Fair Trade: It's Only .....

Fair Trade partnerships work to provide low-income artisans and farmers with a living wage for their work.

In today's global economy, how we spend our hard earned cash affects people all over the world. Unfortunately, the products we currently enjoy are often made in conditions that harm workers, communities and the environment. The good news is that, increasingly, consumers are demanding more humane and more environmentally sensitive products.

In a world where profits rule, small-scale producers are often left out of the bargaining process. Buying Fair Trade Certified products helps exploited producers escape from the cycle of corporate bargaining that often leaves farmers, craft producers and other workers with little to no resources to build into their futures; and your efforts give people a way to maintain their traditional lifestyles with dignity.

According to the Fair Trade Federation, the criteria to be recognized as being truly fair trade is:

• Paying a fair wage in the local context
• Offering employees opportunities for advancement
• Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices
• Being open to public accountability
• Building long-term trade relationships
• Providing healthy and safe working conditions within the local context
• Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible
• Ensuring that there is no abuse of child labor

So how can you be sure you're getting what you pay for? One way is to look for this logo:

And here's a way you can get involved and contribute to the movement.

Visit the Global Exchange Fair Trade Store and look deeply into their philosophy and products. Then, for ways to take further action, be sure to visit the Global Exchange Website , an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political, and social justice.

@peace

Green Pathways Out of Poverty: Including Green Collar Workers from the Gound Up

Image Credit: Medical College of Georgia

According to a recent USA Today article by Annette Fuentes, the emerging green economy fueled by investments in new technology, business, and renewable energy sources is contributing to a rise in green-collar job opportunities.

Wonderful, but her well put question is "who will participate in the blossoming and profitable green economy?"

She says, "Unless environmentalism becomes a more inclusive movement to protect the health of our natural environment and of people living in the most polluted areas, it will never achieve more than minimal gains in air quality, energy efficincy and climate stability."

Right on.... As important as they are, it's going to take a lot more than "Prius driving Ph.D's", to put this place back together. We've fouled our nest to its impending tipping point long enough. It's time to make and take real progress to the struggling streets of our nation and the globe.

What we need is much more work along the lines of Green for All, which was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on September 26, 2007.

Green for All was created by Van Jones, co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and seeks to capitalize on the growing green economy while ensuring that the rising tide includes the disadvantaged and the urban poor.

Along with a group of srategic partners, Green for All is working to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction.

The basic idea is to greatly expand federal government and private sector commitments to green-collar jobs.

“We’re not going to solve global warming just with expensive consumer choices like buying hybrid cars and shopping for organic food. People need to realize that you don’t have to be white or wealthy to benefit from going green,” says Van Jones.

The group's mission is lofty but simply makes sense:

• Help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
• Harness the growing power of the green economic revolution to fight the war on poverty.
• Find new avenues of opportunity for those who have traditionally been left behind by the nation's economic growth.
• Give the crusade against global warming a broader social base, extending the green revolution to the neglected streets of cities like Oakland, Detroit, Baltimore and New Orleans.
• Advocate for a national commitment to job training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities.
• Fight both poverty and pollution at the same time.
  
  You can learn more about the movement here. Take the time to look into this one. It's vitally green.
  
  Step up....
  
  @peace

Save A Tree - Or Two

This from the About tab on the Ascending the Giants Website.

"Ascending the Giants is a progressive series of expeditions dedicated to climbing and documenting all aspects of champion trees. Ascending the Giant's goal is to raise awareness of the importance of trees and the sensitive ecosystems that exist in and around them. Making updated accurate measurements and educating to promote champion tree programs will be the greatest tool for the success of these expeditions."

One of the group's goals is to help identify trees for the National Big Tree Registry.

If you would like to know more about the brave souls involved, you can check out their bios here.

Have a look at the video in the next post. To see more from the videographer and photographer, visit Uncage the Soul and Freesolo Photography.

It's worth the climb.

@peace

Ascending the Giants

Wind Energy the Hard Way: 2XtM Sails for Awareness

Image Credit: treehugger

In January 2007, about the coldest time there is in North Dakota, a team of athletes snow kited across North Dakota - top to bottom - to bring awareness of the potential for wind energy development in the state to the rest of the world.

According to the To Cross the Moon - 2XtM snow kiting team, North Dakota has the potential to energize 32% of the US through wind energy, but ranked 13th. in production in 2004 and 15th in 2006.

The team used their passion for extreme endurance activities to educate, inspire, and motivate others to see the benefits of renewable energy, and to recruit others to cast their cares to the wind.

The following two posts are videos that will give you a glimpse into the cold, not so cruel, world of some very dedicated athletes and artists with a passion for sustainable change.

You can catch a windfall of other videos on the project at GreenEnergy TV .

Along with 2XtM's adventures, be sure to check out the GreenEnergy TV site for a phenomenal lineup of green videos on multiple subjects. While you're at it, visit the trip photographer's site at FreeSolo Photography and the Bannon River Sustainability Store.

