You can search Folksy for items by type, including handmade supplies, and of particular interest - recycled! You can also search by materials and technique. Folksy also has a small campaign that brings you right to the bags page, stating that plastic bags are out and totes are in.

For sellers, setting up a shop looks to be a pretty straight forward and simple process. It is only open to UK sellers, but plans to open up to international sellers is in the works.

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But where do you buy from? I’m all for promoting local businesses and buying from small stores right in your own town. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, you may have little to no options in that category. The easiest thing to do is log on to the internet (and you already have since you are reading this) and partake in the massive variety it has to offer.

After the runaway success with their first thepurplebook: the definitive guide to exceptional online shopping in 2000, authors Hillary Mendelsohn and Ian Anderson have released a number of specialized editions. Hitting book shelves in January 2008, thepurplebook Green: an eco-friendly online shopping guide is the latest of their incarnations.

Whether you’re new to the eco-lifestyle or so sustainably settled that you have a composting toilet and solar panels, thepurplebook Green Edition has something to offer everyone. Though the book is about shopping, it continually reminds readers to reuse what they already have. “The greenest thing you can do is to extend the lifespan of the products you already own,” says Hillary in the book’s introduction. “When it comes to shopping, it’s usually a matter of buying eco-friendly versions of the same products you already use.”

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Your might remember Rodale’s Organic Style Magazine, which ran from 2001 to 2005, acting as a vital source of information for consumers during the early stages of the second coming of the environmental movement. Bought by sustainable flower innovator Organic Bouquet in May of this year, I interviewed Organic Bouquet’s CEO Gerald Prolman not long after the deal was made public. Launched just a few days ago, Organic Style is primed to become a top eco-shopping destination.

“All the products sold on the site will be either certified organic, transition to organic, bio-dynamic, sustainable, Fair Trade or a new category we call ‘not certified but worthy.’ To help get the word out, we plan re-launch the Organic Style magazine in the second quarter of 2008. We plan to initially publish the Organic Style magazine quarterly and offer it as a free OrganicStyle.com customer benefit. We want to give our customers information that will be valuable in their lives, that will help them make informed decisions about a balanced and responsible way to live and celebrate life,” said Gerald Prolman in our August interview.

As expected, Organic Style offers a breathtaking variety of flowers, wreathes, and plants - my personal favorites are the charitable bouquets, which give a percentage of each purchase price to each bouquet’s non-profit organization. The holiday section offers seasonal gift baskets, wreathes, and gifts for your favorite canine (hopefully they’ll had some feline offerings too). As a bit of a sweets fiend, I was instantly drawn to the organic holiday sugar cookies and organic gingerbread cookies gift baskets. If gift baskets are your favorite way to give gifts, make sure to check out the gourmet section of Organic Style, which has nearly 30 different eco-combinations.

Even after the holidays have passed, Organic Style is a bookmark-able shopping destination for green wardrobe, gardening, and bed & bath goods (I’ve already got my eyes on their beautifully colored organic blankets). With my eco-fashion business focus, I couldn’t help but be impressed by their apparel category that offers non-nonsense, well-designed garments and accessories.

Though most of us don’t need an extra incentive to shop, Organic Style has a built-in eco-points program. Every time you make a purchase on the Organic Style site, your earn eco-points (1 point for each dollar spent). For every 10 points your earn, you can use them for $1 off a future purchase. Upon reaching a few hundreds points, you can also redeem your eco-points for free flower bouquets to help brighten your (or someone else’s) day.

Do you have a favorite online green store? Share your choice shopping destinations in the comments section and they will be considered for the next installment of Green Shopping Spotlight.

If having a gift-free holiday is not something your family would go for, why not get them something sustainable? Just by looking through the eco-links collection on my website, one can easily see that there are cornucopia of green stores to choose from. For the next two months, I’ll be featuring some of the freshest shopping destinations the world wide web has to offer, helping you get to the bottom of that twice-checked list faster than ever.

Trying to decide who to feature in my first Green Shopping Spotlight was a darn tough decision, but the answer came to me in a snap, or an e-mail as it were. Two days ago, I got a delightful message from Jennifer, half of the two-woman team that started Max and Zane, the other half being April. I’d never heard of the online outlet before so I quickly clicked on over to see what the scoop was, and boy (or girl, haha) was I in for a treat!

