IDFX magazine, a leading trade magazine for all interior designers, applauded the green principles of Gecco Interiors in the Eco News section of their July edition “Gecco Interiors has eco-friendly principles at its heart, with a recenlty launched range of fabrics that more than prove its commitment to the cause”
For more check out P.110 of the magazine here
Green Industry Beats Recession
Book of Green, the free eco living directory full of green and ethical businesses, confirms the strength and prosperity of the green sector. Despite the recession Book of Green has launched a larger edition of the paperback eco-directory, doubled its print run, and gone digital, launching an iPhone app.
“In less than a week since the launch advertisers in the book are already seeing results showing that consumers are spending. Innovative companies that can help save money, energy and show social responsibility by putting both people and planet first, are those that will thrive in this difficult climate.” says Sue Jueno – co-founder of Book of Green.
Book of Green provides readers with hundreds of eco-friendly companies in this year’s paperback. From architects, body & skincare and cleaning products to homeware, microgeneration and sustainable tourism as well as offers, articles and new this year a fabulous competition. Gecco Interiors are proud to be a leading advertiser in this year’s directory for the second year running.
Book of Green is available for free across the country while stocks last, in stores such as Planet Organic, The Eden Project, health food shops, WHSmith (free with Permaculture magazine July).
Explaining the inspiration behind Book of Green, co-founder Katie Keegan explains. “We wanted to create ways of making green living really convenient and practical for people. By having a directory that is freely available, in paperback, online and on the iPhone, it is now easier than ever to find many of the great green businesses that exist today.”
The latest brainwave by Environmentalist Group 10:10 could save the UK 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year and it is so very simple!
In our country, we move the clocks around and in so doing waste valuable daylight in the morning and burn expensive lightbulbs in the evening. 10:10 are proposing a change in the way we do this. A plan called ‘Lighter Later’ suggests that we move our clocks forward by one hour for the whole year. We should then change our clocks as normal in Spring and Autumn. This would equate to GMT +2hours in the Summer and GMT +1 in the Winter, which would give us all valuable daylight hours when we were awake and not at 4.30am when most of us are sleeping. It would also delay the time at which we switch on our electric lights in the winter – sometimes as early as 3.30pm in the afternoon.
So all in all, we would gain more sunlight, reduce our electricity consumption, save money and reduce the carbon emissions!
The 10:10 campaigners are collecting signatures which will be presented to the Prime Minister on June 21st, the longest day of the year. They already have 10,000 signatures but would love to get 5,000 more in the next few days. To sign up to the campaign follow the link and be a part of the solution!
Gecco Interiors are thrilled to launch their new range of retrofit lightbulbs that can reduce your energy use by 28W per bulb and last up to 6,000 hours!
Now that the incandescent lightbulb has been removed from the shop shelves we are all adjusting to the shape and light of the low energy lightbulb. But how many of us are put off by the size and odd shapes of the standard CFL bulbs out there? As a designer, I am appalled to see the tubular top of a low energy bulb sticking out of a beautiful wall light or chandelier where a lovely candle bulb used to sit.
With the new range of retrofit low energy bulbs available at www.geccointeriors.co.uk this problem is a thing of the past. The range includes lovely shaped candle and golf balls for all types of fittings, they use just 7W instead of 35W and cost just £3.98 each.
Check the new low energy light bulb range out today and make your wall-lights beautiful again!
When asked recently to list his favourite ‘Green’ products and entrepreneurs in the world of home design and interiors, Kevin McCloud of TV fame in Grand Designs and lead spokesman of sustainable architecture, listed our Sting Plus fabric as one of the best green upholstery fabrics on the market today!
According to the environmental website Treehugger, Kevin loved the idea of using stinging nettle fibres mixed with wool to create the fabric and feels that this product should be getting more exposure. We certainly agree!
Check out the wonderful story behind Sting upholstery fabric (£34.00/m), available in 8 colourways designed to reflect the colours of the British hedgerows and one of the best-sellers at Gecco Interiors.
As a supplier of many different sustainably produced and organic textiles, I am concerned that we are often advising our customers to care for their textiles using ‘Green Dry Cleaning’. I wanted to know the facts behind green dry cleaning. Does it exist in the UK and what does it involve and finally how is it ‘greener’?
