This is great idea and can be used for camping or even in power cuts; there is no need for batteries just a little bit of muscle. In fact one minute of winding will produce enough energy for nearly ten minutes of light.

Features:

Can also be recharged from a 12V car cigarette lighter socket or solar panel

Always ready to work and ideal for camping or emergencies

Never needs new bulbs or batteries

Packaging is recyclable PET plastic

Money from the sale of this product goes to The Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity.

Priced at $60

Source [The Solar Centre]

The UK’s largest house builder have been given the contract to build the UK’s first eco village, the site which is a former hospital, Hanham Hall near Bristol has been specially commissioned through the governments national regeneration agency.

The eco village is expected to be ready in around three years time, which is way ahead of the green target, set by the government to have all new homes designed and constructed to be zero carbon. There will be a biomass power plant which will provide power and heat for the 200 homes, and be able to recycle rainwater with sustainable drainage.

Source [Guardian]

There is nothing like the Xmas season with all of the excesses that we will all no doubt be guilty of, so it’s nice to see that there can be a way of mixing our eco friendly ideals in with the season of excess.

Take this wreath; it has been made from by hand from completely recycled waste materials, so at least not everything will be ending up in the bin or land fill this season.

The wreath is constructed from cut and formed tin cans, it is this that gives it the colour and shine, but also there are some sharp edges too, so care must be taken.

Price is around $50

Source [Bio Me Lifestyle]

A UK based business has come up with these “Cyclepods” not only look great, they also save space in fact they are said to half the space of a conventional bike rake that holds the same amount of bike.

Unlike some bike sheds that are so very ugly, these have a graceful look to them especially when the canopy is open, it looks like an ocean of sails. These are only on trial in a couple of cities around England at the moment, but should it ok and I am sure that we will be seeing more of these around.

Source [Tree Hugger]

With the space in the UK ‘s grave yards running out, now is the time for the government to do something about it before it gets too late. The answer to the problem would seem to be a new process called Promession, which is the system developed where the body is lowered into liquid nitrogen until it is brittle it is then placed on a mat that vibrates, this totally disintegrates the body until only a fine powder is left.

Now this powder can be buried or whatever the family wants to do with it. This is probably one of the more eco friendly methods of disposing of corpses, even cremation has is draw backs, with filings from teeth creating mercury emissions and the amount of power used.

This alternative to burial has already been given the go ahead in Sweden and over one hundred local councils in the UK are considering the freeze dried method. Which is a good idea because it is estimated that within ten years all available cemetery space will have run out?

Source [This is London]

To ease up on vehicle congestion and to reduce carbon emissions, today was Car Free Day in the U.K.

The city of Inverness today was urging people to take alternate means of transportation to and from work, such as buses, trains, and bikes. Many opted to partake and were greeted with offers of free parking and free temporary bikes from a local group.

One dude even made a triathlon out of it by running, cycling, and even canoeing up a river to his job. Now that is green!

This was all part of Wednesday’s Car Free Day.

Source [BBC]

She was famous for building the Body Shop up from one shop in Brighton to a multi million pound international business with over two thousand stores located in over fifty countries, yet she later became famous for making people think green and act in an eco friendly way.

Anita Roddick was struck down by a fatal brain haemorrhage yesterday she was aged 64!

Many people will remember her for the work that she had done in promoting fair trade, ethical business and anti war campaigning.

Source [Fibre 2 Fashion]

The DVR has a casing that is made from aluminium that has come from recycled materials, which could be anything such as cans, trays just about anything that has been thrown away.

It has some really great features too, like being able to record a massive 125 hours of TV from the forty or so channels that are available free.

The TvOnics FP250 has been built to use a low amount of electricity whereas most of the other models would be using around two or three times the amount or power.

Environmentally friendly:

Reduced power consumption.
Constructed from materials and components which minimise environmental impact.

