The Arnold Palmer is an exceptional beverage. It takes two individual beverages, iced tea and lemonade, each very good in their own right, and creates an even better one. That’s how we feel about social media and green living i.e. sustainability.

There is nothing inherently green about social media. The Web 2.0 revolution is driven by code and the Internet as a platform. According to Wikipedia, it describes this as a trend in “technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.” This is largely a virtual world.

The move toward sustainability, on the other hand, is taking place entirely offline in the actual world. It is about balancing our impact and more wisely managing our natural resources. The United Nations describes it as commitment to “the provision of a secure environmental, social, and economic future.”

As different as they are, these two trends share one key quality: they’re changing the world for the better. They are changing politics, business, culture, and society. In the following we explore 10 ways that the trends of social media and sustainability intersect as well as align.

Special Note: Sustainablog and Max Gladwell are supporting Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). By clicking this link and signing up for SocialVibe, once featured in our Ten Ways to Change the World Through Social Media, you’ll effectively donate $1 to the cause. We also encourage you to watch the live telecast on ABC, CBS, and NBC, September 5th, at 8:00pm ET/PT.

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We need to find a more sensible appoach to economics — call it ECOmonics — that doesn’t require infinite growth on a finite planet. For Earth’s sake and our sake, we need to get to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Quickly. Many of us, either as conserving customers or ecopreneurs, are already well on our way to helping make it so.

We’re reaching a point where the “More, Bigger, Faster” mode of economic activity — often at complete odds with social justice and ecological realities of a finite Earth system — must change. It is changing, by ecopreneurs who are determined NOT to destroy the planet or exploit people in the process. Like us, many green business owners are small sizing our operations to provide optimal control over our impacts. An egg is still an egg, one of the most complete forms of protein you can fry up in a pan, regardless of its size.

Our present growth-obsessed, global, capitalistic economic “story” seems broken when 5-percent of the world’s people uses 25-percent of its resources, produces 40-percent of the waste and, interestingly on the social side, houses 25-percent of the prison population.

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Posts follow the jump.

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Submissions for this week follow the jump.

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CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. Usually available from late spring through early fall, CSAs allow people to buy direct from a local farm. CSA members receive weekly baskets of produce depending on what is ready for harvest during the growing season. (Find a CSA farmer near you.)

Farmers markets. In many places parking lots or street blocks transform into hubs of activity with farmers selling fresh, locally grown produce. Many farmers’ markets also have more than just produce with local proprietors selling baked goods, meat, dairy products, eggs, honey, soaps, flowers, and handmade artifacts.

U-pick. Some farms will open to the public during harvest season. Common crops you can pick yourself are strawberries, blueberries and pumpkins. (This also makes for a fun family activity.)

Food Coop. Food cooperatives are usually set up like grocery stores but are run and operated by members, and feature a wide selection of locally grown and produced goods. If there aren’t any food coops near you, ask your grocery store or specialty food store for a greater selection of local products.

Restaurants. Eating local is becoming easier at restaurants. This is usually more prominent at locally owned and operated spots that feature changing menus depending on the season. If you have a favorite restaurant that doesn’t feature any local goods, start asking as there may be a few things the chef can easily incorporate. To find a restaurant near you, vist the Chef’s Collaborative Restaurant Locator.

Buying local doesn’t have to stop at just food. Many areas have other types of goods made regionally.

What do you buy local?

More information from GO:

A Short Glossary of Local Food Sources

Getting Local Food

Enigmatic No More: How to Locate Green Business Near You

Supporting Local Restaurants…And Get Money Back!

Local Food Makes Good Business Cent$

The Benefits of Eating Organic Foods

I Heart Organic SF: Connecting You to Your Local Organics

Daily Tip: Eating Green

Weekend Review: "Plenty" a Satisfying Read

The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience looks to provide some guidance for getting behind the layers of obfuscation and presents the issues that need to be considered in many of these decisions. The book is divided into three parts. Part I: Issues lays out the alternatives and some of the standards for ethical decisions. Part II: Products & companies goes through different categories in more detail. And Part III: Find out more deals briefly with sources for further information.

The Issues section looks at five approaches to ethical decisionmaking: Going green, Fair trade, Boycotts, Selective shopping, and Buying locally. The authors recognize the complexities in all of these issues, and point out the (sometimes conflicting and contradictory) arguments that can be made about deciding one way or another. In most circumstances, they lay out the different viewpoints, but do not offer any definitive answer, because no such solution exists.

"Once you start thinking about all the positive and negative implications of what you buy and use, it quickly becomes clear that there's no one-size-fits-all approach — no simple list of moral checks and crosses. For one thing, there are always conflicting priorities. Is it better, for instance, to support the local independent cafe around the corner, or buy a fairly traded cup from the global chain across the road? Is it "ethical" to favor local products — doing your bit to limit envionmentally harmful transportation — or does that mean harming impoverished countries that are eager to export?"

The middle section on Products & companies collects information about all manner of products and services, and examines the various concerns and tradeoffs involved in searching for the most ethical choice in a given category. More detailed discussion of particular issues for a given topic. Food is a multifaceted topic, and the discussion includes issues such as the use of antibiotics, by catch in fishing, organic standards (and alternatives to the 'organic' label), vegetarianism and the humane treatment of animals, genetically modified organisms, and more are all discussed.

For example, in many cases, the terms we think are indicative of preferred products may not be as meaningful as we believe. "Free range" poultry, for example, conjures a vision of chickens wandering a barnyard, but "in theory, a coop or stall door could be opened for five minutes a day to satisfy such minimal requirements." We can make well-meaning choices, but what we are actually supporting may be a very different thing. It is difficult to know all of these things, because so much energy is spent to convince us of some beautiful image, rather than the truth of the situation. With fuller knowledge, we can make more meaningful choices.

Clothing, money matters, household goods (including cleaning products, furniture, toys, and more), and transportation are all covered in greater depth, as well. Most topic areas have a few listings for websites of suppliers and producers of products or sources for further information.

The final Find out more section is a brief collection of resources for gathering further information and a little bit of information about how to research a company. The websites and books and magazines listed may have some usefulness, but this is more of an addendum than a crucial part of the book.

There is a lot of good information in this book. It is less the sort of thing one should read cover to cover than it is a reference to keep on hand. If many of these concepts are still fresh with you, it is likely to be too much to absorb all at once. The authors do a very good job of pointing out the differing opinions and the tradeoffs involved in these choices, because none of this is black and white. Rather than feeding pat answers, this is a book that will prick at your conscience, and help you to address those decisions you make as a consumer and as a citizen with more thought and care.