www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

Farmers Markets are a great way for people to find local producers and cut down on the usually unseen environmental costs that globalisation brings.

Whenever there’s a local farmers market on we go down to see what we can do to assist with “localisation”. Afterall, if there is an oil crash and we all end up being unable to travel, we’re not going to be able to get our flowers from Kenya and beef from Argentina, so it makes sense to rely on local producers.

Farmers Markets also boost the local economy and stimulate the sense of local community.

And saying all this we’ll be down at our own local farmers market in Milford, Surrey on Sunday 18th May. We’re helping out on a stall and rolling our sleeves up to get involved, so let’s hope the weather and attendance are good.

Milford Farmers Markets are held at the Secretts Garden Centre and Farm Shop which is in Chapel Lane, Milford, Surrey GU8 5HU (We even put in a link to the map for you there). The market is open from 10:00am until 1:30pm so get there nice and early to get the best of what Surrey’s local farmers have to offer.

Nokia’s President and CEO unveiled a new concept Nokia mobile phone that is, at last, pretty environmentally friendly.

The new Nokia concept mobile, branded “Remade” is supposedly constructed from nothing new, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the device, using less raw materials, reducing landfill waste and making the whole production process more energy efficient.

The Nokia remade is a recycled, post-consumer piece of modern technology. Made from recycled aluminium (old drinks can), plastic from recycled plastic bottles, old car tyres and, rather than the old acid-etched circuit board, the green mobile phone has printed electronics.

But before you rush out and ask for a Nokia Remade to replace your funky iPhone or N95, remember that this is just a concept phone. For now.

Let’s hope Nokia do the right thing and start using recycled material in ALL their products.

After last month’s online purchase of fantastically warm and environmentally-friendly hemp insulation, we saw hemp insulation for the first time locally in our nearby B&Q on Saturday.

Above the usual and itchy suspects of fibreglass loft insulation was a sign that read “Buy One Get One Free on ALL insulation and insulation wrap”. So we asked a girl at the till whether the Breathe™ Hemp Insulation was covered in this deal, after all the sign did say ALL INSULATION.

At the till the computer says NO, but we pursued justice to the letter and asked a higher authority if they would honour their promotion. They did.

So, if you want to save a few pounds and make your loft or walls all warm and toasty by going green with your hemp insulation then scoot down to B&Q double-quick and take advantage of this offer.

As well as the 6 packs of Breathe™ Hemp Insulation (which is grown in the UK) we saw B&Q were selling Thermafleece natural wool insulation too.

So finally, the high street retailers are actually going green in the products they provide for us. It’s nice to see that green products are not just a specialist commodity any more.
Personally I wish the less environmentally friendly products would be priced higher than the green products…

Whilst in the midst of revamping our bathroom we had to build a stud wall and were at this point where we had to insulate the cavity.

Now personally I can’t stand glass-fibre insulation, not even the superpink stuff that’s sealed up nor the trendy space blanket with the silver side to supposedly reflect heat; Fibre glass can be itchy, not nice to work with and simply it’s just not my bag - we wanted something much greener!
So I’d been keeping an eye on this Thermafleece sheep’s wool insulation, which can only be delivered by the pallet, which was an amount far more than we currently required, or there was theWarmcell recycled paper filling; probably a bit awkward for this particular job.

We eventually settled on a product called Isonat - hemp and cotton batts supplied in batches of six - for our purposes the 1200mmx400mm wide batts came in a number of thicknesses; With a 66mm cavity we asked our supplier, Green & Easy, if the 75mm thick batts could be compressed. They said yes and the next day we had our pack delivered.

The Isonat hemp & cotton batts are well made yet easy to trim with a sharp knife or scissors. We managed to compress the 75mm thick batts into the 66mm cavity but we did have to initially bond our dry-wall boards to the studs first and then permanently fix them in place.

Overall, the Isonat hemp & cotton batts were a joy to work with, are a great green credential and our conscience is clear. They’re also fire retardant and bug-proof, have excellent heat-retention properties and good soundproofing qualities. And what’s more, the spare hemp batts we have left for our next job are cat-friendly; I don’t think we’ll be getting them back for a while

Green & Easy were friendly, helpful and very efficient. You can visit their website or give them a call on 0845 257 0550.

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?

What happens when your litre of Ecover washing-up liquid runs out? Do you:

1. Climb up into your Chelsea tractor and shoot off to the local Supermarket to grab another bottle
2. Cycle/walk to your friendly neighbourhood shop for another 2 or 3 bottles
3. Sit here and navigate to ecotopia.co.uk and order a 5 litre re-fill

Well, whatever you do, it’s better to grab the 5 litre Ecover re-fill because you can re-fill your 1 litre Ecover washing-up bottle 5 times, save a couple of quid on your purchase and leave the SUV in the garage

It’s the environmentally friendly move, so go green and order the bulk products online - you use less packaging too