bemoreeco

In the last in the series of Eco Holidaying in the UK, we turn our attention to family holidays and check out some fun, low carbon alternatives to the family package holiday abroad.

When it comes to eco-friendly holidays it seems families are leading the way. According to a recent survey for Take the Family, 86 per cent of parents consider the environment when they are choosing a holiday – making them more likely than any other group to opt for An eco friendly break. We have a look at some of the options for great low impact holidays in the UK

How about a 5-day environmental adventures for families of all ages at Monkton Wyld in Dorset? These holidays comprise of fun-packed, low-carbon activities including arts and crafts, games, nature awareness & bushcraft, music-making, cooking and more. The 5-day, residential holidays all have an environmental theme and are suitable for toddlers to teenagers. It’s a great way to make new friends and to take a break while the kids are suitably entertained in the fresh air. Food is vegetarian and organically-grown where possible.

Head up to the Peaks and you have Bushey Heath Farm Bunk Barns. Sustainability has been central to this holiday development in the Peak District with a proven Wind Turbine providing electricity and a Thermia Ground Source Heat Pump providing heating and hot water. There is also rainwater harvesting for flushing WCs and reclaimed building materials used throughout. Bushey Heath Farm Bunk Barns cater for small groups, family gatherings, special events or just a relaxing weekend in the Peak District!

Camping can be extremely eco friendly. How about Camping in pre-pitched Festy Tents on a family farm in the rural North Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty? Then try Palace Farm in Kent.This area is ideal for cycling, walking and for those with a love of the countryside. Walk through the heart of the Downland with its beautiful wooded valleys and mixture of farmland concealing many old and interesting villages. Explore old country houses, ancient churches or relax in a quiet village pub or watch a local cricket team on the green at weekends.

How about a child friendly cottage? Visit www.childfriendlycottages.co.uk for a unique collection of child-friendly self catering holiday cottages across the UK. All the cottages and farms featured welcome children under five and have a minimum level of child friendly facilities - great for family holidays! Find a family-friendly cottage and then book direct with the owner, so pay no commission or booking fee.

There are many more options out there if you are looking for a holiday that is easy on the environment and good on your purse. Try a search on google or visit sites such as Responsible Travel or Eco Tour Directory. Many parent and child websites carry recommendations and are a good place to start.

Check out EcoTrendSpotter’s Summer Essentials Eco Buying Guide.

Getting away from it all for a UK Holiday needn’t be a guilt trip.

Eco-holidays in the UK  really represent the modern face of responsible tourism. The chief aim of an eco holiday is to support local economies while being environmentally sustainable. An eco holiday offers the opportunity to eat well, smell the grass and gain a new skill or experience without exploiting the environment in which it takes place. And of course you will be using less air miles than if you were to travel abroad!

More people than ever are choosing to holiday at home rather than traveling abroad with the intention of decreasing their carbon footprint and being more environmentally friendly. The good news is that there are lots of camping, self-catering, activity and other eco chic holiday options to choose from. In this three part series we look at holidaying in the UK either as a single, part of a couple or as a family

If you are Single, don’t worry!

Single? Then forget Club 18-30 and book a holiday with a difference all in the company of other single travelers who share your individual special interest. Why not indulge in a passion or try a new experience, whether it is learning about organic cuisine, crafts, art, dancing, tennis or music. Explore the great outdoors with environmentally friendly scenic tours and rambling weekends. There are tons of companies out there that cater for the single traveler in the UK with many not charging supplements that singles get hammered for frequently

Want to do it yourself? Then just do a quick google search which will result in pages of great eco holiday ideas. Have a look at the following sites for a whole heap of ideas;

• www.responsibletravel.com - earn 200 MoreEco points with each booking
• www.thetravelplanner.co.uk
• www.organicholidays.co.uk
• www.greentraveller.co.uk -  recommended by the Times Newspaper -  is a great green travel guide to green places to stay and green holidays. It features eco-friendly places to stay in the UK and Europe and suggests low impact ways to get there.
• www.Ecoescape.org is the cult website and travel guide series for green places to holiday in the UK and Ireland. Ecoescape is all about changing the way we travel and finding ways to get off-grid and slowing down our pace of life. And of course traveling closer to home!

