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

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!!

IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF VLOGS!

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!!

THE SUMMER IS STILL TRYING TO BE HERE...

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!!!