Friends of Yalding Organic Gardens

Friends of Yalding Organic Gardens' video 'visual celebration' at www.foyog.org/videos/ - now with an musical soundtrack, added with the kind permission of England’s finest acoustic roots duo, Show of Hands. This is all John Tate's work, who looks after SEEOG's own website at www.seeog.org.uk - so we owe him a big Thank You!

Feeding the Jaguar Art Workshop

Feeding the Jaguar Workshop One day workshop, a highly integrated and collaborative artwork into the creation of an indigenous infused original art. "Feeding the Jaguar" focus on the embodiment of personal time, memories and offerings. We will explore a visual language of a personal spiritual vision, an opportunity to weave a tapestry of memories with flowers, seeds and fruits. This workshop intends to cultivate the soil of creativity and imagination, to sow into this fertile land our seeds of gratitude for the blessing of being alive. We will nourish our souls through making art, bringing spiritual refreshment as well as fostering inspiration and creativity. I hope this workshop will enrich your life and give you a deeper sense of the sacredness inherent in this spiritual art, to activate a positive psychological and emotional response. http://www.yaury.info

Book Now for Naturally Christmas Event

Inspirational Eco-Christmas Shopping Event – Book Tickets Now! • One day event - Naturally Christmas at Tewin Bury Farm Hotel • 10 November 2011 from 10am – 7pm

If you need some inspiration to get your Christmas shopping underway this year, then enjoy a luxury shopping event – Naturally Christmas – to be held at Tewinbury Farm Hotel1 on 10 November 2011, from 10am – 7pm. The event has a green and natural theme and is being organised by London based company Ruby Sky Events2.

Naturally Christmas is the first event of its kind in Hertfordshire and has attracted over 30 leading UK eco-retailers including: Cooking Gorgeous, Little Zookeepers, Kappuke-ki Kidswear, Lettie Belle, Shea Alchemy and many more. Visitors will be able to browse a wide range of contemporary gifts, fashion, beauty and home ware, as well as attend special festive ‘workshops’ throughout the day.

BOOK NOW! Advance tickets for Naturally Christmas are now on sale priced at £6.50 and £4 for concessions. To book go online to www.naturally-christmas.co.uk. In addition, all advance bookings will be entered into a prize draw to win a luxury night for two at Tewinbury Farm Hotel. Tickets are available on the door priced at £8.00, or £5 after 4pm. Children under 16 free. All visitors will receive a festive refreshment.

LUNCH OFFER: Visitors to Naturally Christmas also have the opportunity to enjoy an exclusive two course lunch offer for a discounted price of £12.50 per person at Tewin Bury Farm Hotel’s elegant restaurant. All bookings for this offer should be made in advance by contacting the restaurant direct on 01438 841490.

Sema Rubins, creator of Naturally Christmas and Director of Ruby Sky Events says:

“Through organising the event we have had such an amazing response from some of the UK’s leading natural and green-thinking brands on the market. Many of them will be exhibiting their gift ideas and product ranges at our Naturally Christmas event. We’re really looking forward to getting into the Christmas spirit early and will be running festive workshops on the day to help visitors get a little more inspiration for their Christmas beauty, fashion and gifts.”

For further information about the event and to book tickets please visit www.naturally-christmas.co.uk

Green history lessons brought to life Twelve London museums are accredited green tourist attractions

A dozen London museums have won Green Tourism awards for making their buildings more sustainable and bringing the environmental lessons of the past to life.

The museums were supported to take part in the Green Tourism Business Scheme by Renaissance London, a partnership set up to foster diverse, vibrant and sustainable regional museums in the capital. vEach museum was awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold after months of work on improvements to energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more.

The Whitehall Museum in Sutton received gold for exemplary practice. It changed all its lighting to LED lights, which will cut its carbon emissions by 4 tonnes to 733kg and save £750 in bills over the next year. It also made links with green community organisations and put on sustainability-themed workshops which attracted a new audience to the museum.

Curator Laura Allan said: “At these workshops we are teaching people who are already interested in green issues about history, and people who are already interested in history about green issues.”

The museum – a Tudor-beamed house in the heart of Cheam – also created school workshops called ‘How green were the Tudors?’. Sutton Council’s museum and historic houses officer Valary Murphy said: “Most people haven’t even thought about environmental sustainability when the Tudors were around. The amount of rubbish they produced was negligeable - all they used to leave was oyster shells.”

The Florence Nightingale Museum in Lambeth received a silver award. It brought to life the character of Alex Soyer, ‘the Jamie Oliver of his day’, a chef who lived at the same time as Florence Nightingale. He travelled to the Crimean War to teach the army about healthy eating, and the museum has used the character to work with local schools on nutrition.

An exhibition, All Stitched Up, will begin in April. It links together the history of ‘make do and mend’ in the Crimean War with the present day and features quilts made by local artist Susan Stockwell from recycled material.

The Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe received silver. The noisy, old-fashioned gas-fired heater was replaced with electric fires which are fitted with motion sensors and turn on and off as visitors move round the museum.

Museum director Robert Hulse said: “The museum is a leaky old building - it doesn’t let the water in but it doesn’t half let heat out. We can’t insulate it because it doesn’t have cavity walls and is a scheduled ancient monument. We made a big shift in our thinking from heating the building to heating people as they move around.”

The museum also improved its energy and water efficiency with LED lighting in galleries and toilets. It is estimated that the new lighting uses 50 per cent less energy, saving two tonnes of carbon dioxide and reducing the annual bill by £400.

Brunel Museum is getting the message out to the public. Mr Hulse adds: “Our volunteers talk about it to visitors, they have become advocates for energy efficiency, and see us as illustrating best practice. We don’t consume a lot of energy because we’re a small museum but we are a showcase for reducing consumption.”

