It’s a basic requirement for self-reliance that everyone should be able to sustain themselves. A community will rely on its own people to pool their resources and trade among themselves to ensure their survival. They will scrape every little resource they have so they can use it for their basic needs; of course, they would replenish them for future requirement. Managing wastes by recycling or re-using some of them will leave minimal real waste and be less harmful to the community’s own environment. The innovation of every individual would be a great resource for the community so they can continually support themselves and future generations.

Only when you don’t have the necessary resources to sustain your needs, that you’d start looking for trade partners outside your local area. This is where macro economics will come in: every community (state, nation, region) will compliment each other by sharing resources abundant to other communities. Trading fairly among communities and not exploiting other’s ignorance.

If we rely only from multinational companies to supply us with cheaper products (with poor quality) coming from other countries, then we’d be killing our own self-reliance. Surely, local suppliers would have already priced their products fairly to sustain their own survival and be competitive (with better quality you can scrutinise). We’re not even sure if cheaper products from other countries were traded fairly, though multinational companies claim them to be. One such sample is the world’s reliance to oil: supply is controlled only by few countries belonging to a cartel; we’re all at their mercy. It would be beneficial if supply of money is retained within the community, paid/circulated among its own people; a big disadvantage if paid to multinational companies belonging outside the community.

For this reason we have to consume local products when possible. Reducing our reliance on foreign products by transporting only the minimum necessities will also minimise carbon emission that affect all communities as a whole, wherever we are.

There’s always a need to trade outside our own community, we can’t be totally independent, as each land has its own limited resources. (The truth be said.)

A.G.
(What is life?)

A lot of kids (and kids at heart) love the Halloween and go through great lengths decorating their homes and making costumes for trick or treating. We hope you’d enjoy all the festivities that goes with it, but spare a thought for the environment and heed some of the tips we’ve gathered around the net:

The daily green has posted lots of ways to green up your halloween:

• reuse costumes instead of buying new.
• trick and treat kids to organic lollipops, organic/fairtrade chocolates, money, recycled paper and pencils in loot bags.
• reverse trick and treat. This is something new to us. Global exchange encourages kids to educate adults by handing out Fairtrade chocolates with cards attached explaining what Fairtrade is. This is happening across the pond.
• have a party. celebrate at home instead of trick or treating. send electronic invites and trat kids to cupcake decorating and pumpkin carving.
• decorate with nature. instead of buying plastic decors.
• light up the night. use LEDs. non-toxic window paints. use candles made from beeswax or soy.
• turn it over to the kids. instead of buying decors from shops, have the kids make decorations. try to recycle stuff.
• try a new bag. use reusable bags to hold the loots, we sell organic, fairtade bags here at guui.
• save for next year.  pack up costumes and decors, and save for next year.

and a few more:

• make sure to not waste the pumpkins by making soups and pies out of them.
• walk the kids around instead of driving them to go trick or treating.
• teach your kids to make sure they dispose of candy wrappers properly and that using flour and eggs is a bad trick.
• learn more about your halloween candies from the treehugger.

Get your credit cards and start buying! Our website is now up and running after a temporary blip. Get the guui organic, fairtade cotton carrier bag now for your shopping!

Now that the credit crunch have hit us so hard that we minimised most things to basic essentials, is it possible that when we start going back to our old habits of luxury that we start thinking of the negative effects of these luxuries to the environment of our children? What I’m trying to say is, if we can afford to buy luxuries, can we choose products which have least negative effect with our environment. Or at least demand from manufacturers that they should make their products more environment-friendly.

Luxuries are not at all bad if they make our life a bit more comfortable.

However, if these things pollute the air we breathe, harm the environment when they were manufactured or disposed of, then we’re not really gaining anything and we’re not contributing to our children’s future.

With the daily luxuries that we use everyday, or used to have, or we’ll be having, can we ask ourselves some questions: Are there alternative more environment-friendly products than the one I’m considering now? Are there parts which can be sourced from organic/recycled materials that I can suggest to manufacturers? Did they come from ethically-traded sources? When I don’t want it anymore and want to dispose of it, are there environment-friendly ways to do it? From my perspective these are the basic things I need to consider when buying luxuries.

Hurrah! I think this is really great news. One that says Londoners are more aware and not as apathetic as my last blog might have insinuated. Read more here.

Now, is there such a thing as getting an Organic city status?

We’ve done our part!

We’ve given away Guui bags on different parts of London. Now, it’s up to those people to use it to contribute to a cleaner environment for their children. By giving it away we’re trying to make people aware of the current environment issues we now face (and could be worse when our children inherit it).

