TODAY'S TURN: Kill them with kindness

Next time you mail some bad news, you can still come out smelling like roses. Or at least like a Snap Dragon.

Plantable paper from Botanical Paperworks is embedded with wildflower seeds and made of 100% recycled material. When you're done with the paper, you simply drop it in soil, water it and wait for the color.

So you can help the paper return to its roots - literally - while getting your point across.

Don't go for the easy feel-good uses on this one. Anyone can send a wedding invitation or birth announcement on paper laced with wildflower seeds: "The future is blooming, watch our love grow, tending to our garden of joy, blah blah blah blah planting family tree blah."

It takes a rare kind of creativity and class to send hate mail in an environmentally friendly way. Stretch yourself. Exercise the dark side of your imagination and the possibilities blossom like a soggy sunflower.

Customer complaints. Nasty letters to the editor. Office rants about co-worker behavior. Community association grievances against your neighbor's deck. Dear John notes. Anytime you gotta sling some mud, do it with a flowery smile. Ahh, the sweet, sweet circle of life.

Cool alert: Look for the Yummy Cards made with herb seeds.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Order some plantable paper from Botanical Paperworks

EARTH DAY TODAY

No soapbox. Day speaks for itself. Now go out and try not to do too much damage.

HOW NOT TO MARKET EARTH DAY TO KIDS.

TODAY'S TURN: Become a chemical Columbo

Are you using enough coconut alcohol ethoxylate when cleaning your house? Or maybe too much?

Who knows what chemical concoctions swirl around in those canisters, casks, jugs, jiggers, buckets and bottles we stuff under the sink. I assume the lab coats do. Maybe.

Even if you can pronounce names on the ingredients list, you're irritated by a cloudy stink of "what the heck is that?" Hydroxyethylcellulose? Linear surfactant? How are you supposed to make safe, well-informed decisions when faced with those Scrabble champs?

Seventh Generation knows this is a problem. So they're offering up a plain-speak Label Reading Guide. It's page after page of cleaning product ingredients, what they're used for, how they can affect you, and how toxic each ingredient is. It's part of their Show What's Inside transparency campaign.

Oh, and you'll be happy to know that coconut alcohol ethoxylate is biodegradable and not too toxic. It's simply used to make the foam more foamier.

Phew.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Download a Label Reading Guide from Seventh Generation (PDF, desktop widget or phone app)

Top 10 Things To Change

Besides your socks, your hair and the occasional significant other, some changes can affect your life more than others can.

According to the Better World Shopping Guide, diligent decisions are doubly divine when buying these product categories. They have the biggest impact on people and the planet:

1. Bank
2. Gasoline
3. Supermarket
4. Retail Stores
5. Car
6. Seafood
7. Chocolate
8. Coffee
9. Credit Cards
10. Cleaning Products

TODAY'S TURN: Become a money changer

Thousands of years ago, Roman coins could have passed through some unsavory hands. Tax collectors, corrupt senators, pirates, slave owners - even this guy. How ironic is it that today these same coins could save the lives of children?

This is just plain cool: At the Child Health Site Store, you can buy an ancient Roman coin for $10. Each coin you buy funds health services to save or improve the lives of 4.5 children. (Sounds curiously uber-accurate and a bit unfair to that 5th kid.)

The Child Health Site partners with non-profits that service millions of kids around the world. The biggest chunks of cash go to Vitamin A distribution, AIDS care, dehydration treatment, cataract and trachoma surgeries to reverse blindness, and leg and foot prosthetics for landmine victims.

These bronze coins were found in Israel and date somewhere between the 1st and 4th century. So they're pretty old.

In America, we love giving people second chances. Just look at Robert Downey Jr, Kobe Bryant and Nick Nolte. Okay, maybe not Nolte. Even though these coins can't be redeemed at your local marketplace, you can still give them a chance at redemption.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Buy one of these sweet ancient Roman coins
Shop for other items at the Child Health Site Store

KIVA UPDATE: First loan pays off!

Who knew that a Ugandan caterer was a better investment than my 401k?

About a year ago, I joined my first Kiva loan, to Zaituni Mudoobi's group of caterers in Kireka, Uganda. 44 of us made a total loan of $1,350 (my share was only $25). At the time, I wondered if it'd really be paid off. A year later, I have my answer. Yep.

