Give bees a chance!

Help fight the decline in the bee population with a range of habitats and homes from ecotopia.co.uk

While Albert Einstein did not say "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left” there is a lot of truth in this comment. Here are Ecotopia we are seriously worried are the decline in the bee population and encouraging people this Christmas to consider that a bee is not just for summer, they are needed for life - Life of the ecosystem.We are in serious trouble without our friends. Not only are they the only insects that produce food for humans in the form of honey, they pollinate more than 100 crops as well as 90 percent of all flowering plants. We couldn’t begin to duplicate the work accomplished by bees - every bee makes 10 or more flights per day and each flight lasts more than one hour, visiting between 50 to 100 flowers.

So what can we do to help the bee population survive the current climate? It isn't difficult to make your yard, garden or even patio space a haven for beneficial bees. You'll be helping these important insects, as well as bringing more nature to your backdoor.We are now doing some great deals on bee habitats to encourage customers to support these beautiful creatures. Try our wooden Bumblebee Nester at £19.99 or the ceramic nester at £16.59. These nesters are ideal to attract bees to your garden. Check out our other bee homes like the solitary beehive at £19.53, the insect theatre at £29.31 or pollinating bee log at £14.67.And don’t forget we have a whole host of Burt’s Bees’ Product for Bee lovers!

Special Belfrey Bat Box Promo

For the month of November we are doing a special promotion on our belfrey bat box (While stocks last).

Great as a Christmas present or gift for a wildlife lover or gardener.

Was £14.95 now £7.95

http://www.ecotopia.co.uk/product/41/bb0081/belfry-bat-box.html

Be safe this winter with our new jackets

One Car Less

Our adult and kids jackets are available in five fluorescent colours -pink, yellow, green, red and orange. These jackets are fluorescent for day and near dusk, and reflective for night. They come with the stencil design with just "1 less car".

They have an internal pocket. They are machine washable. They are 100% polyester. They have Velcro front fastening and a hanging hook on the collar.

They come with a wide EN1150 quality encapsulated colour, microprismatic reflective tape strip. We’ve chosen a size which seems to fit most people.

£14.95 - £19.95

And for every jacket sold we give 50p to the Waltham Forest Bike Recycle Centre. They rescue and repair old bikes, so they go back into the community.

Green Xmas

Green Christmas

Yes it is nearly November and our thoughts turn our favourite time of the year - Christmas! Organise the perfect green Christmas this year and save money with our green guide, reduce your carbon footprint and have a more eco friendly and sustainable holiday season.

1. Serve local, healthy and seasonal December foods at your events and xmas parties. Choose vegetables that are in season and do not have to be flown in from abroad. Broccoli, cabbage and onions can all be grown without the aid of harsh chemicals so you can spend your organic pounds elsewhere. Buy loose vegetables rather than packaged from a farmers market. Click here for all foods that are in season.*** Ecotopia.co.uk have a great selection of Xmas fayre , food staples and world foods .

2. Decorating your house can be one of the most enjoyable parts of Xmas. Go for ethically made and traded decorations . Kids really enjoy making their own green decorations out of old scraps of material and leftovers. Try popcorn garlands – which are really fun and cheap to make and scour a woodland floor for fallen pinecones and twigs that are great for decorations!

3. E-mail party invites and Christmas cards rather than post them. There are loads of free Xmas themed party invite e-cards around or alternatively make your own out of scrap and recycled products. If you really want to send cards, choose charity ones or check out these really funky recycled ones . After the big day, make sure your Christmas cards don't go to waste – take them to a Woodland Trust recycling point.

4. Christmas heating and lighting bills can be huge! Save cash and protect the environment by using energy saving devices such as standby busters and radiator boosters . Don’t forget to turn off the tree lights or better still try these solar powered ones.

5. Use recycled paper, gift bags or even colorful cloth to wrap the Christmas presents and instead of tape, use colorful ribbon to tie up the gifts.

6. Make a green statement this Xmas! Send a message to the manufacturers of consumer goods by shopping for & buying only natural, non toxic, eco friendly, organic presents this year.
7. Which makes a better tree? Artificial or a real tree? Simply real ones are as they are great for the environment and can be replanted after use. If replanting isn’t an option, most local councils run Christmas tree recycling schemes. Contact yours or go to http://www.letsrecycle.com. If you need to use an artificial one avoid those made in China or Tawian which have transport costs associated with them. They also can be made with nasty chemicals, metals and plastics which can emit into our homes. Adorn with fair trade and ethical traded decorations or again make your own. Ecotopia.co.uk has a selection of seasonal trees in stock which make great gifts.

