Did you know that laptops use loads less energy than desktop PCs? You didn’t? Well then, isn’t it just the perfect excuse to buy the laptop you’ve always wanted. If you need any more persuasion, here are some ideas. If you aren’t endowed with an abundance of space in your home, it takes up much less of the space you do have. You can easily put it away each time you finish with it, and it’s super handy to take away with you on weekends or holidays, to save you having to try and find internet cafes to send that email home (long live wi-fi).

Decision made? Well, all that remains to be done is to find the greenest laptop that you can lay your hands on.

The choices available to UK consumers are not as wide as those available in the US, but there are still a couple of laptops on this side of the Atlantic that are worth their weight in green.

Apple Macbook Air

The Macbook Air is the greenest laptop that Apple has ever produced. It’s not quite the greenest laptop out there (according to Greenpeace the Sony TZ is tops, see below), but it does have the edge on other Mac products and it’s green credentials aren’t bad at all. Here are a few eco-friendly facts about the Macbook Air from Eco-Chick Starre Vartan’s blog post on the subject:

It’s got an aluminum case, which makes it easy to recycle

Mercury- and Arsenic-free display

The circuit boards are PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and BFR (bromine) free

Less packaging waste; packaging was reduced by 56%

It’s as skinny as it looks: 0.76 inches at the thickest part, and just 0.16 inches at the thinnest. It’s so slim Jobs slid it inside one of those manila office envelopes. And not very heavy either, which makes it light on your shoulders when you have to lug it around all day, and also costs less in CO2 emissions to ship to you…

Sony Vaio TZ series

Not quite as thin as the Macbook Air, the Sony Vaio TZ series does outdo the Air in other categories, according to Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.

Wired reports that: “Sony’s TZ series of 11.1″ subnotebooks are singled out for praise in Greenpeace’s latest guide to greener electronics, but the company itself was edged out by Samsung, Toshiba and Nokia in the overall runnings. The TZ, newly garbage-free when it comes to pre-installed applications, is also free of another kind of garbage — beryllium — which landed it the top spot in the advocacy group’s roundup of green machines.”

What fantastic news! Gordon Brown has allocated £100 billion to boost renewable energy and said that he wants the UK to be a leader in renewable energy.

Ever since Gordon took over as PM it has seemed that he’s given with one hand and taken away with the other. First it was the aviation tax that didn’t materialise, then the tiny tax-hike for gas-guzzlers and finally the absence of big grants for domestic green energy production that we’d all expected. Well, it seems that Gordon has finally made good on those green promises he made in the run-up to the last budget with this grand gesture.

We can expect to see an extra 4,000 onshore and 3,000 offshore turbines than originally planned, and there has been talk of up to 160,000 new jobs through the promotion of renewable energy and the manufacture of its components.

Let’s hope that the government can deliver on its promises this time.

Plastic bags from shops, the sort that we’re given every time we buy something, have become a huge problem for sea life who mistake them for jelly fish and eat them. Now I know that you are not dumping your plastic bags in the ocean, but somehow, thousands of them find their way to the coast by being blown there or being carried down by river and they are responsible for sea creatures dying in their thousands every year.

Planet Ark reports that plastic bags, once ingested, can’t be digested so they stay in the gut preventing food digestion and leading to a very slow and painful death.

Fortunately for us, there’s a very stylish alternative to plastic bags. So you can look great while you’re helping to save the dolphins and turtles. To help you get kitted out with shopping bags, here are my pick of some of the coolest bags available.

Cambodian Recycled Rice Bag

Eco-friendly, reusable, reversible and eye-catching, you can’t fault these fantastic shopping bags. If you aren’t already sold on them, here’s something that I know will tip you over the edge. They’re not made in sweatshops. Oh no! They’re made by an organisation who provide shelter, education and employment to vulnerable women. Isn’t that just the coolest? Fair trade all the way baby! (£12.95 each)

Earth Fair Trade Shopping Bag

I just love products that display their Fair Trade credentials for all to see. It’s the perfection of advertising as far as I’m concerned, using something that can be so destructive for a good cause. This cute bag features a Fair Trade Bag logo surrounded by jaunty figures on the front and has delicate beads hanging off one strap. Buying this bag helps to fund health-related projects in India. (£7.00)

Truly Radley Deeply Recycled Tote Bag

Oh-so understated! This stylish bag is easy on the eye, and easy on the planet. It’s made of 100% post consumer waste plastic bottles and features a ‘Truly Radley Deeply’ print with ‘Please Recycle Me’ motifs. It folds up tiny to fit in your handbag, ready to whip it out whenever you find yourself being asked by a shop assistant whether you’d like a plastic bag. You can say “No!” (£20.00)

Buying gifts can present all sorts of problems, from not knowing the person well enough, to not putting enough thought into the gift until it’s too late and being forced to buy whatever you can on the way through to the party or occasion. So I was delighted to find this gift bag, already made up, that offers a gift that just about any adult will enjoy, will bring attention to Fairtrade, and that supports Fairtrade.

John Lewis has put together The Fairtrade Bag (£40.00) and will deliver it to you (or to the lucky recipient of your gift) for FREE.

