Since then I’ve noticed several companies, just like M&S, claiming to be greener by reducing their packaging. Great! I hear you shout. On the surface of it yes it is a good thing, but I’m worried that more and more companies are using this message to convince their customer base that they care about the environment. Oh yes, the figures stack up, and their auditors approve them, but I’m not convinced less packaging always correlates with less environmental harm. The situation is much more complicated than it seems on the surface.

Let’s use a carrier bag as an example. Most carrier bags are made from plastic. Plastic is a derivative of oil. Oil is pumped from the ground and the whole process from extraction to conversion uses lots of energy perpetuating environmental impacts that are well documented. How much does the carrier bag weigh though? I’m not sure on this, but pick up an empty bag, let go and there’s a good chance it will float off in the wind. Contrast this to a Hessian bag. The bag is unbleached, made from plant fibre and sewn together. There are environmental by-products don’t get me wrong, I doubt there is a process on earth that does not have some measurable environmental impact. There will also be social economic factors to consider, but the weight of the bag is heavier, there is more product. I think I might start using a plastic carrier bag, surely that way there is less of it. Do you see what I’m trying to get at? Less packaging is not necessarily better for the environment.

The Humpty Dumpty Easter Egg company (fictious) wraps their eggs up in 2 cardboard boxes. The next year they focus on improving their environmental performance and move to one box. This is a 50% reduction in the same packaging, so in the crudest sense, we shout ‘of course it’s better than the original’. Year 3 the eggs are wrapped in plastic shrink wrap. ‘We’ve made a 99% reduction in packaging’ Humpty Dumpty proudly proclaim. Indeed they have if you go by weight, but is plastic better than card?

Is the card recycled? Is the plastic recycled? What energy goes into the processes that make these products? I don’t have all the answers, but I do think the current methods of measurement carry an element of environmental ambiguity. Consumers must use caution. Sadly for most of us these important debates add to the mire of confusion when choosinig products. Most people just want to nip into a shop, grab something off a shelf and then head home. The packet said ‘40% less packaging’, therefore it must be good right?

The construction industry got to grip with this problem some time ago, when the debate about which material was better really got underway. Now things like concrete, wood, steel are measured by embodied energy Which attempts to work out the true environmental cost of the material, including elements of extraction, transportation and fixing. Lets face it there are so many variables it’s hard to pin down an exact cost. But the construction industry does a better attempt than most. Maybe the food industry could learn a lesson or two, from this mechanism of performance measurement.

In my mixed experience of going into various super-stores it has been Marks and Spencer that makes me most angry.  For set out amongst their ethical goodies and uniformly ordered stores is a whole mountain of unnecessary packaging.  Some days it appears as though the whole store is wrapped up plastic or card!

‘Make a pledge to reuse things instead of throwing them away. Recycling is good, but reusing is better. See how much you can reduce the contents of your rubbish bin by finding new uses for packaging.  Difficultly 1 star.’  The M and S eco-pledge site tells you it’s easy to re-use things.  Indeed it is, but didn’t they forget the ‘reduce’ that comes before the ‘reuse’.  We don’t want everything in boxes, think of the oils that it takes to generate the plastic, think of the trees it take to generate the card, in this immaculately packaged environment M and S have taken a wrong turn.  This forgot that it was their responsibility to cut back as well.  We want food not packaging.

The one thing that annoys me most?  M and S customers stuffing their Hessian eco-bags with packaging (far less green than plastic carrier bags), in the self righteous, I am better than thou way, that M and S customers tend to have.  Analogous to 4×4 Porsche drivers with National Trust stickers in their windows, these idiots just don’t get it.  If this is what Plan A looks like we are screwed, as are our children.

The first of this 5 part manual, uses 4 hypothetical scenarios, to lay out some perfectly plausible ways our future could develop.  Using time lines to spell out our demise, or success, focuses the readers attention.  Statements like ‘2019 -  IPCC announces “its over” and that runaway climate change is now beyond human control’ sends a chill up your spine, whilst the more positive predictions ‘2027 – Britain 96% self-sufficient in food’ leaves you with a sense of hope and possibility.  Possibility is central to the theme in this manual. Despite the depressing fact it doesn’t just leave you feeling like you can’t change the world.  On the contrary it leaves you feeling like you must change the world.  If you were wondering how this could be done, part of the manual even gives you a road-map to setting up Transition Groups to facilitate the social and cultural changes we need to secure our future.

Although UK-centric the principals and facts in this book could be used globally. Not just one for the coffee table, to convince your friends and family that the situation is dire and very real, but guidance and impetus for co-ordinated, structured change.  One message is clear – business as usual is not an option.

The Transition Timeline Through a Local, Resilient Future, by Shaun Chamberlin is available from www.greenbooks.co.uk.  ISBN 978 1 900322 56 0 Price £12.95

Their father Arthur Hollins was a pioneer of the organic farming movement. Arther was a farmer with an uncompromising approach to farming in harmony with nature. The story starts with Arthur’s struggles in the face of government and peer opposition to his ‘crazy’ methods, that many people now accept as normal.

A man of stubborn morals, Arthur and his wife built a up successful ‘cottage’ industry, pioneering the sale of yogurt in post war Britain and re-embellishing the nations impoverished tastebuds with the delicious and nutritious products of their organic methods.