Traditionally, dry cleaning meant cleaning clothes in liquids other than water and the solvent of choice was perchloroethyene or ‘perc’. This has since been proven to be a nervous system depressant and under US federal standards is listed as a hazardous air pollutant. An alternative method had to be found. Three new methods were favoured – washing with liquid CO2 in high pressured machines, using a silicone based solvent and finally, but much less effectively washing with regular water in computer controlled machines.
Discarding the latter due to poor results, lets look firstly at CO2. Normally present in gas form, CO2 transforms into a liquid under high-pressure. In specially designed machines clothes are washed at 900llbs per square inch of pressure in liquid carbon dioxide and a surfectant (specialist detergent). After the clothes have been washed and rinsed, the CO2 is collected and reused. Several US textile companies have already started using this system commercially, but it is not common in the UK.
The stronger candidate for widespread ‘green dry cleaning’ comes from a group of ex-dry cleaners who have developed a system called Green Earth Cleaning. This system uses liquid silicone (a liquid version of sand) which is a naturally occurring material and is already used as the base material for many shampoos and soaps on the market today. Textiles cleaned using liquid silicone do not lose their colour, do not shrink and come back feeling softer than before because the silicone is inert and doesn’t react with the fibres of the fabric in an aggressive way. It can even be recommended for the most delicate of fabrics. The best thing about this method of cleaning is that there are no nasty residues. When the silicone breaks down it forms three natural ingredients – water, carbon dioxide and sand.
Liquid Silicone appears to be the method of choice for UK Dry Cleaners and it is already available on the High Street!
Earth Hour 2010 took place at 8.30pm last Saturday across the globe. WWF reports that over 4,000 cities in 126 countries took part in turning off their lights for one hour to show support for the campaign against climate change.
In a spectacular show of global unity famous landmarks were left in the dark including Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, Rome’s Coliseum, Sydney’s Opera House and the Forbidden City in China.
In the UK lights went out across the country at landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Tower Bridge, Wales Millennium Centre and Stadium in Cardiff, Edinburgh Castle and the Wheel in Belfast.
Thousands of families and businesses also took part in what is meant to be a demonstration to governments across the globe that we care about the planet and demand action on climate change.
In our household the candles were lit and lights turned off – in fact we just turned the electricity off at the mains. James and I settled down with our 12 year old daughter to a huge game of dominoes on the living room floor! It was great fun and in fact we left the lights off later on as well. When we turned the electricity back on the hum of the appliances around the house was shocking! Perhaps we should implement this Earth Hour more often. There is in fact a call for a monthly Earth Hour – I think we might just join in!
For more information and to see the fantastic photo diaries from around the world check out the WWF UK website. It is truly inspirational.
50 UK Homes are opening their doors this Sunday to show us all how to reftrofit our existing homes with energy saving insulation, boilers, solar panels and a whole host of other ideas. They have each achieved a minimum of 60% reduction in their carbon emissions – now we can too!
To find a ‘Superhome’ near you, check out the website or visit the Great British Refurb Campaign to find out more.
A shocking statistic – 500,000 tonnes of carpet are buried in landfill in the UK every year! There has to be another solution. So, can you recycle an old carpet?
Off to a landfill near you!
One new company is leading the way, building their own plant to take some of the carpets, break them down and sell their component materials on as raw materials to other industries from polypropolene and nylon to wool, hessian and jute. Greenback Recycling are even working with local authorities and have managed to get dedicated carpet recycling containers placed at local recycling collection points. They intend to spread this plan nationally.
Until then, it is worth checking with your local authority to see if they take carpet for recycling. If not, what else can be done?
- If it, or a large part of it, is in good condition try offering it on Freecycle. You never know, someone could be waiting for that particular posting!
- Offer it to local schools or preschool groups
- Reuse it yourself as a good insulator in an attic room or outdoor shed or even to cover the compost heap
- Offer it to local gardening groups or allotment societies who can use it on their compost heaps
A new report from WWF UK and The Co-operative reflects on the proposed budget of £254 billion that oil companies are proposing to spend on extracting oil from the Canadian tar sands. Whilst many fear the ecological impact of releasing the oil in this area of our endangered planet, WWF also look at it from a financial angle.
Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns at WWF UK, warns that the plans could single handedly destroy any hope of keeping CO2 emissions at an acceptable level and goes further to remark that the vast sums of money, could be used to help fund so many renewable energy projects, including the Desertec Industrial Initiative – a plan to link Europe to vast solar plants in Northern Africa providing 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050.
For more information and how to join the campaign against Tar Sands oil, check out the report on the WWF website