Hippyshopper

Solar-powered Stainless Steel Vent

Considering that the Stainless Steel Solar Vent (which is a bit oddly named in that it sounds like you're venting sunlight) can run for 48 hours in the dark, even in the winter hours you're looking at a silent, cost-effective ($130 USD and no mains charges after) solution to areas that tend to have condensation or mold problems. Also, obviously, with it being solar powered you don't have to do any wiring. It can also be set on intake, allowing you to circulate fresh air into those dusty computer rooms without sacrificing a precious wall socket. [GT]

Stainless Steel Solar Vent

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Peter Kinne's wooden hard drive enclosure

Made from 60% FSC certified wood and intended to be re-used in the sense that you can pull out tiny, obsolete hard drives and pop in newer, bigger ones, the Peter Kinne Designs Hard Drive Enclosure adds a bit of warm nature to your desktop (while providing the same USB/IDE connectivity that lets you keep the innards cheap and easily upgradeable).  This is just the enclosure; you add in whatever internal IDE hard drive you want.  It's easy, though, he says: if you can put together a bookshelf from Ikea, you can manage this.  Contact him for prices and availability.  [GT]

Peter Kinne Designs Hard Drive Enclosure

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Schools Reject Free Copies of An Inconvenient Truth

Yipes!  The National Science Teachers Association in America was offered 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth (which is now required viewing for students in Norway and Sweden) and nixed them.  Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place "unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp.  Read on and consider that the United States is the second largest per-capita consumer of the   Earth.  Their mind is made up - don't confuse the children with the facts!  [GT]

Science a la Joe Camel, by Laurie David [via Conscious Earth]

Related stories: An Inconvenient Truth nears theatres | Britain using triple its share? | Inconvenient truth 2 et al

Co-operative Banking: Good with Money

How would you like to do Good With Money without any evil to yourself? Cooperative Insurance has been ranked high in customer satisfaction compared to regular high street banks, and also provides ethical insurance, mortgages, and even investment funds. As part of their "every penny counts" campaign, every £100 spent turns into 1.25p donation to charity; they offset 20% of your vehicle's carbon emissions at no extra charge to you; and the CIS solar tower generates enough power per year to make 9 million cups of tea. But here's a practical motivator: they offer one interest rate for everything, whether you're buying or pulling out cash, where most banks have a good rate for consumption and a ruinous one for cash. Check it out yourself - your wallet won't be sorry. [GT]

Cooperative Insurance [via hugg]

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News Roundup: ITV's Extinct, new green fuel, and GM potato plan

1. Stephen Hawking says we should move to a new planet. [BBC]

2. Human waste can be turned into green fuel. [Guardian]

3. Fish with the most powerful jaws discovered. [Times]

4. ITV's Extinct could be the first carbon neutral terrestrial TV programme. [MSN]

5. UK government urged to reject GM potato plan. [Friends of the Earth]

More Green News.

How to get rid of your computer the green way

Geeks-on-wheels offers IT support to the general public and small businesses.

In addition to a fantastic business name, Geeks-on-wheels has an ethical heart, too. Whenever the Geeks supply a new computer, monitor or printer, they offer to take customers old equipment, free of charge, and make sure it is disposed of according to the EU's Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

Old computers are broken down to their raw materials, such as plastic, glass and precious metals. These then go on to form parts of cars, mobile phones and even underground construction piping.

So, next time your computer blows up, who you gonna call? (Sorry).

More recycling.

so baby organic baby food scoops gold

so baby organic baby food. It's handmade, it's organic, and it's imaginative, with dishes such as Moroccan Lamb with Cous Cous and Risotto with Butternut Squash on the menu.

so baby scooped a gold award at the 2006 Soil Association Organic Food Awards, impressing a judging panel that included Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson.

Babies (and busy, but conscientious parents) have never had it so good.

