www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

The city of San Fransisco is setting a good standard by recycling around two thirds of its waste, the remaining third still goes to land fill. And 4% of the waste collected is dog mess from around 120,000 dogs!

The city’s goal is to increase the recycling percentage to 75% by 2010 and 100% by 2020, thereby making landfill redundant by that time. So when Norcal Waste Systems Inc, the city’s garbage dispoal company, says it plans to implement a pilot program of dog poop recycling you know they’re not mucking about

The plan is to collect and deposit the city’s canine by-products into a methane digester where enzymes degrade the material, emitting methane which is then burned to either heat homes or power turbines to generate electricity.

Biomass energy production is a very viable option being the world’s 4th most used energy source after coal, oil and gas so let’s hope there’s every success in bringing power to the people from poop.

Why smell like 99% of the country’s brainwashed adolescents when you can be really different and smell far more fruity? Getting a bottle of Tomato Cologne for Christmas was most welcome and this little bottle of “pomme d’amor” fragrance from Burt’s Bees is genuinely cool – No excessive packaging, no gift-pack waste, no mass-market “appeal” or ludicrous adverts, just a little glass bottle with a label on a string.

Burt’s Bees are well known for making products that are 100% natural and the tomato cologne is 92% natural, just one of those items that can’t be quite 100%. But then the alcohol is distilled from yellow corn and this there’s vegetable glycerin and tomato seed oil too. More natural than you can say about most common fragrances these days.
And it’s so nice even the girls could wear it. Go get some

Run your experiment as a screensaver and see the results on a spinning globe

The BBC are conducting the world’s largest climate change experiment and anybody with a home PC can help out.

The scientists involved in the project do have supercomputers at their dispoal but even these mighty machines can only do so much. That’s where the combined power of say, 10,000 home PCs could help and number-crunch more data than the world’s biggest computer.

So how does a home PC help with climate change?

Many home PCs use only a fraction of their processing power and it is the spare “redundant” processing power that can be used to perform calculations whilst you’re, say, surfing the ‘net or typing out a document. This method, known as distributed computing, has been used successfully on medical projects in the past.

Sounds Good. How can I help?

All you need to do is download the programme, save & install it and then your PC does the rest. The programme runs in the background and you probably won’t even know it’s there.
Any problems, there’s a good FAQ section there too.

Last year I watched a fascinating documentary, The Corporation, in which Ray Anderson, the Chairman of the international carpet company Interface Inc, bucked the trend of commerce solely for financial gain by adding environmentalism into the business mix.

Anderson credited Paul Hawken’s book, “The Ecology of Commerce“, as the catalyst for his moment of clarity and he has since gone on to reduce his company’s environmental footprint by a third, reduce waste, reduce harmful emmissions and use more renewal materials. Not bad for one little book So I felt compelled to grab a copy for myself to see what was inside.

The cover was a good start, using a photograph of nature artist/sculptor Andy Goldsworthy’s work. The text itself kicks off by describing in some detail the threats to the environment from unchecked and inconsiderate business practice.
The damage, he says, if it continues unabated, will continue to affect life in increasingly negative ways but the author then goes on to offer insightful thinking and some practical solutions.

The book, subtitled “A Declaration of Sustainability” highlights the notion that every act of commerce in modern day enterprise (and this book was published back in 1994) is degrading the environment, no matter what the intentions are. Hawken proposes & details that commercial practices be reviewed & revised in order to reverse the damage, sustain and even enrich & improve the environment.

Hawken, being an entrepreneur himself, entertains the idea that green fees, or green taxes if you will, can be levvied on industry to contribute to and encourage conservation. Afterall, in pressing times men are often at their most ingenious & innovative. It is entirely possible, he explains, that competition, profitabillity and sustainability can work hand-in-hand to reverse the worrying trends that are an increasing threat to many, if not all, eco-systems.

The most radical thought of Hawken’s book is not “How do we save the environment?” but “How do we save business?” Afterall, at the end of the day, when you sit and count your money is it really worth being the richest man at the cost of your very own neighbourhood?

Here’s another item I picked up when I was in the USA last – Unscented natural deodorant from Tom’s of Maine. Being in stick form, there’s obviously no harmful propellants, and no aluminium sulphate, which is known to be harsh and often cause allergic reactions.

Tom’s use only good old fashioned natural stuff – lichen, aloe vera leaf juice, witch hazel, coriander… It’s good for your skin, stops odour and keeps your conscience clean at the same time.

If any of the family are reading this… I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but please, please, please don’t get me one of those mass marktet “grooming kit” gift packs next Christmas… I’d swap a whole pack of that crap for this stuff anyday

Oh my God. First it was Bush, now the Christians are going green.

Well, OK, George W Bush did admit that “America is addicted to oil“ and then pay lip service to potential green measures but all that remains to be seen.

And that same opinion was voiced on a TV interview where one evangelical leader said “We need action not hot air!” or words to that effect.

He is one of a group of around 85 evangelical leaders that have funded TV and newspaper campaigns urging American Christians and the US Government to commit to help cut global warming through the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The newspaper advertisment reads “With God’s help global warming can be stopped for our kids, our world and our Lord” and calls on US Congress to do more to get companies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

However, some of the more radical religious groups contest the campaign by questioning the scientific claims behind global warming or even saying that going green is just a distraction from the issues of abortion and family values.

So watch out for the term “green tax”, I’m sure it will become more talked about in the months ahead.

The big “Eat Natural” logo got me first, then the “Blueberry, Pistachio & Yoghurt Bar. A luxurious bar full of premium quality ingredients… and nothing else.”

These are tasty, seasonal and totally natural… none of the artificial rubbish you find in products from the usual suspects and suitable for vegetarians and those on gluten-free diets.
You can buy Eat Natural products in a number of well known places but for a list of stockists go check out their website

When I was in the USA last year I picked up a tube of natural gel spearmint toothpaste from Tom’s of Maine. When it ran out the other day I went to the local Sainsbury’s and was confronted with a huge display of colourful packs of toothpaste… but alas no Tom’s. There was however, a discrete little box with Green People’s 100% Natural Organic Fennel & Propolis toothpaste which I bought and very good it is too.

Being 100% organic certified, and suitable for vegetarians too (but not vegans), Green People’s toothpaste has none of those harsh foaming agents, no fluoride and no artificial colourings, flavours or preservatives – just good old propolis, fennel, cinnamon, clove and myrrh oils for their natural antiseptic & antibacterial properties.

I think I’ll have to try their citrus & aloe vera toothpaste next time and maybe grab some of their fennel mouthwash

And if you hurry, all marked prices include the 10% discount for this February.

Ever heard the term “Greenwash” before? Well, it’s a bit like whitewash but used in an environmental context.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, whitewash basically means “Concealment of flaws or failures” as in to “gloss over” misdemeanours, faults or errors.

“Greenwash”, according to Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English, means;

“the practice of promoting environmentally friendly programs to deflect attention from an organization’s environmentally unfriendly or less savory activities; also called greenwashing”

So, the moral of the story is; If a company claims environmental credentials, be sure to check them out and don’t forget; make sure you’re not diverted from it’s other activities, they may not be so green after all.