Hot on the virtual heels of eco community ooffoo comes Greenwala. Launched yesterday, it's a US social networking site with classifieds, a blog and a shamelessly Facebook-style news-feed. Do we need this many green networking sites? Does Greenwala look worth a punt? Over to you.

What a refreshing change from the old order of US government, I hope that the UK will be maintaining their “special relationship” with US now that the shrub has been ousted. Who knows, Gordon Brown might even learn something from the new guy.

Watch this, you’ll like it. It gave me goosebumps.

[via: ecorazzi]

While she was working as a scientist advising on energy efficiency, Joan Pick radically changed her life. She hasn’t flown since 1971, and hasn’t been in a motor vehicle since 1973 (except for a trip in an ambulance and one in a funeral car). Joan runs and walks everywhere from her home in Croydon, she has made it as far north as the Tower of London, and as far south as Reigate.

Joan doesn’t watch TV, heat her home, or even cook her food. She eats raw fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and she doesn’t go on holiday.

Joan Pick told The Daily Mail newspaper: ‘I have to experiment with the energy efficient lifestyle to prove it’s survivable. Everyone has a unique function in this life, and mine is as a pioneer of personal energy efficiency.”

She has also given up men, saying that she is impossible to live with.

Imagine what life would be like living with Joan:

• No TV
• No heating
• Only raw food
• Make your own clothes
• Walk and run everywhere, no cars, no buses, no aeroplanes
• Tea with condensed milk

That’s dedication.

Photo credit: The Times

[via: ETA, The Times, Living Frugally]

Greenpeace bring us their latest campaign, Coalfinger. Their video on YouTube tells the story of how Special Agent Green battles the evil coal magnate Coalfinger to stop him covering the world in coal-fired power stations.

Watch the video and visit http://www.coalfinger.com/.

[via: The Ecologist]

Jonathon Porritt, green thinker, was dubbed environmental personality of the year at the edie’s Awards for Environmental Excellence. Now in their second year, the awards were held at London’s Natural History Museum on Thursday.

From the edie news feed:

Jonathon Porritt, founder director of Forum for the Future and chairman of the government-backed UK Sustainable Development Commission, became the second individual to receive an edie award for raising public awareness of environmental issues, after Al Gore picked up the award last year following the release of his climate change movie An Inconvenient Truth.

“Following in Al Gore’s footsteps, in receiving this award, is obviously a great honour,” said Porritt.

“And all the more timely given just how important it’s going to be to keep green issues right at the top of the agenda in such difficult economic conditions.

“That’s certainly going to be my principal challenge over the next few months.”

Other awards went to:

Arup - for being the consultants’ consultancy. The employer those working in the industry would most like to work for.

ERM - five of the seven best consultancy in their sector awards.

Atkins - for being voted best environmental consultancy overall, as well as the prize for offering the best advice on water & wastewater.

Awards were also made for business projects that are good for the environment, including an initiative from Coca-Cola using the popularity of league football to promote recycling, and Mitsubishi’s ambitious reinvention of building heating and cooling systems which will save over 3 million tonnes of carbon by 2016.

The awards were judged by a panel of experts including:
Lord Chris Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency
Liz Goodwin, chief executive of the government-funded Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP)
Peter Bonfield, director of the Building Research Establishment (BRE)
Tom Stephenson, head of applied sciences at Cranfield University (a centre of excellence for environmental disciplines)
Peter Stansby of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

For the full list of winners click here.

We’re into the middle of November and snow has already fallen this winter. What are the odds for a white Xmas this year? There no guaranteeing a white Xmas, but a green one, that’s not a problem. You can slash your family Xmas carbon footprint with just a bit of forethought and planning, so it’s well worth it. Join me to explore the possibilities for greener festivities.

Getting started:

Of course here at EcoStreet we will be offering guidance for creating your own green Xmas. But if you want to read more, I can recommend a little tome that is chock-full of useful and interesting information on the subject, it’s called Green Christmas: How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season and it’s written by Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander, with Anne Basye. In this book you’ll learn all about green gift-giving, alternatives to bought Xmas cards, how to make your own eco-friendly decorations as well as how to entertain and get away for the holidays without expanding the size of your carbon footprint too much. So if you can’t decide whether it’s more eco-friendly to buy a real Christmas tree or a fake one, and the best method to dispose of it afterwards, then get yourself a copy of this little book (and one for anyone else you think could do with one too).

Green Xmas Shopping Sites:

Natural Collection are having a Christmas Fayre sale with 25% off selected lines including wrapping paper, cards, calendars, decorations, chocolate and tableware. Check it out. Sale ends on the 18th November.

