The Better Way to Spend a Penny

Every week seems to have a theme these days, be it National Curry Week, National Story Telling Week or National Eating Out Week, yet one of the most important has just passed largely unnoticed.


National Ethical Investment Week took place between the 8-14th November and aimed to educate people about the green and ethical options available to them and illustrate how we can still get a good return on our investments whilst having a positive impact on our environment and society.

The week is coordinated by UKSIF, the sustainable investment and finance association, who promote responsible investment and seek to ensure that individuals can reflect their values and beliefs in their investments.

With confidence and faith in our financial institutions at an all time low, considering how your money is put to use is all the more important. Rather than letting your savings and investments sit idly in funds that are supporting who knows what, why not look into the vast array of ethical investments available that will still give you a good return and also do some good for others. The question is, ‘why wouldn’t you’?

Re-Sourceful have been fortunate enough to work with two leading financial organisations in ethical investments, Triodos Bank and The Co-operative. We have helped them to promote their message with our ethical products rather than using plastic promotional tat – why wouldn’t you?

To find out more about National Ethical Investment Week check out the website at http://www.neiw.org/

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

We’re very happy to say Re-Sourceful is two whole years old this month.

Started back in 2007, with a range of 30 products, Re-Sourceful has grown significantly and can now boast over 150 beautiful, durable and useful promotional gifts.

Having worked for ten years in the industry, we knew how important it is to connect people with brands but believed there was a better way to do it than simply with throwaway tat.

After a lot of discussion, debate and deliberation we came up with the idea of a catalogue of positive promotional ideas, and Re-Sourceful was born.

The main aim of Re-Sourceful is to provide positive promotional ideas that allow business to say more about themselves and that have a positive impact on lives at home and abroad.

We’ve been busy these past two years and have helped a wide variety of businesses celebrate their ethical credentials and approach. From Sun Microsystems to UK Film Council to Manchester University to Triodos Bank – we’ve helped all manner of companies communicate their commitment to the planet.

Re-Use
Waste not want not. It’s a great mantra. It’s not just the environmental benefit of this philosophy that gets us excited though. We love the creative challenge of coming up with new ideas for reusing things.

For example – our recycled courier bags. Made by re-using advertising banners, every stylish bag is a unique statement that stops unnecessary waste going to landfill. http://www.re-sourceful.co.uk/BAUMM+bag

Re-Cycle
Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours. It’s amazing how much energy and resources can be saved through recycling. Products made from post-consumer waste help to keep rubbish out of landfill in the UK and also contribute less to the depletion of the world’s non-renewable resources. Awesome.

Such as our Eco USB Wristband – made from 100% recycled plastic and aluminium. A pretty nifty way to carry around all those important files! http://www.re-sourceful.co.uk/Eco+USB+Wristband

Re-Think
It’s ideas that we love, and it’s ideas that can change the world. We think that applying a bit of lateral thinking to a problem can result in some of the greatest ideas.

If you’ve got any eco promotional ideas or have a problem that needs some re-thinking, let us know.
http://www.re-sourceful.co.uk/

Better put a pocket or two

What better way to kick-start the new season than with a heart-warming exercise in social responsibility, brought to you courtesy of broadband provider TalkTalk who decided to literally give back to the world in an ingenious way.

The company hired a team of former pick-pockets who for the whole of August have been roaming the top tourist spots of London and expertly putting money into the pockets and open handbags of an unsuspecting public.

The initiative, whereby notes of £5 to £20 are ‘put-pocketed’, is designed simply to ‘brighten up people’s lives during the credit crunch’.

If stand-out comes from being out-standing (and we think it does), TalkTalk’s latest campaign is a huge success, as you only have to Google ‘talktalk’ and ‘putpocket’ to see the masses of publicity they have received all over the world.

We at Re-Sourceful like to spend our days coming up with innovative ideas that raise the profile of your brand whilst supporting charities and worthwhile causes and not taking anything from the planet. So if you're looking for an idea that gives back as well as putting your brand on the map, why not give us a call.

www.re-sourceful.co.uk

The Less Plastic Pledge: bio plastic frisbee

The Less Plastic Pledge: bio plastic frisbee
www.re-sourceful.co.uk

Reclaim your lunch hour

In honour of the beautiful weather that we’re enjoying in the UK at the moment, the Re-Everything team today made a concerted effort to close our laptops and leave behind our blackberries to sit in the park and enjoy an hour of well-deserved sunshine.

With only 16% of employees taking a ‘proper’ lunch break (and by that we mean about an hour away from your desk at least three times every week), and the average break lasting no more than 27 minutes, the glorious sunshine is the perfect opportunity to grab your workmates and get outside.

It's really important to take breaks with colleagues (you’re allowed to ban work talk!) - sitting in the park or outside a pub, going out to buy sandwiches - because good social relationships lead to better working relationships.

Food is also a fantastic excuse to get to know people too. Perhaps other people in your office are just waiting for someone to be the first to take the lead and begin a Friday lunch club?! Don’t be shy!

If you’re stuck for inspiration, have a look at http://www.thebiglunch.com/. The Big Lunch is the baby of Tim Smit of the Eden Project and his idea is that on Sunday 19th July the people of Britain stop what they're doing and sit down to have lunch together.

You can organise a party for your street, and ask everyone to bring something with them, whether that be food, music, entertainment, or even plants they’ve grown in their garden. Register your lunch at http://www.thebiglunch.com/, and that way Sue and Bob from number 32 will know what you’re planning and can offer to bring one of Sue’s fruit cakes.

