Um das empresas que mais me encanta aqui na Inglaterra em questão de marca, posicionamento, comunicação e’ a Marks & Spencer, ou simplesmente M&S.

M&S foi aberta em 1884 como bazar, aonde vendia basicamente roupas. Contudo hoje o portifolio dela vai de roupas,lingeries a comida. Sim, M&S e’ sinônimo de supermercado primium. E, para complementar, eles só’ vendem produtos de marca própria.

O mote de comunicação do supermercado e’ brilhante: “Quality worth every penny” (Qualidade que vale cada centavo). Ou seja, apesar de primium, eles querem mostrar que vale a pena gastar mais…e’ vale mesmo. Produtos sempre bem selecionados.

Não só o supermercado tem campanhas de sucesso, mas a corporação em si. Há alguns anos atrás, eles se lançaram como uma das empresas mais inovadoras em buscar produtos fair trade, eco friendly para abaster sua produção. Em tal momento, a comunicação foi toda voltada para ‘Look Behind the Label” (Olhe por trás da etiqueta/marca), aonde eles mostravam os processos e métodos usados por atrás da sua produção.

Nesta mesma época, eles decidiram por lançar edições limitas cujo lucro vai para entidades assistidas pela rede M&S.

E, por ultimo, desde 2007 eles introduziram a iniciativa corporativa chamada “Plan A – because there is no plan B”. Esta campanha visa numa drástica mudança no negocio, cujo objetivo são 100 metas para serem alcançadas em 5 anos. Estas são referentes ao social-environment.

O comprometimento foi reforçado pelo tag line (Because there is no Plan B), que demonstra que eles estão para valer voltados a buscar melhorias nos seguintes campos: lixo, clima, materiais auto-sustentáveis, parceiras fair trades e qualidade de vida.

O bárbaro que toda linha comunicativa visa este objetivos. O site da corporação e’ basicamente voltado a recomendações de como econizar energia, altitudes para melhor estilo de vida, entre outros.

Por ultimo, mais uma vez, consegui visualizar a seriedade da campanha nesta semana, quando representantes da M&S levaram um ‘tapete de patchwork’ a Copenhagen,aonde varias mensagens de clientes foram estampadas para serem lembradas nas do encontro.

Este e’ umas dos melhores exemplos de retailers que se modernizaram ao longo dos anos e continuam construindo sua historia

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This blog is a open space for dialog about the practical side of achieving a zero waste world.

All costs to establish and manage this blog are paid for by:

Solid Waste Solutions
6060 Glenridge Dr.
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
Phone: 404-256-3974
Fax: 800-780-5963

If you are in need of real world waste reduction solutions please call.

Thanks : wind power works

Dear Friends,

Its time to make small effort which makes our home more GREENER!

we are wasting the electrical energy and releasing lots of carbon into air even by using our pc’s.We are approximately wasting the energy(per year)which is needed by one family to live for 1 month.Our pc’s are emitting carbons with which we are making our home more dry and blind.Its already 30% of our home is damaged.We can give our little contribution to our home,animals,nature to refresh by saving energy.

I have read an article in Microsoft website.The article is about Saving energy to make world green.we can save lots of energy by reducing our pc’s energy at non-working times.I thought it is hard to change settings every time.But,they provided the software called ‘Edison power management’.

This software has lots of features like

Features

Download Edison, an easy-to-use energy-monitoring application, absolutely free.

Edison puts you in control of your PC energy usage by letting you:

• Set your schedule
  

  Edison-Greener power management

   

  Tell Edison when you use your computer most.

  Small size but big effort.

• Save a little or a lot

   

  Use the Edison efficiency slider to choose the level of energy savings you want to achieve.

• See your savings

   

  Edison will calculate your estimated savings based on the setting you choose

I strongly recommend to download this software  and make home GREENER!

Here the download link – http://www.verdiem.com/edison.aspx

Here the recommendation from Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/environment/edison.aspx

Video from Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0808/33992/33992_Verdiem_500k.asx

MAKE WORLD GREENER,PURER,HEALTHIER.

Green and healthy world

Thanks,

Dailyonce.

To know more about Company : visit … http://www.vestas.com/

Requirement No. 1

Department : Nacelle & Hub Design – Mechanical Systems

Position Name: Module Owner (Module represents a sub-assembly which can be physically assembled as a standalone unit)

Number of Positions: 1

Experience : 7 – 10 Years

Qualification :

Academic

• M.E / M. Tech – Mechanical / Production/Design Stream

Skills Required

Need to Have

• Project Management Experience

• Mechanical Engineering Knowledge
• Design Skills
• Integrated product development experience
• Vendor development skills
• Good Communication skills

Relevant Industry

• WTG Industries, Automobile, Heavy Engineering Industry

Job Description

• Project Management on module level within Product and Engineering

• Responsible for module specifications – has overall responsibility for the architecture and design

• Transform project scope into detailed design solution and define tasks for Pro/E design & BOM with focus on impact on quality, budget and time of delivery.

• Coordinate deliveries on module level in Mark upgrades and new products

• Develop and maintain module interfaces and share them with other Modules Responsible.

