Picture yourself trekking through the luscious Amazon rainforest  in Ecuador and stumbling upon an indigenous, self-sustaining town.  “Bienvenidos, amigos!” A hospitable woman offers you the age-old Amazonian shade-grown Guayusa tea, harvested in the field just across the way.  This tea—with its unique balance of antioxidants, vitamins, amino acids, and caffeine—leaves you feeling revived and refreshed without the jitters and crash associated with most caffeinated drinks.  “Aaahhhh,” you say to yourself.  “Ain’t this the life?”

Now bring it back to the here and now (although you don’t have to totally “snap out of it”).  Established by three inspired students, Runa—Kichwa for “fully living human being”—is bringing this experience right to your living room while simultaneously supporting small organic farmers, promoting Amazonian conservation, and preserving the indigenous tribal cultures that have shaped the Amazon for thousands of years.  How’s that for “making a difference”?

While this tea doesn’t come with the screams of howler monkeys and the aromas of the forest’s 40,000 plant species*, it does provide sustainable livelihoods for the 600 Ecuadorian farmers that Runa trains and supports through fair trade practices.  Not to mention, their organic practices serve as an environmentally-friendly alternative to the slash and burn practices that contribute to immense Amazonian deforestation.  Considering that Brazil alone cleared an area the size of California in a span of just 15 years**, practices like this will be essential in mitigating the effects of global and regional climate change.

Drink tea?  Care about stuff?  Runa’s your biz.  Honestly, these folks are on to something, and we consumers can vote with our wallets for a brighter, more sustainable future for our planet.  Spend wisely.

Peace, love, and clean air,

GG at Roozt

*World Wildlife Fund

**NASA Earth Observatory

The more business owners I meet and work with in the realm of Social Enterprise the more I see a list of personality traits that are industry wide. The most obvious, of course, being that the Social Entrepreneurs weigh both profits and purpose on similar levels (in many cases with purpose being the primary focus). But a trait that occurred to me is that Social Entrepreneurs are really just big time problem solvers. They see a problem and they work to fix it. They see an opportunity and they work to create something new. They have a passion for both building and creating so they combine their passions.

This is the case with one of our partners whose story I thought was a perfect example. Jen Darling has been making her own clothing and shoe bags since 2008. It turns out the standard plastic bags were not only bad for the environment, but also for the high end clothes themselves. So what was Jen’s solution? Start producing her own quality bags of course. Bags that were good for both the environment and the clothes. Like a true problem solver she put the pieces together and by the end of the year her bags were being debuted in an event for London Fashion Week. Fast forward some more and you’ll see her bags featured by everyone from TreeHugger to NBC with celebrity fans ranging from Anne Hathaway to the New England Patriots (hey, even Tom Brady needs a fashionable, eco-friendly garment bag sometimes).

Jen Darling is definitely a problem solver. And the best part is her bags are Roozt Approved on all levels: Fair trade approved, eco-friendly textiles, eco-responsible and even made in California. She gives a portion of revenues to Surfrider! Check her out here and look for her bags coming to Roozt soon!

Cheers,

ND with the Roozt team

More and more seem to be hopping on the trendy “green” bandwagon, screwing in energy-saving light bulbs and grabbing their canvas bags before entering the grocery store.  Guilty?  My answer: yes, and proud of it.

Lucky for us, EcoUsable continues to provide fashionable and distinguishable top-notch stainless steel water bottles in all shapes and sizes.  Most who know me would call me an environmentalist and, really, I thought I’d seen it all in terms of anti-disposable-water-bottle gear.  But Water Wrapz?  Ecousable not only sells the bottles…they also sell these stylish images (both pictures and text) that make it darned easy to distinguish your bottle from your roommate’s.  What a concept!

So surely Ecousable is keeping up with the times – but do they walk the walk?  At first glance, I was a bit of a skeptic as far as Ecousable’s social and environmental practices are concerned.  Their products are made in China to “keep prices affordable.”  To me, this statement screamed “sweatshops,” until I read further.  Ecousable employs a team that inspects the manufacturing facility—which only contains employees over 19 years of age that receive competitive wages—to ensure a safe and hospitable working environment.  Socially, I say they’re doing a-okay.

But alas, reusable water bottles are meant to improve environmental quality—to lessen humanity’s carbon footprint and reduce anthropogenic climate change…you know the rest.  Along these lines, Ecousable is definitely talking the talk, packaging with biodegradable bags, shipping bottles in recycled cardboard, recycling wasted materials, and using compact fluorescent lighting in their facility.  Oh, and they have a fundraising campaign to eliminate the health risks and environmental hazards of plastic water bottles in schools.  Not to mention that an independent consultant is currently running a green audit on the factory.  I’ll give them a 9.5 out of 10 (just because nobody’s perfect).

So check them out, give them your own rating, and—if you don’t have one yet—look for awesome deals on Ecousable stainless steel bottles and wraps coming your way super soon!  Trust me, when you eliminate disposable bottles from your grocery list, you’ll be saving more than the environment (hint: $$$).  I’ll drink (H20) to that.

Check them out here and check Roozt in early September to get your own EcoUsable water bottle!

Cheers,

GG at Roozt