It’s summer – if we can dare call it that – it’s a time for holidays, for relaxing, having fun, and forgetting about work, about everything…

If you’re about to go off on holiday or to a summer festival, in the UK or abroad, try to travel by train and public transport where you can, sample the local produce, walk or bike around when you get there, and think about what you do with your waste. You might also want to take some eco products with you – they’ll help to make your travels a whole lot more convenient, and greener.

Get 10% off your holiday essentials at Nigel’s Eco Store, just enter the code ECOHOLS at the checkout. Offer lasts until 30th July.

Natural Sun Protection

These award winning natural sun screens and creams for adults and children by Green People, are free from nasty chemicals, and provide great UV protection. They come in high and medium factor for adults, and strong and gentle for children.

Wind Up MP3 Player

Forget the latest iPod. This beauty is perfect for taking on holiday – it has 1GB memory, one minute winding gives 15 to 20 minutes play time, and fully charged it’ll play for 4 hours. No batteries required and best of all is the price!

Wind Up LED Torches

Essential holiday item No. 52: A torch for finding your way in the dark. Even better, one that needs no batteries, provides a strong beam and is sturdy and light. We have a few different ones, check them out here.

Biodegradable Flip Flops

You’ll love these flip flops. Not only are they very comfortable and look cool, but they are Fair Trade, and biodegradable to boot, (or to flip?). Puts other flip flops into the shade.

Solar Chargers

Don’t let a flat battery on your digital camera or mobile phone ruin your holiday. Make sure you have a solar powered charger handy to charge it up again. The FreeLoader is great for all budgets. For something more powerful, try the Power Monkey!

For more Summer Holiday ideas, check out the holiday range on our website.

Nigel’s Eco Store is offering an award-winning range of household eco cleaning products… Read on!

10% off Earth Friendly Cleaning

From washing up liquid to furniture polish, from drain unblocker to toilet cleaner the Earth Friendly award-winning range of concentrated green cleaning products are entirely natural – and truly free of petrochemicals and carcinogenic formaldehyde.

They regularly come out top of consumer tests in magazines, beating Ecover, and matching Persil and Fairy amongst others.

Cos they’re new and they like them so much, they’re offering 10% off the whole Earth Friendly range to newsletter readers only – to claim the discount just sign-up. Offer valid until 1st December.

Remember, they offer FREE delivery on all orders over £75, and 30-day money back guarantee on everything.

Donating directly to registered charities is one way to help those in need & make big differences in helping people survive & help themselves throughout the world. UK Online Charities allows you to make one off or regular contributions to many of the well known & maybe not so well known charities that accept donations online.

But we all live on this one small planet & for many, concern about the environment & climate change is just as important as helping those in need. Helping people build futures for themselves now won’t be much use if our planet is destroyed by climate change and we are in the best position to take an active role in changing our patterns of behaviour to do all we can to prevent this disaster!

For anyone that wants to do their bit to make a change to the world we live in, by being more ecologically responsible, I have developed an Eco Stores section to ukcharitiesonline.com, which promotes eco stores & ethical products. Making small changes to your shopping behaviour & utilising the useful tips and products offered by these companies, can help you do your bit to help fight climate change.

The first stores added to the site are the BigGreenSmile, envirofone, Nigel’s Eco Store & the Ethical Superstore. I’ll be adding more ethical stores & fairtrade retailers as I find them.