• Participate in establishing investment and cost portfolio

• Validate suppliers and modules by supporting with test plans and prototyping.

———————————————————————————————

Requirement No.2

Department : Nacelle & Hub Design – Mechanical Systems

Position Name: Pro E Administrator

Number of Positions: 1

Experience : 5-7 Years

Qualification :

Academic

• B.E / B. Tech – Mechanical
• M.E (CAD) is  preferrable

Skill Required

Need to Have

• Experience with Pro/E, Intralink, PDMLink
• Basic knowledge in SAP or any ERP applications.
• Experience in basic IT support.

Relevant Industry

• WTG Industries, Automobile, Heavy Engineering Industry

Job Description

• Responsible for daily operation of routines in Pro/E and Intralink in the Asian region. This will take place in cooperation with the DK Pro/E administration team

• Support Pro/E users in their work with any ERP applications like SAP etc.,

• Be a part of the global Pro/E hotline support team

• Run training courses developed internally in Vestas for Pro/E users

• Participating in implementing new functionality and new software solutions related to 2D drawings and 3D models in Pro/E

• Participate in specifying and testing new software solutions

Um recente estudo* apresentou resultados sobre o comportamento dos consumidores frente empresas que ajudam causas sociais ou prezam pelo meio ambiente, e mesmo com o processo da recessão ainda vigorando em muitos paises, 57% dos consumidores entrevistados confirmaram que trocariam (e pagariam a mais) por marcas que são ecologicamente corretas.

Este numero atingiu seu ápice no Brasil, cuja população concordou em 83%! O Brasil também esta’ na frente quanto o assunto e’ trabalho voluntário. 61% dos participantes disseram que pretendem se envolver com causas sociais no próximo ano.

A pesquisa também revelou que os consumidores, de maneira geral, estão mais abertos para mudarem hábitos de consumo que resultem numa ação benéfica ao meio ambiente. Um dos exemplos mais citados e’ troca de carro luxuosos por carros ecológicos ou com fontes de energia renováveis.

Esta ‘eco’ tendência só tem de ganhar notoriedade e atenção das empresas e consumidores em geral nos próximos anos, contudo a grande preocupação e’ em relação as marcas que usam esta estratégia somente para ganhar mercado.

Se um empresa for ampliar, e comunicar, seu lado social, isso precisa ser extremamente articulado. Não basta apenas doar dinheiro para se ganhar isenção fiscal, mas todos os funcionários devem ter conhecimento e participação nesta ação conjunta

Acredito que de agora em diante qualquer empresa deveria ter um departamento somente ligado as causas sociais ou meio-ambientes (assim como existe RH, Jurídico, etc.) pois só assim os atividades sociais ganharão voz dentro da corporação.

In the hospitality world today minute details that provide perceived value in the guest’s mind is what ultimately makes a Hotel beautiful as well as practical. We at The Fern Ecotel, Jaipur are happy to educate everyone with only one motto TRAVEL GREEN

This presentation will bring to light the plight of the natural environment due to our negligence.

In the hospitality world today minute details that provide perceived value in the guest’s mind is what ultimately makes a Hotel beautiful as well as practical. We at The Fern Ecotel, Jaipur are happy to educate everyone with only one motto TRAVEL GREEN

This presentation will bring to light the plight of the natural environment due to our negligence.

叔叔的店后面养了很多狼狗，而且还有许多小狗；幸好这些狼狗都不敢乱乱吠我，而且还不介意我去“乱摸”它们的孩子，呵呵。

原来Telupid的中文翻译是“都鲁必”，这是右边的冷藏店；左边就是Sungai Labuk，因为在中游，还是一条很小的河啦。

和叔叔去吃早餐，拍下了Telupid镇中心的停车场，还有这个太阳。对呀，这天是全日食嘛～这是早上8:51am的太阳，被一层薄薄的云给遮着。

回到店后，收拾了行李，早上九点我们就出发去拿笃了。这是我们从Telupid到Sungai Seguliud的地图。全程一个小时多，85km。

让我们一起看太阳的变化吧，虽然报纸是说从九点到十点都可以看到，可是事实上沙巴东海岸看到的时间，如果没有记错的话，应该是十一点多，那时的我已经没有心情注意太阳了。。。

大家可能以为在沙巴，市镇和市镇之间还是有很多热带雨林吧！那是旅游局的误导。看看沿途风景，大家就知道发生什么事了。

Kampung Gambaron：还是一些很Kampung的风景。木屋和树丛。

这条河应该是Sungai Pimpin。过了这条河，欢迎来到油棕园的世界！

Welcome to “The Land Below the Palm Oil”!!!