BigGreenSmile is giving 10% off orders of £40 or more until the 16th November. The code to use at checkout is 10NOV16.

Biome Lifestyle is offering 10% off your order, valid until the 19th of December (the last order date before Xmas), when you enter ILOVEXMAS08 at checkout.

Ecotopia have a whole host of discount codes for their eco-friendly goods. Hurry, because the discount codes expire on the 30th November.
Here they are:
5% off all houses nest & habitats - AHAB511
5% off any item in Parent and Child Catergory - APAR511
5% off any food or drink - AFOOD511
20% off all spinning tops - ASPIN2011
15% off any toy and games in parent & child category - ATOY1511
5% off all eco gadgets - AGAD511
20% off santa torches - ASANTA
20% off Bat torch - ABAT
But wait, that’s not all! They offering free P&P for orders over £75, and 10% off all cardboard paperpod products until 15 December 2008 when you enter code: ACARD10 at the checkout.

Nigel’s Eco Store has lots of eco-friendly Xmassy stuff for sale. Why not have a look.

We’re all having to tighten our belts to get through the economic recession that’s spreading across the world. Here’s a solution to your fashion needs at a fraction of the price. Charity shops, online and off and second-hand clothes at online auction sites are the perfect way to shop from an environmental point of view, and they’re far kinder on the pocket than buying new eco-friendly goods.

TRAID. Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development

TRAID was nominated in the Re:Use category at the Re:Fashion Awards 2008 (there’s still time to get tickets if you hurry).

They’re a charity shop with oodles of style. I used to frequent the one in Brixton when I lived there a few years ago, and picked up some awesome togs there, cheap. There are lots more TRAID’s all around London, and one in Brighton.

Oxfam: Second-hand store, Ethical Collection, Oxfam Unwrapped and Christmas

Buy second-hand clothes online, or at your local Oxfam shop. Jeans, coats, tops, vintage and bridal wear are all available at their online shop.

Then there is their Ethical Store for reasonably priced new organic and Fairtrade wardrobe basics and accessories, food and drink, stationery, books, Christmas stuff and home accessories.

eBay: buy second-hand and vintage clothes, accessories, furniture and anything else you could imagine

It’s easy to buy and sell second-hand clothes on eBay. Just set up an account and you can bid on stuff you want, and list the stuff you don’t. I have picked up some amazing bits of furniture, boots and shoes and a great hat on eBay, well worth having a look at.

As well as such hedonistic pursuits as insulating the loft, I've recently being going wild with other draught-bashing and heat-saving tricks. Here's the verdict on radiator foil (to keep the heat in) and thermostatic valves (to keep the heat from getting excessive).

Radiator foil is basically aluminium foil with padding, designed to radiate heat back into the room rather than through the wall behind it. I can't find the Energy Saving Trust's figures, but I seem to recall the estimated saving a year for a 3-bed house is in the region of £10. Not much, but then the foil only costs £5 for a roll - enough for 4 big radiators - and the glue is another £5. Suffice to say, it's very easy to fit, even for a DIY disaster like me.

All you do is grab a tape measure, measure up - taking into account where the wall mounts are - snip with some scissors, slap the polystyrene glue on the back, slide it down and press it against the wall. I'm sure if you wanted to do a really neat job, you could go to the hassle of taking the radiator off, but the effect (see photo below) was good enough for me.

My wife says she can tell the room's warmer, though I couldn't honestly say I've noticed the difference. To source the raw materials, try your local DIY shop - mine were from B&Q, although the products aren't listed on its site.

And what of those thermostatic radiator valves (often called TRVs)? If you're new to them, the concept's simple. Fit one on each of your radiators and they'll detect when your desired temperature -20 degrees, say - has been reached, and then regulate the heating output so the temperature doesn't go above that. In short, they should require less gas to be burned, less carbon to be shoved into the atmosphere and fewer humans over-heated and drowsing into paperbacks.

Buying these for £5 each in B&Q (pictured left), the instructions looked like a DIY job. It's not. You'll need a plumber. And, as I discovered, you'll probably need that plumber for a couple of hours because they'll need to drain your entire central heating system, which at £80 an hour isn't cheap.

So unless you have some basic plumbing skills - which I don't - I'd recommend not bothering with thermostatic valves unless you're in the process of actually replacing the entire radiator. Otherwise, you simply won't make your money back. It's also worth noting the valves are fairly crude, as they're only measuring the temperature by the radiator - which might mean the wall by your radiator remains nice and toasty but your armchair's stays rather chilly. Generally, though, I've found they do what they say on the tin.

