Join the Fish Fight....

Luckily for me, I am not a seafood fan....not because of any sustainability arguments (although there are many) but just because I honestly can't stand the taste. As I was so fond of reiterating during my childhood when well-meaning relatives would try and encourage me to eat fish, prawns, lobster, calamari etc...."nothing from the sea please! I don't eat anything that swims or lives underwater". But this isn't really about my fussy eating habits. This is about Greenpeace's current campaign to improve the sustainability of UK tinned tuna, and they are doing incredibly well but they are still appealing for consumers to help them even more and influence, in particular, John West and Morrisons, to raise their games.

Many of us are familiar with the dangers of certain commercial tuna fishing methods and the impact they have on sharks, rays and other marine species. If you want to know more, I suggest you check out the Greenpeace website (www.greenpeace.org.uk/fishfight) and/or check out Hugh's Fish Fight which is being shown again tonight at 10pm on More 4.

A fantastic number of supermarkets and manufacturers have joined the campaign and improved their methods but for some reason John West and Morrisons are lagging behind. The simplest thing you can do of course is not buy John West and not shop at Morrisons but you can also join the campaign by writing to them via the Greenpeace website. With so many supermarkets improving their methods there really is no excuse for others not to do the same, so make sure you voice your disapproval and let them know it's not a minority 'treehugger' concern but something that everyone is aware of and not prepared to accept!

Where's your money growing?

Today marks the start of the third National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW). NEIW is a campaign to raise awareness of green and ethical options for your finances. I think it's an interesting campaign for a number of reasons....firstly, finance and 'green' choices poses an interesting disconnect. Many of us who try to live in a generally sustainable and ethical way don't make the logical connection to extend this to our finances. It's great to to buy fairtrade coffee and recycle and make various other green and ethical choices but what about what we do with our money? What is our money financing and have we actually stopped and asked that question about our bank accounts, pension funds and investments. Finances may not be the most exciting topic to discuss but it's a huge issue and NEIW tries to raise awareness of this....much like Fairtrade Fortnight.

Easy ways to support the Week:

• Visit the NEIW website to find out more


• Take the NEIW green and ethical money quiz to discover your green and ethical money profile and really get started with thinking about your financial decisions


• Attend an NEIW event taking place in the next week

Where's your money growing? It's certainly a question worth asking!

Organic Fortnight starts today....

Organic Fortnight (3-17 September) kicks off today. I have previously blogged about my feelings on organic food and other products [Organic debate (en)rages] so I won't go into it again. Generally though I am definitely a supporter and Organic Fortnight is an excellent way of getting involved in celebrating 'all things organic', to quote the Soil Association's website.

The website gives a number of simple ways to get involved. Those of you near Bristol Habourside on the 11th and 12th of September could head to the 10th Organic Food Festival. Another idea is to visit an organic farm or host an organic dinner party. The website also has an excellent section on 'Organic on a budget' which addresses a concern that I often encounter among those who would ideally like 'go organic' but are concerned about the increase in costs.

Support a different way of doing business....

Co-operatives Fortnight is currently running and is aimed at raising awareness of co-operatives across the UK. Basically, a co-operative is a business that is owned and operated by a group of people for their mutual benefit. The official definition is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Co-operatives Fortnight explains further in its 'What is a Co-operative' leaflet. The Fortnight itself aims to promote co-operative organisations but also the idea of being co-operative as a whole, whether it's with your neighbours or community or whatever the case may be.

I think it's a good opportunity to find co-operative organisations in your area and support them. So many of us spend a lot of time criticising and bemoaning big businesses and here is a chance to support smaller ones or ones that might have operating values that may do more to address concerns around environmental, ethical and social issues. Check it out at www.thereisanalternative.coop.

Green Britain Day...

Tomorrow, the 17th of June, is Green Britain Day. Whatever your feelings may be about the fact that edf Energy is the sponsor (I am frankly, a little tired of debates around whether we should support initiatives sponsored by ‘the man’ ie. Big businesses....personally I think that the more we do to support positive steps by business to take sustainability issues into consideration the more likely they are to take notice and make even more of an effort because, let's face it, they aren't just all going to go away or turn into lovely little ethical co-operatives, but maybe that’s just me being optimistic....) there are a number of great ideas for simple activities you can do for sustainability and a great deal of information on the site here: http://www.teamgreenbritain.org/the-big-picture. By registering online you can receive a newsletter which will let you know of events happening in your area.

At a recent event I went to in a work capacity the discussion centred around which group – business, consumers or government, were the drivers of change in terms of embracing sustainability issues. As usual, there was no consensus, and as usual, the conclusion is that everyone needs to work together. An excellent point which was raised and made sense to me though, was the fact that as consumers, we don’t often have access to, in economic terms, perfect information. We can only make our decisions based on what we are told and that is not always the correct information and/or all the information. So we are forced to rely on business and the information they provide. So inevitably, the best impact we can have is to let businesses know our concerns, tell them that it is important for us to know that they are doing their best to ensure that when we purchase goods and services from them we can rely on the fact that they have done the research and they are offering us the most sustainable/ethical product they can. I know this may be a bit idealistic, but I think that rather than us, as consumers, trying to make a decision about whether, for example, loose fruit or packaged fruit, is more sustainable in terms of the joint issues of food waste, transport and packaging, that is something we need to rely on the retailers to have done their research on and then fed back to us. So speak to the businesses you use about what they are doing, as a whole, about sustainability issues....write to them/email them and let them know that you want the information. I know it may seem a waste of time as an individual but just a short email can make a big difference and needn’t be a hassle. Ok, semi-rant over.....happy Green Britain Day for tomorrow.

Fairtrade Fortnight: The Big Swap is on.....

Fairtrade Fortnight starts today. This year, the focus is on swapping your ‘usual stuff’ for the fairtrade equivalent. A number of individuals, organisations and businesses have already registered their swaps at www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap. The website also has more information on what you can swap, Big Swap Events and other ways you can get involved in Fairtrade Fortnight.

The great thing about this campaign, in my humble opinion, is that it is really easy for individuals to get involved. You can embrace Fairtrade Fortnight as much as you’d like, whether all you do is register to swap your regular teabags for fairtrade ones for a few weeks or possibly take it a bit further swapping a wider range of items such as other groceries, clothing or even cleaning products.

Sign up to 10:10 today....

10:10 is a new initiative (the launch event of which is today actually, so if you can, get down to the Tate Modern from 4pm) which calls on individuals, companies and other organisations to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

There is plenty of information on the website, www.1010uk.org. about why this is a good thing and how we can all go about achieving this target (in our homes and in the workplace) so I am not going to go on about it here. I just suggest you support the campaign by signing up on the website as soon as you can.....