Green Daily

Although saving the planet is best started from the ground up by individuals committing to make changes in their everyday lives, Ceres (pronounced "series") works to effect change in another important way: by influencing large companies and corporations. Founded in 1989, their mission statement is to harness the power of big business to promote the health of the planet and the people that live on it. Among their priorities are issues such as protection of the biosphere, sustainable and responsible use of the world's natural resources, reduction of waste, and environmental restoration. Want to support them with a donation? Click here.


[via Luxist]

In case you are hiding under a rock, the New Christmas Season is here: The Mother's Day/Father's Day/Grandparents' Day/Fourth of July Season. The abbreviated name is MoFaGrap Day. It sounds horrible, I know. To avoid the awfulness of this name, treat each holiday separately and start them right with Zero Waste Gifts.

For mom, options abound. May I suggest used books? Some people like gifts shiny and wrapped in shrink wrap. But the gifts you'll find at the used book store may include rare collectibles, out of print items and new releases in near mint condition. My mother devotes her spare time to flowers. I found three flower books in great condition, two of which were sadly out of print.

Speaking of flowers,you can still put together a package of native plants grown locally. Go for the already potted route, or get a bunch of small plants ready to go in the garden.

There are many artists who donate some of the proceeds generated by their work to charities all over the world, from musicians and dancers, to sculptors and painters. Did you know that some of those painters are elephants?

The video above may seem incredulous, but I assure you that it's true. Many elephants in captivity drew with sticks in the sand in their boredom, especially after they lost their physical labor jobs, before many were recruited to art sanctuaries.

On the heels of Freecycle's success comes 2Swap, a new website dedicated to helping you pass your old books into loving hands, while receiving books of your choice for free.

Although its newness has not produced many text books, it would be a keen source for classics and modern literature, as well as providing for your guilty pleasure reading.

Simply create a free account and list some books you wouldn't mind sending out. For your first 10, you'll get three credits; that's three free books. Once you find one you want, just click "want it" and the owner will mail it to you at their expense, using a postage label you can print from the site.

In return for the postage, the owner receives a credit; in the end, you come out even, only ever having paid a dollar or two. There's nothing better than free books (well, assuming no one is giving out free beer).

Today only 5 species of rhino exist in the world, and with only 17,500 animals in wild they are dwindling fast and could be completely extinct in as little as 10 years. The International Rhino Foundation is dedicated to preserving what's left of the world's rhino species through conservation and research, but the effort doesn't come cheap. You can help by adopting a rhino of your own -- $30 covers food, veterinary care, and upkeep of the habitat for one rhino for 2 days. Needless to say, lots of adoptive parents are needed!


[via Luxist]

Britney Spears may not be in her right mind very often, but at least someone around her is thinking of the bigger picture. Her wardrobe from Monday night's episode of How I Met Your Mother -- where she made a cameo as a Nanette the skanky receptionist -- is being auctioned off, and the proceeds are going to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

I'm sure that playing the part of the skanky receptionist was a real stretch for Britney. Donating the proceeds to the NRDC, on the other hand, that was an uncharacteristically thoughtful move for the recently troubled pop diva. Apparently, she actually gave a competent and thoughtful performance on the show, and that's also uncharacteristic -- maybe she's turning over a new leaf?

It's like eBay, but you're not the only one who wins. Bidding for Good is the newest way to give green. Simply bid on one of the items - art, vacations, a Nintendo Wii - and if you win, the site will donate your money to the charity of your choice.

To date, the site has raised $37,458,628 for the American Red Cross, United Way, and tons of other charities, including many environmental causes.

There are tons of ways to participate - you can donate an item, donate bid on stuff, or sign up as an organization to run an auction. Or, you can bypass all of that and simply donate cash directly to an organization's via its auction.

And even if you don't win your first auction, just keep bidding until you do - and then everyone wins.

When you click on ads at a search engine like Yahoo! or Google, you're helping support the service and thousands of its employees. But when you click on ads at search engine ClimateGift, half the revenue is donated to environmental groups.

ClimateGift is a philanthropic search engine created by Search Engine Corp, a company that builds custom search engines. When you first visit the site, you can choose between one of three charities, the World Resource Institute, Reef Check, or the Earth Island Institute.

Of course, if you're the sort of person who doesn't click on ads when you're surfing the web, it probably doesn't make much difference what search engine you use. But as far as we can tell, ClimateGift does a pretty good job of returning decent results. But there's an awful lot of advertising, which means you have to scroll pretty far down the page to find your search results.

[via Rotor Blog]

Of the host of current or impending eco-catastrophes that we hear about daily, a shortage of clean, fresh water is among the most tragic. According to the UN, lack of access to potable water is the second leading killer of children under the age of 5 around the world.

