Green Options

If you’re looking for an easy gift idea that supports your ideals and is delicious while doing it, we recommend sending gift boxes from Grounds for Change to the coffee lovers on your list this year! Every single bean that they roast is Fair Trade Certified, Organic Certified, CarbonFree Certified and Shade Grown, which means the possibility of a real livelihood for coffee growers, a breath of fresh air for the planet, zero net carbon emissions from “crop to cup” and healthy forests for migratory songbirds.

As some of my colleagues and I wondered Friday (with less people) then Saturday (bobbed and weaved through the packed crowds) through the San Francisco Green Festival 2009 and we put aside any thoughts of the outside the green world bubble with the economic woes, with so many downtrodden uncreative businesses sticking to the old game plan. Here we viewed, tasted and discussed fresh innovative and mostly sustainable ideas.

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Terri Bly, president of The Nature of Beauty, reviews Sweet Riot, a mission-focused, women-owned company dedicated to providing the most delicious chocolate in the world through environmentally-responsible and ethical business practices.

Halloween is almost here! Have you been thinking of ways to make it more green? One of the biggest drawbacks to this spooky holiday is all the candy that gets passed out. Approximately, 10 pounds of it! That’s a lot of candy for one child.

If you’re lucky your children might come home with an all natural version of sweets without the high fructose corn syrup. More than likely, their pillowcases will be brimming with candy you don’t support!

Last year, my family focused on easy ways to put a  little eco in your Halloween adventures but this year we’re going a little further. We plan to support Fair Trade and participate in Reverse Trick-Or-Treating this year- Learn how you can too!

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting fed up with buying things that break or wear out way before they should. Warranties – from both manufacturers and retailers — seem to be getting shorter and more limited than ever, as if durability is an afterthought.

But I don’t want to support the landfill economy. I want to support the restoration economy and, when I need to purchase things, support companies that care about the planet the way I do. Some of these companies break from this planned obsolescence mentality and profit obsession, companies like REI, or Recreation Equipment, Inc., where your love of the outdoors actually pays dividends to you, as a customer-member of the cooperative enterprise.

REI, the nation’s largest consumer cooperative, got its start in 1938 when a bunch of climbing buddies got together to buy some gear to explore the great outdoors. They support people, their community and the environment on which their enterprise is based. And they guarantee that their products last and perform as expected.

A couple years ago, for example, I purchased a pair of sandals from REI.  After limited use, my sandals had an ankle strap that broke. The brand is well known and adventure proven: Teva. Since I live in a four-season climate, they should have lasted longer than they did. Walking into the REI retail store in a much older pair of Tevas I wore when traveling to South America, I talked briefly with a salesperson in REI shoe department who found a replacement pair of a different model for me in minutes. No hassle. No runaround. Try that at a big box retailer or chain.

We cranked up the woodstove for the first time this season last night at Inn Serendipity. The cool, fall nighttime breezes have arrived here in Wisconsin, and that means just one thing: time for hot cocoa. But not just any hot cocoa. When my husband, John Ivanko, and I moved from Chicago apartments to our Wisconsin farm, we traded convenience for countryside. No more quick runs to the mini mart store at the end of the urban block for a missing ingredient. . With civilization now a fifteen-minute drive away, I’ve learned the art of self-sufficiency by creatively making store bought mixes with pantry ingredients.

Hot cocoa serves up a good example of how making your own mixes from pantry staples deliver benefits on multiple fronts:

Oslo, Norway based FIN, is an organic global fashion line we’ve admired for some time now.

Shown here are various looks from FIN’s Fall 09 Eco Lux Collection. The eco materials they proudly use are:

• Organic Cotton
• Wild non-violent Silk
• Organic Baby Alpaca
• All Fair Trade Fabrics and Embellishments
• Produced with Love
• Carbon Neutral

The organic collection features exquisite tailoring details as well. 

Coffee Snob Chooses Starbucks over Artisanal Blue Bottle!

OK, I must admit, I’m not a coffee snob. If it’s thick as tar and wakes me up, it’s coffee. However, I know others who are. Especially here in San Francisco. I heard a lot of buzz about this “Blue Bottle” place, and although I haven’t yet tasted the elixir myself, I have a heartwarming story to tell. My sister-in-law told me about a recent experience she had at Blue Bottle at the Ferry Building. She asked the barista “Do you have fair trade coffee?” to which the barista reportedly replied in the negatory. So she and two others in line behind her left and went to the nearby national chain that happens to be the world’s largest buyer of fair trade coffee.

Image credit: Banky177 at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

But I Want to Support the Indie Coffee Shop

Because I enjoy living in a diverse and entrepreneurial economy, I try to support independently owned businesses where possible. So it bothered me that this company which seems to be extremely particular about the beans they roast would not take the next logical step and choose fair trade coffee. So I asked them why. And here’s the heartwarming part. I got the following response from Blue Bottle’s Head Roaster:

Millions of Americans are declaring financial sustainability, even if they don’t exactly call it that. After all, we can’t borrow our way out of debt.

We’re paying down or paying off credit cards. We’re getting rid of our mortgage or putting an extra payment toward the principal balance (which has huge cost savings advantages). Or we’re practicing other frugality rules. According to data from the Federal Reserve, the amount Americans owe on consumer loans and credit cards plummeted $21.6 billion in July of 2009 – the largest monthly drop in consumer debt since the Federal Reserve started to track it in 1943. The “cash for clunkers” will, no doubt, alter the outcomes for August and September, but the trend continues to be less appetite for debt, not more.

People are working to get the bankers out of our lives, demanding that we become someone other than a “consumer.” So while the Federal government continues to re-affirm their “wise” decisions to bailout bankers and big finance, Americans are choosing to fire their credit card companies and break their “death pledge” (aka mortgage) by paying it off early. Of course, there are also many Americans who are in so far over their heads that unfortunately, personal bankruptcy and home foreclosure are the only remedy.

I am, however, focusing on those who thrive in abundance, simplicity and sustainability when it comes to community, lifestyle and, yes, financial intelligence. As my wife and I write about in ECOpreneuring, you cannot have ecological sustainability without a large degree of social and economic equity. The ECOnomy is not about “free trade” but fair trade; it’s about commerce that restores the planet, not destroys it or exploits people.

You can join these financial freedom-seekers too, by practicing financial sustainability. As most of us intuitively recognize, the best things in life are free (or close to it).

“For every beautiful garment People Tree makes, there’s an equally beautiful change happening somewhere in the world” ~ Peopletree.co.uk

People tree is an exemplary model of “think global, act local” in sustainable fashion. With a strong business base in Europe and Asia, they work internationally with small handicraft makers in nearly twenty countries. Each textile collective is different. For example, in the nightwear collection highlighted above, they feature Nepalese hand-knit slipper socks together with these well constructed organic nighties made in India.

This is actually the second time we have had the pleasure of reviewing Inca Kids‘ products, and we are pleased to see their fair trade, Peruvian line expanding.  My son and I are in love with the super soft, uber adorable scarf from “Casa Betania”. Adorned with cars, this scarf is sure to please any little one and fair trade discerning parent.  Made from alpaca and acrylic yarns, this scarf is not itchy and carefully crafted by women in Peru. Casa Betania:

Started as a way to assist women with lack of emotional and financial support in some of the most unprivileged areas in Lima.
On December 4, 1990 they started making jute cartridge pouches,  then they learned to embroider and sew, some women brought their tools, also fixed the schedule from 2 to 7 p.m. and wages. The group that started with 7 women, grew into a group of 23 women selling their products to churches. Cáritas of France donated 2 sewing machines and libraries as well a provided some financial support.