Green Options

For those of you who have never spent much time in Minneapolis/St. Paul, you may not realize that the Twin Cities are surprisingly progressive - at times, one might even say trend-setting (think Target and Aveda). So it’s no surprise really that it was a full seven years ago that Minneapolis saw its first eco-friendly clothing boutique. Since that time, Birch Clothing owners Ellen Gavin and Marti Markus have solidified their reputation as the go-to shop for green fashion in the area.

Now they’ve taken their business to the Internet, with well-known staples like Patagonia, as well as smaller, lesser-known brands such as Aventura and Indigenous Designs. Best of all, they are offering FeelgoodStyle readers 20% your entire order! To help you get started on your shopping spree, I thought I’d point out a few of my favorite things:

Editor’s Note: Carrotmob is a form of consumer activism that invites businesses to compete in order to win a mob of customers. But everyone wins, because the extra money the winner makes goes toward things like improving their energy efficiency. Usually the business who promises the largest percentage of revenue from the event wins, but this Carrotmob was done a little differently. Each contestant explained what they’d do if they won, and what they were currently doing around sustainability, and the general public voted, actually choosing the one who had already shown the greatest commitment to sustainability. Epicenter wanted to get some feedback from the public around what type of to-go containers to use.

What is the most sustainable type of take-out packaging?

Ah yes, the burning question that keeps many an environmentalist tossing and turning well into the night. On the one hand, PLA, aka “polylactic acid” comes from plants, not petroleum, so it must be good, right? But which plants does it come from? And what part of the plant? Is it waste being upcycled? Is it replacing food crops? It must be good, right, it’s not petroleum!?

Epicenter Café, being a very conscientious Carrotmob winner, wants to be sure they make the right choice. They also want your input, sage readers. So I present to you the options, because even the Green Café Network does not take an official stance on this ever-evolving topic. There is an increasing array of options for eco to-go containers.

Our favorite environmentally-friendly Titanic Star, Leonardo DiCaprio, is the force behind the recent (ironic) “Don’t Vote” PSAs starring Eva Longoria, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen, Ashton Kutcher and more!

With Election Day less than 24 hours away, Leo wants you to know that now is your chance to vote (the environment).

American scientists have discovered a fungus deep in the Patagonian rainforest that makes biodiesel as part of its natural lifecycle. The fungus is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel sources.

According to team member Prof. Gary Strobel of Montana State University, “The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel than anything we use at the moment.”

Performance gear-producing Patagonia, known for their forays into sustainable clothing produced with environmental ethics in mind, has produced the first recyclable-nylon shell and pants for technical outdoor wear.  The company has produced recyclable nylon gear before, in the form of pants and shorts, but these are the first shells produced in the industry that can be recycled.  Patagonia will provide recycling for their Shelter Stone products through their already-active Common Threads recycling program

When you think of locations for penguins, Antarctica is probably your first guess. If you know a bit more about penguins, you might point to Patagonia or even down my way, where the Fairy Penguins live at Phillip Island. However I would very much hope that you wouldn’t predict that they could be making their way as far north as Bahia, one of the 26 states of Brazil.

According to Brazilian wildlife authorities on Wednesday, penguins have been “washing up” in far greater numbers this year in areas like Rio de Janeiro, where they are common, but not normally in these numbers.

“This is unheard of. There have even been reports of penguins washing up as far as Aracaju,” said Adelson Cerqueira Silva of the federal environmental agency.

In case you missed them the first time around, here are the top 10 international environmental headlines that made news in the blogosphere for the week of March 31 - April 6.

1. Asia — United Nations Climate Change Talks: “Kyoto II” climate talks open in Bangkok

“The first formal talks in the long process of drawing up a replacement for the Kyoto climate change pact opened in Thailand on Monday with appeals to a common human purpose to defeat global warming.

‘The world is waiting for a solution that is long-term and economically viable,’ U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said in a video address to the 1,000 delegates from 190 nations gathered in Bangkok.

There are 1000 species of birds in Argentina and 120 of them are endangered according to Aves Argentinas, a non profit organization.

In Argentina one of the main factors that puts wild birds in danger is unrestricted hunting. Most Provincial Governments don’t put a limit on this. When a limit is set, there is no control over its observance.

One of the most beautiful and more threatened species is the cauquenes or kaikenes (Ruddy-headed Goose or Magellan Goose), similar in aspect to the goose.

I’m traveling trough Patagonia, Argentina, and exploring how eco-friendly the Patagonians are.

I drove through route 3. It runs across Argentina from north to south, next to the Atlantic coast. Here you can see a beautiful landscape, steppe to one side and deep blue ocean to the other.

Patagonia: it’s a land of dinosaurs, oil and strong winds. The latter is responsible for a horrifying realization–how dirty it is! The last time I visited Patagonia was six years ago, and I didn’t see the mass amount of plastic bags everywhere.

By: Anthony J. Gerst

From Patagonia to the not-so-frozen Russian Tundra, unto the Brazilian tropical savannahs, the planet, “she be a changing, mate.” I consider it an honor to be writing for Planetsave. It is the freedom of pure expression that is the net-gem to be found here. Normally, when writing for this page, I narrow the focus down to a singular story. Within the feature blog I often present what I refer to as an activist’s listing. [...]

It's a paradox: although backpackers, particularly those who are hardcore, are committed to "leaving no trace," and surely appreciate our natural environment, we still consume fossil fuels getting to our favorite trailheads, and damage, however minimally, the environments in which we hike. Most of us, also, are still totally into gear: backpacks, tents, and the like, which can consume resources, even petroleum, and can produce pollution through their production.

Although backpacking can be

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