Earth Friendly Shopping

Looking for vegan Valentine Chocolates? This wonderfully indulgent basket of goodies from Kate’s Caring Gifts really fits the bill.  With a delicious assortment of chocolate hearts, bites, and bars.  For an ultra special treat, the basket contains Devine Organics Raw Chocolate Brittle.  A smooth, rich chocolate unlike anything you have ever had.   See all of Kate’s organic and fair trade Valentine’s gifts.

Looking for an awesome gift for mom this mother’s day?   Look no further than the Zero Calorie Chocolate Skin Care gift set,  a unique collection of eco friendly chocolate skin care from Kate’s Caring Gifts.   The Zero Calorie Chocolate Skin Care Gift set features

All this organic and fair trade goodness is arranged in a natural wood basket, tied with Earth Friendly 100% cotton/soy ink Natural Ribbon (petroleum free). Clear wrap is bio-plastic made either from corn or wood, not petroleum! Basket, wrap and ribbon all made in the United States

The Zero Calorie Chocolate Skin Care Gift set costs $44.95 – but readers of this blog can get 15% off by using code MOM2012

See the complete set of Earth Friendly Mother’s Day Gifts at  Kate’s Caring Gifts

Churches and schools have tried coffee fundraising, along with more traditional candy, cookie and auction type fundraisers. Successful businesses, big and small, have found that consumers are looking more closely at products which are aligned with a cause that they care about. The fair trade cause is one that works to help insure that farmers and workers are compensated fairly with an equitable return for their labor and products. All the coffees offered in your church and school fundraising program can now be 100% fair trade and organic. And, while you are raising money for uniforms, furniture, building maintenance, instruments or supplementing your budget, you are supporting a worthy cause. A portion of the proceeds from sales of our “Righteous Bean” support Coffee Kids, an organization helping to make better life for women and children. Consider the potential benefit, value and relief that this additional money can do for your organization, as well as helping the fair trade movement.

By aligning your fund raising activities to fair trade, you are helping to promote a just cause, and everyone will feel better about knowing that they are doing their part in helping to repair the world. In addition to having top quality organic coffee, your fair trade coffee fundraising program can now be based on moral and ethical considerations. Your membership will feel better about drinking a fair trade coffee, and will be glad to take part in making your organization’s coffee fundraiser a profitable program. You can offer fair trade coffee from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico or Sumatra in either whole bean or ground 5 lb bags.

Specially designed for churches, schools and clubs, is a complete no cost fair trade coffee fundraising program, which delivers huge profits for your group. Our wholesale non-profit pricing is available to you, with shipping included, so there is no need to factor in additional cost calculations. We provide all the order forms, consultant support and the fair trade organic coffee, which is roasted fresh to your order. By partnering with the Organic Fair Trade Coffee Company, your organization can easily run with our fundraising program and make substantial profits.

The answer is in your hands. You can start your program right away and the best part is that there are no upfront costs. And, you keep the profit before sending in any money for the coffee. So, why not raise money for your organization while, at the same time, support the fair trade movement? Launch your fair trade coffee fundraising program today with the Organic Fair Trade Coffee Company. Contact us at coffeefundraiser@ofairtradecoffee.com or 616-949-0834. www.ofairtradecoffee.com

Michigan, February 22, 2011 – The Organic Fair Trade Coffee Company is now offering an extensive line of high quality tea, all organic and fair trade. The different varieties of tea include regular, decaf and herbal and are loose leaf, in one pound packages. We carry black, green, white and oolong. Since tea is among the most widely consumed drink in the world, it makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint to carry choice selections of bulk tea. And, since many people may not be close to a neighborhood store with high quality loose leaf tea, we now make it easy to purchase online.

Loose leaf tea leaves retain much of the full components of the tea. They do not go through the process of grinding, chopping or sifting which is customary for bagging the tea. When loose leaf tea is steeping and unfurling, the full aroma and taste is released. And, why should consumers pay extra for a process of packing and bagging the tea.

The benefits of drinking tea are evident and impact practically every health concern and make a positive difference in our immune systems, while providing essential antioxidants and vitamins. With the addition of an organic fair trade tea line, customers can enjoy a one stop shopping experience for their coffee and tea purchases.

As organic and sustainable agricultural methods continue to be adopted by growers, the consumer can now enjoy more and more products that are safer and healthier for them. Our line of loose leaf tea is also great for composting. The web store has been selling organic fair trade coffee, from independent roasters since 2007, to customers all over the US through their online website.

http://www.ofairtradecoffee.com/bulk-tea-organic-fair-trade

Greenwash (verb, \ˈgrēn-wȯsh\) – to market a product or service by promoting a deceptive or misleading perception of environmental responsibility.

At first glance, accounting seems totally unrelated to environmentalism. But a new type of accounting just might be the answer we need to ensure corporate carbon footprint transparency and stop the false marketing campaigns of greenwashers.

The U.S. is a leader in financial accounting (thanks in part to accounting software systems), but we need similar strength in environmental accounting to prevent deceptive green marketing campaigns.  The recent development of Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) software enables companies to track their carbon emissions and identify opportunities to reduce waste. When businesses everywhere begin tracking and reporting their carbon emissions, we’ll have a measurable way to evaluate their environmental impact.  By making the process much more manageable, ECA software leaves no excuses for supposedly “green” companies to cover up their emissions. Businesses who promote eco-friendly products will be forced to live up to their claims, and it will be a lot more difficult to get away with greenwashing. In fact, greenwashing could disappear entirely when carbon accounting is widely adopted.