At some point I'll do the maths and post on whether this has had an impact on my gas bill (and accompanying carbon footprint).

Carbon emissions from coal power stations could be transformed into a green biofuel, German power firm RWE AG reckons. The company said today that it's started using flue gas from a coal power plant to 'feed' algae and produce algae waste that could, one day, be used as biofuel. Algae at the "Coal Innovation Centre" in Nideraussem, Germany, basically uses photosynthesis to process CO2 into algae waste. That waste could then potentially be used as future fuel. In other words, it's an embyronic form of carbon capture and storage. The project's taking place in partnership with Jacobs University and the Juelich Research Centre. I've asked the RWE AG press office for more details.

Online eco shop Natural Collection wants you to hang out with like-minded green people on its new community site, ooffoo. Launched today, the name comes from the web hex value for the colour green. Well, kinda. Strictly speaking 00ff00 is the value for green, but someone's already got that URL and it's not as easy to prnounce as 'ooo-fu'. So ooffoo it is. The site lets you post ads and blog posts, swap and sell products, plus it has a competition to win £500. I like the principle behind the site, but right now it's lacking a killer app. Still, it's early days, and any community site takes time to grow. Fortunately, Natural Collection has a lotta genuine fans. For proof, just look at the way it's always won the reader-voted category in the Observer Ethical Awards.

The Big Earth Book by James Bruges, published by Alistair Sawday
Don’t miss our Big Earth Book giveaway below!

As we see massive changes rocking our planet, James Bruges takes us step by step through how we got here. In what is surely going to be considered the layman’s environmental reference book on the state of the planet, Bruges breaks the subject matter of The Big Earth Book down into four main sections: The Elements, Money, Power and Life, explaining and illustrating in easy to understand chunks how we got to be where we are today. Bruges documents the “exploitation of the weak by the strong” in our society and draws attention to “thinkers who define profound changes”. He considers real change essential, the sort of change that is considered impractical by realists, for us to save our planet and continue as a species.

Bruges explains how the earth’s atmosphere works, and how we’ve gone into an Anthropocene Age, where human activity is impacting significantly on the ecosphere to the extent that the planet is warming far faster than scientists expected. He also points out that the success that we had back in the 80’s of healing the hole in the ozone layer could be replicated with the fight against global warming if society will stand together to avert this major disaster.

The book goes on to look at climate denial and how governments aren’t acting on scientific research, as well as a brief history of climate change, including how good intentions like Rio and Kyoto just haven’t gone far enough. Bruges summarises the solutions that have been put forward to cut emissions and discusses their pros and cons. What really stands out for me here is the point made that while governments are trying to cut carbon emissions, they are still mining coal, gas and oil in ever increasing quantities. Bruges points out that it’s easier to “limit the supply of fossil fuels that to control demand for them”, an approach that has not yet been adopted anywhere. We will only survive in this changing world by changing our expectations of how we live.

So what are our options going forward? Bruges details how planting trees to usuage our guilty consciences and carbon offsetting is just making the problem worse, how natural gas isn’t the solution having only a 40 year future until that’s all gone, how hydrogen technology is still very uncertain, how biofuels have the potential for creating famine and how oil and nuclear energy are both limited fossil fuels. In light of this, it seems renewables are the only way to go?

Bruges looks at how as our natural world is impacted by climate change, drinking water is disappearing, forests are disappearing and glaciers are retreating. And in the world of man, the economy still maintains priority over environment. He makes an interesting point here that the charging of interest is destroying the planet’s ability to support life, with additional interesting points about religion and usury/green and how the modern banking system creates money out of nothing.

Bruges puts forward the case for a global eco-currency with the aim of eradicating poverty, adding “… could anyone have seriously imagined, or wanted, the world we have created today? It is a world in which just 220 people own more that the joint income of half the world’s population.” And all the while huge numbers of people live with crime, desperation and the threat of starvation. It’s interesting to note that Bhutan, a country where the inhabitants live very simple lives, is the world’s happiest country, while in places where money, religion and power are considered priorities, our lives become complicated and we become increasingly insular.

Reading this book from cover to cover will change the way you view mankind, our lifestyle, and how we treat this planet and our fellow man.

We’re giving away 3 copies of The Big Earth Book by James Bruges to EcoStreet readers. If you’d like a copy, please leave a comment below telling us why you’d like it. On the 1st December 2008, we’ll choose our favourite 3 reasons and send the book to those readers.