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Ohme is celebrating the introduction to its range of the all-new Ohme ePod untethered charger.

As an untethered charger, the new ePod will provide universal charging for all electric vehicles and help Ohme to expand its reach into new markets, particularly those in the new build environment.

Ohme has already made progress in these new markets becoming the official charger provider for many developers such as Harron Homes and Hollins Homes. Furthermore, Ohme is also part of the House of the Future project at the University of Salford alongside Saint-Gobain, Barratt and Bellway to provide the low carbon homes of the future.

“We are very excited to be introducing the all-new Ohme ePod untethered charger to the market,” explained David Watson, CEO at Ohme. “The ePod will open up new markets for us and boasts all of the functionality of our award-winning Home Pro but in an untethered package giving customers greater choice than ever before.”

The new ePod joins Ohme’s highly successful Home Pro smart charger which helped Ohme to be one of the UK’s fastest growing smart charging companies in 2022. The new Ohme ePod features the same technology as the Home Pro for those after an untethered charger without the charging cable attached. Using the class-leading Ohme app, the ePod gives Ohme customers the choice between tethered and untethered for the first time.

It means that ePod customers can also take advantage of Ohme’s ability with its smart charging technology to connect with the national grid in real time and automatically adjust its charging for drivers to take advantage of all the times of low price charging with smart off-peak tariffs.

Charging a Volkswagen ID. Buzz from zero to 100 per cent with an Ohme ePod on a smart off-peak tariff, such as Octopus Intelligent, could cost just £7.70 compared to more than £26 on the Standard Variable Tariff*.

Ohme also offers drivers the option to charge their car when renewable energy generation on the National Grid is at its highest, further lowering their CO2 impact.

Ohme is the official charger provider for the Volkswagen Group in the UK as well as Motability Operations, the largest fleet operator in the UK, and has been named as the Best Electric Charging Point Provider by Business Motoring.

* Octopus Intelligent at 10p/kWh, SVT at 34p/kWh

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Our award-winning plant based nail polishes and treatments are kinder and cleaner and make a perfect Mother’s Day gift.  Our nail polishes are £7.99 each and collections are priced at £24.95.

Check out our wide range of natural origin and vegan products at www.earthynailpolish.com 

The beauty of the bottle: We have developed a bamboo cap that seals the bottle to ensure not only the  longevity of the nail polish but also replace a single use only plastic cap.

Our bamboo cap is decomposable and highly sustainable due to the following facts;

1 – Bamboo is a grass

2 – Bamboo absorbs five times the amount of carbon dioxide as trees

3 – Bamboo self regenerates in 3-4 months

4 – Bamboo contains natural antibacterial and antimicrobial properties5

5 – Bamboo produces 35% more oxygen than trees

The production background:

• All of our nail polishes and treatments are produced with a platinum 2020 Ecovadis Sustainability rating.
• Removal of all plastic inner and outer production packaging.
• Removal of all excess packaging.
• Limited level of VOC emissions and optimized extraction lowering the impact on the environment.
• 97% of hazardous raw materials, 83% of the total waste are recycled, and 100% of industrial wastewaters are treated.
• A waste management policy that promotes reusable tanks and drums and recycling of solvents for cleaning operations.

Treat your Mum this Mother’s Day with a wonderful new collection of nail polish.

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• New research from the bank reveals 65 million unused plastic cards are gathering dust in UK homes 
• Confusion over whether plastic cards are recyclable has contaminated 10.2 million batches of recycling 
• NatWest is calling on Londoners to recycle their old plastic cards, card readers and bottles using the new machines, located at Victoria Place, Canary Wharf Shopping Centre and in partnership with the NHS at Thomas and Guys Hospital 

The latest research from NatWest reveals a lack of recycling options for plastic payment, gift and loyalty cards has created over 380 tonnes of plastic card waste since 2017, equivalent to 211 stampeding elephants. 

