Green Options

Amazon has launched the second version of the popular XO Laptop campaign. The what campaign? Basically, this:

• Buy an award-winning laptop for $199, which is donated directly to a child in the developing world; or
• Buy two for $399, and keep one.

Why a laptop? Well, the very impressive mission statement says it all:

To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year the focus is on poverty. Here are some ways you can help people in need, as you shop for your own needs:

Numbered above:

1. TOMS Shoes for Tomorrow, Giving Gifts to the Poor as You Shop: Starting from May 2006, TOMS Shoes for Tomorrow has given well over 10,000 pairs of shoes to children in Argentina and 50,000 pairs in South Africa through the purchases of caring customers. They’ve recently been nominated for the Cooper Hewitt People’s Design Award and they Need Your Vote! In 2008 TOMS plans to give 200, 000 pairs of shoes to children around the world. For each pair purchased, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need.
2. Give the Gift of Sight with KAYU’s New, Hot Line of Ethical Sunglasses: KAYU, a line of ecological and ethical sunglasses handcrafted from bamboo. By partnering with Unite for Sight, the organization is eliminating preventable blindness which is one of the world’s most urgent

TOMS Shoes: Shoes for Tomorrow, based in Santa Monica, California wants to give its products away. And you can help.

When TOMS’ founder Blake Mycoskie went to visit Argentina on vacation, he discovered more than he expected. While touring, he was exposed to the Argentinean soft shoe called Alpargata. He was also challenged by the poverty he saw, including the villages with children who did not even have shoes. As a result, he decided to create an organization that would be able to fill the simple, but necessary, need of putting shoes onto the feet of children who needed them.

There are some fashion traditions that just aren't comfortable (i.e. corsets), but one classic Argentinian-style shoe is helping to reshape the future for thousands of kids. With all the press out there on Toms Shoes, I'm pretty sure you have heard of them before. If not, here's the gist: buy a pair of affordable, comfortable Toms Shoes and a child in South America no only gets a free pair of [...]