Welcome to our first newsletter for 2021! We hope the start of the year has been a good one for you, your friends and family. Now that 2020 is behind us, we are looking forward to the coming year with renewed hope and optimism for the future.

This month we’ve rounded up 10 great reasons why bamboo toilet paper is so good for the planet and for you – from helping prevent deforestation, protecting animal habitats and using less water and much more! Check out the blog here.

With Valentine’s Day coming up next month, don’t forget to check our blog too for tips on having a super-romantic and eco-friendly day. 

Thanks to the ban of indiscriminate fishing nets in the late 1980s to early 2000s, certain marine animal populations are making a comeback in US waters. So-called ‘gillnets’ easily catch fish when the fibres snag on the fishes’ gills, but can also catch other animals like sharks, otters, and seabirds, causing them to perish and wash up on beaches along the Californian coastline. Since bans were introduced, harbor porpoise populations have added around 8200 new members to East Coast waters. 

More than 50 countries have committed to conserve and protect 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. This coalition will push the ’30×30′ objective at the upcoming meeting of the UN Council on Biodiversity in China in May. The coalition is chaired by the UK, France and Costa Rica and also includes Japan, Ethiopia, Colombia, Peru and Pakistan. 

Many countries are pledging to go net zero over the coming years, and not just because it’s the right thing to do for the planet, but because it’s cheaper too. Late last year, the International Energy Agency concluded that the best solar power schemes now offer the cheapest source of electricity in history. “Investors won't need to be bullied by green activists into doing the right thing, they will just follow the money,” says Justin Rowlatt, Chief Environment Correspondent for the BBC. “And governments know that by scaling up renewables in their own economies, they help to accelerate the energy transition globally, by making renewables even cheaper and more competitive everywhere.”

As part of the One Planet Summit, held earlier this month, the UK has committed to spending £3 billion (US $4 billion) to climate change solutions in developing countries, helping to protect and restore nature and biodiversity over five years. “Tackling climate change and protecting nature are closely linked… thriving forests and ocean play a critical role in mitigating climate change,” said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “Our land and coastal marine ecosystems could provide up to a third of the climate mitigations needed to meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.”

General Motors has pledged to stop making gasoline-powered passenger cars, vans and sport utility vehicles by 2035, promising to focus on new electric vehicles instead. They have also committed to going carbon neutral by 2040. “As one of the world’s largest automakers, we hope to set an example of responsible leadership in a world that is faced with climate change,” said GM Chief Executive Mary Barra.