NatWest has today launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Reverse Vending Machines’ offering a secure, eco-friendly way to recycle unused plastic cards of which there are 65 million gathering dust in peoples’ homes, or sat idly in their wallets and bags. The new machine will also accept card readers and plastic bottles for recycling.  In their new London locations, the Reverse Vending Machines are free to use for everybody, regardless of whether they are a NatWest customer.  

The design, manufacture and trial of the bespoke Reverse Vending Machines began in the wake of COP26 and are now launching to the public, available initially in London, one of the UK’s plastic pollution hubs. The first machines will be situated at Victoria Place and Canary Wharf Shopping Centres, offering easy access to shoppers and commuters. Two machines will also be placed in Guys and St Thomas’ Hospitals, in partnership with the NHS. 

This follows trials last year at NatWest’s Edinburgh and London offices, where over 35,000 cards and 2,000 bottles gathered from testing sites have already been recycled into over 3,000 hats and pairs of socks. Over 400 of these garments were donated to Social Bite in December as part of their ‘Festival of Kindness’ for homeless and vulnerable communities in London. 

The pilot launch builds on the recent introduction of NatWest’s environmentally friendly debit and credit cards made of 86% recycled material – a move expected to save over 50 tonnes of PVC plastic. 

The research also found that: 

• 62% of consumers have unused payment, gift and loyalty cards lying around at home 
• Over 6.6 million people wrongly assume that plastic cards are recyclable via traditional methods. 
• More than 76 million payment, loyalty and gift cards (380 tonnes of plastic) have ended up in UK landfills by default in the last five years 
• Confusion whether or not you could recycle plastic cards has led to the contamination of an estimated 10.2 million batches of recycling, due to well-intentioned consumers throwing their cards into recycling bins 
• With 68% of people citing personal security as a main concern when binning their old payment cards, the practice of cutting them up and scattering the pieces across various bins to avoid fraud only exacerbates the problem, contaminating several batches of recycling at one time. 
  
   Alison Rose, CEO at NatWest Group said: “Recycling our plastic cards and card readers are just two simple ways to make a positive impact on plastic pollution in the UK.  
  But we know that the recycling guidance can be unclear for customers due to the security concerns of council-run recycling pick-ups. That’s why we are tackling this issue head-on by piloting our Reverse Vending Machines near London’s busiest transport hubs and largest hospitals and introducing sustainable credit and debit cards to all our customers. 
  I urge local commuters, shoppers and passers-by from across London to search their homes for expired plastic cards, and join us in shifting the dial on plastic pollution in the UK’s capital city.” 
   
  
  About the Reverse Vending Machines 
  
  NatWest’s Reverse Vending Machines have been launched in partnership with leading sustainability brand Reborn. As the world’s first public banking machines designed to ‘eat’ users’ payment plastic items deliberately, with 68% of people citing personal security as a main concern when binning their old payment cards, the purpose-built unit recycles plastic cards and card readers in a fraud-secure and sustainable process, reflective of NatWest’s growing focus on the circular economy.  
  
  Each card is shredded to wipe consumers’ details from the item, before the pieces are securely stored, only accessible by a designated driver. After pickup, the waste makes its way to a recycling plant via an electric vehicle to become something new. The first batches from the pilot phase of NatWest’s Reverse Vending Machine rollout are being repurposed into hats and socks for London’s homeless population. 

Using integrated blockchain technology which links to a purpose-built dashboard, it is possible to track what the plastic from each machine has been made into and the carbon and energy saved as a result. 

Founder of Reborn, Zak Johnson, said,“As plastic pollution continues to grow around the world it is now more important than ever to adjust our behaviour as humans and find better ways of recycling. The first step in most recycling is us, the consumer, so our mission has been to make recycling as simple and as easy as possible, placing Reverse Vending Machines in places you’re likely to pass to encourage use. We’re so excited to be embarking on this journey with NatWest and can’t wait to turn consumers’ plastic cards, card readers and bottles into reusable materials and even clothing.”