不要被一片绿油油的树木给骗“倒”，那都是一望无际的油棕园！！！如果大家有观赏过今年广受好评的纪录片HOME的话，里面唯一有提到Malaysia的地方，就是Sabah的Deforestation！原来这就是让我们名扬国际的“成就”！

说真的，四年没有回来这里，这次在一个加油站看到这样的“景色”，我真的是吓着了。

我曾提出过一个问题：油棕为谁而种？

谁把这些珍贵的药材和“活的博物馆”砍掉了？痛心啊。

看到了这个奇怪的广播站，代表我们经过了进入山打跟的路口，而我们继续往南走，看到了另一条河Sungai Seguliud。

（继续。。。）

I never did write a good poem.  When I was in fourth grade, I got into a haiku phase, and wrote a notebook full of them.  My beloved Mrs. Johnson inked red praise in every margin.

In college, I finally took a poetry writing class with David Clewell, our poet, and fine teacher.  I had gotten into playwriting (and can talk about how the restraint of only writing dialogue is something sestina-like, perhaps) and never had room for an “extra” writing class.  But learning about poetry by writing it, with Clewell, was something each of us did, in turn.  And truly: what I learned there changed how I see language, and changed even how I teach poetry now.

In that entire semester, I wrote probably one poem that is worth anything, and we wrote one a week.  I really believe that anyone who loves poetry should take a class like this– the familiarity we have with song lyrics, and writing short messages, makes us feel that anyone could probably write poetry.  (Untrue.)

My soon to be brother-in-law is a poet, and has taken up an interesting challenge: to write a poem each day this month; he’s blogging them.  I have some friends who really get into Nanowrimo, and some who wouldn’t do that for love or money.

For me, I wrote best when I had consistent criticism, a read-through of a growing play, to hear if the dialogue was true, or if I was veering too on the nose.

I admire the idea of writing a poem a day, of writing something every day, of spending time crafting as one has time, and then saying, “Done, for today.”  I imagine Andrew’s blog growing new poems like those rows of chrysalides, sized tiny to almost-moth.

Image by ThinkVegan via Flickr

If I had as much passion for onions, peppers and potatoes as some meat-eaters have for bacon, chicken and beef, and was as upset and angry about not getting carrots every day as meaties can be about the suggestion that eating meat five days a week is good for no-one and bad for the planet, I’d be worried my priorities were all wrong. Because they would be.

Food is essential, obviously, and I don’t want to get into the argument over whether killing animals is inherently wrong here, but it irks me when gobby meat evangelists spew forth accusations against all vegetarians of being ‘holier than thou’ as some do, and have today, in the comments on an article published by the Guardian advising people on how to give up meat .

I never present all meat-eaters as unthinking, selfish, addicts who turn a blind eye to factory farm cruelty just so’s they can put cheap Tesco chicken on the table ‘for the sake of the little children’. It would be wrong to do so. An increasing number of people who still wish to eat meat are actively pursuing an agenda to put an end to factory farming and encourage organic, free-range meat.

Some even raise animals themselves, conscientiously and caringly, and take personal responsibility for ending those animals’ lives humanely. They get their hands dirty with blood and feathers and skin, eyes and bumholes and claws, instead of pretending there never was any blood in the shrink-wrapped, pale pink packages offered up by supermarkets to those who want to eat meat but could never kill, preferring others to do the messy stuff for them, out of sight and mind.

I admire people who raise animals properly for their own consumption greatly, though my own, deeply personal and utterly immovable, conviction is that meat is murder. Do I present this belief as argument? Do I directly accuse friends, family, anyone, as being murderers or complicit in murder? No. I never do. I don’t extend my belief that way. It is my view that if I took life, or accepted dead animal onto my plate, I would be able to accuse myself and could not accept that which I would see as a terrible truth. I can and do feel guilt at many things, but I can say that no animals have to die so that I can have a full belly. This is never presented as argument. It simply is, for me and me alone. Yet even with all that explanatory, when I am asked and do express this emotional and ethical cornerstone of my very own, I still get meat-eaters suddenly adopting a Catherine Tate-like persona and spitting, ‘So what? You sayin’ I’m a murderer? Eh? Eh? Are you? Are you?”

No. I am not. If such people cannot grasp what I am saying, I am not responsible for their ignorance or their assumptions. What’s more, I only express my belief so baldly when pushed to do so (though this is a blog entry, and I’m freely expressing as is my right). Stating such a spiritual foundation as the primary reason why I don’t eat meat would not advance any debate over how to best feed people in the future, or ensure optimum health is achieved through diet, or cut our methane and CO2 emissions. Nor would it do anything to help the heavily medicated billions of animals living half-lives in their own filth.

The arguments should not be personal, they should not be capable of being interpreted as abusive by anyone on any side, they should be about two things: first and foremost, animal welfare, whether the animals are to be eaten or not, and secondly, what facts exist to make any case so that we can make our minds up individually and collectively. Some people make decisions based on emotional responses, others make the exact same decisions based on practical considerations. And there will always be those, meaties and veggies, who just bawl, insult, and accuse. These people will not be at the vanguard of change; they will forever be shouting from the sidelines.

