4 Ways to Reduce E-Waste

Co-Op America emailed out a GREAT checklist on easy ways to reduce e-waste!

1. Check your television. – Many TVs made after 2003 were equipped with digital tuners. Look for a label that says "Integrated Digital Tuner," "Integrated Digital Receiver," "Digital Receiver Built-in," or "Digital Receiver Built-in." If you have a digital tuner already, you're all set.

2. Use a converter box. – If you don't have a digital tuner, a set-top converter box can still keep your TV from becoming e-waste. Each household is eligible to receive two vouchers, valued at $40 each, to use toward purchase of a converter. Check out www.dtv.gov for more information.

3. Recycle your television – If you must purchase a new television, make sure your old one isn't simply carted to a landfill. The Basel Action Network provides a list of recyclers who have pledged not to export hazardous e-waste. Also, Sony is offering a free take-back program for all Sony electronics in the US.

4.Speak out about the e-waste nightmare -- Finally, take our action to tell the FCC that you're concerned about the coming deluge of e-waste that may be triggered by the digital switch. Tell the FCC to require manufacturers to follow Sony's lead and take responsibility for their products throughout their entire life cycles.

BONUS ENERGY-SAVING STEPS: If you must purchase a new television, look for an LCD (liquid crystal display) model, marked with the Energy Star label. LCDs use six times less energy than plasma screen models. You can cut your energy use further by unplugging your TV (and its attached appliances) when you're not watching it; this prevents your electronics from consuming electricity even while not in use.

Please forward this blog post to all your friends and family. We need as many people as possible to understand how to reduce the impact of the digital switch, and we need a groundswell of pressure on the FCC and the electronics companies to manage the e-waste problem better.

Send an e-mail to the FCC today and visit our Responsible Shopper.org to find contact information for major electronics manufacturers, and links to the TV TakeBack campaign.

First ever Seattle Green Festival at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center

Co-op America is extending a special invite for their first ever Seattle Green Festival!

A two-day party with a purpose, the Green Festival celebrates what’s working in your communities — showcasing the latest in renewable energy, recycled products, sweatshop-free clothing, Fair Trade, organic food, and much more!

With admission to Green Festival you will be offered a FREE Co-op America membership. You will receive the National Green Pages™, Guide to Socially Responsible Investing, Real Money Newsletter and Co-op America Quarterly for FREE.

All you have to do is stop by the Co-Op America booth and sign up!

Their roster of more than 150 visionary speakers this year includes Amory Lovins, Bishop Steven Charleston, Frances More Lappe, Gifford Pinchot III, and Amy Goodman. We'll have more than 300 green business exhibitors, Clothing Swap-o-rama-rama, Community Action Center, delicious organic cuisine, cutting-edge Green films, Fair Trade Pavilion, green shopping, and hands-on workshops on everything from green buildings to green careers.Come experience the best of the green economy, all under one roof.

If you are in Seattle, this weekend, take advantage of this special opportunity!

16 Ways to Heal Your Home

Co-Op America sent an email today with great new links to help your home...

From Co-Op America:

"Did you know that here in the US, about 80,000 industrial chemicals are registered for use in all of the products we eat, touch‚ wear‚ and use to furnish our homes… but that fewer than 20 percent have been tested for their impact on human health and the environment?

These include ingredients in our food, household cleaners‚ and body care products. They include chemicals used on and in toys and furniture and clothing and bed linens.

Wouldn't it make more sense to prove a chemical is safe before running the risk of harming people who use the product‚ workers who make it, and the communities where the manufacturing facilities are located?

That’s the idea behind the Precautionary Principle. It turns right-side-up the upside-down way our society makes decisions about risk. The Precautionary Principle requires proof that products are safe‚ and errs on the side of caution."

Co-Op America added a Healthy Home Center to their website, pulling together the best "healthy home" articles from our green-living newsletter‚ Real Money‚ along with new tips and strategies from the spring issue of our Co-op America Quarterly magazine.

Check out their great 16 Ways to Heal Your Home link...

New Guide to Ending Sweatshops

Co-Op America recently launched their 2008 Guide to Ending Sweatshops. They want to make it easier for you to avoid the worst companies, reward the best, and take action to keep sweatshop labor out of the supply chain.

Be a conscious spender, be aware, make good choice, support Co-Op America so they can help us!

Push Large American Mutual Funds to Use their Clout to Push Companies in Climate Change

Co-op America needs our support...help them help you by pushing some of the largest mutual funds in America to use their biggest weapon (their wallets!) to push companies on climate change.

This just in from Co-op America's email:
"Mutual funds like American Funds, Morgan Stanley, Pioneer, Vanguard, and more have a history of abstaining or voting against climate resolutions. Tell them with us that the time to act is now.

Push mutual funds to act on climate change »"

Tell America's Banks: Clean Energy Now!

Co-Op America, one of my favorite non-profit organizations on the planet (that serves to help the planet!) is urging us to tell America's banks that we want clean energy now. We CAN make a difference and sway the organizations we support to continue to serve our wants and needs.

