Give the Gift of Green

James Stevenson, Pinellas County Extension Specialist, Urban Sustainability

Great Green Gifts

Need some inspiration for your holiday gift-giving this year? Here are some suggestions that can help you be as green as the Grinch (after his mood improved, of course...)

Why not help a friend or loved-one overcome some of the barriers we have all heard:
“I don’t have a (or enough) re-usable shopping bag(s)”
“Compact fluorescent bulbs are too expensive”
“I wish I had a rain barrel…”

Give the gift of green this year, by supplying yours with green items that will help them conserve resources in 2009:

Re-usable shopping bags
Compact fluorescent bulbs
A rain barrel
Battery re-charger (my dad LOVED his last year!)
A gift-basket of green cosmetics
A picnic basket filled with re-usable plates, cloth napkins, to-go cutlery, etc.

You may also consider supporting green industry:

A selection of Fair-Trade coffees and chocolates
A gift-certificate for green-certified products

Or perhaps you might be inspired to give a 100% waste-free gift:

Different charitable organizations will make a contribution in the name of your recipient. You can sponsor a goat, cow, flock of chickens, beehive, medicine, training or any number of products and services to help developing nations. As we struggle with our own economy, spare a thought for those countries that depend on charity to survive—and how charity may be dropping off during the “first world’s” crisis. Visit Oxfam Unwrapped to learn more.

Make My Coffee Green

Mary Campbell, Pinellas County Extension Director, Urban Sustainability Agent

One of our favorite beverages – coffee - can provide another opportunity to support sustainability or go green. “Fair trade” is an organized and market-based approach to empowering small farmers and promoting sustainability.

Coffee was the first commodity in the United States for which there is an independent monitor that guarantees that producers are paid a fair wage for their product, work in decent conditions and follow sustainable farming methods. More and more people care about the conditions of the people who produce the products they buy and that the product has fewer environmental impacts.

Fair trade produce remains a small percentage of world trade, but it is growing. Only 3.3 percent of coffee sold in the United States in 2006 was certified fair trade, but that was more than eight times the level in 2001, according to TransFair USA. Like consumer awareness of organic products a decade ago, fair trade awareness is growing. In 2006, 27 percent of Americans said they were aware of the certification; up from 12 percent in 2004, according to a study by the New-York based National Coffee Association.

TransFair USA, a nonprofit organization, is one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States.

Big chains are marketing fair trade coffee to varying degrees. Espresso served at the 5,400 Dunkin' Donuts stores in the United States is fair trade. McDonald's stores in New England sell only fair trade coffee. In 2006, Starbucks bought 50 percent more fair trade coffee than in 2005.

There is no governmental standard for fair trade certification, the same situation as with "organic" until a few years ago. Some fair trade produce also carries the organic label. Currently over 60%of Fair Trade Certified coffee in the U.S. is also certified organic. One important difference is the focus of the labels: organic refers to how food is cultivated, while fair trade is primarily concerned with the condition of the farmer and his laborers.

Transfair Fair Trade Coffee http://www.transfairusa.org/