The launch of the Reverse Vending Machines marks the latest addition to NatWest’s growing sustainability manifesto, including newly launched environmentally-friendly debit and credit cards made from 86% recycled materials, in-app carbon footprint tracking for consumers to help visualise the emissions generated by shopping decisions, staff uniforms made from sustainable fabrics and recycled plastics and an ongoing partnership with The Conservation Volunteers Group to plant 130,000 trees in 2022.  

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Iconic Episodes To Go Live On The Wombles YouTube Channel today.

This weekend, the UK’s most-loved children’s characters, The Wombles, are celebrating 50 years since they first appeared on television in 1973, with a special series of events that will see the beloved characters re-connect with new audiences and amplify their relevance to new generations. 

To kick off proceedings, 10 of the original 60 five-minute episodes will be available to watch on The Wombles YouTube channel (@WomblesOfficial) from Sunday 5th February 2023. 

Undoubtedly ahead of their time, The Wombles’ motto “Make Good Use Of Bad Rubbish” and their passion for recycling and upcycling, is more relevant than ever as younger generations continue to learn about the importance of sustainability.

The episodes have been remastered and the resolution upscaled to HD from the original beta cam masters and look and sound better than ever and will be available to watch on The Wombles YouTube channel @womblesofficial . The remaining episodes will be released throughout the year. The Wombles have also announced a year-long partnership with Age UK and will be launching a host of events across the country.

Since coming out of hibernation at the beginning of 2022, Wimbledon Common’s The Wombles have featured in a wide range of environmental campaigns including the annual Great British Spring Clean, #EcoSchoolsAtHome, WRAP’s recycling initiatives, tree planting, beach cleaning and upcycling and were the UK government’s mascots at COP26. In a YouGov survey conducted in 2021 64% of UK adults agreed that ‘because of the environmental crisis across the world, The Wombles are more relevant today than ever.’

The Wombles – furry creatures who lived in The Burrow on Wimbledon Common and included Great Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco, Madame Cholet – were the original environmental campaigners. They first appeared in a series of children’s novels in 1968 by Elisabeth Beresford.

The characters were all based on Elisabeth’s family members and the name and idea for the much-loved environmental pioneers was sparked when the author’s daughter Kate mispronounced Wimbledon Common during a walk as ‘Wombledon’.

Animated by Ivor Wood and Barry Leith, narrated by Bernard Cribbins and with the theme tune composed by Mike Batt, the series, based on Elisabeth’s books, was voted by the British public as one the top 10 most popular BBC TV children’s programmes of all time. 

Speaking about the 50th anniversary and his mother Elisabeth’s iconic characters, Marcus Robertson said: “‘Since first appearing on BBC 50 years ago The Wombles have always been loved both for their hard work clearing up behind untidy humans, but also for their warmth and their occasional foibles. Mum would be very happy that they still appeal to many people of different generations around the world. The Wombles work is never finished and more relevant than ever.”

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Great Britain’s first ‘anywhere to anywhere’ travel app has been launched to reward people with money-saving vouchers for travelling green, using public transport, walking or cycling. The free-to-use app, called Sojo, has been created by Swiss global innovators, Axon Vibe in partnership with UK-based Raileasy the split ticket consumer champions.

George Sikking, Chief Executive of Raileasy, said, “With 92%* of Brits thinking about how they can save money and 75%** concerned about climate change, we just knew that there was a marketplace for something which would tackle both. Sojo is an absolute win-win, rewarding people financially for saving the earth’s natural resources. We think that the climate conscious people of Great Britain will love it”.

Sojo GB is Great Britain’s first nationwide sustainable travel, incentives & rewards app, is free to use and, once you’ve given it your permission, it intelligently transforms your journeys into rewards without your data being seen by or sold to anyone. The app works anonymously behind the scenes and, as a thank you for choosing to travel sustainably, it will trigger vouchers from retail partners providing offers such as a free coffee, a pastry or other exclusive clothing & leisure deals all offered in the context of your regular journeys.

