Everyone loves a special chocolate treat at Christmas!  Why not start early with a fairtrade countdown to Christmas ? the Divine Advent Calender .

The Divine Advent Calendar is a unique combination of delicious Fair trade chocolate with a traditional nativity theme.  Every year the calendar has a beautiful new illustration of the nativity. The Divine banner across the top of the calendar and the numbers are picked out in stunning Divine gold. The reverse of the calendar brings extra delights for children, featuring the the story of a Kuapa Kokoo producer as well as a fun activities for children to complete.

Here's the serious stuff:  Divine chocolate is made with cocoa bought from Kuapa Kokoo at the guaranteed minimum Fairtrade price of $1600 per tonne which protects the farmers from the volatility of the market.  The cooperative receives an additional premium of $150 per tonne, which is invested in improvements to the farmers' living standards and farming productivity.   A percentage of the price of Divine goes towards 'producer support and development', which Kuapa Kokoo spends on farmer education, and helping to maintain the values and vision of the cooperative as it grows.

Where can you get your fairtrade advent calander from? In the UK try the Ethical Superstore, Oxfam or even your local supermarkets.  In the USA try  A Greater Gift.

If there is one thing that is plentiful in Wales, it is sheep and where there?s sheep, there?s poo.  What to do with all that poo?  Why not turn it in to paper? Creative Paper , based in Wales, are makers of beautiful handcrafted papers and paper products including the unique and wonderful Sheep Poo Paper?.  All their paper is made from recycled materials and our processes are designed to live up to the highest environmental and quality standards possible.  There manufacturing process uses the purest Welsh spring water in the washing process and the result is gives a stunningly smooth finish, although you can still see flecks in the paper ? I wonder what those flecks could be?

The garment industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to use of pesticides on the fields that grow the cotton used to produce many clothes.   The global textile trade has one of the worst records of working conditions and pay some of it?s workers.  The synthetic fibres and dyes used in many textiles use oil as their raw material, the resulting clothes are not biodegradable and create pollution at the time of manufacture and for years to come.  

Gossypium, Patagonia, People Tree, Howies and Hug ? what do they have in common?  They are all pioneering brands addressing one or more of these issues, showing that ethical fashion is possible.   One other thing these brands have in common is that they are all available from the Adili ethical fashion shop .

Just launched in the UK,  Adili, meaning  'ethical and just' Swahili,  believes that it is possible for fashion to be both stylish and made in an ethical and just way; in a way that gives rather than takes from people and the planet; in a way that upholds the dignity of those along the supply chain.  But it?s not just clothing that Adili sells ? they stock a range of fair-trade and ethical jewellery and accessories from the likes of Silver Chilli and Made, along with super soft bamboo fibre towels from Babaloo.

Adili showcases these pioneering brands which are tackling head on one or more of the ethical issues involved in fashion production.

• Brands that use organic cotton - kinder to the environment and the farmer.
• Brands that trade fairly with small producers - supporting artisanal production, using the garment trade to overcome, not contribute to, poverty.
• Brands that use alternative natural fibres: hemp, silk, nettle, flax - thus reducing the dependence on cotton and synthetics.
• Brands that use recycled textiles and clothing - reducing our waste and saving the energy needed to create new materials.
  
  

Worth checking out is their newsletter subscription ? as an opening special, they are offering online product discounts for all new subscribers.

Let?s face it; everyone would love to avoid paying income tax if they could get away with it!

The UK government 's ?Cycle to Work? lets you do just that! Alright, you will still have to keep paying most of your incomes tax, but this little publicised scheme does provide real tax incentives to get people out of their cars and into their saddles - with a tax free bike.

The scheme is part of the government?s ?green transport plans?. It allows employers to acquire tax free bikes and cycling equipment for their employees, meaning that employees spend less time in traffic jams (no more excuse for being late for work!), no more fighting over limited parking places, and reduced CO2 emissions.

In simple terms, you save money because you don?t pay Income Tax or National Insurance on the money that is taken out of your monthly salary to pay for the bike. This means that typically you could obtain a ?400 bike and pay around ?300 for it -meaning that you have saved paying ?100 income tax! Depending on the initial cost of the bike and your salary, savings could even be as much as 50%.

Further useful information:

Department of Transport Cycle to Work Scheme Implementation Guidance

How much could you save calculator .

Links to facilitators of the scheme providing bikes and additional information:

Cycle Scheme

Club Cycles

Halfords

Cycle Solutions

Bring Me

Powabyke

Evans Cycles

Future Media