sustainable style foundation*

The good people at Shift Media (they're behind Shift Magazine) have launched a very cool project for the holidays. Shift Your Gift is a great sustainable holiday shopping option that offers 5% of each sale to their non-profit partners. They've partnered with over 25 non-profit groups and picked 50 great environmentally-friendly products that would make fantastic holiday gifts; with categories that include apparel & accessories, health & beauty, home, kids & pets, tasty stuff & tech, there's something for everyone on your list. Some of our favorites that are available for sale include Green & Blacks chocolate (see our product review for more details) as well as the Solio solar battery charger, Edun organic cotton t-shirts and Voltaic solar bags. Once you're shopping cart is full, you can select a non-profit to benefit from your holiday spending; not only are you helping support the non-profit sector, but your patronage will benefit a company doing good work to spread sustainable good further into the mainstream. We know that the world can't shop it's way to sustainability, but if you're going to buy gifts for friends & family this holiday season, you might as well get them something sustainable and help out a deserving non-profit at the same time. [Shift Your Gift]

Update: SSF is now one of the organizations who can benefit from each sale from Shift Your Gift. We won't be on the "Charities" page until tomorrow, but you can select Sustainable Style Foundation as the beneficiary organization at checkout. SSF doesn't want to encourage rampant overconsumption, but if you see something you like or that might look nice under someone's tree, we'd love to have your support!

Hats off to Seventh Generation President & CEO Jeffery Hollender, who recently converted his 1983 Mercedes diesel station wagon to run on pure vegetable oil. We mentioned it awhile back, and it's really good to see the head of one of the more sustainable companies out there walking the walk. Now that he's made the conversion, Hollender's car is just like his products: no petroleum additives necessary. He also calculates that, at 30 mpg, his car emits about 25% of the CO2 of a Prius, and that each person that switches from a car that burns gasoline and gets 22 mpg to one that run directly on vegetable oil would save 550 gallons of gasoline, and avoid releasing 6,500 pounds (3.2 tons) of carbon dioxide into the air every year! Kudos to Jeffrey for making such a sustainable lifestyle choice; he says he feels proud each time he climbs behind the wheel, and we think he should, too. His conversion was done by Gilead Garage in Randolph, Vermont. [The Inspired Protagonist]

Fun loving Canadian popsters Barenaked Ladies are at it again. Jim Creeggan, who plays bass for the group, has written a nice piece in the group's blog about the group's recycling and carbon offset efforts while they're on tour. He tells an engaging anecdote about how his mom started a little recycling depot for glass and tin in his neighborhood; he's been a recycling enthusiast ever since. The group is also working hard to offset some of the carbon emissions from their current tour, and have put up some pretty impressive numbers. They're selling stickers at each of the shows; the revenue from the sticker sales goes to fund carbon offset programs. So far, the 175 stickers sold at the show in Washington, D.C., equaling 52,500 pounds of carbon offset, is the big winner, with Denver's 167 stickers and 50,100 pounds a close second. Jim finishes his post with this:

I told my mom about the recycling that we're doing on tour, and how proud I was of it. She congratulated me, and then said, “Recycling is Good, but Reduction is Better.” I hear you Mom. One step at a time.

Keep up the good work, guys! [BNL Blog] via [Ecorazzi]

The Umbrella Inside Out Design Competitions produced some very compelling examples of what could be done with old umbrellas, and, though they were all fabulous, since it was a competition, one had to win. The winning design, by Rainer Wolter, was shown at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris, where it really turned some heads; nothing about the dress hinted at its former life. Kyeann Sayer, the Creative Director for the Competitions, caught up Rainer to get an update on how it feels to show in Paris and to find out what it's like to be a young designer with an eye for sustainability. The interview delves deeper into Rainer's fascinating story, and is definitely worth a read. SSF was happy to co-sponsor the competitions, along with I.D. magazine and TreeHugger.

Stay tuned for more; we'll be featuring the Umbrella Inside Out Fashion Design Competition in the next issue of SASS Magazine!