The headline of the Guardian article is ‘Giving up meat is easy’. I can assure you, for most people, it is not. I was a meat-eater myself once upon a time. I stopped eating animals in 1991, but still recall getting cravings for months afterwards. I went through three weeks of greasy skin and hair, spots and irritability. I have no doubt whatsoever that I was an addict, that meat is addictive, and that I did the right thing. But easy? No. It became second nature, and while I never chastise friends or family who are preparing and cooking meat while I’m around, it is true to say that I no longer see it as food, and the smell–cooked or raw–makes me want to throw up. I work hard to hide my gag reflex when someone’s taking pride in preparing a roast.

Still, for around three years, the smell of bacon continued to tantalise me. You can commit to vegetarianism in the span of a heart-beat, sure, but truly becoming a vegetarian takes some years of not having consumed meat at all. Perhaps it is the dedication involved in making the change that offends some people who wilfully misinterpret such devotion to personal change as extremist, but it is no more so than stopping smoking, no longer chewing your fingernails, deciding to walk a new spiritual path, or deciding to grow your hair long.

I would rather prioritise my battles than lay into everything at the same time. Raising animals naturally and with all due care, putting an end to intensive factory farming, and encouraging less consumption of meat, are more pressingly urgent campaign topics than chastising the world’s meat-eaters for not forsaking the consumption of flesh altogether. But yes, it is undeniable that overconsumption of meat is unsustainable and damaging to the planet. Meat intake must be reduced. Just let’s not get sidelined into epic battles over the morality of eating meat that neither side could possibly win.

My morality, my ethics, are mine alone and no-one else’s. If yours are similar, great, but it’s no indicator as to whether we’d actually get along. Of course if you eat meat and don’t care where it came from, whether the animal lived freely or in a prison camp, and don’t give a shit about others or the environment, that is an indicator–of the fact that I would be unlikely to get along with a person apparently so selfish, so immovable, so inflexible. But people can, and do, change during calm debate and discussion. They don’t change when attacked. Vegetarians, vegans and omnivores would all do well to recognise that, beneath our convictions and beyond our plates, we share the same human spirit, the same biology, the same basic needs. We must find ways forward. Screaming and hurling abuse at each other will never achieve anything other than to ensure it’s business as usual, with no changes at all–and therefore bad for me, bad for you, bad for the animals, and bad for the planet.

Related articles by Zemanta

• AA Gill shot baboon in Tanzania (guardian.co.uk)
• How Many Times a Week Do You Eat Red Meat? (fitsugar.com)
• A world without meat is an unappetising idea (telegraph.co.uk)
• Four more ex-battery hens being collected today (spicycauldron.com)
• Just say no to shopping at Tesco (spicycauldron.com)
• Cows ’should be genetically engineered not to feel pain’ (telegraph.co.uk)

Enquanto estava acessando o site da Boots (rede de farmácia) para me registrar para vacina da gripe, li sobre a promoção da Diet Coke.

Aqui, com em outros paises da Europa, existe uma preocupação enorme com o meio-ambiente, natureza, preservação de animais, etc. Um das campanhas que esta ganhando destaque é com relação a reciclagem.

Muitas empresas de alimentação,por exemplo, servem como ponto de reciclagem, e presenteiam consumidores com sucos quando eles deixam jornais ou revistas.

Outra iniciativa e’ uso de sacolas de pano para compras. E, com este approach foi que a Diet Coke criou uma promoção.

Patricia Fields (stylist do Sex and the City & Ugly Betty) criou uma versão unique de eco-bag feita inteiramente de garrafas recicladas.

Coca, com esta ação, quer incentivar seus consumidores a serem mais consciente ao que esta acontecendo no mundo afora, porem em grande estilo.

Para ‘ganhar’ este mimo, basta comprar duas garrafas da Diet Coke na Boots.

Eco friendly hotels are not only beneficial to the owners, but also to the entire world, while at the same time letting their guests contribute to betterment of the environment. Whether it’s water or energy conservation, recycling, or reducing the consumption of natural resources through bulk amenities and newspaper programs, a positive impact can be made through simple steps.

People who consider themselves very “environmentally aware” take special care to at least conserve water and energy, and to recycle. But when they travel, many of these same people either leave their environmentalism at home or figure they just have to put up with extreme waste in hotels. It doesn’t have to be that way. I challenge you to take your environmental action on the road with you, and to not accept hotel waste anymore.

It’s getting easier to support environmental practices when you travel, but not all hotels haven’t caught on or are not up-to-speed yet. Be sure to first look for “green” hotels for your lodging options. Participate in any “green practices”, like towel and sheet reuse programs, recycling, and energy conservation (turning your lights and TV off when you aren’t in the room), that the hotel offers. Be as conserving on the road as you are at home.

With endless names for green lodging, including green hotels, ecolodges, and sustainable tourism (conserving both the environment and the culture or social aspects of an area, having a low impact on both). The best place to start your green hotel research is online, looking for the sites that spread the word about the awareness of nature and environment, and then using the search engines, where the best term to use is “ecotel hotels”. Don’t let the various terms confuse you or put you off, because people have different focuses in their environmental actions, and the name often reflects the focus of each specific hotel.

The problem with hotels’ approaches to resource consumption is that thinking tends to go no further than “today”. While guests are being pampered or taken care of, precious, non-renewable resources are being consumed at an alarming rate. That consumption not only impacts the quality of the air you breathe and the water you drink today, it also takes resources from the future. What does that mean for the future of our children?

