Go Jute help out Ethical Junction

Go Jute recently donated 300 to Ethical Junction for their stand at the Camden Green Fair

Ethical Junction took a stand – at the Camden Green Fair that is! A warm day without rain brought the crowds streaming into Regents Park, which meant plenty of visitors to our stand. We were there to promote our ethical business network, its members and to discuss & encourage ethical consumerism. And it went very well indeed!

Many EJ Members had kindly donated discount vouchers, samples, leaflets, brochures & postcards for goodies to be placed in jute & cotton bags as giveaways. All the public had to do was have a little chat with the EJ Team about the network & sign up to Ethical Pulse - in return they received a free goodie bag. ‘A fair trade' a visitor said!

We would like to thank Go Jute, Green Cotton Bags, Natural Collection, Indigo Furniture, Bridge End Images Ltd, Faith & Frank, Allthingseco, Innocent Oils, Green Union, Absolution Saves, Fill Your Pants, Organic Boutique, FoneAid, Saathay, Boutiko, Feral (UK) Ltd, Janey Lee Grace, Animal Aid, Shared Interest, The Natural Shop, Little Eco Warriors, Forest Secret Skincare, Low & Behold, Conscious Elegance, The Laundry, Bubble House Worms, Beyond Skin Care, Lucy Rose, Beauty Natural, Smartly Green and Jungleberry for their great donations.

By the end of the day all the goodie bags were handed out, we had hundreds more Pulse subscribers and few more businesses interested in joining us - proving that the ethical movement is most certainly growing.

World Television Film Festival goes green with Go Jute

How Do I Love Thee, Green? Let Me Count The Ways।

At BANFF, we're as committed to the environment as we are to television. We listened to what delegates had to say about last year's Festival and this June, BANFF is undergoing a complete eco-overhaul through initiatives designed to reduce our impact on the planet.
We believe in sourcing and supporting sustainable projects which reduce waste and energy consumption. For us it's not just lip service and we're striving to put our money where our mouths are. From the purchasing of carbon credits to off-set transportation, to providing more recycling stations throughout the conference centre, to finding ways to eliminate paper waste, these are some of the unique ways in which we're "greening up" at BANFF and making a conscious effort to reduce our Carbon Footprint.

New Jute Delegate Bags!
As a fresh departure from the traditional synthetic fibre nylon bags that most conferences use, this year we're shaking it up with a more environmentally sustainable delegate bag.
BANFF is launching a brand new era in developing a greener conference bag. We're moving away from the traditional synthetic vinyl conference bags, and embracing a more eco-friendly, 100% biodegradable, fair trade delegate bag made from jute; a pesticide-free rain-fed crop and vegetable fibre. Knowing that these gems are made in India by an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) company with very strict regulations and that the airplane shipping of these bags is carbon-offset through donations to pollution reduction projects, you can carry your guilt-free jute conference bag with pride . We're doing the tree-hugging for you so that you can spend more time networking and establishing the relationships that you need to business.

One of our latest

Things are still going from strength to strength with our lovely values based jute bags and promotions company with clients all over the world now. But still with an ever growing local and national base centered from Cornwall.

We had a great Royal Cornwall Show and I'll put an update about that very soon... 

Stephens & Scowns Go Jute

Stepehens and Scowns, a forward thinking Solicitors distributed our Go Jute bags to all the attendees at this year's Pre-Cornwall Lecture Workshops and contained publications from the SWRDA on Sustainable Growth, State of the South West, from the South West Observatory, and railway timetables from First Great Western. The provision of Jute bags reflected the sustainability themes under discussion. Go Jute is a recently established Cornish based company and it was an excellent opportunity to support their growing business. Supply of the www.gojute.co.uk jute bags has achieved CarbonZero status - with Jute able to convert CO2 to oxygen 2.5 times faster than trees in the same growth period!

Those plastic bag bugbears

People in Britain use an average of 300 plastic bags every year. Each bag lasts up to 400 years, spending the vast majority of that time in a landfill site or strewn across the British countryside. People are becoming increasingly aware that we need to reduce our use of plastic bags.

In Ireland, a tax of 15cents per bag resulted in a 90% drop in plastic bag usage, and raised 3.5 million Euros which was spent on environmental projects. Bangladesh has banned polythene bags altogether while Taiwan and Singapore are taking steps to discourage their use.

Please take a moment to sign the petition at http://www.green-england.co.uk/plasticbagpetition to introduce a similar tax (to be spent on environmental projects) of 10p per bag in Britain.

