Biome Lifestyle Blog: Eco Design, Ethical Fashion and Green News

I saw on the news the other day that car boot sales are on the rise due to credit-crunch buyers looking for a bargain. After hearing a story about a man who bought a teapot at a car boot sale and sold it at Christies for £27,000 I am tempted to become a car boot sale fan!!

I love vintage stores and second-hand furniture shops so I think car boot sales could be my kind of thing! I always love finding old and interesting pieces of furniture, homeware or glassware – I think it really adds something unique to your home. Old furniture tends to have been made with much more care and attention to detail than some of the highstreet items which have been mass-produced in Asia. I feel a home should have individuality after all it’s your chance to showcase your tastes, travel finds and personality.

Right, time to find my big bucks teapot…!

To find your nearest car boot sale, click here

The new biodegradable chewing gum is here! Chicza is totally natural and last month, at the Natural and Organic Products Festival in London, Chicza Organic Chewing Gum received the award for best new organic food product. The recognition is large for the community of farmers in Mexico’s rainforest that is beginning to introduce their gum to European markets.

The company is a fusion of rural cooperatives from the states; it integrates 53 communities and organizations with over 2,163 members, and started with the philosophy that to live amongst the nature of the land, one must work to conserve it. The consortium works within 800,000 hectares of Chicozapote trees in the part of the rainforest that was originally developed by Mayan civilizations, and much of the production practices of the Chizca gum follow Mayan traditions.

Biodegradable gum is a fantastic idea! I look forward to trying my first pack!

It’s great to see that traditional crafts are still recognised and encouraged in the UK! Biome Lifestyle is always looking out for new designer-makers who are based in the UK and use traditional skills and crafts.
That’s why we are loving the Country Living Artisan Awards 2009. Once country trades were passed down from parent to child, with generations of the same family specialising in one skill. Faced with a lack of training opportunities, today’s craftspeople have to demonstrate self-motivation and creative talent in equal doses in order to succeed. Our Artisan of the Year for 2008, thatcher Jonathan Botterell, spent years travelling the country to learn the rudiments of his craft, while Andrew Seddon, winner of our Outstanding Support of Future Artisans Award, taught himself the skills needed to become a stained-glass maker, then began training apprentices to pass on his knowledge. Good luck to all those talented people who will be entering the awards! We look forward to reading more about the selected finalists in the near future.

Brazil was once known as the country that was destroying the rainforest. Now it seems they are trying to rebuild their reputation by pushing renewable energy and sustainable architecture.

The Brazilian government built this sustainable park in Sao Paulo on the site of an old landfill. Using only certified forestry lumber and recycled steel, they turned this brown site into a beautiful green vision of possibility. It is a free-flowing structure that is built like a giant continuous deck.

The architects also used the landfill’s old incinerator building to create a sustainability museum. It always does the heart good to see that with a little desire it is possible to undo serious environmental damage and create something beautiful.

Anna Dietzsch, Managing Director of Davis Brody Bond Aedas‘ São Paulo office and Levisky Arquitetos Associados designed this beautiful eco-park on what was once a contaminated brownfield in São Paulo, Brazil. The 130,000-square-foot site was previously the home to a garbage incinerator, so even after the area’s clean-up the team strove to minimize soil excavation by building a deck that, on average, floats three feet above the ground. Victor Civita Plaza also includes solar panels, the extensive use of reclaimed wood, and a retro-fitted museum that explains the sustainable features that were designed into the site. (Inhabitat))

A new eco-friendly opened in London this summer called Surya, Islington. The club is so environmentally sustainable that it will even donate electricity to its neighbours!
That, at least, is what Surya’s owners are claiming:

“Each week millions upon millions of exuberant human beings head out of their houses and into nightclubs to expend large amounts of energy on the dancefloor,” Dr Earth said in a statement. “[But] clubbing remains one of the few areas of society untouched by the green message.”
According to its statement, Surya is powered by sustainable energy – in particular, wind and sun power – and, in fact, generates enough electricity to pass on to its immediate neighbours.

Besides solar-energy panels, a wind turbine, waterless urinals, low-flush toilets and eco-friendly air-conditioning units, Surya also boasts a high-tech alternative energy dancefloor. It will, the club says, use “materials such as quartz crystals, ceramics, cutting-edge technology and the dancing motion of clubbers to generate part of the club’s energy requirements”. Fascinating!

Biome Lifestyle would be thrilled if the answer to the world’s environmental crisis just meant putting your dancing shoes on and grooving the night away!!

Don’t stop dancing – you’ll make the lights go out!