Posts by Thomas

Pearl Jam

Whilst self-destruction is at the beating heart of rock n roll, planetary destruction is seemingly off the agenda nowadays, with more and more musicians and bands jumping on the biofuel powered eco-bandwagon, and doing their bit for Mother Earth. Cynics might claim that it’s just another ploy to raise profiles in an increasingly tough business, but whatever the motivation, the message is certainly getting through.

1. Pearl Jam
In terms of putting their money where their collective mouths are, few bands come close to the eco-awareness of Pearl Jam. In gifting $100,000 to various eco projects during a recent world tour, it was more than a donation, it was a call to arms. The activism section on Pearljam.com makes for great reading, and offers an insight into the lengths the band will go to in order to ensure their impact on the planet is kept to a minimum.

2. Radiohead
When Radiohead recently snubbed Glastonbury, it wasn’t because of the mud, the distinct lack of sanitary toilets, or a sudden dislike for Indonesian nose harpists. Nothing so trivial would keep Thom ‘Smiler’ Yorke and his merry band of men away. ‘Glastonbury’s spiritual houseband’, as the 2003 programme called them, disappointed legions of fans for one reason, and one reason alone – the lack of a green transport system to the site. The message was clear – the biggest greenfield festival in the world just isn’t green enough.

Read the rest of Top 5: Green Thinking Bands »

Looking around the cupboards in the house I share with three friends, it seems the current economic crisis is really hitting home. While the shelves are still just as well stocked as ever, where Fairtrade coffee and bananas used to sit, they are now just as likely to be replaced by supermarket own brand equivalents. With the economy in the state it is right now, ethical purchasing decisions may come under a little more pressure and a little more scrutiny than previously, and as people ‘tighten their belts’ at home it is worrying that fair trade products may be seen as a luxury, and another thing to be cut in the never-ending struggle to save a few pennies.

With Fairtrade Fortnight on the horizon, it felt like a good time to reflect on what fair trade actually means to people.  Depending on your perspective, those two little words, and what they stand for, can have very different meanings. From our perspective, as consumers, it could mean ensuring that our money is spent on products which directly benefit the people responsible for growing or manufacturing them. To the manufacturers, and anyone else on the front line of the fair trade movement, it can mean a lifeline.

I feel it’s worth remembering when considering your fair trade buying habits, that to the producers ‘tightening your belt’ is much more than just a handy turn of phrase, and that our ‘harsh economic outlook’ would be labelled as ‘unadulterated luxury’ by the three billion people currently living on less than $2.50 a day. I know that sounds like the stressed mother lecturing her fussy child on the virtues of eating sprouts, but it’s true. In my opinion, the possible extra expense is outweighed by the benefit to those that need it most, and anyway, in many cases I’m finding that the reputation that fair trade products have for being more expensive doesn’t necessarily carry through, especially with a little bit of crafty shopping. With one quarter of the UK’s shoppers now regularly buying several Fairtrade Labelled products, it seems I’m not the only person to feel this way.

Read the rest of Cupboard love? »

Right lads, listen in. You know it, I know it, and most of all, the girls know it. Valentine’s day is a chore. Like most chores, ignoring it and hoping it will go away will get you nowhere, apart from maybe a few nights sleeping on the couch. Worry not though, as I’ve got a few simple tips and ideas which will make it as painless as possible, and best of all, she’ll think you put loads of effort in. Winner!

When it comes to Valentine’s day, the five P’s really come into their own. If you’re unfamiliar with the five P’s, it goes something like this - Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. In other words, get sorted early and you’ll be set. There’s nothing to be gained in leaving it until the last couple of days to pick up a cheap looking card and some wilting, overpriced flowers from your local supermarket. Get sorted early and you can get the best of the bunch at the best prices.

The obvious choice for

Read the rest of A Bloke’s Guide To Valentine’s Day »

At a time when green buzz-words such as ‘food miles’, ’shop local’ and ’slow fashion’ are being bandied about by just about everyone with any kind of environmental conscience, doing your shopping online may seem to be the antithesis of all the good work being done, but look a little more closely, and you might just find that the internet is a greener option than the shopping mall.

Shop from home and let us do the hard work!

If you are anything like me, the simple thought of walking down the high street at this time of year will be enough to bring on a severe attack of the nerves. This is where the internet really comes into its own. With thousands of stress free retail outlets just a click away, the days of spending hours trawling round town in the freezing cold hunting for that perfect gift for a special someone is long gone, and it couldn’t have happened sooner. It turns out that my fear of Christmas shopping is good for the environment as well. Bonus!

Read the rest of Shop online to save the planet… »

My gran used to have a saying (don’t think she made it up, I’ve heard loads of people use it since) that went something like “Learn to crawl before you try to walk!” Normally, this would be rolled out when I had tried to do something, and been pretty rubbish at it. I was reminded of this when I recently sat down to read There’s A Hippo In My Cistern, a great new book from former lads mag journo Pete May.

At the beginning of the book Pete is very open about the lifestyle he used to lead - he would fly everywhere he could, cared little for conservation, and was obsessed with consumerism and the latest toys and gadgets. In essence he was living the life most twenty-something blokes would kill for. This all changes, however, when he meets eco-warrior Nicola, and the course of true love, as another saying goes, never runs smooth.

The central point of the book, though, is that despite all the warnings of our planet killing ways, few of us make any major changes to our lifestyle. There could be many reasons for this, from laziness, to comfort, to unwillingness, but I feel the crucial issue is apathy. People don’t think that anything they do individually will make any difference, and therefore don’t start trying. In the book, May finds that adjusting to a more ethical lifestyle is much more difficult than it appears, but by taking small steps, he eventually transforms his life, and turns away from his consumerist, eco-sinner past. We could all follow his example, and start small. Energy saving lightbulbs, for example, can use around 75% less energy than regular ones. That’s 75% less carbon and 75% less money spent on lighting your house, and 75% more happiness in the world (approx!). That’s just one small step, which really is no effort at all, and does wonders for your eco-karma. You know it makes sense.

