Thank you to everyone who shared their #ethicalTip and photo with us for the Earth Month photo challenge, April 1-22, 2013! We received more than 100 inspiring entries and greener living ideas from participants across North America.

But there can only be one $1,000 grand prize winner in eco-friendly products… And the lucky green leader is…

Congratulations John Kwan!

Hailing from Toronto, Ontario,  John Kwan’s #ethicalTip “Enjoying beautiful nature” received a whopping 418 votes from the community during the Earth Month photo contest.

Often when our agendas get filled with meetings, to-do lists and even weekend events, we forget to appreciate the small things in life  that are so essential to our being — like fresh air or the sun! His simple message to stop and get outside, is a tip that everyone can use on a daily basis to improve a balanced, healthy lifestyle and greener everyday living. It’s easy, only takes a moment, and you’ll feel 100 per cent better for reconnecting with life outdoors and reflecting on what’s important.

ethicalDeal had a Q & A with John to see what other #ethicalTip’s he could share with our community. Here is what we found out:

eD: What inspired your #ethicalTip? 

J: My #ethicalTip was inspired by my simple and green lifestyle. Enjoying nature is priceless! I have been enjoying nature since I was a kid and I will never stop.

eD: Do have any other green living ideas to help people celebrate Earth Day year-round? 

J: My everyday green living ideas are about going back-to-basics and include taking shorter showers and to recycle all things that are recyclable.

eD: What is your favourite eco-essential?

J: My favourite eco-essential is all natural petroleum jelly for multi-purpose, non-toxic uses. It keeps my lips moisturized  all year round and hands soft during the winter months. To restore a leather jacket, I rub a bit on the fabric. A little dab also works great to shine shoes. When baseball season nears, I use the all-purpose natural jelly to grease my mitt. This keeps the leather looking great and I get a better grip too.

Happy Earth Day!

>>>The contest may be over but your greener living ideas do not have to stop! Continue the Earth Day love! Share your comments to Facebook below or tweet us @ethicalDeal using the #ethicalTip hashtag!

A special thank you to our prize sponsors: Eco-home products from Greenmunch | Fair Trade sports ball from Social Conscience | Natural skincare from CORAL Skin Care | Bamboo linens from SHOO-FOO | Organic teas from Tega Teas | 1 year Eco-Parent magazine subscription | Eco feminine-care from Lunapads | Vegan shoes from Colourful Grass Shoes | Natural products from Smell This Aromatherapy

For Earth Month, guest blogger Jaime Berger shares his Down Under surf adventure in Australia and New Zealand, which turned out to be his wake-up call to take a stand against ocean pollution.

The first time I went surfing was near the Great Barrier Reef, saying it was ethereal wouldn’t do the experience justice. The churning turquoise breaks spraying heaven in my direction, the azure sky blanketing the horizon with glistening perfection, even the pain of an epic wipeout didn’t stop me from being hooked on hanging-10 from that day forth. To know the feeling of gliding across a perfect wave is to love it, it’s common sense to any of us who’ve tried it.

Unfortunately, my love affair with vibrant oceanscapes was cut short the next day when we were shown exactly where the reef was dying. Life is literally being sucked right out of the ocean by carbon emissions, poisonous materials and gargantuan piles of trash. When the Ocean becomes too poisonous and riddled with trash to surf in, what will take its place?

The World in 2050

The World Wildlife Fund conducted a study by taking data from all over the world and concluded that we will need two more Earth-size planets to sustain ourselves by the year 2050.

According to GreenandHealthy.info, Dr. Boris Worm of Dalhousie, Nova Scotia reveals that the world’s oceans will be empty of commercial fish by the year 2048, which will have a sort of domino effect on the entire ocean. This doesn’t even take into account that 90 percent of our worldwide stocks of tuna, cod and other big fish have disappeared within the past half century.

Seventy-five percent of kelp forests have also disappeared. Kelp is one of the most crucial pieces of our oceanic infrastructure. If resources continue to be ravaged at this extravagant pace, the human race is headed for extinction.

The World’s Largest Landfill

The Pacific Trash Gyre boasts mounds of trash up to twice the size of Texas, according to the LA Times. Aside from being hideously detrimental to large fish in the area, this floating homage to conspicuous consumption contains enough harmful BPAs to theoretically give the world cancer.

