Newsletter June

I had a wonderfully uplifting encounter with the owner of a new low-waste store, The Proper Shopper in Dublin 18,  last week. They are only open a few weeks, so brand new, fresh faced and brimming with enthusiasm. If you’re in the area pop down and say hello. Tell Brian Elaine sent you.
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When you hear news reports about Lidl and M&S trialling refill points (see below) you can fear for stand-alone package-free stores, but I don’t. It’s a different market with a different consumer. Small stores can create community in a way that large chains never can.

Which it’s why it’s so important that ecopreneurs don’t stop at sustainability. We have to be sustainable and ……. something, whether that’s sustainable and healthy, or chic, or design led, or inexpensive or whatever your customer values enough to make the effort to travel to you for. Building value-driven relationships with customers is the best investment any business can make.

Of course my USP is being sustainable and incredible sexy! And on that note here’s this month’s planet positive news

Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. It’s all just my own personal opinion. If you like your sources to remain independent then please;

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Photo is of a digital detergent refill point in a Lidl

Celebrations
On the cusp of Father’s Day here are some ideas of cute, easy, low-waste Father’s Day homemade cards and presents

And if you’re barbequing this week, some tips on how to make your barbeque more sustainable

Cleaning
Lidl launches new “smart” laundry detergent refill station in UK store

M&S trials refillable own-brand homecare products

A review of Just add water Cleaning Products by eco blog Moral Fibres

Shopping
eBay UK recently launched Imperfects — a marketplace for apparel brands to sell clothing, shoes and accessories with minor defects at discounted prices, to keep previously “unsellable” items out of landfill

The Beagle Button is a new add on for internet browser makes sustainable shopping easier

Ireland’s first DIY Reuse Centre opens up in Drogheda

Clothes
G-Star is encouraging us to wear our denim till the end with this very slick ad

Fake Second-hand Fashion items are now appearing on resale sites. Here’s how to spot themZara introduces a charge for returns

Finally the pseudo green credentials of bamboo are being challenge by authorities in the US

The UK retailer Dunhelm is now running a textile recycling scheme

Study estimates we only need 139 items in our wardrobe over our lifetime

And here are some great tips on creating a sustainable wardrobe

Food & Drink
A good explanation on why Supermarkets need us to buy junk food to maintain their profits

Study finds that thanks to a waning appetite for meat over the past twenty years has caused the greenhouse gas emissions of US diets to drop by 35% over the past 20 years

A PHD researcher in UCD is carrying out a study looking at reducing the carbon footprint of Irish diets. If you’re interested in participating click on the link for more info

Heineken’s Cork brewery are recycling CO₂ for their beer

Air Protein launches fake steak made from CO2 replicates taste and texture of meat

Biodiversity
Love this Irish wild bird educational organisation. Great resource for schools

New nature reserve created from excavations of jubilee line in London

Investigative journalism by Irish news outlet Newsworthy shows that threatened native flora is being still being overgrazed in many parts of the country

How a 45-acre junkyard of rusting cars and thousands of barrels of toxic chemicals in Ohio has been transformed into a wetland teeming with birds and plants

Compared to 1960, there are 30 times the number of bison, twice as many bears, three times more elk and five times the population of deer in Europe

In the last five years, a restoration project in Brazil has recovered 5,000 ha of forest cover

The largest private conservation project, covering 1,450 km² of boreal forest in Northern Ontario Canada, has just been unveiled

The creation of London’s new Elizabeth underground line has created a nature reserve of over 160 hectares

Could your local school leave it’s play areas unmown for the summer to help pollinators?

Solitary bees to spot in your garden this summer

And now it’s even easier to help research on biodiversity in Ireland. The new Flower-Insect Timed Count (FIT Count) app makes recording insects that visit a flower over 10 mins a synch.

Follow a couple rewilding a field in Shropshire in England

Now schools can help nature and be in with a chance to win €10,000 by becoming a Nature Hero

Want to meet farmers for nature? Then book a farm walk this summer

Transport
An excellent podcast on what to consider when buying an EV

A recent European study found that drivers don’t think electric vehicles can get them where they need to go – even when, objectively speaking, they could.

Survey in Ireland shows that most citizens want more cycling and walking supports even if it slows traffic and takes space off cars

A new experimental electric car from Mercedes has travelled over 1,000 kilometres on a single charge

Westmeath has started its first bike sharing scheme in Mullingar and Athlone.

Community
Want to set up a microplastic removal initiative. Here’s the organisation to help you

A project in the US is greening schoolyards. The before and after shots are uplifting in themselves.

A really though provoking guide on bringing a community project to life. It’s focused on creating an eco-village but the approach could be applied to many things

How a Repair Cafe has impacted a Roscommon Community

The EPA now have a Circular Tidy Towns Award, which recognises communities that have undertaken activities that support a circular economy

Carbon Emissions
Study fines that windfarms raise incomes and house prices in rural US

One flight can generate more emissions than a year’s worth of meat consumption or driving a car

Researchers estimate there’s a 42 per cent chance we’ll breach the 1.5°C warming goal even if emissions were to hypothetically cease overnight.

Waste
Over the past 26 years San Francisco has collected over 500 tonnes of compost from green bins every day, diverting 80% of the city’s waste from landfill and turning it into high-quality compost in 60 days

Global shipping firm, CMA CGM Group, will no longer transport any plastic waste aboard its ships

Business & Training
Sustainable Business Consultancy Earthology is now hosting a podcast with Phoenix FM 

Amnesty have a free online course on Climate Change and Human Rights
10 Best TED Talks on Climate Change & Sustainability

Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in a $45million fund to support five circular start ups, including one that creates compostable polystyrene from wastewater.

Politics
Finland pledges to be carbon negative by 2040

Not content with just reducing it’s indigenous emissions Sweden has announced an ambitious plan to cut emissions from the products that its citizens consume

China’s CO2 emissions see longest sustained drop in a decade
What does the new Australian government mean for climate change

For the Hell of It
Stop the Wash had a clever idea to copyright vague ‘green’ slogans in a very catchy song to help stamp out Greenwashing

The Financial Times released a game to get to net zero by 2050

 

Till next month. In the meantime find me on Facebook or Instagram and if you want to read previous newsletters, just click the link.

Elaine