My most recent post on my other blog, AM Radio, was about vitamins, so I decided to make this one about vitamins, too. Specifically about Vitamin Angels, a U.S. nonnprofit, and some of its corporate sponsors.
Vitamin Angels is a California organization that has worldwide reach. They attempt to turn around the problem of childhood undernutrition and malnutrition around the world, with programs in Latin America, Asia and Africa. They do this by giving out Vitamin A and multivitamin supplements to millions of small children in these continents, and also to new and expecting mothers. Although it's not clear how great their reach is, their administrative expenses are low, and they had a goal of reaching 10 million kids last year.
The organization relies a lot on the contributions of the natural products industry, and I thought I'd share some of their significant sponsors with you, so you can feel good about buying from them. I didn't know all of them, but some of the ones I do know are:
Rainbow Light--a major vitamin company. Donated in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. Rainbow Light has great supplements--everything from men's and women's multis to protein powders. Their supplements are sensitively formulated to work with most people's bodies.
Nordic Naturals--the fish oil market leader. Donated in the $5,000 to $25,000 range. If you need a really good Omega 3, Nordic Naturals is the purest of the pure.
Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy--a Boulder-based natural pharmacy with locations all over the west. Donated in the $5,000 to $25,000 range. Unlike many health food stores, Pharmaca has certified nutritionists and homeopaths on staff, so you get more exact information on your allergies, colds, cholesterol, etc.
Organic India--with operations in India and Boulder. Donated in the $5,000 to $25,000 range. They sell Ayurvedic supplements and also have a line of holy basil tea, called Tulsi Tea, which is great.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Haiti
I was going to write about how if you want to donate to Haiti, you should go directly to a known nonprofit's website (American Red Cross, etc.) and donate there to avoid scams, but it seems everyone probably knows this already. (I don't have TV, and miss major trends and stories.)
However, I thought this was a good time to introduce the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, an organization that began 40 or so years ago in France that now reaches out to impoverished countries worldwide. The organization concentrates on providing quality medical services during times of crisis--war and natural disasters, and ongoing problems--epidemics, malnutrition, and medical exclusion. They rely heavily on the talents of highly trained doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts and administrators to do their work, meaning that those working in such situations as the Haiti earthquake are prepared to hit the ground running. The link I provided is an article generated by Doctors Without Borders which will give you an idea of how bad things are in Haiti. The nonprofit had three permanent hospitals in Haiti, all of which have been so badly damaged by the quake that doctors are doing all their work in tents.
If you are thinking of donating to the Haiti earthquake, this is a good website to consider.
However, I thought this was a good time to introduce the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, an organization that began 40 or so years ago in France that now reaches out to impoverished countries worldwide. The organization concentrates on providing quality medical services during times of crisis--war and natural disasters, and ongoing problems--epidemics, malnutrition, and medical exclusion. They rely heavily on the talents of highly trained doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts and administrators to do their work, meaning that those working in such situations as the Haiti earthquake are prepared to hit the ground running. The link I provided is an article generated by Doctors Without Borders which will give you an idea of how bad things are in Haiti. The nonprofit had three permanent hospitals in Haiti, all of which have been so badly damaged by the quake that doctors are doing all their work in tents.
If you are thinking of donating to the Haiti earthquake, this is a good website to consider.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Who Likes Coffee?
I like coffee! And so do most adult Americans. While the purist devotees of social responsibility drink only intensely scrutinized fair trade, most of us find ourselves at Starbuck's at least a couple of times a month. (I think they do have some fair trade options, but not all their coffee is fair trade.)
Which is why, if you find yourself at the little green oasis any time soon, you should invest in a RED card. Sold alongside the rest of the merchandise, it is a red credit card-looking thing that you can load up with whatever amount you want, and then every time you use it to buy a drink, five cents is donated to support AIDS-fighting measures in Africa. Your drink doesn't cost anything extra, and the card itself doesn't cost anything. And you can reload it as many times as you want. The project has already "generated contributions equaling more than 7,000,000 days of medicine," according to its website. I don't know how many people that is, but that's a lot of medicine.
You might be one of those people that has a guilty feeling that you should be doing volunteer work in Africa instead of watching game shows, or you might think "gee, I really should have signed that petition." That's a lot of us. This is a simple, fairly effortless way to enjoy what money can buy while doing something for others.
Which is why, if you find yourself at the little green oasis any time soon, you should invest in a RED card. Sold alongside the rest of the merchandise, it is a red credit card-looking thing that you can load up with whatever amount you want, and then every time you use it to buy a drink, five cents is donated to support AIDS-fighting measures in Africa. Your drink doesn't cost anything extra, and the card itself doesn't cost anything. And you can reload it as many times as you want. The project has already "generated contributions equaling more than 7,000,000 days of medicine," according to its website. I don't know how many people that is, but that's a lot of medicine.
You might be one of those people that has a guilty feeling that you should be doing volunteer work in Africa instead of watching game shows, or you might think "gee, I really should have signed that petition." That's a lot of us. This is a simple, fairly effortless way to enjoy what money can buy while doing something for others.
Friday, December 4, 2009
GoLite: Down to earth for the Earth
Everyone's going green. It's a good thing--manufacturers are cutting down on waste and energy while also making things out of renewable or recycled materials. But haven't you begun to wonder, who are the people who really care and who's just taking advantage of the trend?
I went to a green business conference in Boulder about a year ago, full of companies eager to learn green, to advertise green, and sell green. "Green consultants" littered the room, wandering around and passing out business cards. Quite a show was made of recycling the nametags and making it a zero-waste event, which means you can't find a trashcan anywhere--only recycling and composting--good luck finding a place for your chewing gum.
