As my last GSP post was about B Corporation, I thought I would share a recent Ethical Bargains post on a B Corp certified company. Follow your Heart began as a tiny juice bar and sandwich shop in 1970’s LA. 55 years later, the company has been acquired by Danone, a certified B Corp that has been ramping up its plant-based repertoire. Continue reading Follow Your Heart vegan blue
Industrial agriculture threatens soil integrity and biodiversity. It exacerbates the biggest threat to agriculture – climate change – and also our susceptibility to that threat. Organic agriculture, on the other hand, has lower crop yields and therefore requires more land. So, what’s it to be? Continue reading Certified organic: Should we really support it?
Certifications by reputable, independent organizations are extremely important when governments don’t value the environment and allow corporations to run amok. Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is designed to assure consumers that forestry-related products are produced without causing environmental damage. But is FSC certification effective? Continue reading An evaluation of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification
The level of shade cover is one of the best ways to determine if forest habitats are being maintained. The good news is that shade-tolerant crops such as cacao can tolerate over 30% shade cover with no reduction in crop yield. The bad news is that the Rainforest Alliance standards on shade cover have weakened over the years – 15% cover is now considered adequate. This begs the question: Is the Rainforest Alliance worthy of your support? Continue reading Is Rainforest Alliance an effective certification?
As COP27 wraps up and we get closer to welcoming 2023, it seems appropriate to talk about the carbon footprint of Christmas. I think that most of us would actually like to not destroy the planet and yet seem to forget about what’s really important during the holiday season (Christmas in particular). Continue reading The carbon footprint of Christmas
Too Good To Go is an app that allows you to buy heavily-discounted mystery bags of food that would have otherwise been wasted. Here’s more about Too Good To Go, a certified B-Corporation, and food waste in general. Continue reading Too Good To Go – an app to reduce food waste
The Re-Up Refill Shop, based in Oakland, California, offers zero-waste solutions for most of the stuff that you need for your home. US residents dump more than their own body weight in plastic every year. Half of it is packaging. Continue reading Re-Up Refill Shop in Oakland
Whenever I come home to Ireland I have the dilemma of which kind of butter to buy: conventional dairy-based butter or plant-based vegan butter. In California, the choice is pretty straightforward – it’s now fairly easy to find good-quality, ethical and affordable vegan butters. In Ireland, however, the choice is not so clear, as I’ll explain over the next couple of posts. Or at least it wasn’t a clear choice at first… Continue reading Butter and vegan alternatives in Ireland
Hi Folks! In a return to the Daily Footprint posts, I’m going to spend some time looking at plant-based meat substitutes. They are definitely catching on: last year, in the US, sales of meat rose by 2% while sales of plant-based meat-substitutes rose by 24% (and sales rose even faster than that in Europe). Over the course of just this one day, around 150 million … Continue reading Daily Footprint, #31 – Beyond Meat
Greetings, people! Is it just me or is everyone incredibly freaking busy since the year started? In any case, I’m a little late on this post to announce the winners of the last competition to write a Green Stars Review. Of course, life is not a competition and we’re all winners – just wanted to get that clear 😉 But I especially appreciate that people … Continue reading Your Turn – Competition Results, and Repeat!
The Green Stars Project 