it back in, honest Matron, but I've really got the hang of it now. No annoying little blue string and that 'full' feeling when you are nowhere near a toilet and it really is time to change the tampon but you don't have one knocking about in the bottom of yer handbag all covered in eyeshadow and chewing gum so you have to go begging amongst any females in the vicinity. Still embarrassing how ever old you are... oh I hope the guys have clicked on a link on the left about solar panels or something!! There can be the dreaded 'leakage' but it was ever thus with the tampon so you just judge for yourself and use a panty liner on those 'heavy days'.
They cost twenty quid so mine paid for itself in about four months. Love it!!

I'm setting a challenge to all the menstruating ladies out there and the three guys still reading - please tell your wives, sisters and girlfriends - to give The Mooncup a go and write to me about how you get on. I will blog about your experiences here!! We could start a revolution, not to mention potentially bring the multi-million dollar tampon business to a it's knees!!

Oh, Eco Warrioress would love that!!

Next time I promise to tell you about some Gorgeous Green things... Honest.
Like this Eco Wallpaper I found at 100% Design. GORGE!!

SUCK IT UP ELECTROLUX

2008-09-18T20:09:00.011+01:00

Yes Greenies, I'm back down in London from UUP NORTH for a while and back on the eco trail. I've got lots to tell you about as the Greenies are all about in force these days.

I went to 100% Design at Earl's Court and met lots of new eco, green and stylish designers and last weekend went to the Landmark Eco Fair in Teddington where there were some new and old friends to blog about... That's all coming up in the next few weeks...

In the meantime I have to rave about my new ECO vacuum cleaner!!!

I have to say I'm not a clean freak like some I could mention. A bit of a dust round with an e-cloth, of course, and a swift once over with The Henry usually does for me - til now!! Electrolux have come up with two new 'ENVIROVAC' vacuum cleaners. Efficient yet affordable, the new models are the vacuum cleaning equivalent of energy saving light bulbs! The bagged version (£69.99) uses 50% less energy than a standard upright cleaner. I chose the bagless model (£99.99) which uses 30% less energy while claiming to be 20% more efficient.

Clever design and thoughtful innovation has allowed Electrolux to reduce energy consumption without sacrificing high cleaning performance. I whipped round my flat and filled the bucket the first time!! Who knew I was walking on so much cat hair?

Like new cars, new appliances are becoming more and more energy efficient. As manufacturers tap into the idea that new products need to be just as good at what they do and use less energy the argument can be made that trading in an old less efficient model for a new one made with the environment in mind, will cost you less in utility bills and pollute less at the same time.

So I know I left you dangling there for a few weeks but trust me I have been kept very busy.
I have been reviewing some of the new green and energy saving products for sale on line at The Good Energy Shop.
Read them here.
I will also be contributing regularly to Self The Sustainable Lifestyle & Self-Build magazine.
I'll keep you posted with updates.

You've Come A Long Way, Green Baby!!

2008-07-19T22:05:00.049+01:00

It's all kickin' off on The Street.

This Wednesday the story begins of how Clarissa wins Harry back (oh so briefly) from landlady of The Rovers Liz on Coronation Street.

I have been having the time of my life playing Clarissa, a feisty outspoken lady who loves her man but loves spending his money more. She's not letting him go without a cat fight.

Did I say fight? Oooh I hope I've not given too much away, chuck!!

On Monday 21st July I'll be a guest on LOOSE WOMEN talking about Harry and Clarissa's shenanigans on The Street and of course stylish eco lifestyles!!
So tune in to ITV1 between 12.30 and 1.30pm

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

You know, this week I realised it has been almost 18 months since I started writing this blog and bringing you all the green stylish news thats fit to print.

It's been a while since I wrote, I'm so sorry, I have been neglecting you... but I'M BACK!! And boy is there a lot to catch up on!! While I have been clattering across the cobbles as Clarissa Mason the green world just keeps on turning and there's so much to talk to you about as I try to keep up with the pace with which eco products and caring for environment have become part of our consciousness.

Looking back through the posts, it's fantastic to see much I have experienced and to remember some of the amazing pioneers of sustainability I have been able to write about, many of whom have become good friends and colleagues.

IT'S BEEN 'GREEN FOR GO' I TELL YA!!

I went to The Delabole Wind Fair in Cornwall, spoke at The Sustainability Fair at the O2 and met with Joan Ruddock MP who is putting together The Climate Change Bill to talk to her about sustainable design. I have met and become friends with Sarah Baulsh who's company ReVampt is going great guns. And Katie Keegan at One Green Earth pioneer of the online green directory and organiser of many eco events.

Eco stylist Lupe Castro has also become a great friend. She is bringing green and ethical fashion designers to the fore and has dressed me for Monday's live appearence on Loose Women.

I'll be wearing clothes from Makepiece and Julia Smith.

I have worked with Lisa Harland who makes beautiful organically and ethically upholstered furniture and Indrajit Shah who is a pioneer of biodegradable paper cups, plates and packaging at Packaging Environmental Ltd. I'm part of the Greening All Saints Committee at my church in Fulham and they are using his biodegradable coffee cups at all there functions now.

I had a wonderful lunch with the fabulous Polly Higgins, fellow blogger of The Lazy Environmentalist and founder of The Wise Women Network for women working together to protect the environment. I'm a proud member, of course!!

I met the lovely Faye Kass who found me through this blog. She is making a difference and spearheading the build of an eco lodge on the Caribbean island of Dominica. At Christmas I rented a low emissions car from Green Motion in Palmers Green. I went to several seminars run by London Remade. I met a lot of fellow minded green business people there as I did during my trip to Los Angeles in May. I attended a discussion on green furniture production at Design Within Reach in Santa Monica. Back in London I have been VLOGGING about the green insulation and eco renovation of Jamie's house in Notting Hill and I now only clean my house with E-Cloths and Earth Friendly Products and haven't bought laundry detergent in over a year because I use a magnetic green washing ball.

When my Dad died suddenly and so sadly in a fire in December we put him to rest in a green burial ground in Suffolk. I could not have done it without the invaluable support of Adeline at The Natural Death Centre and I spoke to The Times about my experience. This is the photo they used for the article.

I love that little Amoosi jacket. I'm wearing it with an organic cotton T-shirt by Stewart & Brown and jeans from Del Forte
(Photo by Warren Smith)

When I started this blog, my intention was to write about sustainable interior design because that was my background and training. But I quickly realised that if you make the choice to live in a healthy and green house, you will clean it with eco cleaning products that use natural surfactants, drive a low emissions car - or better still walk, cycle or use the bus; you will look for ethical and natural fashion and cosmetics and so on and so on...to be eco embraces all your lifestyle choices and there was a lot to write about.

Just looking at my lists to the left here is a revelation. Five years ago, when I sat in that Ecology of Design class at UCLA, I could never have dreamed of being able to compile such an amazing array of choices that help us be more green and ethical and lower our carbon footprint...nobody would have even known what that meant 2 years ago. There's a lot to keep up with and a lot of information to sift through.

One of my bug bears has been the 'greenwashing' that has been going on. Businesses who want to jump on the green bandwagon because they see a money making opportunity but may not have all the green credentials that you or I would count as necessarily quite enough to qualify. You have to keep your wits about you. I intend to do just that and keep greening the planet one post at a time!!

And in the meantime keep up the green work and be sure to write a comment here if you find any new fun, stylish and useful green tips that I can share!!!

Ciao for now!!

Have you heard about the one about the 14 t-shirts?

2008-04-12T16:50:00.035+01:00

A girl going on her fortnight summer holiday bought 14 cotton t-shirts. She wore one a day while she was in the sun, got a bit of sun tan lotion on each one but didn't bring them home to wash, no, they only cost a couple of quid each so she threw them all away at the resort.
The added bonus? She had more room in her suitcase for duty free!!

I heard this story a few weeks ago and the results of numerous focus group tests on clothing and fashion at The Sustainable Clothing Roadmap Meeting.

I took my eco stylist, Lupe Castro, and got to meet lots of her young ethical designer friends who are creating their collections from reclaimed clothing from charity shops and/or fabric like hemp and organic cotton.
Gorgeousness!!
DEFRA who organised the event were looking for input from those involved at any stage of the supply chain to contribute their views. We heard about a number of different case studies and networked with colleagues in the sustainable fashion industry.

I thought that one day was not nearly long enough to hear all the information and air all the ideas we had and then also come up with how to move forward in the face of those cheap, throw away fashions we have grown so used to. The subject of sustainble clothing is huge. We all have to wear clothes, so this is an area where lots of progress can be made. Look to the left to find links to some gorgeous green fashion websites. I'll keep adding more as I find them.

GORGEOUS GREEN CLOTHES

I mentioned that Lupe is my eco stylist. Why does Eco Warrioress need a professional green fashionista to find her eco clothes? Apart from the fact that she needs to look glamourous and green at all times?
Weeeeellllll.... My profile as a Greenie is growing by the minute and I'm starting to have me photo taken and do more public speaking and oh everything.

On April 19th I will be speaking at The London Green Funeral Exhibition about my Dad's green burial last December.
You can read about it on my Last Blog of 2007.

Also, I have also just been interviewed and photographed by The Times who are doing an article in next Saturday's paper about funerals.

I'm wearing this gorgeous little jacket by Amoosi
made from reclaimed tweedy suits.

And a pair of Del Forte jeans
made from organic cotton denim. They will take back your jeans when you are done with them, give you 10% off your next purchase and recycle your old denim into another piece of fashion. That's your Cradle to Cradle working then!
I Love It!!

GREEN CLEANING

So despite this very odd spring weather - thunder, lightening and hail storms in April - that'll be your Global Warming then. The longer evenings and warmer temperatures does make one want to fling open the windows and blow away those cobwebs of winter.

For a long time now I have been washing at 30 degrees with my eco washing ball, so I have not spent a penny on laundry detergent. I have to confess to missing the smell of clean washing so I dilute some essential oil in water (White Musk from the Body Shop smells like fresh air!) and add it to the fabric softener tray. Don't use fabric softener anymore by the way...very bad chemical content...VEEERY BAAAD! If you still use a tumble dryer, you can save money on softener and drying time by using drying balls which have the same effect

Ecover cleaning products led the eco cleaning field for a while but sometimes feel like they aren't quite getting the job done. I have to say I've caved in and used Harpic on the toilet bowl before now to get off the dark lime scale stains. The Ecover toilet cleaner wasn't cutting it. They assure us they are improving their formulas all the time so I shall look forward to that. An newer alternative is Bio D. I picked up a large bottle of washing up liquid for 1.99 in Oxfam and it works great! They do a full range of cleaning products so give 'em a go and please let me know how you get on!!

I was sent a couple of ENJO cleaning mitts to try. One for the bathroom and one for the kitchen. They are colour co-ordinateed so you don't mix them up.
They aren't the prettiest of lookers or colours - they look like a nylon mitt you use in the bath to scrub away your cellulite - but they work with just a little bit of cold water! I stand naked after a shower having a go at my soap scum on the perspex shower door. Not a visual I'm usually happy to share with anyone but...in the name of green....They work very well and without any of that smelly soap scum remover. It takes some getting used to that that is all you have to do. Just the circular motion of the mitt and a soft dry cloth to finish and it looks shiny and new. I just have to remember to use it on the shower door and not on my thighs!!
ENJO are sold by a consultant who trains you how to clean with them. The secret to these and other micro cleaning cloths like the E-Cloth (love them!) is that you don't need no chemicals, darlings!! You are saving money on toxic bottles of sprays and saving the planet and maybe even saving a few sneezes if anyone in your family has allergies.

CORRIE

In my last post I alluded to my other life which was getting a little crazy. Many of you know that as well as beating a stylish green designer drum for many years that for many more years (25 to be precise!!) I have been an actress.

SO...

On Monday I start as a new series regular on Coronation Street
I will be playing CLARISSA MASON.
Clarissa is the 3rd wife of the bookie Harry Mason. Expect a few feathers to fly across the cobbles when Clarissa gets into it with Liz MacDonald who she thinks is after her man!!
The first air date is May 19th.

Don't worry Green Readers, I will be going back and forth between London and Manchester but will still be writing my eco blog and bringing you all the green news that you need to stay stylish and green.

Right! I'm off to watch the Gorgeous and Greener by the Episode Kevin McCloud in GRAND DESIGNS....He is following a couple who are building a gorgeous contemporary house in Spain with enormous glass walls in the living room. I want to find out how they are going to deal with all that solar gain!!

Be back soon!!

ALSO

Look out for Grand Designs Live at Excel 11th-3rd May 2008.

I went last year and had a great time!!

And for those looking to invest ethically check out National Ethical Investors week in Plymouth 18th - 24th May

Eco Paints, MP's and Stylists. Oh, my!!

2008-03-24T12:10:00.031Z

Dear Faithful Green Blogsters,

I've been off the radar for a few weeks and have to start with an apology for leaving it so long between eco blogs! Eco Warrioress has just one too many plates spinning at the moment. I'm waiting for a few of them to fall to the ground and smash, but others need constant attention it seems and it's hard to keep up!!! There's some exciting stuff going on in my other non-eco-designer-life and I'll be writing all about that very soon....

This does not mean that I've been sitting about without foraging for more green info for you my loyal green readers... I found low VOC paints at Eco Build, have met with Joan Ruddock MP, I have a new eco/ethical stylist and a link to her blog and have begun my eco spring cleaning!
Read on..

ECO BUILD

Eco Build was a Wonder Of The Environmental World.

Earl's Court was jammed to the hilt with new green building products and materials. From my POV I would have liked to have seen some more design products, but the bulk of stands were about green urban planning, natural insulation methods, solar panels, wind power and grass roofs. A lot of the applications were for corporate contractors and not residential, which is always my first priority - I'm sourcing for you the homeowners....Most of the punters were either burly builders or sleek, black polar-neck sweater wearing architects with cool designer glasses...this was a place for the boys so I had quite a nice time looking around....at the stands, darlings, the stands!! I wasn't at all interested in the level of testosterone in the room!!

HOWEVER: I found a couple of fabulous eco paint companies

I met Laurent from BIOFA who is based in Brighton. His paint smells like moisterizer, mmm, although I wouldn't recommend you put it on your face!!

I really enjoyed the display and colours of NUTSHELL. Their colour style is quite traditional and along the lines of Farrow and Ball. The paints are 100% ecological, and made from natural raw materials and offer a radical alternative to paints manufactured with vinyl resins and petrochemical solvents. They are a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to the many harmful products which dominate the commercial paint market. The paint is made from natural raw materials is allergy free, has no VOC'S and is microporous so it lets walls and surfaces breathe. All made from renewable oils, herbs and minerals helping to lower your carbon footprint.

Another company with a traditional background is HOLKHAM LINSEED PAINTS. They make solvent free linseed oil paint from renewable and sustainable sources that last up to three times longer than modern paints. This is great to hear because I often get painters and decorators who tend to think that eco means 'not as long lasting or easy to use'. Because the paint job can last up to 15 years, the woodwork is protected so repainting and restoration needs are not as frequent.