My own house payments were never this regular. The last payment of $112.50 reached Kiva at the end of January. Never a late payment. Never a short payment.

The loan was interest free on this end, so I didn't actually make any money. But at the end of one year, I still have my $25 to use as I please, and Zaituni's business is still going strong. Meanwhile, my retirement funds lost roughly 4,000% and a lot of "smart" financiers lost their cufflinked shirts from under those $3,000 suits.

So now I have a choice. I can take my money back out and use it to go see Fired Up. Or I can plow that same $25 back into another up-and-coming Kiva business.

Guess which one I chose.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT KIVA MICROLOANS.

TODAY'S TURN: Don't crap on Mother Nature

I like my toilet paper fluffy and my tush pampered. None of that rest-stop rag in my house, not when I can freshen up with silken pillow clouds while cottony cherubs massage my delicate skin. But how much is that little extra comfort worth?

The public's perception problem with recycled toilet paper isn't so much the cost as the causticity. Fiber from live trees can be fluffed more and softened up.

But doesn't it seem wrong to rip up lush, miraculous 100-year-old natural wonders - just to wipe ourselves? Sure, nobody likes to feel "discomfort" when using the product, but c'mon, it's not like we'd be wiping with sandpaper.

The New York Times recently ran a revealing article about what recycled toilet paper can do for forests. Print it up for your next bathroom trip. To me, it's a classic case of demand driving corporate action. People just seem to resist recycled TP. But this resistance could be changing. Several recycled brands are growing more comfortable and cheaper. Maybe people will realize there are bigger things in this world than their rear ends.

Bottom line? I think we can tough it out.

(Be sure to check out the end of that NY Times article. Marcal's CEO seems to think that watching your used TP circle the bowl is some sort of circle of life experience. What?)

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Seventh Generation
Earth Friendly
Green Forest
Marcal

TODAY'S TURN: Take a dairy section detour

Organic Valley Family of Farms produces batches of gourmet butter that win awards all over the world. It's completely organic and part of a small family farmer-owned cooperative.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "They give out awards for butter?"

I guess when you take extra care to raise dairy animals the right way, with organic feed and pastures, your product is going to contain extra yum. The company even kicks 10% of profits into local communities. The best part is, you can find it at most any major grocery or health food chain.

I grew up surrounded by farms so we used to get our milk, eggs, etc. fresh from the folks down the street a-ways. So I can testify that the overprocessed, oversalted, oversaturated pale yellow sludge we paste on our morning toast is NOT true butter. As fresh as possible is how it was meant to be.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Check out even more goodly goodies from Organic Valley

Share a Good Turn with a Friend!

Here's your good turn for today: share this site with a bunch of your friends.

See that little green icon in the right sidebar that looks like conjoined tadpoles? It's a ShareThis button. It's under the the subhead that says "Share a Good Turn with a Friend." (Well, you might not see it I guess. For some unexplained reason, it simply doesn't show up sometimes. Kind of hit or miss. It's the pothead of icons that way.) Click that thing and you're free to spread the word...

If it were any easier, it'd be on Rock of Love.

Some chocolate tastes a bit sour

Speaking of chocolate... found a captivating slideshow that tells the story of much of the world's chocolate. Stripped of romance, it's a cutting reminder that we need to make sure the entire chocolate chain is doing their best to improve working conditions.

See "Chocolate's Not-So-Sweet Side" at msnbc.com.

West Africa produces the biggest pile of cocoa in the world - 40% comes from small farms in the Ivory Coast alone. The slideshow sketches a scene of child labor in that country that probably won't show up on an FTD commercial.

Chocolate companies, exporters, middlemen and small cocoa farmers all have their jobs to do. Now we just have to figure out who's got the responsibility.

TODAY'S TURN: Give chocolates with real heart

I'll spare you the dog-tired, extra-toothy Valentine's Day carnival schtick ("It's that time of year again guys!" or "Love is in the air" or "Cupid is aiming his arro -- okay, make it STOP!!!)

Let's just get straight to the point, because you're busy and... well... your lady is serious about chocolate. Very serious.

Here's how it works:
Chocolate = yummy
Good chocolate = Good times
Extra good chocolate = TBD

This year, pick up some chocolate that's extra good in a new way: chocolate hearts from Divine Chocolate. This fair trade company is co-owned by the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana. The farmers' ownership helps build schools, sink wells for clean drinking water, and set up mobile medical clinics in remote growing regions.