I witnessed a panel where speakers talked about what their companies were doing to help save the planet. The first couple of speakers were guys in suits with big companies who seemed kind of detached from the actual process of going green, maybe I shouldn't judge, but they seemed more aware that it was good for advertising than good for the earth. One of them had actually had his job title changed from "attorney" to "energy consultant" for the year while he headed a project to reduce the company's energy consumption. There was that much money in his company's budget that he could take time off to do that.
The final speaker was a woman of about my age, thin like a doe, wearing a fleece and corduroys, who looked bewildered to be there among corporate types. As soon as she opened her mouth and began to quietly speak you could feel a shift in the room as we all began to realize what green really was. She represented a company called GoLite, an outdoor gear manufacturer who's been around a few years. The company has probably cared about the earth since its founding, but what immediately struck me as she talked about GoLite's habits is that the company had never sent any press releases to my newspaper about going green. We had been flooded in recent years with press releases about companies introducing various green measures, but we had never heard about this one.
She said that her company didn't really have a budget for becoming environmentally friendly, but that it was a policy of the company to hire people who already had that consciousness. Over the past year or two before the conference, the employees had initiated a process of greening the company. They weren't paid to do so, each department (design, marketing, sales, etc.) had one volunteer that would meet outside of work hours to figure out what they could change within their departments to lower their impact on the planet. It might be as simple as streamlining a zipper to use less material, or putting an extra paper recycling bin the office to reduce the amount of paper that got put in the trash. One thing I liked was that for every ten times an employee rode their bike to work, they got somewhere between $10 and $20 for a local restaurant. That's how little money the company had to go towards green efforts.
Especially at the corporate level, people seem to forget how simple environmental measures really can be. Everyone thinks it has to be big--buying carbon offset credits, making things from bamboo, tearing out the old lights and installing new ones. The idea is buy, buy, buy, more, more, more. One of the best things I've seen is a coffee shop in Boulder that has neat rolls of cut up old t-shirts in their bathrooms to use as hand towels. Thing about the massive amount of paper and energy they've conserved over the years. Green can start anywhere in a company, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, or in an unprinted e-mail.
From looking at its website, GoLite appears to have picked up some momentum with its green initiatives. It's advertised a little better--if you look, the company even offers paid time to do environmental volunteer work.
If you like GoLite, and you need to get anything for the outdoors, their products can be bought at REI.
I went to a green business conference in Boulder about a year ago, full of companies eager to learn green, to advertise green, and sell green. "Green consultants" littered the room, wandering around and passing out business cards. Quite a show was made of recycling the nametags and making it a zero-waste event, which means you can't find a trashcan anywhere--only recycling and composting--good luck finding a place for your chewing gum.
I witnessed a panel where speakers talked about what their companies were doing to help save the planet. The first couple of speakers were guys in suits with big companies who seemed kind of detached from the actual process of going green, maybe I shouldn't judge, but they seemed more aware that it was good for advertising than good for the earth. One of them had actually had his job title changed from "attorney" to "energy consultant" for the year while he headed a project to reduce the company's energy consumption. There was that much money in his company's budget that he could take time off to do that.
The final speaker was a woman of about my age, thin like a doe, wearing a fleece and corduroys, who looked bewildered to be there among corporate types. As soon as she opened her mouth and began to quietly speak you could feel a shift in the room as we all began to realize what green really was. She represented a company called GoLite, an outdoor gear manufacturer who's been around a few years. The company has probably cared about the earth since its founding, but what immediately struck me as she talked about GoLite's habits is that the company had never sent any press releases to my newspaper about going green. We had been flooded in recent years with press releases about companies introducing various green measures, but we had never heard about this one.
She said that her company didn't really have a budget for becoming environmentally friendly, but that it was a policy of the company to hire people who already had that consciousness. Over the past year or two before the conference, the employees had initiated a process of greening the company. They weren't paid to do so, each department (design, marketing, sales, etc.) had one volunteer that would meet outside of work hours to figure out what they could change within their departments to lower their impact on the planet. It might be as simple as streamlining a zipper to use less material, or putting an extra paper recycling bin the office to reduce the amount of paper that got put in the trash. One thing I liked was that for every ten times an employee rode their bike to work, they got somewhere between $10 and $20 for a local restaurant. That's how little money the company had to go towards green efforts.
Especially at the corporate level, people seem to forget how simple environmental measures really can be. Everyone thinks it has to be big--buying carbon offset credits, making things from bamboo, tearing out the old lights and installing new ones. The idea is buy, buy, buy, more, more, more. One of the best things I've seen is a coffee shop in Boulder that has neat rolls of cut up old t-shirts in their bathrooms to use as hand towels. Thing about the massive amount of paper and energy they've conserved over the years. Green can start anywhere in a company, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, or in an unprinted e-mail.
From looking at its website, GoLite appears to have picked up some momentum with its green initiatives. It's advertised a little better--if you look, the company even offers paid time to do environmental volunteer work.
If you like GoLite, and you need to get anything for the outdoors, their products can be bought at REI.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Neat Business Cards
Welcome to my new blog, Consumer With a Conscience. I don't know how long it will last, as I have a lot of other things going on, but I thought it would be good to start something of the nature.This blog will tell you about companies that are doing something good that you can choose to buy from. They might give a generous portion of their profits away to eradicate world hunger, or be extremely environmental, or what have you. This is free advertising for them!
This first image is a business card of a woman I met who founded an organic health supplement company in California. SoCal Cleanse uses all organic ingredients and monitors its environmental impact. Notice what's different about Cynthia's card--no address or phone number. She includes only a web url where you can find that information. This is in the event she changes her address or phone number--she won't have to throw away a bunch of business cards. Such a lovely, simple thing--and also in line with a younger generation.
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