Sunday 4 April 2010

Nahui Ollin – Kept your candy wrappers?


Now I have to admit I’m not a one for the latest fashion trends and that it generally takes me a couple months to start understanding what the designers were trying to do in the first place. However, the first time I came face to face with one of Nahui Ollin’s purses, I was immediately sold to the concept of this small Mexican brand.

Started up in 2003 by the Abadi family, they decided to create designer bags and wallets made out not of fancy materials and expensive baubles but of candy wrappers! Rather than having them recycled, which would create additional pollution, they decided to use them as such, creating funky, desirable and more importantly, sustainable wallets and bags. Now that's eco-fashion!

The designers, the Olga Abadi’s, take on an ancient Mayan crafting technique involving turning hundreds of candy wrappers and soda labels into fully functional and funky wallets. All materials are collected from small, independent factories near where the Abadi family lives in Mexico, from the candy wrappers to the leather handles.
Each bag is hand-made from around 1500 individual wrappers and follows a process of folding, weaving and sewing each one into place – sometimes taking up to three days! Every product is produced in its own color scheme and pattern, insuring that each is one-of-a-kind.

Since its launch, the brand has received a lot of attention with stars including the likes of Jessica Alba who are also adopting the Nahui Ollin bags and showing them off.

So there you go! Ladies, if you want to be trendy, cool AND sustainable, you know what to do!
For more information on the brand and its products, you can check them out on their website.

Thursday 1 April 2010

Red Beans – 100% sustainable Dutch coffee



When one mentions coffee, most people think of exotic locations world-wide… Latin America, Asia perhaps… But have you ever heard of Dutch Coffee?

Since 1891, the Neutebom Roasting company has been active in Almelo, the Netherlands. This small company was then taken over in 2003 by Gilbert Willensen and Jan Willem with the vision of providing the Netherlands with high quality and sustainable coffee beans.

The beans are 100% biologically grown with no use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers and are hand-picked, thereby eliminating the impact made by machinery, their emissions and increasing the quality of the beans as only the ripe ones are selected.

The people producing the beans are also not left out and receive not only a fair trade premium but also a bio-premium… Good ethics wouldn’t you say?

Friday 26 March 2010

Earth Hour 2010 - stand up for climate change: lights off!

Tomorrow, Saturday 27th, the 4th Earth hour will take place.
Everyone is invited to join in and take a stand against climate change!

Started in 2007 in Australia, 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Since then, the initiative has been gaining momentum and spreading worldwide. in 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour with over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off.

Together we can surely beat that, so make sure to join in tomorrow
!

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Tel jouw ecologische voetafdruk met Persil Eco Power

Since een paar weken heeft Henkel een nieuwe, duurzamer wasmiddel op de markt gezet. Voor het produceren van Persil ECO Power wordt gebruik gemaakt van oppervlakte actieve stoffen die 100% van plantaardige oorsprong zijn en die daarnaast ook nog 100% biologisch afbreekbaar zijn. Dat komt neer op een afbreekbaarheid van het totale product van meer dan 96%. Persil ECO power wast schoon vanaf 20 graden, hetgeen weer energie bespaart.

Op zijn website kan je je ecologische voetafdruk meten en ook heel veel tips vinden over hoe je je eigen footprint kan verlagen, thuis, op het werk maar ook voor in de winkel!

Friday 26 February 2010

Groene laptop? Dat kan!


Computerfabrikant Asus springt op de ‘groen’-hype en ziet marktkansen voor een eco-laptop waarvan de behuizing is vervaardigd uit bamboe-laminaat. Bamboe is een zeer snelgroeiend gewas waarvan de stevige, houtachtige stelen makkelijk te verwerken zijn en lang goed blijven. Asus wil het materiaal inzetten ter vervanging van milieuonvriendelijke kunststof of metalen behuizingen. Check it out!