How to be GREEN even when you 're dead!

I just found this list of GREEN do's and don'ts on The Telegraph web-site including what and what not to do when you die!
How green are you?

DO'S AND DON'T'S

Going green is not just about recycling.

DO

• Fit energy-efficient light bulbs (see Telegraph offer, below)
• Insulate your house
• Wash your clothes at low temperatures
• Use rechargeable batteries
• Buy local, seasonal food
• Share car journeys
• Recycle as much as you can
• Fit water-saving devices to your loos
• Invest your money responsibly
• Include a green funeral in your will
• Buy products made from recycled materials
• Check for FSC certification on wood and paper products
• Take up cycling and walking
• Print on both sides of a sheet of paper
• Get a reusable shopping bag
• Switch to a "green" electricity supplier
• Buy top energy-rated appliances
• Have a shower rather than a bath
• Repair rather than replace products
• Buy an energy monitoring device
• Turn lights off when you leave a room
• Put an insulating jacket on your boiler
• Re-use gift-wrapping paper
• Buy organic produce
• Eat wild food
• Ask fashion retailers what they're doing to cut pollution from dyes and chemicals
• Reduce or eliminate your air travel

DON'T

• Buy bottled water
• Buy food or goods that come by air
• Buy too many clothes
• Leave your computer, TV and other equipment on stand-by
• Buy gold or diamonds
• Fly to your holiday destination
• Eat too much meat
• Buy black-listed fish
• Drive a gas-guzzling car
• Use a tumble dryer
• Install air-conditioning
• Throw away unwanted gifts
• Make your lawn look like a carpet
• Worry about weeds (too much)
• Bother with air fresheners
• Get an Aga if you haven't yet got one
• Buy gas log or coal fires (fake fires)
• Upgrade your mobile phone too fast
• Buy disposable cameras or barbecues
• Buy incandescent or halogen bulbs
• Drive fast and erratically
• Use peat or buy peat-grown plants
• Buy over-packaged products
• Get cremated
• Leave your car engine running
• Overheat your house (or office)
• Buy cut flowers

10 GREEN DEATH TIPS

Horrible as it may be, it's very important to make plans for your death while you're still compos mentis - even more so if you're concerned about green issues. Here are my 10 top tips:

• Donate your organs
• Say no to embalming
• Remove all jewellery and gold teeth before burial or cremation
• Dress minimal in death and choose natural fibre clothes such as hemp
• Select a "green" coffin (those made from recycled newspapers are best)
• Give cremation a miss
• If you want to be buried, chose a natural burial ground rather than an overcrowded graveyard
• Re-use graves after 20 years and put bones in an ossuary, as they do in Europe
• Choose not to have a headstone
• Don't waste valuable resources on elaborate pet coffins, urns and caskets

The importance of playing...

This is such a great idea.

More than a million South Africans now have safe drinking water thanks to Playpumps - a simple invention that uses the energy generated by children playing on a roundabout to pump groundwater from boreholes.

Playpumps are made from easily available windmill components and a zero-energy water pump and some 700 villages have had Playpumps installed since 1997.

Unlike traditional hand pumps that produce just 150 litres of water an hour to ground level, where it cannot be stored hygienically, Playpumps can pump 1,400 litres of water an hour into a hygienic overhead storage tank.

I came across this when reading a review of the book Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal which shows how designers, entrepreneurs and artists are coming together to develop new products with a conscious and with a real purpose.

Great news...
Source, The Guardian

Books which go up in smoke?

To Ease the blow of the UK ban on smoking in public spaces that came into effect on July 1st, TankBooks have developed books packaged like cigarettes with cellophane wrapping on the outside and silver foil on the inside. Despite their size, the first series of TankBooks aren't the intellectual equivalent of Menthol Lights. Pitched as 'tales to take your breath away', the box-packed reads range from Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King" to Kafka's "Metamorphosis". While perhaps not tempting enough for every smoker to kick the habit and take up reading instead, it's a start.

TankBooks are the brain child of Tank, a British think tank, creative agency and publishing unit.

Website: www.tankmagazine.com/tankbooks
Source Springwise