Biome newsletter - All new for Spring

Our stores and online are blossoming with

the colour and liveliness of Spring.

Revive your skin, your home, your passion for the planet.

 

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Highlights

• New products: Effervescent bath cupcakes, Porcelain mortar & pestle, Ask Alice postcards, Makedo find & make kits, Baby memory book, single Ecococoon stainless steel cups, Wooden branch crayons, Tortellini baby feeding cushion
• Order Personalised Kylie Johnson stars by 15 October
• Corporate Christmas cards & gifts
• Biome rewards
• On Sale: Botani, Kosmea, Escapulario beads & more

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Threatened species & Wipe for Wildlife
There was a whole lotta love last month for the creatures that share our planet. With our threatened species giveaway we looked at the Snub fin Dolphin (northern WA &Townsville), Long nosed Potoroo (East Gippsland), Clouded Leopard (Nepal to Borneo), Bonobo (Congo) and Albatross (Macquarie Island).

They all face the same main threats: foremost is habitat loss from land clearing for houses, agriculture and logging; and secondly, predators introduced to their environment.

Each of us can help by reducing pressure for land clearing and logging by choosing paper products made from post consumer waste recycled, pre-loved furniture, plantation timber, avoiding palm oil, supporting people working directly with your favourite animals, and using recycled toilet paper!

  Are you a tree flusher? We love the Wipe for Wildlife promotion by Zoos Victoria to get people thinking about saving wildlife by using recycled toilet paper.

You can even download a poster for your toilet door!

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EcoJot & Jane Goodall : 2 of our fave things in 1

The covers of Ecojot’s new sketchbooks available at Biome feature four endangered species in Ecojot's trademark quirky, colourful style: Chimpanzees (which Dr. Goodall has studied and advocated for over 50 years), along with the Giant Panda, Sumatran Rhino and Whooping Crane.

All Ecojot journals are made in Canada from 100% post-consumer recycled materials.  The proceeds from this line support the Jane Goodall Institute, including its global environmental and humanitarian youth program, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots.

“In 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall ventured into what is now Tanzania’s Gombe National Park to document the behavior of wild chimpanzees. Her work there would inspire generations of Earth’s citizens to look at animals – and sustainability – in new ways,” said Mark Gavin, co-founder of Ecojot.

Aside from producing gorgeous, eco friendly products, Ecojot has given 25,000 notebooks to children in developing countries under the “Buy 1, Give 1” movement. Glues & inks are vegetable based and biodegradable; and the mill used to make the paper uses clean, affordable biogas (recovered landfill gases) as their alternative power source.
 
About Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots
Founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in more than 120 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action.
Source: excerpts taken from the Media Release on the Jane Goodall Institute website. 

See the range at Biome:  Ecojot sketchbook and note books.

During September, Biome is celebrating the animals that share our planet.  Find out how you can win $25 vouchers by identifying Threatened Species and what else is happening in our eco stores.

Download a free ecojot wallpaper for your computer

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Gardens make me smile

Our cuddling carrots.  Seems we planted the seedlings too close together, but we loved them all the same...  Do you have a photo of something in your garden, or someone else's, that makes you smile?

The clever Linky list below allows you to upload a photo and, if you wish, include a link back to your own blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  (Just upload a smallish image for speed and it gives you the chance to crop it to size.)

And, for more edible gardening inspiration, please come along to meet David of Productive Gardens this weekend Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 August at Biome Paddington or Biome City store on Thursday, 2 September.  More info about times and location 

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Talking rubbish with like-minded friends

Photo credit: winning poster in the World Industrial Design Day competition

Do you have anxieties about throwing things "away"?  Do people putting food scraps into recycling make you edgy?  Do you break out in a sweat when there's no recycling bin to dispose of your drink bottle?

During our recent visit to Melbourne for the retail trade fairs, I had a hurried and animated chat with Wasteman.  What fun to gabble with a like-minded soul about rubbish -- rubbish of the wasteful kind that is.  Wasteman devotes a blog to problems with waste and loves to take photos of rubbish bins and odd rubbishy things.  He introduced me to the waste pyramid and thinking about recycling being the last resort. 

Could it be that because we find recycling so easy we are actually likely to generate more recycling and waste, rather than first trying to avoid, reduce or reuse?

At home we have just ordered a larger recycling bin being offered by the Brisbane City Council.  Ours is always overflowing each fortnight, but maybe that's not such a good measure of our eco-performance. Seems we should actually be trying to downsize our recycling bin by generating less "stuff" to be recycled.

Things to make me feel less-wasteful:

• Buy in bulk
• Choose items with little or no packaging
• Pack a wrapper-free lunch using Goodbyn or Kids Konserve
• Grow our own vegetables
• Use shopping bags that last forever.  Wasteman has more to say on this!
• Stop the Junk Mail, but what about the newspapers?
• And my daily buzz, BYO my KeepCup reusable coffee cup - and save 50cents in the process (1 coffee per day x 50 cents saved = $182 dollars a year!)

We just received a lovely letter from the Salvos Stores about their Buy Nothing New Month in October.  They say this national 'conscientious consumuption' campaign is about reducing the community's impact on the environment by encouraging reusing and recycling.  It's a fantastic concept.

I love to send things to the Salvos or Reverse Garbage....I've blogged before about my hoarding tendencies because I can't bear to throw things away (Continuous loop of Reverse Garbage).  

Are there any other friends out there with strange anxieties about waste?  Tell us here or please pop on over to our Facebook page and tell us there...

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Cooloola Great Walk opens: 5 day trek from Noosa to Rainbow Beach

The new Cooloola Great Walk is set to become one of Australia's iconic long distance walking tracks attracting international and local bush walkers to Queensland.

The 102km Cooloola Great Walk links the Noosa North Shore to Rainbow Beach via the eastern high dunes, the upper Noosa River, Poona Lake and Carlo Sand Blow, with an optional route via Double Island Point.

Showcasing the outstanding natural attractions of the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, the track winds through rainforest, tall eucalypt forest, dry coastal woodland and heath plains.

You can undertake the full 5 day trek or a shorter walk by joining at several entry points.  The designated overnight camp sites must be booked. A lovely two day walk can be undertaken from Rainbow Beach to Freshwater, where you camp overnight and then walk back.  If you love cool, fresh water when bush walking, you won't be disappointed by the upper Noosa River, Lake Cooloomera, Freshwater Lake and Poona Lake along the way.

From Rainbow Beach, keen walkers can hike another 13km to Inskip Point and catch the barge across to link up with the Fraser Island Great Walk!

We recently explored the Carlo Sand Blow, which is at the Rainbow Beach end of the Great Walk.  Here's just a glimpse of the beautiful wildflowers and plants you can expect to see along the way.

Coastal bush sculpted by the wind.  View looking across Carlo Sand Blow. On the opposite hill you can see a track where people slide down the dune and tiny specks of people!

Interesting links
All the Great Walks of Queensland
Construction of the Cooloola Great Walk
More about Rainbow Beach

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