There was cool natural rubber flooring from DALSOUPLE. They are sending me a sample box for my library and can't wait to see all the colours they carry. One of the applications they had on their stand was a panel of bright red rubber on a kitchen cupboard door....hard wearing and so cool looking!!

At Eco Build I met with Ben Horn from PAPERSTONE in the USA. I was very pleased to see him here in London because I have introduced him to a couple of like-minded eco businessmen/entrepreneurs who I'm hoping might bring Paperstone to the UK for us.

These amazing countertops come in a miriad of colours and are made from 100% recycled paper!! Can you believe it? The material itself has the look and feel of (extremely un-eco) MDF and I suggested it need not only be for kitchens, the applications are endless...shelving, furniture etc.

I will report here as soon as Ben lets me know where we can but his product here in the UK.

JOAN RUDDOCK

Last week I spent a very pleasant and informative hour with Joan Ruddock MP. She is the Minister for Climate Change and is putting together a bill that will make the United Kingdom the leaders in lower the nations carbon footprint.

She had invited me to come in and talk to her about eco interior design. I took in some photos and samples of materials I'm sourcing at the moment for the ZED HOMES project I'm working on. I showed her Lisa Harland's organic hemp fabric and wallpaper printed on recycled paper and a side table made from a recycled washing machine drum....it has a light inside that fliters through the holes in the sides!! Cool, Huh?!

I put to her one of the simplest and to me most obvious ideas that would get people to use more sustainable and eco products and that is to give these items a tax break. Green and eco products can be more expensive than more mass products items and price is always a factor in choosing materials for many consumers, myself included. Joan agreed. She said that this is an EU issue and that she and Gordon Brown have taken it to the European Union and they have rejected lower tax for greener products! I'm amazed and confused that they could be so short sighted....the battle continues... I'm hoping to go in again and meet with officials conducting a report on ethical and eco fashion. We are going to see it it is possible, with the research I have done, to factor in design products there too... looking forward to that!!

LUPE CASTRO

You know that I love meeting other Eco Warriors and telling you all about them right here. I encouraged my friend Lupe to start a blog and in the meantime, she has pledged, after 20 years in the fashion industry to be stylist to the green stars. She is dropping labels she reps that do not follow her strict eco and ethical trade standards and plans to start dressing the celebs who want to raise their green profile on the red carpet. She has promised to send some gorgeous green things my way when the time comes, because every stylish girl knows (to quote Patsy from Ab Fab) you can never have enough (green) hats, gloves and shoes!!

Read about her adventures in Brighton and at Howies latest sample sale right here!

NEXT TIME: SPRING CLEANING!!
I know the weather has taken a snowy turn for the worst this Easter weekend, but hope 'springs' eternal and I'm getting ready to blow out the cobwebs in the most chemical free way I can. There's lots of eco cleaning methods out there and I've been trying some of them out for you but would welcome your comments if you have any cleaning winners - or losers!!

Please write a comment if you have any non chemical and eco cleaning techniques and I'll share them here...

More Eco Heroes, some Zeros and A Load of Rubbish!!

2008-02-08T13:03:00.000Z

THE DAILY GREEN recently listed the 10 hottest GREEN CELEBRITIES. Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio were on it of course, as is my friend Ed Begley Jr who is famous for shunning the stretched limo and cycling to award shows.

HOWEVER, THIS WEEK MY SUPER ECO HERO IS BARACK OBAMA

It remains to be seen what he will do if/when he gets to the Whitehouse, but in response to a comment that was posted to my last blog I want to declare that this week that finally, finally, after 7 1/2 years of lies and denial from the Bush Administration about Global Warming (because it doesn't suit their domestic and economic policies - whatEVER!!) FINALLY, I saw for the first time that Barack Obama could be the man that effects the change the world is waiting for. Because where America leads, whether we like it or not, the rest of the world follows!
All the presidental candidate hopefuls want to include in their stump speeches what they are going to do about the environment, but With SUPER TUESDAY being so ...well, super, Barack Obama will be getting my vote for not just his views and plans for a greener healthier planet, but cos, well, the guy can give a speech!!

And check out the YES WE CAN video by will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas.
It gave me chills.
And I'm so proud because my lovely friend in Los Angeles, Rob Nagle, works for Jesse Dylan (dir and son of Bob) and did a lot of the pre and post production. He says there are more interviews and videos to come.
Can't wait!!

"We are the ones we've been waiting for"
"We are the change we seek"

Closer to home:

THE RUBBISH GAME

On Tuesday 12th February at The Dana Centre at 7pm - 9pm is The Rubbish Game

I went to the last Rubbish Game in January and our team won the Recycle Your Rubbish section. We built a pirate ship. The Jolly Recycler was made from a vanilla essence bottle, a champagne cork cage, a bicycle repair kit and a shoe horn. Arrrrgh!!
The evening was led by a team of recycling and rubbish 'experts' and in teams of four the participants were challenged to find ways to reuse a whole bunch of things we usually throw away. There were some very inventive and fun ideas that all served to illustrate that if you put your mind to it, there are a lot of things we can Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Go, go next Tuesday, you will have fun!!

Oh, there is going to be so much to blog about over the coming months...as well as my coffee with Joan Ruddock MP in a few weeks, there will be ECO BUILD at Earls Court. (February 26th - 28th). I have been trying out some new eco (spring) cleaning products that are coming to my attention and I'm starting proposals for a show flat ZED Homes in North London and an Eco Lodge in Dominica in The West Indies.

I also want to talk about some of the GORGEOUS eco fashion that is finally coming to the market.

A year ago I was lamenting the fact that I may have to present my green lifestyle TV show in baggy organic cotton yoga pants - but NO MORE!! The fashionistas are catching up with the demand for not just fair trade and ethical clothing but for stuff that LOOKS JUST LIKE high street fashion, at high street prices but is made from sustainable fabrics.
And it's FAB-U-LOUS!!

For example Darlings, couldn't resist: Had to post this photo of this cute boy, I mean, guy in his gorgeous hemp suit from Rawganique - HELL-OHH!!

Just a taster ladies, and there will be more gorgeous things for you to wear too, don't worry...
Look to the left here for a list of GREEN FASHION links.

Another piece of beefcake, but not my type, I'm afraid...

Listen, loves, I'm no prude, how-EVER is it me, or is there something slightly obscene about this photo? Please don't try to tell me that it is NOT Photoshopped!!

I've never been a fan of the Beckhams, don't give them much attention usually, but the British environmental group Carbon Trust has awarded David Beckham the title of Largest Carbon Footprint in human history.

Surprise!!!?!?!??

Due to his extensive air travel (more that 250,000 miles last year) and fleet of 15 cars (Lincoln Navigator, Hummer, Porsche - Uch!!), the group claims Becks is responsible for 18 times more tons of carbon dioxide than the average person.

Now, I don't expect David to stop traveling, but I would like to see him try to put Posh in a Prius—he'd probably have more luck stopping global warming.

Eco Warrioress can't help wondering too what kind of carbon Brangelina and Leo rack up on their saving the world travels!!!
Any thoughts?

FINALLY
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

REVAMPT new Valentines Day range has some very cute recycled vintage fabric ideas for your Sweetheart.
Lovely things for a lovely day, which are lovely for the planet too. Lavender Hearts, Love cushions, Heart Totes and other goodies for those who love to love.

ECO HEROES and WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL OUR STUFF?

2008-01-31T15:31:00.000Z

One of my eco architect heroes is William McDonough. He co-wrote CRADLE TO CRADLE with Michael Braungart. A book that describes their pholosophies on sustainable design and a worldwide industry that reuses everything and makes nothing for the landfill.

Bill has a very dry and entertaining sense of humour.
Put on the kettle, make a cup of tea and watch this... It's 20 minutes of your life that could potentially change the way you see everything around you...

He makes so much sense, it gives me chills.

...and on the note of recycling
EVERYTHING

A couple of weeks ago I started a course called
GREENING YOUR BUSINESS

So I think, since I'm a one woman operation and work from home, my carbon output is as low as I can make it...or is it? Last year I wrote an article on Greening Your Home Office for a publication for editors and proof readers called EDITING MATTERS. Most of their readers work from their home offices and I pointed out that somone working at home has the control over room temperature and lighting that employees in a big office building may not have so the little energy saving things you can do are many.

London Remade are in charge of the lectures. Their mission it is to get London recycling. A staggering 73% of London's waste still goes to the landfill and London Remade are in the business of helping small businesses recycle more, buy recycled products and reduce their consumption.

ENVIROWISE are a company that offers free advice to companies large and small on how to lower energy costs on lighting, heating and water use. They offer UK businesses free, independent, confidential advice and support on practical ways to increase profits, minimise waste and reduce environmental impact.

They will come to your business for free (yes, FREE!) and create a tailor made action plan for saving your company's overheads. Last year alone they identified and estimated £600,000 of potential savings could be made by following their advice.

CARBON SMART talked about encompassing the whole green enchilada when it come to reducing, reusing, recycling, lowering energy and water consumption, travel methods to work, carbon offsetting and generally being not necessarily 'carbon neutral' but CARBON SMART...well, the clue is in the title, then.

They recognise that may businesses want to raise their green profile and in doing so can talk about and advertise their 'Greeness'. This is very useful to we consumers, who, let's face it are bombarded with a lot of GREEN WASHING these days and I don't like it.

One of the most fun presentations was by ENTERPRISE.They asked us to identify the good and bad aspects of traveling in London.

The lists included
GOOD

good public transport system
great green areas (parks) to walk through
Bicycle lanes
Gorgeous architecture and historical buildings to enjoy
if you use public transport you walk more - stay fit

BAD

bus and tube too expensive
congestion charge
no AC on the tube/bus in the summer
delays and over crowding on the tube/bus
no more ROUTEMASTERS

They then asked us what we would do to improve travel in London and along with my idea to make the tube and bus almost free came, more trains at rush hour, better conditions for cyclists, more bicycle racks at places of work and cheap/free bikes provided by companies for their employees.

In Paris (for 20 Euros for the weekend and 30 Euros for the week) you can rent a bike on a street corner and drop it off elsewhere after your journey. What a great way to see the city? This programme was started during a transportation strike and ended up helping reduce the cars in the city. At first there were a lot of accidents while motorists learned to be more aware of the increased number of bicycles on the road.

Everyone at the conference agreed that this would be a great programme to have in London...

As I said, my carbon footprint is pretty low and when it was added to the other delegates on my table who also walked or took the tube/bus to the conference, we won the lowest travel carbon footprint award for the day and won a £10 Oyster card and some chocolate coins - hurrah!!

Notting Hill Eco House Episode III

2008-01-23T11:57:00.001Z

Jamie Eynon of London's Best Builders and Ben Nickell from GreenSteps are moving ahead with the eco renovation on Jamie's mews house in Notting Hill.

We shot this third episode just before Christmas on a frosty December morning, but the triple glazed French doors and the insulation are in, the underfloor heating is going in and we were toasty inside Jamie's house...

ECO WARRIORESS IN THA HOWSE... OF COMMONS!!

2008-01-16T12:56:00.001Z

There I was thinking that my year had got off to a slow start and was beating myself up about it.... Why? Well, it seems an age since the Christmas festivities, which seemed to go on and on, or is that just me? We had my Dad's funeral and all that goes with that. And then New Year, and everyone, myself included, was ill with one form of lurgy or another and here I am in the middle of January and only just sitting down to write my blog when there is so much green stuff to whinge on about in my little corner of cyberspace... Sometimes I feel like I will never quite catch up with it all...

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

So why exactly was I at the House of Commons last night? Well it would have been rude not to go, Love...

Last year I made a video for The Big Ask for Friends of the Earth. They invited all who had participated to the public meeting on the Climate Change Bill at the House of Commons. The thrust of the invitation being that the more people there are on the night, the more the Government will listen.
I noticed a lot of celebrities had contributed, including my old friend of the Earth, Jude Law, but I was surprised not to see any of them there...

But, y'know, they may not have got in!

Big Ben struck 6pm as I passed through security and I walked through galleries of breathtaking Victorian Gothic architecture to Committee Room number 10. I had no idea what to expect as I have never been to the House of Commons. I got such a buzz just from walking through that amazing and iconic building that I have only ever seen from the outside.

A lady spotted my dropped jaw as we walked along to the meeting and said.
'Amazing isn't it?'

OK. Design/Architecture Anorak Moment over...

THE SPEAKERS AND QUESTIONS

Karen Buck, the MP for Regent's Park and North Kensington had invited all her constituents and many supporters from Friends of the Earth were there. Too many. The meeting room was so packed they had to split the meeting into two parts. I was lucky enough to get into the first sitting.

The speakers included Joan Ruddock MP, who has been a tireless campaigner for the environment in her long career and is now the Minister for Climate Change. Martyn Williams, who is Friends of the Earth's Senior Parliamentary Campaigner was also there.

We listened to Joan Ruddock speak (unfortunately it was only a curtailed version of what she wanted to say as she intended to repeat it for the second group). She spoke about the contents of the intended Climate Change Bill and how the government recognised the need to impose law on big business to lower carbon emissions as well as educate the public. She said the they intended the UK to become the world's leader in showing that a democracy can lower it's levels of carbon significantly and be an example to the rest of the world (i.e China, USA, Brazil, India) and get them to come on board.

The questions after she spoke came thick and fast and covered topics from who would be appointed to the committee to aviation standards. Why are we building more runways and roads was a big one too. Might there be penalties for businesses who don't meet the lower emissions targets (the target is lower carbon output by 60% by 2010. Oy!) and would that force big businesses to move abroad. There were questions about nuclear power (ouch!), growing biofuels that will take up valuable food producing land and what was the British government doing to help the victims of climate change disasters like the recent cyclone in Bangladesh.

Joan answered as best she could and offered many positive solutions, but in some cases it was clear that there are points that are still being hashed out for the bill.

So, Eco Warrioress hadn't intended to ask a question, had she?

NO! I had only gone to support Friends of the Earth and show a bit of solidarity. I mean the room was full of scientist-type climate change experts and local environmental groups who had far more pressing things to talk about than me - or so I thought!

I found myself putting my hand up and being given the chance to speak!

My question was about the buildings we live and work in. It is well known that they pollute the environment far more than the cars we drive. I asked if there was provision in the bill for regulations for new build and renovations. Was there going to be a law that every homeowner and contractor would need follow certain guidlines for insulation and low energy installations before they would get an inspector to sign off on the project. At least for starters

I often face resistance from clients (and builders) against some renewable, low energy, sustainable design elements because they think it will be more expensive. Sometimes they are. I want to know if there are there going to be subsidies for the eco building materials and low energy white goods, for instance, and possibly, higher taxation for those with less green credentials.