As crisis after crisis hit in the late 80s good fortunes set a sound business plummeting to the brink of despair. In step Ben and Charlotte, the son and daughter of Arthur Hollins and saviours of Fordhall Farm, it’s historic past and Arthurs time-honoured farming techniques.

This is a tale of two bloody-minded individuals struggling against legislation, planning processes, financial desperation and a system that kept saying ‘no’. Blow by blow their exhausting journey develops, in this page turning adventure of success in the face of adversity.

Before Jimmy’s Farm there was Fordhall, Charlotte, Ben and the under-recognised Sophie, farming entrepreneurs embracing a revolutionary system of farming in Shropshire for the benefit of the environment and the community.

The Fight for Fordhall Farm is an easy and enjoyable read, which leaves you feeling part of the farms journey, and standing at the door with an invitation to be part of it’s future, as a shareholder or volunteer. I’m already starting to plan getting my hands dirty on the farm.

The Fight for Fordhall Farm is available from all good booksellers. ISBN 9780340951248.

Be part of Fordhall’s Future. Shares in the Fordhall’s unique Community Land Initiative are available online for £50 per share from the Fordhall Farm website.

I was also reticent about the pump spray and the fact it would be wetter on my underarms, but I’ll try anything so I ploughed on. Bionsen is a hypoallergenic range containing Japanese spa minerals (whatever they are) and is aluminium and paraben free. There’s some science behind the deodorant as instead of it blocking the sweat glands like anti-perspirants, Bionsen (and other deodorants) tackle the odour instead. The “antiseptic agents and germ-killing ingredients target and kill the bacteria that causes body odour on contact. Fragrances also work to combat body odour but the natural, finely-tuned balance of the body is not affected”.

So does it work? As I said before I was worried about the wetness of the spray but after a couple of times you work out the right amount so it doesn’t dribble down your side and then I left my shirt off for five minutes after that too to make sure. And it really seems to work. I actually chose the two hottest weeks of the year to start my testing (May is the new August it seems) and it performed admirably. In fact even when I was sweating a lot, I had to get the Tube one day, there was no bad smell whatsoever. I still sweated, but sweated in a sweet smelling way.

I’m not sure it’s better than other deodorants or anti-perspirants I use, but I know it’s better for me and it’s certainly not worse which I suspect some people would think it would be. I like the smell more than other products I’ve used and think I’ll use it from now on. I discovered the girlfriend uses the roll-on as well when she tried to steal this as she thought it was for her. The roll-on is a bit cheaper at £1.99 and there’s also an aerosol spray at £2.99, stick at £2.49 and this pump spray is also £2.49. It’s available at high street chemists, supermarkets and John Lewis.

It’s a great example of how media is changing from something through which to disperse information to becoming a tool for (collective) action. It’s a little long, but worth the patience.

“As citizens and as consumers, we may not be able to wield a great deal of power. But when we do things together, our power is ridiculous!”

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

We’re a green product review site, so to celebrate our redesign, we’ve launched a massive eco product competitions. Currently there are 83 prizes with a total value of $3,721 / £1,860 but this is going up all the time so might be higher by now.

Prizes include those from Guest Editor and green store, Nigel’s Eco Store, shaving products from Male Organics, Bulldog grooming products, a fairtrade soccer ball, lots of gift certificates, books, hats, make-up, bags, shoes, gadgets – plenty of items for men, women and children.

We’d love you to stop by and enter, you’ve a great chance of winning something green.

Organic is a agriculture product made without pesticide, harmful chemicals, hormones. You can find “organic” on most anything but most of the time it is not completely organic unless you see one of many logo’s like these.

These logo’s on products found in groceries stores are quite hard to get placed and certified on a product because they test just about everything from fertilizers to what the wood was treated with on fences and if one thing that is tested as “modified” the produce won’t be certified to sell as organic. Only 100% organic products may use the organic seal. if a product is 95% is organic they can’t put the organic seal but they can say it is a organic substance. If the product is at least 70% they only can label up to three items that are organic. finally if a item has less than 70% organic they can’t say its organic anywhere on the item. for more information visit this site http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/FactSheets/Backgrounder.htm Heres the actual chart that was in the magazine Good Housekeeping. In other words your best bet will be finding a product that has a certified seal that states that it is certified “organic” on the product you want to buy.

Before you buy something try to remember what the correct labels for a item should be and what labels you should not buy into on a certain product.

I’m not sure any of this information applies to people in the U.K. but it certain it does apply to the people in U.S.A.

There are five steps in the process of creating product. First there is extraction of natural resources next comes the process of production made from the natural resources, chemicals etc. then comes distribution at your local stores which leads people to consume or buy a product and finally the disposal of the product. This short video digs deeper into these five steps in making and distributing from life to death of a product. The short movie with Annie Leonard is about 20 minutes long which you can see at The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard also on their web page you can watch, download the video which is about 55mb in size, or you can even buy a DVD with this video for $10. I recommend this video for everyone to watch especially for the real consumers that keep buying products more than what the average person may buy in a given month or year. Spread the word about this video it may even get you thinking about what you even buy for the holidays, birthdays party’s or even things you buy for your own self.