A group in Newcastle is at the forefront of a new way of campaigning which looks to tap into popular culture to get the message across about issues such as trade justice, arms control and climate change. Oxfam Outreach attends gigs, festivals and other events, simply talking to people and spreading the message.

Having recognised that music fans are often sympathetic to their aims, Oxfam Outreach have harnessed this potential, and used it to great advantage. So far, teams of Outreachers have campaigned at gigs such as Snow Patrol, Embrace, Richard Ashcroft, BellX1, Kaiser Chiefs, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Cooper Temple Clause and How Ethical! favourite, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly , as well as events such as the Newcastle Mela and Newcastle Green Festival. Upcoming events include festivals such as Womad, V-Festival, and many more. They are also keen supporters of the Just Fair Laughs comedy night, which takes place in Shearer’s Bar on the first Sunday of each month, and aims to raise awareness through comedy.

North-East Outreach Co-ordinator Heather Duff said “Campaigning is fun and it really does work. It’s a great way to get people involved, and we find that the response rates at the events are fantastic”.

In return for their hard work, Outreachers are provided with free gig and event tickets, as well as a feeling of a job well done. If you are interested in getting involved contact Heather Duff on outreachne@oxfam.org.uk or sign up on their website at www.oxfam.org.uk/outreach, which also contains more information on the programme.

For those not in the North East, there are also Outreach programmes in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Scotland, and more information can be found on the website.

Woolworths have come bottom of the latest Greenpeace league table of light bulb retailers, mainly because they won’t make a commitment to phase out inefficient bulbs.

Watch the highly amusing video and then write to Trevor Bish-Jones (CEO of Woolworths) by clicking this link:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/woolworths

You can even give your local store a ring and ask some of these questions.

Good work Greenpeace, you’ve just won the first ever How Ethical! Weekly Award for the Best Use of YouTube for Encouraging People to Take Action and Furthering the Green Cause.

Huzzah!

I had the pleasure of spending the past weekend at the Latitude Festival, on the beautiful Henham Park Estate, in Southwold, Suffolk. It was a superb festival, to say the least, and the sun shone all weekend, so the wellies stayed firmly in the rucksack, which was nice after the muddy mess that was Glastonbury.

What really made me smile this weekend was that the festival has made a huge effort to reduce its impact on the environment by introducing a number of new measures, some of which are just genius. The biggest change was in the way the bars worked. Obviously festival goers are a thirsty bunch, and go through a fair few pints of beer / cider / lager / whatever. One of the biggest problems with this is that it is normally served in single-use plastic glasses which end up strewn around the site making a mess and causing problems for the litter-pickers. By introducing a re-usable, more durable plastic glass, for which they asked a £2 deposit, the organisers ensured that the beautiful parkland was not blighted by this most common of problems, and that less plastic ended up in landfill. Why it hasn’t been done before, I don’t know.

The other big change was the introduction of a three bin system for waste. Festival-goers were asked to split there waste into ‘Recyclable’, ‘Compostable, and ‘Neither’, a system which was well adhered to, and by the end of the weekend the ‘Neither’ bins were by far the most empty. Another scheme to bring back next year then.

Transport was also looked at, and recognising the fact that public transport is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to get to the festival, a day-ticket holder campsite was introduced, which allowed those who weren’t camping all weekend to camp for one night, and use public transport to get home the next day, as evening buses around Southwold aren’t all that regular.

All in all, Latitude seems very keen to promote green issues, and the steps taken this year will no doubt be adopted by other Mean Fiddler festivals in the future, and I look forward to them being the norm, rather than the exception.

Here’s a neat site that helps you share the message about switching to low energy compact fluorescent light bulbs.

www.asimpleswitch.com

Which reminds me, I need to buy a new bulb. The last old skool bulb in my house has now blown.

It’s handy for me that EthicalSuperstore.com stock a whole range of energy efficient bulbs for lots of different applications!

www.ethicalsuperstore.com/tags/bulbs

From the number of requests we get for linking to us we know that not only do you love shopping with us, but you want to tell your friends and family too.

To make it easier we’ve created some “badges” that you can pop on to your website.

EthicalSuperstore.com/link-to-us

If you’ve got something interesting to say on your site about organic, green or fair trade issues, then we’ll include a link back to you from How Ethical!

Email linktome@howethical.com for more information.