Can't get much gooder than that.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Find out where to buy sweet love from Divine Chocolate at a store near you.

TODAY'S TURN: Drop the chops in half

Meat, for lack of a better word, is good. Meat is right. Meat works. Can you tell I like meat?

I'll never be a vegetarian, but they may be onto something. Eating LESS meat may be good too. Good for the land. Good for the gut. Good for poor people around the world.

Here are some recipes that do more flavor-packing than meat-packing. They all include meat. They just include less.

Take my beloved beef for instance. I look at a steak like a shark eyeing Robert Shaw, but it comes with a price. The average feedlot steer in the U.S. downs 2,700 pounds of grain. Not only could that grain be used to feed hungry people, but just growing the stuff takes up a lot of land. And more land for grazing pastures. Enter deforestation. Enter soil depletion and water waste. And exit the rural families who are left without land, without jobs and forced to drain into urban slums. Doesn't happen this way with all meat producers, but it does happen.

So if you don't want to chuck out the chuck, it couldn't hurt to carve some of it out of the menu.


CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN:
Less Meat, More Flavor Recipes
- Stir-fried Greens with Pork Shiitakes, and Black Bean Sauce
- Shrimp Pad Thai
- Korean-style Tofu, Vegetable, and Beef Stew
- Coconut Ginger Curry with Vegetables and Halibut

TODAY'S TURN: Mount a recycled trophy head

No finished basement is complete without some sort of dead animal parts, right? A skin, a head, a fish, a tooth, a paw, a tusk, or even your beloved Bowser stuffed on the hearth.

If you're looking for that finishing piece for the wood panel - but aren't too keen on hunting - might try a 3D rhino head puzzle from Cardboard Safari. Or deer. Or bison. Or moose.

Every puzzle is made from 100% recycled, locally-produced cardboard - plus the company supports the International Rhino Foundation. So the rest of the animals might thank you too.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
See more animal trophies at Cardboard Safari.

TODAY'S TURN: Add broken glass to tonight's menu

Broken glass can do more than help celebrate Jewish weddings or bloody up Bruce Willis' bare feet while he strafes bad guys in an LA highrise. Broken glass can help you eat. And it can do it beautifully.

It's been said that a glass bottle takes about 1 million years to decompose. May or may not be true, but the point is that glass would be much more useful on your kitchen table than on the side of the highway. Found a surprising number of companies who specialize in dinnerware made with recycled glass - 100% recycled in some cases.

Mazel Tov, Bruce!

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Fire and Light's dinnerware collection

Viva Terra (do a search for "recycled" on the home page)

Vidreco brand glassware from La Mediterraanea

The Green Glass Company

Recycled Glassworks (glassware art by Lauren Becker)

TODAY'S TURN: Give like an investor

When we give to a non-profit or charitable program, we like to know that it's on the up and up. People don't want to feel used or perpetuate the problem - is the money really going to buy rice for those barefoot kids or am I just funding a new Bentley for their "leader"? Personally, I also like to know whether the program works or not.

Here's the problem: cynicism in many cases can cost lives. Fraud and ineffective programs keep piles of much-needed checks from ever being written.

Geneva Global is part of a "performance philantropy" approach that researches programs and charities as if they were investing in a company. That means looking for potential, researching claims and expecting results. It's where the world of mutual funds meets the world of philanthropy. You choose a fund just as you would a mutual fund, you get reports on how well they're performing, and you get assurances that your money is having the impact you want it to have.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Here is a full list of the funds in play right now.
Here is their Gift Giving Catalog from December 2008.

TODAY'S TURN: Help a homeless elephant artist

If you want something that an elephant produces to hang on your wall, it'd normally involve ivory or something a little smellier. Maybe a lot smellier.

But at a special camp in Thailand, rescued elephants learn to paint, and you can pick up a print of your own. At the very least, you have to watch the video of one elephant in action. Amazing.

Proceeds are used to keep their native habitats as well as caretaker education, veterinarian care, and food for domesticated elephants.

CLICK HERE TO DO THIS GOOD TURN
Visit Exotic World Gifts for more about these talented trunk toters.

