A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the bus posters I’d seen for a campaign called Stop Burning Our Trees. Among the campaign actions is a petition to ban the burning of virgin wood for electricity generation, and the petition has been promoted through a series of stunts around London. Since the campaign culminates [...]
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Land grabs: the unintended consequences of biofuels
Access to land is one of the oldest sources of conflict. It’s written deep into Britain’s history through the enclosure acts and the seizing of the commons – a process that shaped the landscape, drove people into the cities, and through the industrial revolution, changed the world forever. It’s an injustice that’s never been corrected, [...]
Fire your bank on November 5th
In Britain, the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failure of a plot to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605. It’s traditionally celebrated with fireworks, bonfires, and the burning in effigy of the aforementioned and rather unfortunate Mr Fawkes. Fawke’s other legacy is the Guy Fawke’s Mask, as drawn [...]
Reducing the negative impact of advertising
In yesterday’s post, I looked at a recent report that analyses the role of advertising in shaping cultural values. It concludes that advertising is something of a negative force, and that “the potential impacts of advertising should be of pressing concern to a wide range of third sector organisations—irrespective of whether they are working on [...]
The cultural impact of advertising
For the last few weeks I’ve been carrying around a report entitled The Advertising Effect, from the Compass think tank. I’ve been meaning to write about it and haven’t got round to it. I’ve been reminded of it this week the publication of a new report from WWF and the Public Interest Research Centre, Think [...]
Sainsburys – a sustainable supermarket by 2020?
Yesterday UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s launched an ambitious new sustainability strategy. It has set itself 20 goals to achieve over the next decade, through set of commitments called the 20 by 20 sustainability plan (pdf). But is it any good, or is it another exercise in green PR? Well, I read it on the train [...]
The tax haven secrets of the FTSE 100
Did you think BP was a British oil company? There’s a good reason why they’re just called ‘BP’ now, and are only formerly known as British Petroleum – there’s not much British left about the company. BP is a global conglomerate of 1,568 subsidiary companies. Of those, 276 of them are registered on the British [...]
ColaLife: a simple idea can go a long way
A few years ago in what seems like another life, I was in Zanzibar on holiday. We rented a van and drove out to see some caves or something, and stumbled upon a remote little cove miles from anywhere. We were rather pleased with ourselves for finding such a secluded and idyllic spot, but we [...]
On the trail of Chainsaw Barbie
Just a quick mention of a rather creative campaign from Greenpeace this week. They’ve discovered that toymaker Mattel is using wood from Indonesia in its packaging, a customer is the trade that is destroying the country’s rainforests. In response, hundreds of ‘Chainsaw Barbies’ were hidden around the UK, and Ken dumped Barbie in a viral [...]
Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson
Last week I described how vulture funds had been banned in the UK, but allowed to continue in our offshore territories. A similar story looks likely with the new Bribery Bill. The new law will tighten up the bribery guidelines, but leaves large loopholes that mean businesses will not be responsible for bribes paid through [...]
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