Joan Ruddock was very aware of the point I raised as it tied into her mention about educating the public who create 42% of the emissions she was talking about. (That's all of us!) She said she would love to talk to me more about what I do. She knows that designers can be very important (and powerful) when it comes to specifying eco products. I would love the opportunity to speak more with her. You loyal blog readers all know how I love to rant on about all those little things we can do in our everyday lives that can have an enormous accumulative effect.

My American designer and architect friends are becoming LEED Certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This gives them a raised credibility in the green building world as it gives a completed project a gold silver or bronze rating depending on their carbon footprint. That's another great idea to get designers and architects and builders on board. It is becoming clear that many businesses want to raise their green profiles and this could be another way to aide the consumer in choosing their eco supplier, designer or builder.

I walked out through Westminster Hall chatting with a lady who wants to green her rented flat and two others who had a question about their mansion flats: How could they get their board to opt for a low energy heating system and other green choices for the building and an eco painter and decorator (ec decor) and an architect and environmental consultant who campaigns against the illegal timber industry. (Global Timber).

Joan said that she was so sorry she hadn't booked a bigger room for the meeting. When she started out campaigning about making changes for the environment 20 years ago, she couldn't get 6 people in the room, let alone 600!

I walked out into the dark rainy night completely energised and inspired by the experience.

I have emailed Joan Ruddock and offered to speak to her more about my experiences in the green design and building world.
Her Parliamentary assistant, Michael Smith, has passed it on to her Defra office.

I look forward to hearing from them and will be reporting on her response in this very space.

Next time: London Remade's GREENING YOUR BUSINESS CONFERENCE...

HOW GREEN IS YOUR DEATH: A Green Funeral for my Dad

2007-12-30T12:44:00.000Z

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I write the last blog for 2007.

It's at this time we look back at what the passing year has brought and look forward to the new one and the unknown things it may bring. I for one would like to draw a line, Etchasketch-like, under 2007 and give a good old shake of the sand to erase some of the past...but of course that is not possible...

With the turning of the year came the passing of my father.

My Dad died on the 9th of December a month before his 77th birthday. An only child, he was born and grew up in Edinburgh. It is to my Scottish father that I attribute my red hair! He was a loner all his life. My brother is a manager in the music industry and my sister is an actress like me. It was always a mystery to us that a man so removed from the world in so many ways could have all three of his offspring make their livings in the performing arts.

The brief inquest revealed there had been a fire in his room. A space heater had caught some clothes on fire. The post mortem confirmed he had died from inhalation of smoke.

Dad lived alone, separated from our mother these last 20 odd years, and he died alone.

That is the saddest part.

It fell to me to arrange the funeral and since I had blogged about Anita Rodick's passing in October and had met Peter Rock with the Ecopod and Natural Death Centre stand at The Sustainability Fair in October, I knew I had all the information at my finger tips (and all the links on my own blog) to make the funeral as eco-friendly as possible.

However, this was the first funeral I had ever arranged and I and my family wanted it to be as simple and as green as possible so I was in need of a lot of instant help and advice.

After sepaking to the coroner's office in Bury St Edmunds, my first phone call was to Adeline O'Keeffe at the Natural Death Centre, a charitable organisation that advises on green burials. Adeline was amazing and so kind, generous and understanding. Not having the time or the where-with-all to order the handbook they publish on green funerals and burial sites, the information she shared with me was invaluable.

She gave me numbers and addresses of green burial sites in Suffolk. She explained the role of the undertaker and why many families who want a green burial opt to not use one. However, she gave me the number of Tony Brown, a funeral director in Saxmundham. He runs a beautiful green burial site near Snape (The Greenwood Burial Ground). One phone call to him and I realised I was in safe and green hands. He does not believe in embalming (a highly toxic and unnecessary procedure) and was so lovely on the phone with a slightly wicked and oh so dry sense of humour that I'm sure helps him through his day.

His opening line to me when we met for the first time at the burial site was
"Am I better looking than you thought on the phone? Say 'Yes'!"

He had just the right tone to stop the proceedings getting too sombre. My Dad would have loved that. As simple as we wanted the burial to be, he listened to what we had planned and advised on the right order of things to make the moments run smoothly.

The advantage of using Tony's services is that he 'undertook' certain things that we as a family could not have done; like picking the body up from the hospital and putting it in the coffin. Adeline explained that some hospitals are reluctant to work with anyone but a professional and as I don't have a burly uncle or a brother-in-law with a Volvo who might have helped with this (can you imagine what a big ask that would be, too?) Tony Brown's services were vital.

Just lowering the coffin into the grave would have posed an impossible task for us. Until I stood at the edge of the grave I had never realised before that six feet under is a long way down! Adeline explained that green burial sites can help with pall bearers and other things so when you don't find a gem like Tony, there are other options and people able to provide these services, even if you take on everything else yourself.

As the coffin has to be biodegradable on a green burial site, Tony Brown uses willow coffins hand made in Somerset. They are very reasonable priced, but unfortunately they look rather too much like a laundry basket to me. No offense, but I didn't want to feel like I was burying my Dad with the dirty linen. I also heard that they can make a rather strange noise when carried. What? Creaking? Squeaking? I didn't want to risk a dark, if humorous, moment.

As I'm an eco design nut, I ordered one of the ECOPOD's I had seen at the Sustainability Fair designed by Hazel Selina. She was lovely and very helpful too. The coffin she has designed is made of 100% recycled, naturally hardened paper and is beautifully organic in shape, based on an Egyptian sarcophagus.

For my US readers, Hazel told me she is about to send a consignment of Ecopod coffins to the States. They are working with Cynthia Beal at the Natural Burial Company in Portland, Oregon. The New York Times Magazine and USA Today who have featured Cynthia's story.

I chose the green coffin with a Celtic cross and knots as part of the design. It has a beautifully natural and organic shape. It was so moving watching the hearse pull up - a very traditional vehicle - with this futuristic looking pod, containing my Dad, inside it.
My Dad was an atheist. He believed that most of the world's wars have been caused by religion. I tend to agree with him, so we did not have a church service. My theatrical side wanted to hear someone say 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...' but the committal prayer has religious overtones too.

We buried him at 11am on the morning of the 18th of December in a winter wood with leafless trees. It was very beautiful. My brother sang 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd. I don't know how he got through it. Tony told him to look up to the trees to help stop from crying. Good advice that seemed to work. I read a poem. My sister brought her portable iPod speakers and played 'Yesterday Once More' as they lowered the coffin into the grave.

Dad loved Karen Carpenter's voice and played The Carpenter's greatest hits over and over in the car when we were kids.
We realise we all three still know all the lyrics.

"Every sha-la-la-la, every wo-wo-wo still shines....
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling that they started to sing's so fine..."

The whole ceremony took less than twenty minutes and then we all drove to Glemham Hall for drinks and sarnies (that's sandwiches for my American friends). The setting was highly appropriate as my father had been butler to the Marquis of Bristol at Ickworth Hall for many years. I'm so grateful too to our hostess, Raewyn Hope Cobbold, who knew my Dad very well as she had once owned the house where he had lived.

We sang more songs and drank, cried and laughed til there was no more singing, crying, drinking and laughing we could do.

Watching the coffin being lowered into the grave knowing my Dad was inside and about to go back to the earth has to be one of the most profound moments of my life. We see it so often in the movies, don't we? But when it is happening for real, you feel like you are watching the movie of your own life from a slight distance. That night when I went to bed I reflected on the day and that little video of the lowering moment kept playing over and over in my head as I cried myself to sleep...

A friend who had recently lost both of his parents wrote to me this week.
As the saying goes...

"You have to dig deep to bury your father"

This is the poem I read:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I did not die.

My Dad used to say that he could die happy when he saw all of his children sorted out and doing well. So he didn't have to worry about us anymore, I suppose. I'd like to think that he is now in each lovely thing in our lives and won't worry about us any more.
We will be just fine but will miss him terribly.

With the new year comes new hope and new opportunities to do well and in my case do the best I can for a stylish and eco-friendly environment too.
I look forward very much to sharing the things I do right here on my blog in the months to come.

Here's wishing you all a happy, green, peaceful, healthy and abundant 2008

To Cut or Not to Cut a Christmas tree

2007-12-08T10:29:00.000Z

Had to post this.
It came in from a friend in Portland, Oregon who sells wonderful organic cotton and fairtrade children's clothing on her site Go Natural Baby. I think it it a great solution to the Christmas tree dilemma...EW

About one week ago I asked my five year old if he wanted to go to a farm to cut down our Christmas tree.
He said," cut a Christmas tree?"
"Yes," I said with some trepidation.
"I don't want to cut a tree. That would hurt it," he replied.
Our conversation progressed into me explaining to him that this is how we get Christmas trees. He then decided he wanted a fake tree. I have to admit I was not too keen on the idea of having a fake tree in the house. Although at this point in the conversation I was also feeling that I did not want to cut down a tree. My stomach tightened a bit when I thought of "giving" up our real Christmas tree. This was a mom moment when I thought I need to think before I speak.
"How about we don't get a tree at all. We can plant one in our front yard and decorate it there," I suggested.
"No, I want a tree..... in the house," he said.
Hmmmm, I was stumped. I told him we should think about it. The next day I received the newsletter from my son's school and believe it or not the head of the school was suggesting that families rent their Christmas tree. Yes, that's right I said "rent". I have never heard of it before (Portlanders be gentle, I am new to the area after all).
My son came home from school and I told him about renting a living tree. He loved the idea. I told him that they would deliver the tree and we would need to take care of it, including not putting lights on it. He did not care about the lights. I then proceeded to tell him that after the holidays they would come pick up the tree and it would be planted.
"Will it live forever?" he inquired. Well, that is another story.

You can learn more about renting a Christmas tree at: Living Christmas Trees

Happy Holidays to each and every one of you!
warm regards,
Justyn

More Green Christmas Gift Ideas and Things...

2007-11-30T16:19:00.000Z

"BUT...AREN'T CHRISTMAS TREES GREEN, ECO WARRIORESS?"

Yes, yes, so your Christmas tree will be GREEN, obviously... (living, in a pot and organically grown, of course) and it will twinkle with low energy LED tree lights, but how else can you make it a cool, eco/ethical and stylish Yuletide? You will find out here! Read on....

PS: If anyone finds a fake Christmas tree (can't believe I just wrote that!) made from recycled plastic - or some other sustainable source - please let me know!!! Likelihood is, most artificial trees will have been flown in from China and give off all sorts of nasty VOC's and that actually, nowadays a British grown tree is what you will find at your local Christmas tree vendors. Bottom line for me: Christmas means nothing without that pine needle smell. As long as your council will pick up the tree and chip it for mulch, you should be doing OK.

Here's a good article in the Guardian giving info on both sides of the decision...you decide...and try and make sure you dispose of the tree properly. Oh, the sad sight that it is of so many dead trees lying brown and crispy on the pavement well into January. When is that going to end?

Anyway, as promised I have compiled some of the green festive gift ideas I have come across in the last few weeks.

TREE DECORATIONS

On the subject of Christmas trees... my green friend, Sarah Baulch, design maven at REVAMPT has a range of very lovely tree decorations that she has made from her recycled vintage fabrics.
I'm particularly proud of them because these very wooden curtain rings were salvaged from a window treatment project by, yes,
Yours Green and Truly!!

BAGS AND BACKPACKS THAT PACK THEMSELVES

We all know by now that we should be taking our own bags to the supermarket and these are some of the most practical I found for your forgetful friends...

One Green Earth sell these handy bags that are made of parachute material and pack into their own a little bag that clips to your handbag. Works as a keyring too!

The bags are made by ONYA who also have cool shoulder bags and backpacks. Those are my fave!!

GREEN KNICKERS

Everyone needs knickers - unless you're Lindsey Lohan, of course - so for your pleasure and green self respect, Sarah Lucy Smith and Rose Cleary-Southwood have a really cool and totally ethical underwear company called GREEN KNICKERS They make organic cotton and bamboo fabric undies for girls and boys.

I bought some of their Magic G lobal Warmi ng Knickers which are made from 100% Fair Trade Organic Cotton and change colour too!
As the knickers warm up with your body heat, the sea overcomes the land to show the effects of Global Warming just so you never forget...now that's 'Sexy Time'!!

FELTY THINGS

Helen and Kate at ONE ECO HOME have put together some wonderfully seasonal gift ideas. Love that wine rack and the cute little felt angels can be sent flat packed as a Christmas greeting and then double as a decoration therefore eliminating the need for a paper card.
Can you imagine how many tonnes of Christmas cards get recycled every year?
Oh, my head hurts just thinking about it...

FACE THINGS

Alice Sheffield is the director of Bare Faced Cheek. My chat with her revealed her passion for beauty and skin care products that are the most ethical and natural that she can find. That means more and more often she is choosing to carry British made products on her website. When she finds an organic or natural product that's home grown she replaces one of her foreign made lines.

Spiezia is a British-made organic line of products that are also certified by the Soil Association. Alice carries a miniature organic facial gift kit that contains a Facial Cleanser, Lip Balm, Daytime Moisturiser, Floral Skin Toner and a 100% Organic Cotton Flannel for £25.00.
Mmmmmm, yes please...

BAGS AND OTHER COOL CARRYING THINGS

Made from, can you believe it, Portuguese street lamp banners TELA BAGS are the design brainchild of Lupe Castro. I have seen this idea at LACMA in Los Angeles. Like Lupe, they sell these fantasically unique, one of a kind bags made from the large PVC advert banners that hang from street lamps in the city. The banners only live the short life of the ad campaign or exhibition they are advertising and then...what? Here in Europe, Lupe has recycled the weatherproof, hard-wearing printed PVC into stylish, practical and unique carrying items. She has commissions from the Centro Cultural De Belem in Lisbon an Harrods who realise the impact of so much of their PVC going to the landfill and want to recycle their advertising banners into useful, fashionable items.

My favourite bag is the large 'METRO'. Compartmentalised with 3 separate bags that detach from the inside, it can be used for dividing up your recycling, kids toys or for putting in the back of the car to carry files around. It is very versatile...

FLASHING THINGS

Chaps are always so hard to buy for, aren't they? But if they are cycling chaps, here is the perfect eco bike light. It's such a simple concept: The PEDALITE is powered by kinetic energy that comes from pedaling so has no need for a battery. They keep flashing even when stationary at traffic lights. The pedals fit almost all bikes designed for people over 9 years old. They are £34.99 a pair.

KIDS THINGS

I'm one for buying books and clothes for children's gifts. The grandmas seem to be able to take care of buying the brightly coloured, tacky plastic things that make obnoxious noises which my 2 year old nephew way prefers to the tactile hand-painted wooden toys his Mum would love him to play with....Oh well!!
If you are so inclined, start your little Eco Fashionistas on the green and ethical track as young as possible by dressing them in NIXIE Children's clothing.
Aren't they cute?
Designer Nicole Frobusch, uses sustainable and recycled fabrics to combine romantic bohemian style with a 70's crafts aesthetic and all garments are made in the UK.

THINGS FOR ME, ME, ME!!!