Another issue to consider is that of deforestation. Cutting a forest down, has been impacting animals, air, water, and even future vegetation. Building a hotel in the middle of the desert causes resources that aren’t naturally there to be channeled, again destructing the environment. These changes impact not only the local environment, but even the worldwide environment.

Visiting different places of the country and the world is a fantastic experience. You and the people you meet are better for the exchange. That’s the kind of exchange that makes tourism valuable. To keep tourism from being prejudicial, we all need to contribute and reduce waste. This can start with a little thing called – No Littering! Small steps might some day help our planet breathe a sigh of relief if not more. Amen!

I’m not going to recap the entire night, because that would be quite the long, sprawling post, and the photos speak pretty well for themselves.  I’ll give a few notes:  Nick, my “maid” of honor planned the night, with input from Jodut and Macy, and help from his girlfriend and another of my Green World classmates, Jamie.  There were also p3nis cookies. But as Eric pointed out, they were multicultural p3nis cookies.

Participants: Nick and Jamie, Sex Ho former roommates Tom, Eric, and Jodut, wife of a former Union classmate Julie, and my Journal co-founding colleague, Josh.

Locations: the Frying Pan, a restaurant/bar on a really old boat near Chelsea Piers, a Harbor Lights Boat cruise up and around Manhattan, a limo, and the Slipper Room, the home of burlesque in NYC.

Surprise guests included another bachelorette party, where the bride gave me an origami crane like the ones that will be decorating her wedding, and a nun, who spent more than half an hour with our party, gave us encouragement and blessings, and gave me  a present.

And what does this 350 number even mean?

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in "Parts Per Million" in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it’s the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.   read more about climate change

The science is clear: global warming is happening faster than ever and humans are responsible. Global warming is caused by releasing what are called greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. Many of the activities we do every day like turn the lights on, cook food, or heat or cool our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. This is a major problem because global warming destabilizes the delicate balance that makes life on this planet possible. Just a few degrees in temperature can completely change the world as we know it, and threaten the lives of millions of people around the world. But don’t give up hope! You can help stop global warming by taking action here at 350.org.

We need an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions fast, and 2009 might be our best shot.

The United Nations is working on a global climate treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety. This treaty needs to put a high enough price on carbon that we stop using so much. It also needs to ensure poor countries a fair chance to develop.

visit the official site of Copenhagen Climate Council

This year, we can create a grassroots movement connected by the web and active all over the world.

We can hold our decision-makers accountable to producing a treaty that is strong, equitable, and grounded in the latest science. On 24 October, we’re holding a Global Day of Climate Action to do just this.

If this global movement succeeds, we can get the world on track to get back to 350 and back to climate safety. It won’t be easy, that’s why we need all the help we can get.

watch videos about 350 campaign

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IN ORDER TO MEET THE EVER CHANGING  WORLD AND THE DEMANDS THAT IT HAS ON US, IT IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO START FRESH EACH DAY WITH NEW GOALS, NEW PLANS AND FOCUS ON WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TODAY AS IF IT WAS THE FIRST AND LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE.

NO EXCUSES, NO AVOIDANCE…JUST LOOK AT EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE STRAIGHT ON AND MAKE IT BETTER.

IT ACCUMULATES IN THE RIGHT PATH AND THE RICHES WILL REVEAL THEMSELVES IN TIME.

AND, OH YES , STAY HEALTHY MY FRIENDS..AT LEAST ONE DOSE OF VIVIX EACH DAY

http://www.cheryldealbert.myshaklee.com

760-668-0548

http://www.encoremind.com

only less than 24 hrs left…

so act as earliest…

http://greenpeace.in/safefood/fax-jairam-ramesh/

Just as 41,000 people like me are forcing Nestle to come clean on the stuff it sells in India, our own government is actually letting in genetically-contaminated food through the back-door!

In the next 24 hours, some government body called the GEAC is about to approve genetically-adulterated Brinjal for sale in the market. And if we allow that to happen, our fragile food supply will be contaminated forever!

Of course we can’t allow that to happen. And that’s exactly why I’ve sent a fax directly to Jairam Ramesh (Minister of Environment) to let him know I’m totally against genetic junk being sold to me in the guise of food.

Please take action just like I have. We have less than 24 hours before those guys meet and start taking decisions on what we eat. Click here to stop them before it’s too late.

And thanks a million!

The above photo was taken a few weeks back, and it’s my beloved in the frame (with bees on the frame, as it were). Keeping bees, and chickens, really attunes you very closely to the seasonal ebbs and flows, the cyclical rhythms, of the seasons. When much of what you do with these insects and animals is determined by temperature and the amount of sunshine decreasing or increasing depending on the time of year, a kind of knowing develops that is a little more sophisticated than just noticing whether the nights are geting longer, or the bulbs starting to sprout, or leaves on trees falling. The ways in which you actually care for and observe bees and chickens change.

