living green ..

The Williams family living in Stanford in the Vale are one of the 150 pioneering households that have transformed their old house into an eco home through the SuperHomes project. As part of their shift to live more sustainably they are using Ecomodo to share all sorts of items and inspiring neighbours and local community groups to do the same through a number of lending circles they have set up.

The family recently hosted their first SuperHome Open Day and we wanted to share their video with you as its chock-a-block full of great eco features around their home and information. Enjoy!

sharing our prized possessions ..

“As Leonard Nimoy famously quoted: “The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have”. Through the kind act of lending and borrowing, we can enrich our communities; creating strong friendships within neighbourhoods and a greater sense of self worth ..” Read on

This opening paragraph is the start of a fantastic article written about Ecomodo by the lovely people at Inspired Times. Inspired Times is an uplifting magazine magazine that explores the latest environmental issues and initiatives and celebrates holistic living.

It’s well worth a look so check out the rest of their Spring 2013 issue.

#3 borrow a helping hand! Hermione’s story ..

Caption: Fixed computers after borrowing a helping hand from Adam

“Ever since I started The DoNation one of the things that I’ve envied most about my friends and their conventional jobs (aside from their salaries) are their IT support teams. Just because I run a web start up, it doesn’t mean I enjoy or am good at IT; I’ve been driven mad by far too many afternoons helplessly spent trying to fix niggling computer issues myself.

Through several social enterprise support schemes we’ve been lucky enough to have had four computers donated to us, which have all come in super handy as our team has grown. But as time goes on and our computing demands have increased, these well used, second hand machines started to stagger, stutter, and slur. I had resigned myself to the fact that it was time to fork out on a new laptop, but given that we have this abundance of machines and my hate for waste, I felt a bit uncomfortable about it.

But then our wonderful intern Eleanor (pictured above) came across a post on Ecomodo by Adam, an IT expert offering his skills to organisations like ours. It so happened that he lived just down the road from our office and so popped by after work one evening. Within hours he’d got two of the computers back on track, doubled in speed and reliability. On a second visit he tackled a desktop that I had completely written off, he managed to get it on for the first time in a year and back to full speed in less than an hour.

It was simple stuff for an expert, but mind-boggling and hair-tearing for a novice like me.  It saved me from forking out on a new computer, so saving a good £600 or so and a lot of unnecessary waste.

It might not be quite the full IT support team yet, but we’re getting there. Thanks Adam, and thanks Ecomodo!” Hermione

Stories from our members #3

lets keep the jubilee spirit alive ..

Over the last 4 days, I have been amazed to see how the people of our wonderful country have come together in a host of extraordinary ways to celebrate 60 years of Her Majesty the Queen’s reign. Overwhelmed by the occasion I, myself, was brought to tears listening to The Commonwealth band signing the Jubilee song outside Buckingham Palace on Monday night.

From parties to pageants; beacons to song; celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee have taken place across the length and breath of Britain, as neighbours, friends and strangers have all joined together with a renewed sense of pride and strength for our communities and country.

So how can we keep this jubilant spirit alive?

Sixty years ago, when our Queen took the throne, we too lived in austere times. Back then, to get things done people relied on their neighbours for help and knew who up their street had some long ladders to borrow, or who could help fix a leaky tap. Ecomodo.com wants to help revive this altruistic attitude by simply bringing people back together to share.

It’s simple to get started ..

1. Sign up to Ecomodo.com. It’s free to join!

2. Think of anything you can lend- it may be a drill, ladders or even a chocolate fountain. Perhaps you have a skill to share or just some time to help a neighbour out. If you’re not sure what to lend then get inspired or browse items to lend.

3. Add your items to Ecomodo or post a wanted ad for something you would like to borrow and we will automatically other members in your local area know about your new listings. If you’re not sure what to lend or borrow – sign up to keep updated on what’s locally available to you.

4. Invite you neighbours, friends and work colleagues to join Ecomodo and even start a Lending circle.

Find out more about Ecomodo, how it works and join us on Facebook.

Image borrowed from the Daily Telegraph

10 days to the big ‘jubilee’ lunch ..

This year’s The Big Lunch is on Sunday 3rd June and falls on the same weekend as The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. A record number of people are expected to take part, getting together with their neighbours to have lunch and to celebrate 60 years of our Queen’s reign.

Whatever you’re planning for your Big ‘Jubilee’ Lunch celebrations from a few neighbours lunching in the garden, to a full blown street party with food and music, Ecomodo can help you get equipped to make your festivity go with a swing.

On Ecomodo there are already lots of lovely things you may borrow for your party; a bouncy castle, village hall, cocktail shaker and gazebo to name a few. But if you can’t find what you need locally post a wanted ad to tell people around you what you’re looking for.

Keep your day alive ..