8. How do we give children what they desire but without poisoning our planet? Take electronic toys for instance. There are 900 million batteries used each year in the UK alone and many are in toys. But only 2% of batteries are currently recycled - the rest end up in landfill sites and are poisoning our planet! So what do you do? Choose an eco toy . Green and eco-friendly toys shouldn’t cost the earth so choose from a great selection here that don’t require batteries. Alternatively go for rechargeable batteries which will save you pounds throughout the year.

9. Recycle your unwanted presents. Unfortunately everyone receives at least one unwanted gift at Christmas. Many recycle their unwanted presents to charities. Local hospitals and hospices are often very pleased to receive unwanted smellies to give to patients. Or you could try www.freecycle.org and swap them for other people's unwanted gifts.

10. Don’t go overboard - reduce, reuse and recycle!
*** December Food In Season
VEGETABLES: Artichoke (Jerusalem) Brussels sprouts Broccoli (purple sprouting) Beetroot Cabbage (red) Celeriac Celery Carrots Cauliflower Chicory Chard Celeriac Cardoons Cabbages Endive Garlic Kale Kohlrabi Lamb’s Lettuce Leeks Onions Parsnips Potatoes Pumpkin Rocket Shallots Spinach Swede Turnips Watercress
FRUIT & NUTS: Apples Chestnuts Pears Pomegranate Quince Rhubarb
MEAT, POULTRY & GAME: Goose Grouse Hare Mallard Partridge Pheasant Rabbit Snipe Squirrel (grey) Turkey Venison Woodcock FISH: Bream (black) Herring Mussels Oysters (native) Scallops Turbot
CHEESE: Stilton Wensleydale, blue List courtesy of http://www.naturalmatters.net/

Please feel free to use this article

New products launch - believe you can range

gorgeous ethical goodies for xmas

"Believe You Can" designs fun, colourful and exclusive Fair Trade fashion and home accessories. Founder and designer Louise Birchmore feels "passionatley about Fair Trade and believes in creating modern and innovative products" "Believe You Can" products are all handmade, and wooden items are FSC certified. This wonderful ethical and Fair Trade range benefits the Fair Trade producers business and community through "trade not aid", but also offers products perfect for the design conscious and ethically aware.

Burt's Bees

Bert's Bees has just landed at the hive they call Ecotopia.co.uk. Burt's Bees offers natural personal care products, including truly natural skin care products, hair care products, soaps, lotions and natural baby products.

Originating from America, this leading brand is proving to be a top seller and we now have all their products. Check them out here

Have a green Halloween

Putting together a green Halloween is as easy as a traditional orange and black one – especially for children. Here are Ecotopia’s top 5 tips to get you started:

1. E-mail party invites rather than post them. There are loads of free Halloween themed party invite e-cards around or alternatively make your own out of scrap and recycled products.

2. Serve local, healthy and seasonal October foods at your events. The options are endless. Remember pumpkins are not just decorative items. Make use of all pumpkin parts. After carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds. Bake them and serve them to party guests or feed them to the birds. Pumpkin flesh is great or making pies, soups and even lasagna! Check out www. freerangereview .com to find local food to you! Apples also are at their best this time of year. So make use of the nation’s favourite crunchy fruit. Fill party bowls with several varieties of fresh apples, from granny smiths to pink lady’s. Bake a few apples for healthy, tasty dessert.

3. Use re-usable plates, cups, utensils, napkins and tablecloths. Paper party goods can be expensive and just add more clutter to our nation's landfills. Check out ecotopia.co.uk’s extensive range of eco tableware !

4. Make your own costume or buy one at a second-hand shop. An old favourite a charity shop cotton sheet still makes a great ghost. Can't find anything suitable in the house? Try freecycle.org for a great selection of second hand clothes, costumes and materials.

5. Autumn is great so experience nature. Visit a local farm. Pick fresh apples. Talk a long walk outside. Look up at the sky. Notice the moon. Remember, it's Halloween and take this great Bat Torch with you.

Check out this funky Squirrel House at £29.99

Ideal Xmas Present for Gardeners or Wildlife Lovers. Tufty will love it.

Eco Christmas Decorations & Essentials

Check out our expanding range of Eco Christmas Decorations & Essentials. New stock is being added daily so keep checking back!

We also have a great range of Xmas gifts in our new Xmas Gift Section.

New Frugi Range of Kids Clothes

Check out our new frugi range of kids clothes

http://www.ecotopia.co.uk/brand/frugi/frugi.html

All the Frugi range of lovely organic clothes for children and babies are made from 100% organic cotton which is better for everyone, from the farmers, their families and the Frugi factory workers, to your baby and children. Organic clothes are much softer and are kinder to eczema. Since no nasty chemicals or pesticides are involved, there's nothing in the fabric to irritate the skin. The fibres in organic cotton are fatter and stronger, and because they don't get bruised and battered along the way it feels much softer too

Codes and Offers for affiliates

Please contact me for October and Novembers discounts and offers!