The bees are starting right now to prepare for tucking themselves away deep inside the hive to get through the winter, needing only occasional feeding and the usual annual treatments and preventatives for disease. Chickens wake later and go to bed earlier, the number of eggs being produced goes into decline among the pure-breed hens (modern hybrids like the ex-bats continue to lay, but even they do so less often), and it’s a common sight to go down to the hen-house of a morning and find it looking like someone exploded a pillow in the night because the annual moult is in full swing, with pale worn-out old feathers dropping everywhere to be replaced by shiny new ones.

Moulting is an unpleasant experience. The hens look tired, they even have bags under their eyes, and to the uninitiated ignorant of bird biology it can appear that the ladies are being treated cruelly because they look so awful, with bald patches and feathers hanging off. Some poultry keepers even find themselves reported to the likes of the RSPCA at this time of year, which must be upsetting (it hasn’t happened to us, thank goodness) even if the animal welfare workers know exactly what’s going on straightaway. No hen, even hybrids, lays a single egg while moulting because all their energy goes into feather production and we help them by adding seaweed and mineral extracts combined with vitamins to their drinking water, and making sure they get lots of greens to eat as well as their daily ration of pellets. I cut back on giving them corn during this time; they’d eat it in preference to the better stuff.

The fact is often referenced that kids today don’t know where milk and cheese come from (“the supermarket” is said to be the answer), but ask most adults if eggs are produced by hens all year round and they will answer “yes” when the answer, under natural circumstances, is no. Eggs are seasonal. You induce egg-laying all year round with artificial lighting systems but we won’t do that. Hens, like women, are born with a finite number of eggs already in place in the ovaries. You push for all year round production, the hens stop laying altogether years before they naturally would stop, and the impact on their health is unknown. I suspect–looking at the evidence all around us in the world today–that going against nature, hiding hens from seasonal change, fooling their bodies, can only be harmful for them and, extrapolated alongside all the other intensive and unnatural farming methods employed the world over, harmful to our own species in the long-run.

With 17 egg-capable hens (until next year, when three more will come into lay) we’re currently only getting between one and three eggs a day. It’s no bad thing while my beloved is recovering from an operation because he’s unable to go to work and sell our surplus to colleagues, who snap the eggs up like they’re being offered Jimmy Choo shoes at charity shop prices, so we’re using those eggs being produced right now to bake cakes, make omelettes, add to bread recipes, and we’re thinking of trying what we both previously loathed–pickled eggs, because there are some interesting recipes for flavouring them that might make us feel differently to the bland, icky, somewhat slimy pickled eggs we’ve been presented with by others in the past. We know people who love them, so even if we don’t like them they’ll make great gifts in fancy bottles. Even a single box of eggs given freely to a visitor raises a smile and spreads goodwill and harmony.

In this, our second year of keeping bees, we only managed to get four jars of honey. Last year, though, we had none at all and apparently we’re lucky to have some this year because many northern beekeepers with far more than just one hive haven’t got any owing to the weather, which was only a marginal improvement (from the perspective of the bees) on 2008’s wash-out. I can’t recall the exact figure but something over 80% of British bees didn’t make it through last winter. And yes, we will be worried for our own hive and that will only stop when we see new outdoor activity in the spring of 2010.

So what does our honey look and taste like? It could have been any colour, thickness and flavour, dependant upon the flowers visited by the bees. It turned out to be pale and runny, a translucent amber, and absolutely delicious. We’ve enough to last us into the new year, and it’s a great buzz to know that if we had no money we’d never starve, though of course we wouldn’t always get to eat what we wanted (in common, let’s be honest, with our ancestors until very recently). We have eggs, we have honey, we have plenty of vegetable produce from our modest-sized garden, though the type of vegetables and quantity varies according to season. And although we must work hard to bring all these chemical-free wonders to the table, we find ourselves enormously grateful to the bees, chickens, worms and nature itself for the bounty they reward our efforts with.

The biggest pain in the butt from now until the spring will be mud, and the annual competition to find effective ways of dealing with it, stopping the chicken run from turning into deep brown stinky goo, will, as ever, be a frustrating challenge. We tried bark chippings (no–increases risk of mycoplasma), rubber chips (don’t go there despite them being recommended by poultry magazine articles, they don’t work and end up stinking and difficult to dispose of–we recycled ours into a floor for the greenhouse), and eventually we discovered the one thing not advised, hay, works best so far. Sadly there’s a shortage in these parts at present, but magazines talk of it clumping together, and this being unacceptable. We, though, find it much easier once a month to roll the stuff up in big sheets from the run and dump it on the compost heap where it quickly raises the temperature and breaks everything down, and leaves behind a clean earth flooring to be covered with fresh hay. We won’t use straw, which is advised; it brings the risk of importing red mite inside the hollow tubes, and other undesirables.