I'm not diamond girl, meself. Yeah, yeah, I know they like last forever and everything, unlike a lot of other things... but they usually come from suspect sources and therefore represent lives of extreme toil and poverty....I think they are highly over-rated and actually I prefer chunky funky designer jewelry. However - jewelers INGLE AND RHODE have amazing designer stuff and also do fabulously contemporary engagement rings and things all made with ethically sourced precious metals and gemstones so they are able to tell their clients exactly where and how each piece of jewelry was created. Now that could take the edge off my conscience...so if you are thinking of popping the proverbial and ethical question this holiday, you know where to go for your guilt-free BLING!!

CALENDAR THINGS

A calendar as a Christmas gift can be a bit of a cop out, unless, of course it is a climate change calendar. For the forward thinkers - yes - it's almost 2008 and you have to start planning now, why not give this wonderful Calendar Of Climate Change put together by Diana Korchien. Diana was an archivist and spent a long time going through photographs from all over the world. It struck her that there was a place for these images to show the beauty of the planet we live in and the plight that faces The Earth and her inhabitants due to the changing weather.

A great educational tool and a daily reminder that the actions we take, however small, however good or bad, can effect us all.

Many of these items and other green gift ideas can be bought from my friend Katie's One Green Earth website and have discounts if you buy through her!

CHRISTMAS WILL BE GREEN THIS YEAR? YOU DECIDE...

2007-11-25T10:53:00.000Z

Here's the latest installment of the eco house in Notting Hill. It's all coming along...

In the next post, I'll be reporting on some gorgeous green Christmas gift ideas

But in the meantime check out the GOOD GIFTS website.
Last year I decided to bypass all the gorgeously expensively twinkly packaged things in the shops that are SO only there to entice us into buying STUFF for our friends and family - this bypassing being very hard for a stylish Designer Girl who loves her gorgeous things...because you know as well as I that these things are so rarely anything we have a real need for...right?

Eco Warrioress gave instead gifts of a more ethical, green and less consumery nature.
My mum loves her garden, so I bought her a meadow of flowers; my environmentalist friend got an acre of rainforest and a few matcho blokes got a ten quid shot of bull semen for a cow in Africa -

You get the picture!

This year Good Gifts have a list of stocking fillas so that for a small 'stocking filler' price you can put in a little card in that says you have bought a homeless person some socks or given to a medical fund for street children. No expensive wrapping paper that gets thrown away, just a card on recycled paper that describes the gift. LOVE that!!

I found that the words inside the card always brought a smile to the recipient's face and evoked a conversation about the real meaning of Christmas and what giving to those who are truly in need really means to us all. Ahhhh....

ALRIGHT! That's enough of that.... I'm off to look at more Christmassy ideas...
and here's a few gorgeous green things for you to consider too....

GORGEOUS GREEN CHRISTMAS THINGS

See, I'm still not so much into the 'hempy' 'granola' look of eco so will always bring you the sexy and the stylish if I can....Last week I met the young and gorgeous Joshua who owns KANZI HOME. (KANZI means 'treasure' in Swahili ) and his website is FABulous. He is based in Newcastle and is not yet in a lot of stores but I'm so happy to have found this fabulous interiors, accessories and gifts website! Gorgeous!

As well as carrying cushions and cubes made from recycled car seat belts, gorgeous lampshades made from recycled paper and many ethical/fairtrade items, also has some lovely festive bits for your table top and tree.

Kanzi Home also carries SA8000 certified products. This is a rigorously audited human rights and social welfare programme (similar to Fairtrade) that give jobs to communities in need. Most of Kanzi's products are made in Thailand.

There is 10% off any online orders made before Christmas.

FINALLY,

FOR MY LOS ANGELES GREEN GIRLIES...

I will be visiting my friend Sam Robinson over Christmas to learn more about her eco fashion company, but in the meantime she is having a SALE.

DESIGNER SALE

Organic Clothing - wholesale & 50% off retail

earth & sky

Read all about her amazing fashion philosophies in this article in APPAREL NEWS...oh and Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie & Cameron Diaz love her stuff too!

Heather, Jenni, Rochelle, Emma, Alison, Andrea, April, Bootsey, Carolyn, Casey, Celeste, Celia, Claire, Collette, Eleanor, Hilary, Julien, Linda, Miriam, LInnea and Sarah; if you go, do please comment on the blog and tell us all about it!

A GREEN CHRISTMAS FAIR THIS WEEKEND

2007-11-15T09:03:00.000Z

This weekend sees the first of a couple of ECO CHRISTMAS fairs coming up.

It's never too early to start finding your ethical, sustainable and green gIfts for your friends and family....nobody wants those nasty pressies that get returned after the holiday or shoved the the back of the cupboard.

A Green Christmas Fair makes going green this Christmas an easy option by bringing together a fabulous range of ethical companies so that shopping,and treating one-self, can be done with a clear conscience.

Hosted by One Green Earth and Bare Faced Cheek and set among the elegant surroundings of the 20th Century Theatre in Notting Hill, the Fair will offer a diverse range of gifts including eco underwear by Green Knickers, organic home accessories by Organic Furnishings, funky recycled Christmas decorations by Revampit, organic cotton-hemp shopping bags by Bags Of Change and remade children's clothing by Restitch .

The entrance fee of £2 will go directly to The Cambodia Trust

The Cambodia Trust works with landmine survivors and other disadvantaged disabled people in Cambodia to enable them to participate in education, employment and community life.

ECO DESIGN CHRISTMAS FAIR
Next weekend is the Eco Design Christmas Fair in Camden.
Friday and Saturday 23rd/24th November at
Cecil Sharp House.
2 Regents Park Road. Camden NW1.
11am - 5pm both days.
Entry is a quid fifty

And this just in...
There is an Eco Christmas Fair in East Dulwich sponsored by SNUB (yes, they SNUB plastic bags!) on December 1st at Goose Green. All details on their website.

WORLD TRAVEL MARKET

I'm already looking ahead to the new year. I'm off to the WORLD TRAVEL MARKET today to meet with a lady who needs an eco interior designer for her eco lodge project in Domenica and also The Responsible Travel people to look for fabulous eco and ethical holidays for you to book for next summer!!
Hurrah!

IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF VLOGS!

2007-11-03T11:53:00.000Z

I'm doing vlogs, Darling, VLOGS!!!!

This week marks the start of my video log about an eco renovation in Notting Hill. The mews house belongs to Jamie Eynon, director and project manager of London's Best Builders. He is using the expertise of his business partner Ben Nickell of Greensteps . They have formed a partnership to renovate houses in a totally green and eco way. I'm so excited to follow them because every project will have the best insulation, best heating and cooling systems and the lowest possible energy bills AND (and Eco Warrioress loves this part) will STILL be FABulously stylish.

Jamie's house is their inaugural venture into the eco building world and I'm going to be there to document it! Here is the first installment:

SUSTAINABILITY SHOW

I had a great time speaking about green design and the eco lifestyle that we can all have at the Sustainability Show at O2 last weekend. It's always fun to talk about something I feel so passionate about. I want to say thank you to David and Doug for giving me such an excellent opportunity. Thanks, guys.

In the coming weeks I will be blogging about Chantal Cooke of PASSION RADIO, Indrajit Shah of PACKAGING ENVIRONMENTAL who is making environmentally friendly, biodegradable packaging made from renewable sources - what is says on the box, really - no pun intended!!

My friends at Ethical Junction had a stand as did Peter Rocu with the ECOPOD
and Natural Death Centre. (Do you remember I blogged about biodegradable coffins after Anita Roddick passed away?)

In the art and design area, my friends Helen from One Eco Interiors and Sarah from REVAMPT shared a stand and a sculptor called Ptolemy who makes fantastic animal sculptures out of recycled hubcaps was another stand out.

RECOUP D'ETAT played live and sold their CD's packaged in recycled crisp packets that had been washed and turned inside out...More to come on all of those green ventures...

I'm so glad to be able to announce that Green Motion are up and running - remember I wanted to rent a car from them to go to the Delabole Wind Fair? Well, I had a long chat with the company's owner, Richard and they are ready to go now.

Richard's idea to start a green car rental company came to him about two years ago (I think many of our green ideas have taken about 2 years to get to this point!) and he now is offering franchises to business owners who will not only rent cars with the lowest carbon emissions, but the whole package they take on will have a green flavour: the offices will follow a 'greenprint' from the installation of low energy light bulbs in the offices right down to the recycle rubber flooring in the forecourts. The entire philosophy of a low carbon business will be followed to the letter to make sure they make the least possible impact on the environment.
If you are an environmentally conscious business and want to rent a fleet of cars or an individual wanting to rent a car for the weekend - like me - you can now do so with a green heart.
When you pick up your rental (or have it delivered to you - which ever takes the least energy!!) you get a short film on DVD on how to drive your car to get the best possible mileage!! I like that game. It can be a little distracting though as I spend far too much time looking at the little screen that tells you how many miles you can drive before you need to stop for petrol! Is that a 'girl thing' or just me?

I will certainly be renting a car from GREEN MOTION the next time I go out of town.

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS

I recently found an ad in a glossy mag for ADILI clothing. OH JOY! I exclaimed! Finally there is an online catalogue of fashionable clothing that is produced as organically and ethically as possible. As we all know the fashion industry does not do well on the 'green gauge' (are you listening, PRIMARK?) However, all the products ADILI stock tackle at least one of the environmental and social issues involved in making, transporting and selling clothes. Hurrah!

I couldn't download any pictures (probably a security measure on their part ) so check out the site for yourself. They do stock yoga pants, of course, but they also have fantastic coats, separates, men's and kid's clothing and accessories that are RATHER gorgeous!!

NEWSFLASH! Eco Warrioress will be speaking at The Sustainability Show

2007-10-24T14:22:00.000+01:00

Here's a couple of GREEN events on London this week..

This weekend ( 26th, 27th, 28th of October)
is THE SUSTAINABILITY SHOW at the O2 in London.

I will be speaking about sustainable design and lifestyle on Sunday at 12.30pm.

I'm also looking forward to finding more green products and eco answers to your sustainable life.

I spoke to the events director, David Miall, and he stressed that the show will have exhibits from every spectrum of the sustainable world. There will be ethical fashion, cosmetics, holidays and investments, cars, travel and much more. Companies as diverse as BMW and Bubble House Worm Farms will be exhibiting side by side and David Bellamy is coming on Saturday to talk about trees and sustainability,

I'm looking forward to it. It will be a lively event. Entry to the show is absolutely free so come on over to Greenwich and see us. What a great way to recycle the 'Millienium Dome'! and you can be sure I will be blogging about all the cool new green things I find in the coming weeks.

I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!

ANOTHER GREEN EVENT THIS THURSDAY

Friary Environmental Network (FEN)
presents

A talk by
DONNACHADH McCARTHY

HOW TO GREEN OUR HOMES AND FLATS FROM THE AMAZON & TV TO THE FRIARY ESTATE Admission: Free

**
Environmental author Donnachadh McCarthy will talk about his lifestyle,
writing, and how to reduce your carbon footprint. He’s an enjoyable
speaker, and somebody who practices what he preaches.

*Thursday 25th October 6.30-8.00 pm in Friary Tenants and Residents
Hall, Frensham St, SE15 6TH. Free Refreshments.*

All the Green Things Fit To BLOG!

2007-10-18T14:20:00.001+01:00

GREETINGS AGAIN, GREENIES!

I feel like I have so much to catch with and share with you after BLOG ACTION DAY took up a whole blog..... SO!
This week it is on with the blogging about all the great green things I have found for you!!

SOAP NUTS
Soap nuts clean your laundry without detergent!

In 2006, Soapods founder Penny Morgan found soap nuts in an ashram in India. They have a natural soap inside the shell that cleans washing without the need for detergent.

And you know how much I love the things that tick all the green boxes....Soapods products are high-quality and completely environmentally friendly. They are 100% organic, cruelty free, not tested on animals, sustainable, renewable, 100% natural and.... they really work!

I met Penny, who is a very persuasive lady, and I believe it when she says that after telling all her friends about her nuts she decided that there was a potential opportunity for an eco-friendly and ethical business. Soapods was born! Check out her website for all the places to find them.

"GREEN PR, SWEETIE! I PR GREEN THINGS!"

My friend Sarah Louise Baulsh’s REVAMPT business of recycling vintage fabrics into lovely new things is going great guns. You can find her at Acton Art & Craft Market & Farmers market most Saturdays and at The Sustainability Show at O2 this weekend.

Sarah tells me she has learnt so much on her green business journey she is now able to share her wealth of knowledge and promote others with similar green business ethics and she has started GREEN PR - an offshoot of ReVampt where she offers PR services. These include help with styling shoots, creating a Marketing Calender, unique press contacts, networking, Press Releases etc and says studies have shown that people need to see your brand name 27 times for it to register and will forget it if not reminded again within 90 days! Sarah's enthusiasm for promoting the green word is infectious. So if you have a green company to promote, give her a call!!

SOYBEAM CANDLES

Liz in LA emailed to let me know that her SOYBEAM candles can now be shipped to the UK and if you and if you type in the word Friends at the checkout you will get 20% discount!

Christmas is coming!! 'Rah!

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS

THE GREEN HAUS

I recently met Jane Mosely founder of THE GREEN HAUS which is a one stop shop for fabulous green designers and their products. With The Green Haus, Jane has created a unique showcase for the new up and coming designers of our green future.

Designers like Richard Liddle who created the RD (roughly drawn) chair

Made from 100% recycled plastic packaging waste like milk, detergent bottles & food packaging, the chairs are hand made using a revolutionary process, developed by Richard, which take on the appearance of woven metal. I love their funky look!

No two are alike.

Jane also supplies organic cotton bed linen by Amenity. Inspired by nature and committed to preserving it, Amenity makes purely organic, 320 thread count, cotton bedding collection which means it is ssssoooofft!

The fabric for this collection is certified organically grown and organically processed cotton. Each of the large-scale images is printed individually onto the fabric with non-toxic, eco-friendly, water-based dyes.

At The Green Haus, Jane has sourced an eclectic mix of products, some readily available, some made to order but all of them with sustainability at their core, the majority of which has been designed and made in the UK.

Talking to Jane, I couldn’t agree with her more when she says that sustainable design is not just about the end product but the entire product process. She also believes that sustainability should be affordable and she is on a mission to bring these gorgeous green things to us all. I LOVE her!!

IN THE STATES

Based in the Pacific North West, Zola Eco Furnishings make custom hand-made eco-friendly home furnishings. A little over two years ago, they established the goal of eliminating all toxic products from their furniture and adopting eco-friendly and sustainable practices for all of their manufacturing.

ZOLA recently supplied a piece of eco furniture for “Living with Ed”, the eco-friendly home show on HGTV with Ed Begley Jr.

