A Lie in, a fry up and the newspaper in tow are pretty good way to spend a Saturday. But how about this: a Saturday spent working with a group of brilliant, creative. complete strangers solving some pressing health issues facing young people.

On Saturday February 25th I’ll be helping the Social Innovation Camp crew will be bringing together designers, developers, thinkers, health care practitioners and young people to look at ways technology can help improve how young people experience the NHS.

SI Camp days are fun, don’t even feel like work and you meet some incredible people.  Working together with NECLES HIEC (the NHS Health Innovation and Education Cluster for North East, North Central London and Essex) we’ll look at how technology can help covering the following themes:

• How can we help make the transition to adulthood work more smoothly? (Young people changing psychiatrists and other practitioners when they turn 18)
• How can we help those with health and well being issues avoid/reduce the impact of social isolation?

• How can users better use their own medical history to have a smoother health care experience

• How can young people make a game out of eating well and getting fit?

• How do I know if I need to see the doctor, and can we make it a better experience?

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that the NECLES HEIC is offering up to £10,000 to one of the ideas to come out off the day. Exciting stuff!

If this sounds like something up your street then sign up here.

Sometimes I justify my love for stationary products, the same way any addict would do. I think about the 150,000 some odd trees I’ve planted in my uni summers. (It doesn’t matter that the contract that we planted for was Kimberly Clark and all those trees will become toilet paper, not nice notebooks ..) I also think about all the good stuff that graces the pages of the virgin-paper notepads I like writing in. All of the ideas and actions and planet saving work I do in my job must offset those 50 little pages of chopped down trees, right? Sadly I know it’s not the case.

As a present from my friends at Do The Green Thing, I was given this note pad.

You see they know all about my addiction and saw this as a corrective measure. And I’m pleased to say that it has tipped me over the edge.

I don’t expect paperchase and other stationary suppliers to go all eco overnight, so until then I can:

A) invest in recycled paper stationary which can be very beautiful and highly practical (and not have a shouty, worthy message on the front cover)

Exhibit A:

(A very nice notebook from Enlighted Crafts. 100% recycled paper and cotton. The Green Desk also has some nice stuff and I’ve recently come across Greenvelopes, an american startup that makes nice reusable and durable envelopes.)

B) still shop at paperchase but only buy stationary that doesn’t pillage forests (of which they do have!)

C) make my own.

Exhibit C:

(To do lists formed by old scrap paper and the ring from a binder)

Exhibit D:

(Envelopes made from old calendars/magazines/any thick material)

I really do love Paperchase but this is one of those habits that a small does of creativity can fix.

Bottled water is one of my biggest bugbears. In countries where drinking water is accessible, free and treated to a high quality standard, there isn’t a need to drink bottled water – especially when in some cases it’s just filtered tap water.

Some fine establishments, like Tokyo in London’s Chinatown have embraced the tap and hope that their customers do too.

Just before the Christmas break, I attended a round table discussion with the EU Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potocnik. His visit to London and the roundtable discussion were coordinated by the Green Alliance and the CBI as part of a larger event on Resource Management. The discussion looked at three themes: resource efficiency, the environmental impacts of business and policy interventions.

As companies and organisations start to get a grip on their emissions another aspect of environmental impact is coming in to play – resource efficiency. At this moment in time as the global economy is still recovering from the recession, now is a better time than any for businesses to re-evaluate their inputs. Some facts shared by the Commissioner:

• We use 16 tonnes of resources per person, yet 6 tonnes of that goes to landfill
• 87% of EU businesses expect the cost of their inputs to increase

Commissioner Potocnik asserts that competitive advantage remains with those companies that can do more with less. As the economy is working towards recovery, now is the perfect time for industry to tackle growth. Companies can take advantage of increased output costs to manage what they have better.

And he’s right. Take mobile phones for example.

The mobile phone industry is far from collapsing. However, mobile phone manufacturers (and many other electronic devices) depend on certain precious metals – Coltan in particular – to operate. 80% of the world’s known supply of Coltan lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And millions of people have died because of the conflict which has become an issue for both domestic and international governments as Coltan joins the ‘blood diamond’ clan, a precious mined resource with a finite supply.

This conflict and limited supply of the earth metal has forced several manufacturers to rethink growth and resource management out of necessity. We have seen a rise in mobile phone and electronic recycling. This is because it’s better to manage electronic waste and not send it all to landfill, but also because it’s cost effective for companies to take parts of the device – including processed Coltan – to use in the manufacturing of new phones. This is a bit of a weak example because companies are still mining raw Coltan but it does show that resource scarcity is already coming in to play and if companies are proactive in evaluating their supply chain it help them grow sustainably, rather than just in the short term.

Commissioner Potocnik spoke candidly about EU policy and government subsidies. He explained that the issues aren’t just about resource efficiency, but effective policy interventions and smart subsidies. He pointed out that tax breaks for company cars in the EU is 50 billion Euros a year. That’s huge. For cars! The challenge now is how can governments develop innovative subsidies that help with sustainable market growth. And we’ll see a lot of this over the next year as 2012 brings the introduction of the Green Deal, and the Green Investment Bank.

