Green news & views

Wasting water at work is not only environmentally unsound but can also increase a company's costs and therefore affect their profitability.

This week sees Water at Work Week come into action and the Big Splash campaign aim to help companies reduce their water wastage/usage.

It's very sad to know that Dame Anita Roddick died last night but when you look back on her life she made some great steps for the green movement.

Anita Roddick died at St. Richard's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex at 18:30 on Monday 10th September. The 64 year old green campaigner & entrepreneur died of a brain haemorrhage.

Here at Everything's Gone Green we're great proponents of real ale, especially local real ale. Our local brewery is the Hog's Back Brewery in Tongham, Surrey, just a couple of miles down the road across the Hampshire border. They brew HBB (Hog's Back Bitter), TEA (Traditional English Ale) and, last weekends favourite session brew, Hop Garden Gold.

I received an email from a client today with the following phrase at the foot of their note...

"Think Green - Please do not print this email unless you really need to"

That's not only perfectly good advice but also very appropriate - I know someone who I have tried time and time again to deter from printing virtually EVERYTHING on their PC onto paper. And yes, they do print their emails. These emails are then stored away and forgotten.

Why oh why do they bother? It is so frustratingly pointless.

A reminder to you all to watch "How Green is your Street" tonight at 9pm on BBC2. The quick synopsis says:

"The biggest names on Britain's high streets are spending hundreds of millions of pounds trying to go green. Are they really trying to save the planet? The Money Programme investigates."

The Money Programme are always pretty objective, so it should be a good'un.

Modbury in Devon, population just 1553, has today banned the plastic carrier bag.

After Richard Branson's £1.6 billion Pledge towards green fuels last year comes a new 'green' deal with Branson's Virgin Atlantic ordering 15 of Boeing's new 'green' Dreamliner passenger jets.

We've long been fans of the Tom's of Maine deodorant sticks because of the company's ethics and great products but someone said the other day:

"Why don't you try one of those crystals?"

Tip of the day to prevent flies in your compost bin: wrap all your old kitchen scraps in a sheet or two of old newspaper before dropping them in your compost bin. This should keep flies from laying their eggs on the organic waste.

This follows the prinicple of mixing "green" and "brown" waste, so a really good layer of shredded paper will do the trick but not so well as wrapping old fruit and veg in newspaper.

Also keep the lid on and make sure there are no gaps into the bin.

What do you get for the green person who has everything?

An Ecoffin, an Eco Coffin! Ecoffins are environmentally-friendly coffins in bamboo, willow or pine and are completely natural.

What better way to make sure your final environmental footprint is as small as possible?