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS

Talking of Ed Begley I have to blog about him again because I got this email from a designer in Nashville Tennessee:-

Alexandra,
Is there a green way to clean granite countertops?
Gloria
Beth Haley Design
www.bethhaleydesign.com

Of course if you are stuck with granite counter tops it is best not to get rid of them just to send to the landfill so my reply was:-

Gloria,
Thanks so much for your email. Granite is a very resilient surface but is still porous and can show a dark stain like red wine, so you have to be careful what you use on it if you are going to throw away your chemical surface cleaners. I would recommend my environmentalist and green friend Ed Begley's fantastic cleaning product called BEGLEY’S BEST. It comes in a concentrate, so needs less packaging. (we first used in on the Prius!! Dontcha know! It was MAR-velous!! fwah fwah!!). I can also recommend Method which is also has a range of cleaners and is economical on packaging too because it comes highly concentrated.

Best Wishes, Alexandra

For my UK readers, Ecover is a range of cleaning products that is doing very well including laundry detergent and limescale remover - which I like very much. They are available at Waitrose and other supermarkets.

Kay The Cook does not like Ecover washing up liquid so much because she doesn't think it cleans so well. I’d be interested in comments on your experience using these eco cleaners. As everyone has different standards of hygiene at home, sometimes the chemical wins over the natural surfactants. (Oooh, steady on! Big word!!)

And I still want to find out where to find ECOVER Bleach. It does all the stuff a regular bleach does but doesn't harm all the fishes in the sea. Anyone seen it? I can't find it in my local Waitrose but have seen it mentioned on their website.

I use a washing ball for my laundry and that eliminates the need for detergent all together and it's great for everything except I do like something to give me whites a wee boost now and again.

God, I sound more like my bloody mother every day…

BLOG ACTION DAY RESULTS

By all accounts Blog Action Day was HUGE success. 20,603 Bloggers participated, there were 23,327 Blog Posts (according to a Google Blog Search) and there were (at least) 14,631,038 Blog Readers. If you were one of those millions who participated because you read my blog last Monday I thank for becoming part of a Global Awareness to change the World.

NEXT WEEK
THE SUSTAINABILITY SHOW at O2
ETHICAL & FAIRTRADE FASHION - not just yoga pants, Love!
ECO HOUSE BUILDS FROM NOTTING HILL TO DEEPEST HEREFORDSHIRE

A NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

2007-10-15T18:13:00.000+01:00

BLOG ACTION DAY - ECO WARRIORESS SPEAKS

How appropriate that we Blog Action Day Bloggers are, all 15,000 of us, blogging about the environment 3 days after Al Gore’s won the Noble Peace Prize?

This stuff just writes itself, I tell ya!!

I, for one, cannot help wondering what a different world we would be living in post 9/11 had Al Gore been allowed his place in the Whitehouse in 2000.
Quel tragique, you might say?!!
But in hindsight, we can see he has used the last 7 years to create a platform on the world stage as an environmentalist. He has shown the world – in the wake of a terrible war in Iraq started on a bunch of lies - that we face a far greater threat even that terrorism and that is the threat we ourselves pose to the planet we live on.

Some have criticized his Nobel win because his work has not been about world peace.
Well HELLO!!
The blind ignorance with which many nations and individuals will just keep on using the planet’s resources until they all run out (oh well) and all the endangered species are gone (whatever) is staggering. 'Cos as you know (and I quote Mr Gore) "It's difficult to get people to believe something when their paycheck depends on them not believing it."
Well, it’s just pathetic!
Even as I write, an army of auto industry lobbyists is swarming over Capitol Hill. Their mission is to strangle a clean energy bill before we can enjoy better gas mileage and more renewable energy. Wars in the future will be fought not for oil (because that really will be gone, gone, gone) but for water and food supplies. Due to climate change, these resources we presently take for granted, will be in very short supply. A few corrupt corporations will own the rights to them. Coke a Cola are buying up the world’s water supply rights as I blog…

There will always be climate change skeptics and I think smart, educated researchers and writers like Bjorn Lomborg are worth taking notice of but I say we could all be making more informed choices about the way we use the planets resources. Where's the harm in that?

In 2000 I wanted Al Gore to win the presidency because one of his goals was to eliminate the internal combustion engine by 2020. A crazy thought 7 years ago. HOW would we ever achieve THAT? But now it’s an idea that might just happen on it’s own. Fancy that!! It could happen despite an uncaring U S president who couldn’t bring himself to sign the Kyoto Agreement .

Many have called for Mr Gore to run for president again, but I wonder if his position as a statesman might be better used when concentrated on this one very important issue. He has found his vocation. Having a single clear mission can make one more focused and therefore more successful. Bill Clinton lamented the fact that 8 years in office did not give him enough time to complete all the projects he was presented with. It’s just too big a job. I’m sure poor old GW feels the same way, but I say “Thank God for that!" He’s done enough damage for the next guy – or woman – to take care of!

I don't think he will run for president again but I think Mr Gore’s Noble Prize win is fantastic.
Congratulations Al!
It’s a win for him, his campaign and a win for the planet.
Hurrah!
I raise a glass of (organic/fairtrade) champagne to that!

PLEASE READ MY BLOGGING FRIENDS ACTION DAY BLOGS

My dear friend in LA and friend to all the green stars, Nelson Aspen
I get a mensh!! Hurrah
and Super Friend and Super Cook Kay Plunkett-Hogge

BLOG ACTION DAY 2007

2007-10-09T11:03:00.001+01:00

Here is a wonderful promo for BLOG ACTION DAY.

Next Monday (15th October) bloggers everywhere, will blog about the ENVIRONMENT. Not hard for me, of course, but all bloggers all over the world are being encouraged to do the same.
If you contribute, let me know and I'll make a link here then other people can link it and then...well, you get the idea! We are spreading the word here people...
Click the link and sign up!!

THE SUSTAINABILITY SHOW AT THE O2

2007-10-08T22:45:00.000+01:00

Coming up on the 26th, 27th, 28th of October
is THE SUSTAINABILITY SHOW at the O2 in London.
I will be there of course, checking out all the new sustainable products and reporting about them right here in my blog.

Here's the deets:
Entry to the show is absolutely free.
Follow the carbon foot prints from the main entrance of the O2 and find out how to reduce yours. Have lots of fun discovering ethical fashion, cosmetics, holidays and investments. Cars, travel and much more. At The Sustainability Show you will find a variety of new products and ideas developed specifically with the sustainability of our environment and life style in mind.
Many of these products and ideas have the added benefit of reducing your outgoings such as expensive fuel and utility bills, saving you money to spend on the more important things in life.

The first ever The Sustainability Show could not be held at a more ideal venue. The O2 a perfect demonstration of recycling on a grand scale!

SEE YOU THERE!

DESIGN THIS!

2007-10-01T17:04:00.000+01:00

I love the design fairs at the moment because green is the new black (already a cliche!) and everyone is jumping on the eco bandwagon – in a good way, of course!!

Since I last blogged I’ve been to 100% Design at Earl’s Court and the Landmark Eco Arts Fair. Over the next few weeks I will be writing about all the new green things I found there.

At the shows I get to see, touch and hold all the new green products coming onto the market and meet the people at the sharp pointy end of sustainable design.

100% DESIGN

100% DESIGN is a yearly show at Earl’s Court that I hope soon eclipses the IDEAL HOME SHOW. I’m with Alice in Wonderland who said something like “What a ridiculous design fair! I’m never going there again!” Why, oh why, did I waste my money on a ticket last March I will never know. It was two halls full of white vinyl conservatories and dodgy, non eco roof insulation salesmen and then upstairs on the balcony bit is a floor heaving with loud Billy Mays type demonstrations of plastic gadgets that chop, dice and whiz all your foodie bits. You buy the Smasher/Grabber/Liquidiser whatever on a gadget adrenaline rush of mod-con-ness only to relegate the hideous thing to the back of the kitchen cupboard after two uses. Not stylish and NOT GREEN! Uch!!

You’ve all bought them. You know who your are. Eco Warroiress says ‘Naughty, naughty. Don’t do it again!’

So, ANYway: last week, 100% Design was a breath of gorgeous fresh air. Not everyone was touting a green or sustainable design model, but many had the right idea…

CONRETE COUNTER TOPS

I met Tim Bayes, the managing director of Low Info. His company makes poured concrete counter tops, sinks and furniture. I have long been touting the virtues of concrete as an eco design material because it is also amazingly versatile. You can stain it different colours and after it is polished or waxed it takes on the most beautiful look of stone. As it is poured in place or in the factory and then installed, there is very little waste like there is with granite, for instance.

I was so happy to meet Tim. LOW INFO is based in Nottingham so he is now my UK David Hertz. David has a green architect practise in Santa Monica and was my professor at UCLA. He invented a lightweight concrete called Syndecrete. He does clever things with it like put recycled glass chips in the concrete mix. In one case, they suspended broken bits of old tapes and CD's that had been smashed up by young people in an anger management programme. The tiles were used for the lobby of a recording studio in Venice CA!
Can you say SYNERGY?

DIMMABLE LOW ENERGY BULBS

My favourite find was a low energy light bulb that you can dim!! Friends of the Earth sponsored a bulb ‘light garden’ by DIGIFLUX. This is an eco interior designers DREAM because you are saving up to £100 ($204) and 500kg of carbon emissions during the life of each bulb while being able to create light in a room with some depth.

I learnt about the virtues of compact fluorescents at UCLA only to be told that they flickered slightly when switched on, were slightly less bright than the usual bulb and that they had only two modes – on and off! Now technology has caught up and they can be dimmed.
Oh joy.

All my friends and clients know I hate overhead lighting. I always go for table and floor lamps to give dimension and candles for atmosphere – organic soy or beeswax, of course, Sweetie. Ceiling spotlights are great, but the dimmable compact fluorescents are great news.

I emailed Caspar at Glowb and he assures me that they too have dimmable bulbs in their range for both classic and spotlights. So now there really is no excuse to switch to low energy bulbs all over the house and office.

LANDMARK ECO FAIR

The Landmark Eco Fair sponsored by the London Borough of Richmond was in a beautiful Gothic church that has been recycled into a performance and exhibition space.

I saw my friends Kate Keegan of One Green Earth and Sarah Louise Baulsch from Revampt there as well as Lisa Harland of Harland Organic Furnishings. These are my new best green friends and are already in my Little Green Book.

I also met Deborah and Michihiro from Charcoal People. They make charcoal bamboo filters that filter your drinking water and then fertilize the garden afterwards like the Japanese have been doing for centuries. Goodbye plastic Brita Water Filters and refills!!

ECO GARDEN DESIGN

And then there was Louise Zass-Bangham Eco Garden Design.
I’m always looking for fabulous landscape designers. Gardens are just an extension of our living space so it is important to make them fabulous and green in every sense of the word. Louise designs her gardens with all the eco elements in place and has written a book about Sustainable Landscape Design coming out in 2008.

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS

At the Eco Fair I met two eco interior designers, Helen Mudie and Kate Millbank of One Eco Home who have compiled an encyclopedic catalogue of beautiful eco furniture and furnishings for your home.
Rather like Ellen Strickland at Livingreen in Culver City, CA all their suppliers have to answer a rigorous questionnaire on how green their product is and not all of them make the grade.
At One Eco Interiors, Kate has a masters degree in Environmental Architecture (not too shabby!) and awards each item symbols according to their carbon footprint, sustainability or recycled elements. They have done all the hard work for people like you and me so all we have to do is source, drool and buy!

Helen showed me the boxes of colour co-ordinated eco fabric and tiles that she has put together. Of course, as designers, we want you to employ our services to choose colours and textures for you, but as a start, you can take away one of her boxes (made from recycled cardboard that itself can be reused as a gift box!) full of gorgeous swatches that One Eco Interiors carries. At home, you can choose the ones you would like to use. I think this is a marvelous idea.

GREEN FRIENDS TALK BACK

I haven’t worked out how to show comments people leave below the blog – you have to click on the ‘comments’ button to see them. Please do, there are some really good ones.....But I get feedback from my friends and blog readers all the time and I have started a list of them for you.

My friend Peter White and I met when we were filming TITANIC in Mexico in 1996. He is doing up a house in Greenwich and every so often when I have the inclination and a free moment, I go over and strip for him – wallpaper, dears, I strip wallpaper - get your mind out of the gutter!!

The other night watching DIY SOS on BBC1 with the cheeky and charismatic Nick Knowles, Peter had this to say:

Alexandra my Dear,
The other night I while watching proper television I sat on my remote control and accidentally tuned into 'DIY SOS'. A man called Nick Knowles was doing a 'piece to camera'. He was standing in front of a builder's skip which appeared to be largely full of cardboard packaging. It struck me as odd that, while doing their refurbishment, they were adding a 'green' quotient, double glazing, insulation etc., and then promptly undoing it by dumping the recyclable packaging in a skip, (and from there one assumes to a landfill)!
xx Peter

Eco Warrioress says: The construction business is extremely wasteful. The build of an average 3 bedroom house can create about 2.5 tonnes of waste for the landfill. So much of that is the initial demo and then there is the packaging that radiators and kitchen cabinets and toilets all come in. I don’t think it takes a green genius to work out that you could have flattened those boxes and got them to a recycling centre.
Living in and around the TV and movie business in Los Angeles, I hear and see a lot of strange thought processes. My partner Rob’s first job in LA ten years ago was building sets. He was constantly frustrated by the amount of waste of wood and other materials during a shoot. Nothing is recycled. It takes too much time and money and those are key words in the film industry. One day a guy he worked with, 'Union Mike', sensing Rob's disquiet said : "Don't worry Rob, the movie industry only uses 2% of the world's wood!"
I guess Mike thought that was OK, since '2' is such a small number...

All my movie chums are writing in...

April Fitzsimmons and I know each other from MR HOLLAND’S OPUS. She was a Second AD on the film but has since become and actress. She has a very successful one woman show that she performs in and around Los Angeles called The Need To Know.

Alexandra - you probably already do this but I've found using all those plastic containers (the fruit sometimes comes in) or any plastic with a lid - is great, once washed out, for storing pens, pencils, boxes of staples etc. No need to buy those little organizing devices at Target anymore- just explore your trash - it's amazing!!! (I also use them to organize under the bathroom sink for hair clips, extra soaps, razors etc.

Thank you!
If you have any thoughts, observations or tips on living a greener life, please email me and I will post them here!

GREEN BOOKS I HAVE READ AND WANT YOU TO READ TOO...

Spent a very pleasant tube journey or two reading THE LAZY ENVIRONMENTALIST. The book catalogues all the latest eco and green things you need for your green lifestyle. Travel, fashion, furniture, kids, food, you name it, he has it covered. Josh Dorfman wrote it [he also has a radio show on LIME Radio] and he has been featured in my GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS section before because he is the founder of VIVAVI and those lovely pieces of sustainable furniture.

Can’t wait to go and visit him when I go to NYC in November.

TESCO TESCO TESCO

2007-09-20T21:18:00.000+01:00

The Green Issue of TESCO MAGAZINE is now in the stores and in it is the feature I did with Midge Ure and a group of other Greenies. Please pick up a copy the next time you shop.