The tide is turning for coal, which is a devastating environmental call (if you have ever seen a coal plant live, it is the most disgusting thing ever!) Good new is that three of America’s biggest investment banks – Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan Chase – announced that they have developed new “Carbon Principles,” calling for increased investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and limited investments in coal.

The door is still open for these three banks to invest in coal – if it can be shown to turn a profit – and their new standards don’t go far enough in limiting other polluting technologies, or in funding green energy solutions, so we need to communicate our desire as customers of all institutions that we won't settle for pollution.

A recent study released by Ceres ranked the world’s banks on their commitment to addressing carbon emissions, with European banks taking the top five slots in their survey. And compared to community investing banks and credit unions nationwide, which set the standard for lending that helps communities and the environment, America’s largest banks are in the dark ages.

Help Co-op America help you as a banking and financial services customer, to reach out to four of America’s largest banks – Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia – and tell them they need to do more on climate change. They need to end all financing of coal, set targets for the reductions of CO2 emissions for all their borrowers, and set targets for investments in energy efficiency and renewables.

A few years ago, 150 new coal-fired power plants were proposed across the country. Co-op America’s members and e-activists raised their voices to say to no to the utilities that propose coal plants and the banks that finance them, and in the last two years, 15 plants opposed by Co-op America have been canceled – with dozens more canceled after local and national opposition. We need to keep the momentum up to convince banks that coal is never a good investment.

TAKE ACTION SEND YOUR LETTER NOW!

Win a free trip to the Seattle Green Festival!

One of Three Leaf Card's nonprofit partners, Co-Op America, wants you to join them at their newest Green Festival this spring in Seattle.

They are giving you a chance to win a trip for two during the weekend of April 12 and 13, to enjoy visionary speakers, hands-on workshops, green shopping, live music, fun family activities, and more at our famous two-day party-with-a-purpose, co-produced with Global Exchange.

The Green Festival shows you what a truly green economy would look like – Fair Trade, renewable energy, organic food, sweatshop-free clothing, recycling and composting, and much more.

For your chance to win, simply answer their short survey about your green living steps and you'll be entered for the getaway. Tell three friends about the getaway and you'll get three more chances to win. (See rules and restrictions.) The survey questions help COA plan the articles for their e-newsletter, print newsletter, and magazine for you all year long, so don't hold back.

The Seattle Green Festival Getaway prize includes airfare for two to Seattle, two weekend passes to the Green Festival, a weekend stay at a green hotel, dinner at a green restaurant, public transportation passes to help you get around Seattle car-free, and carbon offsets to make the whole trip totally carbon neutral!

Visit http://lists.coopamerica.org:8383/t/1534122/315554/42248/0/ for more information about the contest or click here to answer their survey -- and to enter for your chance to win the Seattle Green Festival Getaway.

Help People and Planet - Give to Co-Op America

Greetings Conscious Spenders,
For any of you looking for that last taz write off before the end of the year, here's your donation location:

Help Co-op America advance their programs into 2008 and beyond!

Each and every donation goes toward:

Tackling the climate crisis
Building sustainable communities
Creating a fair trading system
Advancing green from coast to coast

Your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar. Give today!

Spare yourself card sending drama - Send online greetings for the holidays!

I'm going to do all of you conscious spenders a BIG favor...I am going to tell you now, honestly, that you will not have time to snail mail lots of meaningful paper holiday cards to all the people you care about this year OR you will buy a stack of cards and they will sit on your desk until 2008 and you will feel bad that you didn't have time to send them OR (and this may be the worst scenario) you will just sign the card (BTW, I hate getting a card with nothing but a signature) and stamp it and send the paper cards that have no special message and ends up in the recycle bin (I hope it at least goes into recycle) But don't feel the paper card ick any more...

Say no to holiday paper card lameness! Make a conscious choice to save TIME, TREES and MONEY and send meaningful holiday cards ONLINE with Three Leaf Cards. The owners are both artists, all the cards are custom video cards and the message will be truly meaningful. Plus, you save time, trees and money! It's only $19 for the whole year to send kick-ass online greeting cards (love that!)

With Three Leaf Cards, you can send great memorable cards and custom select the:
-Card
-Quote
-Heading
-Music
-Date (can schedule cards in advance)
-Logo of the non-profit partner who you support (Three Leaf Cards donates to Breast Cancer Fund, Sustainable Conservation, Mountain Institute, Co-Op America and the Conservation Fund.

Save yourself the stress of holiday greetings, be a conscious spender, get a Three Leaf Cards membership and start pre-scheduling those holiday cards now so you can spend more time ENJOYING the holidays! Plus, 10% or more of your membership goes to a GREAT CAUSE...Go!!

Top Ten Green Toys for the Holidays

One of Three Leaf Card's Nonprofit partners, Co-Op America, just released a Ten Green Toys for the Holidays list.

Start thinking holiday conscious spending - buy Green Toys for tots!