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这次回到新都桥又是一个漂亮的下午，真的很喜欢傍晚时分的新都桥，真的是“光和影的世界”。

似乎哪里都是风景，就连用烂了的相机都可以排除这种效果，哈。拉姆建议我们回到饭店的顶楼去看雪山，好啦，风景真的非常漂亮哦～

第二张的照片是我用了两个月的wall paper，只是有一点影子，破坏了美感。

从这里望下去，可以看到旅游业带来的污染。如果，把这些宝特瓶拿去制成毛毯，该多好啊！

大家玩呀玩，我也和这只狗玩呀玩，它很乖的。

之后，就是我们“Angel and Demon”的游戏揭晓时刻，这个游戏我和永祥想了很久来防止破绽，结果晓莹成了赢家，哈哈。

那天的晚上大家蛮早睡的，开门就觉得很冷，但是还是有很多在外面看星星，而且听说雪山的白雪，到了晚上还是照样会反射月光的！大家可以想象吧！

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这几天都一直在compile Ecoventure的post event video，在这里给大家回顾Recruitment talk时我用了三天制成的video吧！

Share a Photo, Video or even a simple Message on anything you have done for the environment to make it green!

Heres a chance to win a FREE stay for 2N/3D days at The Fern Hotel An Ecotel, Jaipur. Participate in this contest and win a free vacation to The Fern Hotel in Jaipur. This is definitely not the one you want to miss!

The Go Green Initiative

Heres a low down on how you can be at The Fern Hotel An Ecotel, Jaipur.

Contest Details:

This is a Message, Photo or Video contest on twitter and Facebook where you will just have to upload a photo, video or a message of instances where they have  done something for the Environment  (for e.g. planted a tree, used something eco friendly, done something for the environment, contributed to issues like global warming, pollution, etc. in anyways.)

This contest can be played on Twitter or Facebook. Needless to say playing on Twitter and Facebook both will increase the chances of winning.

On Twitter

Step 1: Upload a Photograph of yours where you have done something for the environment via www.tweetphoto.com or a video via www.twitvid.com

Step 2: I participated in “Go Green Show Green” Contest http://bit.ly/2iXUnJ. #GoGreen Check this  <link to the picture on tweet photo/video>.

Step 3: Tweet this: talk about you going green with the hash tag #Gogreen <link to the contest page>. Please Vote and get people RT it

The winner will be decided on these parameters:

 No. of  RTs and @ replies you get

 No. of Positive Votes you can source on your photo upload on  tweetphoto.com

On Facebook:

Step 1: Upload a Photograph/Video of yours doing something for the environment with the following Post on the Fern Ecotel Page :

Post: I participated in “Go Green Show Green” Contest http://bit.ly/2iXUnJ. Here is how I’ve gone green. Tell me how is it?

Step 2: Also you can update your own status or post more on the Fern Ecotel Page to get more people Liking and Commenting on your posts.

The winner will be decided on these parameters:

 No. of  Likes they get

 The no. of Positive Comments they get (Per User One Comment)

Today’s news from Ofgem that in the worst-case scenario our energy bills in the UK could rise by 60% by 2016 should have us all thinking about how we can start planning today for this contingency. Ofgem reports that prices will almost certainly rise between 14% and 25% above inflation by 2020. The majority of people get no substantive help from government to fit solar panels to their homes and install wind turbines on their land, with the grants only provided to those who can afford to pay a whopping amount towards the overall costs: in other words, the better-off and the rich can get help to install these things, while the poorer among us can’t. It won’t get any better under the Tories, and neither are they likely to move any faster than Labour on replacing old power stations soon to expire.

Addressing my fellow Brits here, I don’t know about you but our household’s electricity and gas bills are already enormous. Despite being increasingly conscious of how and when we use energy, and cutting back year on year on usage for the past two years, our monthly direct debit for electricity remains unchanged by the provider–and we’re paying a whopping £150 every month, while our gas direct debit has been cut by £20 a month to just over £70. We’ve been told, however, that our electricity usage has dropped by over 25% in the past year alone. Gas has obviously dropped, which is why they want less money spread out over the course of the year, and we’re confident we can halve the usage between now and next spring compared to last year.

Our electricity is in part so expensive because it’s green in origin, and because the company providing it to us screwed up our billing last year (by not sending us any bills, and then by failing to activate our direct debit for five months despite our repeated enquiries and complaints via email and phone), so we’re clearing an arrears backlog not our fault. To add insult to injury, the law allows utility companies to refuse to allow customers in hard times to switch to cheaper suppliers until arrears are paid off. As soon as that’s done where our situation is concerned, within the next six months, we’re switching by long overdue necessity. But of course, while unable to escape an expensive supplier your usage continues to be at whatever price per unit that they set, and if you don’t pay because you can’t then you are cut off and the company doing the deed can refuse to let you sign up to another provider, leaving you without any energy supply at all.

You owe us money, and until it’s cleared we will keep charging you a fortune. Progressive, eh? The law is one bad thing for consumers, and needs to be reviewed, but when green companies take advantage of it to hammer customers who say the financial demands are too much, it makes a mockery of their self-aggrandising claims to be more conscientious and ethical than those supplying non-renewable, non-sustainable fossil fuel energy. It has certainly reminded us, in this house, that just because a company is ‘green’ it doesn’t mean you can expect them to act fairly, and when the law allows them to act unfairly, they do readily take advantage. Greed and predation, my friends, are not just a fossil fuel old school thing. Capitalism can, and does, sometimes wear a green face and natural fibres while posting pictures of wind turbines online.

