Wedding Cake

The bakers did themselves proud today – a 24inch whopper

keith

Oxfam Ireland – Fairtrade online

There are a number of challenges in niche markets (the subject of my talk at Barcamp Ireland) and these include:

• making money
• getting your message across
• distribution

Fairtrade has come a long way since the days of what was genuinely horrible instant coffee in the 1980’s. The products these days are acceptable to a western audience while still containing references to the cultures they come out of.

Distribution, especially in a country like Ireland, is still an issue. A couple of years ago Oxfam pulled their fairly traded goods out of the majority of stores (I guess issues around logistics were big there) and focused them on a couple of key outlets in Ireland. Which was great from a quality and presentation point of view but lousy for those of us who do not live in the major cities.

Today they have taken the logical step of launching an online store for Ireland. They are accompanying that with some net savvy marketing techniques (contacting blogs both in advance and on the day and runnng an adsense campaign) so the marketing challenge is (partially at least) being tackled in the digital world.

If you are looking for anything from coffee to corporate gifts to toys for the children for Christmas or even jewellery and crafts have a look at www.oxfamirelandshop.org

Well done to Oxfam Ireland and to Karl Cronin, the webmaster behind this. (originally posted in Pure Play)

keith

Where does our power come from

One of the things I struggle with is the arguments put forward by learned men (usually economists who detail the case for nuclear power as a saviour from the greenhouse effect. Given that power is up there with food and transport as one of the 3 main spending categories for consumers this is something where a strong contrary voice is needed.

From the  Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) comes a link to reserch published by the German Federal Ministry. The following piece is taken from the TREC page

A new report (‘TRANS-CSP‘) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety has calculated that solar electricity imported from CSP plants in North Africa and the Middle East would be one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, and that includes the costs of transmitting it. Supplies would be very much less vulnerable to interruption than are current imports of gas, oil and uranium. The main conclusions of the TRANS-CSP report are described in the press release ‘New report shows how Europe can make deep cuts in CO2 emissions and phase out nuclear power at the same time’.

keith

The Good Shopping Guide

Now in its 5th edition this printed guide gives you information on a variety of background activities and ratings for businesses. It can be ordered from the Ethical Company Org and they are also responsible for the online version of same.

Called Gooshing it allows you to do searches by product category and presents results ranked by ethical score. It makes money by affiliate links to the online stores you can use to purchase your chosen item.

keith