We think its an absolutely brilliant way to get to make new friends and have a bit of a giggle, so we’re going to throw a Big Lunch here for our neighbours.

To find out more and organise your own Big Lunch, go to http://www.thebiglunch.com/. But don’t let it stop there, make lunchtimes a habit and enjoy them. They’re your time so don’t waste it!

We also think it’s a great bit of joined up, joined in thinking on behalf of the brands that are involved. The Big Lunch is sponsored by Mastercard (click here to see their lovely advertising on YouTube) and supported by EDF Energy, Royal Mail and The Post Office.

If you have, or know of, a brand that is looking for a clever piece of integrated thinking to link their CSR strategy to their brand values and do great things for their reputation, email us at ideas@re-everything.com

Bruce Almighty

One of our favourite people at the moment is Bruce Parry. Not only have some of us harboured a healthy respect for him since the first series of Tribe, but last week he came to a book-signing session at one of our local bookshops, and since then, admittedly, that respect has become more of an unhealthy obsession.

In Bruce’s latest series, Amazon, he has travelled the length of the largest river in the world, living with shamans, cowboys, loggers, gold prospectors and conservationists.
His aim was to understand the importance of this great eco-system to the people who rely on it for survival, the impact of economic ‘development’ on the land and people, and the significance of their destruction to the rest of the world.

The Amazon is home to many of the world’s most precious commodities, such as gold, oil and timber, and naturally, there are many parties trying to capitalise on this wealth. In episode 5, Bruce and the team spend a few days with the LPA, a research group dedicated to understanding the interaction between the Amazon forest and the regional and global atmospheres. These scientists are trying to re-value the Amazon in a revolutionary way, as a carbon sink, in order to protect it from further destruction.

As awareness of climate change continues to build, we have begun to get used to the idea of trading in carbon. The Amazon rainforest could play a crucial role in the fight against climate change, if only we valued it properly.

Is it possible that we can change the things we do and do not consider valuable? It would require a global shift from coveting material possessions and wealth towards an emphasis on human life, the environment and a collective ambition to create a more sustainable world. According to research groups, that is exactly what is happening. Generation Y, those born between 1978 and 1998, already have a value system completely different from the generations before them. According to a study by workforce consultancy Talentsmoothie, this new generation of graduates ‘place more emphasis on quality of life than money, and are prepared to resign if their jobs are not fulfilling enough, with decent holidays and the opportunity to take long stretches off for charity work or travel’.

It remains to be seen whether this attitude can survive a recession, however, as awareness of global issues grows, surely our sense of global citizenship must grow too, and with that our desire to make a positive difference to the world.

And that is where people like our friend Bruce Parry come in, with the passion and the tools to inspire a generation of people about to make their mark on the business world of tomorrow.
As Bruce puts it, until we put more value on the things we take for granted – the environment, our cultural diversity, each other’s wellbeing – we will continue to destroy them.

www.bbc.co.uk/amazon

http://www.talentsmoothie.com/

Draw on your own creativity

“I will not Reason & Compare; my business is to Create”. William Blake

You often hear people say things like ‘I’m just not very creative’, or ‘I wish I could draw like that’, as though creativity of any kind were something that only a few people possess. Creativity is expressed in so many ways, whether that be through painting, writing, design, or in more everyday ways, like cooking, gardening, decorating or DIY. So what is to stop us from expressing that creativity another way? Usually, fear.

Somehow, when it comes to more ‘serious’ creative work, we feel we somehow need to be ‘qualified’ before we even get started. But the way we learn most of the most important life skills is through trial and error. It is mainly the fear of making mistakes, fear of embarrassing ourselves in public, of being humiliated, or ‘looking stupid’ that stops many of us from seeing ourselves as ‘creative’.

One of the simplest (and cheapest) creative mediums to begin with is drawing. The simple act of drawing is not just fun, it is thought by many to be a crucial part of learning as well as a form of self-expression. Art therapists believe that the creative process of drawing can help us to cope better with stress, work through traumatic experiences, increase cognitive abilities and have better relationships with family and friends. It helps us to develop a better understanding of ourselves and the way we relate to the people around us.

But if the thought of staring at a blank sheet of paper with a pencil in your hand terrifies you, why not pop along to an organised workshop?

From 1st to 31st October 2008, the Campaign for Drawing invites everyone to join in the Big Draw. Over 1000 venue, including; galleries, museums, science centres, heritage and environmental sites, libraries, archives, community and shopping centres, colleges, schools and art clubs, are hosting drawing activities for people of all abilities.

An educational charity, the Campaign sees drawing as a life skill: a vital tool for thinking, inventing and communicating, creativity, social and cultural engagement. The Big Draw proves that drawing is an enjoyable public activity as well as a private passion. It is inspired by the visionary Victorian artist and writer, John Ruskin, whose mission was not to teach people how to draw, but how to see.

So create something. Just sit down, grab a pencil and do whatever you want to do in an unschooled, amateurish way. Admittedly, your first doodles may not seem like much, but don’t give up, and don’t worry about what other people might think. No-one will judge you. While you may not be the next Picasso, you might just discover something about yourself, and at the very least you could clean up next time you play Pictionary.

To learn more about The Big Draw and the Campaign for Drawing, visit http://www.thebigdraw.org.uk/

And if you want to feel doubly good about doodling, check out these beautiful FSC certified pencils, profits from which go towards The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, who use art therapy to help the people they work with http://www.re-everything.com/resourceful/proddetail.php?prod=0031