Reduce Carbon Footprint by Pledging Trees and Other Reforestation Projects

Reduce your impact on the environment by pledging a tree in Kenya, Honduras or other Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) country project. Instead of giving porcelain animals or dolls and flat screen TVs, consider pledging a tree. While it may not be a wrappable present or one that your loved ones and friends would have on their gift list, it is a gift for the Earth and will help reduce the carbon footprint.

Through your tree pledges, you will not only reduce carbon footprints, but also sustain small disadvantaged communities, reduce poverty, support and maintain wildlife habitats and provide medicine for orphaned children and those living with HIV/AIDS. Each tree planted, according to CarbonFootprint.com, “offsets” your environmental impact by reducing 1 ton of CO2 emissions over the tree’s lifetime. Moreover, each person, worldwide needs to save about 7 tons of CO2 each year. One way to your carbon footprints every year is to pledge or plant 7 trees. Pledges are low cost, but have a high impact at no more than 20 dollars a pledge. Much less than an iPod or 2 tickets to a rock concert.

Other reforestation projects include incorporating clean or renewable energy offsets around the world and reforesting with Maya Nut trees in disadvantaged countries. Reduce carbon footprints with planting native Maya Nut trees in the UK you are helping to reduce poverty, malnutrition and rainforest destruction. More information can be found on CarbonFootprint.com about the benefits of planting Maya Nut trees to help local communities in the UK. 

Give Fair Trade Gifts for Holiday Gift Exchanges this Year

As you are doing your holiday shopping this year, look for fair trade gifts that support the goodness of green all year long. Fair trade gifts can be identified by their logo with a sky-blue and grass green half swirled surrounding a black swirl and dot in the middle. According to the official Fairtrade foundation, this mark was adopted in 2002. There is a level of certification that goes into using the fair trade logo as well.

Fair trade gifts support developing and third world countries by providing not only financial assistance, but also support of agricultural goods and products. Most major retailers like Costco, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Giant Eagle. Coffee was one of the first to offer fair trade from developing countries such as Mexico. Fair trade gifts of coffee and tea from Caribou Coffee, Einstein Bagels, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Seattle’s Best Coffee (SBC) and Starbucks all offer at least one kind of fair trade brew, be sure to ask for it specifically.

Other fair trade gift retailers include Sam’s Club, Target, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and Whole Foods Market which include coffee, tea, rice, wine, fruit, sugar and flowers.

Give the gift of green with fair trade gifts this year, support developing countries and peace of mind.

 

 

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Happy Holidays from FairGreenTrade.com!

Get Fair Trade Gifts for your Clients and Employees this Holiday Season

There’s some great news for people who may be seeking corporate fair trade gifts this year. It’s now easier than ever to find and purchase fair trade gifts for your employees and clients. And even better, the eco-friendly gifts available are actually useful.

Take, for instance, an executive recycled leather folder. You’ve heard about recycled plastic and recycled glass is nothing new either. However, now you can see how awesome recycled leather is. Save a cow and still achieve an elegant and classy look. You’ll be able to do both when you give these fair trade gifts.

What’s the most useful electronic tool in your business arsenal? A Bluetooth headset? A BlackBerry? Those are both very nice, but we’d have to put USB thumb drives up there with those high-tech gadgets. Now with the power to store gigabytes of files, thumb drives can be a lifesaver in hectic situations. Every employee should have one. Now you can give eco friendly fair trade gifts of thumb drives that are made from recycled materials. Just check out these attractive drives. You’ll also be able to inscribe your company logo on these fair trade gifts as well.

Or if you’re looking for fair trade gifts that are low-tech but still useful, then you’ll want to check out these recycled and sustainable pens. Sure, lots of companies give away pens during the holidays (and during the rest of the year, too). However, these pens are sturdy, simple and handsome. They’re eco-friendly pens that you and your team will be happy to wield.  

7 Ways to Turn Your Electronics into More Eco-Friendly Products

Getting a new gadget to use and play with can make most of us adults feel like kids on Christmas morning. Things like new cell phones, PDAs, laptops and music players can be fun, helpful and, with a little effort and research, great eco-friendly products. Here are seven easy ways you can make sure your electronics are also eco-friendly products.

1. Research Before you Buy
It’s easy to find Energy Star ratings and EPEAT ratings for many eco-friendly products. Those two ratings will let you know how energy efficient a product is and how much of a carbon footprint product’s lifecycle leaves. Consumer Reports has also begun evaluating the environmental impact of electronic products as well, and remains a great resource for evaluating eco-friendly products.

2. Buy Recycled and Recyclable Gadgets

More and more electronics are hitting the market as eco-friendly products, offering recycled materials and materials that were sustainably acquired. But these kinds of gadgets are still hard to find.

3. Recharge Electronics with Renewable Energy
Since most personal electronic equipment like cell phones and notebook computers are eco-friendly products that don’t require much energy to get up and running, they’re perfect candidates for those new small, personal charging devices. You can charge your cell phone with a Hymini mini wind turbine that can latch onto your bike or hang out of your car window. There are also a range of solar powered chargers that will charge cell phones and music players in no time.

4. Avoid Vampire Power
“Vampire power” is the energy that devices use (or waste) when they’re plugged in but not turned on or in use. You can either unplug devices when they’re not in use or buy eco-friendly products like a power strip that can efficiently manage electricity and cut the supply to gadgets that don’t need them.

5. Make Use of all the Gadget’s Features

Have a cell phone that plays music? Great. Then you don’t need to lug around an MP3 player. And if you have eco-friendly products like a cell phone that has an alarm clock and a calculator, then you can get rid of those extra time and space-consuming gadgets, too. Fewer gadgets mean less clutter and less energy used in recharging them.

6. Make Money from Old Gadgets
Check out buy­_­­back programs for electronic equipment. These are recycling programs for electronic equipment that may offer you some cash or credit towards the purchase of a new gadget. The old, electronic eco-friendly products are sent back to be reused in new equipment. And you get compensated. Not a bad deal.

7. Use Gadgets for as Long as You Can
As great way to save money, why not hang on to your electronics for as long as possible? Sure, it’s tempting to take advantage of a great deal on the latest cell phone when your contract is up, ask yourself if you really need the latest thing or if your current eco-friendly products are operating just fine, like your cell phone, PDA or music player, hang onto them and help the earth out by reducing you’re carbon footprint.