October is Fair Trade month (oh so soon), and to celebrate you might want to grab some refreshing and sparkling organic and Fair Trade Santa Cruz TeaZers. TeaZers add a nice a carbonated twist to tea from the Fair Trade tea company, Choice Organic Tea. TeaZers add a splash of Santa Cruz Organic juice to each TeaZer for a subtle fruit juice tea. Flavors include Lemon, Raspberry, Pear and Passion fruit. My household recently tried them all, and here’s what we thought.

Product: Santa Cruz Organic TeaZer sparking teas, made with a unique blend of high quality, brewed organic green, white …read more

I’m going to be posting a review of Santa Cruz Organic’s peanut butter soon, but before that, I figured we’d take a closer look at the company.

Santa Cruz Organic has been selling all sorts of organic foods for more than 30 years now. They carry teas, peanut butter, juice, applesauce, sodas, dessert toppings and more. My son Cedar is a HUGE fan of their organic juices (shown above) and of course I like them too because they’re organic. Geez, I sound like a commercial. Actually though this is a very cool company. Some of this companies eco-perks include:
They’re organic: Santa …read more

Bonnie Plant Farm has been offering goods for beginning and experienced gardeners since 1918, but in 2008 they went green in order to do their part to help conserve the environment. Bonnie Plant Farm’s CEO notes that their green effort includes an increased use of mainly biodegradable peat growing cups, a simple step that most plant companies should take, as millions of plastic potting cups hit the landfill annually.

Other green options that Bonnie Plant Farm uses currently are more organic fertilizers and pesticides, plus they’ve got a new recycling facility at their headquarters which reuses and recycles supplies, tags, pots, …read more

Greenwashing is a complicated topic, depending on who you ask. Many have their own definitions of the term, and some of us are more flexible than others when it comes to supporting a company who may have greenwashed in the past.

Basics:
Greenwashing Index notes that greenwashing is, “When a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be “green” through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact.”
Wisegeek says, “Greenwashing is a marketing technique in which a company falsely claims environmental responsibility.”
The above are pretty typical definitions but there are shades of green involved, …read more