Kudos to Better World Books!

Congratulations to Better World Books, an online book retailer that recently won the WasteWise Gold Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Better World Books collects and sells new and used books online, then donates a portion of each sale to help literacy initiatives worldwide. Books that cannot be re-sold or re-used are recycled. To date, the company has successfully diverted more than 32 million books from landfills! In the process, it has also raised $7.6 million in funding for literacy and education initiatives worldwide through the sale of those books.

Every book purchased on BetterWorldBooks.com funds a global literacy through its non-profit literacy partners, including the National Center for Family Literacy, Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, and Invisible Children. The company benefits nearly 100 additional non-profit organizations every year.

Way to go, Better World Books!

The First 100% Recyclable Wiper Blade Makes it Debut!

According to www.Earth-policy.org, some 14 million cars were scrapped last year, leaving some 28 million rubber wiper blades bound for a landfill somewhere. Until now, there was no choice about what to do with them, but thanks to Jamak Fabrication, we now have the Tripledge GREEN Wiper Blade - the first ever 100% fully recyclable wiper blade.

Jamark bills the new blade as a high-quality, durable, silicone blade produced so that all components can be recycled. By creating a unique technology that can re-polymerize the silicone blade 100% back into a raw polymer product, Jamark is helping to reduce the trash.

Plus, the Tripledge GREEN Wiper Blade's packaging is 100% biodegradable and recyclable. You can recycle their packaging and the metal frame from their wiper blades in your own at-home recycling bins. The silicone can then be returned to Jamak to be reclaimed and made into new automotive parts.

The Tripledge GREEN Blade is designed to last the lifetime of your car and even longer, and comes with a Lifetime Warranty.

For more information on the Tripledge GREEN Blade and other Jamak wiper blade products, please visit www.TheWiperStore.com

Happy Earth Day!

Here’s a quick look at some “Earth Day” happenings:

GoodShop.com, offering everything from groceries to school supplies offers shoppers the opportunity (without spending anything extra) to donate money to the “green” nonprofit of their choice! GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall that donates up to 30% of every purchase at more than 1,400 outlets.

Plus, the site lists hundreds of coupons and deals including free shipping offers, percentages off, buy-one-get-one deals, and money back on future orders.

Meanwhile, LIV GRN,(www.livgrn.com) is introducing a new, eco-friendly clothing line, merging style and comfort with earth sustaining materials (see above). The looks are carefree, with an edge of sophistication. LIV GRN also donates 10% of its profits to GLOBAL GREEN, (www.globalgreen.org).

Want to save some trees? Check out www.cocodot.com for the hottest new eco-chic entertaining solutions. Cocodot lets you save time, money and energy without comprising style. Choose from a gallery of over 6,000 exclusive images shot by famed fashion and lifestyle photographer Amy Neunsinger. Cocodot’s invites may even inspire you to host your next dinner party.!

In honor of Earth Day, you can create a FREE Cocodot invitation by entering cocoEarth2010 at checkout, now through May 15th . Your free party invite can be created, personalized and delivered to an unlimited amount of guests within minutes.

And speaking of FREE, if you happen to be in New York City today, Burt’s Bees will be giving out natural smoothies at Central Park, from 9 to 11 am, and at a “Bike Blender” station in Times Square from 11:30 am to 2 pm today. You’ll see Burt look-alikes taking to the streets, handing out samples and urging people to be as eco-friendly as Burt.

Burt’s Bees has been offering earth-friendly, natural personal care products for 25 years. For more information, visit www.findyourburt.com.

Can't Find My Drink!

Don’t you just hate it when you’re at an event and are constantly picking up the wrong drink? I usually spend the rest of the time worrying about what germs I’ve picked up when I picked up someone else’s glass!

We’ve all seen those little wine glass markers that fit around the bottom of the glass – but what if you’re not drinking wine? Enter Drinkmarx, a new customizable drink marker for identifying your bottle, cup or can. They can easily transfer from one size drink to another, reducing the waste and spread of germs.

Drinkmarx are available in an array of colors and styles, so you can quickly ID your beverage, and be sure you’re not quaffing down something that doesn’t belong to you!

The cost is $9.95 for a package of 4 Drinkmarx: espresso, green, pink and blue, plus 120 decals to personalize.

Drinkmarx is also contributing a portion of all its net proceeds to fight hunger nationally/internationally through World Vision in addition to helping provide clean water through Tap Project.

For more information, visit www.DrinkMarx.com.

Organic Wine, Anyone?