Handmade, vintage, recycled, repurposed — Max and Zane has it all. We’re not just talking accessories and t-shirts either — paper goods, bath & body, kid & baby, men, women and special gift lists are full of unique items that I haven’t seen on any other sites. "Max and Zane was born out of a love for all things extraordinary and the knowledge that not everyone has the time or the patience to seek them out."

While the goods sold on Max and Zane are green, does the rest of the business operate under the same principles? You bet! "Not only do we have a love for vintage and repurposed goods, but we use recycled office supplies and support eco-friendly companies whenever humanly possible. Your purchases from Max and Zane will most likely arrive at your door in recycled cardboard boxes with reused packaging … we figure, if we can provide secure shipping in materials that are reused, why waste valuable resources?"

Need a simple gift for a co-worker? Shopping for a relative that is "difficult" to pinpoint? Ready to start putting slash marks on your holiday list? Click on over to Max and Zane — you won’t be disappointed.

Greenloop is one woman’s creative endeavor in market based environmental activism. The mission is simple: Green Life. Green Style. At Greenloop, the alignment of style and sustainability, of aesthetics and ethics, provide all of us with the opportunity to look good, feel good, and do good. All of the goods at Greenloop are made by conscientious companies who are committed to environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Greenloop is committed to supporting the development of environmentally responsible, renewable energy and to stopping global warming. To this end, we purchase Green Tags for each order placed making each shopping experience even greener.

Featuring one of the widest variety of green fashion and beauty collections, Greenloop has been a key factor in the progress and availability of the sustainable lifestyle. A proud member of Co-op America and 1% For The Planet, Greenloop carries a wide variety of brands, all of which feature one or more of the following eco-friendly elements:

…using eco-friendly, sustainable materials; employing energy efficient and low-impact production; investing in renewable energy and carbon offsets; and maximizing recycling and waste reduction. In addition to these practices, Greenloop supports fair trade, organic farming, sweat-shop free production, and environmental non-profit groups through in-kind and financial donation.

Head over to Greenloop’s extensive online store today for exceptional discounts - their summer sale only lasts until July 31st! "Make a conscious choice to make a difference. If you are going to be a walking billboard, be a billboard for a cause. Small changes and conscious choices can produce big change."

Even though newspapers are seeing a decline in revenue and may be cutting back on their print runs, newsprint is still alive and kicking. According to the Green Press Initiative Americans go through 9.2 million tons of newsprint per year. Of that amount only 32% is made from recycled material, which leaves 6 million tons of new trees needed for newspapers. Only 69% of newspapers actually get recycled.

Most large newspapers have online editions, but even if you're not in a major metropolitan area, check to see if your local paper has gone virtual. Or as Shea has suggested, you can build your own personal newspaper with RSS feeds from your favorite news sources. One advantage to this is news is updated throughout the day online, so you're always getting up to date information.

If you're printing out articles to read on the go make sure to use the 'print article' feature if available. It will format the article appropriately to get more text on one page. If you just want to save an article for later either book mark the permalink or copy and paste the text (including all pertinent publishing info) into a word document and save it to your computer that way. Plus there's always the online archives if you want to refer back to the article at a later date.

But if you still can't let go of your daily subscription (my mom certainly won't) be sure to recycle.

Amy says: I'll admit, I do enjoy getting my fingers dirty and flipping through the newsprint at my neighborhood cafe. However, instead of purchasing a new one, I'll first check to see if I can snag someone else's they've already finished.

Started by two former Detroiters living in North Carolina, The Stanley Family Lodge is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Jeremie and Melissa Stajda. Inspired by the abundance of wilderness around their new home, the duo was strongly influenced to change their lifestyle for the better.

“We both finally committed to practicing healthy and ethical habits through vegetarianism and veganism. We began recycling, limiting our consumption of new materials, and making a strong effort to be more environmentally responsible people.” Having a hard time finding affordable vegan and eco-friendly items, the two decided to start a new online store. “Our goal is to provide a shop where you can find a wide assortment of everyday items in one convenient stop.”

Melissa was gracious enough to battle through first-time pregnancy queasiness to do the following interview with me.

Victoria E: How did the idea for The Stanley Family Lodge develop?

Melissa Stajda: Wow, so much was involved in the decision to start The Stanley Family Lodge! I had just closed my online shop April Fool Handmade, where I successfully created handmade accessories for a couple of years. I was kind of in limbo, trying to figure out what my next project would be. And I was getting really serious about being a Vegan and making some huge lifestyle changes. Also, my husband Jeremie and I were looking for a project that we could work on together. So everything just kind of aligned perfectly, and we came up with the idea to start the shop!