The scheme will run again next year with a fund of £20k for improvements for smaller museums.

Head of Renaissance London Fiona Davison says: “Money is tight and although these schemes do pay for themselves, it takes a long time. Renaissance London is willing to put in a bit of money up front to help museums in London deliver long-term savings.”

She adds: “These awards show what can be done with small grants and gradual changes. Some museums are daunted by the prospect of making green improvements, but it doesn’t mean being told off or being given a million and one things to do. What these museums have done is within reach of even the smallest museum and we hope it will inspire others to follow suit.

“The public is increasingly concerned about the environment, so if museums want to respond to their audience this is a good start. Museums can say ‘we’re making an effort here, and if you visit us you’ll be visiting a more sustainable attraction’. “

Green Tourism technical director John Proctor said: “All the museums managed to win an award, and not everybody does that - you have to show real commitment. Being green is not just about technology - it is about telling the story of how people might have lived sustainably in the past, how they created things and found solutions to their problems without relying on a global infrastructure. That’s where museums can have tremendously positive impact, encouraging people to rethink how they deal with green issues even if it’s just one person changing the way they do things after a visit. As each of us starts moving forward, the whole world moves forward.

London Permaculture Festival

A Greenest Festival and Down to Earth 16th July 11am till 6pmat Cecil Sharp House near Regents Park

Rising Water Project

I am running a project called The Rising Water Project details at:

http://www.greenspirit.org.uk/risingwater/

I am interested in hearing from people who live in England and have experienced flooding (or have a close friend/relative who has experienced flooding).

Also from anyone who has downshifted and reduced carbon emissions as a result.

I would like to hear your stories about flooding or downshifting. And for supplying suitable material and for involvement in the project, there can be a payment of between £30 and £60.

Ideally, I am looking for people in the London area - or who can travel to London, who can attend an event at the end of the project, probably in November 2011.

Ian Mowll Project Coordinator – The Rising Water Project

Malidoma Some May 28th - 30th "Healing your Ancestors"

African Sprituality Ritual

Malidoma Some PhD will introduce us to ritual & wisdom from his Dagara tribe, Burkino Faso. Such a rare and wonderful opportunity to be in community and experience life in a different way! All money raised goes to the Dagara Tribe for building of Wells for the sustainablity of his village life. www.malidoma.co.uk

Summer of Dance

Summer of Dance is looking to hear from dance-based activities in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, which are taking place between 1 June and 31 August 2011.

Activities should be primarily dance-focused, and can include: workshops, master classes, taster sessions, events, performances, competitions, showcases, film screenings, lectures/debates and exhibitions.

Summer of Dance is a pilot programme promoting and celebrating the diverse range of dance on offer in this area of London. It will act as a promotional ‘umbrella’ for all these events, with a website and printed booklet at the heart of its comprehensive marketing strategy. The Summer of Dance pilot will lead into a more ambitious programme in 2012, to tie in with Big Dance and the Cultural Olympiad.

To request more information and an application form, e-mail arts@rbkc.gov.uk

Applications deadline: Friday 18 March, 5pm

Greener Together!

Greener Together aims to help people to live in a more sustainable way. It does this by focusing on the small actions we can each take in our daily lives towards achieving bigger changes in the wider world. www.greenertogether.coop Enter this month's competition and reduce your C02 emissions at the same time! http://s.coop/3xh

AN ELECTRIFYING NIGHT IN SOHO

Hundreds of partygoers turned up with electrical waste to gain entry to European Recycling Platform's 'Recycling Party' at Punk nightclub in Soho, London, bringing laptops, irons, mobile phones and cameras. Man Like Me and James Yuill rocked the crowd with their live performances and DJs Rob da Bank (Bestival boss) and Jackmaster kept the crowd dancing. The event, on Wed 10 Nov 2010, was one of 10 Recycling Parties across Europe to celebrate recycling one million tonnes of electrical waste. In 2009 London residents produced 58,000 tonnes of electrical waste and bought over 150,000 tonnes of electrical goods. Electrical waste, also known as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. Many people do not know that small electricals can be recycled, which is why just 20% are recycled. Much of the rest gathers dust in people’s home or ends up in the bin. All local authorities accept electrical waste for recycling, usually at recycling centres. New research published as part of the celebration found that: - the energy saved as a result of recycling this amount of electrical waste is enough to power one and a half million homes for a year – 9 billion kWh of energy. A huge amount of energy is used to extract precious metals from the earth. The production of 1kg of virgin gold releases the equivalent of 19,000 tonnes of CO2. - a tonne of waste circuit boards could yield 400g of gold - 80 times more than the same quantity of gold ore would provide. - gold recovered properly from electrical waste is of a purity and quality similar to virgin gold, potentially saving massive amounts of energy and reducing CO2 emissions. - early half (47%) of the recovered materials are metals. - 8 tonnes of gold, 65 tonnes of silver and 40,000 tonnes of copper and a whopping 390,000 tonnes of steel were recovered from the million tonnes of WEEE recycled by ERP. These can be used to make new products: those gadgets, toys and toothbrushes don’t necessarily have to cost the earth. Scott Butler, General Manager of ERP, said: “We’ve recycled over a million tonnes of electrical waste, saving enough energy to power a million and a half homes for a year and keeping mountains of valuable material from landfill. Next time one of your gadgets breaks, don’t bin it – recycle it. The gold in your old mobile phone could end up as jewellery or in a new phone.” James Cleverly, Chair of the London Waste and Recycling Board, said: “We've all got an old mobile phone or CD player knocking around at home, not being used having been replaced with the latest model. The ‘Don’t bin it, bring it’ event is a great way to donate your small electrical items to be reused, or recycled into other goods. This not only diverts waste from landfill, but saves the energy associated with manufacturing new products.”