The True Costs

We're addicted to the notion of eternal growth even though we know it's impossible – we only have one planet and are stripping it faster than it can recover.

This is great for the rich and powerful who profit from our appetite for stuff, but seriously bad for the rest of us.

So we're going to be closely watching and reporting on:

Product Design

• Built in failure – deliberately designed to stop working or break so you have to replace it.
• Built in obsolescence – designed to not be compatible with previous and future products so you have to replace it and all the accessories when it fails or a new version is launched.

• Built in incompatibility – designed to make repairs and upgrades difficult if not impossible.

Support and Warranties

Quality products should have accessible and helpful support with:

• Local (geographic) or free-phone telephone numbers, not premium rate ones.
• Local or national service centres.
• Information on failure rates of products.
• Customer satisfaction data – particularly for warranty and support requests.
• Warranties that, at least, match the expected life of the product – 5 or more years not 1!

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to the deadliest conflict since World War II, with over 5.4 million killed and the weapon of choice is the mass rape of women and children.

Why?

So manufacturers can keep selling us the latest mobile phones, tablet PCs, and gadgets that are very slightly different to what we already have.

Worse still, some manufacturers justify financing these atrocities by claiming it's not their problem, because their customers (that's us) 'demand' it!

We think this isn't just wrong, it's evil.

Fortunately there are some extraordinary people – victims, aid workers, and campaigners – working to put a stop to this and we will be working closely with organizations like:

• The Enough Project and their RAISE Hope for Congo campaign to show you, before you buy, whether your hard earned money is being used to finance these horrors.
• Amnesty International who give voice to the people being silenced by corporations and politicians who don't want you to know the truth.
• Fauna and Flora International supporting the unique creatures, their habitats, and the brave rangers caring for them that are also under attack.

With your help we can stop those companies that think that this is all OK because they make fat profits from it.

Man-made chemicals are in everything from our food, toys, shampoo, cosmetics, to electronics.

…the problem is that we have no idea on the short and long term effects on our health and environment, but we're beginning to learn…and it's bad.

Nature takes millennia to create the perfect chemicals for a task, but we think we can do it overnight.

So what's the problem?

Many of these chemicals are:

• Highly toxic;
• Accumulate in the environment and animals so poisoning everything;
• Find their way back to us, concentrated form in our own food;
• Disrupt our hormones;
• Affect reproductive systems;
• Carcinogenic

Think on the madness…we protect our children from skin cancer with sunscreen containing known carcinogens…we hold plastics against our skin that leech hormone disrupters…give our children permanent markers that give off toxic fumes…

Fortunately there are organizations like CHEM Trust fighting for your right to not be poisoned and having harmful man-made chemicals replaced with safer alternatives

We're lucky that the EU is working to remove toxins from our products, but it's a slow process.

Another organization, ChemSec, doesn't think we should wait, so they and their partners, including CHEM Trust, have developed a SIN List (Substitute It Now) of some 378 substances of Very High Concern we need to get rid of for a toxic free world – things you really don't want in your house!

Spaice will be watching closely to see which manufacturers are taking the lead to eliminate these so we can report to you which are the safest products for you and your children.

We like trees. Spectacular and each one unique, they improve our environment both aesthetically and physically, and, of course, are havens for wildlife.

Unfortunately, most of the time, we don't really think about them. But we do care, we proved that with the massive outcry at government plans to sell off the public forests; but how many have forgotten about them again now?

When we lose them we: cause soil erosion, destroy habitats and water supplies; and even alter local weather patterns.

Renewable resource

Forests offer us incredible riches far beyond mere money and profit, they can be:

• Enduring sources of building material and fuel;
• Natural defences against flooding and soil erosion;
• Homes for millions of creatures, including some of the iconic, but most threatened, species such as the Sumatran tiger and orang-utan;
• Engineering miracles that store vast quantities of carbon (without the crazy risks and cost of our human techno-fixes), clean the air, regulate the water cycle, and give us oxygen – all without tax payer subsidies, government bailouts, or profiteering!

Health

Trees heal. Most of us intuitively know that we feel calmer and healthier near trees – call it spiritual or just simple peace and quiet, a walk in the woods lets the stress of modern life melt away.

A walk in the woods brings peace to our noisy, demanding, and stressful lives. They offer us and our children healthy outdoor lives interacting with nature instead of a digital screen.

We will actively encourage and help you to disengage from the incessant marketing mantra 'buy, buy' buy' so a walk in the woods rather than shopping liberates you and your wallet!

Investing in the future

The great forests that have and are being cleared could have shielded us from some of the problems our world faces and as the need becomes greater we should be turning to, not away from, the solutions nature has given.

We want to help by supporting those groups that reconnect people with trees and investing in the expanding, not just protecting, forests.