
Just one more day until
[re]design launches their show
Good & Gorgeous? at this year’s
London Design Festival. The show promises truly gorgeous design, meaning design that’s good for you, for others and the environment. You’re in for a treat of everything green from things based on recycling, reusing or reducing to disassembly, fair trade or play. 80 companies exhibit eco-friendly products, green design tools, innovative materials and give stimulating seminars that inspire.
The designs they say will be:
•friendly and funny
•sustainable and surprising
•open and optimistic
•inclusive and inspiring
•good and gorgeous...
Amongst the exhibiting designers you’ll find familiar ones such as
SECCO, the treasures from wasteland,
Green-Works who revamp old office furniture,
Smile Plastics who create recycled materials or
Julienne Dolphin Wilding, the environmental artist. But many more gorgeous pieces can be found at the [re]design 2006 show, for example
the Woodpecker Wine Rack by
Brilliantly Simple, the funky
Inkuku chairs by
Ryan Frank, inspired by an African craft technique, awareness raising
Made In by
Pieces of You,
Sprout design’s fantastic
Binvention that finally sorts out your recycling and many more. So make your way to the Boiler House, Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London. 21-26 September it’s open to the public. -Which one is your favourite? Check out their web site for links to all exhibiting designers.
::[re]design ::London Design Festival...

Looking for eco design? Check out
Good for Environment! a new platform for eco design.
Here you can find things like a water saving device for potted plants, inspired by the Namibian beetle’s system of saving water by cleverly using evaporation and condensation to its advantage (further rather
cute explanations on their web site). This simple disc is called
Econo, designed to cover the earth in your plant pot to catch the evaporating water leading it back to the plant, drastically reducing the amount necessary to water it. They calculated that it saves you up to 50% of water, perfect for those of you who travel often or simply forget to water the plants.
Other products in their pipeline are
Lappack the conference folder,
Hexa-ton the smart container and a
Personal Broadcasting System designed for the ‘Toshiba Hard Disk Drive Revolution 2006’....

The Soil Association, Britain’s esteemed charity promoting organic farming,has announced its 2006 organic industry awards—akin to the Oscars-- and the winner is:
Spiezia. This small Cornish company has won the certified organic beauty product award for its organic lemon and marigold soap. The business was started by an Italian doctor, turned naturopath, who moved from Italy to Cornwall and began farming organically. The products are 100% organic, made by hand. The lemon and marigold soap uses only the purest of oils and herbs grown on the farm. The soaps are “made with passion, and respect for people and nature”. Prize for best large store: Oliver’s Wholefoods & Natural Remedies. This charming shop, with a village-like atmosphere, is impeccably stocked with every organic food, cosmetic, and vitamin imaginable. The owners are dedicated to community involvement and have food tastings in-house, speakers on relevant topics and a clinic. Best organic restaurant, should you be in the Yorkshire Dales: the Austwick Traddock. And best name (best small store): Pillars of Hercules (in Fife).::
Soil Association...
”That’s it in a nutshell. The problems and the hand-wringing begin when people in power decide the principal role of farming is not to feed people but to supply wealth, and to try and treat farming simply as a business like any other.” The subtitle of Colin Tudge’s book is ‘What’s gone wrong with the world’s food — and how to fix it.’ That first quote summarises the problem, and the solution is what he terms enlightened agriculture:
”These, then, are the physical and logistical requirements: good, plentiful food for everyone for ever; a fair deal for producers; labour intensiveness - a maximal number of good jobs, giving rise to working rural communities; benign husbandry; and wildlife friendliness. These desired end-points will not arise by default. They must be expressly written into the strategy ...” Colin, an
award winning science writer believes that agriculture is indeed the saviour of humankind, but not as it currently practiced. Us grown-ups often ruminate on the awkward notion that kids today have no idea where milk comes from. Yet reading this volume will be very confronting for many adults who’ve held an idyllic view of farming....

Roll up, Roll up! The TreeHugger T-shirt collection has arrived! Find our cool green T-Shirts at the
TreeHugger Store on CafePress. Well actually they’re white, but you know what we mean! Made in the good ol’ US of A from organic cotton these are the latest must have accessory for any forward thinking enviro-fashionista… or in fact anyone who wears clothes. Yup, that’s the great thing about t-shirts they’re good for spring, summer, fall and winter and they go with everything! Nope these babies won’t be going out of fashion anytime soon. At $20 each they also make great gifts. Simple, classic and witty you can choose your favourite from a selection of TreeHugger slogans. It might be ‘Environmental Carpe Diem’ for the more spontaneous folk or ‘I Care About The Environment. There. I Said It’ for those more hesitant. For the more minimalist amongst you it could just be the simple TreeHugger logo. No don’t be shy now, there’s no point in being a closet TreeHugger, slap it on your chest so everyone can see!
::TreeHugger T-Shirts...

