Woodland Trust ethical clothes at Dorothy Perkins

Talking of the Woodland Trust, there is a small range of clothing produced by the high street chain Dorothy Perkins, of which 15-50% of the cost will be donated to the Woodland Trust. The cotton is supposedly organic. You can see the range online and buy at http://www.dorothyperkins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=20552&storeId=12552&categoryId=77405&langId=-1&top=Y. I am very tempted by the flip-flops.

However Dorothy Perkins is owned by Arcadia, the high street conglomerate run by billionaire businessman Phillip Green, and has often been criticised for not keeping a close enough eye on its suppliers. Arcadia also owns British Home Stores and Topshop, who have sometimes been found to not be meeting Ethical Trading Standards (e.g. using sweatshops or child labour in manufacturing).

Still tempted by the flip-flops.

Plant a tree

Trees absorb carbon, obv. If you haven't got a garden, or room in the garden that you do have, you can plant a tree through the Woodland Trust (http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk). They are planning to plant a new forest in Hertfordshire composed entirely of native species, to combat both the ever-declining stock of ancient woodland in the UK, and climate change. If you donate £15 to the campaign, this will buy the land necessary to plant one tree, the actual sapling itself, and resources to look after the tree for 5 years. You can also donate less or more to the campaign if you want to plant more trees.

Watch the campaign video at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=COLvqjHBWHU

Rehome lonely bikes

If you're desperate to get on the green travel bandwagon and avoid using your car as much as possible, bikes are a great way to do it. If you don't want to spend lots of money on a new bike, or you just like the thought of giving an un-loved bike a home, go to http://www.bumblebeeauctions.co.uk/XcAPViewInCat.asp?ID=24. Bumblebee auctions are the UK Police's way of selling on stolen property that they have recovered, but sadly can't reunite with their proper owners. There are lots of really good bikes on there for very little money that can get you from A to B quickly and greenily.

Climate Camp 2008

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk

For a week at the beginning of August, people opposed in general to the concept of Climate Change are gathering at the proposed location of a new coal-fired power station (!!!) in Kent for a week of fun. Visit the website.

How libraries can save the world

Yes libraries. And I'm not just saying that cos my mum's a librarian.

1. If you borrow books to read from libraries instead of buying them, this reduces the number of trees cut down to make the paper, because one book goes round 30 people instead of 1. Fewer trees cut down means more still standing to absorb carbon. (Although many books are now printed on pulp from well-managed sustainable forests, in which a tree is planted for every one cut down, so I wouldn't deny yourself buying books completely.)

2. If you borrow books to read from libraries and buy fewer, this means fewer books need to be made, saving carbon on the energy used producing them and transporting them to the bookstore (sorry booksellers).

3. When you're in the library getting some fiction to read, you can also go to the non-fiction section and find some books about organic gardening/how to fix a washing machine/ethical shopping and a whole host of other green wonders.

Voila!

Bobelle - Gorgeous, fair trade, ethical gifts

I wanted to share with everyone the web address of an online boutique that sells fairly traded and sustainable gifts, accessories and babywear, http://www.bobelle.co.uk/. The lady who's set up the business came to talk to my Fair Trade student campaign group last week, and told us about how it IS possible to be in business and be sustainable at the same time. The best thing available on the website is the eel skin purses.

You'd think eel skin would be UNethical - what about the poor eels, don't they need their skin, etc, etc, but these purses are made from eel skin that has been discarded by the food industry in South Korea, and is three times tougher than leather, whilst being incredibly smooth. So instead of the eels being farmed for their skin, as is sometimes the case with cows in the leather industry, the purses are making use of a natural resource that would otherwise go to waste. The purses come in a range of gorgeous colours and are, of course, manufactured under fair trade conditions, with the producers given a living wage. The producers are not currently fair trade certified (i.e. given a "mark" like this:)

But given that it costs money to get fair trade certification, and that not all cooperatives can afford the assessment process, I'm not going to let this stop me buying one. The student loan (or lack of it, rather) will, unfortunately.