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It’s unbelievable but true that 786 million trees are felled each year to cope with the world’s rising demand for paper products, and the processing that has to be done uses a staggering 98kg of resources for 1kg of paper.  And we know how many student exercise books are gone through after pages and pages of homework and doodles!  So, some clever research has been done to find an alternative, sustainable paper source, and after much tiring research books made from sugar canes are now being produced. The materials, known as “Bagasse” or simply “BE” are made with crushed sugar cane stalks, and are a waste product from the sugar making process.  So not only does this save land  from being deforested,  but there is less need for wood based paper and less wastage from the sugar making process.  It also takes much less energy to produce bagasse paper than wood-based paper.

Surely there must be something wrong, but we can’t think of a thing. Don’t think the quality will suffer either! The sheets are 80gsm, and require less bleaching than conventional paper too. They look and feel just like “normal” paper, but with the knowledge that the environmental impact is  much lower. And, from the folks at The Consortium think it’s such a great idea that they’re selling them at exactly the same price as the standard exercise books.  We even think that soon they will replace them completely!

For a press release go here. Your kids may be writing on the same material as you put in your tea, but we don’t recommend this as a sugar substitute.  Remember this stuff usually gets thrown away! And if you’re a teacher, switching to BE books is easy.  We’re sure you’ll find the books so sweet you’ll never turn back.  (groan!)

psst- did you know we have a Twitter account? go here!

If you have some free space in your school grounds or garden, why not create a wild corner for insects, plantlife and amphibians to live? Butterflies, dragonflies, frogs and other creatures will be fascinating for children to watch in a safe environment and a wild corner can be very beneficial to the local environment too.

Reserve a sunny space in a quiet and undisturbed area so to allow plants to grow naturally undisturbed. Plant campion and rosebay willowherb plants to attract moths and insects, which birds can feed on. Soon you will have a wild corner, and when it has become established you may see stinging nettles and brambles appear. Butterflies and moths lay their eggs on stinging nettles and bramble bushes. Birds also feed on blackberries made by the brambles. See which other plants you can identify and which animals live on them.

Depending on where you live, the plants and animals living in your wild corner will be different. Always allow nature to take its course, and see which wildlife you can recognise, while helping to improve the environment in your school or garden. For more information on making a wild corner in your garden, see this BBC link.

This is possibly the most challenging part of my life. I can’t seem to ever remember to use the reusable shopping bags I buy. So I racked my brains. I ate some pasta, I read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and I completed a degree in microbiology. After a busy week I finally came up with a solution.

So I opened up Photoshop, drew a picture and saved as jpeg. You can now download this wonderful free door handle reminder tool. Print it out, cut it out, stick it to a piece of card for enhanced durability and hang it on your front door handle. Now you’ll never forget your reusable bags again.

Download the ‘Do not forget your bags’ sign

Got a better idea?

Let us know in the comments.

Our warehouse and distribution team have recently come up with a simple, innovative and highly effective method for dramatically reducing packaging materials. The result? We’ve managed to reduce the number of plastic bags used in our packaging by an astonishing 3.5 million per year.

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Teachers are increasingly becoming “sustainability champions”, says new survey from The Consortium.

Read the full story on The Consortium website >