Finally, Ecotraveller Alex Conti has an extensive UK section in his Eco Hotels Of The World book that was released at the start of the year. Also check out Terena Plowright’s book called Eco-Centres and Courses for a comprehensive guide to over 150 places which offer practical courses, fun days out and accommodation.

Before you go on your travels you should check out Eco Trend Spotter’s Eco Travel Essentials to make sure that you have everything eco your need for your eco holiday. <click here>

To help combat the problem of the country’s declining bumblebee population, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust wants us to use more traditional native plants in our gardens. These include bluebells, rosemary, geraniums and honeysuckle, which bumblebees prefer to the more exotic imports that many gardeners are favouring at the moment.

Market research group Mintel have recently reported that the ethical clothing market is now worth approximately £175 million, with increasingly stylish designs and a growing awareness of production methods making ethical clothing more popular than ever. But what about shoes?  Finding ethically made shoes is a lot harder – especially on the high street, but there are businesses out there making stylish footwear. Why not say goodbye to mass processed shoes and say hello to ethical shoes that are great for the environment and for your purse?

Not on a strict budget then why not try handmade shoes. There are many personal benefits to buying handmade shoes; the major one being that you are wearing shoes that are made to fit your feet. Handmade shoes will last a lifetime and can be repaired again and again. Sadly, hand making shoes is becoming a thing of the past so it is great to see companies like www.deeasjer.co.uk making bespoke shoes and accessories. 

Charlene Beckett, a graduate of the London School of Fashion runs Deeasjer from the Florinetina Clothing Village in the heart of the East End and uses ethical sourced products for all her designs. She will design shoes to your specification and you can even commission matching accessories. Charlene says that once she gets a customer they never leave her and she boasts quite a cult following.

Inspired by ecological survival, the Terra Plana shoe company believe in a variety of non-generic products and sustainable strategies. Guided by life cycle analysis, Terra Plana aims towards publishing accurate life cycle matrices for every product they produce. Reparability, lightness, anatomic design, and durability are all staples of sustainable shoe making and Terra Plana regularly re-evaluate what they can do to minimise waste and toxin use and maximize product use and love.

You know that if you buy from companies like Deeasjer and Terra Plana that your shoes are not mass produced in the Far East where workers rights and pay is minimal. This, as the Mintel research shows, is becoming an important factor when purchasing shoes and clothing. So go on -  green your footsteps with great ethical footwear!

MoreEco Members can earn 3 MoreEco points for every £ they spend at Terra Plana. Also for every 10 points  earned  MoreEco will offset 1kg fo carbon for free.

 Join today and receive FREE 500 start up points.

In part two of our green wash feature, (part 1) we put the energy and oil companies under the microscope and ask if they are really doing their bit for the environment or pulling green wool over our eyes. Not every company that claims to be green is lying with many businesses spending millions reworking practices to become more environmentally friendly.

This can be demonstrated by Inc.com’s Green 50 which charts what businesses are doing to become more environmentally friendly. However with all these efforts there are many more big companies getting their big green paintbrush out.

Take energy giant Shell for instance. They bought out their big guns to shout about their commitment to a low carbon future but started selling off their Solar business as it wasn’t making ‘much profit’ and putting more money into oil sands. Oxfam criticised Shell in 2008 for massaging its emissions figures of oil sands as a “dangerous green wash” that hides its contribution to further climate change and puts poor people around the world at greater risk

In early 2009, Energy regulator Ofgem sparked controversy by making the decision that power companies wishing to offer green tariffs would be required to make additional efforts to reduce carbon emissions. This means that that currently suppliers offering green tariffs need to demonstrate that they are making additional investment in renewable energy or carbon offsets, on top of their legal obligations. The top six energy companies signed up to this. However this decision was slated by Dale Vince, MD of Ecotricity who accused the six of greenwash and said that this action would divert investment from increasing renewable energy capacity.

So what do consumers think? We know we are getting wiser about greenwashing and the web is helping us spread our distain for it. Consumers are quick to use the web to condemn green washing and voice their skepticism about corporations, researchers from Nielsen Online found during a recent survey.  “When it comes to the environment, consumers are insisting on both transparency and consistency from the corporations they patronise,” said Jessica Hogue, research director for Nielsen Online.

The team at BeMoreEco spent 5 minutes with Nicola Alexander from Daisy Green Magazine. This is how it went.

Talk us through your business Day.

