I’ve been there for ages, well it feels like ages, I’ve lost count of how long I’ve been twittering. You can find me as EthicsTrading there. If you’re following already then Hi! If not, then why not?

Along with general messages and keeping in touch, Twitter has developed a number of mini traditions – one of which is Follow Friday (denoted in a tweet by #ff or #followfriday so people can keep track)  These are suggestions of people you might like to follow, it’s me suggesting to you that this person or that person might be interesting to you. But the messages are only 140 characters (inc spaces) and the #followfriday ones take ages. But a few weeks ago I spotted that Heather the Efficiency Coach had turned her #followfriday lists into a blog post….. How efficient!

I’m sure she won’t mind if I use that idea….

So, today’s #followfriday is dedicated to my favourite eco friendly and ethical twitterers, all the greenys.

@HelpSavebees is concerned with the declining bee population and has taught me so much about the different kinds of bees, I had no idea there were so many species just in the UK, let alone worldwide.

@myzerowaste is another interestingly eco person to follow and you might like to find her blog too. Her twitter posts and her blog are jam packed with ideas for reducing waste with the philosophy that if we use less, and produce less waste in the first place then the landfill problem won’t be as much of a problem. The Zero Waste family are living proof that we don’t need to throw away a bin full of waste every week. Oh and have a think about that, where exactly is “away”?

Karen from Pledging for Change is on twitter as @kar3n2 and she supports the promises we can each make to make changes in the world around us – small and large things but every change makes a difference.

Another Karen, but this time talking rubbish is @therubbishdiet who just talks rubbish all the time. Seriously, she is passionate about your rubbish, the contents of your bin – and she wants to help you put your bin on a diet…

More next week, will you make it into the blog?

And what is Ethical anyway? Or Green, or Eco friendly? They are such nebulous terms and although they do bring to mind a more responsible way of working, producing and consuming there is no standard definition in terms of business. Even the dictionary doesn’t give us many clues.

ethical

adjective

1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct.
2. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, esp. the standards of a profession

Morals? Whose morals? Whose rules? Whose standards? No real clues to what Ethical means there…..

For me and for Ethics Trading it’s about my own personal Ethics and beliefs. It’s about being open and honest, transparent in my dealings with you, my customers and my suppliers. I don’t lie or cheat and I try to find products that are more natural and sourced responsibly.

There’s another can of worms, Responsibly…. By that I mean that I try to find ou how a product is produced and to make sure that all the people along the production chain are treated fairly, paid a fair wage for their area and not subjected to chemical drenching in the name of progress and a bigger harvest. I mean that as far as I can be sure, no children were forced to work as part of the production of any product or ingredient sold through Ethics trading. I mean that as far as I can be sure no part of the Earth was harmed or destroyed to grow or produce any product or ingredient sold through Ethics Trading. I mean that as far as I can be sure that no women were forced to forgo an education in order to work, not forced to leave their children in order to work and are not subjected to conditions of slavery or hardship.

That is My Ethical. There are so many facets to it that I could go on for pages but I think you’ld be bored…. Do feel free to open up a debate in the comments….

Having said that, the British Tea party is a bit of fun.

So, I am putting myself forward, virtually and with a grin, as Chesterfield candidate for the British Tea party….  As a party supporting the drinking of tea for any occasion I personally endorse The Northern Tea Company as a local business and of course I would enourage you all to try to drink fairly traded teas where you can and to insist on good quality tea in all your favourite cafes.

Some of the party members are currently debating the serious issue of which type of biscuit should be eaten with your tea and we haven’t started the first draft of the policy on proper dunking etiquette yet…

Off you go, drink tea all day and remember to go and vote.

I also want to be working on the extension to the chicken run, while dealing with a problem that one of the hens has developed.

But you don’t really want to hear about that do you? You’re all intrigued by that “Bank Holiday Offers” post title aren’t you? I have a series of short offers for you over the weel, starting with FREE POSTAGE over Bank Holiday weekend which will run from Saturday morning right through to Monday evening. Other offers will be happening through the week too, keep looking out for them!

Follow Ethics Trading on Twitter, or Facebook, for minute by minute real time news on offers, give aways and reductions.

The front page is now much cleaner, less busy and leads to only two places – this blog and the all new, all singing and dancing Shop! I haven’t worked out how to get it to make my tea yet…..

I will be loading more products into the shop over the next few days so do keep checking back in to see what’s new. There’s a regular Sale Rail in there for you to hunt through the bargains on offer and a new Health range offered in conjunction and consultation with Fiona Dilston of Moonlight Essence.

It’s looking a lot better now, don’t you think?