A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our customers.
Paul & Marco
ECOutlet
Archive for 2008
Merry Christmas…
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Eco Design Christmas Fair
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
For Londoners and anyone else visiting the capital on the weekend of Dec 13th and 14th please come along and pay a visit to this year’s Eco Design Christmas Fair which is taking place for the first time at the Boiler House in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.
Now in its fifth year, the Eco Design Fair brings together a collection of designers and small businesses whose work is centred on sustainability and kindness to the environment.
We’ll be there with a stall on the Saturday and Sunday so pop along and say hello if you’re a customer. We’ll be bringing along lots of Christmas gift ideas and alongside us will be loads of other small traders with plenty of unique and unusual eco goodies to check out.
Future 100 ….
Monday, November 17th, 2008
This week marks Global Entrepreneurship Week and to coincide with the event, the entrepreneurial organisation, Striding Out have just released the Future 100 list of Young Ethical Entrepreneurs. At a mere 35 years old, I’m very happy to say I just about managed to squeeze myself onto this list…hurray!
The Future 100 aims to showcase businesses that offer innovative and sustainable solutions to social problems and rewards ethical business practice and social responsibility. After a few months of quiet manic work here behind the scenes it’s really nice to receive a little recognition for the business model we have in place here at ECOutlet and it’s great to be listed amongst so many other inspirational small businesses.
For regular visitors to ECOutlet, you might spot a few of our friends and suppliers also on the list such as Rose from Green Knickers who makes us our Padded Cycling Knickers. Simon Nash, the inventor of Green Oil, the bicycle chain lube and Marc D’eath who set up and runs Sustained Magazine are also included. Well done everyone and for a full list of winners check out the Future 100 list.
Hugh’s Big Land Share Idea…..
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
Are you a grower? A landowner? Maybe a landspotter or a facilitator?…Me I’m a grower or a would-be grower anyway….If you missed it on Ch4 this week, this is the new initiative by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall to link land-starved residents across the country who want to grow their own vegetables to spaces where they can grow them.
In Islington where I’m based the waiting list for an allotment space was five or six years the last time I checked so when I heard about this plan on Thursday evening it was very exciting indeed. The TV programme featured one lady who had taken over a section of her neighbour’s garden to grow veg in. In return for around 20% of her crop, the neighbour was more than happy for her to use the land. The idea of Landshare is to repeat this successful synergy of needs on a grand scale launching a food revolution across the country.
Maybe you have a back garden lying idle or you know of some derelict land nearby which might be appropriate or perhaps like me you’re just dying to get your hands dirty giving grow your own a try. Scheduled to launch in early 2009, you can register your interest on the Landshare website now. The more of us who register, the greater the chances of this project succeeding and if there is anyone based in Islington who’s reading this and owns a weed-ridden overgrown garden I know of at least one person who would be happy to clear it out for you!!
Spreading the love….
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Over a drink in the pub at the weekend I was a little shocked when a friend of mine mentioned she had signed up with a dating agency. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cool and I hope she has fun and who knows maybe finds her mister right. It was the membership fee which left me sitting with mouth agog….£700 to arrange a few dates….have these dating agencies not heard of the credit crunch???
For anyone on the lookout for love, here’s a couple of cheaper suggestions which might be of interest if you’re eco-minded or veggie. First up, Ethical Singles is a relatively new site designed exclusively for people who hold ethical issues such as human rights, animal welfare and environmental sustainability close to their hearts.
Another matchmaking site which has been going strong since 2003 is Veggieromance and as the name suggests is the place to find vegetarian and vegan singles. Members receive their own blog and there is an active forum for networking and connecting with like-minded single people.
There is a small membership fee with each but you never know you might find the perfect match or you might just meet some really nice people on the way, either way it shouldn’t break the bank and you’ll still be able to afford a date if you strike it lucky!!
National Carbon Footprint Day….
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
Tomorrow October 2nd marks the first ever National Carbon Footprint Day launched by award winning environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy. Donnachadh writes a weekly eco-column in the Independent, runs his own eco-auditing company 3 Acorns and in 2007 his Victorian terrace in South London became not only carbon neutral but carbon negative exporting more green energy back to national grid than it imports in fossil fuels.
The aim of National Carbon Footprint Day is to make it easier for us all to remember to calculate our annual carbon and environmental footprints and to reduce these footprints as much as possible in the coming year. Taking the pledge commits you to taking five simple measurements to calculate your carbon footprint as it stands at the moment and then every October 2nd following this you’ll receive an email update requesting you do the same so you can then calculate your footprint for the previous year.
Check out the website for further details on how to pledge as well as a set of top ten tips on how to reduce your footprint over the coming year.
Creative Charlie Wins Award!!…
Friday, September 26th, 2008
Visitors to our kids section may be familiar with the Paint Your Own T-Shirt and Make Hats activity packs which we added to the site towards the end of last year. These arts and crafts projects have been designed by an old friend of ECOutlet’s, Kerri Sellens.
