Instead of a short‐term, throwaway attitude to ‘stuff’, Salvos Stores Buy Nothing New Month extends the life cycle of goods, maximises the embedded cost and resources in the stuff we buy and gives an introduction to the re‐cycled, free‐ cycled, upcycled , secondhand, ‘swishing’ and sustainable alternatives that are better for you, your wallet and the planet.

Salvos Stores Sustainability Manager, Donald Munro says, “Buy Nothing New is about seeing the value in existing stuff and reflects a growing movement of people switching off from shopping and tuning into life.”

But Buying Nothing New doesn’t mean going without. Make a Buy Nothing New pledge and you can beg, buy, barter and swap for whatever you need, as long as it is pre‐loved, but with the exceptions of necessities (including food, drink, medications and hygiene products) you can’t buy anything new.

Salvos Stores Buy Nothing New Month also shows going green doesn’t have to be expensive, but that by adapting our attitudes and approach, can be a money saving path to socially responsible consumption.

According to Affluenza author and Buy Nothing New Month supporter Clive Hamilton, “Consumption today often involves buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like! Buy Nothing New Month is about spending our time and money more thoughtfully.”

In October, selected Salvos Stores featuring plasma screens sponsored by Radio Rentals/Rentlo will show the viral phenomenon ‘The Story of Stuff’, an animation on the lifecycle and impact of the goods we buy.

Shane Wakelin, Clive Hamilton (Affluenza, Requiem for A Species) Sarah Wilson (Sunday Life columnist & LifeStyle YOU presenter), Chrissie Swan, Gorgi Coghlan (The Circle), James Tobin (Cleo Batchelor of the Year, Ch 7 Sunrise), Monique Wright(Ch7 Sunrise), Damian Walshe Howling and Caroline Craig (Underbelly) are on board. Are you?

This October, think about where stuff comes from, where it’s going, its embedded costs and what are the alternatives. Get into Salvos Stores, markets, swap parties and online second‐hand selling sites to experience the joys of a life less wasteful. Plus there’s a prize for the most creative Buy Nothing New pledge. Logon to www.nothingnew.com.au when the site goes live on September 1^st for entry details.

Glossary

Top Tips to Buying Nothing New

Buyers Checklist

Before handing over your hard earned cash, ask yourself:

• Is the product really necessary?

• What is its lifecycle and embodied energy?

• What are the alternatives?

• Where did it come from? How did it get here?

• What is its environmental and social impact?

• Who benefits from the purchase? What will it do for me?

• What is in it? Who made it?

Top Tips for Salvos Stores Shopping

• Best buys are gifts, clothes, homewares, kitchenware, books, toys and furniture.

• Don’t shop Mondays. Stock gets wiped out over the weekend. Those in the know go Tuesday or Thursday

• Watch your gift budget dive!Buy homewares like vases and frames, and store them for when you need a last minute gift.

• Keep an open mind. Imagine the item out of the store and in a different setting.

• Get over ‘second hand phobia’. Restaurants and hotels serve you from secondhand cutlery and secondhand sheets!

• ‘Up the hip ante’ of dresses by cutting short and sewing on mismatched patches and buttons.

• Look out for jeans; you’ll get great brands, dirt cheap. Cut them into shorts or remake into skirts. It’s easy, cheap and they’re already worn in for you!

• A quick test if jeans fit: Wrap the waist around your neck and the ends should touch. If you can’t fit the length of your fist to your elbow inside the waistband, the jeans are too small.

• Every store differs if you don’t find what you need, try another. And new stock comes in everyday.

• Ignore sizes. Second‐hand clothes may have shrunk, or designers may have changed their sizings so your frame of reference could be off. Try before you buy.

]]> http://greenbeings.com.au/greenroom/index.php/2010/07/15/want-free-time-and-money-this-october-buy-nothing-new/feed/ 2 http://greenbeings.com.au/greenroom/index.php/2010/04/11/natural-beauty-products-and-the-environment/ http://greenbeings.com.au/greenroom/index.php/2010/04/11/natural-beauty-products-and-the-environment/#comments Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:50:40 +0000 admin http://greenbeings.com.au/greenroom/?p=539 Have you ever pondered the environmental impacts in your make-up bag? More and more products claim to be ‘natural’ but in many cases these products have the potential for significant impacts on both the environment and our health. Green Beings has been getting under the skin of the cosmetics business to find the true cost of ‘natural’ beauty.]]> Have you ever pondered the environmental impacts in your make-up bag? More and more products claim to be ‘natural’ but in many cases these products have the potential for significant impacts on both the environment and our health. Green Beings has been getting under the skin of the cosmetics business to find the true cost of ‘natural’ beauty.

Products we put on our skin can be readily absorbed into our systems. Everyone’s skin type is different so finding the right product is usually the result of trial and error. The Environmental Working Group’s ‘Skin Deep cosmetic safety database’ is a great resource. It investigates the ingredients used by hundreds of beauty products and provides information on potential associated health hazards.