As the Commissioner points out, with current growth rates in China, India and Brazil, we’ll soon see 2-3 billion people to move towards middle class consumption and I think most people can agree that this fact concedes that we can’t continue to consume resources at the rate we have in the past.

While this all may sound terribly depressing and doom and gloom there are still interesting and potentially game changing opportunities that could hopefully lead us to a low carbon economy that uses resources efficiently. One example is through sharing. Yes, sharing between businesses. It may sound like an oxymoron but it just might change the way some businesses operate. Why can’t more companies develop business models based on sharing?  Or even share resources, knowledge and planning with other businesses in non-competitive markets?

Another area to be explored is innovation funded through private investment. The Commissioner pointed out that the EU has only 1/10th of the private investment in new technologies than that in America. Maybe this is another arena to be explored for future development.

Overall the discussion with Commissioner Potocnik was fascinating. While I could sit there and think of my own solutions to our world’s resource problems, the Commissioner is actually responsible for working across several different EU economies  with the task of attempting to build a more sustainable Europe. And I find that to be both a daunting but also inspiring task.

My friend Diego is quite the clever one. He is a dental technician (he makes tooth implants) and has lots of long bright lights in his office. To make the lighting less harsh he has made these light shades from old card board tubes. Impressive, right?

Beginning November 1st, I started a 7 week pilot for the project formerly known as ‘Just Another Football Club‘.

It took me a while to decide where I wanted to run the pilot – more importantly, which area lacked sport and community based opportunities for young women (between the ages of 13-17). I met with football folk in Hackney, Camden, Islington and Haringay. After meeting
Pete Blackwell, the London Manager for ‘Reachout!’ a mentoring charity, I was sold on Hackney.

Pete agreed to partner with me and provide pitch space at Petchey Academy where he runs Reachout FC.

Now that the 7 weeks have ended, I’m stoked to say that it has been a success.

Some numbers:

- 21 different players on the register, 10 who consistently come (3 or more weeks)

- 7 text messages, all from different players that read:
“You’ve been sent this message by  07xxxxxxxxx asking you to call them back as they are out of credit. (Normal  charges apply)”

- 4 players who have been there every single week. Amazing dedication.

- 3 brand new shiny players who have never kicked a ball in their life

- 2 weeks of standing outside Petchey when school got let out with flyers, spamming random school kids with leaflets about the session (note: this was on the advice of the school’s groundsman told me to stand outside at 330pm and hand out some info. He said this will be a surefire way to boost numbers. So this is what I did. I stuffed flyers into the hands of school kids with with my email and phone number. Aside from me feeling like a stereotypical overly-enthusiastic North American, it was good. Numbers doubled after doing so. Result.)

- 0 footballs/equipment of any sort lost (I’m pointing this out because it’s normally very rare)

One thing that really surprised me was despite some brutal weather, players would still rock up. As a footballer myself, I know all too well how demotivating it can be playing in the cold, wet British winter.

I could ramble on forever about all of the great stuff that has gone on in the pilot but I’ll stop here and save that for a later post.

Here’s what’s next:

- I’ll be continuing with the session, Tuesday nights at Petchey (working towards a friendly 7-aside match against a nice, beginner to intermediate level side)
- There’s a website on the way alongside the branding, partners and all that jazz
- The membership scheme will be finalised so you and anyone you know can become part-owner of this club for the tiny fee of £10 per year. What a bargain.
- I’m making a rota of footballers (male and female) come out and help with sessions.
- Getting a few of the older girls (16 year olds) on a coaching Level 1 course.

Special mentions:

Trying to get something off the ground is hardwork. Really. And without certain peoples’ support this would likely still be something I’d only dream about doing. So here is my first honour role of lovely people – and there will be plenty more to be added to this. It’s only the beginning.

- Naresh Ramchandani, who aside from having top notch football banter, basically convinced me to quit working for him to pursue this. Oh and did I mention he has re-named and branded it?
- @nataliedoyle82 from the London FA for spreading the word
- Pete Blackwell and the crew at Reachout for being crazy helpful and encouraging.
- Orlando from Actis, my newly found mentor. He didn’t bat an eye lid when I pounced on him at a mentoring matchmaking night put on by Unltd.
- Keisha Graham Benjamin (her initials are KGB – funny, right?) for rallying together all the teenaged girls she knows in Hackney. Including multiple members of her family. And a few circus performers.

If you or anyone you know would like to get involved, please do get in touch!

Ps- I gave Glove Love to the team as a Christmas present. It was very well received.

PPs- Apologies for the pictures quality. They were taken on a borrowed Blackberry in the rain.

You can get the fittings from Amazon for a few quid.

And the records from a charity shop. 3 for £1. Bargain!

Beccy and Hannah, the lovely pair behind the Crafternoon Tea Club bring you this ‘Christmash’ spesh: an evening of re-gifting, re-distributing, re-packaging and other low carbon creative fun. Oh and free booze and fabulous music. Go on, tell all your friends.

These are such beautifully shot films of time lapsed images from around Toronto and Ottawa.

The super talented Ryan Emond made ‘Toronto Tempo’ as well as the one below called ‘Capital Cruising’.

I’m in awe (and a bit homesick).

This is a little thing I wrote for Book Magazine about having a holiday season that’s not full of waste and useless gifts.

To read the full article CLICK HERE.