5) Eco-Business Matrices
(2nd Seasonal Theme)
Among our ‘gifts’ to you this year are our “Eco-Business Matrices”, a series of sustainable gift vendor tables to help you know at a glance who is selling gifts that are locally-made, green, Fair Trade, & much more…
The idea for this came in an effort to compliment our “Eco-Local Gifts List” section (Holiday Guide ’09), a suggested list of gifts, based on ‘type’ and sorted from A to Z (like “Art” to “Yoga” and the “Zuppa Circus Cookbook”), and where you could buy them from local and eco-friendly companies.
The “Eco-Business Matrices” (below) focus on the vendors themselves and categorize using sustainable characteristics of the products they sell, such as whether ‘gifts’ you would buy from them would be hand-made, organic, or made from recycled materials for example.
For more in-depth information about companies making and/or selling sustainable products, keep your eyes on our NEW “Eco-Local List”, launched this past fall ’09. The list is growing and will soon contain hundreds of local and eco-friendly businesses for you to peruse when you are shopping for sustainable items. And if you want, you can list yours (and your eco-Events) via a FREE subscription to “My CRUSISIS”.
For now, if you want to buy gifts of ‘specific’ sustainable characteristics, with our “Eco-Business Matrices” (below) you’ll know who sells them and where to buy them, whether locally or on-line. So start perusing our sustainable gift vendor tables (below) and know at a glance where you want to shop pre-Christmas, post-Christmas (for the big sales), and ALL year long…
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14 December 2009
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5) Eco-Business Matrices
The Organic Business Matrix is made up of companies that carry organic &/or certified organic products, and products made from ‘raw’ materials, in an effort to highlight initiatives that remain ‘close’ to the earth.
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14 December 2009
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5) Eco-Business Matrices
The manner in which products are made and the labour practises used with which to make them are extremely important when considering whether a product is ‘sustainable’ or not.
In the very root of the word is the notion of being able to ‘sustain’ something. If labour practises or production methods are poor, it is impossible to ‘sustain’ them over time, and in some cases, they should sadly not even be permitted at all.
Fair Trade practises (Winter Guide '09), as well as producing and purchasing products in a non-certified but ethical fashion, allow for an atmosphere of ‘sustainable’ manufacturing and production, where it might not otherwise occur... especially in certain more challenged regions of the world.
Here are some businesses operating in your local area using ethical products:
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14 December 2009
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5) Eco-Business Matrices
There are a number of ‘green’ product and business characteristics to consider. In the following matrix, we track local businesses whose offerings either reduce carbon emissions or footprint, use ‘clean/ green’ energy and/or have products that are made with recycled materials.
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14 December 2009
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5) Eco-Business Matrices
Given that local production and strength of community are at the heart of sustainability, and that every dollar spent in your community helps grow both these, Business Ownership is an important factor in ‘sustainable’ buying decisions.