Now in its third year, UK Aware has become the must visit event for anyone seeking out new ways to lead a green and ethical lifestyle.  This year the event takes place on Friday 16^th and Saturday 17^th of April at Londons Olympia Two with over 15,000 green-minded folk anticipated to attend.

I think we cover a lot of bases here at ECOutlet when it comes to ideas for a greener lifestyle but I’ll hold my hands up and admit that UK Aware does pack them in and on both occasions in the last two years were I’ve gone along I was really impressed with the range of exhibitors and the number of events taking place over the day.  You can easily spend several hours at the event taking in a couple of guest speakers, browsing the exhibitors and learning more about home renewable technologies.

Visitors to the event this year can expect to see over 50 guest speakers, hundreds of eco exhibitors, a massive clothes swap, GreenTech zone as well as a kids interactive area.

Tickets for the event will be £15 on the door but ECOutlet have managed to secure some reduced price £6 tickets for any of our customers looking to pop along. To obtain your discounted £6 tickets simply click through the link below.

Get UK Aware tickets for £6

If anyone finds themselves at a loose end this weekend then take a trip down to your local park and join in with this years Love Parks Week which runs from Saturday 25th to Sunday 2nd August.

Love Parks is an annual event which aims to get everyone out enjoying their local green spaces and helps to ensure these vital resources continue to receive investment and support.  There are hundreds of events taking place all over the country – to find out what’s happening in your area use the search tool on the Love Parks website for more details.

Over the next two weekends, the Eco Design Summer Fair returns and this time around its back, bigger and better than before with three events across the capital.

It all kicks off this Saturday, June 20th where the market will be taking place at Westbourne Grove Church in Notting Hill.  Friday the 25th see’s things moving east to Brick Lane and a multi-media evening at the Dray Walk Gallery with fashion show, design stalls, speakers, music, workshops and an organic bar all under the one roof.

The market then returns on Sat/Sun 27/28 June at the Dray Walk Gallery in the Old Truman Brewery.  For readers interested in sustainable living and new eco design, the fair remains a unique opportunity to meet forward thinking designers and businesses in the green sector.  Entry is free and if you plan to pop along to any of the events please bring any old mobile phones you have at home too as there will be a recycling facility.

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.

Here’s an opportunity to spend some time outdoors getting fit whilst helping to raise money for tree planting projects at the same time.

Tree-Athlon is an annual 5km running event with routes that have been carefully selected to appeal to both beginners and experienced runners alike.  Each runner is given a tree wish which is printed on your running bib and once you’ve crossed the finish line, everyone receives a sapling to take home and plant, helping to create your own green space.

This year, Tree-Athlon will be taking place in London, Leeds and for the first time Manchester on consecutive weekends from September 20th to October 5th so still plenty of time to get the training in and enjoy being out and about in the fresh air whilst the summer lasts.

Girls have all the fun….well last night they did when I popped along to the Eco Fashion and Design Event at the Candid Arts Centre in Islington.  To be fair, I’m not exactly clued up on fashion but having attended all the previous Eco Design Fairs I went along to support the event and maybe check out if there was anything of interest for a vintage wearing 30-something bloke.

Not surprising really, my tastes weren’t exactly catered for but for a full run down of designers who exhibited and some ideas for your ethical summer wardrobe check out the Eco Design Fair website.  I stayed on for the fashion show which you know had lovely clothes on lovely models but it was the grand finale that had everyone grinning and whooping with a display of the latest range of underwear from Pants for Poverty, the fair-trade organic and sweatshop free underwear label.  Don’t worry I can personally vouch they look just as good on without the six-pack stomach!

Anyone who checks out our eco events calendar on ECOutlet may have already noted that this week marks National Vegetarian Week 2008, an annual awareness-raising campaign promoting inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free diet.

Going veggie is now easier than ever with lots of meat-free alternatives in the shops for nervous newbies and most restaurants offering tasty imaginative options beyond the bog-standard veggie Lasagne or Mousaka. The NVW website has a few ‘meat-free made easy’ recipe ideas for anyone planning on giving the veggie option a try this week or my top tip is the BBC Food website which always comes up trumps when I’m looking for interesting meal ideas.

