GreenFinder Blog

Ludlow’s fifth annual Green Festival has once again attracted participants from a wide area and although the Sunday Green Fair, which is in its twelfth year is the highlight, a variety of challenging events are planned for the five-day Festival.

Among the activities visitors can take part in include art and craft activities for the children, talks on subjects as wide ranging as the global food crisis, composting and climate change and a drop in session for people to access advice on how to green their home.

The highpoint of the festival will be the green fair on Sunday 24th which will take place in the market square. There will be over 50 stallholders, music, local food and a plethora of interactive workshops and activities.

See you there!!!

Related Links

Ludlow green festival

Upcoming green events

No Comments »

Suprisingly 30,000 tents were left behind by their owners at the V festival this weekend. The local rotary charity were collecting left over tents on Monday but predicted that their team of volunteers would only be able to collect and recycle 3,000 of those tents as the whole site had to be cleared by Wednesday.

What a shame that 27,000 tents would be left behind and most probably end up in landfill.

The tents that are collected will end up being used as temporary shelters in disaster zones and refugee camps so its a pity that the festival organisers didn’t allow more time for the recycling process to take place.

Both the Green Futures Festival and AGreenerFestival.com websites provide advice and information for festival organisers on how to green their events so lets hope the V festival organsiers check them out before next year.

Related Links

Green Events and Fairs

Recycling Listings

No Comments »

KittySoaps was launched as an online shop in 2008, providing ethical, organic skin
and body care with a holistic twist! Owner, Cat MacGillivray, describes how the company
came about. 



"From a very young age, you could find me in my Grandmother’s garden harvesting plants
and flowers (especially the roses to her horror!) to make perfumes, and helping to make
traditionalhealing remedies – I think her renowned raspberry vinegar started the idea of
KittySoaps all those years ago. 

As I grew up, I interlaced studying alternative therapies/ traditions (Aromatherapy, Crystal
Healing,Herbal Medicine, Reiki & Yoga) with studying for my Biotechnology degree and then,
throughout my scientific career. Over the last five years I have spent time to marry my love of
science, herbal medicine and alternative therapies to create a beautiful, therapeutically active
skin/ body care range without compromising my eco-friendly ethos. 

The key to my products lies in the advanced formulations, which combine innovative science with
age-old herbal wisdom. The result is organic, chemical-free skin/ body care to pamper and feed
your skin while your mind, body and spirit benefits from the plant essences and
heavenly aromatherapy blends.
 

Unlike any organic/natural skin care company, all my products are enhanced with Reiki
energy: anancient form of healing that uses an energy that is all around us. Reiki is an accepted
alternative therapythat is used to balance, heal and harmonise both mind and body. Through my
experience as a Reiki Master teacher, I have found that it also has a profound effect on the
natural ingredients used to make my products,acting to raise their innate skin-loving and
therapeutic properties providing you with revolutionary, holistic care.

 As the KittySoaps range is designed for complete wellbeing, the online shop also provides
holistic andhealing gifts, herbal remedies and treatments to give you back some of that elusive
 ‘me’ time that we all deserve! All products are kept affordable and only contain 100% active
ingredients with no water content to dilute them, compared to the majority of commercial
products and sadly, many natural and organic skin care companies. KittySoaps products
are highly concentrated so a little goes a long way!" 

Cat is currently offering all new customers 10% off their first order and provides competitive
trade discounts. See her website at www.kittysoaps.co.uk for more details.


Related Links

More Eco Friendly Toiletries

Natural Health Products

No Comments »

Being fans of the Facebook website we have discovered another worthy facebook group worth a mention. The Bikes On Trains group are campaigning for better provision for cyclists on trains and are supporting a petition that requires train operators to provide an integrated system for the carriage of bicycles and to ensure that there is adequate capacity available.

For a truly sustainable travel network within the U.K it is vital that trains cater for cyclists on all routes. We hope you agree and sign the petition. At present over 600 people have showed their support and signed their names in agreement.

Related Links

Sustainable Travel Links

Bicycle Belles

No Comments »

Who would of thought that computer keys could be recycled into anything this practical or useful. These fab cufflinks made from old keyboards are the perfect green gift for the man who has everything or the committed eco geek.

Recycled Cufflinks

They can be bought online at Jacaranda Blue at £12 a pair in either black or grey.

Made in Canada by Nicola Harper of Geekware, Nicola makes it her business to transform obsolete electronic waste into fun and quirky gifts.

Related Links

Green Gifts

Mens Eco Friendly Clothing & Accessories

No Comments »

Flawlessonline sells amazing things to people that appreciate handmade items. We believe that for things to be flawless they should be made with as much pleasure as you experience wearing them.

Behind our products you will find a group of people who feel passionate about their skills and products. Most things are made by the person who actually created the design. Flawless is an idea that existed in the founder, Mette Mitchell’s head for some time, inspired by her love for Japan and the Japanese aesthetic “wabi sabi”. Wabi sabi means: the beauty of the imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Nature never has just one pattern; it will be ever changing and always unique. In nature no two are the same.

