thegreenguy - Adam Vaughan

Why green is still cool

Green is no longer cool, say The Times and Treehugger. I've written a short rant for MSN Environment on why I disagree. What do you think? Is green still hot, or not?

Amazon Green launches... but only in the US

Amazon's just launched an eco products store dubbed Amazon Green, Lifehacker reports. A quick look suggests it's mostly a portal to Amazon's existing products, such as bicycles and reusable bottles including the one pictured here. Right now, there's no UK version, which is probably good news for established UK indy ecotailers such as Natural Collection, Ethical Superstore and Ecotopia. I'll keep you posted if I hear whispers of a launch this side of the Atlantic.

Eco bloggers launch Slow Travel manifesto

My friends Laura Burgess of Eco Escape fame and Ed Gillespie at Futerra have launched a mini manifesto on greener travel. Check it out over here.

Who's the carbon culprit in *your* family?

In my family, it's gotta be my parents for their short haul holidays several times a year. But it varies from family to family, as I found in an article I've written for this month's House Beautiful magazine -- it features an energy-guzzling daughter, a Dad uninspired by going green and a home-working Mum who just can't do without the heat up. The mag's out now (August issue) and asks why some family members have clown-sized carbon footprints. So -- who's the culprit in your family, and why?

Green how-to videos on SmartPlanet

It's hard to open a weekend newspaper or Stumble across the web without coming across eco tips. Fit a Hippo! Compost your food! Seal your draughts! goes the advice. Even though they're relatively simple though, just seeing these tips in text can be off-putting, so -- in the spirit of a picture telling a thousand words and a video telling a gazillion words -- I've started a series of 'Smart Tip' videos over on my day-job site, SmartPlanet. They're not strictly how-to vids (you may still need instruction manuals) but they do show you how easy basic green steps are. My favourite is this one on ensuring your compost doesn't get stinky.

Win £1,559 worth of green goodies

Eco blog Lifegoggles is running a monster giveaway of 69 different prizes, all with an eco twist. As well as a vouchers, you can win prizes from a monster array of UK and US ecotailers, including fair trade footballs, organic beauty gift boxes and a whole stack of green books. The list was so long it made my eyes spin. Well worth a look.

Thanks Typepad!

It's not often I grovel to the blogging platform I use, but I'd like to extend a public and belated thank you to Typepad for featuring me last week. I was so busy with launching SmartPlanet (my day job), that I entirely missed being Typepad's featured site of the day.

SmartPlanet's eco product reviews have landed

 

A disclaimer first: this is a shameless self-promotion post. Yesterday myself and the team over at CNET Networks UK formally launched SmartPlanet (you can get the offical press release here). The basic gist is news and reviews of anything green or ethical. Plus a bit of humour. And a lot of research. If you've ever wondered whether an energy-saving gadget, organic beauty product or so-called green car are as good as the hype proclaims, the site should be up your street. In a personal capacity, I'm going to find it really useful, since a lot of these 'conscientious' products are only available online and you're basically buying blind when shopping at ecotailers. One of the ideas behind SmartPlanet is too take the guesswork out of that, as we'll have checked out the eco and ethical creds, done our research and actually sampled or tested the product hands-on. Like any site, it's a work in progress -- so please let me know what you love or hate in the comments. I know everyone says it, but I'd genuinely like as much feedback as possible.

Swapping MR16 halogens for greener LEDs

Meet my hallway. This photo shows how we inherited it a year ago, replete with four typical IKEA halogen bulbs, each sucking up 80W every time I came home. While I swapped out the rest of the house's lighting for low energy alternatives, I procrastinated with these ones because they have those pointy MR16 fittings and I couldn't find any compatible mini-sized CFLs (what we all tend to call energy-saving bulbs). I then had a look for the other green alternative: LEDs. After some laborious searching, I ended up ordering some £4.49 ones from the ever-useful energy-saving site, REUK.

Video: why my home's 67 out of 100 on the green scale

That's me on the right, learning how infrared thermal cameras work as part of an eco audit at my house. Lex on the left is from Green Homes Concierge, a new service that the Mayor of London's offering for £200 to help you green up your home. Click on on over to SmartPlanet to watch the vid and see what your two 'centuries' of cash get you.

