Whether its quitting smoking, losing weight or joining a gym, every year people make new years resolutions that they fail to keep after a few weeks. This year do something different and involve all your family and friends.

Create an online pledge, get all your friends and family to commit to the same thing and see it through to the end.

Your pledge could be anything from switching lights off in your house to cut down wasted electricity, to growing your own summer vegetables.

Simply decide what you want to do, and create your online pledge. Once you have enough people signed up, agreeing to follow in your footsteps, do you carry your pledge through.

Liverpool, the European Capital of Culture 2008 hands over to the Year of the Environment 2009 and promises to be a really exciting year as Liverpool takes a step closer to becoming a truly green and sustainable city. With a packed programme of theatre, music and art, 2009 will see Liverpool keeping the cultural ball rolling following a fantastic 2008.

Plans for 2009 include a programme which will ask everyone, old and young, to sign a pledge committing them to completing tasks to reduce their carbon footprint. These will range from reducing the amount of electricity used at home to planting at least one tree or shrub during the year.

Special events include launching the city’s very own designer bag for life and a celebration event to mark the completion of the £14m regeneration of Stanley Park. Events are planned to teach people about the city’s parks and gardens, their history and the impact climate change could have on them.

Later in the year a major environmental conference to be held in the city and Green Fayres selling organic, locally sourced products are planned. The council will be getting involved to by making all city council vehicles, such as waste collection lorries, low-carbon to reduce emissions and encouraging residents to become volunteers for their local nature reserves.

Take a city break in Liverpool and you will be amazed at how the city has transformed over the years, and learn about it’s history. Did you know Liverpools theatres are some of the oldest, largest and most well preserved in the country? And Liverpool has the largest group of Grade 1 Listed buildings in Britain and a huge variety of museums including the world only dedicated museum to slavery?

A Ford Mondeo (2007 2.0 Ltr Duratec model) covering 10,000 miles per year, will generate more than 3 tonnes of Co2 meaning anyone wanting to offset this figure would need to plant approximately 16 trees costing approximately £80.

A better and cheaper alternative is to change your driving habits to ensure that you keep your Co2 emissions to an absolute minimum.

Making sure your tyre pressures are correct will not only help reduce the pollution, but also improve your mpg, meaning you’ll be spending less money on petrol. Under-inflated tyres are not only unsafe, but they increase rolling resistance that uses more fuel.

Keeping them topped up to the correct levels can be a pain at times. Not everyone has the time to call into a local garage in order to get a tyre pressure reading. This handy Digital Tyre Pressure Gauge Keyring has a clear LCD display and measures pressure from 5 to 99psi in 0.5psi increments.

These fun Coloured Elephant Dung Paper Notebooks come with a wide variety of covers and are made from 100% health and smelly goodness.

The notebooks are made of 75% elephant dung and 25% recycled paper but there is no need to worry, they notebooks are completely safe to handle.

What’s even better is that any purchases of the Elephant Dung Paper Notebooks, helps support the Sri Lankan elephant conservation and the local villagers. Not only will you be recycling crap (so to speak), you will also be helping secure the future of communities.

The notebooks come in 3 different sizes each with 40 pages of eco friendly hand made paper. As the notebooks are hand made the designs may vary, and all come with information about Eco Maximus.

It’s easy to reduce the amount of water you use to flush your toilet, with one of the many toilet cistern devices.

Why not treat your toilet to a water saving device? By placing a Hippo or Save-A-Flush in your cistern, you can save about one litre of water each time you flush. The 2 water saving devices available are designed for different cisterns based on the age of your toilet.

Pre-1993 - Hippo Water Saver
1993-1999 - Save A Flush
Since 1999 - None required

Remember, if you have a modern dual flush toilet, then no water saving device is required.

The Hippo can retain up to 2.5 litres of water with every flush of your toilet. The Hippo Water-Saver device is a bag that sits in the water underneath your cistern float. It is made from durable heavy gauge polyethylene and has a hole in it to allow water to circulate, preventing any stagnation.