Related stories: Truuuly Scrumptious

News Roundup: Hottest autumn, breast milk to Africa and more

1. Autumn temperatures hit new high [Guardian]

2. Bush faces legal action over global warming - hurrah! [Independent]

3. The Sunday Times Christmas Appeal tackles blindness. [Times]

4. US mother sends breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. [Time]

More Green News

A Year of Living Generously

For 12 months more than 1000 people, spread all around the country, are attempting to support and inspire each other in A Year of Living Generously.

This is an online experiment based on the premise that looking after this planet and its people is what we are all here for, and that if lots of people make small changes to their everyday life they can, over time, make a big difference.

It's everything from turning off the tap while you brush your teeth to reduce water consumption, signing up as an organ donor, switching to fair trade products, to phoning a friend you don't see often.

In its pilot year, 100 people signed up. At the end of the year, they found the members wanted to continue, so they opened it up to 300 people. When that filled up quickly, and a waiting list kept on growing, the organisers decided to open it to everyone.

You can send in suggestions for actions, and Generous will mail you with different ideas and relevant resources if you want to take part. Don't worry about being bombarded, though; this project isn't about guilt, it's about inspiration.

I'm signing up; are you?

More Carbon Neutral Living

Top 5 eco-presents from Maplin

Electronics superstore Maplin has announced its top five eco-friendly Christmas presents.

1. Solar Cell Education Kits (pictured). Teach your littlies all about solar power. The kit includes a solar panel, DC motor, connecting wire, fan spinner and turntables, coloured paper models, screws and nuts.

2. 'Scotty' Personal Solar Charger. An eco-friendly solution to powering gadgets like your iPod or mobile. This lightweight charger can be clipped to clothing or a rucksack to charge on the move.

3. Solar Powered Christmas Crystal Lights. Available in a range of colours.

4. Solar Garden Lamp; switches on at dusk.

5. Six Watt Solar Shed Light. This waterproof energy-saving bulb and solar panel is also ideal for camping.

Related stories: Solar battery charger | Sunlinq roll-up solar panel | Solar Poinsettia

Tesla Roadster: sexiest electric car ever?

Picture it: a fireapple red convertible two-seater Tesla Roadster with - well, you don't have to picture it, it's pictured above. What you don't see is: it's electric, but it can still crank up to oh-my-god-we're-going-to-die speed in four seconds. It will also go 400km on a single charge (and quick-charge up enough to go 120km after only one hour plugged into the mains) and cost only ha'penny for each of those kilometers. Another thing you don't see? It's silky silent, since it doesn't have that petrol-sucking torque engine shoving it along. Price is a mere $100,000 USD (and sold out already since they only made 100), but that's not bad considering the much less sexy 120-M.P.H. Electric Car costs the same.  [GT]

It's Electric!  The Tesla Roadster—a hotshot sports car that runs on batteries.

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Venturi Eclectic: An "Energy-Autonomous" Vehicle

The eclectic part of the Venturi Eclectic (alas, still in the concept stages) refers to how it automatically fuels itself. A catholic consumer of whatever solar or wind (or, if need be, mains) power happens to be handy, it's naturally intended as a commuter vehicle rather than one for the M5 (but how much petrol do you buy simply for work, versus how much you buy for trips to the country?). While, as I said, it's still in the concept stages, the mini-wind-turbines are quite a mature technology now so attaching one to an electric car is a natural fit. [GT]

Venturi Eclectic [via SciFi Tech]

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downsizer.net; advice for a sustainable future

It's a given that we should all consume less, so the current trend for down-sizing your life can only be a good thing.