There is no book more eloquent about the predicament we find ourselves in, and the solution required for extrication. This is not a book only for three-to-four year olds, it’s an anthem for all humanity. Published in 1971, it has not dated, not a single second. Its clarion call still resonates with the same force. We would love to quote the gorgeous, quirky prose of Dr Seuss but that would to be to rob you of the power of reading it for yourself. Better still, read it out loud to a child. Discover it together.
Buy
The Lorax by Dr Seuss...

Full of sumptuous photography, The Beauty Of Straw Bale Homes could easily be mistaken for just another dust gathering ‘coffee table’ book. But that would belie the power that this very modest little volume can have. In changing the status quo of building construction. Taking more than 40 buildings as mini case studies, it definitively showcases the arrival of straw bales as a bona-fide method of construction. Ranging between Mexico and Canada, snug little cottages to expansive houses onto vast monasteries and even retail stores all get a look in. You’ll certainly see how straw bales can run the gamut of quirky and rustic, right through to sleek and modern. The Steens were co-authors on the now classic,
The Straw Bale House, widely credited with bringing this earth-friendly building technique to the world’s attention. Whereas that earlier book was much more of a ‘how-to’ digest, the newer ‘Beauty’ simply demonstrates, with delightful visuals, just what can be achieved. It does, however, include a few salient pointers on the likes of retrofitting, paints, plasters, roofs and costings. Be warned though, it would be a rare reader of this book, who after seeing how beautiful strawbale can be, did not then reach for one of those numerous technical tomes now available. You could soon have mud render on your hands and flecks of straw in your hair!
Buy
The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes by Athena Steen & Bill Steen...

Admittedly this is not the most current of books. Originally published in 1995, it might be lacking in web and email resources, but boy, does it make up for that with just sheer bulk of information. Nikki and David Goldbeck have a story on how just about anything can be reused. And we mean Anything.
Chopsticks - take your own and maybe get a small discount at some Chinese restaurants.
Nail files - use a durable one like the Natural Nail File made from the scales of a Pirarucu fish!
Golf Balls - a company that specialises in selling cleaned range balls.
Pies - a Californian company that sells its pies in their own baking trays — return the tray and get a reimbursement.
Movies - a company that salvages the stage sets from movie production. You’ll find odd stuff in here that will make your head spin, and simple solutions that’ll have you going “Doh! Why didn’t I think of that?” In covering subjects such as design, rental, repair, maintenance and remanufacture, the book’s 450 pages sure detail how we can enjoy life, without the need of always buying new stuff. Inspiring.
Buy
Choose to Reuse: An Encyclopedia of Services, Businesses, Tools & Charitable Programs That Facilitate Reuse by Nikki Goldbeck & David Goldbeck...

The sub title says it all: A study of economics as if people mattered. Yet this is no desert-dry treatise crammed with numbers and figures, usually beloved of economists. Rather it is imbued with hard nosed, real world compassion. “If ... nothing is left for fathers to teach their sons, or for the sons to accept from their fathers, family life collapses. The life, work, and happiness of all societies depend on certain ‘psychological structures’ which are infinitely precious and highly vulnerable. A man is destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness. No amount of economic growth can compensate for such losses ...” But E.F. Schumacher was not your tie-dyed style of greenie — he was, after all, Economic Adviser to the British Coal Board for twenty years. Yet he developed an understanding of the world so very different to his peers. “An attitude to life which seeks fulfilment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth — in short, materialism — does not fit into this world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.” Read this absolute classic to learn how Schumacher developed his notion of Intermediate Technology, as an appropriate mid-point between grinding poverty and decadent affluence.
Buy
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if people mattered, by E.F. Schumacher...

From the fork with which you eat your meal, to the school building you were educated in, most everything around you was designed. It has passed through a design studio, at some stage. Designers, because they are involved so early in the process of producing ‘consumer’ goods, are hugely influential in determining the materials to be used and because of their decisions, even the method and location of production. In Design for Society, Nigel Whiteley put the case for ensuring all this design has a net beneficial outcome for the community at large. He goes behind the gloss of arty magazines, exhibitions and black turtlenecks to look at what design has delivered and more importantly what it can offer us. In brief, he explains how design can be more responsive, to 'needs', not merely 'wants'. Peppered with lovely little examples, like the WoBo (or World Bottle) that Heineken designed, so African villages could build housing from these square beer bottles. Or chairs for disabled children, utensils for arthritis sufferers and urban housing for women. For an industry that prides itself on its freshness, it is sobering to realise that design is still in much the same rut that Whiteley chronicled a dozen years ago. Whether designer, or purchaser of goods, this easy-to-read book will clearly illuminate the choices we face. Choices we've been putting off for too long.
Buy
Design for Society...