The Guui bag is not only organic, ethical or reusable, as already printed on the bag, but it’s also certified fairly traded. So this bag is not only dealing with one or two issues that we now face but also the issues of child labour or unfair trade practices happening in other countries. By including these issues with this end product we can be sure that we have clear conscience when we use it and we’re not compromising on other issues while trying to deal with what directly affect us.

The more people use bags like this the better for our environment. Others who are currently unaware will be conscious once they see more people using it. From my point this is one way of passing information.

This is not a change in lifestyle – just a different perspective. I hope to see more organic and reusable bags being used around the street.

I shop in the supermarkets for a good majority of what I eat. I have no loyalty to any to one supermarket, and truth be told, I would much rather spend a whole day in the London Borough Markets for all my food shopping needs (who wouldn’t?). But, I don’t have a car to carry a weekly shopping’s worth. Nor the arm muscles. Nor the bottomless wallet. And I try to fit in my shopping on the way home on a weekday so I can live it up during the weekends (sleep through the mornings, that is!). 

So I shop where it’s on the way home. And with no local markets and farm stalls open by the time I head for home, I make do with the convenience that the supermarkets offer.

So, if you’re like me, constrained to the goods that the supermarkets churn out, note that you can still shop responsibly within these aisles. Aside from reading the labels (you know, trying to be healthy as well), I also wanted to make sure that it doesn’t have to cost the earth to feed me. I look out for these symbols:

The Soil Association Organic Logo. But not all organic products bear this symbol. Also look out for the Organic Certification numbers in the label (UK2, UK3, UK5, UK15, etc.) which means this was produced to EC Organic Certifications standards.

The Fairtrade Logo. This is what you would normally see in the UK.

But occasionally I also see the Fair Trade Federation mark, which is the trade association promoting fair trade in North America.

The RSPCA Freedom Food Logo. Make a difference to farm animal welfare, buy your meat with this label. The Soil Association also makes sure that the organic meat you buy are also welfare-friendly, with the animals able to roam freely.

The Marine Stewardship Council logo. Seafood is healthy for you. But the stocks are running low. And with most of the seafood I have grown to love ending up in the Greenpeace’s Red list fish, I realised I have to do more.

The Rainforest Alliance Logo. 

The Forest Stewardship Council logo.

So if you are out looking for a functional carrier bag (ours come with short and long handles and has the room for your shopping), why not do a bit more? Go for one made out of Fairtrade, organic cotton. Not only do you reuse, saving thousands of plastics going into the landfill, you also buy into ethical trading and organic farming.

Get the guui bag here.

Ever since I moved to London, I have made a habit of getting breakfast on the go.

Aside from quickly realising the hole this is creating in my pocket, I did notice I am certainly not alone with this habit. The little tray table on the train is often littered with paper cups from various coffee shops. And so I assigned myself the task of putting them in the bins if I happen to beat the cleaners to the train.

For a little while, I was quite smugly thinking about how considerate I am. But thinking again, I am using a disposable paper cup - most likely ending up in the landfill, drinking coffee whose source I can only trace back to the shop.

So should I take my cup home and recycle? Not quite. This carboard is usually lined with wax and will not be recyclable.

Not all is lost though. Some coffee shops have taken the initiative to make their cups from recycled contents. Introduced sleeves if their coffee becomes too hot to handle instead of giving you another paper cup, to reduce what gets thrown away (but those sleeves, you can keep and use again!). Some wax are replaced with biodegradable material. I’m not sure if this means they can be recycled though. It just meant they can go in the compost bin. And some shops offer discounts if you bring your own mug (a little saving can go a long way). Fairtrade coffee is quite all the rage these days and many retailers will at least give you the choice.

So I got myself a flask. And asked my coffee shop to fill it up. But it wasn’t quite the happily ever after I had hoped. One coffee shop I had frequented (for the love of their pastries), always gives me the funny look. Other customers behind me would give me the same funny, but sometimes annoyed look as it takes a few seconds more for the staff to fumble with my flask than filling up the usual paper cup.

Also there are the ethical and organic issues to contend with. So I had gone a little out of my way from my platform into this shop tucked away in the corner that sells all fairtrade coffee and organic milk. The girl took my flask and did not bat an eyelash (but still stole a funny look as I count my change, maybe I should just get used to it). It is less busy, so I had no trouble from customers scrambling to get their caffeine fix (at least not everyday).

So there, the path to being green is not exactly well paved. Not even in this country where everybody seemed to have seen everything. I do wonder what people think when they give me that funny look. Is it a quick glance to see if I look like a new age chick complete with unwashed hair and flowing vintage clothes? Or do they think I have some sort of allergy to paper cups (everybody’s allergic to something nowadays aren’t they)? Or maybe they’re thinking… “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”.