For a smorgasbord of advice on down-sizing your consumption, your spending, and, ultimately, your impact on the planet, visit downsizer.net

As well as articles, there is a lively forum, so you can chat with like-minded individuals. [via Treehugger]

News Roundup: Bill Oddie, pricey train tickets, and more

1. The top 100 green campaigners of all time named. [Guardian]

2. Always wanted your very own pocket-sized Bill Oddie on your desktop? Of course you have. [BBC]

3. West African food aid contaminated with GM rice unfit for human consumption. [Friends of the Earth]

4. Price of rail travel will increase by 4.7% next year. [Times]

5. £15 million investment in walking buses for schools. [Directgov]

Fleece Dog lets you clone a taxidermied version of your pet



The Fleece Dog concept is faintly goofy, which is that you mix your pet's hair with wool and use the Fleece Dog kit to make a toy version of it, but then again, so is the actual site. There's a faint aura of Engrishness about the whole thing that makes me wonder if I'm missing something delightful about the notion of brushing your Great Dane, plucking the stray fur from the brush, and rolling it in with cotton batting like so much clay in your divine hands. Oh... well, when I put it that way... Apparently it's easy to do, and irresistible to pose the little voodoo-doll result afterward (would that this was a quick path to training and that it worked on cats). Certainly it's an unusual take on recycling! (And yes, Paris, you do recognize the little fella depicted here.) [GT]

Fleece Dog

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Review: Dryer Balls

Dryer Balls are small rubbery spheres covered in nodules. They promise to reduce drying time by up to 25%, reduce creasing of fabrics and increase softness - without the use of disposable dryer sheets.

Now, my tumble dryer rarely gets used. I bought it in a fit of panic when I moved to Scotland, having heard that the weather could be - ahem - challenging. It is a Hotpoint combination washer-dryer and an average mixed load takes two hours to dry. Not an efficient use of energy, you could say.

Feeling, I'll admit, sceptical, I chucked the Dryer Balls in the machine with a mixed wash of clothes and one bath towel.

The clothes were significantly less creased, the bath towel was properly dry and, here's the shock, soft and fluffy. Plus, the load took fifteen minutes less than usual. One ex-sceptic reporting for laundry duty...

Dryer balls cost £9.99 from Woolworths or JMLDirect and are reusable.

Related stories: Dryer Balls

Ethical sales and boycotts outstrip beer and fags sales

Give yourselves a big pat on the back because, according to the Co-operative Bank and The Future Foundation's annual Ethical Consumerism Report published today, the value of ethical consumerism in the UK was worth more than sales of cigarettes and alcohol.

Using stats published by the Office for National Statistics, the report calculated that the ethical consumer market in 2005 was worth a whopping £29.3 billion in the UK, compared with the retail market for beer and fags of £28 billion.  Even more impressively, ethical consumerism was worth 11 per cent more than in 2004, when overall household spending only rose by 1.4 per cent.

But before we go and get all smug, the Co-op's impressively job-titled Executive of Business Management Craig Shannon said we shouldn't get complacent as "total ethical spending is spread over a wide range of products and services, and in very few markets has it become the market norm. Overall, spend on ethical foods still only accounts for 5% of the typical shopping basket."

Infuriatingly for disciples of the unfettered free market, the Co-op's man advocated more intervention to help eco-friendly and ethical stuff gain the market lead, citing the example of A-rated fridges being helped by initiatives like EU labelling, removing energy-wasting products from sale and well-targeted subsidies.  Using horrible management-ese he said, "The efforts of far-sighted, highly motivated consumers need to be leveraged and supported with business innovation and government intervention."

Photo credit: 'Free Range Pickled Eggs' taken from Haversack's Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence.

Monday ethical celeb: Jackie Chan Organic Skin Care

Kung-fu divinity Jackie Chan has, yes, lent his name to a brand new line of organic skin care products. It's not simply about putting some green in his pockets; Chan is a committed environmentalist who wants this dirty area cleaned up. The packaging is all made of recycled materials, the products are non-polluting, and a chunk of the profits go to the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation. Plus, the goods themselves just look yummy enough to be their own reward. [GT]

Jackie Chan Skin Care Line Introduced at Cosmoprof Asia [via ecorazzi]

