Buy Wood Responsibly
Buy FSC wood. Its product label allows consumers worldwide to recognise products that support the growth of responsible forest management worldwide. For more information, go to www.fsc.org
Note that most hardboard and chipboard in the UK is made from non-sustainable, often illegal tropical timber. B&Q is FSC-certified as a distributor.
The Forestry Stewardship Council claims to ensure that the forest recovers after timber extraction, although even their practices have been brought to question in recent days – for more information go to http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/
Greenpeace have also produced a free wall chart available to download, which will help you to source timber from environmentally and socially responsible forestry and to avoid timber that is the product of illegal logging practices in ancient forest areas. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/reports/good-wood-guide
The Forest House - an interactive guide to the wood in your home
Source: Greenpeace.org
Buy Recycled Paper Products
Wood pulp products, such as kitchen towels and toilet rolls, typically draw on the resources of materials taken from rainforest deforestation. Offset some of your ethical footprint by ensuring that you buy such products that have been produced from recycled paper. Remember that the recycling industry will not exist without buyers.
Most stores stock recycled paper products, such as kitchen towels and toilet rolls.
A4 printer/copier paper is also generally available, but at a slightly increased cost. If your stationer does not keep a stock of recycled A4 paper, ask them why not. The more we ask our retailers to stock something, the more likely they are to try a product out. It’s up to us, as consumers. The freedom we have as a consumer carries great responsibility.
Guide to forest-friendly toilet paper, kitchen towels and tissues
Buy Charcoal Responsibly
Over 90% of all charcoal consumed in the UK comes from overseas, predominantly the endangered tropical rainforest and mangrove habitats of South America, West Africa and South East Asia. In addition to the damage caused by unsustainable forestry practices in these regions, is the negative environmental impact arising from the consumption of fossil fuels transporting charcoal so far around the world.
The Dorset Charcoal Company, among others, is producing sustainable British charcoal; thereby ensuring the good management of local woodlands by finding a use for lower value wood, such as thinnings or misshapen waste, and encouraging the restoration of derelict coppice – see some of the websites as follows: http://www.dorsetcharcoal.co.uk/home.htm
http://www.lakelandcoppiceproducts.co.uk/ http://www.bioregional.com/programme_projects/forestry_prog/charcoal/char_further.htm
Buy Brazil Nuts
Brazil nuts can only be grown within intact forest canopy regions, due to the diversification of flowers required to feed the bees that pollinate Brazil nut trees. By buying Brazil nuts, this incentivises landowners and governments to protect forests.
Brazil nuts contain fibre, calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin E and a large amount of selenium (a powerful anti-oxidant) – see the following link: http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/brazilnuts.htm
Buy Rainforest-Friendly Coffee
In recent years, new varieties of coffee plants have been grown in Brazil in deforested areas. The chief reason for this is that the yield is better – in other words, there are better, quicker crops grown over the same acreage. Buy coffee that is grown in the shade of the forest canopy.
Somerfield stock one such rainforest-friendly coffee, Percol, and other stores stock Rainforest Alliance-certified coffees.
Stop Buying Palm Oil
Related to the coconut, oil palm is one of the most common crops being grown on land previously lush with tropical rainforest. Palm Oil is the least nutritious of the vegetable oils, but, being the cheapest, is most widely used in such products as biscuits, peanut butter and processed food. Palm Oil is commonly ‘fractionated’ in food processing, which thickens the oil, and results in a higher concentration of saturated fats – see the following link:
http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/fractionatedoil.htm
Shop Ethically
Buy Suma products, which are stocked at a number of retail outlets in the UK. If your local general store or health food store does not carry Suma-branded goods, ask them to do so. You can be assured that everything labelled Suma is ethically sourced. A portfolio of Suma’s 600-strong product range can be seen on line at www.suma.co.uk
Suma is the UK’s largest independent wholefood wholesaler-distributor. Specialising in vegetarian, fairly traded, organic, ethical and natural products, they also have a successful growing brand of food and non-food products.
As a radical workers’ cooperative, Suma have dedicated the last 30 years to providing quality products and unparalleled customer service backed up with their uncompromising passion for ethical trading.
Give up, or Reduce the Amount of Meat You Eat
China has doubled its consumption of meat over the last decade. Economic growth is the cause. Much of the Brazilian Rainforest destruction has been to facilitate the growing of Soya Beans to feed cattle, chickens, pigs etc.
This is truly a major global concern, as we do not have enough land available on this planet to farm sufficient enough food to feed animals to meet the increasing appetite for meat worldwide. Couple this with the desire of governments to increase the planting of bio fuel crops, and there’s no wonder that commodities such as wheat, barley and sugar have doubled in price over the last 12 months (October 2006 to September 2007).
Just contemplate this one statistic: It takes 16 times more farmland to sustain people on a diet of animal meat than it does on a vegetarian diet. Vegetables are cheaper and healthier.
“The vast majority of diseases that kill most of us before our time in the West can be prevented by consuming an all plant-based diet. There are no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not obtained to better advantage in plant-based foods.”
T. Colin Campbell, Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry
Go to the following websites to find out more about vegetarianism: www.viva.org.uk and www.vegetarian.org.uk
Lobby Against the Increase in Growth of Crops for Bio Fuels
Government-funded scientists are working hard at finding and refining ways of extracting alternative fuels to petrol and diesel, through the utilisation of plants and trees (believe it or not!)
Keep up to date with the latest facts and what you can do to make a difference at the excellent website hosted by ‘Biofuelwatch’.
Tesco are market leaders amongst UK supermarkets when it comes to biofuels. They are investing heavily in Greenergy, a biofuel company that uses palm oil, soy and sugar cane - crops linked to rainforest destruction and massive greenhouse gas emissions in many countries. And guess who are also named as investors in Greenergy ... Greenergy's website states that they operate two biodeisel plants based at Immingham West Terminal, "... located conveniently close to large seed crushing facilities in Hull owned by Cargill, which is also a shareholder in Greenergy's biodiesel production business." Very convenient indeed! (origin: http://www.greenergy.com/biodiesel)
Why not lobby Tesco now to live up the 'green' principles they have set for themselves and to cut their ties with Greenergy?
Go to http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2006_12_17_alert.php to find out how to lobby Tesco directly.
You can also find out more about the effect of farming for biofuels at http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
All pictures on this page courtesy of www.mongabay.com