Abstaining from meat, even for a few days is not only good for your health but is better for the planet too. Check out my previous blog last year on the link between greenhouse gases and global meat production or have a look at this award winning video on youtube which highlights the problem!

We were lucky enough to receive a couple of tickets to the Radio 1 Big Weekend down in Maidstone last Saturday.  The sun was shining, the beer was flowing and everyone there was in high spirits, a really good day out.

Given the very high temperatures we had to partake of a few beers ourselves and it was nice to see some effort was being made to reduce the amount of waste our thirsty appetites produced on the day.  Next to the main beer tent there was a recycling centre where 10p was given back for every paper cup which was returned.  Just like when I was a young lad and used to return my neighbours lemonade bottles to the shop to buy sweets there was a double whammy of satisfaction knowing my paper cup was going to be recycled and I was getting my next beer for that little bit less.  I actually took my recycling duties very seriously on the day and managed to collect between 10 and 20 paper cups off the grass every time I returned to the beer area.

As the day went by, everyone started catching on to the idea and come the late afternoon there were lines of people queuing up at the recycling bank to hand in the pint sized cups they had collected from all around the site.  Such a good win-win idea.  I’ve not been to any other festivals for a long time but it would be nice to think the same practise is in operation at other events this summer and I dont see any reason why it should’nt be extended to cans or bottles too.  Perhaps for some on Saturday, the idea of cheap beer made recycling an attractive option but whatever the reason it was evident that given a little incentive lots of people are more than happy to get involved and do their bit.

Tomorrow May 10th marks World Fair Trade Day with IFAT member organisations in 70 countries and Fair Trade shops and networks around the world hosting events to promote Fair Trade and the campaign for justice in trade.

Even though I felt I had a pretty good awareness of why choosing Fair Trade is so important, over the past three weeks my understanding of the issue has been heightened whilst tuning in to the new BBC3 series Blood Sweat and T-Shirts. For me anyway, the series has been a real eye-opener into the working conditions of people involved in making garments for today’s throw-away culture of fast fashion.

If you’ve not caught it, the programme follows six young fashion addicts as they experience life at the bottom rung of the fashion industry and are put to work on garment production lines, sweat shops and in the cotton fields of rural India. In the final episode next week, the six travel to work in the slums of Mumbai where a warren of backstreet sweat shops exist and people are living and working in what looks like truly appalling conditions.

For me this programme can only be a good thing. The self-centred attitudes of some of the young people have come in for some heavy criticism on a number of blogs I’ve read but they represent a majority of people here in the UK who don’t give a second thought to where their £3 t-shirt comes from. Hopefully the exposure this programme has generated will change more than a few people’s attitudes as by the end of episode three this week the realisation of how unfair the workers lives are has slowly begun to sink in with all the Brits.

It would have been nice though if the producers had given us an insight into the difference between the working conditions and wages in the sweat shops compared to workers involved in producing fair trade garments.  It’s great that the cheap fashion industry is being exposed for what it is but not showing us the difference choosing Fair Trade clothing can make is a missed opportunity. Perhaps that’s series two…let’s hope so.  The final episode of Blood Sweat and T-Shirts is on BBC 3 next week but you can still view the last two episodes on the BBC iplayer.

Now in it’s 4th year, Downshifting Week has gone international this time around and is calling on people everywhere to have a think about slowing down a little, finding a better work/life balance and generally leading a simpler, greener and happier life.

The antithesis to the fast-paced overworked TV dinner lifestyles many of us lead, Downshifting Week is about setting time aside to enjoy more rewarding actions like cooking a meal from scratch usiing locally sourced ingredients. Instead of working overtime, take an hour off one day and spend some extra time with the family, switch off the TV and play a board game or just chat. Think about self-sufficiency and how you might be able to start growing some veggies and herbs or cut down on non-essential purchases for a week.
Check out the website for a whole list of different ideas and Top 10 tips on how to get involved and do your own bit of downshifting next week.