Top 10 eco furniture

Chairs made from milk bottles (left), sustainable wood tables designed by Terence Conran and hammocks made from rejected seatbelts -- these are some of the weird and wonderful green furniture pieces I've picked for the Guardian today. I'd be interested to hear what eco furniture you recommend, too. Just hit the comments below.

Eco Xmas gift guide starts today

If you're looking for green alternatives to trad Christmas presents, head on over to SmartPlanet. Today Rikke's got some suggestions for an eco alternative to the weekend away, including a trip on the slick new carbon neutral Eurostar to Paris. Every day until December 25th, the site'll feature mighty fine ethical alternatives to trad Xmas pressies, from socks to smelly box sets.

Green Party says "yes" to single leader

Yep, the UK Green Party votes are in, with 73 per cent voting to ditch its odd 'non-hierarchical' principle speakers system in favour of the one used by everyone else - a single leader plus a deputy. As a lapsed  member, I'm glad the party's seen sense on this. The media doesn't want to get its head round an alternative leadership system, but it will happily give column- and blog-space to a charismatic single leader. Full details of the voting after the click-through.

Insulation lessons learned: radiator foil easy, thermostatic valves tricky

As well as such hedonistic pursuits as insulating the loft, I've recently being going wild with other draught-bashing and heat-saving tricks. Here's the verdict on radiator foil (to keep the heat in) and thermostatic valves (to keep the heat from getting excessive).

Live from the St Pancras Eurostar

Greenies, trainspotters and business types may be interested to read Rikke Bruntse-Dahl's live report from the first maiden St Pancras Eurostar journey - she's just posted a live report over on SmartPlanet. Photo credit: Eurostar.

Green Guys Global is go

Blokes, we finally have an answer to Green Girls Global. In a stunning piece of man literalism, it's dubbed Green Guys Global. So far, there's a chance to win a copy of John Grant's book on green marketing, plus a heads-up on the WWF's climate bill campaign.

Do you suffer supermarket guilt?

That's the question I'm asking today over on SmartPlanet. Who else feels green and ethical guilt when shopping at supermarkets? And do you know anyone who manages to get all their food without going to a  supermarket? Let me know...

A SmartPlanet is born

Finally, I can share what I've been working away on for the last two months - ladies and gentlemen, meet SmartPlanet. It's a green and ethical consumer blog put together by me, our excellent staff writer Rikke Bruntse-Dahl and a whole bunch of other people at CNET Networks who I owe thank yous to. Here are a few of my favourite articles: interviews with Lush and Neal's Yard on ethical beauty, a video on Londoners' carbon footprints and a first-hand report from that O2 Sustainability Show last weekend. This is our first toe in the water. Expect even more exciting things very soon...

My 5 minutes with Gordon Brown (plus Energy Saving Week, communities and more)

Yep, that's me to the Prime Minister's left yesterday. I'll blog about the experience in full soon via my new day job SmartPlanet, but the long-and-short is that it was a great experience. I was there with seven other people -- plus MP Joan Ruddock -- representing energy-saving communities around the UK. In a ridiculously flattering gesture, the Energy Saving Trust invited me to Downing Street to represent online green communities, so if you're a Brit and write a green blog, post in eco forums or joined a green group on Facebook, I owe you a big thank you. Incidentally, today is 'digital day' of Energy Saving Week, so if you're chatting with mates online, spread some of these tips. In the photo, from left to r ight: Joy Greasley (WI) Kai Boschman DSGI (DIXONS),Rachel Bradley B&Q, Philip Selwood CEO Energy Saving Trust, Adam Vaughan environmental journalist,PM,Joan Ruddock,Dr Martin Blake Royal Mail,Andrew Fisk Proctor and Gamble,David Shreeve C of E.

A list of top green communities (please add your own!)

In case you missed starter's orders, Energy Saving Week is underway, and this year's big theme is communities. Which is the most influential - the church? The WI? Local towns? My main green community is online: this blog, other blogs, on forums, Facebook, on my Delicious links and elsewhere. Here's a big list of links to green communities I like, after the click-through.