And at the end of the day, after the last sausage roll has gone and the bunting is coming down, keep your Big ‘Jubilee’ Lunch day alive by lending and borrowing throughout the year. Create a lending circle for your neighbourhood and get everyone, new friends and old to start pooling their assets for the common good.

Find out more about the Big ‘Jubilee’ Lunch ..

riot clean up and beyond ..

Last night London was subjected to some of the worst rioting in the last 30 years – gangs looted shops, set buildings on fire as innocent civilians fled their neighbourhoods in fear of their safety. In the capital, it was the third consecutive night of trouble but yesterday also saw rioting spread to Liverpool, Birmingham and Nottingham.

Led by  Dan Thompson, a group of resilient Londoners have inspired citizens to show the rioters (and the rest of the world) just what their city means to them. Already clean ups have been organised all over the city (and beyond) and 100s of volunteers have stepped up to pitch in. Go to http://www.riotcleanup.com/ for more information of how to help and follow @riotcleanup on Twitter for latest updates. A Facebook page has also been set up. And if you do go to help and see any trouble – stay safe and leave it to the police to deal with.

………

This immediate response by local individuals has restored my faith in society (big and small) but it can’t stop here. Many small local shops and businesses have been affected. People in London have been left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Over the coming weeks and months, people caught up in the mix of this rampage will need your continued support to rebuild their homes, shops, businesses and lives.

If you have spare clothes or furniture you are willing to donate add them to sites like Freegle. If you have equipment such as tools for people to borrow, skills or time to help rebuild or a spare space to put someone up – make them visible on Ecomodo to share.

We have also been creating a list of resources to help people who wish to donate or need help.

images borrowed from: Erik Hartberg FLICKR, @Rickontour TWITTER

six great ways to share ..

Over the past few months we’ve met lots of interesting people doing interesting things. Together we are part of a new movement called ‘Collaborative Consumption‘.

Nobody explains this better than Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers whose new book What’s mine is yours – The Rise of Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting being reinvented through the latest technologies and peer-to-peer marketplaces, in ways and on a scale never possible before.

From cars to chocolate fountains; spare cash to spare spaces, here’s six ways to start sharing your assets .. right here in the UK!

At Zopa.com you can lend and borrow money directly with other people – they’ve arranged £125m in loans so far! And because it’s ‘person-to-person’, you get better rates than you would from the banks, so everybody wins except the fat cats.

Worried about petrol prices? Got a long journey planned? Share car journeys with your friends and social network through Facebook with goCarShare: a new, green and cheaper way to travel. Drivers and potential passengers can add requests for free here.

ParkatmyHouse.com helps reduce the cost of parking by connecting drivers to home and business owners willing to rent out their underutilised parking spaces. Drivers can save up to 75% compared to commercial car parks near stadiums, airports, train stations and local high streets.

Crashpadder.com is a global homestay community. With Crashpadder, hosts earn money from their spare space, while travellers benefit from budget-friendly, sociable accommodation. Crashpadding is the perfect alternative to hotels – after all, there’s no place like homes! Find out more.

With WhipCar you can now make money whenever you are not using your car. Get paid for renting your car to sensible drivers nearby while Whipcar take care of all the hassle. See how much your car could earn here.

From tiaras to tents, spanners to sewing machines, use Ecomodo,com to save £££’s by borrowing things you need from people near you. Confidently lend your own stuff for free, a fee or for charity. Join the marketplace of good returns.

the london reuse network launches ..

The ecomodo girls were out on the town last night at the launch party of the London Reuse Network – a fantastic initiative instigated by the LCRN (London Community Resource Network) to help turn waste back into ‘good’ goods.

Currently there are too many quality items going to landfill (furniture, toys, appliances, wood, textile, electrical equipment, bicycles – you get the picture) so the idea of the LRN is to create an integrated reuse service for London delivered through a community-led reuse and repair network. With a bunch of backing from Boris and LWaRB, this means all this stuff, instead of going to landfill, will get picked up, repaired and redistributed back to Londoners. As well as physical infrastructure for storage and an efficient transportation strategy the LRN aims to train local people with practical green skills to fix up, repair and upcycle the goods.

Guest speakers included Wayne Hemingway and Dr Adam Read from the AEA. Wayne delightfully re-counted stories of his thrifty upbringing with ends of the soap in jam jars; how he got started fixing up Dr. Martin boots with a blow-torch to seal the soles and reselling them in Camden Market; to the success of this years Vintage at Goodwood with 50,000 festival-goers celebrating the reuse of clothing, music and culture.

After the talks people were invited to ask questions. At this point designers and architects got a bit of a slating from a member of the audience. “Why can’t architects/designers just design things so there is much little waste and re-use materials?” Matthew Thomson’s (Chief Executive of LCRN) rightly pointed out that certain materials have a life and after that (especially in the building industry) it would be unsafe to reuse certain materials.