The Tap Project wants to change that. It's a grassroots initiative that started in New York City in 2007, and which is being rolled out across the US this year. During the week leading up to World Water Day on March 22, participating restaurants will ask patrons to donate $1 or more per glass for tap water that would normally be provided for free. The money raised will then go to UNICEF to give kids access to safe, clean drinking water.

What can you do? If you can't donate at one of the almost 2000 restaurants signed up so far, you can also contribute directly by clicking here. The website also gives you to option of volunteering to help raise awareness and recruit new restaurants in your area.

Ever wonder what happens to all of that carbon you dutifully offset? Well if you live on the West Coast, it might just be going to conserving a forest in Northern California.

In the first big sale within Pacific Gas and Electric's ClimateSmart program that is voluntarily funded by its customers, residents will pay to offset 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The offsets from the approximately 5.3 tonnes of carbon that each household emits each year will go toward maintaining Garcia River Forest in Mendocino County, about 130 miles north of San Francisco. The money goes toward funding conservation projects, and allows the forest to reduce the amount of trees that they bring to the mill each year.

When customers agree to participate in the program, PG&E tacks on a small fee to each monthly bill (about $4.50 per month for an average household). The California Public Utilities Commission allows PG&E to value a tonne of CO2 at approximately $9.71.

Offsetting one's carbon use is a good habit to get into, but like donating funds to a faceless cause, it's sometimes frustrating to not see the fruits of your donations. In this case, customers will hopefully be encouraged to continue offsetting if they can see their donations being put to good use.

As a bookseller, iChapters sets a shining example for other companies about how to be eco-conscious. To alleviate the negative environmental impacts associated with printing, shipping, and distributing tons of textbooks across the country, iChapters boasts the largest selection of eBooks on the web. And the perks of purchasing an eBook are more than just environmental. It's one less book to carry, remember to bring to class, and worry about getting rid of at the end of the semester.

In addition, the company partnered with Paso Pacifico, a California-based nonprofit, and will plant one tree along Central America's Pacific slope for every textbook and eBook it sells. (Paso Pacifico's mission is to restore ecosystems in the area).

The donations are handled through green giving org Changing the Present. If you'd like to help even further, you can go to the site and donate $11, which will help Paso Pacifico plant 20 trees. And that's something you won't learn in a textbook.

At this point, we hope that you've read our other two "gifts for him" posts and gotten some good ideas. But if for whatever reason, they didn't inspire you, we've decided to provide you with a few more. Because everyone knows that consumerism = a happy relationship.

Once again, we've leapt valiantly to your rescue. Whether your love interest is into business or partying (or a little of both), we've got your back.

Check out more of the coolest, greenest gifts for your guy this season, so when he showers you with kisses, you can proudly say, "I owe it all to GreenDaily."

It's fun to receive packages, but you always feel a little guilty when you have to throw away 8 pounds of Styrofoam peanuts that came with that one tiny book/bracelet/gerbil toy.

Check out the gallery for some tips and tricks for sending that Valentine's Day gift without the excess packing. And if you receive a gift packed with polystyrene peanuts, visit Loosefill Packaging for a peanut drop-off location near you. The organization supports the re-use of these little guys. There's even a Peanut Hotline - who knew?

American Forests' initiative is fantastic, but its tagline is slightly misleading. When you read "Every dollar you give plants a tree," don't be fooled into thinking they will only accept a dollar. (And I don't really blame them - they'd never get anywhere).

There's a minimum donation amount of $15, but it's definitely worth it, since you'll be contributing to the planting of fifteen new trees (or more, if you spend more). When you visit the site, you can choose through which group you'd like your trees to be planted, and you can learn about each before you decide. Trees for Monarchs is planting 40,000 trees in South Central Mexico to improve winter nesting sites for the endangered monarch butterfly, and the Katrina ReLeaf fund is restoring communities that were ravaged by the 2005 hurricane, just to name a few.

The site has an option to donate money as a gift, which would make a fantastic anti-consumerism Feb. 14th gift.

And if you don't really have any money to spare but want to help, American Forests has a "take action" section on its website, where you can download PSAs to send to your local newspaper, write an informational postcard to a friend, or learn how to plant your own tree.

Here's the skinny on the process: you donate your old Crocs to an authorized donation center and they get shipped to SolesUnited. The miracle workers at SolesUnited grind them up and recycle the rubber, forming it into brand new shoes that they will then ship out to people in impoverished nations. It's pretty cool actually. The trick is making people aware of the recycling option -- so tell all of your Croc-wearing friends.

[via Ecofabulous]