Fairtrade Fortnight

CHANGE TODAY. CHOOSE FAIRTRADE.
Munch it! Wear It! Taste it! Choose it!

Change Today. Choose Fairtrade, is an urgent call to people in the UK to engage with the Fairtrade Foundation’s vision of an even bigger movement for positive change on unfair trade, including making the switch to buying Fairtrade. This is the theme of Fairtrade Fortnight 2007 (26 February – 11 March), the annual promotional campaign of the Fairtrade Foundation which encourages people to buy products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Read more about the Fairtrade Foundation and check out what's going on your area this fortnight.

You can support the Fairtrade movement by choosing products for your green wedding or ethical event which carry the 'Fairtrade' certification. You will most commonly find these products in foodstuffs such as coffee, bananas, cocoa, avocados, vanilla, etc. The certification is awarded where growers and workers are given fair pay and treatment for their contribution to producing the product.

There are other products now being recognised by the Fairtrade Foundation like flowers, chocolate and cotton and the foundation is working very hard to extend its certification further. In the meantime, until some for of certification is available for all sorts of products, we firmly believe that support for suppliers and services who are active in encouraging the use of natural and sustainable materials, who maintain traditional skills and crafts through a more contemporary application and who make efforts to establish good working conditions for their employees should also be wholeheartedly supported.

All our partners are asked, through our Green Gauge, whether they conform to these conditions and are rated accordingly. If they don't know how their products are made, then we ask them to ascertain this before awarding them this point. They all have the same philosophy as GreenUnion.

St. Ann's Hospice Bridal Fair

St Ann’s Hospice, based in Greater Manchester aims to improve the quality of life of people living with life-threatening illnesses, whilst supporting their families and carers. They have an extensive bridal department offering a fantastic selection of brand new, end of line and “pre-loved” wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and accessories – perfect for any blushing bride. And for the next two weeks St. Ann's is holding its annual bridal fair.

“It is a well known fact that weddings cost a fortune these days and if a bride wants to look her best this often means spending an equally hefty sum on a dress,” says manager of St Ann’s Hospice charity shop, Christine Hampson.

However, buying that perfect dress does not have to mean taking out a second mortgage; at St Ann’s Charity Shop in Cheadle, brand new end-of-line dresses which have been donated by local bridal shops will start at just £50.

“The quality of the bridal wear we receive is incredible. Many of the dresses that are given to us still have the original price tag on,” continues Christine. “We had one lady in last week who had heard about the dresses that we had in stock and looked us up on the internet. Word is obviously starting to spread that an affordable dress for that special day really does exist!”

The Bridal Fair will run for two weeks at St Ann’s Cheadle Charity Shop and will provide this year’s brides-to-be with a one-stop shop for bridal wear, headdresses, shoes and even bridesmaid dresses. But don't worry if you can't make it during that time - the Bridal Department is there all year round!

Cheshire, North West
t: +44(0)0161 428 5949
w: sah.org.uk

3 High Street
Cheadle, Cheshire SK8 1AX
Tel: 0161 428 5949

Open Monday to Saturday
9.30am to 4.30pm

Celebrate Chinese New Year with Wishes in the Sky and Rainforest Concern

There's no way for us to make fireworks appear environmentally friendly so you can imagine our delight when we found Wishes in the Sky! What better way to celebrate your eco-chic wedding than by launching an authentic Chinese flying lantern? The magical effect of seeing these glowing lanterns, when set off simultaneously, will leave a long-standing impression on your guests. And they're biodegradable too. 





This original idea was brought to the UK by a company called Wishes In The Sky. Even better, Jonny Knowles and Talia, the founders of the company, have decided to donate 5% of the proceeds from the lanterns to the conservation charity, Rainforest Concern. A pack of 10 lanterns including pen, for all those wishes costs £39.99 from which Wishes In The Sky will donate £2 to the environment. So far Wishes In The Sky have protected 24 acres of threatened tropical forest since August ‘06.



Rainforest Concern, established in 1993, purchases and protects the worlds threatened tropical forests and the incredible biodiversity they contain, as well as supporting the people who still depend on these forests for their survival. They're an organisation we wholeheartedly support, and you can too by sending these magical flying lanterns, with your wishes, high into the sky.

LoveHearts for lastminute valentines

It'll be late but who cares! Go ahead and buy these wonderful limited edition LoveTwists celebrating Valentine's Day, and love in general. In return TreeTwist will plant two trees side by side in the Caledonian Forest in North West Scotland, to spend their lives together. What could be more romantic?

Instead of buying flowers that have been flown hundreds or thousands of miles only to be thrown away in less than a week, your Valentine could have something beautiful to wear in honour of the two trees the LoveTwist represents for a lifetime.