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Light Reading Book Lamp

Made of 'Secret Sign' by Perspex, with a matte black spine, Light Reading, by Sam Johnson of Generate, blends in with your other hardcover books until switched on. Then, ta-dah, it's a light, illuminated by a compact fluorescent bulb (meaning it doesn't use much power and doesn't get hot enough to endanger the rest of your collection). The title is laser engraved on the inside so it only become apparent when the light is actually switched on. The downside is that it has, like, a power cable to jack into the mains, which somewhat breaks the illusion (not to mention requiring you undertake the job of finding an outlet behind your bookcase), but it seems unlikely you have a bookcase anywhere you could reasonably put a solar panel. But still a neat gift for the bookie (so to speak) in your life. $150. [GT]

Light Reading [via Inhabitat]

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News Roundup: Sex toys, fur, and statistics

1. Greenpeace says sex toys are hazardous to health. [Greenpeace]

2. Stats.com says Greenpeace is talking cobblers. [Stats]

3. Levi's launches green jeans. [The Guardian]

4. UN negotiations on fisheries have ended without a global ban on trawling methods. [BBC]

5. Real fur is being snapped up by Britons; sales up 30 per cent. [Independent]

Clean your paint brush - with your power drill

Fixed Fee IP is representing what the Sheffield inventor calls the 'paintbrush for life', a new paintbrush that you attach to your power drill in order to fling off the paint, leaving it sparkling clean and ready for the next job.  It's tested especially well with gloss paint, with the result that much less solvent is used and brushes are wasted.  No word on price, but for more information you can write to cleanpaintbrushes@yahoo.co.uk.  [GT]

cleanpaintbrushes@yahoo.co.uk

Related stories: 5 of the best: eco paints | What to do with old paint tins | Make your own eco-friendly paint

News Roundup: Tax, the best market in Britain and more

1. Edinburgh's weekly market is officially the best in Britain, apparently [The Guardian]

2. Today is official Buy Nothing Day - celebrate by leaving your wallet at home. And if that floats your boat, there is a Buy Nothing Christmas, too. [Treehugger]

3. Gordon Brown is preparing to raise duty on 4x4s and air travel. I guess he wasn't impressed by Giovanni Bisignani's argument, either. [The Financial Times]

4. My big fat green wedding. How to get hitched without compromising your ethics. [Green Futures]

Mighty Leaf Tea tastes mighty fine

I have it on good authority* that Mighty Leaf Tea is "gorgeously decadent", as well as ridiculously pretty. And how often can you say that about a cuppa?

Available in silken pouches (no mere teabags for this company) or loose leaf, they offer a good range of organic teas, including Honeybush, Rooibos and Himalyayan Peak Organic Darjeeling.

The Mighty Leaf site is stuffed with tea-related info, too.

* My Dad.

News Roundup: Green air travel? Green China? What the heck is going on?

1. Director-general and chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association, Giovanni Bisignani says air travel is the green option. [The Guardian]

2. The first "green" Olympics. As the air in Beijing is classified as 'hazardous', are the winds of change about to start blowing in China?  [The Independent]

3. No phonebooks here, thank you. 192.com and recycle-more.co.uk join forces to reduce the 75,000 tonnes of paper that is delivered to UK households every year.  [No Phonebooks]

4. Design contest for the best cutting-edge, sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. $75,000 in funding is up for grabs. [P3 Award via Ecostreet]

Tuna ranching adds to over-fishing crisis

I don't wish to come across as obsessed by fish, but lately I've had tuna on the brain.

After tuna became, officially, dolphin friendly, I thought my ethical woes were over. There was that pesky concern over high levels of mercury found in oily fish, of course, but since I only ate it once a week, I decided the benefits would outstrip the chemical poisoning. You know, hopefully.

Now, however, I find that 'tuna ranching' is adding to the over-fishing crisis. Imagine, if you will, net fishing which catches all tuna - from the smallest upwards, and keeps them confined in cages, to fatten up ready for hauling out of the sea and onto our waiting plates. It's happening all along the Mediterranean coast.

