TMW Ideas

I've just read an interesting article on the bbc website. You're probably about to say 'I read that last year', well, I didn't and I have now and here's my post. I wish the article said a little bit more about Neil Boorman's life without brands, but then I guess if it did we wouldn't want to buy his book. The money from the sales of which I think will probably go towards his next shopping spree whilst he catches up on all the trends he's missed out on ;) And I think, unless I'm mistaken, by the end of the article he hasn't comitted to remaining brand free.

Being a girl and interested in all things diet related it is interesting to read that he lost one stone, just by cutting out brands - well, ready meals and processed food. What is more interesting than that is how brand consumption can all increase our carbon footprint;

According to the Carbon Trust, 42% of the average carbon footprint is made up of recreation and leisure, clothing and food. Public debate on carbon emissions has so far concentrated on transport and energy, but at some point soon we will have to consider changing our spending habits on the High Street.

Now as a lover of brands (working in marketing and all that) I'm not about to stop shopping on the high st, but it does fall in line with shopping at farmers markets and not taking plastic bags from every shop you do venture into.

So I guess my overall thought is well done for sticking to a whole year - not sure I could - but is the key learning from this we could all do a little bit more to support our local producers and retailers and help the environment too? I think we might already know that, but at least this is another nice way of illustrating the point.