Image by soumit via Flickr

So what should we all do? If you’re in a position to pay a substantial slice of the cost involved in installing wind and solar power, then apply for a government grant for a percentage of the cost, and get it done. If you’re not able to do that, in common with the majority of us, your only options are to either ignore the approaching crisis or start planning ahead by setting money aside, even if it’s just a little, apparently insignificant amount, every month. It might take years to save up to the point where you can start looking at installing your own energy generators but we have to hope that the costs of installations will drop over the next decade, that whoever is in power will recognise the crisis and implement, at best, a national roll-out of the necessary hardware and, at least, implement a fair grants and loans system to help us–something along the lines of Warm Front today, which provides free help to those most in need, in fitting such things as energy-efficient boilers, double glazing, cavity wall and roof insulation.

I know. It’s a lot to hope for when we have a two-horse race politically-speaking and both main parties are past their best in every sense. But if you don’t do something, you risk being in fuel poverty less than a decade from now, no matter if you consider yourself comfortable today (and increasing numbers of households are not comfortable–and £220 a month for our energy, with a more than decent joint income, is already too much).

There are savings you can make right now, of course, and it is essential that we do so for our pockets and the planet. For instance, this year we are only putting on the central heating for short bursts of time, until we feel the heat, and only if the entire house is being made use of. If we’re in one room only for several hours, and that’s always the living room in the evenings, then we use the fire (ours is electric) and, again, only for a short time until we feel the heat is sufficient, then we switch it off until we feel cold again. We are no longer using the timer function for the central heating, and if we’re not in the house, that way we never forget it’s ticking over and heating an unoccupied house when we’re away. Don’t leave devices on standby, turn plugs off at the wall, don’t leave computers on sleep, switch ‘em off.

That funny little red light above the shower cord? Do you really need your shower ready to go 24-7 when it takes all of 0.1 seconds to pull the cord to switch it on and off? Showering rather than having a bath will save you a fortune as well. Turn off the oven five minutes before your food is due to be cooked–the heat remaining will be sufficient. Boil only as much water as you need for the number of cups of coffee or tea you are making.

It all feels miserly, it feels penny-pinching, of course it does–and it is, the awareness wasn’t there five years ago of the cost of energy. But it makes sense to cut down on your fuel consumption. Our home is already up to code on cavity wall and roof insulation, but if yours isn’t kitted out with the basics to avoid losing heat to the great outdoors, get the jobs done and you might even qualify for a Warm Front grant. There are other tips and tricks. My sister last year made for us, at my request, some insulating ’snakes’ of the kind I remembered from childhood: think of them like long, slim pillows packed with insulating material. If you make your own they can be as funky or plain as you like, but what you do with them is you place them along the bottom edge of your doors into the house or flat. They help prevent heat escaping.

Another thing you can do, which we have done, is to fit a curtain rail above your front door (obviously on the inside!) and hang heavy lined drapes that can be pulled apart, just like any other curtains, during the daylight hours and drawn at night. We take the drapes away in the spring, and only hang them up again in October. Close all your curtains in your home as soon as it gets dark, whether you’re going to be in a room or not, because open curtains allow the heat in your home to escape and closed curtains mean your home will heat faster, allowing you to switch off the heating quicker. Open your windows briefly in the mornings, without any heating on, for just half an hour or so to deal with condensation if that’s a problem; if it’s a really big problem, remove house plants from windowsills and relocate them to the greenhouse or garage, if you have either, or tables and dressers and kitchen units otherwise. Plants breathe, and make any condensation problem worse when situated on sills.

Last but certainly not least: STOP dressing like it’s July when it isn’t. Wear jumpers, thick socks, winter clothing appropriate to the season–indoors as well as out. If you feel cold at home, before you consider putting the heating on at night, put your dressing gown on over your clothes. Why not? Add more blankets to your bed while you’re at it, maybe even a second quilt. Start thinking and acting like people did in the 1970s–because the way we acted in the 1980s and 90s was unsustainable and inadvisable. We just didn’t know at the time.

If you’ve any advice or tips to share, please do so below. There are loads more things you can do to save energy, and still stay warm. The starting point is to think before you switch on, to think all the time ‘do I need to do this?’ and ‘what’s the shortest time I can run this for?’ and so on. Thanks for reading!

Aqui na Inglaterra, assim como outros paises da Europa (Alemanha e Franca), a atencao para cuidados com o meio ambiente eh levada muito a serio.

Ja mostrei o exemplo dos Ursos Polares pelo rio Thames, e agora segue uma acao recente na Suecia, aonde foi criada uma instalacao chamada ‘Green Cloud’ (nuvem verde).

A projecao de laser foi feita numa zona industrial para chamar atencao da populacao sobre o consumo de energia e poluicao.

Uma bela iniciativa (porem acredito que cara) para conscientizar nao so populacao, mas tambem as fabricas para busca de energia alternativas.