THE SABBATICAL IS OVER

Six months of procrastination - check. Glad I got that over with.

Calling it a sabbatical is so much more impressive than calling it laziness. Fact is, I haven't posted in six months. It wasn't a case of burnout as much as it was simply not having two-hour windows to devote to each post. Yes I know I write slow, but I am what I am. It just got too easy to put off posting until tomorrow or next week. (I did the same thing with my Masters thesis - which I never did finish.) It was like a blackout of sloth and languor. I have no idea what happened to autumn. I could blame it on the NFL...so I will.

So we're back, but with a new approach. Shorter, more direct posts that happen more often. A wider collection of ways to make responsible purchasing decisions. I'll still be wordy sometimes. You may find yourself wishing I would shut up and get to the point. But for the most part, this'll simply be a menu of socially and envrionmentally responisible ideas. No muss. No fuss. No Charlotte Russe.

Good to be back. Now let's see what we can find...

Kiva Loan Update: more businesses on board!!!

We're almost halfway there! Another payment of $113 was posted on our microloan to Zaituni Mudoobi and her catering group in Kireka, Uganda this week. The loan is now 42% paid off and every payment has been on time.

Even better, with some smart shopping and a few gift certificates, I've been able to help spread the genius of Kiva. Now I feel responsible for not just one business, but three.

• My brother Mark, who is interested in raising chickens, loaned some cash to a Poultry business in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• My mom, the queen of crafts and stitching, loaned some cash to a clothing store owner in Lagos State, Nigeria.

For background, here's my original post about the Kiva microloan service.

TODAY'S TURN: Go away!!!

THE ISSUE:
Don't hate me because I'm tan. Don't resent me because I'm relaxed. Don't mock my souvenir T's or wish hot death to rain down upon my sea-sponged shoulders because I seem to have forgotten what a hectic, horrible, dangerous, filth-ridden, mean, harsh, unhappy, back-breaking toilet the world really is - not to mention the rancid meatheads who occupy it. I'm simply too at peace to argue with you anyway.

You may have noticed I haven't posted in a while. For two weeks...for two blessed, hug-my-mom-for-giving-birth-and-making-this-possible weeks, I was able to shut the world off and shut myself down.

And I was reminded of two simple truths:

1. The more you close yourself away - in a cubicle, in a neighborhood, even in a hometown - the harder it is to feel connected to national and world events.
2. Blood pressure can make you blind. The more stressed out you are, the less you really SEE others.

Even as I was "getting away from it all" I felt drawn to people. I was curious about their lives. I conversed. I felt a kinship that's tough to feel while swallowing a dose of road rage back home.

I'll call it the Pilgrim's Paradox: Ignoring the world for a couple of weeks is the best way to connect to it.

THE GOOD TURN:
Shut down the computer, unchain yourself from e-mail, take the kids out of school and put your dog in a kennel (or if you prefer, the other way around), hug your lawn mower goodbye and take a vacation already!

Meet the world. Learn something about someone, somewhere, somehow. Taste. Smell. Listen. Bring home some smiles with that snow globe of Santa Claus on the beach. Bring some understanding of the people and places that normally just flash by on the CNN ticker.

And if you can also have a Bloody Mary while watching a sunset, so much the better.

20 Child Labor Red Flags

While US companies and Asian society catch most of the blame, child labor is a global issue in every sense. The list below offers up just a few of the product categories - and sources - that have been accused of exploiting or abusing children. Of course, it's not a complete list and just because you see "Made in Bangladesh" on the label, it doesn't mean your shirt was weaved by tiny exploited hands. But you might want to look a little closer when you purchase these items:

1. Bananas in Ecuador
2. Cotton in Egypt and Benin
3. Cut flowers in Colombia
4. Oranges in Brazil
5. Cocoa in the Ivory Coast
6. Tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
7. Fruits and vegetables in the U.S.
8. Carpets from India, Pakistan, Egypt
9. Clothing sewn in Bangladesh
10. Footwear made in India and the Philippines
11. Soccer balls sewn in Pakistan
12. Glass and bricks made in India
13. Fireworks made in China, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, and Peru
14. Surgical instruments made in Pakistan
15. Gold in Colombia
16. Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
17. Chrome in Zimbabwe
18. Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire
19. Emeralds in Colombia
20. Coal in Mongolia

From the Child Labor Public Education Project