Featrues:

Stylish design and Massive 250GB Hard Disk.
Built in Freeview receiver - no need for a separate freeview box.
Record and Store up to 125 hours of Freeview Digital TV & Radio.
One touch record.
Rewind and Pause live Digital TV.
Record one channel while watching another.
Start to watch recordings before the recording has finished.
Twin Tuner.
Twin SCART.
8 day electronic programme guide provides TV and Radio listings on screen for a full week ahead.
High gloss black aluminium finish.
Parental Control.
Universal Remote Control capable of operating most TV and DVD brands.
Energy efficient and low power standby (less than 20W operating, less than 3W standby).

Source [Tech.Nocr.At]

All the way from Germany is the first non alcoholic drink called Bionade, which has been made from totally organic fermentation process, which makes the drink both fruity and tart with flavours, Elderberry, Lychee, Herb and Ginger-Orange.

The drinks are isotonic so are also great for people who get involved in sports of all kinds, or for people who are just feeling a little run down, what the case these drinks will refresh you in the organic and natural way.

No pricing as of yet.

Source [Green Thinkers]

Around 300,000 young Roman Catholics will be at the festival in Loreto, which is one of the most famous shrines in Italy. And is part of a series of festivals that will take place as a run up to the world, youth day, which is to held in Sydney Australia.

The youth festival will see the all the participants using recycled books, bridgeable plates and back packs made from reused nylon.

The festival actually coincides with the Save Creation Day, which is where each visitor will be given a eco friendly gift set in a ruck sack which contains hand powered battery charger, three set of bridgeable plates and the obligatory three bags for recycling trash and anything else they can think of.

This is a good move by the church, shows that they care about the world.

Source [Associated Press]

Now you that you are doing the right thing when god is in your side, and just to confirm this a priest from my neck of the woods, here in Suffolk, UK.

The priest Don Anthony Sutch, is a Benedictine monk, who was the head teacher of the local school, Downside, until he resigned to take up his position of parish priest, will be at the Waveney Greenpeace festival, which takes place over this weekend.

The priest will set up an eco confessions box, where all of those eco sinners can confess their eco sins, no matter how small.

Source [Wake Up America]

Global warming may be coming back with a vengeance, as it appears that because plants do not drink so much water, means that the rain water and other sources such as under ground water stores will not be depleted as fast.

In the long term the effect of this could be very serious indeed, because if this continues the water levels will build until there is nowhere else for the water to go, this could mean more and more floods.

Source [Tree Hugger]

According to the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which lists all of the problems that the country is having keeping its plants and wildlife alive, the list is getting longer as more flowers and wildlife are falling foul of the eco unfriendly things that are going on the country.

Amongst those newly added are the house sparrow, harvest mouse, cuckoo, garden tiger moth, grass snake and the hedgehog, which just goes to show how bad things are, however this is a preventative measure, which should see the number of these little creatures increase significantly over the next three years.

Extinction is such a terrible thing, and these days this sort of thing should not be happening in this day and age it is totally unforgivable in this day and age.

Source [Hippy Shopper]

According to a survey by leading insurance company Norwich Union, many people in the UK are going green not because they believe in being eco friendly but out of guilt. This is a similar thing to keeping up with the Jones, in fact the figure is put at 68% of the people in UK are recycling out of guilt.

But at the same time around 56% of UK people feel that living an unethical life is a real taboo, in fact maybe even as bad as drinking and driving.

In the UK there is a push to force people to go green, this may be through only collecting the trash once a fortnight or charging for each pick up, however this may cause a rise in illegal dumping, which is only going to cause even more problems down the line.

The simple fact with trash is that it needs to be cleared, limiting people to small pick ups is no good, when the supermarkets are creating a huge amount of plastic and paper, maybe they should start there, reduce the trash at source and therefore reduce the trash in the home.

Source [Hippy Shopper]

Matt & Nat, is a European retailer that sells fashion with compassion. They manufacture and promote vegan handbags and recently added footwear to their growing line of eco friendly fashion items.

They have a varied and extensive collection of vegan handbags, some are uniquely unisex. Their is the Vintage collection, the Pebble collection, and ever fashionable Japanese paper collection.

The animal-friendly bags have various price points, and the one pictured above is the Dirty Harry it is unisex, and retails for $135.