As a designer working in the industry for over 17 years, I have tried this fight this fight from the inside out. Great efforts have been made to change the way products are manufactured but like everything it’s an evolution not a revolution. Many more products today, as opposed to 10 years ago, are being made from materials that can and have been recycled and this change has predominantly happened through consumer demand not policy. At the end of the day most manufacturers still want to cut their bottom line – taking the “cheaper” option.

The biggest issue for me is” built in obsolescence.” Manufacturers are not designing products that are robust and easy to fix. The easy repair of their goods creates longevity meaning less things will be purchased – and this is not good for business.

From the outside in, using Ecomodo, we hope to change consumer behaviour to drive change in manufacture. By enabling people to borrow items instead of buying new we are delivering an alternative to retail and as consumer understanding grows, we can use this as an intervention. If they choose to still buy and not borrow, they will start to consider the life-time of the product – how many times they will use it and in turn lend it out. They will begin to think of household products as assets and not just throw-away. Using consumer demand we can sway manufacturers to make robust, fixable products built to last.

It is great to be at the start of The London Reuse Network as this powerful initiative can too make people think differently about where, how and why they purchase the products they do. For it the work – it needs to have complete consumer appeal – so more vintage – less charity shop. This year has seen a massive upsurge in the trend of vintage so in order to capture the heart, minds and purse strings of our consumers perhaps they need to think about what’s next – beyond vintage.

image borrowed from LCRN

the race is on ..

We all understand the advantages with being online: it helps us save time and money, earn some extra cash, get educated, stay connected, make new friends – oh and of course borrow the stuff we need from our neighbours. But ..

There are 9 million people in the UK that have never used the internet and to me, that’s a lot of people. Some of these people are the most disadvantaged within our communities who could benefit most from being online. So we thought – Ecomodo can help – and have signed up to Race Online 2012 to do just that.

Race Online 2012 is a fantastic challenge to everyone in the UK. The ambition is to make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web. We, at Ecomodo, believe a lot of the resources needed to help people online are already lying hidden within our communities- we just need to make them visible. We want internet savvy people like you to help those who are not online, so they can start to benefit from using the internet.

Join the race: Here’s 3 ways to use ecomodo.com to help ..

1. Lend out your spare kit ..

Do you have spare gear lying around your home or office; a desktop you’re keeping just in case or old laptop? If so, why not lend it out? The first step for many is just feeling more confident using a computer, so even without internet connection getting access to a computer could really help someone take the first step.

2. Share your skills ..

Can you lend a hand and share your IT skills? Could you teach someone basic computer or internet skills; how to buy and sell on Ebay; get connected on Facebook or of course use Ecomodo. An hour or two of your time could make all the difference. Here’s some great tips to help you feel more comfortable about sharing your skills

3. Lend a workstation at your office or your home ..

Do you have spare workstations at your office that could be lent out by the hour? Would you be willing to have someone over for tea and let them use your computer? The more people can gain access to the internet the more their confidence will grow and grow.

It’s easy to get started – just add an item to lend. And if you know someone who needs kit, training or access to get online – post a wanted ad for them and help them find a local resource nearby. Go on .. feel good and help someone in your neighbourhood – get online.

Play online .. stay online !

The first hurdle is to get more people feeling comfortable being online; the second, is to help them stay online – so here’s an obvious answer. Using Ecomodo people can lend out their household products, their skills or even a spare space to earn the money they need buy the kit, get connected and stay connected in their own home.

get prepared for the big lunch!

Ecomodo has teamed up with The Big Lunch to help everyone get what they need to make their party go with a swing. Find out more.

Kick-started last year by The Eden Project, The Big Lunch is a one-day get together with your neighbours to eat, chat and have fun. It can be anything from a simple lunch to a full-blown street party with DJs and a hog roast. So this Sunday 18th July, why not hang out with your neighbours and chat whilst chomping on some chips and dips.

Whatever you need: a music system, games to play or extra tables and chairs; a helping hand to cook, make decorations, organise or clear up; or even a space to hold your Big Lunch: Ecomodo can help. Post a wanted ad to tell people around you what you’re looking for.

Need to raise some extra cash for food and drink? Rally your troops and get your neighbours lending all their assets and ask them to donate any profits to you. Ecomodo lets people lend almost anything so register your Big Lunch as a good cause, add some items to lend and start fundraising today. Search your shed and attic and get inspired for things to lend.

And at the end of the day, after the last sausage roll has gone and the bunting is coming down, keep your Big Lunch day alive by lending and borrowing throughout the year. Create a lending circle for your neighbourhood and get everyone, new friends and old to start pooling their assets for the common good.