Tag Archives: sustainability

Greenpicks Green Thoughts on Black Friday

Green Thoughts on Black Friday
Green Thoughts on Black Friday

Greenpicks thoughts on Black Friday

Everything is for sale,
Everything is to buy.
Small gifts
up to big white refrigerators.

The only thing you do not get on #BlackFriday
is true love
And running through the rain
No, you can not buy that
that is not for sale.

(© borrowed from Herman van Veen and slightly adapted to the zeitgeist)

The consumption binge on Black Friday – an ecological disaster! Therefore Greenpicks recommends: buy sustainable and fair and only what you need!

SOLOSOCKS: With Danish design against fading socks

Interview with Niki Morabbi of URU Design about the invention of SOLOSOCKS TM and the innovative, sustainable design label from Copenhagen

Greenpicks: Please introduce yourself and the label URU briefly.

Nick: The Company URU Design is a new Danish fashion clothing company with the mission to combine Danish design with innovative ideas and sustainability.
Today, not many companies deliver all three elements in one product. Our ambition is to create high-end Danish design based on unique innovative ideas using quality organic materials. Not an easy job. But that’s the promise.

SOLOSOCKS - The First Creation SOLOSOCKS – The First Creation Continue reading SOLOSOCKS: With Danish design against fading socks

Nomination for the Startup of the Year 2015/2016

Greenpicks Is Nominated For Startup of the Year Readers Award 2015/2016

Fans Can Vote Online to Help GREENPICKS Win the Honourable Price: http://www.startupvalley.news/de/startup-of-the-year-leser-award-2015-2016/

Nomination of Greenpicks for Startup of the Year
Greenpicks is nominated for the Startup of the Year Readers Award 2015/2016

Greenpicks – Eco & Upcycling Market announced yesterday that it has been nominated for the Startup of the Year Readers Award 2015/2016 by Startup Valley News. The magazine Startup Valley News awards the Startup company of the year by their readership. In the elevator pitch individual projects and companies are introduced. Continue reading Nomination for the Startup of the Year 2015/2016

Sustainability in Household, Kitchen & Co

Sustainability in Household, Kitchen & Co

Sustainability in Household, Kitchen & Co | Greenpicks
Sustainability in Household, Kitchen & Co | Greenpicks

Your kitchen is one place where natural and green products can really make a sustainable difference for your family’s health. Regional foods are the most sustainable and leave a small carbon footprint. Who swims on the eco-conscious vibe in the kitchen, should be choosy even with kitchen supplies and household helpers. Green alternatives for sustainability in household, kitchen & Co. are made from natural or recycled materials. Continue reading Sustainability in Household, Kitchen & Co

Fair-Cycle – The new trade fair in Munich!

Fair-Cycle Logo
Fair-Cycle: Trade Fair for fair consumption and sustainable design

On 17/18 May 2014 the Fair-Cycle exhibition takes place in Munich for the first time. This is a new trade fair for fair consumption and sustainable design with a focus on Upcycling. Eco- and Upcycling-Market is a cooperation partner of the Fair-Cycle – we are already very excited! Continue reading Fair-Cycle – The new trade fair in Munich!

Sweet dreams with organic bedding by ia io

Nina Wood, the founder of the label ia io, offers since 2011 premium organic bedding from organic cotton satin and organic cotton. Here in this interview, she tells everything about the background, of her vision and motivation.

1. Please introduce yourself briefly.

Now I have been living in Berlin since 1986. I originally studied architecture. After graduation I worked in various architectural offices and in the real estate department of a bank. I was involved in the detailed design of various commercial buildings and worked in social housing. I liked working as an architect, but there are too many dependencies. Architectural design and the realization of architecture are dependent on many factors, people and building laws.

Nina Wood from ia io
Nina Wood from ia io

To me it was always important to be able to work self-determined and independently and be creative by producing something useful. Whether you plan a building, a piece of furniture or built up organic bedding – the development process is similar. If you can hand over a healthy, sustainable, fair produced, high quality product under your own label to satisfied customers in the end, this is just a beautiful thing! Continue reading Sweet dreams with organic bedding by ia io

High-flyer Bioplastics

High-flyer Bioplastics: Breakfast Set of bioplastics
Breakfast Set of bioplastics ©Biodora

Bioplastics versus Plastic Products made of Raw Oil

If you look around in their own home or in the supermarket, you will quickly find out that we are completely surrounded by plastic. Packaging, kitchen and household items … everywhere we find the practical material. Over the past century, plastics have got off to a veritable triumph. The industry appreciates the material to be stable, lightweight and that it can be used individually. Even at low temperatures plastic can be shaped. The production of the packaging is correspondingly affordable.

There’s just one catch. The production of plastics is becoming increasingly more expensive as raw oil and natural gas are becoming scarce and the purchase prices increase accordingly. So it comes slowly to a rethinking process for purely economic reasons.

Environment and Health

But the actual light shade sides of plastics are long known: When the disused products are disposed of, it takes about 500 years for the plastics being degraded. Not all countries do collect their waste by way of recycling bins and feed it back by recycling into the cycle of reusable materials. Instead, our oceans serve as a plastic garbage dump. The increase in environmental burden and pollution is impressively represented in the film Plastic Planet.

In addition to the environmental problem also the negative effects on the health of humans and animals increase. We absorb the smallest plastic particles through the skin and the food. Firstly, because we are in contact with skin in our daily use with plastic, especially with the so harmful bisphenol A. Secondly, because through the packaging and storage in plastic our food gives tiny particles thereof to us. And because by the disposal in seas and lakes now also fish are polluted with plastic deposits – and then finish up freshly caught on our plates.

