It's Earth Day 2012, folks. What are you doing to mark the fact?

One of the main thrusts of the day is to promote green awareness and especially to push for people to be more aware of and involved in their environment.  The "billion acts of green" is a good start, and amongst the suggestions I've seen a number of actions or pledges made for Earth Day 2012, some of them being...

• Adopt a tree in your neighbourhood - Make sure it is tended to and nourished.
• Plant a tree - A native, deciduous if possible.
• Recycle - Don't throw that away - recycle it instead!
• Change your lightbulbs for energy-saving lightbulbs.
• Take the stairs and don't use the lift.
• Walk, cycle or take the bus and leave your car at home today.

Well, there are no trees in the neighbourhood as such, only the forest  50 yards away and we lost a few oaks there last year as they were cut down for reasons we don't know :(

There was a blossoming tree on the green outside our house, but that died a few years ago and the council are closed today so we haven't had a replacement since. I might make a phone call tomorrow to ask them if they're going to plant a new tree there for us.

We've recycled today - Last night's beer bottle went into the glass recycling container and all our paper, plastic and card has gone into our box that fills our blue recycling bin :)

Our lightbulbs were changed for energy-efficient ones years ago, including some LED GU10s and all the rest simple energy-saving bulbs.

We failed to not use our car today as we needed to make a trip to the store to grab some groceries, sorry about that. I might make up for it with a bike ride around the lake later.

So unfortunately we've not really done anything especially green for Earth Day 2012 other than the green things we do in our household every day.

But we are busy working away at our part-time business, staying at home, saving energy and promoting Earth Day. I've been working on designing a website for a nearby family-run business, Simply Carpets, who are our friendly local carpet shop. They supply and fit a number of carpets that, whilst not strictly "green" are worth considering for the environmentally-minded:

As suppliers and installers of Axminster carpets, they are providing great British carpets. Axminster carpets are made in Britain and they are natural - Usually 100% wool and with a jute backing. By fitting 100% natural wool carpets in your household you can vacuum the house and empty ALL the contents of the vaccum cleaner into your compost heap - what you are throwing away is 100% natural, biodegradable and environmentaly-friendly.

We've also spotted a few companies that supply "green" underlay but did notice that some of the "eco" underlay brands are actually "economy" not "ecological", so there's a tip for you this Earth Day 2012.

Have fun and stay green, people :)