Fair Trade Flowers for Valentine's Day!

A Better World is Blooming

The Fair Trade Certified label on your bouquet means that flower workers, most of whom are women, can put food on their tables, send their children to school, invest in community development, and use sustainable farming methods.

http://www.transfairusa.org/content/flowers/

Top 10 Green Business Trends - State of Green Business 2008, Pt. 1

This week, GreenBiz.com launched its inaugural report, "State of Green Business 2008." In it, you will find a wealth of information on green business trends with a cross-sectoral approach. Over the next week, we will bring to you a synopsis of some of those trends. To start off, here's a list of the "Top Green Business Stories of 2007."

1. Corporate Climate Commitments - Major companies are making public commitments about their strategies to address climate change in record numbers.
2. Automotive Industry Finally Gets It - Major carmakers are bringing us more fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles, with plans to launch plug-in hybrids soon.
3. Planes, Trains, Trucks, and Ships are Going Green Too - Other players in the transportation sector are also implementing eco-efficient tech to reduce their environmental impact.
4. Green Marketing/Greenwashing - Just as companies are increasingly catering to the "green consumer," mainstream consumers are increasingly skeptical of such claims.
5. Toxic Product Reduction - Manufacturers and retailers faced a public backlash this year concerning toxic materials in their products. As such, they are making amends to reduce or eliminate them in future production.
6. E-waste - The computing industry got serious this year about energy use and disposal problems associated with technology.
7. Big Companies Get Real about Sustainability - More Fortune 500 businesses announced plans to incorporate company-wide initiatives to engender smarter resource use.
8. Green Buildings Skyrocket - Green buildings become the norm in major urban centers across the nation.
9. Banks Pull Out of "Dirty Investments" - Shareholder activism pressure large banks to invest in clean energy production instead.
10. "Zero" is Where It's At - "Zero-waste," "zero-carbon," and "zero-emissions," are the rallying cries from the new initiatives emerging from the corporate sector.


This ambitious effort to analyze green business trends provides a much-needed perspective on the field. The overall results? Major businesses have made commendable strides towards streamlining their business strategies with an environmentally sustainable focus over the last year. However, it remains to be seen whether, in fact, these approaches are making a difference to the environment. Insufficient data exists as of yet to make conclusive claims about the efficacy of these programs in the aggregate. This leads to a mixed verdict, "Companies are getting cleaner and more efficient, but only incrementally, and many of the gains are offset by the ever-growing economy." As we look at more sector-specific trends over the next week, we will shed light on some of the factors hindering further "conscious capitalism" evolution.

Grab the whole report on GreenBiz.com

NPR: Farming the Amazon with a Machete and Mulch

Farming the Amazon with a Machete and Mulch
by Ketzel Levine


Morning Edition, February 4, 2008 · On jungle land at the mouth of the Amazon River, one resourceful female farmer has become a master of adaptation in a landscape of constant change. Her story offers an example of how individuals might face the challenges of climate change.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18656632&ft=1&f=1007
LISTEN TO AUDIO

Responsible Purchasing Network

Today, we are proud to count among our members prominent educational institutions such as Yale and major corporations like Office Depot, as well as two federal agencies—the USDA Forest Service and the Department of Education—11 state agencies representing eight states, and 29 municipal agencies from around the country.

http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org/news/

Citizens Pull Back the Curtain on Election Mishaps

by Roy Lipscomb January 26, 2008
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_roy_lips_080125_citizens_pull_back_t.htm
also see: http://www.ballot-integrity.net/

[This press release describes a "clearinghouse" for publicizing election problems, one that's intended for direct use by everyday citizens. Next month's primary will be the fifth election that has been monitored by our clearinghouse here in Illinois.

[The service is easily launched and managed, but it nonetheless has the potential to make a big impact. It provides not only PR value for election integrity, but also collects solid first-hand data for analysis of election malfunctions and abuses.

[A service like this ought to be set up in each State. If you'd like to set up one for your State, feel free to use our website as a model. I'm also available to answer any questions that you may need. --Roy]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: For further information, contact
Roy Lipscomb,
Director for Technology,
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project
773/338-3564
lipscomb@ballot-integrity.org




http://ballot-integrity.org