The Save A Flush can help you save up to one litre of water with every flush. The bag of crystals (made from a harmless silicone gell) sits in the bottom of your toilet cistern. The bag will swell up around six hours after installation.

Inkbox predominately specialise in the supply and re-manufacture of recyclable ink cartridges, catering for the consumer as well as small, medium and large organisations.

Inkbox’s aim is to provide an environmental alternative when it comes to inkjet & toner cartridges as well as saving the end consumer money. Covering all printer models and makes from Canon and Dell to Epson, HP and Lexmark, their printer cartridges are a very high-quality and come with a 100% guarantee.

When tested, we could see no difference in ink quality whether it be balck and white text or full colour photographs.

Everyone who owns a printer knows how costly refills are both to the environment and to their bank balance, so maybe you should give remanufactured eco inks a test.

Written by Charlotte Vohtz, the founder of Green People, the booked “Naturally Gorgeous” has proved hugely propular with beauty tips for those interested in natural and orgranic living.

Packed with advice, tips, essential health and beauty secrets, this book tells you everything from how to care for your skin organically, soothing treatments for problem areas and protecting you skin and tanning the safe way.

Moving to an organic lifestyle can help people with skin allergies such as eczema and this book helps you avoid any unneccesary man-made chemicals and offers suggestions on how to cleanse your body of accumulated toxins.

Its a self help guide to an organic detox!

We’ve already suggested Growing Your Own Christmas Tree in an attempt to make Christmas a little more eco friendly but if you’re not green fingered, there is another alternative, rent one instead!

Now you can stop the needless annual harvest of Christmas trees that always end up burning on a fire, or being thrown into a local land fill. The fake ones, as we know, contain petroleum materials that are dangerous for the environment so why not rent one?

Chris Evans BBC Radio2 show, had Martin from Trees For Rent explaining the service they offered which is a unique idea. Trees For Rent will deliver, manage, maintain and pick up your Christmas tree and you can choose from a small 2ft tree to a 10ft tree. Whether its for your home or business, you simply order the size and type of tree, let them know when you want it delivered or if your local, you can even choose your own from their stock of over 500 pot grown trees.

Firstly, 00ff00 is the html code for the colour green and therefore signifies that Ooffoo is the place on the web where people can come together to help, advise or discuss anything and everything green!

Launched in November 2008 by Natural Collection, Ooffoo is an online eco community helping people beat the credit crunch by encouraging swapping and recycling as an alternative to spending money and buying new.

The Ooffoo site is even running a writing competition (ends Dec 31st 2008) to find the “Ooffoo Laureate of the Year” which carries a £500 prize!

Bringing together key trends including recycling, consumer knowledge and power, community & local, handmade and ‘make do and mend’, ooffoo is just what people need to weather the economic storm, reduce spending and reactivate communities.

Offoo is a great place to find and share eco friendly information, encouraging positive thinking whilst offering you the opportunity to meet likeminded people.

What better way to charge you gadgets than whilst you’re on the move enjoying everything the countryside has to offer!

This neat little backpack absorbs the sun’s energy thanks to the monocyrstalline solar panel on the front. The power is transferred into an electrical charge which is stored in a power pack, hidden inside. You simply attach your hand-held appliance (mobile, digital camera, or MP3 player) to the charger using one of the adaptors that are included (Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens mobile phones, plus a mini USb connector) and voila: full power whilst you’re on the move!

The Solar Backpack is also extremely comfortable to carry, with ultra soft padded back and a number of buckles that can be fastened to make it easier to on your shoulders. Better still, the Solar Backpack has a number of compartments for your belongings including a divider which you can use to secure a laptop.

You will also find a compartment with a sealed pouch for loose change and a concealed zipped pouch to store an iPod allowing for headphone access. Flipping it over reveals another small pocket containing a rain cover meaning it will keep everything bone dry during the British summer!