Yes, that's me up the ladder!

THE DAILY GLOWB

So I'm walking through Trafalgar Square the other day 'cos I'm on my way to a screenplay reading at the ICA there is this huge great display of lights suspended in front of The National Gallery in some sort of fabulous installation by Tom Dixon and of course I'm plugged into all the design and art events going on and I remember that London is in the middle of Design Week (went to a London Fashion Week runway show last Saturday with my friend Kay and 100% Design and Decorex are coming up - already got me tickets) and THEN Eco Warrioress says to herself "Waydahminnit!!! How much blimmin' electricity are all those lights using? And they are on in the middle of the day!!"
I draw closer to get a better gander - it's cool to look at after all - and there is a long line of people waiting for something. Well, I'm back in the UK, so nothing new there! However, it turns out they are actually waiting to be given one of the lights from the installation. They were giving away the fixtures FREE - yes, free, gratis and for NOTHING - to the first 1,000 punters in the line, complete with a low energy GLOWB.
Eco Warrioress screeches to a halt and makes for the end of the queue!! After about 20 minutes I got my light fixture and one of the coolest things is that the container the new bulb comes in is addressed to Glowb so you can return your old 'naughty' incandescent bulbs and they will recycle it for you. They are also very keen to emphasise that the Glowb bulbs are made with the lowest possible impact on the environment.
Lots of green boxes being ticked!!
I got chatting with Caspar Thykier, one of the very cute, young founders of Glowb. He says that after seeing The Inconvenient Truth , his 'light bulb moment' came in the pub over a pint. He and his partners decided to become part of the solution to climate change and started their company.

Chaps after my own heart and another New Best Eco Friend for Alexandra's Little Green Book!

If everyone in the UK changed to Glowb, we would cut carbon emissions by 3 million tonnes a year and save £1 billion on our electricity bills.
Get yourself a Glowb.
The bulbs will be available from Dec 1st at their website and in selected retailers across the UK.

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS

Following through with the light fixture thingy theme....you might need a shade for you new Glowb and you could get this one made from sustainable-plantation-grown hoop pine untreated plywood. You can find this shade and many others at Design Within Reach who sustainably strike again with this lovely range of shades designed by New Zealander, David Trubridge. He was honored with the Natural World Museum's 2007 Green Leaf Award for artistic excellence. I met David at his stand at 100% Design at Earls Court last Saturday and we got to chat briefly. He told me the shades are even shipped unassembled to reduce packing materials. Can you stand how green that is?

GOOOORGEOUSNESS!!

AND FINALLY A WORD ABOUT MARKS AND SPENCERS HANGERS....AND UNDERWIRE BRAS!!!!???

This comment came to me from Kate after she read my blog about Marks and Spencer's coat hanger amnesty on Ethical Junction. This is great!!

This letter is not just for your amusement, it is a very serious ethical issue! Just a quick note from me concerning the Eco Warrioress item and Marks and Spencers coat hangers. My concern is yes not just for the coat hangers, but..... (wait for it fellers!) the amount of metal underwire that are in bras that must also end up in landfill! If you go into any M&S store or lingerie department in any shop the bras nearly always have metal under wire in them, you can get perfectly well made, equally supportive and sexy bras without the under wire (if you are not familiar with that part of the bra I suggest you take a closer look). Some ladies with really big breasts say that they need the underwire for the support, but in this day and age we have the technology to make aero dynamic support for any size surely!

Any way I think this is a much ignored item on the landfill and recycling agenda. Any ideas how we should start a campaign against the under wire industry? And I do know this is not a guy thing! It is a long time since the 70’s when women burnt their bras for women’s lib, I don’t know that there has been any kind of revolt on that front since, and the underwire has gone on being an environmental disaster from the 90’s onwards, (might have been earlier than that, but I don’t know or remember!).
Cheers Kate

YOU ONLY HAVE TO ASK

2007-09-13T13:54:00.000+01:00

THE BIG ASK

This week I made a little video for the Friends of the Earth Web March to ask the government for tougher laws to control climate change. About 172,000 others have joined the march (lots of famous people and that) and I encourage you to do the same. Friends of the Earth will also send an email to your local representative or MP on your behalf - I got a very nice letter from Greg Hands (MP for Hammersmith and Fulham) telling me what his party plans to do for the bill.

Click here, put in my name in the search field and you should be able to see it! Friends of the Earth are encouraging everyone to record their message on a digital camera or mobile phone and upload it to the site. It's easy and fun! Hurrah!

GREEN AND BONNY SCOTLAND

I have just returned from a lovely weekend in Scotland.
Gosh, was it beautiful!

I know the Brits are a nation of sun chasers, but as we consider the carbon footprint of every flight we make to a Mediterranean country, we should remember that this country has some of the most breathtakingly unspoilt scenery in the world and stay at home once in a while.

It was my sister’s birthday weekend and we managed to combine a spot of culture with our camping in the walled garden of a country house on the Scottish Borders.
"Camping? Cos it's eco, Warrioress?"
"No. Cos it's CHEAP! My first time: NOT a fan, love!"

On Saturday evening we saw a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters performed by The Actor's Temple at Chesters, a gorgeous Georgian mansion. I mean, literally IN the house. In the dining room, in the drawing room and in the hallway...should have been a murder mystery, shouldn't it? The whole thing was very Gosford Park meets Remains of the Day [apart from the camping that is!]

ALNWICK GARDENS

On the way back down to London we stopped off at Alnwick Garden. Not as in-your-face-green as say, The Eden Project, but a beautiful place none the less.

The Duchess of Northumberland has done an amazing job at creating and designing a fantastic contemporary garden with wonderful water features, educational areas for children and one of the largest tree houses in the world.
Anyone spending time and money on growing plants in a beautiful and interactive setting and sharing them with everyone else is an environmentalist and an ecologist in my book. There are many additions planned to the existing design and I can’t wait to visit again. There will always be new things to see in each changing season.

WICKED
Here's a bit of showbiz GREEN GOSS!
My friend Linda Kerns and I met while we were filming TITANIC in 1996. She was 'THIRD CLASS WOMAN' and I was 'FIRST CLASS WOMAN' so an instant bond was formed - one that would not have been possible in 1912, I suspect!
Linda is in the Pantages production of WICKED in Los Angeles. She read by blog last week and posted a comment that I have to quote here:
"WICKED", the musical about a green witch goes green. Good idea, don’t you think? One of our producers called a meeting last week to encourage us all to make what changes we can, both at home and at the theatre. We're adding more re-cycling bins, having re-usable pay envelopes, changing all the dressing room light bulbs, using environmentally sound laundry detergent for costumes, etc. Too many ideas to mention here, but if you think of anything further, let me know! Linda

(witches cackle) “Heee hee hee hee hee hee!!!”

COAT HANGERS - The Saga Continues...

A few weeks ago, I blogged about returning your wire coat hangers instead of making landfill fodder from them. Have you been good? Are you collecting and taking them back for your dry cleaner to reuse? I also talked about that icky smell emanating from every dry cleaners in the land and wondered just how harmful those vapours are to our systems.

Leo Hickman at The Guardian wrote a great article about the ethics of dry cleaning your clothes. I think the evidence speaks for itself. I picked up two of Leo’s books at The Eden Project book shop when I was there a few years ago. A Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically, is an hilarious account of the year his family committed to living an ethical life. He has also written a guide to all things ethical (and therefore, nearly always eco) A Good Life: The Guide To Ethical Living . I learned a lot about a green, eco and ethical life from them.

Leo also told me about a COAT HANGER AMNESTY that Marks and Spencers are having for (don't get too excited!) THREE whole days this month! You can take your hangers into selected stores and they will recycle them for you. All part of their mission to be carbon neutral by 2012.

I personally think they should take the hangers year round at all their stores…but as I continue to chant: Ohhhhhhmmmmm.....every little bit helps......ohhhhhhhmmmm....

According to recent research, there are over 530 million unwanted hangers stashed away in UK homes and almost 100 million of them go straight to landfill every year. The average Briton has 67 coat hangers in their home and 18% of these aren’t used. (not in my house. I’m doubling up on most of mine! Note to self: STOP shopping! ) As a result almost a fifth of them end up in the bin. The remainder are taking up valuable storage space in lofts, garages and wardrobes.

So, if for no other reason than a clutter-clearing Feng Shui one, dig out all those wire coat hangers and take them back to your dry cleaners or Marksies - if you live near a participating store.

We don’t all have Joan Crawford for a mother, thank God! However you do have ME, your friendly Eco Warrioress, instead!

Participating Marks and Spencer stores are:
· Lisburn · Liffey Valley · Cardiff · Glasgow Argyle Street · Newcastle · Manchester · Bluewater · Plymouth · Merry Hill · Peterborough · High Street Kensington

ANITA RODDICK
The passing this week of Dame Anita Roddick can not go unmentioned. Long known as The Queen of Green, the founder of THE BODY SHOP died of a brain haemorrhage last Sunday. Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Anita was a leading light of the modern green movement, and was one the first people to combine a profitable business with environmental responsibility. She spent an enormous amount of energy not only in running a pioneering company but also devoted passion and creativity to helping green, human rights and development organisations achieve their aims."

I remember I loved to shop at the Body Shop when it first opened. Still do. As a dance student on a grant, it was great to be able to take back your shampoo and body lotion bottles to refill for less that you paid the first time. You see: recycling is driven by the attraction of saving money...very eco!! I still use White Musk oil (a Body Shop classic!) as a perfume. The scent takes me back to my youth! Ahhh...Plus: I found out today, that Dame Anita and I share the same birthday exactly 20 years apart. Hmmm. That feels like synchronicity!
Anita Roddick was an inspiration to us all and will be sadly missed.

ECO COFFINS
Now don't take this the wrong way, but it got me thinking about Dame Anita's funeral already. Surely she wouldn't have wanted to be cremated - lots of pollution. Or will she be put in a 'mahogany' casket and buried in the ground? Research from The Natural Death Centre in London, showed that 89% of coffins used every year, some 600,000, are made from chipboard covered with laminate. Uch!! All that, including an embalmed body full of formaldehyde and God knows what else takes forever to decompose and pollutes the Earth. Soooooo, what are the alternatives?

I'm a big fan of Six Feet Under and was particularly moved by the episode when Nathen buries his wife, Lisa, as she had wished: in the desert, without a casket or any chemicals pumped into her body.

There are a number of alternative options to the old mahogany caskets and the ECO POD is one of them.

The Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper. They are made from 100% ecologically sound materials so are the ideal product for a non toxic burial or cremation. Perfect for use in greenfield sites where you are buried straight in the ground and a tree is planted on the site.

This should really go in Gorgeous Green things: It is the oh so stylish

This is so sleek, it's almost too good to put in the ground. If you've done everything in your life in eco style, (like I intend to do!) why go to your grave in an unattractive box? For $3,500 (1,700 GBP) you can get yourself the high gloss Uono Cocoon Coffin.
“My strategy is to convince people to buy the Cocoon before they get to the funeral home,” says Uono founder Andreas Spiegel. He realised that mourning families will buy just about any casket on the spot. He came up with the idea for this sleek Star Trek-like design after having to bury his design-loving father in a tacky brass-handled box. The result is a innovative reinterpretation of the basic traditional coffin. Spiegel succeeded in creating a sleek, stylish, futuristic oval cocoon (coffin) that combines artistic design with functional simplicity in a redesign that is also biodegradableIt comes in fourteen standard colours and even your crunchy granola types can love this thing without guilt—it's biodegradable, made from jute and coated with a water-based varnish. So there you go!

Enough of this dark subject!
It's time for

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS!

Last week I mentioned Lisa Harland's organic upholstery and today, I want to highlight the company in the States that supplies some of her fabric and wallpaper. The Mod Green Pod makes whimsical and organic cotton fabric and vinyl free wallpaper. The fabric retails for $105 (52 GBP) a yard and the wallpaper is $112.50 (55 GBP)

I think the designs speak for them selves.

THE BEACH BURNER

I know it was an awful summer and we're all pretty bitter about it you don't want to think about BBQ's or nothin' like that til you can actually have one...but you still want to stay warm at the beach, right?

Check out this BEACH BURNER
Made from recycled steel each 24" bowl is a one of a kind work of art! (Gosh, I went all American sales pitchy on myself there, sorry!)
The Beach Burner can be upgraded to a gas-fired pit for an additional $199 (97 GBP), which includes double ring gas burner and securely welded gas fitting in base of bowl. Gas is not only safer and cleaner than wood fire, it's also more convenient since you can turn the fire on and off at will! And the cut steel flames make great cooking rests for sausages or marshmallows!! Get your woolies out ( like you ever packed them away this year!) and get down the beach!

"What? No! Eco Warrioress not camping on the beach?"
"Not camping ever again if she can help it!"

GREEN LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT

Don’t forget, if you need me to facilitate your green makeover, give me a call. I will advise you on all things eco and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll go and find it for you. I’ll create a 'greenprint' for you and do the simple things like changing your light bulbs to the curly low energy ones, arrange for your solar panels to be installed and everything in between. You may not be able to implement everything at the beginning, but I will leave you with a list of “can do’s” to work towards for future reference. You will end up with a folder full of green solutions and websites to help you lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint.
Go on, you know you want to!
You know you should do!  Email me. ecowarrioress@gmail.com 

FALSE ECONOMY OR ECO-NOMISING

2007-08-31T14:45:00.000+01:00

When I talk to prospective interior design clients about all the green things we can include in their new home, I’m often greeted with the notion that it is going to cost more money than they want to spend. Sometimes new technology means that you have to spend a bit more, but often, when incorporated with energy saving elements like solar panels and low energy appliances, you can see a return on that money in your low [or no!] energy bills and in the increased resale value of your home.

You have to see the renovation not just as an esthetic update, but as an investment. Heating our houses and water won’t be getting any cheaper any time soon.

Having said that; did you know that there are also a number of grants available to homeowners and businesses who want to lower their bills and carbon emissions? It is worth checking in your borough or state to see what’s available.

LOFT INSULATION GRANTS
For instance, in the UK, you can apply for a grant to insulate your home, regardless of your income, for up to 100% of the cost. It’s part of a government initiative to get homeowners to lower their energy bills. Losing heat from a ‘leaky’ house can cause greenhouse gases. If your house is well insulated, it keeps heat in during the cold months and the interior cool during a scorching summer. Insulation even stops noise pollution if you live near a busy road or airport flight path. Check it out and see how much you can qualify for.

LOCAL BUSINESS GRANTS
This week I met Sunny Lee. She is a very inspiring woman who works for the Merton Chamber of Commerce and helps businesses in her area recycle properly, lower energy bills and reuse their resources.
She was able to help a restaurant get a 50% grant for a new refrigerator. They were using an old, leaky fridge and the new one is much more energy efficient and pollutes less. Another company saved £8,000 over two years after making the energy saving changes she recommended.
Sunny says there are grants to be found for solar panels and other energy saving additions to your business. The price for her consultation is nominal. A mere £10. If you are in her borough, her email is sunny@southlondon.biz
Her programme is supported by The London Development Agency, so if you own a house or business in London, check online and see what’s available to you.