@peace

Team Yoga Slackers

Sam shares the plan.

2XtM Team YogaSlackers SlideShow

Still photos for this video by Sean O'Connor http://www.freesolophotography.com

"We must become the change we want to see."

Mahatma Gandhi

Sit, Stand, Walk

As I sit in the best medical facility in New England waiting for my wife to recover from her early morning surgery I find myself being incredibly and eternally thankful, not only for her, but for the amazing gifts we have in this country.

So many lives saved! - and I think of Darfur, the sustainability movement, and how social justice around the world is one of the most crucial elements of truly living green.

Here are two links I need to share today.

Save Darfur.org

Sudan: The Passion of the Present


@peace

On the Road Again: It's a Gas

Note from Willie (paraphrased)

Take:
170 quadrillion tons algae
252 billion tons (approximately) dinosaurs
1 dash of various other prehistoric animals and vegetation

Cover ingredients generously with warm salt water and a mixture of heavy layers of silt, shale, and muck.

Cook at 400 degrees for 100 million years. Stir until oily substance bubbles out. Cover with sandstone or porous rock. Top with non-permeable rock and simmer for another 200 million years stirring occasionally.

Yield: two trillion barrels of oil. May be difficult and costly to remove from pan.

If you don’t have that much time, enjoy On the Clean Road Again: Willie Nelson on Biodiesel from the Gaiam Community instead. It's a gas.

While you're cruizin' with Willie, leave a light on at home with healthy and energy efficient lighting from Gaiam.com
@peace

Bill McKibben Speaks (and... walks the talk)

Having just finished reading Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, I am compelled to share a short take on Bill McKibben's thinking.
Please have a look at the following YouTube video. To see more of his work, visit here.
@peace

Bill McKibben on Climate Change

Real Good Goods from Gaiam

If you haven’t looked into Gaiam yet, it may be time you did. For a crash course on the company, have a look at the video at the end of the posts on this page. It’s a great jump in point to get an idea of just what an earth sensitive and socially responsible company can be.

Here’s the Vision Statement.

“To create a global community of life-minded people – a force for positive change.”

The Mission Statement is no less encouraging.

“Gaiam was founded to make a difference in the world of educating people about lifestyle choices that affect personal development, wellness and environmental responsibility. We began as a lifestyle media company with a vision that, given a choice, people would choose a lifestyle that is health and life enhancing – for themselves, their families and the Earth.”

Gaiam (pronounced “guy-um”) is a fusion of “Gaia” (earth) and “I am”. The company sees the earth as an interconnected system of systems that can be viewed and experienced as a single entity – a whole being.

From the Website

“The word Gaiam represents planetary awareness, preservation and support of the interconnectivity of all living things. By nurturing, protecting and respecting our planet, its natural resources and its inhabitants, we enrich our own lives and those of future generations.”

Sounds like “just what the doctor ordered”. Care for ourselves, so we can care for the community, so the community can care for the planet – and so it goes.

Playing around on the site is a joy. Two of my favorite destinations are the One World – Fair Trade Marketplace and the Solar Living department. There’s also a Gift Guide and Registry as well as Online Catalogs and great Customer Service .

And that's not all....

From the homepage , your can access, eco-home and outdoor products, a yoga studio, fitness center, apparel department, wellness clinic, a media library, and an outlet store.

But wait! There’s more. You can follow the brown and blue tabs at the top of the page and look into the Gaiam Community and Gaiam Travel.

Gaiam’s environmental efforts are stellar. The company launched the first carbon-neutral product shipping program and partners with the Conservation Fund to create Go Zero, a tree purchasing program to offset the carbon impact of the operations and distribution centers.

They offer EcoPass mass transit passes to headquarter employees and use non-virgin fibers in their catalogs, earning them the Forest Stewardship Council certification for responsible paper production standards and thereby saving nearly 50,000 trees and eliminating 9 million pounds of greenhouse gasses since the advent of the program.

Packaging is 100% biodegradable and recyclable. It’s made of post-consumer waste and printed with soy-based ink.

Gaiam is a major supporter of the Solar Living Institute
and, for three consecutive years, has ranked in the top tiers of Business Ethics Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list..

So have a look. Great companies like Gaiam are models to uphold. View the video at the bottom of this Post page and shop responsibly.

@peace

America is Cooperating and Co-op America Is Working for All of Us

Here’s the mission. “…to harness economic power - the strength of consumers, investors, and businesses - to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society”

Lofty words, but Co-op America is serious and their efforts go far beyond the commendable.

Their visionary outlook is no less lofty.

“We work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come”

Co-op America is unique to the green movement. They:

• Focus on economic strategies and economic action to solve social and environmental problems
• Mobilize people in their economic roles as consumers, investors, workers, and business leaders
• Empower people to take personal and collective action
• Work on issues of social justice and environmental responsibility
• Work to stop abusive practices and to create healthy, just and sustainable practices

Drop by their family of Websites. Links are on our navigation bar.