Choose from the unique and beautiful scarf or WristTwist or loved up TreeClip, handmade in the Orkneys. Wrapped in scarlet tissue and with a card explaining what you've done, it's a wonderful gift with real meaning and true eco-chic cred. Forego the flowers which will die in days. Your trees will live for years, perhaps hundreds of years, a real legacy to your love!

Make Valentine's day special without it costing the earth!

We're incurable romantics here at GreenUnion, as you can imagine, so romantic gestures are all the rage!

These gorgeous, lovingly cooked heart shaped eggs (made with the best local organic free range eggs you can find, of course), dished up with freshly made nutty wholemeal bread (preferably home made) and a large slug of fresh squeezed juice from organic Italian blood oranges, now in season, will bring a ray of sunshine to anyone's heart on a cold February morning. Cat Morley has detailed instructions of how to cook them to perfection.

If you don't fancy eggs, try using cookie cutters to shape your toast, french bread or make heart shaped pancakes.

If you can't cook then you may like to find a nice piece of jewellery for your loved one from our ethical jewellery partners, or a tasty, organic or biodynamic bottle of wine. Dress up for dinner and treat yourself to some gorgeous lipstick from my being well or get some biodegradable chinese flying lanterns and send your romantic wishes into the sky.

If flowers are your thing then the echo-chic choice would be seasonal English. Try Tregothnan's Signature Bouquet this Valentines. This delightful bouquet of fragrant Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Myrtle, Drimys and other seasonal foliage fills the air with a fresh, clear, honeyed aroma - who needs roses. They're all grown on the Estate in Cornwall and the zero airmiles are absolutely free!

Blood Diamond. How can you tell if your diamond is ethical?

He's proposed (or maybe she did) and you've accepted and both of you are determined to stage an ethical wedding. What a great start!

But you could stumble at the first hurdle - the ring. With the release of the new blockbuster Blood Diamond starring Leonardo di Caprio and set in war torn Sierra Leone in the nineties, talk of 'blood diamonds' has again come to the fore, so much so in fact that it makes your head spin! How can you be sure your diamond is conflict free and fairly traded?

The term 'blood', or 'conflict' diamond derives from that bloody civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990's where diamonds were used with great effect to fund the conflict, often being traded directly in exchange for arms to fuel the war.

In 1998 Global Witness began an international campaign to expose the role of diamonds in funding conflict and in 2003, the Kimberley Process was launched to stop the trade in conflict diamonds. Over seventy governments signed up to the process but it has never been fully implemented and rebel groups, diamond companies and traders exploit weak government controls along the supply chain, trading in blood daimonds with impunity, smuggling them through the legitimate markets of Ghana and Mali.

So diamonds are still fueling the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DMC), the bloodiest war since WWII, where armed violence and human rights abuses continue over the control of diamond mines in the eastern Congo. Massive Kimberley Process fraud has also been uncovered in Venezuela and Brazil.

Under the Kimberley Process code, jewellers should be able to provide certification to consumers proving that their gems are from conflict-free zones, but the whole process has no independent verification or enforcement systems.

There's also an emerging story that 90 percent of polishing is now carried out in India where some children are used for their small hands and nimble fingers.

And lets not forget the Bushmen of Gope. In their longstanding battle with the Botswana government (and the De Beers cartel) for the right to return and live on their ancestral lands, they have suffered tremendous misery, torture and loss of life through violence, alcholism and aids. Find out more from Survival International.

So what do you do now?

Well of course if you still want a diamond, you can have one! And it can still be a girl's best friend if you take just a few things into consideration when choosing your gem:

• If you want to be absolutely sure that your diamond is conflict free and fair trade then the only option is to buy a certified and branded (with a miniscule polar bear image) diamond that has been mined, cut and polished in Canada. But they are pricey.
• You could decide that diamond mining in Sierra Leone, which is now a peaceful nation rebuilding itself after terrible conflict, is about the only viable industry there and offers its people a real prospect of a better life. If you choose to take this stance, try and avoid any diamonds from the De Beers cartel and seek out Martin Rapaport's fair trade diamonds from his Sierra Leone mine. Find out what he has to say about the dilemmas of buying diamonds on his website diamonds.net.
• Ask your jeweller if he or she can guarantee that the diamond you are buying is conflict-free. If they're not interested in the issue then walk out the door and find one who is.
• Have an antique rock refashioned just for you by a creative jewellery designer/maker, or ask your family to donate the 'heirloom' to your very green union!

Search for jewellers with an ethical outlook in our partners pages.

Lights out today!

Turn everything off today February 1st between 7:55 p.m. 'til 8 p.m.

For five minutes, not just to save energy, but to urgently support action against climate change.

Today, on February 1st 2007, you can participate in the greatest worldwide action against climate change. Various environmental organizations worldwide are asking the peoples of this planet to hold 5 minutes of light silence:

Everyone should turn off all lights, electrical appliances, etc. between 7:55 and 8 p.m. to bring attention to other inhabitants, the media and politicians about the daily waste of energy.