For ECA software and environmental accounting adoption to get rid of greenwashers and make eco-friendly products trustworthy again, we need action in five main categories:

Clear government action on regulations – like increased coverage of the EPA’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which requires companies emitting 25,000 metric tons or more per year of greenhouse gases to report their emissions to the EPA;

Adoption of carbon accounting principles – stricter requirements for disclosure of standardized corporate emissions information to ensure that more companies measure their carbon footprints and make the information available to the public;

Expansion of Scope 3 emissions accounting – mandatory inclusion of suppliers’ emissions and other indirect sources (Scope 3) in reports to prevent under-reporting of emissions and to spread adoption of general carbon accounting more quickly among related businesses;

Better green business incentives – more tax incentives and other government initiatives could help with economic incentives to green, while using ECA software makes it easier to identify eco-friendly savings opportunities – making greenwashing unneccessary;

Demanding, informed consumers – demanding the numbers, while boycotting the greenwashers, uses consumer purchasing power to force businesses with green marketing campaigns to either prove their sincerity or end misleading marketing campaigns.

With all of these requirements fulfilled – easier said than done, of course – greenwashing could become nothing more than a brief history lesson.

To learn more about ECA software and greenwashing prevention, check out the original article by Hunter Richards: Software to Hold “Greenwashers” Accountable.

Hat Tip to Eco Kid Toys.

Did you know that paints for kids can be labeled non-toxic even if none of the chemicals in the paint have been tested for toxicity?  That’s because “there is no evidence that the chemicals are toxic”

That’s why Glob Paints are so cool.  Glob paints are made from fruits, vegetables, spices, and other natural ingredients.  No petrochemicals, nothing toxic – for real.  The safest paints for kids you will find anywhere.

Fair Trade is one of the building blocks of a sustainable planet.  The leading Fair Trade certifier, Fair Trade USA (formerly TransFair)  explains the goals of Fair Trade

Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

When you buy fair trade chocolate, or fair trade tea, you are respecting the farmers who grow your food, and supporting practices that  encourage environmental sustainability and community development.

SoftwareAdvice.com is hosting a survey that asks consumers this question: Would a company’s plans to green its supply chain affect your purchasing decisions? The accompanying article lists five multi-national companies that have announced their efforts to be more earth friendly. For example, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart have begun using more sustainable packaging for products and delivery, and Pepsi has reduced its reliance on gas-guzzling transportation by manufacturing its bottles in its own plants. One obvious reason for doing these things is to win favor with green consumers, but are you even aware of these announcements? Do you care? Be sure to take this survey and voice your opinions.

Over at Eco Logic Lee,  I talk about the recently released report that phytoplankton may have decreased as much as 40% over the past 50 years.  I conclude that the problem is complex, and serious

1. Overfishing has caused a decline in the overall level of fixed nitrogen in the oceans,

2. The warming of the oceans has led to a stratification, meaning that the nutrients still in the sea (particularly fixed or organic nitrogen) are not rising to the top where they are needed by phytoplankton.

3 The result is a precipitous decline in phytoplankton, the base of the entire oceanic food chain

4.  As to volume of phytoplankton decrease, the ocean biosphere is less able to take up and use atmospheric carbon (CO2.) accelerating the increased level of CO2 in the atmosphere, leading to further warming.

Hat tip to Tom Philpott on   Grist. On June 25, Kellogg’s announced a “voluntary recall” of 28 million boxes of  cereal including Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, Corn Pops, and Honey Smacks.   According to the Kellogg website, the reason for the recall was

a substance in the package liner that can produce an uncharacteristic waxy-like off-taste and smell. The off-tastes and smells are caused by a slightly elevated level of a substance commonly present at very low levels in the waxy resins used to make packaging materials that are approved by the FDA.

Of course, nowhere on the Kellogg’s site is there any mention of what this substance was, or what the effects of ingesting the substance might be.  But luckily for us, the folks at the Environmental Working group are pretty tenacious and gotten the information from Kellogg’s

This compound, methylnaphthalene (methyl-NAP-tha-lene), has been the subject of major, on-going government and oil industry testing and information-gathering initiatives to identify potential safety issues and fill basic data gaps, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of the scientific literature. Kellogg’s has not publicly identified the chemical but provided the information to EWG in response to our inquiries. Methylnaphthalene, which has two forms, is a component of crude oil and coal tar and may also be formed “as a pyrolytic byproduct from the combustion of tobacco, wood, petroleum-based fuels and coal” (EPA 2003). The petroleum-based compound is produced in enormous quantities in the United States, and health agencies know very little about its safety, EWG research shows.

Unfortunately very little is known about the effects of low dose exposure to methylnaphthalene.

In 1998, EPA identified the compound as a high production volume (HPV) chemical that lacked basic safety data in the public literature. The agency sought a corporate sponsor to submit such data to EPA’s “HPV Challenge” program. In 1999, a consortium of large petrochemical interests volunteered, including BP, Chevron, Condea Vista, Exxon, Fina Oil, Koch, Marathon Ashland, Mobil Oil, PDV Midwest Refining, Phillips Petroleum, Shell and Sunoco. Eleven years later, however, EPA’s HPV Challenge program website shows no data whatsoever submitted by these companies (EPA 2010).

This incident demonstrates once again, how many safety gaps there are in  our food safety system.  As Philpott points out

..the FDA has not demanded that the company release the name of the substance that caused the off-smell. These are products marketed specifically to children, complete with cartoon-laden boxes and, despite the recall, there are likely millions of them on countertops across the country, being consumed daily by kids before school. (According to a recent GAO report, companies recover only about 36 percent of targeted products in a typical recall.) Yet the FDA has released no additional information on the dodgy cereal since the June 25 recall.

But at the root of the entire problem is that there are 10′s of thousands of chemicals in use in our daily life, in packaging, in cleansers, in cosmetics, that have simply never been tested for safety.   We flat out don’t know if we should be scared, and that is a scary thought.