Wanna do something practical? Get your hands dirty, or your T-shirt sweaty, making a real contribution? Grab a copy of this directory. But be warned, you might just end up in the Galapagos undertaking biodiversity surveys, tracking dolphins in the Med or protecting cheetah habitat in Africa. Flora and Fauna projects across the globe. This digest tells you what's on offer and has a web-based updates section, so it never goes out of date. Planned un-obsolesence, now that is a concept every Treehugger can relate too.
Buy
Green Volunteers: The World Guide and Information Network To Voluntary Work in Nature Conservation edited by by Fabio Ausenda...

One weekend, in an idle moment, I casually picked up a book with an intriguing cover. It was
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Big mistake. I devoured it like some whodunnit thriller. My weekend was lost, but a new understanding was found on why civilisation flourished in certain hot spots on the planet and not others. Diamond is engaging author, who takes big picture stuff and explains it in terms that enthrall, without the reader needing to own a wall full of PhDs. In his latest writing,
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, he seeks to establish what caused the demise of cultures, like those of the Mayan, Anasazi, Norse Viking and Easter Island. In short, he fingers ignorance as one of the main culprits. And although the book is full of less-than-positive pointers to the lack of practical intelligence of the human race, he also sees hope in our current turmoil. Arguing that we cannot hide behind ignorance this time — we are overflowing with information and knowledge — we merely need to act on it. In Australia to promote the book, he appeared on radio and TV programs and copped some flak from farmers, whom he suggested, in the chapter on this ancient, worn-down continent, were eking out an existence on land, that was unlikely to support them long term. They countered that his information was not current and their land management practices have improved in recent years. Which perversely vindicates Diamond’s hope that we can see the error of our ways, in time to make corrective changes. Reading this book will hopefully not only galvanise you into action but also to encourage those around you to act as well.
:: Buy
Collapse:How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond...

Many readers of TreeHugger have asked for direct actions they can take to reduce their environmental impact. In the early 90s there was a plethora of books addressing such interest. The seminal
50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth prime among them. Although now out of print, it can be obtained second-hand. A decade after that guide came out, the Union of Concerned Scientists released their own take.
The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, was in their words, “the first comprehensive look at the full range of modern consumer activities, identifying those that cause the most environmental damage and those that cause the least.” It ruffled many feathers because it advocated focusing on the bigger issues and not fussing over debates such as paper or plastic bags and cloth or disposable nappies/diapers. And while some of their data might not be fresh out of the lab, the outcomes do remain much the same. So what is some of this non-small stuff, that the UCS would rather we sweat over? Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive and buying a low- or zero-emission vehicle, if you must have one. Walking and cycling more and eating less meat and dairy while selecting organic produce also rate highly. The reasoning behind why these and other such actions were deemed crucial is lucidly explained in the book.
Buy
The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists, by Michael Brower and Warren Leon...

Edwin Datschefski has been tracking the growth of eco-design for over a dozen years now. In this lavishly photographed and designed book, he has elected to show that a better world is already here. Everything that you touch on a given day is replaced with a more sustainable option. These are not airy-fairy, future concepts but products you can buy today. In this is an idealised day-in-the-life of a modern Treehugger, selected goods from all over the world have been gathered together into one persons green life. Edwin wants us to see that a more sustainable lifestyle is not only possible but most of its elements are currently with us. And they are good looking too. No scratchy sack cloth need apply. A rich, treasure trove of green optimism. If only the books high production values had not bumped its purchase price out of the reach of the many who would have benefited from the content. If wallet challenged, maybe encourage your local library to obtain a copy.
Buy
The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products by Edwin Datschefski...

A very TreeHugger-esque philosophy is expounded here. Your Money or Your Life helps you understand your relationship to money. How you get it, where it goes, and how inconsistently you value it. The goal it sets up is to move toward a state of financial independence, so that you can spend your time doing what you’ve always wanted to do (which, the authors intimate, should be save-the-world-type stuff). Importantly, the authors exhort you to really understand your expenses and to reduce them to those that bring you the most pleasure, and nix the rest. Compellingly, this doesn’t mean giving up your expensive Japanese porn collection or SoHo House membership, if you determine that they’re essential to your happiness and well-being. Secondly, they teach you to calculate your actual hourly wage, including commute, clothing, work-related downtime (a lot lower than you might expect), and consider your purchases using this metric. That shirt that you don’t really need may look different when you realize that it causes you to be another 1.2 hours away from doing what you really want to be doing.
Buy
Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin...