After much brainstorming, Jeremie and I felt that we wanted to do something different, something important, and something responsible. There are already so many shops online, so many handmade items being created, and just so much stuff being thrown into the world of e-commerce. After being part of the indie D.I.Y. community for so long, I was becoming frustrated with the lack of recycled, organic, vegan-friendly, and environmentally responsible goods being sold. It felt like there was this big boom where everyone was trying to capitalize on the popularity of "handmade", but everyone was missing the point. I saw a lot of "handmade" items being created in mass quantities, making use of new and non-recyclable materials, and everything seemed to be a dime a dozen. Not the ideal image of the indie D.I.Y. movement I was part of!

So we decided that if we were going to throw ourselves into the marketplace we wanted to do it with some environmental responsibility. So we went forth with the idea to create a shop that only carried goods that are vegan-friendly, animal-friendly, sweatshop-free, recyclable, make use of sustainable materials, safe for the environment, and affordable. Our ideal shop!

VE: What connections do you see between the D.I.Y. and environmental/sustainable movements?

MS: I see a lot of connections between the two movements. What's really great about them both is the idea that you have to be somewhat of a rebel to get started. To make it in both the D.I.Y. and Eco-friendly worlds you have to make a conscious effort to step away from everyone else… and to take a chance on an idea that the majority of folks see as an unlikely success. Most people equate success with dollar amounts, and don't expect that you'll bring in much of an income making or selling handmade or green items. So those around you may discourage you, and won't be as supportive as you'd hope. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked why I don't just get a real job and bring home a paycheck every week! Everyone seems to value success and productiveness differently. But thankfully most folks in the D.I.Y. and Eco-friendly worlds value their success by ethics, community, and social progress! So you'll definitely find the support you need within those communities.

On a negative note, I have to admit that I am saddened by large corporations' recent attempts to capitalize on both the D.I.Y. and Eco-friendly movements.

While I of course encourage everyone to make steps in creating more responsibly, and changing the way we consume… I don't trust the motivation of some companies. Examples are large chains like Wal-Mart selling "organic" foods, McDonald's testing their new "eco-friendly" coffee shop, and Bono recruiting every corporation and their mom to create the "Product Red" line of goods. I think that companies are using the environment, consumer guilt, and disease to capitalize and pull money into their stores. Wal-Mart can't redeem themselves by selling organic fruit, and I don't think they're trying to. I think it's all sneaky, and just a huge marketing ploy. If I want to support the fight against AIDS in Africa the best thing I can do is donate my money directly to the cause, not by purchasing a Red Motorola Razor cell phone that was produced in a factory, will most likely never be recycled, and possibly contains toxic chemicals. And I see this capitalization dripping down into some smaller businesses also lately, and it's just disappointing when people miss the point.

VE: Has starting the online store helped your own daily life become more green?

MS: Having the shop has definitely motivated us even more to be green in our daily lives. While we were living really responsibly before we started the shop, we're constantly trying to improve our lives! We have a lot of artists, friends, and family who look to us to help educate them on things like shopping green, living green, and creating green goods. So we for sure feel an obligation to live by the words, and ideals that we dispense to everyone around us. We also receive so much positive feedback from people, and that is a great motivation for us too! We kinda feel that if we can live up to these high expectations we set for ourselves, and share our experience and resources with everyone… then maybe they'll realize they can do it to. You know, when you're taking on anything new you look for people who are making it work for them. We hope that we can make living green seem simple and attainable, so that it's just more encouragement for our friends, family, and customers to try the same.

VE: Do you think it would ever be possible for the DIY movement to be as mainstream as, say, low rise jeans? Why or why not?

MS: I think it's totally possible for the D.I.Y. movement to become mainstream! I look at Renegade Craft Fair, Readymade Magazine, and companies like Fred Flare who are all highly influenced by D.I.Y., and see that it's having quite an influence. Also it seems that these days everyone from your thrifty college student to families are looking to become more self-reliant, and the D.I.Y. movement fosters that. There are so many great things about D.I.Y. culture that can benefit so many people, it's no wonder that it's catching on so well with forms of mass media like cable television networks and national publications.

People want to save money, they want to make a living off of their creativity, they want to find ways for their family to have fun together, they want to learn how to forge a better sense of community, they want to bring more function and practicality to their lives. All of these things are now easily accomplished by anyone who can pick up a great magazine at their local book shop, watch a super fun and informative show on cable, or search on the internet.