We have organic fruits, vegetables, skin care products, hair care and everything in between, so why not organic wines? Congrats to HALL Wines, the Sonoma County, California vineyard and winery, for receiving an Organic Certification from the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), one of the nation’s oldest and largest organic certification and trade associations in North America. This comes on the heels of HALL St. Helena’s Gold LEED® Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in July 2009.

HALL Wines uses no chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or herbicides. Instead, it creates a habitat for natural predators, and plants cover crops to help build healthy matter in the soil. The HALL Team also spends a huge amount of time in the vineyards, monitoring water stress, vine health, vine balance and grape maturity to guarantee that the grapes are nurtured to reach their highest potential.

And if you think it’s easy to earn an organic farming certification process – think again. It can take up to three years! Each of HALL’s six estates located throughout Napa and Alexander Valleys follow the strict guidelines set forth by the CCOF. To date in 2010, 355 acres owned by HALL’s have been certified organic. The last of the estate vineyards, known as the Hardester Ranch with 145 planted acres, will receive its organic certification on August 18, 2010.

Kudos to Kathryn and Craig Hall, owners of HALL Wines, for making it their long-term mission to become a leader in earth-friendly California winegrowing. HALL St. Helena is the first Gold LEED® Certified Winery in the State of California, and maintains one acre of solar panels on its roof and uses 100% recycled water throughout its processes. All of HALL estate vineyards are enrolled in the Napa Green program, the wine industry’s most comprehensive “best practices” in land-use and wine production focusing on building environmentally sound, sustainable practices.

The CCOF, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1973 and is one of the nation’s oldest and largest third-party organic certifying agencies. CCOF certifies more than 2,160 organic operations in 34 states and three foreign countries and serves over 350 supporting members - consumers, suppliers, businesses and individuals - interested in supporting its work.

For more on HALL wines, visit http://www.hallwines.com.

Call for Entries for The Earth Awards 2010

Have a great idea for more sustainable living? Well, the Earth Awards is inviting design submissions from all corners of the globe in six categories: Built Environment, Fashion, Products, Systems, Future and Social Justice. Ideas, great or small, realized or prototypes, will be considered but they have to distinguish themselves in six criteria: Achievable, Scalable, Measurable, Useful, Original and Ecological.

Put your thinking caps on because the grand prizewinner will receive $50,000 and category winners will get $10,000 each!

This year The Earth Awards’ Ceremony moves from New York City to London, where the Selection Committee will judge a shortlist of six finalists. This world-class exhibition will showcase the 2010 winning submissions, as well as past years winners. Along with the exhibition, the Financial Times will hold a Sustainable Business Conference and gala dinner inviting CEOs, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to match innovation with investment, fulfilling The Earth Awards’ commitment to bringing winning innovations closer to market.

For more info visit: www.theearthawards.org

Submission deadline - May 10th 2010

Selection Committee Review: May 17th – July 23rd 2010

Awards Gala in London: September 16th 2010

Say Good Bye to More Plastics!

Are we slowly drowning in a sea of plastic? Some reports indicate that almost 90 percent of ocean debris is plastic!

Here’s some more frightening statistics -- Every year, there are almost 30 million tons of non-recycled plastics manufactured, requiring more than 1.5 million barrels of oil for production. Of this amount, less than 2 million tons of plastic are recovered for recycling. Add to that the fact that every hour, Americans throw away 2.7 million plastic bottles!

Rainbow Light® Nutritional Systems, based in Santa Cruz, California, is one company that isn’t taking this lightly. In fact, it recently converted its entire bottled vitamin line to sustainable EcoGuard™ bottles – a move that could keep an estimated 6million plastic vitamin bottles out of landfills every year! These new bottles are made from 100 percent recycled plastic, and are 100 percent recyclable.

Thanks, Rainbow Light for helping to rescue us from a plastic takeover! By the way, Rainbow Light multivitamins are the only certified organic multivitamins that are Allergen SafeGuard™ screened to be free of gluten, milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, nuts wheat and soy.

Rainbow Light® Nutritional Systems,is best known as the manufacturer of the No. 1 selling natural Just Once® multivitamin line, featuring Women’s One™, Men’s One™ and Prenatal One™. Last year, Rainbow Light expanded into the pet nutrition category with its new line of all-natural pet supplements, GreenDog Naturals™. Rainbow Light –making a difference for people, pets and planet.


For more info, visit

http://www.rainbowlight.com/CategoriesCompany.aspx?Category=370164b5-c16f-4856-996f-2ae9ea64162e.