Natural Collection site gets a makeover

Check it out. It's a big improvement on navigation and design.

Who are your green online communities?

Next week's Energy Saving Week, and on Monday I'm joining the EST (the organisers) at a round-table talk with big-wigs from businesses, NGOs and religious groups. I'll be chatting to them about the wired green web, so I wanted to hear from you - which online green communities do you hang out in? Do you post comments on blogs such as Treehugger and Hippyshopper? Do you live in forums like Friends of the Earths' and New Builder's? Or are you on Facebook 24/7 lapping up the I Am Green and Greenbook apps? Let me know in the comments and I'll spread the word next week with some influential men and women.

Digital switch, TV reuse and me

Sorry for all the 'me-me-me', but for housekeeping's sake here's a link to a piece in last weekend's Telegraph quoting me blabbing away about reusing and recycling your telly if you're switching to digital. For all those Whitehaveners - try giving your old TVs away or flogging them before going down recycle road.

Me on The Compost Heap (an interview)

The ever industrious Jason of Ethical Jobs - who seems to launch a new green site every week and makes me feel lazy - has run an interview with me on his new eco interviews blog, The Compost Heap. There's also with one with Chris, a chap who runs a recycling firm.

My fling with Eco Wool insulation

Saw your own breath this morning? Yep, it's nippy out, which is why I headed over to B&Q last weekend to pile up on insulation bric-a-brac for the house. The Heater Wars have already begun at Chez Vaughan, with my wife and I alternately turning it on and off, so I've decided to try and trap as much heat as possible. I'll extrapolate on the radiator foil, thermostatic valves, foam stuff and other such scintillating hot products soon, but for now I want to talk loft insulation. Specifically, the eight bags I bought of B&Q's new cheapo green option, Eco Wool.

Thousands due at St Pauls' climate rally this lunch

I've just got back from the preparations for this lunch's Cut the Carbon rally at St Pauls church in London - and it looks good. There'll be 2,000+ people attending, according to organisers Christian Aid. If you're in the vicinity - that's all office monkeys in zone one, me included - then pop along at 12.45 to hear a samba band and bunch of speakers talking at 1pm. The cause: making sure the gov's Climate Bill is a tough one, with an 80 per cent CO2 cut by 2050, rather than the current out-moded 60 per cent aim.

Top 10 organic, Fairtrade and vegan chocolates

I've got a piece over on the Guardian today on the top ten ethical chocolates in the UK - i.e. the best-tasting ones with the most scrupulous commitments to Fairtrade, organic standards and the environment. Obviously, any such list is going to be subjective, so let me know what your favourite ethical chocs are in the comments. One chocolatier that narrowly missed out on the list was Chocaid, which donates money to Save the Children. Update: Seventypercent.com has a very interesting response to my article  here. If you ever eat chocolate, it's worth reading.

Electrisave gets reborn as... wait for it... Owl

Ah, you gotta love branding exercises. Some clever people have decided the Electrisave - a nice, literal, fairly memorable product name - should now be called the Owl. Check out its new site here. There is one thing to celebrate, and that's improved distribution - you can now buy it at B&Q.

Help London 'do a Modbury' and ban plastic bags

Live in London? Here's your chance to tell your council if you'd like plastic bags banned across the capital or - alternatively - heavily taxed like they are in Ireland. Click here to find out more, and here to submit your views directly. Personally, the over-consumption of plastic bags doesn't keep me awake at night in the same way as bigger carbon cutting tricks do. Still, most do use oil - some are corn starch - and I don't think anyone apart from the dude in American Beauty would consider bags swirling down our streets 'beautiful'. You can read more about Modbury, the Devon town that kicked off the bag-banning trend, here. [via Tom Taylor's ever useful Delicious links]

CNET goes green

For those mates and work colleagues who were wondering what rabbit hole I'd disappeared down... I can now stop being enigmatic and reveal I'm working over at CNET Networks UK. I can tell you absolutely zip about the details, but can say that we're launching a UK green consumer lifestyle site that I'm really, really excited about. I'm biased, of course, but I think this is a site that'll - in the long term - genuinely shake up the green web. Watch this space!