I think this is all proof that people really love D.I.Y. and that it's only growing in popularity!

VE: What we some of the easiest and most difficult things to adjust to when making your lives more green?

MS: It was definitely more difficult than easy, adopting a greener lifestyle! Fortunately we happened to move to a small community in Carrboro, North Carolina that was a very environmentally friendly one. So we were actually influenced and encouraged by our surroundings. But some things we struggled with were availability of necessities, affordability, variety, and convenience. When you're a young married couple living on an extremely modest income some problems do arise. One of the hardest things was re-budgeting our lifestyle to accommodate our vegan nutrition. We chose to become vegan not just because of animal rights, but also because of the health benefits. So our grocery bills were suddenly nearly double what we were used to. It quickly gets expensive when you set such high standards of living. While stores like Whole Foods offer generic organic food items, sometimes you have to pay a lot to get those basics that you need. Our budget was also affected by other necessities like clothing, toiletries, household items, health care. When you only want to wear organic and sweatshop free clothing you're options are limited, and most likely pricier. And when you make a sudden change in lifestyle like we did, you have to start from scratch in a way and replace a lot of things in you home. We had to make a slow transition, because it's all our budget would allow… but we did it and it's worth it!

Some easier things for us were recycling, because we live in a community that enforces it. So we moved into our apartment fully equipped with our own recycling center, and complimentary recycling bins for our home. So while we might have ordinarily been a little lazy about recycling before, we were forced by law to get with the program. That was great motivation! Also, when you start caring about something like the planet which is larger than you or anyone… you start to take stock of your life and every thing's purpose. It was suddenly really easy for us to skip taking trips to the mall, and shopping for unnecessary items. We felt ridiculous buying coffee from expensive chains, when we could make it ourselves at home. We stopped eating out so much, and taught ourselves to cook healthy. We started spending more time at home together, taking less car rides, spending less money on useless things. Once you get the ball rolling, you see the bigger picture… and your life starts to change in every tiny aspect.

Like I beg everyone, at least just start with small steps! Slowly make some changes, and it will all start to make sense.

VE: Besides just selling indie, eco-friendly goods, what else does the online store do to be sustainable?

MS: We really try our hardest in every step of the business, to be environmentally responsible. One of the first rules we made, and communicated with our artists, was to completely eliminate any junk mail/advertisements/swag from our packaging. I've always found it frustrating when I order from a shop and receive piles of business cards, buttons, and flyers with my order. These items are destined to go straight in the recycling bin (or even worse, the trash), and we did not want to add to that waste. We're also strict about making use of only recycled papers, and limit our use of packaging and paperwork with orders… only including a very small receipt in each. Our packing is all recycled, making use of the wrapping we receive when artists send us their goods. We do our best to package everything, so it looks new and clever when it lands on your doorstep… but we hope that our customers appreciate our resourcefulness! And one thing that I learned from my prior business was to set a schedule for shipments. Even down to the shipping… we set a weekly schedule, pay postage from our computer, and ship all of our packages from home. I found it really beneficial to make friends with my postal carrier! These days I grab my packages, hand them over to her, and I'm done.

It all comes down to how resourceful you can be really. Whether it's trying to make your home greener, your business, or your community… you just find new and better ways of accomplishing things.

VE: As a young couple running an eco business, how do you balance your goals of helping to change/save the world and making a profit?

MS: This is the really hard part of running any business! While we really want to make the ethic behind our shop our only focus, we're young and about to start a family… so income is of course important too. I can honestly admit that we are at a disadvantage sometimes, being a shop that will only sell a certain standard of goods. I look back to my former business, and other popular indie online shops… and they're able to carry a larger selection and variety of goods that we are. Stocking our shop, and finding artists who share our ideals is a hard thing to do sometimes. When we started the shop we were very lucky and found alot of folks who were making eco-friendly goods, but as time goes on it becomes more and more difficult to find certain items. But I can say that no matter what, we're always working to make the shop meet our goals! It takes alot of research, relying on tips from friends, and spending endless hours online… but we always end up finding the best people to work with and welcome into the shop. We just stick with it, and our hard work pays off eventually.