Cornwall's own jute bag supplier's first year

Well we've just turned one and it's been a great first year. We've kept a fairly low profile concentrating on the transparency of the business and getting the right environmental and ethical issues sussed from the start. For those who don't know Go Jute was born because one of the major UK jute bag suppliers let us down big time on a number of ethical levels as well as losing interest in our 'just as' important smaller clients - so we set up Go Jute to know exactly what our product is about and to make sure anybody could have branded jute products. With an ethics marque due in the first quarter of 08, a 100% carbonzero status arranged by Leap Media and Co2balance directly with our suppliers in India. With a traceable offset through investment in renewable energy community projects in Kenya (lighting and bio-gas).

Our customer service hasn't been great as far as we are concerned but we're addressing that rapidly with the appointment of our ace new design and marketing manageress. And she'll be full time and able to respond rapidly be it costs, deliveries, order update, samples or media and ethical/environmental statements). But don't worry Gary will carry on his brilliant work with sales and logistics and I will do all the creative direction as well as continually pushing for more ethically lead environmental aspects both with our operations in India and in the UK. As always focusing around our lovely county of Cornwall.

Five things for 2008. Leap Media www.leapmedia.co.uk (who just won awards at the Cornwall Sustainability Awards for best SME and Overall Winner and has even been called in for a 'meeting of minds' session with IKEA in january 08) and Go Jute are taking over an office and shop front in Alexandra Road, St Austell, Cornwall. More details to follow.

Two, New full time employee, yippee ... and as said she's creative, she's on the ball and she's full time... ace!

Three, we're waiting to get confirmation on becoming part of a very nice and right up our street eco-support scheme. All being well we'll be a member by March.

Four, We hope to have been awarded an ethics certification subject to passing of references from clients and suppliers to a panel.

Five, As Go Jute was born of Leap Media's client demand for jute products, that demand is now proving strong with clothing, promotional goods and office items so with partners and our own 7 years of eco-experience we will be launching an additonal site within Go Jute with lots of great eco products. Again more details to come as we finalise products and traceability issues.

Six, Subject to costs at the end of 08 we will be looking at a full traceability audit, a little different to other audits though as once done it becomes part of an ongoing website showing our whole supply chain from plant to you! It will mean an area of the website where you can see everything up front at any time. But as said this is subject to cost negotiations. We are new and this is something we want and believe all companies should have but it will mean a major spend for Go Jute that would normally be done by the likes of Waitrose etc. However we do want you to be able to see just how transparent a company can go.

Oh one other, we'll get the website working but we won't be doing single bag orders etc. However if you catch us on a bright and breezy day there is a good chance we'd still help you out!! There's loads more but I've written way to much. So instead I'll attach a photo of me (looking dumb) and Claire our Leap Media designer who has designed the Go Jute website and handles most of the bag designs and preperation for print. The shot was taken for the Objective One funded scheme Unlocking Cornish Potential. And has very nicely been in the press alot and appears on numerous websites. Shot taken by Simon Burt of Apex.

Have a great start the the new year and we hope to see or hear from you all over the course of 2008. Thank you for working with us and for assisting in making the environment plastic bag free and friendly. Matt, Gary, Clare, and Claire.

ps Thanks also to Gary's dad and brother Nick who have been excellent in sorting some of the paperwork and finance side of the business and advising us.

pramacare

Charity shows that eco bags can be chic

Local home care charity Pramacare was delighted to launch its very own environmentally friendly shopping bag on the same day as the Wimborne Ban the Plastic Bag Campaign launched.

"Pramacare started in Wimborne 25 years ago", says Pramacare spokesperson Fiona Julian. "The Wimborne Ban the Plastic Bag Campaign was the perfect opportunity for the charity to lend its support to local councillors who have sponsored Pramacare over the years and to launch its own special limited edition jute bag too."

Like many of the Wimborne town councillors, Town Mayor Cllr Anthony Oliver is a Pramacare supporter. He adds, "Pramacare was my charity of the year when I was mayor back in 1992 and I've followed its valuable work of help and care, helping people to remain living independently in their own homes."

The Pramacare jute bags will be available from the charity's five shops in Verwood, Ferndown, Winton, Tuckton and Canford Heath. They cost just £4.99 and with only 1000 bags in this style available, once they're gone they're gone.

For further details call 01202 599199.


Pramacare was established as a charity at Christchurch Hospital in 1982. The late Dr. Chris Moran realised the enormous need to support people at home and enable them to live independent lives. Chris’s vision was to provide Pain Relief and Management, from where the PRAMA name originated. Today the remit has broadened to include Personal Care. Pramacare currently has more than 200 care attendants who help around 700 people each week in the local area. They provide practical help from domestic jobs to personal care and night sitting. Pramacare understands that each person is an individual with individual needs and seeks to provide practical compassionate help, as though its care attendants were one of the family. Through its charity shops, ongoing fundraising, sponsorship & donations Pramacare endeavours to subsidise the cost of care it provides in order to meet the needs of as many people as possible.
www.pramacare.co.uk