As Chair of the environmental charity, Trees for Cities, trees are very close to my heart and I am encouraged by some recent good news stories for trees.  According to the Brazilian environment agency, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest fell dramatically last year due to to the increased use of satellite data to spot the felling of trees and  more sophisticated tactics to deter loggers.  Closer to home the Coalition Government has announced its intention to launch a national tree planting programme, and in the capital increasing London’s tree cover is a key element of Mayor Boris Johnson’s environmental strategy for a greener London.  At Green Rewards we are pleased to include various tree-themed gifts and rewards from two of the UK’s leading tree charities, The Woodland Trust and Trees for Cities, and personally I was honored to write the introduction for a wonderful new book “The Great Trees of London” which was

With Nick Clegg’s star turn in the first of the big debates, the election campaign does at last seem to be hotting up – however I have been disappointed by the lack of discussion so far from all the main parties and in the media on environmental issues.  Clearly the media and politicians alike are focusing attention on the issues which they believe the public are most concerned about such as immigration, but it will be a real missed opportunity if green policies are relegated to a side show - particularly as a holistic approach would put sustainability at the core of every issue from the economy to public services, etc.  In an attempt to raise the profile of the environment and get some more discussion going, I have highlighted below some of the key green pledges from the three main parties.  At Green Rewards we are keen to maintain a watching brief on how green issues are being covered throughout the campaign, so do please email me on

I love March as Spring and Summer are just round the corner and this is the month I can really get back out into my garden.  I’ve been rediscovering the delights of composting  and personally one of the most satisfying things for me as a gardener is to mix up all our old food waste with my garden waste and to spread it around the borders – maybe it’s just a man thing about spreading muck around!  It’s great to know that it’s all organic and my shrubs certainly seem to appreciate the attention…. 

Composting kitchen waste is particularly satisfying and really helps to make me and my family think about food waste – the Government agency WRAP has got a good campaign going, Love Food Hate Waste and really everyone with a garden should be composting their kitchen waste.  One of our top-selling products is the

"Breakage" was a word I used to associate with my kids dropping dishes on the kitchen floor until I was getting Green Rewards set up.  With a lot of help from Tony Clarke, a wonderful man very experienced in the loyalty sector who successfully built ICLP up into one of the leading loyalty consulting businesses, I now understand that "breakage" has a particular meaning for loyalty programmes; it's the amount of reward points issued that are never likely to be redeemed. 

A recent investigation by Money Mail claims that in the UK there is an estimated £4bn worth of unredeemed rewards which around 4 million of us are sitting on.  This strikes me as a shocking statistic - imagine what good could be achieved with all those unspent points if they were converted into charitable giving.  £4bn is around 10% of total charitable income each year in the UK and this kind of money could make a huge differen

With all the snow on the ground, those peddling the notion that global warming is a myth are having a bit of a field day. Their argument runs something like this – ‘Look, we told you so – it’s the coldest winter for years, the country hasn’t seen so much snow in a lifetime, so tell us, George Monbiot and fellow Guardian readers, where does that leave global warming?’ Well, it would be convenient if they were right, but as Al Gore has so eloquently pointed out, global warming is an inconvenient truth. The fact is that weather is different to climate, so whilst I sit here writing this and look out on the rare and wonderful sight of my back

The run up to Christmas has seen the world’s attention focused on Copenhagen and whilst there are many like me who would liked to have seen binding targets on carbon emissions agreed at Copenhagen, it was at least encouraging to see world leaders coming together around climate change and agreeing some broad principles. Our view at Green Rewards is that pressure will continue to mount in 2010 from the bottom up as people around the world become increasingly concerned about the impact of global warming. In an online survey of 500+ people in the UK carried out in late 2009 jointly by us and Market Evolution Ltd, there were some encouraging findings:

• 76% said that green and ethical considerations are very important or quite important in their daily life (e.g. how they dispose of waste, how they use energy, how they shop, etc);
• 77% of those questioned said that

Having just come from a fascinating discussion on peat issues with Carlo Laurenzi, an old friend who runs London Wildlife Trust, Becky Milligan from the BBC who’s done some excellent pieces on carbon and climate change, and Rob Stoneman who’s one of the leading lights on peat – Rob’s day job is running Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, but he also chairs the National Peat Partnership - I’m now beginning to see why peat is such a big issue.

When it comes to climate change, peat is in many ways Europe’s own rainforest.  We all now know that the world’s rainforests act as vast carbon sinks and play a key role in regulating the global climate, and in a similar way, peat bogs are vast natural reserves of stored carbon.  As these ancient peat bogs are dug up or allowed to dry out, harmful carbon emissions are released into the Earth’s atmosphere.  It has been estimated that the organic carbon st

With some excitement and trepidation I’m rather belatedly embracing the world of blogging!  I’ve always wondered why people who write blogs think that other people will want to read them, and it seems to me that bloggers fall into three categories – celebrities with a willing fan base (hence the popularity of Stephen Fry’s blog); people with a knack for unearthing scandal; and people with a passion for an issue – well, I’m firmly in the passion for an issue camp.

Having spent the last 12 years of my working life building up the environmental charity Trees for Cities LINK and a stint before that working on social and environmental issues at the Royal Society of Arts I’ve become increasingly immersed in sustainability, and in my view we are