There are now dozens of cosmetics companies claiming “natural” or “organic” products, grown without the use of pesticides, fertilizers and GMOs. Unfortunately, with little regulation on how the word ‘natural’ may be applied to beauty products, the term is used very liberally for products which have done little to genuinely earn the title.

Also using “natural” ingredients is not always good for the environment. The cosmetics industry uses 6-7% of the world’s palm oil*, which is the main ingredient in many soaps. The demand for palm oil has led to the clearing and burning of rainforests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea to develop new plantations, devastating the orangutan populations.

Fortunately a number of major companies are taking this issue very seriously. In 2007 the Body Shop became the first cosmetics company to use sustainable palm oil. In 2008 Unilever committed to buying 100% certified sustainable palm oil by 2015. In response to these issues, the handmade cosmetics company, Lush, developed a palm free soap base formula which is now widely used.

You can take total control of the contents of your cosmetics by creating your own. If you are game, check out http://www.makeyourcosmetics.com/ for recipes which are good enough to eat such as softening oat milk bath and whipped vanilla butter. And the best news I’ve had all day – strawberries are a natural teeth whitener (it’s the malic acid in them apparently). Perhaps not dipped in chocolate though.

*Palm oil in cosmetics is usually labeled Elaeis guineensis. For more information visit Australia’s Palm Oil Action site.

“The problem is that businesses will do anything for money,” says 27-year-old US environmentalist Brent Schulkin. “But what if that’s also the solution?”

Schulkin approached 23 liquor and grocery stores in his San Francisco neighbourhood and asked what percentage of a day’s takings each would be prepared to invest (in energy-efficiency improvements) in return for him organising a “mob” of shoppers to visit their store. The winning store committed 23% and Schulkin got busy publicising the event on the internet.

The power of Schulkin’s scheme relies on the number of shoppers who join the mob. Schulkin’s nervous wait at that first event was rewarded with a huge turnout who spent between them over $9000 in just a couple of hours. Success!

Since that first Carrotmob in early 2008, there have been countless other mobs in the United States as well as mobs in England, Canada, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and Australia. Surry Hills in Sydney was the scene of the first Australian Carrotmob in October last year. The winning bidder, the MFC Supermarket in Surry Hills, pledged 20% of profits from the mob (subsequently increased to 80%) and has committed to a program of significant energy reduction in the store.

We love the carrotmobbing concept and we will be keeping our readers posted of any further developments in Australia.

For more information, visit the Carrotmob website: http://carrotmob.org/

But there have been some significant changes that ought to be celebrated. One major one that has been seen over the last decade is the massive increase in global awareness, of community concern and best of all, action. The next decade from 2010-2020 is being heralded as ‘The Transition Decade’ or T10. The T10 vision is a mass community movement set to launch on Valentines Day with the aim of engaging the widest audience possible to provide governments with clear direction to enable structural transition and roll back the policies which will cause further impact. The overall aim is to drive greenhouse gas emissions to (net) zero in an effort to create a safe climate future.

So with exciting times ahead, Green Beings, and sites like ours, will have an increasing role to play in promoting this grass roots movement. So as we close off the noughties here are a few eco efforts from this last decade that are worth celebrating.

1. Australia’s Earth Hour initiative has now gone global.
2. Establishment of carbon credits and offsetting.
3. Eco rating labelling on buildings (NABERs etc) and appliances.
4. Release of the Toyota Prius and a new generation of hybrid cars.
5. Government support for green initiatives including waste separation and collection as well as rebates for water tanks, solar panels, roof insulation etc.
6. Retail sales of Fairtrade labeled products in Australia and New Zealand passed $70 million since the introduction of Fairtrade in Australia and New Zealand in 2003.
7. Emergence of eco directories such as Green Pages and the Eco Directory.
8. Towns take the initiative banning plastic bags and plastic water bottles.
9. The internet has made it easier to recycle through sites such as eBay or Gumtree.
10. Organic produce is easier and cheaper to obtain and farmers markets have seen a resurgence.

Activist groups such as the French ‘Les Dégonflés’ (http://www.wikipedia.org/),  the Brussels Flagadas (the Deflators), and “The Indians of the Concrete Jungle” in Stockholm have taken it upon themselves to temporarily “disarm” SUV vehicles in the cities by letting down the tyres. In the US, an anti-4×4 group called ‘The Detroit Project’ even blames terrorism on 4×4 drivers because, it says, they increase US dependency on oil belonging to Middle East states with alleged links to terrorist groups. In the UK groups such as ‘Alliance Against Urban 4×4s’ will slip tickets resembling parking fines under the windscreens of their ‘targets’. However, this group is also responsible for posting love messages and valentines cards under the windscreen wipers of low emission cars in streets across the UK as shown in the picture (Source: http://www.stopurban4×4s.org.uk/).

If your main driving terrain is the urban jungle, the Australian government’s Green Vehicle Guide has been developed to provide new car buyers with advice on the environmental impact, fuel efficiency and emissions of new cars. However, this currently only provides information on vehicles which meet regulatory standards rather than those where emissions performance exceeds the minimum standards or uses hybrid technology.