A guide to green shopping
This is a quick green guide to show you which companies are making an effort to support the environment. Its aim is also to remind you that being green isn't always about having dreadlocks in your hair, just re-using carrier bags is enough!
Bag for life: soon we'll all be paying for our carrier bags so it makes sense to splash out 10p for a lifetime of shopping bags. Sainsbury's lurid design is displayed above; Tesco do more attractive purple versions with lillies. Fold it up and pop it in your bag and you're ready to go!
Clothing: I know Imperial students are extremely fashion concious (I'm in a good mood, don't knock it) so you'll all be pleased to know that next month M&S will become the first major retailer to sell clothing made from organic cotton! Topshop will be joining are planning to introduce Fairtrade and organic cotton into its mainline collection.
Food: Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are making a real effort to stock organic or sustainably sourced food. Waitrose Icelandic haddock fillets are as eco-friendly as it gets; they promise to avoid fishing any overly plundered fish stocks. Even Greenpeace has commended their sustainably sourced fish policies. Try your local farmers market too- buying local means reduced air miles and minimised carbon emissions. For those disillusioned Northerners who think that all this ethical stuff is for us Southern fairies, think again. Taylors of Harrogate, who own Yorkshire Tea and Betty's Tea Rooms, donate £100,000 per year to tree planting and community projects overseas. The scheme began fifteen years ago when the company decided it wanted to plant one million trees by the turn of the century.
"We really wanted to give something back to the communities we depend on for our tea, and hit upon the idea of tree planting. After all, planting trees helps communities in dozens of ways. Trees provide shelter and food for people, and in the long term planting trees helps combat environmental problems like soil erosion."
They have now planted three million trees to date, in countries such as Ecuador, Kenya, Ethopia, India, and Indonesia.
To help with this cause all you have to do is buy Yorkshire Tea, and when you go home visit Betty's!