It ain't as straightforward (or as poster-friendly) as 'save the dolphins', but it's a report worth reading. [Via Greenpeace]

WRAP expands battery collection scheme

WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) is expanding its battery recycling trials with bins in selected stores (Homebase, B&Q and Tesco are all taking part) and community recycling points. There is also a postal collection scheme for those in rural areas, using pre-paid envelopes.

The trials will roll out in selected areas of England, Scotland and Wales over the next eighteen months.

WRAP has already introduced kerbside battery recycling trials to over 350,000 households, and these new schemes will allow an additional 400,000 households to do the right thing with regards to their dead batteries.

Let's hope it is successful; the EU Batteries Directive requires the collection of 25% of all household batteries for recycling by 2012.

Of The Earth Superfoods Hamper

Of The Earth is run by two guys calling themselves 'The Adams'. They are nuts about 'superfoods' and have introduced a hamper, stuffed full of anti-oxidants, phyto-chemicals and fatty acids, just in time for Christmas

The Superfoods hamper consists of Organic Maca, Goji Berries, Cacao Nibs and Barleygrass Power, plus organic apricots, dates, cashews and walnuts.

No, I don't think it sounds as appetising as chocolate coins and Christmas pudding, either, but it does include The Adams' Superfood Manifesto. This document promises the "real low-down on superfoods" and how they will bring you "renewed energy, strength and resilience."

We could all do with a bit more of those during the winter months.

Get your Superfoods hamper here for £29.95.

"Dreaming of a Green Christmas?" debate

More Christmas shopping help for those bereft of ideas for green presents is on its way in the form of a 'green Christmas bazaar' taking place at the Science Museum's excellent Dana Centre on the evening of 6th December.

It's all part of a night of discussion and debate called 'Dreaming of a Green Christmas?' where a leading waste and recycling expert will give an overview of the complexity of being eco-friendly, before product designers and manufacturers explain why their products are worthy of being considered a green purchase.

The event gets all interactive and Pop Idol after that, when the audience gets to vote on what they think is the most green product by using eco-criteria including energy efficiency, re-use, recycled materials and sustainability.

Showcasing their products at the event will be Anna Roebuck, designer of lightpieces, screens and jewellery handcrafted from recycled plastic bags, and Peter Martin, creative director of Junkk.com, a web forum dedicated to reuse, repair and reduction. Apparently, Peter hasn't thrown anything away for three years.  (When I lived in a house with a massive cellar and a loft, I used to be like that, too, although I may be missing the point here.)

Important Information
Dreaming of a Green Christmas? starts at 7pm and ends at 8.30pm.

Events at the Dana Centre are usually free but they've asked that people pre-book if they can, by calling 020 7942 4040 or e-mailing tickets@danacentre.org.uk.  You'll also need to be 18 or over (due to licensing restrictions).

Location details for the Dana Centre can be found here.

News Roundup: Nuclear power, litterbugging, and more

1. An international agreement has been signed to develop a new-style nuclear reactor in France. The seven billion pound project focuses on nuclear fusion (fusing the atoms together) to produce energy, rather than fission (splitting them apart). Fusion mimics the action of the sun and will, apparently, produce more energy that the traditional method, along with far lower levels of radioactive waste and no greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Apparently the next generation is green. And no, they don't mean wet behind the ears. A 2006 'School Gate Survey' conducted by YouGov on behalf of ICT Software provider RM, showed that two-thirds of youngsters think it is important that the company they work for is environmentally-friendly and more 11-14 year olds are concerned about climate change than boy/girlfriends and homework.

3. In more youth-orientated news, children have their eco-principals put to the test...

Continue with this story - and the rest of the roundup, over the cut.

Blackpool council is getting tough on young offenders. Children as young as eleven will receive an on-the-spot £75 fine for dropping litter.

