The Green Diaries

Just bought the green issue of Vanity Fair (May 2006). It's packed full of research and helpful tips, including a small booklet of 100 simple ways to have a greener lifestyle. The booklet covers the basics like: + buy energy efficient light bulbs + don't leave things on standby + bring your own bags shopping + walk or bike whenever you can + buy A grade appliances (most energy efficient) + recycle diligently at home + get your office to recycle + try to fly less as it's massively dirty and wasteful form of transport apparently, even if your flight is packed to capacity, you're using way more fuel than if you drove alone in a regular 30 MPG all of the way - alone! - and that includes long haul trips (at least that's what I read in Leo Hickman's book.) There's also a lot of info about forward green-sense global activists, politicians and business. My favourite profiles: + Wangari Muta Maathai - She's currently the assistant environment minister in Kenya...

The product reviews are on their way tomorrow... but first, we have one HUGE new product review - a car. I'm so ashamed! But I've been carless for about 6 years now and, man, it felt good to get out of London and not be fleeced by the train companies. For American readers, train tickets here are about 4-5x more expensive than in the states. And gas is about $7/gallon. They get you every which way in the old UK! There's one man somewhere on this island sitting on a huge stack of gold... Our car is a Spanish Seat and it gets about 40MPG highway, 30 city. Not great but not terrible. I pushed for something compact with way better fuel consumption but the Mr. found our green list cars to be wimpy drives. And he was getting aggravated by the never-ending requirements--especially since he does the majority of the driving as I have yet to figure out how the hell to get round a round-a-bout in London without having a nervous breakdown. We had a tight budget and were only looking at...

Friday night is beer night at the offices I've been working with for the past few months. It's a hip, modern web agency with standard new media perks like a pool table and an open frig policy on Friday PM. But, despite protest, it's one of those modern companies that's lazy about things like recycling. (Thus making it stone age, really.)It recycles paper but no bottles or plastic. I've sent emails to to the head of operations but to no avail. I've even tracked down the dude that picks up the paper in his huge green recycling truck who said 'We can pick up everything but this company just does paper.' So Friday I offered to recycle the bottles of the people I was chatting to by taking them home. No one thought it was weird. (I stopped myself at picking bottles out of trash cans though someone offered to do it for me! I'm just to vain to be propery green, huh?) In fact, everyone who gave me their bottle thought it sucked that there was no recylcing in...

I just found out that the BBC2 has a new TV show about a family that goes for a completely sustainable existence in a new series called It's Not Easy Being Green. I've been waiting and waiting for a show like this and can't believe that I only found out about it by accident in a blog search. BBC2 - where is your advertising??? We'll definitely be watching next week. Has anyone seen it and what are your thoughts?

We've been trying to expand our ecological product usage. Our cleaning cupboard is now full of Ecover cleaners and we're replacing old standbys like bleach with the less toxic vinegar. After reading the latest edition of The Ecologist, there are enough products to try out to last us year and years. In fact, the more I read, the more I realise how just about everything I use, from my shampoo to our laundry detergent, has a weird array of chemicals. But can I move to happy-hippy beauty products and still fight of the wrinkles? Will our always stained porcelain sink respond to earth friendly Ecover instead of the Ajax that I've used since the dawn of scouring time? To help answer the questions for ourselves--and give you some insights--I've decided to start a product review once a week. It will be as non-biased and as thorough as possible. I'm also going to try to bring more concrete research into this so it isn't just the typical blog me me me babble. So if there...

We went to the much publicised Ideal Home Show today in Earl's Court. It was touted as having a eco and sustainable living theme. But it was actually a massive jumbo mall of home wares. There were the slice and dice men whizzing through carrots with ginso style knives, fake leather bean bags chairs, log cabins booths, TV sales tents and...a lonely recycling exhibit sponsored by Recycle Now . Where were the solar panels and wind turbines and Huf Haus booths? Where was the info on happy composting and energy efficient boilers? Not by the pub on a trolley... So we left with our lone Ecover jute bag that we found at the Ecover stand buried in tat and with despodent staff who were bummed by the complete lack of green theme. The organisers did have a huge, Vegas style waterfall with some shrubs stuck to it in the middle of the circus...maybe that was the green offering? We did have a fun Sesame Street style wander through the Recycle Now exhibit which was in the style of a recreated ti...