In fact, according to the UN Environment Program, the ocean hosted 46,000 pieces of floating plastic for every square mile. In some places, plastic bits outnumber plankton six to one. We produce 200 billion pieces of plastic a year, and 10 percent of that ends up in the ocean and moves up the food chain.

There are currently over 1,300 superfund sites in the U.S., according to the EPA. We are dangerously close to turning the ocean into one giant superfund. Although problems on land can be cleaned up by remediation companies like Sevenson Environmental and the help of locals who live in affected areas, it’s a little more difficult to point fingers and “make waves” when it comes to cleaning up the ocean.

Education, awareness and understanding is the key to making a splash. Instead of sitting around and hoping for the best, get out there and spread the word. If you can convince one person to stop using plastic bottles, then they convince two people. You could be the start of a movement, it’s as simple as trying.

Next time you’re at the beach, catch more than waves— catch attention and awareness.

Earth Month Photo Contest:

What are you doing to help the Earth and live a greener lifestyle? Share your #ethicalTip with us and you could win $1,000 in eco-friendly prizes. Enter here!

About the author:

Jaime Berger sells boats and watercraft by day and is a freelance writer by night. 

Celebrate Earth Month with us by submitting a photo that shares your #ethicalTip and you could win a $1,000 Grand eco-Prize! Do you bike to work? Do you eat lunch from reusable containers? Do you grow your own vegetables? Share your green living tips with us!

TO ENTER:

Like our Facebook page!

Upload your ethicalTip photo and caption that describes your green living tip to the #ethicalTip Photo Contest app.

TO WIN: 

The photo with the most votes wins the $1,000 grand eco-Prize! Get votes by sharing with friends on Facebook! One vote per day allowed.

WHEN:

April 1-21  – Winner announced on Earth Day, April 22, 2013.

Grand $1,000 eco-Prize includes 10 x $100 gift certificates to spend at these online eco-retailers: Eco-home products from Greenmunch | Fair Trade sports ball from Social Conscience | Natural skincare from CORAL Skin Care | Bamboo linens from SHOO-FOO | Organic teas from Tega Teas | 1 year Eco-Parent magazine subscription | Eco feminine-care from Lunapads | Vegan shoes from Colourful Grass Shoes | Natural products from Smell This Aromatherapy

For immediate release: March 1, 2013

VANCOUVER – Only two years past its conception, eco-marketing company ethicalDeal has gone from a personal vision to make green mainstream to a reality as the winner of Small Business B.C.’s best online marketer at the 10th annual awards on Thursday.

The local company headquartered in Vancouver offers promotions for greener choices ranging from organic beauty care to plant-based cleaners and has boomed across Canada with it successful digital coupon marketing.

Founding CEO Annalea Krebs said the award is representative of a greater movement for change.

“I am convinced that business has the power to change the world for the better and this award demonstrates that you can profit with purpose,” she said.

The ambitious under-30 Vancouver entrepreneur was one of the youngest up for an award and was excited to be among the 170 businesses in fields diverse as trade, manufacturing and arts.

“This honour was a huge achievement but it is our springboard,” she said.

“We want to be on the international stage. We’ve heard demands from California, Seattle, New York, and while that may seem aggressive now, our goal to make green mainstream requires a radical shift in thinking and we have the model to help people discover that change.”

Media contact:

Annalea Krebs, Chief Ambassador for ethicalDeal

Local: 778-996-9411, ext. 6901

media@ethicaldeal.com

______________________________________________________________

ethicalDeal is a Vancouver-based online promotions company that runs integrated email marketing and social media campaigns for natural and organic brands. It adheres to a mission is to make green mainstream offering greener choices for everyday living between 50 and 90 per cent off. http://ethicaldeal.com/

Small B.C. Business Successful You Awards is a province-wide contest to recognize and celebrate the important contributions of B.C.’s entrepreneurs to their local communities and the wider global economy. Managed by Small Business B.C., the contest is free to enter and open to all new and existing small businesses across B.C. http://www.successfulyou.ca

When special occasions call for a gift from me, at the last minute, I desperately hunt for a gift that is expensive enough and doesn’t scream “obligation”.

What a contrast…

If a two-year-old can make someone’s day with something as simple as a cutout of her little hand covered in scribbles, using supplies that cost a fraction of a dollar, then clearly, I’ve been missing the whole point of this gift-giving idea.

In an attempt to get better at gifting, I decided to follow the lead from the little one and keep my gifts simple, creative and handmade.

