The Green Diaries

Our Californian Correspondent, Senorita Julie, sent in the best link. + Environmental Working Group It's a hard hitting think tank that provides all sorts of product reviews, including one on cosmetics. It dissects the ingredients of common soaps, shampoos, moisturizers etc and highlights hazardous ingredients, then gives the products and overall rating. This is an extremely useful resource. 

Green Correspondent Alice sent us a link to a company called Ethiscore which reviews companies on an ethical basis. + Ethiscore   It rates companies based on their scores against 20 ethical business criteria grouped into 5 main categories: environment, people, animals, politics and product sustainability. Reviews are included for everything from cell phones to banks, chocolate, butter and computers. There are a few reports which are accessible for free or you can access the full library of scorings for a set subscription fee of £15 (about $25) per annum. The results can be surprising. Some of the organic food industry faves like Green & Blacks fall far behind lesser known brands. And Ecover has a lower Ethoscore rating than I would have thought. It's a relief to have such a comprehensive look at companies to help guide shopping decisions. Have a look and see what you think.  Thanks Alice for enlightening us!

Another great tip from Green Correspondent Alice. It looks like the Tetrapak carton makers are pushing for every council to start collecting and recycling this ubiquitous packaging that is used for just about every type of consumable liquid. + Tetrapak recycling It's a very informative site with educational info on what the cartons are made of, how they are recycled, what they can become post-recycling plus maps of where in the UK they can be collected. I looked up our council (Westminster) in London on the 'where are cartons collected' maps and found that Westminster is one of the only councils registered 'not interested'. Come on, Westminster! It's bad enough our block of building doesn't get kerbside recycling (we still lug it to the local sorting bins) but to not even show any interest in collecting a major product is not good enough.  Kudos to Tetrapak for actively pursuing more recycling of its own products and informing the public with a website.

This is no longer breaking news due to my lax blog updating (sorry) but apparently one of the UK's biggest home stores is now selling solar panels. Green Correspondent Ren sent us this clip: "Curry's have started selling solar panels in the hight street. Shoppers in West Thurrock, Essex, and Fulham and Croydon in Greater London will be able to snap up the £1,000 panels, manufactured by Sharp. An installed system that could halve the electricity bill of a typical three-bedroom home costs £9,000, Currys says." For more info read: + BBC coverage of Curry's solar panel announcement That's way too expensive if you ask me. I'm hoping that solar panels will get cheaper and cheaper every season. So, Curry's, when will we see the £500 solar panel system? 

This one comes from Correspondent Hines, who, even in the midst of world travel with fiancee Tara, still has time to send us less exciting Londoners greenie websites. This, like the carbon emissions footprint on BP.com, is a quick and easy way to figure out what you're using and where. Our household came in at 1/2 of national average but that's still 34 buckets of water per person per day. I bet the environment misses my pre-professional days when I'd wear the same pair of jeans 3, 4, 5...6 times before washing them. Care of Correspondent Hines, reporting from Ecuador, behold the water calculator. + Find out how much water you use