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Roses are Red, Chocolate is Delicious…

February 1, 2010 in Environment, Green Buying by Wendy Gabriel | 2 comments

by Wendy Gabriel

You may remember the Equal Exchange Fair Trade Mixer Basket mentioned in the 2009 Happy Valentine's Day Green Shopping Guide from My Green Side. The folks at Equal Exchange are full of great fairly traded products and are giving us more Special Offers, this time to help you green your Valentine’s Day.

Equal Exchange Organic Chocolate & Coffee Pairing Gift Bag. This kit includes a variety of organic coffee and chocolates and packaged in a 100% Recycled Printed Gift Bag. This gift is perfect for a chocolate or coffee lover – and very economical at $34.95 each. (FYI – Their other chocolate bars are currently on sale until February 14th)

This is an amazing deal. The lovely people at Equal Exchange gave me a sample of their Organic Chocolate & Coffee Pairing Gift Bag and all I can say is YUM! The presentation is adorable (and 100% recycled) and the coffee and chocolate are unbelievably delicious. It’s a gift you’d be proud to give to anyone on your Valentine’s sweetie list.

Also, share the love with Equal Exchange’s fairly traded (Vegan and gluten-free) Organic Dark Chocolate Minis (55% cacao content). These deliciously rich, bite-sized chocolates are crafted using the best quality organic cacao (cocoa beans) from small-scale farmer co-operatives in the Dominican Republic and Peru. Swiss-made with only the purest ingredients, and soy- and gluten-free! Despite their small size, these minis have big impact. By choosing Equal Exchange fairly traded chocolate, you help provide small-scale farmers the resources and opportunities they need to build a better future for their families and communities. Price is $5.49 each.

Special Offers: Equal Exchange chocolate bars on sale until February 14th. We also have a “free shipping” code running until February 14th as well. The code is “chocolatelove”. Free shipping is for UPS ground within the contingent USA only.

I’m going to hurry on over to shop.EqualExchange.com and place my orders. See you there!

Tags: Equal Exchange, Fair Trade, organic chocolate, organic coffee, Valentines Day

Green Tip – Green Valentines Day

January 13, 2010 in Environment, WDAY Green Tip by Wendy Gabriel | 7 comments

by Wendy Gabriel

GREEN TIP: Surprise your sweetie with an experience, PVC-free gift certificate or organic flowers this Valentine’s Day. Really show your love this year with a gift that says you care about the long-term impact of your actions.

Too often we buy things just to buy things on “holidays” like Valentine’s Day. If you feel like giving your sweetie something meaningful this year, I have some suggestions:

EXPERIENCES

Any busy person would appreciate a handmade certificate for a homemade dinner, doing laundry for a week (hint, hint) or any other task you know would be a delight to have done by someone else.
Dinner and a movie. Either take your sweetie out or have a theme dinner and a movie at home.
Plan a trip to an art gallery or museum.
Get creative. You know your loved one better than anyone so really make the day special.

GIFT CERTIFICATES

A gift certificate for an experience like a trip to a local spa or restaurant. Most local (non-chain) stores and restaurant still use paper gift certificates instead of plastic cards made from PVC.

The folks at GiftZip.comhave a wonderful tip. The next time you’re purchasing a gift card go for the electronic (and paperless) option, an eGift card. Each year, 75 million pounds of PVC is dumped into landfills from plastic gift card waste (Plenty Magazine). That’s an astronomical amount of waste for something that can easily and conveniently be sent virtually. We’ve talked about PVC before. PVC is notoriously difficult to recycle and cannot be tossed into the recycling bin along side your other household items. You must send those pesky plastic cards to a PVC recycling plant, the only one I know of is EarthWorks. For a directory of retailers that offer an eGift card, go to GiftZip.com.

Wonderful local spa to consider:
Elements Skin Clinic and Spa
4955 17th Avenue South
Fargo, ND 58103-3372
(701) 277-4581

Elements also provides services from the Sweet Banana Spa Room, massage therapy, Youngblood mineral makeup and gift items from Voluspa, Paper Treats as well as handmade jewelry from Bead Unique. They offer great gift certificates to ensure everyone the most private and comfortable experience. Their skin care line Tre’SkinRX is fabulous! It’s made with organic aloe and all of the ingredients are pure. They also use only earth friendly cleaners and laundry soaps in the spa.

ORGANIC FLOWERS

Organic flowers, organic chocolate and even organic baked goods. Thanks to my friend Melissa Hincha-Ownby, I discovered OrganicBouquet.com.

Organic Bouquet offers sustainably grown flowers fresh from their partner farms. They promote and live up to the highest social and environmental standards—developing the most eco-friendly floral packaging, initiating the industry’s first carbon offset program, and growing their flowers in a way that is gentle on the earth and that safeguards the ecology and the well-being of wildlife and farm workers.

Do you have any other ideas for greening someone’s Valentine’s Day?

My Green Side’s weekly web pick:

Grist
Grist.org has a must read article: How to have a Valentine’s Day with a conscience.

Editor’s Note: Each Wednesday My Green Side brings Simple Tips for Green Living to The Christopher Gabriel Program. We also highlight a favorite green site each week. You can stream the segment at approximately 1020am (CDT) every Wednesday at WDAY.com.

Tags: Organic, organic chocolate, organic flowers, The Christopher Gabriel Program, Valentines Day