4. "Cradle-to-grave" scheme launched by The Carbon Trust. The cheerfully-named initiative will look at a product's carbon emmissions during each stage of its life; from the supply of raw materials, to its disposal. Eventually, products will be labelled with their carbon footprint, so we can make better-informed purchasing decisions. I bet companies just love the idea. Via the BBC

rectifi how you shop

rectifi lets you raise extra money for charity without doing anything more than shopping through their shop - which can take you to other very traditional venues like eBay other standard online stores.  You don't even have to log in if you don't want it to keep track of you - the money still gets raised.  Each item purchased through rectifi has a note indicating how much cash it raises: iPods give up to £3.20, for example; and Game Consoles like the Nintendo DS give £4.05.  It's not much, but neither does it cost you anything extra.  You can also set up a shopping list via rectifi so that you can direct friends and family there to increase the overall giving.  [GT]

rectifi

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Send empty ink and dead mobiles to therecyclingfactory.com

Even a two year old mobile, despite lacking this year's glamorous features, is chock-full of useful components and elements that go into next year's mobile. Likewise, the parts of ink cartridges that wear out are, by skilled hands, fairly easy to replace and turn back into useful little pots of C, M, Y or K. That's where The Recycling Factory comes in: they pay cold cash for your garbage (or you can donate it to charity, or have it applied as credit against getting more ink). Since mobiles often contain nasty chemicals that it's bad to have leach into the tip, you're doing the planet a favour as well as getting yourself a few extra quid to spend on the holidays (or hols for yourself - you needn't be perfect). [GT]

The Recycling Factory

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Platial gets even cooler with MapKit

We were positively delighted by Platial  the first time it came up: the idea of an atlas anybody could annotate seemed to have, pardon me, a world of possibilities.  Maps of hydrogen refuelling stations, maps of vegetarian restaurants, maps of places to buy fair trade coffee - endless!  Well, Platial's latest trick is its Mapkit, which embeds the annotation capabilities right in your web site, and allows addition of sound, photos and video.  Already in use at Canada.com's Vancouver site to find everything from Chinese food to nightclubs.  [GT]

Platial Mapkit

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Black Gold: Fast Food Nation for coffee

Eco-documentary Black Gold aims to do for coffee what Super Size Me did for, er, fast food. Juxtaposing consumers willing to pay £3 for elaborate coffee drinks, against the plight of farmers who are barely paid enough to not be called slaves, Black Gold draws attention to the fat profit margins of corporations like Starbucks and how little it would take to remedy the situation. Fair trade beans are readily available for about £4 per kilo, which, speaking from experience, is enough to easily make a month's breakfast lattes (provided you, as I do, have your own espresso machine - they're cheap enough now that it's an excellent investment contrasted against the price of coffee house coffee!). Or, I could do non-fair trade beans for £2 a month. Wouldn't you pay £2 extra in order to wipe out injustice in an entire industry? Why won't the coffee corporations? Hopefully films like Black Gold will shake things up past the point where bean counting is the only measure of coffee taste. Meanwhile, you can check our Related Stories for where to stage your own coffee revolution. [GT]

Black Gold

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Origami paint chips into business card cases

Great tip from designverb: don't toss all those paint chips you picked up for renovation.  With a little cutting and even less double-sided tape, you can fold them up into great business card holders.  If you've got as many professional hats as I do you may need different card cases depending on the occasion, so this makes them stand apart easily - not to mention you don't mind so much when they inevitably get scuffed up.  (Also if somebody nicks them, you can just pop into a paint store and pick up the materials for a new one.)  [GT]

Paint chip card holder [via Treehugger]

Related stories: Build your own Stirling engine | Make your own wallpaper paste | Make your own non-toxic paint

Don't bin your wheels: make them a specialbike

DJ Norman Cook thought his fave wheels were fit for nothing better than the bin - but his wife took them over to specialbike. Specialbike stripped it to the frame, replaced all the components, repainted, and returned something better than brand-new. If you've got an expensive high-quality frame, it's worth replacing the brakes, seat, handles, etc, and making it into something you'll use all the more because it fits your needs exactly. Drop by specialbike.co.uk to inquire what they can do for you, or go over to 41 Brunswick St, Hove to get all the details. [GT]

Related stories: What to do with your old bike | Solar bicycle light | Get a free bicycle MOT

No Catch cod - is this the only sustainable way to eat our favourite fish?