Jeremy Acklam, Managing Director of Axon Vibe in the UK, said, “We are thrilled to have collaborated with Raileasy. We firmly believe that Sojo is the solution which will benefit thousands of travellers across Great Britain. Our global Sojo Initiative incentivises people to travel more responsibly and helps to reduce the effects of climate change as they go about their regular lives”, he continued, “The Sojo GB app offers cost savings to encourage people back onto the rail network and personalised rewards which will help High Street businesses thrive”.

The app enables seamless journey planning from door to door, and you can buy a great value rail ticket, hire a bike or book a taxi, where available, across the whole country. Over 4 continents, in Cities like New York and Tokyo, Sojo has already demonstrated the behaviour change that is so vital to the future of the planet, and it is now available in Great Britain.

To access the app simply go to your preferred app store and download Sojo GB.

The website link is: www.sojoapp.com

Download for iOS and Android 

 * According to the Office for National Statistics, 92% of adults in Great Britain reported an increase in their cost of living in November-December 2022.

** According to the Office for National Statistics, 75% of adults said in October 2022 they made a lot or some lifestyle changes to help tackle climate change.

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New UK houseplant grower makes plants even greener

Geb & Green is the first UK houseplant company to grow at scale without using peat

Think your houseplants are already green? Think again. Brand new houseplant grower Geb & Green is on a mission to make houseplants up and down the country even greener, thanks to their plants being grown without using peat right here in the UK.
 

Geb & Green is the only houseplant company in the UK growing at scale that doesn’t use peat as a growing medium, making sustainable, environmentally friendly plants easily accessible to plant parents who want to make the conscious choice when it comes to their plant babies.
 

For many of us, choosing to fill our homes with beautiful, lush plants is a way to bring nature inside, improve the quality of the air we breathe and reap the plentiful health, wellness and aesthetic benefits that houseplants provide.
 

But behind our UK houseplants is an industry that is damaging our environment more than most of us realise. The majority of houseplants sold in the UK are imported as mature plants and grown using peat[i], a natural carbon store that is extracted for use as a growing medium.

Every year in the UK, peatlands release more carbon than all of the HGVs on our roads combined and globally, damaged peatlands are emitting 6% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Suddenly, those beautiful green plants don’t look quite so green.
 

Will Clayton, one of the founders of Geb & Green, said: “Many people simply don’t know about the negative effect that extracting peat has on our environment and that houseplants are contributing to climate change by using peat as a growing medium.
 

As a nation we are all becoming so much more conscious of our environmental impact, switching to recyclable materials instead of plastic, driving electric vehicles and being mindful of our carbon footprint, but what lots of people aren’t aware of is that the very item they expect to be green, in fact is quite the opposite.
 

We set up Geb & Green as we weren’t aware of any UK houseplant grower cultivating plants at scale without using peat as a growing medium and saw an opportunity to make it easier for people to buy UK grown plants and stop damaging our peatlands, which are unfortunately at huge risk.
 

My family has been in the horticulture industry for 25 years, most recently growing and selling ornamental flowers, but I knew I wanted to put our glasshouses to better use, to grow plants in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way that would make a contribution towards restoring our valuable peatlands. By making one simple change and only buying houseplants grown in the UK without using peat as a growing medium, UK consumers can contribute positively to reducing our carbon emissions.”
 

Kate Brown, Co-founder and Marketing Director at Geb & Green, said: “As a mum of two young children, the legacy we are leaving for the generations to come is hugely important to me and when I started exploring peat extraction and the use of peat to grow plants, I knew I wanted to be part of Geb & Green’s mission to transform the houseplant industry.
 

All of Geb & Green’s plants are grown right here in the UK, in a peat free growing medium using environmentally friendly growing techniques to make our plants some of the greenest in the UK. We know that people are passionate about their plants, and with Geb & Green consumers now have a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative when choosing plants for their homes.”
 

Geb & Green’s houseplants are available to buy online at www.gebandgreen.co.uk.

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·       Paula’s Choice launches free recycling programme in the UK to recycle its skincare packaging

·       The move follows the success of a similar programme in the US

·       The programme is available to all consumers to sign up to and raise funds for good causes in the process

Global personal care brand, Paula’s Choice Skincare, and international recycling leader TerraCycle have today announced the launch of the Paula’s Choice Skincare Free Recycling Programme in the UK.

