A while ago, there was a post from Lakeland paints with someone eating the paint to show how ‘non-toxic’ it is.  A reminder for those that may have missed it;

At a trade association meeting this morning, I bought it up and the ASA (Advertising standards agency) have contacted them to take it down, (which they haven’t done yet) and as legislation on green washing gets tougher they will be hit with fines.

Another example where companies have been fined is ‘Method’ a environmentally friendlier cleaning brand, in the US for claiming ‘non-toxic’ not only have they been heavily fined, as a consumer you can now make a claim against them. In Australia they have stopped selling the brand altogether, shows the damage to their brand reputation by embellishing the truth… 

…

We very often wonder how to reach the consciousness of art students who are just beginning their adventure with painting. Unfortunately, the art education programme does not always offer enough information about painting techniques and products, their quality classes, ingredients, working with particular materials.Thanks to the invitation of a good friend of mine, who is also a successful studio painter, mural artist and teacher at one of the art high schools, I have the opportunity to contribute to the education of young people. Every year in June, we meet to talk about the products, try them out. Then, in July or August, we meet again to work together at an open-air art event bringing together the best students from several schools.Below are some photos from the workshop at the Secondary Art School in Olsztyn, Poland. Classes 3 and 4.

I must boast that the presentation received very good feedback. And the youngsters asked numerous questions, which is not so obvious in such meetings with hyper-sensitive listeners.

…

This year at Kidderminster as part of our sustainability efforts, we fully embraced the policy of “no mow May” where grass verges etc are left to grow wild to fully mature and blossom for the benefit of the local wildlife and ourselves.  We think it looks beautiful and it’s delightful to see (and hear) the insects enjoying it too.

…

This Monday 3rd, in Kidderminster we celebrated the start of Summer with a lunchtime barbecue and team games event, thankfully the rain held off.  We were delighted to have Harsa, Ajita and Sharifa on site too, Sharifa proved to be a very worthy contender with one of the highest scores of the day. Team Oak  (comprising Nicky, Sharifa, Brett, Doris, Emma and Fran) were the winning team, with Sycamore in 2nd place, then Pine and  in 4th place Cedar.  The individual with the highest score was Nicky followed by Julie then Chloe and Sharifa coming in 4th spot.  Well done to everyone, big thanks to Fran and Sean for cooking some excellent burgers and hotdogs (Sean, Julie and Brett get a big thumbs up for building the barbecue in the morning)  and again  to Julie and the wellbeing team for organising this fun event, to the staff who came back in the evening to participate with the night shift and cook them their food  and finally to everyone who took part to make this such a fun event.

…