New Product Launch - Pedal Your Way to Green Power

Pedal your way to green power with the Gazelle Power Generator!
Charge your car battery and other gadgets

The POWERplus® Gazelle is a pedal powered power generator with an AC/DC Powerbank and is now available for just £79.99. You can have power wherever, anywhere and at anytime. Generate your power simply by cycling. It is great exercise (!) and can charge everything from TV's and Laptop computers to mains lighting and refrigerators.
The multifunctional powerbank includes a 12V internal battery and through the integrated inverter you can also select an output of 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 9V and 12V so it can almost always match your mobile devices for charging them. Even an AC inverter is integrated in the powerbank so you can enjoy 220V power at max.100W. The powerbank is equipped with an integrated flashlight, storage space for adapters etc and an integrated handle for easy carrying and transportation

Indication of using time fully charged:5 pcs. LED 85 hours9 pcs. LED 40 hours7W Saving Bulb 10 hours15W CD player 4 hours40W 14" TV 1.5 hours70W Notebook 1 hour

New Banners on their way!

On Tuesday we shall be releasing a load more style banners to suit every website such as:

Gadgets
Ecover
Mother and Baby
Toys
Glass
Energy Saving
Credit Crunch
Gardening
Sport/ Outdoors
Food
Families
Bath and Body
Morphy Richards
Xmas

If you need anything more bespoke give me a shout!

Need content for your website? We can help!

I have a selection of articles from top autumn tips, 10 first steps to being green, credit crunching to having a green halloween and eco bonfire night that i am happy to share with you all. Can help with seo etc. Also happy to author original content!

Please email me for more information

Customer Offer

A great one to promote to your audience!

Funky bag now free with every order (while stocks last).

With greater and greater pressure against using plastic bags, Ecotopia.co.uk have designed and created their own Eco Bags. A cool design means that these bags can be used for more than just shopping and at 24litres (34cm x 22.2cm x 32cm) they are large enough for a wide variety of uses.

Larger than an ordinary carrier - fitting about 2.5 times more than a LDPE plastic bag.

• Designed - Better reinforced base makes it more stable + better for heavy items
• Super strapped - comfortable wide straps don’t dig into your hands
• Durable - they are long lasting and even washable
• Groovy - they look modern and cool.
• Inexpensive - at £1.49 our bags don’t cost the earth.
• Get a free ecotopia.co.uk re-useable bag while stocks last with any purchase!

Ecotopia in the News: Tap Bottles

As seen in the Daily Mail and the Metro

Bottled water has received a great deal of attention recently for its environmental, social and financial cost.

Our Tap bottles give people a fun and convenient way to turn on to tap! Stylish, sustainable and funky re-usable bottles that can be used over and over again simply add tap water. On-the-go sized 400ml bottle for your handbag or gymbag. Larger 1 litre sized bottle, to be stored in the fridge or kept on your desk, giving you cold refreshing tap water whenever you need it. 70% of the profits from each and every Tap bottle sold go to water and sanitation projects in the developing world.

400ml - £6

1L - £8

Press Release - Great Gifts for Gardeners

Our Top Ten Great Green Gifts for Gardeners this Xmas

Xmas is just around the corner and here are our top ten suggestions for the perfect prezzie for greener fingered.

The recycled coffee cup 'slate look' clock and thermometer combination range are designed to be weather proof, so be can be used inside or out. The clean, contrasting design can be easily read from the far end of the garden! The entire ashortwalk recycled range is hand crafted in the UK and made from vending machine coffee cups direct from the national Save-A-Cup scheme. This innovative new material has a lovely solid, heavy, earthy feel, very much like slate.

Gardeners are generous by nature and our Seed Bank Collection will inspire you to collect seeds from your favourite plants and pass them on to others. This really is a great gardening gift that gives back! http://www.ecotopia.co.uk/product/67/bb0430/seed-bank-collection.html

Composting is addictive – once you start, you cannot stop! If new to Composting try Can-O-Worms with Extra Value Pack at £101.00. This is our recommended start-up system and best seller. It includes the Can-O-Worms housing and a generous supply of composting worms plus a selection of extras to help make your composting go smoothly. It's all you need to start successful composting. Our worms are despatched in special packaging to ensure they reach you in top condition but they will need to be transferred into bedding in the kit within 2 to 3 days. So, if the kit is being sent as a gift or will not be set-up on arrival please order it with a voucher, this can then be redeemed when the kit is ready for its worms.

Introducing the little ones to gardening? Try the fun Grow Your Own Xmas Tree kit at £2.50. Inside the ingenious box are plant seeds, a compost pellet and a terracotta pot - everything required to get growing.

