Good Guides - Eco


Eco-Friendly
Organic
Fair & Sustainable Trade
Natural Living
Health & Wellbeing
Charity
Locally Produced
Eco-Friendly

‘Eco' covers all kinds of environmental innovations from energy and water savers and chemical free cleaning, to recycled glass and good quality products that use and promote better ecological solutions.

Through our research and careful consideration we assess what it means for something to be environmentally friendly. If a varnish makes a product more durable what sort of varnish would be best?

If products contain rechargeable batteries are they Nickel Cadmium (Nicad) batteries which we believe are more harmful to the environment or are they Nickel Metal Hydride batteries (Ni-MH) which we prefer?

Bamboo is strong, hardy and fast growing and it can have fantastic potential for sustainable product design but some areas of wild forest are being chopped down to make way for new bamboo plantations, which can also be heavy users of pesticides - so not all bamboo may be in fact 'environmentally friendly'. Currently it is difficult to ascertain the original source of bamboo and we hope this becomes much more transparent in the near future as we believe bamboo can become a sustainable source material for products.

Is the product made from PVC because we prefer not to stock products made of PVC because of the toxic impacts of its manufacture and the risks associated with certain additives often present in PVC. However, whilst many PVC products are now being replaced with other more recyclable plastics, PVC can still be found in component parts such as electrical wiring.

These are just a few of the kinds of issues we discuss and assess when considering the ecological value of a product.

Criteria devised in conjunction with environmental expert Edwin Datschefski.