Well I work from home so I get up with my husband at 6.30 and potter on until he leaves the house at 8. I love to make him breakfast and lunch, it’s a cool way to start the morning.  At 8 I sit in the office and the first thing I do is check the statistics from the day before. I am pretty obsessive when it comes to how many people are reading and which articles they like. Emails next and this normally takes at least a couple of hours. I love chatting to people and feel that’s important to respond personally, although it can take over if you are not careful.

As the founder of the magazine, I manage everything from the sales and advertising, write articles and organise our events. It’s a jam packed day and I am quite reactive, its hard to stay on task! Generally, I can sit at the desk for 10 hours straight without noticing the time, so I have to force myself to have a break. I am lucky though, as I can go and check on our plants in the conservatory and have a cup of tea looking at the garden.

Sally Anne, our Editor, is normally online for the whole day throwing ideas back and forth. The other members of the daisygreenmagazine.co.uk team currently work full time for other companies.

On an evening I can generally be found promoting the business and the events on social networking sites. I try to get finished by 8pm so I can have some down time.

Tell us about daisygreenmagazine.co.uk?

Daisygreenmagazine.co.uk is unique in that the team who work on the magazine are normal women who want to lead by example. The magazine was conceived back in April 2008 and started life as a personal blog – a bit of a rant actually. Mainstream magazines just didn’t give me what I wanted and therefore my husband suggested I start one of my own! Now as a Senior Manager in a school this was really removed from my area of expertise but I thought, why not. I have always wanted to run my own business and now I do! We LOVE fashion, homeware and beauty products but realise that every single thing we buy has an impact somewhere along the line. Whether it be because people aren’t being paid a fair wage, or the land is getting drowned in pesticides or the landfill sites are just too full, it all adds up.

Daisygreenmagazine.co.uk is an example of the environmental and social changes you can make, easily and cost effectively, and still have fun, still shop, still be girlie. If we can, anyone can.

What makes the company a great place to work?

Well its fun, busy, no two days are the same. Its hard work, which we love and we meet and speak to lots of like minded people. Also, we are based in our homes which is fantastic. And we believe we are making a difference.

Who do you most admire in the green industry?

I admire all the people who have started their own small, independent, companies because they really believe in what they are doing.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Working for myself for a company that has lots of energy and sound ethics.

If you could change one thing in the green industry what would it be? 

People using scare tactics to try and encourage change in individuals. My personal belief is that leading by example, and being as positive as you can has a bigger impact. We are heading for serious problems if great change does not occur, but scaring people makes them hide away from the reality.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry today?

Just go for it. If you really believe you can do something have a go. Research the idea thoroughly, check out the competition but harness your passion to make a difference.  

What is your vision for an eco  Britain ?

People buying local and using the local transport more. Businesses turning off their shop signs through the night. The majority of homes and businesses swapping energy suppliers to a green tariff. The government putting some REAL money and time into the environment. Carrier bags being banned.

Have you any  final eco pearls of wisdom you would like to share?
Make change today. No matter how small; start a compost bin, take your own bags to pick up the shopping or change a light bulb. It all adds up to positive change.

One our favourite shops is ECOutlet so they decided to give us five minutes of our time and answer a few questions.

Tell us about your business?

ECOutlet is an online store offering a broad and unique range of eco-friendly products. We stock energy and water saving devices as well as homewares, bags & accessories and garden products made from sustainable and recycled materials.  As keen cyclists, we also try to promote more sustainable modes of transport with a section dedicated to eco-friendly cycling accessories.

Our tag line – “Invention made good” is a response to our increasing interest in seeking out innovative ‘green’ design and showcasing small independent British designers and business.

All our products have been chosen on the basis they can help customers to be more energy efficient and environmentally responsible. Every item on the website has been assigned an eco-score of 1 to 5 based on their potential to reduce long term environmental impact. Products with energy and water saving potential for example score highest whilst consumables like toiletries or books score lower.

In addition to the shop there is also the opportunity to pick up a few tips and advice on green living by visiting the blog or events pages. One of our other interests is making short films and to help spread the message about the company and ethical living in general we have produced a number of short internet virals with various environmental messages.  We recently made the first in what will hopefully be a series of films about our suppliers entitled ‘Andy the glassmaker’ which features our glassware range and explains their energy efficient production process.

