roozt

I love socially responsible shopping. If you are going to go shopping, why not buy products that are good for the world or give back in some way? Even if sometimes the products cost a little more than super-cheap bargain brands, you are making a positive impact with your purchase and, to my mind, that is worth a little extra. Roozt is an awesome website that makes being a conscious and responsible consumer fun and easy.

At Roozt, every purchase makes a diffference. All featured brands are fashion-forward companies that are making a positive impact in their community, environment, with their employees, or with humanity as a whole. They hand select only the best, most trendsetting brands that give back so you can enjoy a streamlined shopping experience while saving time and money. You can shop by category - Men's, Women's, Accessories, Pets, etc. - or you can shop by Impact. Click on the interactive world map and it will show you brands that affect a particular area of the world.


There is also a very simple, easy, and free way you can make a difference right now, without even buying a thing. For each member that joins Roozt, they will provide one meal to an American in need through Feeding America. Today, on Giving Tuesday, they are doubling their impact by giving back for twice: join the website (IT'S FREE!) and they will donate two meals to Americans in need. One Member. Two Meals.

Happy Responsible Holiday Shopping, y'all!

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one world flowers

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Again. If you know someone that would just love to get some flowers on this most useless and auspicious occasion, please send Fair Trade flowers. One World Flowers offers Fair Trade Certified™ flowers that contribute to the social and economic development of communities around the world. The Fair Trade Certified™ label on each of their bouquets is a guarantee that your purchase will help put nutritious food on people's tables, send their children to school, and help them to invest in community development.

I heart One World Flowers because they actually strive to educate consumers about Fair Trade practices and raise awareness of human rights violations that happen every day in the global supply chain. One World Flowers doesn't just want to sell flowers; they want to make a world of difference. What's more, select bouquets also generate a donation with your purchase. For example, 10% of the purchase price of the Helping Haiti coral rose bouquet will be donated to Samaritan's Purse relief efforts and sustainable development projects in Haiti. Now that's sweet.

Pssst - Use coupon code "FairTrade5" for $5 off fair trade Certified Roses! Happy Valentine's Day!

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news: Small Business Saturday

This story is a great example of how far astray we've gone from the spirit of giving during the holidays: "What Our Society Has Come to: Pepper Spraying Each Other for Video Games at Wal-Mart."

Black Friday has, indeed, turned quite black. If you must go out shopping this weekend, help your community and local businesses by buying local. Tomorrow is the 2nd annual Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting small businesses on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. Screw Wal-mart, skip the pepper spray, instead shop at your favorite local stores and help fuel the economy instead. (By the way, wouldn't this be a great practice for all of us to get into every day, not just tomorrow? Just sayin'.)

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good & fair clothing co.

I've been learning and telling you a lot lately about buying fair trade. It just makes sense. If we're going to be consumers, we should honor companies that respect their workers and the environment by buying their products & helping them thrive. It's about the only recourse we have as individuals to demand corporate responsibility from the monolith of multinational corporations.

That is why today I would like you to make the acquaintance of Good & Fair Clothing Co. Good & Fair is dedicated to using organic and fair-trade materials, ensuring fair wages for farmers and workers, and providing resources for people to get out of poverty in their own community. You can order cute & comfy men's & women's t-shirts and underwear on their website. I'm looking forward to seeing them add more clothing to their inventory like tank tops and maybe even cute summer dresses for women (hint hint!). And for my peeps in Austin, TX, you can find Good & Fair Clothing at Parts & Labor and STAG on South Congress Avenue.


In addition to looking for labels on products in stores that distinguish them as fair trade, I want to also point you to another website that I think is a good resource for fair trade products. Fair Trade USA is a 501(c)(3) third-party certifier of fair trade products in the United States. Check out companies that support fair trade on their Products & Partners page before you shop!

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flowers for good

Send flowers to someone on Valentine's Day and score major points. Send one of Organic Bouquet's eco-friendly Flowers for Good bouquets and do something good for the world at the same time. A frillion points.

Flowers for Good™ was established to help non-profits make positive changes in the work they do. Choose from any one of their charitable bouquets and 5% of your purchase will go toward making the world a better place.

Here's another cool thing: many of the bouquets are EcoBlooms, which means they have multiple certifications which include one or more of the following: Veriflora Certified (guarantees that flowers have been produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner and meet the highest standards for freshness and quality), Fair Trade Certified, Florverde (which requires stringent workplace standards), EcoCert (sustainable), Rainforest Alliance Certified (which guarantees compliance with strict guidelines protecting the environment, wildlife, workers and local communities), Fair Labor Practices & Community Benefits™ Certified (which will guarantee strict compliance for labor practices), FlorEcuador® by Expoflores (covers sustainable agriculture production and fair labor practices), and more.

And as if all of that wasn't enough for rackin' up the karma points, each time you purchase a product from Organic Bouquet, the amount of carbon emissions from that shipment is offset by rolling funds into the Nicaragua Reforestation Project through Carbonfund.org. AND...they use eco-friendly packaging made from recycled and recyclable materials. Everyone loves getting flowers and now you can feel just as good about sending them. (Order early so you can guarantee they'll be delivered via FedEx Next Day by Monday.)

For those of you who want to walk through the door with a dozen roses on Valentine's Day instead of having them delivered, buy Fair Trade flowers. You can get them at Whole Foods and various other grocery stores.

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world of good

Valentine's Day is in a week. I am not so granola-y that I can't appreciate a holiday (such as it is) that is centered around love. And I am not alone. People are gonna be out there buying gifts for each other and I want to remind you that this is a perfect opportunity to shop smart.

WorldofGood by eBay is a global marketplace where every purchase makes a difference. They empower people to shop in ways that align with their personal values. Like a nutrition label on a food item, each item has a Goodprint that lets you know about that item’s positive attributes. They have products that are People Positive, Eco Positive, Animal Friendly, or Supports a Cause. Independent organizations verify the positive impact every product listed on the site has on people and the planet so every choice you make to buy a product is a good one.

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care2

Care2 is a one-stop shop for helping out causes you love most.  They have a huge online community of cool, caring people just like you finding ways every day to make a difference. How do they do these things they do?  Let me tell you...

First of all, since this is the holiday season and this is about ways to make a difference while holiday shopping, check out Care2 shopping for Gaiam health, wellness, and sustainable living products (they even have an entire fair trade section which I encourage you tree hugging humanity lovers to check out).  When you purchase from the online store, Care2 donates 5% of revenues to leading nonprofits.  You can also send e-cards and each time you do, Care2 saves one square foot of rainforest.

We're saving the WOOOOOORLD, PEEEOPLLLE! (yell it like Oprah.  Go ahead, it's fun.)

They also sponsor click to donate.  Everybody loves those!  Don't you guys love those?  Go do it right now and help children in need or fight cholera or stop violence or whatever cause you support.  OMG look at that face.  Go click!  Click them all!!!

I just saved baby seals.

They also publish news and information about causes; offer tips about living a healthy, green lifestyle; and offer opportunities to advocate for causes.  I, for one, am a huge fan of the Daily Action.  Each day they post a new action on the website for a way to make a difference in the world. Sound familiar?  Great minds.

Another cool thing is that if you sign up, you get "butterfly credits" for taking actions on the website like leaving comments or signing a petition and then you can cash in those credit for good causes. A pencil for a student in Haiti is 500 credits.

Best of all, it's totally, completely, 100% FREE. Now go save a sea turtle.

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