For some good reading and resources, visit our Bannon River Books Sustainability Store

@peace

Global Climate Change (Part 1)

Global Climate Change (Part 2)

what's green

Image Credit Anand Singh Naorem
In my efforts to live a better life, care for my family, and contribute to society, I find myself trying to move toward a working definition of “living green”. As I search for ways to have an impact, I am getting bogged down in a plethora of ideas mostly about facts and opinions regarding sustainability and global justice. While many of the Websites I hit go well beyond the personally helpful, some sites seem more like a menagerie of sight, sound, and advertisement for something akin to the dominant culture I’m trying to leave behind; or, they’re so un-Godly academic I find myself looking for yet another cup of fair trade coffee. Somewhere between the good, the bad, and the ugly I come up buffeted and baffled. Alas, methinks I need a roadmap to sustainability.

Having an aversion to chaos (perhaps I’m looking at the backside of the tapestry) I’m thinking…… “Wow, I need some peace here.” Do I simply step out and go do stuff? Not a bad idea really, every little bit helps I suppose, but how can I get a handle on the bigger picture – the universe of ideas and ideals? How can I systematize this thing, or at least organize it in my mind so I can move forward more efficiently. After all, isn’t sustainability about energy efficiency?

An exercise in futility perhaps but, if not for my own sanity, I need to build a schema – a framework to work from.

So, I start searching ….

A Wikipedian version of the morass defines sustainability as - work with me here.

“…characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries, and human communities in general and the various systems on which they depend.”

OK – I like it, but it sounds more like academic soup for the soul then the road less traveled. Let’s get down to basics.

I read on….

More from Wikipedia

Bear with me.

“The term "sustainability" has already proved useful. Sustainability discourse is discussion of how to make human economic systems last longer and have less impact on ecological systems, and particularly relates to concern over major global problems such as climate change and oil depletion. This discussion is an inherently useful activity. (What is even more useful, of course, is to then go out and find a way to make some unit of economic production -- a business firm, a family household, a farm -- more sustainable.) To help in this kind of discussion, it is meaningful, and pragmatic, to speak of some practices being "more sustainable" or "less sustainable." Thus energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs might be considered more sustainable than incandescent ones, and so on. There also is some usefulness in talking of moving "towards sustainability," or away from it. Sustainability advocates would argue that this kind of discourse helps inform debate about human impacts on planet Earth.”

Ok… I can go with that, but let’s see, if I can simplify this. How about one of my favorite thinkers, Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs.

The world according to Abraham tells me that I need to be able to breathe, eat, drink, have sex, sleep, experience homeostasis, and excrete before I can move up the hierarchy of having my safety needs met, enjoy love and belonging, have confidence and self-esteem, and finally reach self-actualizaition wherein I can give back to the community and still be a moral, creative, spontaneous problem solver who accepts facts and lives free of prejudice.

My goodness, works for me.

So now I can begin to hone in on green living just a bit more. How about....?

living green is caring for my personal health, prosperity, and wisdom while living a balanced, earth sensitive life that gives back to the community, so the community can care for the planet and each other.

Commendable thoughts, but the credit belongs to my wife. Thank you!

OK, that’s good, but I need more. If I’m about to embark on a journey I’ll need a GPS - some conceptual containers or categorical jugs to part the waters and light my path. I’ll need to break away from my post-modern trappings and actually connect the map to the terrain. Not unlike other millennials, my working definition lacks specifics. How can I sub-divide and parse this thing long enough to generate my personal plan of action?

Let’s add:
· Personal Health
· Community Health
· Environmental Health
· Social Justice
· Economic Justice.

Enough? Not just yet. These are lofty concepts worthy of further study and understanding – the future of this Weblog – but how about some action on the ground?
To help us move up the hierarchy we’ll add the following categories to our to do list.

· Food
· Clothing
· Shelter
· Education
· Outreach

Now we have a working model – grist for the Weblog. Stay tuned.

we are us

This is our first post. We know it's a bit redundant since you can see it just to the right on our profile, but let's face it. You gotta start somewhere.

Bannon River Books
We are a small online bookstore and emerging family farm located in rural Vermont. Our focus is green and sustainable, so we are constantly looking for and sharing information on responsible ways to live, prosper, and give back to our community. We invest a good deal of time sorting through resources and listing them on Amazon and e-bay, but this site is dedicated to writing about sustainability and highlighting a few of our favorite picks. We concentrate on health, wealth, and wisdom; so you'll find many picks on complimentary and alternative medicine, socially responsible investing, and the wisdom traditions. We also get down to the basics of green food, clothing, and shelter. We hope you enjoy our picks and help support our efforts. In turn, we contribute 10% of all our profits to ending child slavery around the world. Read, think, act, and enjoy! Peace....