I encourage everyone to do the research wherever you are. There are schemes and grants for sustainable developers, homeowners and businesses being introduced all over the place so it is always worth checking your local authority/council to see what’s available.

SPORT BOTTLE
My friend, Liza in Gloucestershire, was a victim of the floods last month. Her house was not flooded, but her water supply was cut off and in two weeks she amassed an enormous heap of empty plastic water bottles. Liza said it was the first time she realised how much plastic is wasted when we drink water from a bottle.
Uh Huh!!
Americans add over 30 million plastic water bottles to their landfills – everyday!

Can I also say, plastic milk cartons?
Remember in the olden days when the milkman used to leave glass bottles of milk on your doorstep and take away the empties that were washed, filled and returned in an electric milk cart!
Who ever thought that was a bad idea?

Does the Earth really need so much plastic? I think not.
There are (still) no mineral water regulations, so chances are, tap water is as healthy as any water you can buy. It’s fresh too. A lot of bottled water can have been in storage for weeks on end in hot warehouses growing all sorts of bacteria.
Then there’s the theory that the plastic from the bottles can be harmful and so we shouldn’t be refilling the bottles we do buy. Something I used to do, thinking I was recycling/reusing as much as I can. Tests have found traces of antimony, a chemical used in the making of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, used by most mineral-water sellers. Also studies into the safety of water stored for too long in plastic bottles showed that small doses of toxins can leak into the water from the plastic. It was discovered that the toxin levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months. Something to think about…
Solution: Don’t keep buying your water in plastic bottles. Drink water from the tap, which is quite tasty here in London. Unfortunately, all Los Angeles water still tastes like a swimming pool, so I suggest you filter it. Use a Brita water filter or some other sort and carry the water around in a cool and trendy SIGGS bottle made from stainless steel. The SIGGS bottles come in lots of colours and fun designs. Check out the website.

NOW IT’S TIME FOR
GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS
Here are some of the fun and stylish  Eco Things  I have come across this week

REVAMP IT
STOP! Don’t throw away or take to the charity shop all that fabric you have had lurking in the back of your cupboard because when you bought it three years ago you were going to make it into…oh…something, you’ve forgotten quite what... Or those old doilies and napkins and antimacassars...or that dress with the vintage print that doesn’t fit you anymore. Give them to Sarah Louise Baulsch.
Sarah is one of my friends from the Enviro Entrepreneur School. She takes old jeans and vintage fabric and revamps them into fabulous new cushions, bags and doorstops. My favourite are her cushions made from jeans incorporating the pockets which are perfect for holding the elusive TV remote! (see photo above). I have put her in touch with my friend who has a wedding dress shop in Essex. Each season, Laura is left with a room full of her samples, some of which she sells, but some of which she bags up in mothballs. I can’t wait to see the gorgeous lavender scented pillows and ring bearers cushions that Sarah can make from all those reams of beaded silk! I have another designer friend who hangs a lot of curtains and always has a lot of the wooden curtain rings left over. I’ve asked him to start saving them. Yes, he throws them away – Eco Warrioress isn’t having THAT - so I’m giving them to Sarah and she is gong to use them for hanging Christmas decorations.

She sells her wares at markets around west London (Acton) and also on line. Please, if you have any vintage tea towels, fabric or clothes that you can’t put to any use, contact her through her website www.revampit.co.uk and send them her way.

ORGANIC UPHOLSTERY AND WALLPAPER
This week I spoke to Lisa Harland, an upholsterer whose company, Harland Organic Furnishings does what it says on the box. She uses organic and ethical fabric to cover her furniture. Hers is another company that scores high on the how-many-green-elements-can-you-include-in-your-business-practise scale and she has many to be proud of?

Some of her philosophies include using only organic cotton, hemp and organic British wool from a sustainable source. All the fabrics are biodegradable and the dyes are non-toxic. All the woods in her furniture are recycled or sustainable, she only uses non-toxic, formaldehyde-free, water-based glues and her wood finishes are non-toxic. She doesn’t use leather, only works with peace silk, where the moth has been able to mature and leave the cocoon to complete its natural life cycle and instead of using feather down, she uses organic wool balls. That’s a high eco rating if you ask me!!

We had a long chat re sourcing eco design elements like hemp and organic cotton. It can be a challenge. As a designer I need someone like Lisa to do that for me – otherwise I would never sleep!

Lisa also sells wallpaper that contains no vinyl and has no harmful chemical finishers. By law fabric has to be flame retardant and many companies fall down at that particular 'green' hurdle. However, Lisa uses naturally flame retardant fillings that comply with regulations. She says, "The nearest we get to FR's is natural borax. All of the fillings are from ethical sources, and several of them are Soil Association certified."
Wow! This is great.
Often, when you say you are ‘green’ people expect you should follow every single element to the eco letter. My philosophy is that every little bit helps and we don’t have to be as ‘Catholic as the pope’ when it comes to being green. Harland Organic Furnishings is ticking nearly every green box, for the rest of us, if we do what we can, the accumulative effect is enormous. Lisa’s company scores big points with me, not least of all because her fabric and wallpaper are so blimmin’ GORGEOUS!!
Photos of fabric and wallpaper from Mod Green Pod www.modgreenpod.com

GREEN LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT
Don’t forget, if you need me to facilitate your green makeover, give me a call. I will advise you on all things eco and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll go and find it for you. I’ll create a 'greenprint' for you and do the simple things like changing your light bulbs to the curly low energy ones, arrange for your solar panels to be installed and everything in between. You may not be able to implement everything at the beginning, but I will leave you with a list of “can do’s” to work towards for future reference. You will end up with a folder full of green solutions and websites to help you lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint.
Go on, you know you want to!
You know you should do! Email me. ecowarrioress@gmail.com 

The Wind She Is Windy Every Day

2007-08-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

DELABOLE WIND FAIR
I drove around very a wet and windy Cornwall this weekend and had feelings similar to the thoughts that I had had when I first arrived in Florida in 1989: There, the sun is always shining giving away her free energy on a daily basis, why, oh why, doesn’t every house have its own solar panels?
The sun and wind don't need to be mined, generated, fought over or made in reactors.
In North Cornwall it is very windy, you wonder why every property doesn’t have its own windmill. Well, there are many reasons, of course..... but that is why I went to the Delabole Wind Fair....to find out more...

When I got in to The Port Gaverne Hotel on Friday evening, I met some salty old seadogs at the bar. We got chatting over a pint and I told them the reason for my visit was the Delabole Wind Fair. Ray is a retired merchant seaman. Someone I imagine, who knows about the power of the wind. He told me of his desire to get a wind turbine on his property
“Do you have enough wind for it?” I asked
“Oh yes!” was his swift reply
He was lamenting the lack of information about installation and support that he felt should come from the government. Dream on, Ray.
He had once phoned a number he found and was asked how old he was. When he said almost 70, the person on the phone asked why would he want a turbine? He would never see the financial return in his lifetime!
”That’s not the POINT!' exclaimed Ray.

Once I got to Delabole on Saturday morning I was in no doubt that Northern Cornwall has enough wind. There were kagoul-clad families all over the wind farm. I felt decidedly underdressed! I did not breakdown and buy an anorak however… God forbid, Darling!

Good Energy were the sponsors of the fair as they are in the process of retiring the 9 turbines that have been producing clean renewable electricity there since 1991. They will replace them with 6 new ones that will be more efficient and create more energy for even more homes in area. The fair was essencially a public relations day for the local inhabitants to find out information on the new turbines. There were also many exhibitors showing off and promoting other local eco and sustainable products. The emphasis being on renewable energy from the wind (turbines) and the sun (solar voltaic panels).

Good Energy's 'Home Generation' plan is unique in that they pay homeowners with 'microgenerators' (such as solar panels and micro wind turbines) by paying them for every unit of electricity that they generate. This includes the units they use themselves.
Wait a minute. Let me get this right. They PAY you, not BILL you, for generating the electricity that you are using. I think that might be hard for some people to grasp. But I’m ready!!
Read more about Good Energy. www.good-energy.co.uk

I picked up a number of leaflets on home wind turbines for Ray and gave them to him. Hopefully it will spur him to call Aerolus or one of the other companies there to come and give him an estimate for his own turbine. It is clear that the government is lagging behind on this, so individuals like Ray have to do what they can.
Energy bills are not getting any cheaper and I don't expect they will.....in our lifetime.

See I can’t help myself! I just have to help spread the word to people who need the information. All part of my eco lifestyle consultancy.
Thank you, Eco Warrioress.
You’re welcome!

Here are some of the companies who were at the fair and some of the people I met:
WIND TURBINES
Aeolus can assess your energy needs and install the right wind turbine for your house or business. They gave out a handy CD that helps you understand the process and do some of the calculations for yourself.
www.aeoluspower.co.uk

TURBINES AND SOLAR PANELS
I spoke to Mat who went to school in CA and worked for NASA. He used to live in Pasedena – small world. He and his wife and business partner have a small independent company called INDEPENDENT ENERGY. They advise and install wind turbines, solar voltaic and solar thermal panels.
www.inenergy.co.uk

SUPPORT FOR ECO BUILDERS
The Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust is a charitable company after my own heart. They are committed to helping buildings of the future be as sustainable as possible. Buildings that are designed to use as little energy as possible made with materials that are locally sourced. The trust also trains and aids carpenters and plumbers and electricians who want to learn about the new products and building methods coming onto the market. As a designer this can be one of the most frustrating aspects of the new technology and materials available to us. It is finding the guys willing and able to install it all for you! They have training programmes and support for all the trades as well as businesses who want to reduce their impact on the local environment.
www.cbst.org.uk

BAGS OF CHANGE at ONE GREEN EARTH.
Katie and I had our photo taken wearing shopping bags that pack into a small bag/keyring by local photographer David Flowers! Katie is the founder of One Green Earth which is a directory of all things eco. She also works for Bags Of Change, another directory that lists eco shops where you can buy all the green things your heart desires. One of those things is a shopping bag made from organic cotton and hemp. I bought one for myself and some for my friends.

ORGANIC WINE
As you know by now, I’m interested in all aspects of sustainability so when that extends to organic wine I’m all for blogging about it!!
We Greenies find each other by many means. Chris and Anita Joy had a stand at The Delabole Wind Fair, but we met in the bar of the Port Gaverne Hotel on my second night. I was recommending the pint of prawns and fish cakes to Anita when the connection as bon viveurs was made! Anita was a geography teacher and was showing Al Gore's video lectures in her classes for years, long before The Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar. Chris has recently given up the high-powered rat race of the financial world for his new business that fulfills his love of French wine and his desire to create a new ethical company.
He and his business partner have formed Vin Vert (Green Wine for non-French speakers). He had to trudge the French countryside for months and months, poor thing, til he found just the right organic wine he wanted to sell. Can you imagine how many bottles of rose he must have had to drink? It must have been hell, Sweetie!!
Talking to Chris, I thought his wine might be out of my price range but having scanned the website, they have wine that I could stretch to. They are very reasonably priced. A 6 bottle mixed box for £38.45 ($76) about £6.40 ($12) a bottle!! Salute!
www.vinvert.co.uk

GREEN INVESTMENTS
One of the most interesting stands was one with information on ethical investing. Now’s the time to move your stocks, shares and ISA’s and IRA’s to green and ethical companies. I moved mine about a year ago and have watched them grow substantially. Wall Street/The City is calling eco investment projects the new ‘dot coms’. I spoke to Chris Deacon at the Ethical Investors Group. He said green investment is still a volatile market but he predicts a steady rise over the next few years as successful eco and ethical companies emerge. He sells a package of investments spread over a number of eco/ethical companies that he has researched so profit and loss is balanced out.
'Cos you don't want to put all your green eggs in one basket, do you?
As most advisors will tell you, there’s never a guarrantee with investing. You have to be in it for the long term. Whether it be eco property (which is where my heart lies) or investing in new companies who make products that are trying to have less impact on the environment. Chris is a chartered insurance practitioner and touches not just on eco investing, but investments without animal experimentation or factory farming. I like it!
http://www.ethicalinvestors.co.uk/chrisdeacon/

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the wind farms are not without those who oppose them. Delabole isn’t the only wind farm in North Cornwall. They dot the landscape quite frequently and quite beautifully. But that is clearly just my opinion.
I saw a couple of signs on houses calling for no more wind farms. I'm presuming this is because some people think they are ugly or are harmful to their health. The house itself, ironically, backed onto some ugly farm buildings that were doing nothing for the scenery, so I’m not quite sure what their objection was. I would rather see a field of quietly whirring white windmills than, say, the view you get from the beach at Aldeburgh in Suffolk of the Sizewell B nuclear plant – Uch!
If that doesn’t look like a meltdown waiting to happen I don’t know what does?
Do you remember when people were upset about pylons blighting the beautiful English countryside? They are still there in Cornwall. Ugly electricity lines strung across the fields. I’d take a windmill any day. Their movement and sound is stirringly poetic. Standing next to one and hearing the soft gentle whir of free energy coming from one of the Earth’s cleanest renewable source. Mmmm….. It’s magical.

Check out the photos of the turbines at night. I drove back to the wind farm after dark to see them. This photograph does not do the experience justice. They first appeared on the black horizon like the pulsing lights from a UFO and became no less awesome as I got closer. The wind farm was completely deserted. The mist was rolling in off the sea with the wind. Combined with the gentle whir of the turbines it was so eerie and so beautiful.

Now it's time for.....

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS
Here are some of the fun and stylish
Eco things
I have come across this week

SOYBEAN CANDLES

This eco/sustainable/whatever thing is becoming competitive. How many green things can you be? Count them here: My friend in California makes these gorgeous completely green candles made from GMO-free soy bean wax (1) and organic essential oils (2). The glasses they are in are reusable as tumblers afterwards (3). Even the packaging uses no glue and is made from recyclable paper (that makes 4!). Wish I had smelly-web .... whatever that is? I want to smell them!! Liz has promised to email when they become available in UK stores. For now they are available from her website and selected US stores.

BEE BOARD TABLE
Cool table made from honeycombed recycled paper – no lighted matches though!It appears to be quite flammable. Health and Safety look the other way because it is so fab.
This is from Design Within Reach, a company that aims to make classic and contemporary furniture available to all. They are not cheap tho' so I have been know to call them Design WithOUT Reach!! Oh, I'm so funny!
http://www.dwr.com/category.cfm?category

GREEN LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT
Don’t forget, if you need me to facilitate your green makeover, give me a call. I will advise you on all things eco and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll go and find it for you. I’ll do the simple things like changing your light bulbs to the curly low energy ones or arrange for your solar panels to be installed and/or everything in between. You may not be able to implement everything at the beginning, but I will leave you with a list of “can do’s” to work towards for future reference. You will end up with a folder full of green solutions and websites to help you lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint.
Go on, you know you want to!
You know you should do! 
Email me. ecowarrioress@gmail.com  

ThisNext is a great site where you can find and recommend GORGEOUS Eco things - & not so Eco things - just gorgeous - no-one's perfect!