The partnership enables consumers to recycle their empty Paula’s Choice Skincare packaging by visiting https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/paulas-choice-uk and becoming a programme member. Anyone can collect their empty Paula’s Choice Skincare packaging, including the brand’s skincare bottles, tubes, caps, pumps, droppers and applicators, at home, download a free shipping label, package the empty items in a box, and send it free-of-charge to TerraCycle to be recycled into new products.

By saving these items from landfills and sending them to TerraCycle to be recycled, consumers will also be able to earn points that can be converted to donations for the non-profit, school or charitable organisation of their choice.

The news of this scheme follows the successful launch of a similar programme in the US.

Frans Jansen, Director of Operations, Paula’s Choice Europe: “Caring for people and our planet is just as important to us as caring for our skin. As part of our sustainability commitment, we are excited to partner with Terracycle to help reduce plastic waste. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to recycle skincare packaging in kerbside recycling systems. We are proud to offer our customers in the UK the possibility to recycle their empties through our collaboration with Terracycle.”

Julien Tremblin, General Manager, TerraCycle Europe said: “We are very excited to be working with Paula’s Choice in the UK. The programme has been a great success in the US and we are thrilled to be able to offer consumers in the UK a sustainable solution for their Paula’s Choice Skincare packaging.”

https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/

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In first place is Ford, who currently has a reported 30 car models with vegan-friendly details and more eco-friendly swaps upon request. The Ford Fiesta has without a doubt continued to be one of the best-selling cars in the UK for years, with the popularity also extending across Europe. The latest models all come with non-leather seats as standard, including the Style, Zetec, B&O Play Zetec and Ford EcoBoost.

All Fiestas, with the exception of the Style (Base Model), are fitted with leather steering wheels, however, these can be replaced with a non-leather alternative upon request, whilst the Ford Mustang Mach-E comes standard with all-vegan interiors, including a vegan steering wheel. 

The 2023 release of the electric F-150 Lightning truck also features seat cushions made from soy foam and vegan leather covers, with seals and gaskets coming from recycled tyres. The upcoming 2024 Electric Bronco also follows the same trend, featuring vegan leather as standard.

Honda places second, including the CR-V and HR-V which come with vegan interiors as standard, alongside offering vegan-friendly interior options on specific Civic and Jazz models. 

Also making the Top 5 is Mercedes-Benz, with a total of 19 models with vegan-friendly attributes. The B-Class, A, CLA Coupé, CLA Shooting Brake and V-Class all come with a vegan interior as standard, whilst the Smart Fortwo is leather-free. 

When it comes to the electric range, the 2023 EQS and EQE both come with a vegan interior as standard, and the VISION EQXX (2024 release) will be constructed with an interior made from mushroom and cactus ‘leather’, bamboo and bio-based vegan silk to create a pioneering luxury interior that is also environmentally friendly. 

This study is based on car models that either come with vegan-friendly interiors used as standard, or vegan-friendly materials available upon request. It is important to note that no car is 100% vegan, yet. According to Dominika Piasecka, a spokesperson for the Vegan Society: 

“The bottom line is that there’s no such thing as a 100% vegan car, unfortunately. The key with veganism is trying to do your best. It’s not possible to be 100% vegan in this imperfect world but we can avoid animal suffering as much as possible. Avoiding leather is a practical thing we can do while buying a car, while we can’t of course avoid tyres or steel.”

If you would like to see more on this story, please visit – https://www.dicklovett.co.uk/news/vegan-friendly-cars

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Ohme is now the official EV charging partner for the Energy House 2.0 house of the future project unveiled last week at the University of Salford.

The only one of its kind in the world, the Energy House 2.0 is a unique and innovative £16-million research laboratory, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. The laboratory, the largest facility of its type, has an environmental chamber able to contain two detached houses in recreated and controlled weather conditions.

