Ideals Matter

Fabrics For Freedom in collaboration with Vips Groups have created the project "This bag has Cloth" and was presented at the HUB showroom in Madrid.

“This bag has cloth” is born with a "nice story" behind: The choice of seed, cultivation, dyeing, her painted clothing,  packaging … were carried out according to ecological and social criteria following, environmental and economic impact of Fair Trade.

Eco bag is made from organic cotton from Vidarbha (a region of Central India). In this region, the purchase by farmers of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides associated with transgenic cotton, far from guaranteeing a prosperous future, it has plunged into a spiral of debt and economic losses which in thousands of cases has led them to suicide. As part of the project we will create two community seed banks to facilitate access of farmers in Vidarbha region to organic seed.

In Vidarbha, also known as the "Cotton Belt" of India, 4 million hectares have been the transition to genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton. Seed prices of cotton rose from 7 rupees / kg. Rp 1,700 / kg. GM after Bt cotton was introduced. The GM cotton is also vulnerable to pests, and as a result of pesticide use, ensuing in an additional cost has increased 13 times during the same period.

Farmers have been trapped in a vicious cycle of debt due to its increasing dependence on monocultures and loss of crop biodiversity, the growing dependence on non-renewable seeds and monopolies that serve them, the chemical materials needed to support GM Bt cotton, and the consequent decline in soil fertility.

The bags are made in the weaving of Assisi Garments,  a NGO founded and run by Franciscan nuns and employs a group of women at risk of social exclusion in the region Tiripur (southern India). These women also receive their fair monthly salaries, training, accommodation and meals.

Designer Sybilla successful and internationally renowned, creator of the brands Jocomomola and Sybilla is the designer of the first bag of "This Bag has Cloth."

Sybilla chairs Fabrics For Freedom, founding sponsor of this initiative. From this foundation, recently created, Sybilla unites the various aspects of their work in recent years: fashion, agriculture, sustainable development and social awareness.

The bag that has laid the foundation for fair trade from the purchase of cotton to the Indian organization Navdanya, headed by activist Vandana Shiva, an activist, pacifist, philosopher and theoretical physics. Creator of the Foundation and movement Navdanya "Diverse Women for Diversity". She is an Eager defender of the land, women, biodiversity and indigenous values. As an activist she has become the "guardian of the seeds" and the voice of farmers who are being hunted by large agro-business corporations.

This great project aims to help over 600 families in the Vidarbha region.

The foundation says the new consumer "requires an added value, social and environmental commitment that meets the hopes and thoughts of consumers" because "the younger generation while consuming organic products, driving hybrid cars and recycle their waste want to know where products are manufactured and what materials are used, without compromising design and go to fashion.

Below you will see a video of the manufacturing process of the eco bag:

Original Source: http://www.concienciaeco.com/2010/05/30/esta-bolsa-tiene-tela/

Sony participated on the 12th and 13th of December in the exhibition, "Bright Green" in Copenhagen, which was held at the same time as the UN Climate Conference (COP15), in order to present their environmental initiatives. 

Sony works together with a group that engages with forest guarding by young members of the society to make their "Forest Eye" idea a reality. It is a system consisting of networked sun powered internal television cameras and fire watchers operating through a web. It seeks to share information on forest fires to prevent them from spreading. David Morgan, Division Director of Sony in the field of research and development (R & D), stayd in the exhibition box with the Forest Guard subsets engaged to forest fire prevention.

His Royal Highness, Prince of Denmark and the Danish Prime Minister, as well as world-famous inventor Dean Kamen are among the important visitors who arrived in the exhibition and met the Forest Guard subsets.

In addition to prevention of forest fires, Sony has begun cooperation with the rainforest rescue organization The Prince's Rainforests Project (PRP), in order to increase awareness of the devastating effects of logging during the COP15 Climate Conference, where world leaders met to reach important agreements also in this matter.

In the beginning of this year, Sony announced Daniel Beltran the Sony World Photography Awards photo contest PRP-category winner, and sent him to the world's three largest areas covered by rainforests. His photographs from Amazonas, Congo and Indonesia show the incredible beauty of the rainforest, but also the flagrant consequences of the destruction.

Forest burning can cause adverse effects in many ways, where the destruction of the forest itself is sometimes secondary. Discount bounds, forest fires are a high risk to built-up areas, industrial enterprises, grain fields and causing traffic disruption. In addition to the destruction of human settlements forest fires are also a major environmental problem. Through smoke air will be contaminated and combustion waste pollutes water. Such fires may equate with the amount of carbon dioxide emissions caused by multi-million cars by the period of a year. Loss of organic matter reduces soil fertility and in some cases for decades. They destroy the micro flora of forests, partly higher animals and birds are killed.

Daniel Beltrá's second assignment from The PRP and Sony, visiting the rainforests of the Congo.

A great selection of pictures taken by Daniel Beltran.

Source Green Gate (in Estonian)

and North Estonian Rescue Centers Training and Logistics Center.

Bring your old batteries Saturday, May 29th (12.00 - 17.00), to Rocca al Mare and exchange them for a pack of brand new GP alkaline batteries. In addition to that, you will receive a nice box to collect old batteries at home and some other practical gifts.

Estonians have not yet got used to recycling. For example, in 2009, around 290 000 tons of unsorted waste was dumped at garbage dumps around Estonia. One third of that was plastic and metal and arond half of it was biodegradable waste. We have a long way to go to catch up with other Nordic countries where less than 10% of the waste is left unsorted.

Battery is the metaphore for this event. We use millions of batteries every day only in Estonia. We have been doing that for the last 30 years, but only a small fraction fo that amount ends up being recycled. The rest ends up in nature. But batteries consist of poisonous ingredients, when in left in contact with water (as it happens in the nature), they start to oxidize and all the chemical waste sinks into the ground, poisoning our soil and water. 

We encourage you to take all your used batteries to the collection points or on May 29th to Rocca al Mare shopping center.

Find out more (in Estonian) at www.kus.ee

The event is organized by kus.ee, Rocca al Mare center and Ragn-Sells and is being supported by GP batteries, patareid.ee, OnOff, Tallinna Keskkonnaamet, Keskkonnaministeerium, Eestimaa Looduse Fond, Looduspere.

On the 17th of April Ideals Matter (IM) joined the worldwide celebrations of the Earth Day's 40th anniversary. As the number predicts, these celebrations have been taking place already for 40 years and their objective is to remind and educate societies all around the globe about the importance of caring about our planet earth.

The celebration in Estonia took place in Rocca al Mare shopping center. In cooperation with organizations like Young Greens, Estonian PackCycling (EPC), Estonian Society for the Protection of Animals and GreenStep. This year IM focused on waste management, an important issue that hasn't set its roots quite yet in the Estonian society.