We're also very realistic, and were aware when we started that things would take time and most likely progress slowly. While we'd love to make the shop our full time job and take out a business loan to open a brick and mortar location, we understand that it's more responsible to take things at a slower pace. And while this business may not be incredibly profitable at times, we stick with it because we truly love the ethic of the shop. Our number one goal was always the ethics, then maybe profit if we're lucky!

VE: What do you say to the folks that still believe Global Warming is just a myth?

MS: Luckily I haven't met anyone in person who's expressed their disbelief in Global Warming to me. If I did, my head might explode! It's just such a large issue to take on in discussion, I don't know that I could handle in a calm manner. What I do discuss with alot of people though, are smaller issue, and local issues. It seems that people are more likely to listen and attempt to understand if you approach them with issues that they can witness on a daily basis, or in their own environment. Living in the south I encounter alot of people who don't understand my choice to be vegan, so I take on that issue alot. Small steps is my approach! While the issue of veganism is just as complex as Global Warming, it's something that I can talk about from my own personal experience and I think people appreciate that more. I can start by explaining the health benefits I experience, then talk about animal rights, and then about how veganism can positively affect Global Warming. Alot of the time if you just start spitting out scientific facts to folks, their eyes glaze over and they stop listening. So you have to think of who you're talking to, what they appreciate in their environment, and try to find a way that the issue personally relates to them. Otherwise, as passionate as you may be about something, you're message just won't get across. Or you could just tell them to watch "An Inconvenient Truth"!

VE: Do you have any future hopes or plans in expanding the online store and its impact on the green and DIY movements?

MS: Well, our long term goal for the shop is to open a brick and mortar someday. It's what we want more than anything, so that we can have a more active voice in the community, and interact with people more. We can only get so far with our message online, and we feel that we would have a greater effect and could reach more people if we were physically based somewhere. In the next year or so we'll be picking up and moving to Philadelphia, where we'll hopefully be able to make these things happen! But right now we're just really focussed on establishing ourselves in the online community, building working relationships with artists, and widening our customer base. Once we feel really confident in this venue, then we'll move onto bigger and better things!

In addition to the monthly episode/cartoon, the site features a blog, music, downloadable wallpaper and avatars, tips and quizzes on eco-living, and mini-stories about different topics in ecology, sustainability, social equity, and environmentalism. The site is easy to navigate and visually appealing to kids, and most of the content has links where viewers can get more information.

The Greens themselves are a hodge-podge of colorful characters, including kids, adults, and animals, designed to provide a green alternative to the typical portrayal of cartoon families. I particularly liked the dreadlocked, Rasta-hat-wearing Hector, described as "a kid who doesn't say much, but usually knows what he's talking about," and has a feature about saving water at home… in just ten words.

Overall, kids and tweens will find The Greens to be likable and entertaining. Much like those other popular kids films, the characters drop pop-culture references that both kids and adults will find amusing. More importantly, The Greens give kids a pop-culture reflection of what environmentally-conscious families can look like. The Greens are interesting, funny characters who happen to care about sustainability. The kid characters are empowering and passionate without being preachy. I'd personally like to see more content in the second "episode," with more character storylines to supplement the diverse informational articles, nd if there's something you'd like to see, The Greens want feedback on the site, which you can give here.

And speaking of politicians, you can take the good old fashioned writing to your elected officials online. Believe it or not, the government makes it easy to find the information to send an e-mail to your senator, or congress person, or other elected representative. The websites for the US House of representatives and the US Senate have up to date listings. USA.gov includes a comprehensive listing of state level representatives.

Or if you'd prefer someone else to do the writing there are organizations like Environmental Action that make it really easy. They have a whole listing of action items. Right now they're asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to keep America safe from lead; asking Wal-Mart to sponsor a free energy efficient light bulb day; and asking elected officials to save the polar bear. All you have to do is click the cause and "sign" a pre-made letter. That's it.

And for those who still want to go out and get a little dirty, activist Bill McKibben is calling on America to "Step it Up" on April 14 (recently featured on GO). McKibben is using the internet to organize and spread the word of this grassroots movement to fight climate change.

This new wave of environmental activism has definitely taken on new forms. Mark Spellun, Editor-in-Chief of Plenty Magazine wrote in the June/July 2006 issue, "Indeed, just because there aren't protests in the street doesn't mean that there isn't a revolution afoot. Forward-thinking individuals have integrated green living into their daily lives and their pocketbooks, creating solutions to problems that can't be solved by a march or a sit-in."

At Green Options we'll do our best to feature the many ways that we as individuals can make a difference - both online and off.