I’ll end this post with another saying of my gran’s (and, of course, some Chinese bloke) “The longest journey starts with the smallest step.” Why not take that step today, and see where your journey takes you? More small steps to come.

Harry Hill, the massive-collared former doctor turned off the wall comedian, is to launch a brand new range of salted peanuts with our friends over at Liberation! Nuts in order to show his support for African and Latin American nut farmers.

Hill has refused any fee for his services, preferring to ensure that the nut producers benefit as much as possible from this partnership.

‘I love salted peanuts myself and feel I am doing a service to snackers everywhere who want to know the farmers who grew what they are eating have been paid a fair price,’ explained Hill. ‘I’m working with Liberation because all of its products are Fairtrade and the company is run purely to benefit the farmers and their families.’

As well as putting his name to the product, Harry also designed the striking green packaging for the nuts which are launching soon and will be available over at Ethicalsuperstore.com.

After last week’s hypermiling post, I decided to look into other ways of cutting down on the amount you spend (and burn) at the petrol pump. Hypermiling, after all, can get you a long way, but eventually you need to stop off for fuel, and in the vast majority of cases that means money, pollution and a continuation of the endless fuel consumption cycle which everyone is so concerned about right now. There is, however, an alternative, and it needn’t be as pricey as you think.

It may seem too good to be true, but it is perfectly feasible to give up your gas-guzzling car, and still get around town quickly, easily, and without resorting to stuffing your head into the unwashed armpit of a fellow commuter on the morning train. The number of electric vehicles in on the increase, and this is only set to continue as people realise the benefits that are to be gained by going electric. Until now, however, vehicles such as the Toyota Prius(approx. £13,000 and up) and the Vectrix scooter(around £7,000) could be seen to be a little out of most people’s price range. However, there is now an alternative which may just make going electric a much more appealing option.

The Ego StreetScoota, despite its ridiculous name, is a fully electric moped which rocks in at a frankly amazing £999.95… yes, you read that right - a fully functional scooter which will never need a visit to your local petrol station, all for about the same price as a years worth of travelling on the London Underground. If that’s not reason enough to get one, I don’t know what is.

According to the manufacturers, the Scoota can reach a top speed of 30mph, has a range of around 40miles, and costs a teeny, tiny, frankly measly 8p to charge fully… all with the added benefit of not having to pay road tax, getting cheap insurance (normally around £100-£200), and receiving free parking in most cities. I can’t actually think of a reason not to buy one.

Hypermiling - the latest buzz word on the green motoring circuit - is not, as you might think, some crazy Star Trek inspired commuting technique, but it is, in fact a way to ensure that drivers get maximum fuel efficiency whilst driving, thereby lessening the effect on the wallet of rampant oil price increases, and helping save the planet at the same time.

The slighty controversial techniques are already gaining a huge following in the USA, and are now starting to creep into Europe, with many followers boasting of meeting and even exceeding the usually unattainable advertised miles per gallon of their vehicle of choice. Serious proponents of the art have gained almost unbelievable results, as is the case with Bill Kinney, who at Hybridfest 2007 gained an average of 168mpg from his Honda Insight Hybrid, which has an advertised fuel economy of 84mpg.

Find out how after the jump

German firm DVD-D have launched ‘Einmal’, a disposable DVD format which is designed to facilitate DVD ‘rental’ from coffee shops, service stations and other such locations where movie rental was not previously possible. Retailing at around €3.99 ($6.44 /£3.20), the key feature of these discs is the fact that they are rendered unplayable 48 hours after opening, giving the customer all of the benefits of movie rental, without any of the annoyances such as returning the discs or incurring late fees.

The discs are standard DVDs with a self-destruct chemical coating applied, which reacts with the air once the disc is removed from its vacuum packaging. Once your allotted 48 hours have passed, you will be greeted with a ‘No Disc’ error on your dvd player, leaving you with two options - throw away the DVD, or gain a shiny new coaster for your coffee mug.

What seems to have been overlooked is the environmental impact of such discs. By their very nature these are discs which are designed to be thrown away at the end of their very short lifetime, undoubtedly adding to the landfill problem. The discs are designed to be recycled, but the number that are will no doubt make up a very small proportion of the total number of discs produced. The majority are clearly destined for landfill, and this is a problem. Added to that must be the cost, environmentally, of the production of these discs, and the environmental impact of the processes involved in recycling them. Even with a 100% recycle rate, we still see an environmental negative, as recycling is an energy intensive process which by its very nature creates pollutants.

This latest symbol of our over-determination to make everything disposable is a worrying one, and one which should be noted with caution. Here at How Ethical we can’t help but wonder, will they release ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in this format?

No, actually, they’re not. Sevin Coskun’s entry to Treehugger’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition is remarkable in both it’s simplicity, fuctionality and message, but you have to wonder what would motivate someone to install a washing machine in their bathroom… or a toilet in their kitchen.

The Washup combines a washing machine with a toilet, with the grey water from the machine repurposed for flushing the loo. As the average toilet uses 8 litres of water per flush, and most people use the toilet an average of 35 times per week (according to USwitch), the water savings potential is huge.

Here at How Ethical! we can’t help but think it’s all a little impractical, and can’t see many people going out of their way to have this fitted, but the promotion of grey water reuse is commendable, and with a few design tweaks (like plumbing the components into different rooms!) this could be a winner! [via Treehugger]