Green Living Websites

Bookmark These Sites to Live Lighter on the Planet

Feb 19, 2008

Some nifty new discoveries of online resources for environmentally friendly action, learning and shopping.

If you're committed to living an environmentally friendly life, chances are you probably are a conscientious researcher, regularly checking news articles and Websites to make sure you're doing the best you can for the planet.

Over time, that habit can earn you lots and lots of Internet bookmarks, but there's always room for more. So here are a few of the most interesting green-type sites I've discovered while surfing recently:

Better World Links: Not only an environmentally oriented Website, but a good-hearted one as well: Better World Links offers a directory of sites on topics that include the Environment, Health, Globalization, Peace, Sustainability and Social Justice. It also links you to news, inspirational quotes and tools for helping to make the world a better place.
Big Green Purse: This site focuses on helping women make the most environmentally responsible, socially aware purchasing choices they can. It targets female consumers because women handle a majority of shopping duties, spending about 85 cents of every dollar in the marketplace. Big Green Purse's big goal? To encourage one million women to change at least $1,000 worth of their purchasing choices – which, the site's creators hope, will translate into a one billion-dollar payoff for the planet.
Big Green Purse aims to help women shop better by directing them to retailers and service providers that are truly green rather than green-washed. Its shopping categories cover everything from appliances and cars to fabrics and toys.
Blue Planet Project: The Blue Planet Project is committed to protecting fresh water as a free and basic right to people around the world. The site provides news on the right-to-water movement and threats of privatization, offers links and articles about all aspects of the global water supply, and works with individuals and groups around the globe to protect water justice.
Buy Handmade: Buy Handmade encourages people to sign a pledge stating that they'll forego malls and mass-produced goods in favor of handmade items when it comes to gift-giving. It also links to a variety of resources for handmade goods, including the online marketplace Etsy, the Craftster Community, Indiepublic, the e-zine Craft and the American Craft Council.
Chives & Leeks: Chives and Leeks is a blog dedicated to green humor (an eco-friendly version of The Onion, if you will – get it?), because there’s too much bad environmental news out there already. It's a compilation of environmental satire from around the Web, assembled by yours truly. Look for even more original content to be added soon.
Cooler: Cooler is an online shopping site with a difference: buy from one of the retailers on their site (and there are hundreds, including big name stores like Kohls, Walmart, Hallmark, Jockey and Sears), and that business will return a fee to Cooler to offset the environmental cost of your purchase with an investment in renewable energy and pollution prevention.

Whew, that's only A through C, and there are plenty more worthwhile sites to explore. Look for links to D and beyond in another post soon!

The copyright of the article Green Living Websites in Green/Simple Living is owned by Shirley Siluk Gregory. Permission to republish Green Living Websites must be granted by the author in writing.