Fitted to the houses inside the chambers, Ohme EV smart chargers will weather temperatures ranging between -20°C to +40°C as well as simulated rain, snow and solar radiation. The conditions will help Ohme and other partners of the project such as Bellway, Saint-Gobain and Barratt to work together creating a blueprint for future houses to provide the low carbon homes of the future.

“At Ohme we’re very excited to be part of the Energy House 2.0 project and this view into the future of our housing,” said Ohme CEO, David Watson. “The built environment accounts for 25 per cent of the UK’s carbon footprint and together with Ohme’s chargers, this project will help to accelerate progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design.”

As well as helping to reduce the carbon footprint of new homes with the Energy House 2.0, Ohme chargers also offer drivers the option to charge their car when renewable energy generation on the National Grid is at its highest, further lowering a driver’s CO2 impact.

All of Ohme’s chargers can take advantage of Ohme’s smart charging technology to connect with the national grid in real time and automatically adjust their charging for drivers to take advantage of all the times of low price charging with smart off-peak tariffs.

Ohme is the official charger provider for both the Volkswagen Group in the UK and Motability Operations, the largest fleet operator in the UK, and has been named as the Best Electric Charging Point Provider by Business Motoring. Furthermore, Ohme has just passed the rigorous industry standard certifications for ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 for monitoring quality processes and information security.

* Octopus Intelligent at 10p/kW, SVT at 34p/kW

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• Repton Gardens will embrace nature by bringing the outdoors in
• Spacious apartments designed to appeal to families and sharers
• Array of amenities includes gym, club room, home-working offices, terraces and extensive gardens

Quintain Living – the award-winning management company overseeing the rental of more than 3,250 apartments in Wembley Park – has shared a first look at its next development, Repton Gardens. The company’s tenth rental building in Wembley Park, Repton Gardens is also its most sustainable, with 396 apartments offering nature-inspired accommodation.

Sustainability features include rainwater harvesting, low-flow showers, toilets and taps and furnishings that prioritise recycling, reusability and with minimal delivery miles. Removal of waste has been designed to encourage recycling with an ‘Envac’ waste and recycling system on every floor. Envac is an innovative automated waste collection and sorting system that delivers cleaner, healthier urban environments. It supports increased recycling levels and reduces the number of vehicles needed to remove refuse and recycling thanks to an extensive underground pipe network.

Ranging in size from studios to four-bedroom homes that are ideal for families and sharers, the apartments at Repton Gardens come in two colour palettes: ‘nature’ and ‘garden’. Browns, greens and greys abound, with textures used to add to the natural feel. Biophilic design brings nature indoors, with extensive planting used to enhance air quality and wellbeing.

Out in the podium garden, banked earthworks allow for the inclusion of larger trees, for the benefit of insects and birds, with lawned areas, two playparks and hireable BBQ/dining areas making the space particularly versatile.

The podium garden, with its extensive greenery, is the epicentre of Repton Gardens, with the development’s three buildings – Birch House, Cherry House and Aspen House – all with private balconies overlooking it. The extensive shared social spaces also front onto the gardens, with terraces incorporating a range of seating connecting the indoor and outdoor areas.

Inside, the club room features a pool table, a bar with wine and beer on tap, soft seating and a TV area. There is a 1,150 square foot gym overlooking the podium, while Repton Gardens also provides a work-from-home suite with ten hireable offices and a meeting room.

In total, Repton Gardens provides 40 different layout choices, including some homes with dedicated homeworking areas and others with half-bedrooms, popular in other Quintain Living buildings for activities like morning yoga. This creates a wealth of possibilities for modern renters, enabling them to find the ideal layout to suit their particular needs.

“There is no ‘one size fits all’ at Repton Gardens. The needs of families and sharers are very diverse, so our apartments are as well. These nature-inspired homes prioritise sustainable living, with plants brought into the building to create a flow of greenery from outside to in.”

Danielle Bayless, Chief Operating Officer, Quintain Living

The first residents will be able to move into Repton Gardens from mid-December 2022.