The bag itself is a robust hessian and rope tote bag that’s perfect for shopping or for picnics. And it’s filled with scrumptious Fairtrade goodies including:

* A fresh and zesty Fairhills Colombard/Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from South Africa, 750ml

* Forest Fairtrade dried tropical fruit mix, 125g

* Zuma Fairtrade dark hot chocolate, 2x 28g

* Burnt Sugar original crumbly fudge

* Fairtrade wild blossom honey, 340g

* Organic Seed & Bean Company lime chocolate, 60g

* Percol organic Arabica coffee, 250g

* Doves Farm organic apple and sultana flapjacks, 5x 40g

Remember, you’re only guaranteed to be getting Fairtrade if the Fairtrade mark is on the product.

And if you’ve been the recipient of a gift, Fairtrade or otherwise, here’s another way to raise the profile of Fairtrade while saying thank you.  Use one of these “Faces of Fairtrade” cards as your thank you card, and you may inspire those who hadn’t thought of it to buy Fairtrade next time.

The BBC have picked up where Channel 4 pulled out with tomorrow’s Panorama programme. Channel 4 had scheduled “The Devil Wears Primark” to run on the 1st of June, but pulled the programme at the last minute. This Monday (23rd June), the BBC will be looking into Primark’s claims that they can produce cheap clothing without using cheap sweatshop labour. When the BBC presented the findings of it’s documentary “Primark on the rack” to Primark, the firm sacked three of its suppliers and set up a children’s foundation. So it seems that all may not have been as hunky-dory as Primark had claimed it was. Find out more by watching BBC 1 tomorrow night at 9pm.

To be sure that the clothes that you’re buying haven’t been made by exploiting the less fortunate, stick to Fairtrade whenever possible.

This weekend’s not looking much like summer if you’re in the London area. Still, as the science of weather forecasting isn’t always as accurate as the certainty that the UK’s weather is pretty unpredictable, it’s probably a good idea to be prepared for all eventualities. That said, here are some ideas for your weekend, no matter what the weather.

If it rains…

ShopGreen has a great selection of organic wines just perfect for staying in. Come to think of it, they’re pretty great for taking out too, to barbecues, and round to friends for lunch. Drinking organic wines means you are supporting the environment rather than supporting the poisoning of it, and the same goes for your body. Drink organic, avoid pesticides.

Add a bottle of organic massage oil and some Fairtrade chocolates into the mix, and you may just be in for rather a special weekend indeed, regardless of the weather.

If it shines…

Well then, the city’s your oyster. How about a picnic in the park on a recycled wood picnic rug with some biodegradable picnic ware? Sound good? Just add organic snacks and you’ve got the ultimate green picnic, just be sure to take the public transport to get you there, or maybe ride your bike.

And remember, it’s easier than ever to be a cyclist in the capital now, so why not give it a try.

If you’re keen to do your bit to prevent climate change and reduce excess waste, you’ll be comforted to know that by living in the United Kingdom you’ve got it really easy compared to elsewhere in the world. In South Africa, for example, instead of kerbside recycling by the local council, it falls to concerned individuals to organise recycling collections from their homes, and concerned organisations to provide this much needed service. From what I can tell, there are precious few of these services available to householders. Most people who want to recycle have to take their recycling to one of the few recycling depots, and we’re not talking every supermarket car park here.

So, while counting your lucky stars that all you need to do is drag your wheelie bin or other council provided recycling receptacle to the kerb once a week or fortnightly on the allotted day, spare a thought for those who don’t have it so easy. And if you aren’t doing all you can to reduce waste and recycle all you can, perhaps knowing that most of the work is already being done for you will provide you with the encouragement you need to give it a bit more effort.

Should you need some additional encouragement because you hate having empty cereal boxes and plastic milk bottles lying around the kitchen, have a look at this great recycling system that will help keep your your recyclables under control while they’re waiting to be taken outside.

This stackable system takes up very little floor space, and with the different coloured boxes and transparent side-opening lids, makes sorting and separating your recyclables extremely simple. Perfect for in the kitchen or right by the back door.

Remember, the easier you make it on yourself to recycle, the more likely you are to be enthusiastic about it and take it to the max.

If you haven’t already got a present for the Dads in your lives, it’s probably a good time to refer back to my BlogGreen post of a few weeks ago where I suggested that buying into the commercial side of Father’s Day is not necessarily the best thing for the environment and that there are other (more valuable) gifts that you could give your Dad.

If you have bought him a gift, I hope that you’ve gone green and bought him something that at the very least is not damaging to the environment in its manufacture and very existence.

You’ll need to wrap your gift up next. Here again, please consider taking the greener route by using recycled gift wrap, either manufactured from recycled paper or simply paper that you received a gift in and saved for re-using. Another eco-friendly route that’s very easy on the pocket is to use newspaper or magazine pages to wrap the gift, and you could jazz it up with potato prints, or some cut-out stars, or pretty ribbon.

If your Dad is the sort who likes to have a kick around on a Sunday afternoon, or even if he’s the devoted coach of the local children’s team, here’s a football themed present that will give a chance to children who are at risk of being forced into becoming child soldiers and will also support Fairtrade.  For every ball bought, £2 will go to the Campaign against Child Soldiers.  Make a real difference this Father’s Day.