The potting shed collection [FSC] at £19.99 contains a Paper Potter for making pots, a Dibblet for pricking out seedlings, an Oak Pot Tamper for firming the soil, a Dibber for creating the perfect space for your seedlings and Garden Lines to get the professional row!

Not only seen as a cute addition to the wildlife that frequents your garden, small mammals such as hedgehogs provide a much more important service. Providing an inviting, warming habitat for small animals, the small animal habitat at £37.99 makes the perfect home in your garden.

Still pottering in your shed as dusk arrives, try our fab new solar power light at £79.99. This solar light is quick and easy to install - simple plug and play! The solar shed light is an ideal lighting solution for not only sheds but green houses, garages, playhouses, tents, outhouses, boats etc. Its small and compact design makes it perfect for travel.

Got a friend who loves all things natural but with no garden? Then the Pocket Garden at £4.99 allows you to give a loved one or friend a gift that will become a permanent reminder. Supplied in a sealed leak-proof bag the Pocket Garden contains specially formulated compost and seeds that once cut open, just require water to germinate allowing them to grow a beautiful houseplant. Try the Hot Stuff Chilli, Poppy, Snapdragon, Geranium and Lavender Pocket Gardens . They all produce beautiful batches of flowers that will please any recipient

This cleverly designed garden organic planner at £2.99 is an ideal stocking filler.. Simply align the arrow to the desired vegetable and the dial will tell you all the information you need to know to grow them, such as the most suitable soil, how to plant or sow the seeds, and the best times to sow and harvest. Over 30 varieties of vegetable are detailed on each dial.

The multispecies Camera Nest Box is the ultimate Xmas present and is adaptable to allow sharp, clear images of wild birds nesting at just £139.99. The heavy duty hole protector prevents predator damage by Squirrels and Woodpeckers. The box is made from durable FSC timber and has a hinged easy access to the camera unit, without disturbing the birds and is convertible to different species:- With copper hole protector on:Bluetit, Marsh Tit, Coal Tit or Wren With copper hole protector off:Great Tit, Sparrow etc With panel removed:Robin, Wagtail or Spotted Flycatcher

Press Release - Xmas Gadgets and Gifts for Men

FAB AND COOL ECO CHRISTMAS GIFTS FOR MEN


Christmas really is just around the corner and here at www.ecotopia.co.uk we have been busy choosing lovely gifts for you to give at Christmas time to the man in your life. If you are buying for a devoted adventurer, a couch potato, a professional or good old dad we have the Christmas gift to suit everyone.

The Voltaic Backpack at £195.00 is built tough for use as a weekend hike bag or as a large daypack. There are pockets and wire channels for multiple electronic devices and 1,850 cubic inches of storage space. The Voltaic Messenger at £175 is reinforced and padded to carry and protect a laptop. It has large zipped pockets for documents, and multiple small pockets for electronic devices. Ideal for use in town or as a travel bag.

The H-racer at £75 is a futuristic toy car that contains one of the most exciting and advanced technologies of the 21st century. This car operates on 100% clean fuel produced by a miniature solar-powered hydrogen refueling station that converts water to hydrogen using energy captured from the sun

The Battech Solar Charger at £39.99 is the pinnacle of portable charging devices. Charging via the sun and USB, allows the on the go user, total freedom from mains electricity. High quality lithium technology combined with an efficient poly-crystalline solar cell, can charge and power directly, a wide array of portable electronic devices including iPod and iPhone, Blackberrys., Nokia (mini tip),Sony Ericson, Samsung, Motorola (K1, L7, V3, U6), Mini USB (TomTom etc) and Sony PSP

This flying solar helicopter at just £9.99 will teach you how solar energy can provide power. This model works without using batteries or burning fuel and are so much fun at home or in the office (when the boss is out!)

Resurrect those classic LPs from the turntable and transform them into groovy tableware accessories. Each Vinyl Coaster is a unique one-off, cut from an old vinyl record and carefully sealed to protect it from spillages. Priced at just £12.50 for 6

The Grow Your Own Xmas Tree makes a great Secret Santa gift at 4.99. Just add water!
Check out the global warming mug at £6.49. This topical mug really stirs up the debate on global warming. As you add a hot drink to the mug, the sea level gradually begins to rise, illustrating the effects that global warming will have on our planet's coastlines.

The ecobutton at £14.99 is an illuminating USB device that acts as a reminder for the user to press everytime the computer is going to be left idle. When pressed the computer goes into ecomode and operates more efficiently whilst not in use.


The Weza Portable Energy Source at £209.99 is the ultimate in independent portable power supplies. Powered by human energy through step action, it is able to jump-start a boat or automobile battery, and power a wide array of instruments and accessories. It is the definitive backup power device for any emergency situation.