What If I Do Promote Some Me?

‘be nice” my sweet store co-made with Marine Boudeau is having its first sale. We’re offering fresh deals on original, handmade, organic tees. This is the last of our first collection…one day they will be worth millions!!! :]

Get them while you still can.

I said it!

Cara Reynolds
Co-Founder Of Be Nice

Sweatshop Free Shopping

Nerds Are Cool

I remember back in the good old days of this blog I’d do a lot of eco-shopping entries. I’ve since been trying to shave down what I already have. I have always been a pack rat and love to buy stuff. If it wasn’t for the fact that each time I move I am more lazy than obsessed with hording stuff, I’d be one of those guys, you know on Clean Sweep or Cops.  See lazy sometimes is good. I donate stuff to the Salvation Army, or those clothes boxes sprinkled throughout NYC, or drag stuff to swap meets in Queens, or bring them to my job and leave them on a counter outside my office, eBay, etc… Someone, somewhere wants my stuff.

I do have a point to all this. I now find I need to do some shopping for a new backpack. I may document this journey further, but for now I just wanted to share some resources I am using to research said bag. By the way, for those interested, my perfect bag would be an eco, fair trade, non sweatshop, sustainable, long lasting, locally made, recycled, durable, solar energy source, super fresh, comfortable, user friendly, big when it needs to be back pack. I am sure I am missing other specs, but you get my point.

For company ratings on social and environmental issues, see Co-op America’s sweatshops.org.  The Fair Trade Federation also lists companies committed to “fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide.”  If they meet these guidelines I have completed part one of this journey.

OK, let me get started, my backpack is almost in pieces.

-Cara

Something to Watch and Read

Last night I was watching a movie I found somewhere, somehow called, “Ecological Design: Inventing the Future” [1994]. We have known a lot of eco stuff for along time, now we need more action.  I challenge you to find this movie, watch it and be creative with a cool eco-design. That’s right I said it, a challenge.

One super fresh topic covered in the film was the Whole Earth Catalog. The Whole Earth Catalog was published regularly from 1968 to 1972, the founder, Stewart Brand. According to the catalog, “Whole Earth eschewed politics and pushed grassroots direct power—tools and skills. At a time when New Age hippies were deploring the intellectual world of arid abstractions, Whole Earth pushed science, intellectual endeavor, and new technology as well as old.”

To check out some of the older catalogs online, click here.

Technology and ecological design are awesome.

-Cara

You’re So Gay!

Here’s a little blurb about what’s going on with my organic, handmade t-shirt company I run with Ms. Marine Boudeau.

Good times.

-Cara

Join us at Pridefest this year in the West Village:

Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West 14th St
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Come check out our handmade, organic, super fresh t-shirt collections, hang out, take pictures and buy plenty of shirts for you, your peeps, lovers, family…

Sign-up for our newsletter to receive any Pridefest updates and possibly discover many other amazing and interesting things.

To learn more about this super gay weekend visit NYC Pride.

Cara & Marine
Founders of Be Nice

Be Nice Dot Com

Marine and I have just launched an awesome eco, green, super fresh, organic t-shirt company, “be nice”, and thankfully just in time for the Holidays. : P You can check out our web site at http://ubenice.com . The designs are original and we do the screen printing in our very own Spanish Harlem 5 floor walk-up.

We are just starting out, and doing it all manually, which it turns out is a lot of work. :] We definitely put a part of ourselves into each shirt we create. I even invented two of the colors, one is a soft blue used on the “benice” shirt and the other is a rich green I use on the “Certifiably Organic” shirt.

I’ll miss the shirts, but it is cool knowing someone is out there wearing something you put your mojo into. That should be our slogan, “For some good ass mojo, buy yourself a super fresh shirt”

Be nice.

-Cara

Two In One Week…Slow Down!

Two eco-green-super fresh shopping entries in one week, stop it. It’s your lucky week. Well not really. I didn’t think it would be responsible of me to promote more consumption, so instead I will put together some tips on how to be more environmentally conscious when you do shop. Even better. :)

According to Earth 911,

A family of four [I wonder if this is a family of four people or two people and two cats or one person and three dogs…] can save $2,000 a year in the supermarket by choosing large sizes instead of individual serving sizes. Small sizes use more packaging for each ounce of product than larger sizes. So, if you buy large sizes, you save money, reduce waste, and help the environment.

Here’s some Earth 911 tips:

• Buy cereal in a large box instead of in individual serving sizes.
• Buy large packages of sugar and flour.

I think the best thing would be to buy local products, like at your Farmer’s Market. That way you may avoid any packaging and you’ll be supporting your local region and a small business. That’s a lot of good.

Another thing you can do to help out is make sure whatever it is you are buying, that the packaging is recyclable through your local recycling program. If you go to this link on Earth 911 you can find that information.

Do not buy disposable products. We do not live in a world that can survive all this junk filling landfills and polluting the earth. In fact take all the disposable products you have and invent something new. There’s a cool project. Then if you want you can sell it on Etsy, make tons of money, quit your job and work for yourself, protect the world, and enjoy your life…easy.

Here are some ways to do your part,

• Use rechargeable batteries in everything that needs batteries [May I suggest purchasing solar powered products, or water powered or kinetic instead…]
• Do not use disposable cameras [Unless you are at someone’s wedding and they give you one. I mean at that point it’s too late.].
• Use cloth napkins, sponges, and cloth towels or wipes to clean up. [I’m working on that one right now.]
• Use washable plates, cups, and silverware for parties and picnics instead of disposable products [Come on really who is still buying paper or plastic plates???].
• Use an electric razor or hand razor with replaceable blades instead of disposable razors. [Whoops.]
• Use a washable commuter mug for your morning coffee and eliminate a Styrofoam or plastic cup every day [Funny, I was walking around just the other day with my Starbucks’ disposable coffee cup in my hand, thinking just that. I’m embarrassed….tell no one.].

I hope you have enjoyed this Friday’s shopping tips.

Enjoy your weekend.

-Cara

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Reason 77 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
The population explosion should not be thought of exclusively in terms of people–not when one considers the ecological footprint represented by the world’s 3.2 billion cattle, sheep, goats, and domesticated bison across the globe. About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction, and erosion caused by livestock.