Wabi sabi can never be achieved in a factory where standards for perfection are narrow. For something to be wabi sabi it will have to be handmade and so will then naturally be different from the one made before and the one made after, but never the less beautiful and inspiring and perfect in its own right.

All products on flawlessonline.co.uk are hand made and therefore each product will differ from the other, being a product of the person making it, the materials used, the music they listened to, the tea they drank and the sheer joy of making the item for you.

Flawlessonline.co.uk doesn’t have to work too hard at reducing our carbon footprint as it’s a natural part of the Flawless culture! The nature of what we do requires very little resources for production and minimal transport. There are no factories in far away countries or long distribution routes. Most items come from Denmark and the U.K and none of the products make detours to other countries for packaging, labelling or other processes.

In some cases you will find items are made out of reused materials or scraps discharged from larger manufactures, because these are the materials we prefer to work with. On top of that you will also find a selection of second hand items that have been carefully sourced from markets everywhere.

For more info visit the Flawless Collection here

Related Links

Ethically Sourced Clothing Links

No Comments »

A Leamington woman has won the right to erect solar panels on the side of her house despite opposition from the conservation advisory forum. Janet Alty an environmental campaigner and Green Party member urged Warwick District Council’s planning committee to allow her to put up solar panels on her property which is in a conservation area.

Permission was granted by the council allowing Janet to install the panels on a three year trial basis. There were no objections to the scheme by local people in the area although some local conservative councillors were against the proposal citing it as ‘a waste of time’ and Coun George Illingworth of kenilworth Abbey claiming ‘that it would only be an advertisement for the green lobby’

Counciller Roger Copping said ‘We have a difficult choice. It is between preserving the past and ensuring the future for our children and grandchildren. It is a very serious application and it is trying to help. It is what everybody will have to do in the future’

Related Links

J.H.S Power Solutions & The Green Electrician

Renewable Energy Listings

Local Environmental Campaigns

No Comments »

Where can we find some green and sustainable luggage tags for our eco travel company?

Try the Green Green Home website.They have a range of luggage tags made from recycled juice cartons.

eco luggage tags

These durable luggage tags are made from re-used juice packs from the Philippines. The packaging comprises non-biodegradable foil and plastic that would otherwise go into landfill sites and incinerators.

They are made by a women’s cooperative, near Manila as part of an environmental project with the aim of ‘cleaning and greening’ the local neighbourhood.

Related Links

Green Green Home

Green Travel Tips & Eco Holiday Resources

No Comments »

This coming September parents and students can help reduce the environmental impact of the Back to School rush by considering the 3 R’s when stocking up on supplies for the new term.

“If everyone in the UK saved one staple a day that would be 72 tonnes of metal saved a year” ( Wasteonline) With the eco stapler, metal clips become a thing of the past as this clever little gadget will attach up to three pages together by cutting and folding the paper in one action thus avoiding the need for paper clips.

Most of the waste we generate in the UK comes from packaging and school lunches are no exception. It has been estimated that the average disposable school lunch generates 30kg of waste per school year. That’s the equivalent of up to 8.5 tonnes of waste per average sized schol per year.

One way to avoid the packaging from lunches is with a re-usable Wrap-N-Mat, an innovative solution to cling film and plastic sandwich bags. Designed to last for many years, the Wrap-N-Mat is a simple way to reduce waste going to landfill.

Easy to use, you just fold it around the sandwiches or other lunchbox favourites like biscuits or vegetable snacks, fold the cotton wrapper closed and secure with the velcro strap.

The Wrap-N-Mat also unfolds into a handy placemat measuring 33cm x 33cm providing a pratical and clean eating surface wherever you are that is big enough to catch any spillages.

Encouraging a younger generation to reduce waste and recycle from an early age is a vital role we all need to play in order to reduce the volume of rubbish generated by future generations. One way to achieve this is through promoting recycled materials in school supplies.

ECOutlet’s kids range includes backpacks, lunchboxes and aprons made from recycled juice packs. The stationery range includes pencil cases, rulers, notepads, pens and pencils made from a variety of recycled materials including car tyres, packaging, car parts and juice cartons Bright, colourful and interactive, they send a clear message to a younger generation on the possibilities of recycling and how we can all reduce our environmental impact by recycling and choosing recycled products.

Related Links

www.ecoutlet.co.uk

Back to School Eco Tips

Organic School Uniforms

No Comments »

This weeks Leamington Courier featured an article about the proposal by the local Chamber of Commerce to phase out the single use carrier bag in the Leamington, Warwick and Kenilworth area.

Plastic bag

As a green business based in Leamington we were pleased to see this issue highlighted, although disappointed with the response from one particular shop in the town that was featured in the article. Therefore to support this campaign and the local businesses which will be going plastic bag free we have set up a facebook group in which people will be able to pledge support and put pressure on the shops which are resisting the move. We will also keep you posted on the latest progress with the campaign

To show your support please join the campaign here.

Related Links/Resources

Modbury-Britains first plastic bag free town, The Negative Impact of Plastic Bags, Jute Bags, Recycled bags

Bring your own campaign, Half a million eco friendly carrier bags go a long way to carry a green solution,

No Comments »