An act which takes only five minutes and costs you nothing, but shows the governments of the world that climate change should be at the top of the agenda of world politics.

Why this date?

Today, February 1st the United Nations is publishing their latest climate change research results.

SO...TURN OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For just five minutes.

Burns Night

Burns night - what a great idea for a wedding theme! Just imagine, kilts, tartans, candles, haggis and whiskey. And a Scottish handfasting ceremony.

Of course the ideal venue would be a Scottish castle, but you could just as easily create your own atmosphere in any country house, a marquee or a tent. Use lots of candles and have roaring fires to warm your guests.

For the ceremony, find a celebrant who can conduct a handfasting for you and include your nearest and dearest. Decorate with lots of locally grown foliage, forced blossom boughs and new spring bulbs like snowdrops and scented narcissi. Include heavily scented winter blooms of mahonia and daphne.

Not everyone is passionate about the noble haggis, but there are some delicious vegetarian haggis's about, and accompanied by tatties and neeps, they would provide a very tasty and original
wedding breakfast.

Old Twelfth Night - wassailing the apple trees

"It is said that most villages had their own wassailing song. With the revival of interest in traditional orchards and the growth of community orchards, wassailing has become a part of the calendar once again.

'Wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon waes haeil - to be healthy, so wassailing apple trees was a way of encouraging a good crop in the following season. It usually took place after dark on Old Twelfth Night, 17 January, but could also occur on other days around Christmas and the New Year.

Often farm workers and villagers carrying lanterns, a pail and pitcher full of cider, shotguns and horns, walk to their local orchard, which is sometimes lit by bonfires, and gather round the largest or most prolific tree. This tree is known as the Apple Tree Man and is feted as the guardian of the orchard. Cider or beer is poured on its roots and pieces of soaked toast or cake put in the branches for the robins - guardian spirits of the trees. Often the tips of the lowest branches are drawn down and dipped into the pail of cider.

The wassailers fill their earthenware cups with cider and toss it into the branches. They then refill their cups and drink and sing a toast to the tree ... To drive away evil spirits and wake up the sleeping trees, cow horns are blown, trays and buckets beaten and shotguns fired into the upper branches - as much noise as possible is made ... The wassail bowl went round from house to house in the evenings during the Twelve Days of Christmas and often in the last weeks of Advent. A mixture of hot ale, spices, sugar and roasted apples, sometimes with eggs and thick cream floating on it, was known as Lamb's Wool in Gloucestershire."
From 'Wassailing', p.430.

What a wonderful image and a fantastic theme for a really green wedding and terribly chic too. If you're planning a January eco wedding in 2008, the Wassail festival could be a way of bringing together all the green elements you would like to include like local produce, roaring bonfires, hearty singing, lanterns and candles, morris dancing, folk songs and an apple queen bride. Local cider made from organic apples, a hog roast and apple pie would be perfect ingredients for the wedding feast.

Find out more about wassailing, local festivals and traditions and learn more about the unique characteristics of English life at the Common Ground website.

Green wedding venues

If you're about to embark on planning a green wedding celebration, one of the most important decisions to make as early as possible is where to hold it.

Find a venue that supports an environmental or social cause. Consider museums, organisations supporting heritage and tradition, village halls, community organisations, hotels with strong eco-credentials or country houses. What about restaurants that source their food from local and organic producers.

For an intimate reception you may like to consider a small restaurant with rooms or a bed and breakfast where the chef or owners grow their own food and cook delicious meals.

If you're planning to have an outdoor party consider a private garden. Nature reserves, public or private woodlands, an arboretum or a public park can offer a diverse range of atmospheres. What about moorlands, canals, boats or the seaside.

Campsites, maybe a teepee site, could provide accommodation for all your guests as well as an area for your party or a space to erect a huge tent, keeping everyone on one site and reducing transport costs.

Another simple way to save racking up those CO2 emissions is to hold your ceremony and reception at the same venue. Using one location will cut down on transport, decorations and environmental impact.

If you're getting married in a church, chapel, synagogue, mosque or other religious establishment, do they have a hall you can hire for your reception? Maybe there's a community hall nearby which you can use and support the local community with your patronage.

Whatever venue you're considering, and if its important to you, its worth asking a few searching questions about their eco policies. For instance do they try and recycle as much of their waste as possible and use recycled materials like paper; do they use eco friendly cleaning products, try and conserve water and compost their garden waste. Do they conserve energy wherever possible and do they have a written and enforced policy on these eco criteria? But don't get too hung up of these things if they're not everything, just asking the questions will make them think about it. If you like the venue and it feels right for you then chances are they're doing enough and are willing to do more in the future.

Happy hunting!