All the films can be viewed on the blog and hopefully make visiting ECOutlet a little more fun and informative.

What makes the company a great place to work?

We’re still a relatively small company which means that rather than having strictly defined job roles we often need to multi-task and get involved with all the different areas of the business.  It makes life more interesting and you get to learn a lot more.

We’ve recently discovered Spotify so a good jukebox in the office helps too.

Who do you most admire in the green industry?

We attend a number of eco fairs and markets every year where I’ve met with lots of people who have given up regular salaries and the security of full-time jobs to pursue a career they believe can make a difference in the green sector.  Knowing from personal experience how challenging that can be, I have admiration for all those individuals and small businesses.  If I was to single out one person however, Dale Vince from Ecotricity works hard to promote renewable energy which is something the UK needs to embrace a lot more of over the coming decade.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Sourcing new products which we think can make a difference and receiving positive feedback from customers on purchases made.  As we don’t have a physical outlet it is always appreciated and useful to hear back from customers on their experience.

If you could change one thing in the green retail industry what would it be? 

I like to see the VAT on all home renewable technologies such as solar heating systems and rain water harvesters reduced to 0%.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry today?

Spend as much time researching your area as possible and try to gain some paid or unpaid work experience prior to starting out on your own if that’s the plan.

What is your vision for an eco  Britain ?

Decentralised energy schemes with local towns and councils taking responsibility for meeting their own heating and electricity needs.  Bicycle lanes on every main road in the country and more investment in public transport and the rail network.  Access to land for anyone who wants to grow their own fruit and veg.  Free energy audits for homes with easily accessible grants and loans available to invest in insulation and renewable technologies.  Eradication of our throw-away culture with less consumerism in general and a re-emphasis on quality over quantity.

What is the most important piece of information you have ever been told?

Red wine is really good for you.

If you were prime minister for the day, what one thing would you do?

Reverse the decision to build new nuclear power stations.

You can shop at ECOutlet via MoreEco and earn 10 points for every pound you spend.

Recently Barbie has been accused of it, Shell and BP deny claims that they do it but it seems like all and sundry are jumping on the green bandwagon to sell their products.

“Green washing,” is the combination of the words green and whitewashing. This term was created by environmentalist Jay Westerveld who coined the phrase when examining the ‘so called’ environmental towel policy at hotels around the world. Today, it is becoming ingrained into modern language as global warming remains top of the planet’s agenda. The term describes efforts, mostly in business, to create the impression that a company is implementing practices meant to improve the environment when it is not really doing so.

Bemoreeco.com is constantly being sent products to review from green companies so we always do a green wash check to see if a product can live up to it’s so called environmental credentials:

• How many air miles has it done?
• Where, how and what has it been made of?
• Is it packaged in an environmentally friendly way?  (I can’t name all the times when we have been sent items in bubble wrap or copious amounts of unnecessary packaging!)

 
Back in December 2007, environmental marketing firm TerraChoice released a study called “The Six Sins of Green washing” which found that more than 99% of 1,018 common consumer products randomly surveyed were guilty of green washing. Out of a total of 1,753 environmental claims made, with some products having more than one, only one was found not guilty of making a false or misleading green marketing claim.

A good example of a company doing it right is Ribena, with all their bottles made from recycled plastic and the juice itself being produced under ethical conditions in the UK. Marketing Manager for Ribena, Rachel Harris states, “We are committed to making the supply chain for Ribena as environmentally friendly as possible, from the way we grow our blackcurrants to the packaging in which the products are wrapped.” Ribena’s cap- and label are not recyclable but they are honest about this and state this is something they are looking at.

Here at Bemoreeco.com we feel that packaging for products should contain recycling information so people can make informed choices when it comes to purchasing. Check out this great example of clear and concise recycling information on this OWL wireless electricity monitor. 

In part two of this article, we question whether some energy services are as green as they state they are!

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

Visit www.earthhour.org for more information

We now understand enough about sustainable homes to know that they’re not just important for the conservation of the planet, but that they can be nicer places to live and will save us money in the short and long term.

A year ago, eco-towns were at the forefront of the government’s plans to build more new homes and reduce carbon emissions. 12 months later with the economy slowing down and with the credit crunch biting hard, the housing market is in real trouble! The focus is shifting to the greening of existing properties.