Green Festival In SF

My sister (who lives in SF and lived in my hotel room with me while I attended the Co-Op America Green Conference all day and night the last two days) emailed me with the great plug that was on Daily Candy SF for the Green Festival this weekend - If you are in the city this weekend, go!
From Daily Candy San Francisco:
Green Festival
What: Mingle with the ecognoscenti over art, politics, music, and food.
Why: Everything you ever wanted to know about sustainability but were too afraid to ask.
When: Fri., 2-8 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Where: San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th St., at Brannan St. Tickets online at greenfestivals.org.

In the Co-Op America Inspiration Zone

Greetings conscious spenders...It's been a few days (which is a rare thing for me to NOT have something say, as opinion is my middle name), but since I arrived in San Francisco Tuesday for the Co-Op America Green Conference, I have been on information overload (in a good way!) attending all the great networking events, socially responsible business sessions, break out sessions (great blogging/social media session hosted by David Anderson of Green Options Media) wining (organic wine of course!), dining (vegan and organic) talking to my fellow conference attendees about Three Leaf Cards tree-free holiday greeting cards and getting up the next day to get more green data in my noggin. So, the point of the run-on sentence is to say that all the inspiration has left me a little blog-less to say the least. I am so overwhelmed with excitement about being a part of this industry and now have so many new tidbits of great information to share, that I think I simply am at a loss of where to start!

I always attend events like these with no expectations, as half the excitement of attending conferences is that you never know who you will meet. I have met green decorators, green media companies, socially responsible business consultants, eco-friendly food companies, organic cosmetics companies and much, much more.

I plan to go through all my notes when I leave San Francisco and share all the conscious spending wisdom that I have collected. Stay tuned in the next few weeks.

The biggest overall takeaway so far from the conference is how important is to support companies that are working to make a positive impact to help people and the planet and that we have NO (I'll say it again, NO) EXCUSE to not make conscious spending choices because there is not a lack of any socially responsible service or product provider out there, it's just a matter of empowering ourselves to know who they are and support them.

Three Leaf Cards supports great non profit organizations that are truly making a quantifiable impact. Co-Op America is one of the companies that a member can choose to donate 10% of their funds to, and after seeing the team in action, I am beyond proud to support them as well as all of our great Non Profit partners

Companies are out there making a difference, I cannot wait to share all the great companies I have stumbled upon to keep conscious spending fun and impact-ful.

For anyone in SF, go to the Green Festival this Friday - Sunday and see for yourselves all the great green companies that you can consciously support!

Team Three Leaf is going to the Co-Op America Green Conference in SF! Come see us!

Team Three Leaf is going to remove ourselves from our computer monitors next week to attend the Co-Op America Green Conference in San Francisco!

We will be getting our green brains on and meeting like-minded green companies and organizations.

Stay tuned for blog updates from the show and contact us if you want to meet up! We are making tree-free holiday cards this year for organizations to save time, trees and money and can't wait to talk it up next week!

If you haven't yet, sign up for the green business conference!

Conscious Spenders – Get on Green Dry Cleaning!

I felt like I was pretty green when it came to dry cleaning. I do not get plastic bags over my garments (which is easier said than done), I recycle my hangers, and I wear my dry-cleanables as many times as I can before I have to take them in. However, after I read Co-op America’s article today about Green Dry Cleaning, I am realizing that there is a lot more to the equation….

Part of the Green dry cleaning equation is about the waste, but is it very much about the chemicals that are used to “clean” the clothes too - chemincals that are dangerous to our health and the environment (which of course, impacts health, all cyclical)

According to the Occidental College’s Pollution Prevention Center, 85% of dry cleaners in the US (over 35,000) use perchloroethylene (also called perc) as a solvent in the dry cleaning process. This is a toxic chemical that is not good for people or the planet.

But we are not doomed to perc-cleaning. There are ways to clean clothes bearing a “Dry Clean Only” label without putting toxins into the environment, or bringing dangerous chemicals home or harming the health of the employees working at dry cleaners (thinking about their exposure to all those chemicals freaks me out)

We love Co-Op America’s suggested alternatives to dry cleaning:

Best Bets for Delicate Clothes (from Co-op America)
Our top recommendations for dealing with your “Dry Clean Only” clothes:

• Handwash your dry-clean-only clothes: Green living expert and Care2.com editor Annie Bond offers eco-friendly instructions on safely handwashing silk, wool, and rayon clothing.

• Use wet and liquid CO2 cleaners: Occidental College recently launched a national directory of liquid CO2 and wet cleaners. (The liquid CO2 cleaners listed do not include Solvair cleaners, which use a toxic solvent as part of their process.) Also, keep in mind that some wet cleaners, like Chicago’s Greener Cleaner, allow you to mail in your clothes and will mail them back to you wet-cleaned and pressed. Contact Greener Cleaner at 888/875-8345.

• Avoid hydrocarbon, greenearth, and solvair CO2 cleaning: Though somewhat better than perc, these methods all use toxic solvents.

And because Co-op America rocks, they even condensed all the information in their Real Money green dry cleaning article into a portable dry cleaning alternatives wallet card you can take with you. Get your downloadable green dry cleaning wallet card here.