I made a manifesto for handmade giving:

It has been a short two months since I have put this pledge to practice. But the recent shift in my gift-giving ways has already opened my eyes to the benefits of handmade gifting.

Lessons I Learned From Giving Handmade

a) You can do small things with great love: as the artisan of your fabulous gift, $10 can go far; you get to be in complete control of the cost of materials, making the possibilities endless for incredible little handmade projects on a budget. But don’t expect to go to the mall with $10 and come out with a quality gift. A handmade win. Hands down.

b) A special occasion is an opportunity for creativity: when is the last time you made a greeting card? Birthdays, holidays and special occasions are perfect excuses for you to get crafting and infuse creativity into your life.

c) Pleasure from price is short-lived: receiving name brand everything could never compare to the joy of receiving handmade anything. One-of-a-kind. Full of love. Priceless.

d) Give slow, live slow: instead of rushing to the mall at the last minute to get the first shiny thing that catches my eye, I plan ahead to ensure that I have time to make something that I would be proud to give. Handmade gifting is an opportunity to reduce stress and chaos in our fast-paced world.

e) Green gifting is easy: when shopping for supplies for your D.I.Y project, going green is as easy as choosing the eco-friendly materials. Whereas with mass-produced products, consumers have no easy way of knowing whether the production process is ethical or not.

Crafts create a kinder world.
Give love. Give handmade.

 In the comments below, tell us about your favourite handmade gift that you’ve given or received.

 About the author:

Nat Nanton is a mother and writer who blogs at natnanton.com, where she provides tips, tools and resources to kick ass in motherhood and life. If you are committed to living your greatest life, you can subscribe to her blog or connect with her on Twitter or Facebook.

At ethicalDeal, we want to help you make greener choices for everyday living.
If we can fair-trade your next coffee trip, detoxify your cleaning regime or introduce you to some healthy lunch options, we are a few steps closer to achieving our mission of making green mainstream.

Our team has compiled some great tips from industry experts on everything eco-living from cooking tonight’s dinner with local, sustainable foods to planning your next holiday getaway with eco-travel advice.

What company helps you live a healthy green lifestyle? Tell us and we’ll introduce them to the ethicalDeal community. Here’s to green living made easy and fun!

Click to download here

]]> http://ethicaldeal.com/blog/2013/02/discover-tips-to-easy-eco-living-with-ethicaldeals-2013-guide-to-green-living/feed/ 1 http://ethicaldeal.com/blog/2013/01/growing-an-ethicalforest-one-green-business-at-a-time/ http://ethicaldeal.com/blog/2013/01/growing-an-ethicalforest-one-green-business-at-a-time/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:24:03 +0000 admin http://ethicaldeal.com/blog/?p=3058 ethicalDeal is growing an ethicalForest! Learn more about our habitat restoration goals and how you can get involved!

Instead of sending chocolates to our featured merchants this Christmas, we gave them the gift of habitat restoration! We planted a tree for every green business that we’ve featured to date – that’s almost 1000 trees! You can check out our growing ethicalForest here! The virtual trees that you see in our ethicalForest represent an actual tree growing in a boreal forest in Alberta, Canada. You can even see the kind of tree that that has been planted and cared for by hovering over it.
 
We’re pretty excited about our ethicalForest as it’s something we’ve wanted to do since we launched and now we’re doing it! Gotta love when you implement those ethicalGoals! We hope we’ve inspired you to give the gift of habitat restoration next time you’re looking for a gift.

Want to help us grow our ethicalForest?

Do you know of a green business you want to feature on ethicalDeal? Suggest a Business!

Are you a green business that wants to get featured on ethicalDeal? Apply to Get Featured!

Thanks for helping us make green mainstream!

~ Your friends @ethicalDeal

My mom and I go to craft fairs every year, usually a handful of them over the course of a weekend in December. And mostly, they are pleasant things – there is usually hot apple cider, a few pieces of peanut brittle (or if I’m very lucky, homemade almond roca), and the occasional treasure hidden among the crochet tissue box holders and rolled beeswax candles. My mom handles each of the hand-knit baby sweaters and sighs – “there’s so much work in these” – and I usually come away with a jar of jam or pickles, and maybe some homemade soap. It’s a pleasant time, but they are mostly all the same – 10 or 15 tables, and many of the same items, year after year.