Shetland-based Johnson Sustainable Seafoods (JSS) has launched No Catch cod, so you can enjoy the delicious white fish without indigestion from your conscience.

Reared in the Atlantic waters around Shetland, No Catch...Just Cod is the world’s first 100% organic, sustainable cod and is certified by the Organic Food Federation.

JSS puts the emphasis on best practice at its hatchery and every aspect of the fish’s welfare is taken into account.

They even offer toys such as ropes to chew on and plastic tunnels to swim and hide in. Personally, I've never imagined cod as needing toys - but I'm glad to hear they've been provided.

Don't just take my word for it, though; JSS has won a bevy of awards and accolades, including the Supreme Award at The Scottish Food and Drink Excellence Awards 2006, and a silver at the Soil Association Food Awards 2006.

Launched into UK supermarkets earlier this year, No Catch cod is also now available from Planet Organic and Fresh and Wild stores.

No purchase necessary - Swap a Skill lets you trade your skills

Say good bye to filthy lucre, say hello to reciprocal living!

Swap a Skill invites you to "step into a new world of giving, fun and friendship." If you can get past that, however, this service promises a nifty way of bringing barter power into your life.

Rather than, say, ringing twelve plumbers on a daily basis until one of them comes round and over-charges you for bashing your pipes around, you can do a favour for a plumber in your home area, and then they will come and sort out your pipes for free. Brilliant!

Although, presumably, it will help if you have some skills that other people want, too.

The service goes live on the 11th December, but you can register now here

Find local shops with theSHOPPERSbible.com

Last week I drew your attention to a story about supermarkets selling their green credentials.  One of the things I mentioned was how your local grocer was likely to be hugely more energy-efficient than the supermarket, and someone very kindly drew my attention to curiously-cased theSHOPPERSbible.com.

theSHOPPERSbible was set up by a businessman who goes by the delightful name of David Croissant.  His favourite local shop (we're not told what it sold but I like to think it was a boulangerie) shut down after competition from the larger stores nearby proved too much for it.  As a result, he decided to fund and promote the creation of theSHOPPERSbible, which acts as a kind of portal for independent retailers.  Shoppers can use the site to search for local shops for local people in their local area, and use the site to contact the retailers directly if they have any questions.

It's a good idea and anything that makes it easier to find an alternative to the energy-guzzling supermarket is, of course, welcome.  There are some limitations to the site, however.

The search function doesn't allow a search by postcode for local stores.  The concept of 'local' suffers, too, since the site only groups retailers at the county level, not town.  This might be down to the fact that there appears to be few shops currently listed on the site.  The press blurb claims more than 2,000 retailers have signed up but by my reckoning 1,690 of these are listed in the 'Internet and Home Based' category - not really very local.

Retailers need to pony up to get listed on site, which may explain the sparseness of the listings.  To be fair, theSHOPPERSbible is trying to remedy the situation by offering free basic listings to the first 999 shopkeepers - the ones with actual bricks and mortar shops - to sign up.  At the time of writing, there were 622 free listings still up for grabs.

theSHOPPERSbible is a nice concept but it needs more shops in its listings.  Even then, it needs to add more information about the ethical and environmental aspects of each shop if it wants to get the full Hippyshopper seal of approval.

Top concern for ethical investors is workers' rights

Investment management company Standard Life released the results of its annual Ethical Investor Survey a few days ago.

The company's ethical fund customers were asked to rank the issues that most concern them, and this year it turns out that they would prefer Standard Life "to favour investment companies that encourage, maintain and improve the quality of working conditions in their global supply