Good news! The Fair Trade marketplace is broader and more vibrant than ever before.

The latest Fair Trade makes its debut as a 24-page online PDF - free for you to download and share with your friends and family.

In the latest guide, you'll learn how Fair Trade provides a fair wage for farmers, invests in communities, preserves our environment, and more. You'll read interviews with producers and distributors across the Fair Trade supply chain, and most importantly, you'll get tips on how to take action to build demand for Fair Trade.

Aslo check out the National Green Pages™ online, which is filled with companies selling hundreds of Fair Trade products. (When you download our PDF, you'll also find a handy four-page directory listing Fair Trade companies that are part of our green business network.)

Don't toss it or buy it... FREECYCLE it!

The Freecycle Network was started in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills. The Network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. How it Works When you want to find a new home for something -- whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano, or an old door -- you simply send an e-mail offering it to members of the local Freecycle group. Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself. Simply respond to a member's offer, and you just might get it. After that, it's up to the giver to decide who receives the gift and to set up a pickup time for passing on the treasure.

Their main rule: "Everything posted must be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages. Non-profit organizations also benefit from The Freecycle Network. Post the item or items you want to give away and specify that you wish the gift to go to a nonprofit cause. It's a free cycle of giving. The Freecycle Network is incorporated as a nonprofit organization and is tax-exempt under the IRS 501(c)3 ruling. "

Membership is free at http://www.freecycle.org/

5 Steps to Help Protect Your Envrionment

ENERGY STAR offers 5 simple steps towards efficient energy use, leading to a better environment:

1. Bulbs. Next time you need to replace a burnt out bulb, buy bulbs with the ENERGY STAR logo on them and you will use less energy and get more life out of your bulbs.
2. Appliances. When you buy new appliances, including lighting, home electronics, heating and cooling equipment, ensure they carry the ENERGY STAR label.
3. Heat and Cool Smartly. Have your heating and cooling systems serviced annually to ensure maximum performance and maintenance, resulting in lower bills. Programmable thermostats are a great way to heat and cool efficiently and preserve energy.
4. Seal up Your Home. Seal air leaks, add insulation, or update windows and doors to keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
5. Load Up. Only wash clothes when you have a full load, using your ENERGY-STAR certified washer and dryer.

For more energy-saving tips, visit www.energystar.gov.

Daily Tip #2 - Finish Your Food

It seems completely inappropriate to me to order a meal at a restaurant, only eat half of it and throw away the rest, when there are children starving in Africa. Yes, you can't ship them your leftovers but you can do your part to not waste food and use what is available to you in the most efficient, fair way.

One way to avoid this is to never order more than you can consume in one sitting. If you do end up with more, take it home. Ask for a box - if Bill Gates does it, so can you. Store the box in your car until you get home in the winter and in the summer, put in your office fridge, a cooler or take it home right away if you are able. If you ordered too much, share with co-workers or friends.

Whatever you do, just don't throw food away... It took money, time and effort to prepare the food you ordered and to waste it by tossing it in the garbage is in sharp dissonance with preserving the world's resources.

Finally, if what you ordered is completely unacceptable to your taste buds (which you shouldn't have ordered in the first place), offer it to a homeless person, keeping personal germs out of it. Homeless people often go through garbage cans looking for leftovers and would rarely turn down a decent meal. Take it in a box and deliver it to them. It's the right thing to do.

So, as you mom says, finish your food!

Daily Tip #1 - Use Hand Dryers

This may seem rather obvious but when given to choice of using a hand dryer or paper towels to dry your hands after you've washed them, go for the machine. It uses electricity but it's still much more environmentally friendly than wasting tons of paper.

Some interesting facts:

• Hand dryers save money and the environment
• One ton of paper consumes 17 trees
• 35% of landfill waste is paper towel
• Producing one ton of paper polutes 20,000 gallons of water

A typical fast food restaurant uses 25 to 35 cases of 4,000 multi-fold paper towels annually. The results are:

• 9 fully grown trees are cut down
• 1,000 pounds of landfill waste is generated (Paper towels can NOT be recycled.)

Source.

Organic Is Not Just Reserved for Produce

Buying "green" wine is another way to promote an environmentally-conscious lifestyle. In order to be listed as organic in the organic wine database, no pesticides can be used and sustainable farming (rotating crops and using recuperative grasses to revive the soil) is strongly encouraged. Some wineries that are making a conscious efforts toward going green are:
Grgich Hills (California)
Bonterra Vineyards (California)
Frog's Leap (California)
The Organic Wine Company - Key importer of Organic French Wines
Frey Vineyards(California)
Organic Vintners - Importers of internationally produced Organic Wines
Ceago Vinegarden (California)
Robert Sinskey Vineyards (California)
Summerhill Pyramid Winery (Canada)
Robinvale Organic Wines (Australia)
Richmond Plains (New Zealand)
Kawarau Estate (New Zealand)
Robinvale Organic Wines and Temple Bruer Winery (Australia)
Nuova Cappelletta (Italy)
Badger Mountain Vineyard (Washington)
Snoqualmie Wines
Lolonis (Redwood Valley, California)
Sokol Blosser (Oregon)
Bodega Hermanos Delgado (Spain)

To do our part, we can reuse plastic and paper bags used to buy wine, recycle glass bottles and use real wine glasses, instead of paper or plastic for parties.

We Are Not Helpless About Global Warming

What can you do? Start with watching Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth, then email your friends and family to tell them about it or simply share your copy. There are some some very concrete tips on doing your share here. It is as simple as replacing a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb and cleaning or replacing filters on your furnace and air conditioner - sounds doable, ay?

Oh, of course there are some neat awareness download thingies.

The Marriage of Design and Environmental Responsibility

This is the motto of a new alliance created to preserve the world's forests by reusing, renewing and respecting them. Interesting fact: every day, the people of the wood and paper products plant more than 1.7 million new trees. The message here: recycle, reuse, preserve.

To learn more go to the Abundant Forests Alliance website.

Why This Blog

I decided to start this blog to keep friends and strangers informed and aware of our social responsibilities as citizens of the world. I intend on posting various resources and providing daily options to live as "good doers" on Earth. You can change the world, by making small adjustments to your life. It is never too late to make this life-long committment.

You can start TODAY.