Treehugger founder, Graham Hill bought this Pulitzer Prize-winner en route to the Galapagos and it opened the immensely enjoyable world of layman science reading to him. "Weiner weaves the tale of Darwin’s discovery of evolution into the story of the Grant couple, who have spent the last 20 years studying the evolution of finches and other fauna and flora on the Galapagos Islands. Their major discovery: despite Darwin’s belief that evolution happens over decades, you can actually watch it happen over as little as months or years! The Grants’ close observation of finch beaks allowed them to see the significant changes that occurred year to year. The Galapagos is one of the most incredible places on Earth and this book is a great way to learn about it, and about evolution."
Buy
The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner...

An environmental call to arms for the designer, Greenie, and business person, this book profiles the next industrial revolution and proposes that will be thoroughly green and pro-business. Companies, it claims, should model their business plains based on the concepts of natural capitalism—biomimicry, resource productivity, service and flow economy, and investment in natural capital—and thereby achieve a competitive advantage, while bettering the environment. To illustrate one of these concepts, a service and flow economy shifts from selling products to selling services. This changes the incentives and does so in a very positive manner. Manufacturers focus on making lasting, repairable, recyclable products instead of planning their obsolescence. For example, by selling you the function of your fridge versus the actual fridge, the manufacturer will create a fridge that needs minimal repairs and that can be fully recycled once its useful life is over. Concepts like these, flushed out with examples, make for a great read. Viva la revolucion!
Buy
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins....

This brick of a book played a large part in inspiring TreeHugger. Full of pictures and key info about sexy, green furniture, transportation, materials, clothing, and more, it’s the bible of green design. Each selection in the book has a handy legend that explains the eco-design strategy applied, the materials used, designer, etc. It’s a fascinating read for both the average green-interested consumer and the hard-core green designer. Instantly up your eco-status by sliding this into your coffee-table collection. An updated edition became available in 2005.
Buy
The Eco-design Handbook: A Complete Sourcebook For Home And Office by Alastair Fuad-Luke (Thames & Hudson)....

At the screening I attended of this provocative documentary, The Corporation, one of the Directors, Mark Achbar, was in attendance for a Q&A session. One audience member harangued him over the limited number of ‘worthy’ corporate executives interviewed. Maybe that person needs this DVD, because it would seem to have an additional 5 hours of footage from the 40 or so interviewed persons. The Corporation explores how business came to have such open slather on legal and financial power, when originally corporations were created for the common good, such as building expensive infrastructure for a city. The movie jumps around some, as it cherry picks examples from the multitude of ill-tidings that corporations have wrought. But it retains a central theme: that the definition of a psychopath appears to be a perfect match for many a corporation. Except, of course, that they are not an individuals and therefore avoid the laws and strictures that the rest of us live by. A plethora of case studies are presented to ram home this psychopathic analogy. And although a little drawn out in parts, it contains very often compelling viewing, like the stunning gall of water business, Bechtel, who deemed it fair and reasonable to charge its Bolivian customers for harvesting their own rainwater. Those customers revolted — literally — revealing that David can indeed smote Goliath ... if the planets are in alignment and people work together. View this, get fired up and then go support your locale community co-operative.
:: Buy
The (DVD):by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott...

In another corner of my life I co-manage a reuse store, which may explain why I so enjoyed this movie, when I saw it on the big screen. Gleaning is the art of gathering what others have deemed unwanted. Agnès Varda has crafted this very personal and quirky documentary that has won awards all over the place. At times she gets a little side-tracked but for the most part focuses on a underbelly of society, that many don’t realise is even there. We met people who scavenge vegetables from the fields after harvesting, and learn that in Europe there are indeed long established laws allowing this. Another group are discovered doing the same thing, finding the bulk of their food in the leftovers from urban produce markets. In the gloom of the night we stop to talk to collectors sifting through household discards put out on the kerbside, for the local government to take to landfill. One such gleaner (or dumpster diver, if you prefer) shows us through his house, furnished almost entirely from the detritus of others lives. While the lifestyles led by those interviewed may not be what many of us aspire to, their take on how the developed world cast asides useful resources should cause astute viewers to see the world around us in the different light. The ‘waste’ our affluent society leaves in its wakes is truly staggering and this movie reminds us that it needn’t be so. Apparently the DVD includes a one hour film, that follows up on the eclectic characters we’ve seen and records how they've fared, two years on.
:: Buy
The Gleaners and I (DVD) by Agnès Varda...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.