Bioplastic provides a remedy

Luckily, there are now an increasing number of alternatives from bioplastic. These have advantages in terms of health and the environment and are therefore very sustainable.

In the production mostly renewable raw materials on the basis of starch and cellulose are used. This saves resources and the climate, because after use the products manufactured hereby set free only the amount of carbon dioxide that was previously taken up by the plants used from the atmosphere during their growth phase. Through the use of products made from bioplastics, the CO2 emissions will be reduced, the finite fossil resources are protected. At the same time we reduce our dependence on them.

There is also a health harmlessness, since no hazardous plasticizers such as bisphenol A are included.

It is important to distinguish between bioplastics, which are made from renewable resources, and those that are biodegradable, and therefore compostable. What is meant here mostly is compostable in the commercial sense. So you run no risk that the products decompose into their constituents in your own household. The prefix “bio” of bioplastics thus has a two-fold (and therefore slightly confusing) meaning.

Provider of bioplastic

A world without plastic, it will no longer exist. As a consumer, you can be resourceful by for example avoiding plastic bags or at least using them multiple times, or by replacing plastic by glass containers. And in addition, take care for yourself by switching to bioplastics. Provider of bioplastic products can be found on Greenpicks – Eco- and Upcycling-Market, for example storage boxes by ajaa!, kitchen and household helpers by Biodora, children’s toys by BioFactur, pens by Biowert and freezer bags by NaKu.

To get started we recommend especially the breakfast set of Biodora in the shop of promavis.

High-flyer Bioplastics: Storage box from ajaa!
Storage box from ajaa! © ajaa!
High-flyer Bioplastics: Freezer Bags of bioplastics
Freezer Bags of bioplastics © NaKu
High-flyer Bioplastics: Bucket of bioplastics
Bucket of bioplastics ©BioFactur

 

 

History of origins and outlook

Since the mid-1950s, there are large-scale manufacturing processes for today dominant plastics polyethylene and polypropylene. Plastics have been developed for diverse applications with different material properties. It was only after 1980, there were innovations in the field of bioplastics, which are mainly due to an altered ecological awareness. Renewable raw materials and closed cycles were the arguments for this, later it was also the substitution of oil as the main raw material due to rising oil prices and the finiteness of resources.

Currently, the development of bioplastics is mainly driven on the basis of sustainability and resource conservation. Agricultural land for the substantial use of renewable raw materials is considered as an essential pillar of agriculture in the future. In the meantime, there is a real flying high of the biomaterial bioplastic observable. Even experts were surprised by the latest growth forecasts for bioplastics. Their wildest expectations will be greatly exceeded in the coming years. By 2016, the global market is expected to quintuple its production volume to nearly 6 million tons. This emerges from a market forecast that the industry association European Bioplastics, Berlin, publishes annually in cooperation with the Institute of bioplastics and biocomposites of the University of Hannover.

 

Alternative Gift Ideas

Alternative Gift Ideas for Christmas and other opportunities

The online marketplace Greenpicks for ecological and sustainable products offers opportunity for conscious consumption – alternative gift ideas for Christmas and other opportunities.

In the Advent season some people may be wondering how to escape the pre-Christmas shopping frenzy and instead may get meaningful Christmas presents.
Taking up the issue consciously, soon comes up the desire to consume sustainably in the festive season. In this way, seeking out the gifts already brings joy and does not become a painful duty.

Because with alternative gift ideas you take into account the different aspects of sustainability at the same time. Be it the conservation of our planet through the use of ecological materials and the environmentally friendly production. Or the appreciation of already used discarded objects, as it is the case with Upcycling. Also the fair and equitable treatment and payment of the producers may be reflected in the gifts consciously selected.

So the joy is spread equally to recipient, giver and manufacturers. And the white Christmas becomes a green Christmas.

Here are a few examples for concretization and inspiration for alternative gift ideas:

Upcycling

There are exceptional bags that are made artfully in a specific folding technique from old food packages such as chocolate or snack packaging in the shop of franksArt. Upcycling bags in all shapes and sizes can also be found in the shops of Marron Rouge und Ragbag. Here, for example, tea big packs, bicycle innertubes and tires or recycled seatbelts are the starting material.

Alternative Gift Ideas
Shoulderbag of recycled foil ©ragbag
Alternative Gift Ideas
Messenger Bag made of recycled safety belt and inner tube © Marron Rouge

Wooden Eco Toys

Alternative Gift Ideas
Wooden Eco Toys ©VARIS

Wood instead of plastic. This is very beneficial especially for the health and development of children. A nice selection of wooden eco toys presents the company VARIS toys from Latvia in the store of promavis. The constructions sets and stacking blocks are made of high quality birch wood 100 % FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.

Bioplastics

Alternative Gift Ideas
ajaa! storage box made of bioplastics © ajaa

Although plastic boxes last long in the household, eventually they have served their time. This point in time can be used to change to bioplastics. Great products from Biodora and ajaa! are in store of promavis und Monalito. Products of bioplastics are made of renewable resources and without harmful plasticizers.

Organic Fashion

Alternative Gift Ideas
Elegant Tunic made of organic cotton ©MYBH

Who wants to give a slightly more elegant new favorite, will make a find in the store of MAY YOU BE HAPPY. In winter it belongs on the head: Beanies from organic wool, happily knitted by rotlilie. And if the shoes already have holes, then you can take a look at the cool hemp sneakers from Grand Step Shoes in the shop of variomondo. The materials for eco fashion come from certified organic farming, GOTS certified or fair trade wool.

Alternative Gift Ideas
Organic Hemp Sneaker ©Grand Step Shoes
Alternative Gift Ideas
Beanie eco wool ©rotlilie