2007-08-03T12:24:00.001+01:00

THE SUMMER IS STILL TRYING TO BE HERE...

2007-08-03T10:39:00.000+01:00

FLOOD
So after squelching around for about four days on wet carpet I'm back in the flat. I was actually in The Tate Modern the Friday the deluge of 1" of rain in 1 hour happened. I know. How 'Bouge' is that? It was a very interesting exhibition, actually, about how 50% of the world's population now lives in a city and how urbanism is changing society and the environment...fwah, fwah..... When I came out it was just raining normally - I had missed the whole thing! I was oblivious until my landlords called to say they had emptied about 40 buckets of water out of my basement flat!!
I only lost a few papers that were in the floor and some of the table legs soaked up a bit too much moisture and had to go. My landlords were marvelous and got the sanitiser peeps in straight away so nothing smells musty at all. But when I watched the news and saw all those poor people who have lost everything....I have to say I felt very lucky indeed.

SMOKING BAN
The smoking ban is GREAT! However, now everyone smokes in the street - cough!! And I’m tripping over ciggy butts on the pavement. Eeuuw! So now we have a new environmental problem. I guess I have to get INSIDE the pubs more now to get away from the smoke!! ☺

WIND FAIR
I’m planning on going to the Delabole Wind Fair in Cornwall on the 18th August. Delabole has the UK’s first wind farm and there will be a fair from 11am – 6pm it’s near Camelford. Entry is FREE. There’s going to be lots of stuff about renewable energy and green lifestyles. Link for deets to the left as per...

GREEN CARS
I hope to rent one of London’s first green hire cars to drive down to Cornwall. I had called the private car service GREEN TOMATOES to see if I could rent one of their Prius – or is it Prii?. I spoke to Jonny who told me they do not rent out cars ☹ but mentioned GREEN MOTION, a brand new green hire car service. They aren’t really up and running yet, so I think I’m going to be one of their first customers!
Can I take a moment here to say how friendly and open and lovely just plain CUSTOMER SERVICE orientated green business peeps are? I just love the LOVE that is spread around between people who want to share what they know about sustainable living, or the service they are providing and share it with a smile. Having spent so many years in the USA, it’s frustrating and so sad sometimes to come back here and have to deal with the ‘Computer Says No’ generation.
At Green Tomato Cars, Jonny and I were chatting away about life, love and a green planet and how the Prius has emerged over the last few years. When we bought a Prius in LA four years ago, we were in the minority. There was Ed Begley Jnr, Tom Hanks, Leonardo Di Caprio, y'know, a few famous bods - and US(!), I think. We would drive around the city, all self-righteous, and ‘thumbs up’ the other Prius's [Prii? What IS it?] I think I blogged about that before... ANYWAY: The last time I was there in February, I must have seen 10 hybrids every time I went out. Jonny says that 4 of his family have bought a Prius in the last 18 months or so…that is a LOT.
Oooh it warms the cockles of me naughty bits!!

Anyway, Lovely Lynn at Green Motion is looking for a killer deal for me so that it doesn’t COST THE EARTH [I'm so funny] to greenly drive down to Cornwall next week. How green can you get? Now if I can find an ECO B&B I will be SO smug!

GREEN LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT
The other day a businessman asked me if I could advise him on how to save energy in his business. He sells ink cartridges for printers; by his own admission not a very ‘green’ thing, but he wanted to know more about the areas he could be more environmentally friendly and asked if I would 'eco consult' for him. With what I’ve learned – just from researching for this blog and my TV show [more on that coming soon….] I can certainly advise on all things eco and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll go and find it for you. You will end up with a folder full of green solutions and websites to help you reduce your carbon footprint and lower your energy bills. If you need me to find a guy to install your solar panels – actually already know one!! HA! - I can set that up for you too!
Email me. ecowarrioress@gmail.com

As I keep emphasising; it’s the accumulation of individuals doing all the little green things for themselves that is going to turn this planet around!!

GREEN DRINKS
I'm going to be at the next Green Drinks meeting in Soho at 6.15pm on the 14th. Full details at www.greendrinks.org. Link to the left. Would love to see you there!

GORGEOUS GREEN FURNITURE
A last design tip before I go.
I know they are in the States but I just have to talk about this GORGEOUS furniture I have found in NY. I want! I want! The company is called VIVAVI and it’s all sustainable wood and organic sateen sheets and all…….yuuummmm!!!

A GREEN SUMMER? With All This Rain, It's Totally Possible!

2007-07-12T14:39:00.000+01:00

HELLO GREEN FRIENDS!!

So much has happened since I blogged you last!! Finished the play and visited Grand Designs Live. Did a photo shoot for Tesco Magazine. A yoga retreat to Santorini. Then I went straight into an Enviro Entrepreneur School at The Imperial College. Live Earth and Saving Planet Earth on the telly…. and I met an Eco Plumber called Tobie! It never ends this green stuff…oh, and I’ve decided to start writing a book about all the eco design and lifestyle things I’m learning about. I expect that to keep me busy over the summer months – I use the term loosely, of course. What happened to our [new] hot English summers? So much for Global Warming!!

Are we getting a bit burnt out with all the media coverage and bombardment of info about how we are abusing the environment? I worry that my less passionate readers may fall off the low carbon emissions wagon if they aren’t told more about what’s out there to help them be greener!!

I had a very swift go around the GRAND DESIGNS LIVE show in June. ExCel London is a long way to go out in the Docklands but is a spectacular venue with no expense spared. So sad not to see Kevin McCloud, my TV Architect Hero, in person. Although his face was everywhere on posters and video as you entered the venue!! I had the play to do that night, so I dashed around, picking up flyers and talking to all the new innovators of green products. It’s wonderful to observe the amount of stylish and practical design solutions coming onto the market all the time. I can hardly keep up!
One of my favourite exhibitions was a Carbon Positive House which actually stores 50 tonnes more CO2 than it emits during its lifecycle. Built by a German firm called Baufritz, it was built with sustainable sourced timber and non-chemically treated products. I found a great article about them that I have listed on my links to the left.
Very inspiring! The next Grand Designs Live is in Birmingham in October

One of the most exciting things I did in June was a photo shoot for TESCO MAGAZINE. Yes, only one of the exciting things. I live a full life, ya know!!
They had gathered together a wide-ranging group of ‘Greenies’ to be featured in their September issue. Hair and make up had their work cut out keeping our hair out of our faces in a beautiful but windy field in Kent but I saw the results and we all looked stunning!!

Midge Ure will be included as well as an organic apple farmer, a mother who has written a book on green parenting, a teacher who makes a point of teaching green issues and the environment to her pupils, a student who had invented a refrigerator that does not need plugging in (I want one of those for my next tailgate party!!) and a lady who had invented an amazing device that wirelessly connects to your electric meter and counts the pounds and pennies as you use them – if that doesn’t get you running around the house turning the lights off, I don’t know what will!!

I spent a precarious 20 minutes up a ladder for the photo, as I was there to represent the interior design side of things. I had a great day. Any time spent talking to like-minded environmentalists, sharing ideas, learning new ones, is time well spent and in September we are going to be able to share those things with 5 million Tesco’s shoppers!

If you go to the Tesco website you can read Sir Terry’s Leahy's speech that he gave in January this year. He says some pretty inspiring things about food miles, fair trade, taking steps to half the price of energy efficient light bulbs and Tesco’s commitment to providing affordable organic food etc.

These big corporations [especially the supermarkets] have been getting a bad rep recently on the size of their carbon footprint. If Sir Terry is serious about the big issues he's talking about for Tesco’s future, things can only get better for them – and us. There is a great deal of perceived pressure on the individual to change their ways for the environment but if the goods we need are not available at an affordable price, the whole process is stuck.

As I keep emphasizing; when people see that they can save money because they are saving energy, the by product will be saving the planet. The very same goes for the large corporate organizations who are providing those products and services….

Which brings me to the ENVIRO ENTREPRENEUR SCHOOL that I attended last week.
One of the things I’m working towards is eco property development. I want to buy and/or build new dwellings that will be renovated with the most eco friendly, sustainable and recycled - and stylish of course – products on the market. The result will be a beautifully finished house with a very low carbon footprint, little to no energy bills and that is healthier for the inhabitants because I will have used carpets and paints with low VOC’s [Volatile Organic Compounds].

I’m still looking for the right place to start – don’t know if it will be a Victorian terrace or a leaky farmhouse that needs a huge refurb, or a piece of land where I can build a dwelling from the ground up – my favorite choice - but I have to find the right location…

The school was exhausting. There was a lot of ‘businessy’ information for a girl who only scraped by her O-Level maths!! Getting the bottom line right was emphasised over and over. You can have the best eco idea in the world, but if you don’t market it right, have the right skilled people around you and don’t balance your numbers, the whole thing will be a waste of time!! The end of the four days culminated in a friendly Dragon’s Den where we all got to pitch our eco ideas.

I’ve been sworn to secrecy on the new business ideas I heard about but have invited the other entrepreneurs to email me links to their websites as they are up and running. I will share them with you over the next few months!
Tom Palmer already has a business selling environmentally friendly products and services. He sells everything from the washing ball that cleans your washing in the washing machine without detergent (it eliminates the need for a rinse cycle and saves water too)...to a portable solar-powered charger for your mobile phone and an eco kettle that only boils the amount of water you need for one cup of tea. Tom will also collect your hazardous and non-hazardous recyclable materials. If you live in or around Surrey/South West London, he will conveniently collect and dispose of all your recyclable stuff at a time that suits you at very competitve rates. See link on the left for his website and contact details.

Again, it was great to swap eco ideas and frustrations regarding government apathy and such. The school was in conjunction with London Remade which, according to their website; is in the business of recycling, creating environmental solutions for a sustainable capital.
A couple of new green things I heard about at the school were GREEN DRINKS. A group of like minded environmentalists meet once a month to chat and swap green ideas. There’s one in your city. They are all over the world. Check the website – link in the usual place. I plan to go to the next London one in SoHo on August 7th.
And FREECYCLE is an email list/network for your local area where people ask for or give away there free stuff. Baby gear, furniture and old cassette tapes are some of the things I have seen offered just this week. I got lucky; I’m going to the Royal Court on Friday with some tickets someone can’t use. PS: you can do this through Craig’s List too.

SANTORINI

As I mentioned in my last blog, I was going to go on a yoga retreat with my friend Kay, to Santorini in Greece. It was beautiful but sooo hot!! 40 degrees! Even the Greeks were gasping in the heat and then we had to do yoga too!! Unfortunately we had to taste a lot of the local wine too, we were that thirsty all the time. It was for the throat, Sweetie, the throat!! That's Kay and me at one of our lunches over looking the Caldera. Can you see the donkeys on the path behind us? There are no cars in Oia where we were staying :-) Unfortunately, all our flights were delayed going and coming back. [NEVER fly Olympic Airways!] We felt like we needed another holiday to recover from all the traveling ….or maybe the Eco Goddess watching over me is trying to tell me something about flying!!?? Oops!!

LIVE EARTH Did Madonna cycle to the gig?

And then there was LIVE EARTH!!
What did you think about that pretty display? A lot of shouting and carrying on and a bloody lot of carbon spent! Blimey!! Did you learn anything new? I thought we all already knew to not leave the water running when you brush your teeth and to set the air conditioning at 78 degrees – especially if you not even home!
Are you listening, Palm Springs?
I thought the most interesting comments in the Sunday papers were about the amount of energy issued for the event was equivalent to the yearly carbon emissions of 3,000 Britons! And I don’t need to be called a ‘M…F….’ to be goaded into changing my behaviour for the planet. Maybe it’s me, but it all seemed a little misplaced. We had just had the Diana Memorial concert the week before at the very same Wembley venue so I was a little burnt out with do-gooding celebs!

The words to Keane’s anthem, Somewhere Only We Know, seemed to speak volumes: “Oh simple thing, where have you gone…? I'm getting older I need something to rely on....”
Simple solutions you can rely on are the best. And you can find them RIGHT HERE!! Keep reading dear friends!!

SAVING PLANET EARTH
One TV series that seemed to slip through the net of eco shows was Saving Planet Earth on the BBC. Individual celebrities were asked to highlight the plight of endangered species around the world. I was particularly moved by Nick Knowles' report on the orang-utans in Borneo who's habit is being destroyed to plant palm oil trees. He visited The Borneo Orang-Utan Survival Foundation, an orphanage there where baby orang-utans are taught how to survive when they are released again into the wild. Unfortunately they can't help them all and the scene where they could not save a pregnant mum just had me in pieces... I do believe that another key to saving our planet and ourselves is saving the habit of all these precious and endangered creatures so that we do not lose them. Among the other animals featured were the tiger, elephant, turtle and gorilla. Uch, I feel so helpless sometimes.....

SOOOOO......
What did YOU do this week to behave in a ‘greener’ way? Me? I chatted to the owners of the new corner shop that just opened near me. I go there mostly when I've run out of milk and these places never have organic. I asked why not. “Isn’t it more expensive?” was the reply. I said we expect to pay more at the convenience shop anyway, but if I can get organic milk from him, I would. He has a lot of competition around the Fulham Road, so I would go to him first if he stocked some more organic things and I know others would too. I also mentioned Ecover cleaning products, but that may be a longer battle. Note to self: Need to check in on the dry cleaner and see if he is getting his customers to bring back their hangers…

LONG LASTING ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS
My favourite story of the week was from my friend Lucinda who is in charge of changing the burnt out light bulbs in her office. She told me that as they are on five floors and she is a little obsessive about this aspect of her job, she tends to change the bulbs as soon as they go and is, therefore, kept very busy. SO: She has started to replace the new bulbs with energy efficient ones! Yes, because they save energy blah, blah, blah...but mainly because they last so much longer than the old ones and it makes her job easier because she doesn’t have to keep climbing up and down that bloody ladder quite so often! Ha!

See. I don’t mind how it comes about, but there always extra benefits to going green!! Whatever the reason.

ECO PLUMBER
If you need a plumber, my new best friend, Tobie, is your man! He is up on all the latest ways to save heat, water and energy in your home. One of the main challenges in the green designer world is finding the craftsmen who are able and willing to install all these fabulous new eco technologies we are using. Designers need guys who understand and care about what and why we are doing all of this!! I cannot wait to recommend Tobie to anyone who would like a plumber to make their heating and water consumption more efficient. I will pass on his email if/when you need. I'm now looking for a like-minded carpenter.... or electrician...or builder to join forces with...... Anyone know one?...anyone?....anyone?.....please?....

Please email me with any tips and ideas that you have come up with the save money, save energy and save the planet and I will post them here!
I love sharing!!

Till next time, as Mr Ghandi once said: You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Eco Warrioress