Over the past few years, though, Vancouver has seen a renaissance of crafting, making and DIY and Andrea and Robert, the event-planning and wedding-coordination duo behind Lotus Events, have been leading the charge. If you too had begun to think of craft fairs as tired and always the same, then think again. Andrea and Robert, over the past five years, have been growing a community of artisans and designers, culminating in Got Craft?, Vancouver’s premier Indie, DIY and Handmade Craft Fair, which takes place next weekend (Dec. 8 and 9, 2012) at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive.
 

I’ve been peeking at their lookbook, lusting after elegant pastel macarons and hand-dyed leggings and earrings made of pieces of old Lego – there’s so much to see, and to hold and buy and give! Got Craft? is an easy way to support local artists and makers this holiday season – I’m looking forward to giving personal, one-of-a-kind pieces to friends and family this Christmas.

(A happy side effect of buying local and handmade? No harried trips to the mall – and no food court slop.)

Do some holiday shopping, try some tasty homemade treats, and check out a workshop – learn letterpress with artist, designer and graphic-recorder Sam Bradd, embroidery with Leanne Prain, author of Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery or  hand-sewing with Lili Nedved from Spool of Thread.

There really is something for everyone at Got Craft? and I’m getting pretty excited about it … will I see you there?

Details:

• Date: Dec. 8 & 9, 2012
• Time: 10am-5pm
• Location: Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive
• Cost: $3, kids under 10 are free  (or get 2 for 1 admission with this week’s ethicalDeal!)
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/lotusevents
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GotCraft

PS – get there early; be one of the first 50 people through the door each day to receive a FREE swag bag filled with goodies from vendors and sponsors including Got Craft? gift cards worth up to $75!

About the author:

Emily Wight is a writer and food blogger. Her causes include food sustainability, security, accessibility and sharing. She grows veggies, makes jam, tells stories, and loves cats.

This province-wide contest recognizes and celebrates the important contributions of BC’s entrepreneurs to their local community and the wider global economy. This year’s contest ends this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012, and ethicalDeal wants your votes!

ethicalDeal has been nominated for the Best Online Marketer for the “Successful You” awards by Small Business BC. It would be an honour to win so if you like what we do please vote for us!

A Lil’ More About Us

Two years ago we launched ethicalDeal with a vision of making green mainstream. Since then, we’ve introduced our community of 100,000 ethicalShoppers to over 2,000 green products and services. Check out more of our reflections on the past 2 years in this blog post written by Founder and CEO, Annalea Krebs.

Thanks for your support!

~ Your friends at ethicalDeal

A day in the life of an ethicalShopper.

Since launching we’ve introduced our community to over 2,000 eco-friendly promotions and we now reach 100,000 eco-friendly shoppers across North America. We have over 12,000 people engaging with us on Facebook and Twitter, and 25% of our shoppers were referred to us by our very own users!
 

At our core we are a community that’s united around a common interest of living a healthy and natural lifestyle. Our shoppers are some of the most loyal and engaged customers a business could hope to have, and our clients love what we do for them. We are driven by our mission of making green mainstream and love that our deals make this lifestyle more accessible.

Besides making it easy for people to discover and try out greener choices, we’re passionate about educating people about healthier lifestyles. This year we launched a blog, which features healthy recipes and green living tips from people like you and me.

We’ve also gotten more involved in the community at large by partnering with organizations like Ocean Wise, The Vegan Society, and Fair Trade International – leveraging our platform to raise awareness about their causes. We’ve sponsored buy-local campaigns and developed a fundraising program for school and community groups.

Our biggest accomplishment this year was the launch of ethicalDeal Grocery. We love introducing you to sustainable restaurants and organic spas, but we are even more excited about helping you discover greener choices for everyday living. Items like organic food, eco cleaning products, natural toothpaste and deodorant, mineral cosmetics and more. We’ve partnered with over 30 natural and organic grocery stores across Canada so that you can conveniently pick up your ethicalDeal purchase at a grocery store near you. We’ll be adding a home delivery option in the future as well. If we can change your everyday habits and purchases to a healthy green alternative – from what you brush your teeth with in the morning, to what you use to clean your clothes – then we’re one step closer to our mission of making green mainstream.

I’m excited about what the next year will bring. Thanks so much for being part of our journey – together we will make green mainstream!

Yours for a sustainable future,

Annalea Krebs
Founder and CEO

*** Like what we do? We’re up for the Best Online Marketer award in the Small Business BC Successful You Awards! Click here to vote!