Eurostar launch from St Pancras

Eurostar launch
Originally uploaded by ecoescape

I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the new High Speed Eurostar trains out of the newly revamped St Pancras station. It was a bit of a dream come true as I've watched the development of St Pancras take place over the last 7 years since living in Nottingham and travelling through countless times. It was a stunning event organised as a joint venture between Eurostar and Friends of the Earth who invited us on board the 'Tread Lightly' train to Paris last Wednesday. Eurostar has always been my favourite option to get to Europe and of course, I'm really happy now that all the journeys will be carbon neutral. You can read all about my day on the new High Speed Eurostar on the ecoescape website.

The randy birds and the bees

The funny people at Virgin Trains have put together a series of 'animal ads'. The flora and fauna are having their say to encourage travellers to go green and reduce their carbon emissions. The bee and the flower ad is our favourite.

You can view the complete series here www.virgintrains.co.uk




Or view the 'naughty' video below called 'sexy party'. This is the funniest, but comes with parental guidance...

Saving my local post office

Post Office Ltd recently announced the planned closure of Melton Road Post Office, my local branch in Nottingham. On a personal level, the loss of the post office around the corner would be a big blow to me as I've come to rely on it for my business. And Vjay and Tripta, the lovely postmaster and mistress, always brighten the day and ask every single customer how they are doing. The post office is a pillar of the community and its presence helps the row of shops (including a fishmonger, 2 delis, grocer, newsagent, etc) keep going. The elderly customers will also suffer as the alternative is too far to walk.

The greatest argument in its favour is the fact the this post office is one of the top performing branches in the county proving that PO Ltd has selected branches at random to close. All of these arguments led me to thinking that something could be done to prevent the closure. Vjay couldn't start a petition himself so I took matters into my own hands and printed off a petition sheet for people to sign against the planned closure. The petition quickly took off, and with only a couple weeks to go before the public consultation deadline, we have already more than 4,000 signatures. In fact, the closure was such a surprise that Ken Clarke, our local MP has decided to get involved. The picture above is the moment when he met a handful of the post office's customers this weekend to collect the signatures to take to PO Ltd himself.

I'm not one to get involved with party politics but on this occasion, I might allow myself to say "go Ken!" and let's hope he can work some magic with the Post Office.

The online petition is here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/meltonroad/ - feel free to sign!

New ecoescape website!

When I began working on ecoescape back in 2006, I had in the back of my mind that an online version of the book would be a good idea. That thought was put to one side as I concentrated on getting the book together for launch in spring this year.

Much to my relief you loved the book. However, the website question resurfaced as the book gained in popularity. A number of cyber surfers - of all ages I might add - felt a bit left out. For them books were good, websites are better.

So, in the spirit of inclusiveness, I got my thinking cap back on to see how I could make a web version of the book. I'd already had a go at building a website. And, despite the fact that it received some polite praise, I thought against the idea of building the new site myself (even after borrowing a book about web-databases from the library!). So that meant raising some money. I was lucky to receive some more Big Lottery Funding and a small donation from the Co-operative Bank customer fund, which together was enough to pay a company to build me a shiny new website.

It wasn’t difficult choosing a web company. In fact that was the easy part. When I first met Jez from Make Hay in my Nottingham office, he was so obliging and friendly that I knew he’d get me up and running on the internet before long. The best thing is that Make Hay is an ethical company and can power my website with the wind. My kind of people.

I know that there’s lots of other people to thank and I hope I have thanked you personally. So all that’s left to be said is I hope this website continues the message of responsible escapism I started in my little book. And there’s lots more happening in 2008 with ecoescape. The best way to find out is to sign up for the eco-logue – ecoescape’s monthly newsletter.

Laura x
Founder, ecoescape

Eco-Arcadia at the Green Man Festival

green man festival 07
Originally uploaded by ecoescape

Having just returned from the marvellous Green Man festival in Wales, I have to say it is like its name; one of the greenest events you could attend. Despite heavy rain and rising mud levels, the festival had a real laid back charm and we loved its efforts to recycle and promote green living. The Green Fields area, new for 2007, was a great way to not only escape the mud but also visit some interesting exhibitions - the solar powered milk float stage was great! The Eco-Arcadia, dubbed the World's First Biodiesel Powered Pinball Arcade (above) was loads of fun and the array of organic and locally sourced food kept the crowds happy.

tour update

The ecoescape tour of the green event circuit is going off with a bang.

The Dulwich Festival attracted a good crowd and sunny weather and more jute bags than you could wave a hemp plant at.

The following week, Nottingham Green Festival saw a hardcore crowd turn out despite heavy ran all day long. Our home-town response was truly admirable so those fearless Nottingham-ites should be very proud of themselves.

This weekend, the sun shone for Camden Green Fair in Regent's park, with a great turnout of friendly people. Here are some pictures of our stall.

good design for good people

This is the underpinning ethic behind Eskimo Design, the creative people behind ecoescape and now good friends of mine.

They've recently updated their website, and I'm pleased to say that it reflects more than ever their excellent design skills and desire to work on projects that make a positive difference. They have done more than I could have imagined to make ecoescape not just a great read but something that communicates to people.

Check out their website below for more details about how we worked together.

http://www.eskimodesign.org.uk/projshow.html