Kerri went to art college with Marco, my co-founder so we’ve all been friends for a long time now and last week we were delighted to hear from Kerri that one of the packs in her range, the Rainy Day Box had been awarded the overall winner in the Practical Pre-School Awards 2008 Toys and Games Category.
This is an amazing result considering it’s less than a year since Kerri took the plunge with her own business and shows how with some creative thinking and hard work good things can happen.
The Rainy Day box is now available to purchase from our kids section where you can find more details on the contents. We love Creative Charlie’s range not just because our clever friend makes them but because they stimulate engagement, co-operation and creativity in young children and have been designed with the environment in mind containing wherever possible recycled and reusable materials.
Don’t just take our word for it though, here’s what the testers at the Practical Pre-School Awards had to say about the Rainy Day Box:
The children loved following the work sheets and began to implement ideas of their own into their creations. Its value as a creative resource is immense and it incorporates flexible and enjoyable activities, as well as helping to teach children about the environment.
Everything in the box was great. The Rainy Day Box had a charming sense of simplicity and my five-year-old was able to use it independently as well as being encouraged to play co-operatively and share. It has fantastic educational value and appealed to children throughout the trial. Adaptable, original and a lot of fun!
CD Recycle…..
Friday, September 19th, 2008
One of the problems living in a digital age is that it’s never too long before the next big thing comes along rendering the last big thing obsolete. Before were we had VHS Tapes and CD’s these days UK households are equipped with Sky boxes, MP3 and DVD Players. The result being that for many of us we have mountains of unwanted and unused VHS tapes and CD’s sitting on shelves at home gathering dust.
If that sounds familiar it is now possible and very straight forward to recycle your unwanted CD’s, DVD’s or even Video tapes rather than sending them to landfill. The Laundry CD Recycling will accept any amount of CD’s or DVD’s including the plastic case and inlay cards. Polymer Recycling is another company who recycle CD’s and if you’re a business they will arrange to collect them for free too. Failing that you could always donate them to a charity shop where they’ll find a new home or for some more imaginative ideas check out these two posts on How Can I Recycle This? for plenty of suggestions on CD and VHS recycling.
Finally if you know any professional or ex-professional video documenters, another site which we came across, Creative Video Associates deals with professional video tapes and will help clear out old tape archives without sending them to landfill.
Rising Food Prices – Grow Your Own can help….
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Last week the BBC reported on the increase in food prices which have now gone up by an average 8.3% since January. Meat and fish saw the biggest jumps, up 22.9% whilst fruit and vegetables were up 14.7%.
Meanwhile my little experiment at ‘growing your own’ has almost come to an end for another year. It’s been a relative success, five chilli plants were grown from seed and are still producing fruit for mealtimes. We’ve not bought any herbs (basil, mint, oregano or thyme) from the shops since May now and the tomatoes are just about ready for picking. The only disappointment or failure this year has been the salad which didn’t seem to favour the wetter conditions the summer brought with it.
It’s fair to say the savings made in our weekly shopping bill wouldn’t be described as massive but nor were they insubstantial. If food prices continue to increase in the same vein next year then more and more of us may well consider the Grow Your Own option as a means of tackling the rising costs of a weekly shop.
For those lucky to have an outdoor patch or anyone thinking about giving Grow Your Own a try due to the increase in food prices, the Gardeners Calendar and the Royal Horticultural Society’s website are two very good starting points with advice available on starting a vegetable plot and monthly tips on what to sow.
A new energy for London….
Sunday, August 31st, 2008
Back in June new plans were unveiled for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station on the banks of the river Thames in London. The proposal which includes a new power plant fed with biofuels and waste and who’s only emissions will be water vapour will sit next to massive office and housing development which will be naturally ventilated by a striking 300 metre tall chimney.
The transparent eco dome structure if built would double as a solar powered ventilation system, as air heats up in the dome it rises and pressure draws it up and out the top of the chimney. Cool air is then drawn into the dome at ground level thus maintaining a naturally temperature controlled environment. The architect behind the plans reckons it will decrease energy demands by 67% and be the UK’s first truly carbon zero development.
The site has been open to the public during August and we paid a visit yesterday to have a look for ourselves. The power station is colossal and it’s a real shame the structure has been allowed to fall into the poor state that currently exists. In order for the redevelopment to take place the famous towering chimneys are going to have be knocked down and rebuilt which is worrying particularly as some groups have voiced concern over whether that would actually happen were the redevelopment to go ahead. The plans are however very impressive and it would be amazing to see this neglected area of the capital transformed into a revitalised landmark and one which could be a leading light for future carbon neutral developments across the country. You can see the plans for yourself by visiting the Battersea Power Station website where a number of films take you through the history and the vision for redevelopment.