Saturday, July 31, 2010

Fashion




Thanks to Bovey Climate Action for the information shown below:

· In 2009, women brought nearly 3 times as many garments as they brought in 1999.
· We don't even wear 20% of the clothes that we buy.
· Two million tonnes of textiles go into UK landfills every year.
· In 1970, t-shirts and top cost around £2-10 each. They cost much the same now, but as we now earn around10 times as much money, we buy far more.
· Clothes are very cheap now, because almost all of them are made in countries with very low wages and living standards.
· Wool is probably the most sustainable fibre there is; less than a hundred years ago, it was a valuable product. Now, because we prefer oil-based, man-made fabrics, a sheep's fleece is only worth about £1 - the cost of having it sheared.
· Our modern textile industry is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gasses on Earth.
· Even the growing and processing of natural fibres causes pollution! Growing cotton needs vast amount of water. Irrigating cotton is causing acute water shortages in many poor countries.
· Man-made fabrics are made from petro-chemicals. Did you know that you're probably wearing oil?
· If you 'shop till you drop', you're probably making climate change worse....
Well, what can we do about it, and still look good?
· Choose your clothes carefully and look after them - you can enjoy them for years!
· Try to buy organic wool, cotton and linen
· Get a basic sewing kit, so that you can sew on buttons and mend your clothes.
· Find out how to make, alter and remake your clothes, so that you can always look cool!
· Try Charity Shops for fantastic bargains with tiny footprints.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Energy Tax Penalises Those Paying the "Tradional Way!"

It has been revealed that customers paying for their utilities by cash or cheque could be paying more than those paying by direct debits. The BBC has already accused Energy Companies of charging the average household on prepayment meters £118 more than those who pay by direct debit following the latest round of price increases, but the Energy Companies defend these accusations by saying this is simply because they are phasing out traditional methods of paying.

We all know that the ability of these companies to hike their prices up and down as and when they feel like it is their best commodity, which means the best way to avoid paying more as a consumer is to be energy savvy, but with so many tariffs, ways to pay and ways to save energy, it can all be quite confusing!

Northfield Ecocentre knows this and as such offers all local people a free Energy Consultation.
In this sessio, all of your energy use is reviewed, as well as your bill to identify any hidden charges and help you to make changes that will cut your energy bills.

If you would like further information on this service, please visit our website www.northfieldecocentre.org
Or just pop in and visit us! We are open Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays...

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre




Only a few years ago finding tradesmen in the building industry who understood some of the renewable technologies was almost impossible. This is changing and the Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre is one of the driving forces.
The Centre is run by one of the large building material suppliers. They built the £3M centre to demonstrate to the building industry what is available and how it can be fitted. It is a building packed with both passive and active ways of reducing energy in all types of buildings and also demonstrating that materials used in buildings can be chosen to reduce their impact on the environment.
I was lucky enough to be invited to visit the centre with a party from Optima Community Association who are themselves building and planning eco homes. I was glad to hear the centre was not only emphasising climate change as an issue but also the alarming speed that peak oil and peak gas may overtake us.
There were many interesting things that came from the visit but one that struck me was that since the feed in tariffs were introduced in April PV panels have been flying off the shelves. Likewise solar hot water panels are also very popular.
Wolseley are to be congratulated for taking the lead within the building industry and I thank them for the visit and Optima for inviting us to accompany them.