World Fair Trade Day is an international celebration of Fair Trade with events happening all over the globe on the same day...today!

On the second Saturday of May, organizations and businesses spread the word about fair trade by hosting everything from fair trade coffee tastings, to fashion shows, to product sales.

Now in it’s seventh year, "World Fair Trade Day" was initiated by Safia Minney, founder of People Tree, and adopted by IFAT and its members at the 2001 Full Meeting, to promote stronger global awareness of Fair Trade. This year’s theme is Fair Trade + Ecology, which highlights one of the principles of fair trade that is sometimes overlooked.

Fair Trade principles protect the environment while promoting sustainable development for stakeholders. Because Fair Trade is committed to paying workers a living wage and works in long-term partnerships, it enables workers, farmers, and artisans invest in environmentally friendly production methods. Learn more about Fair Trade Sports' environmental impact in our previous posts.

We'd love to hear how you celebrate today. If you'd like to share, drop us a line (and we love pictures too!)

Plenty Magazine recently featured our sports balls in a lineup of cool (and useful) green gear for this Spring on a New York morning TV show. Check out the article and the video.

I'd like to introduce you to a crew of folks at a new startup called EVO from Santa Monica, California.

People everywhere are actively looking for ways to do their part to address the climate changes that are impacting our planet.

Unfortunately being an environmentally conscious consumer is not as easy as it should be – good information is disaggregated and hard to find. EVO provides a huge selection of green products, services, and information all in one place.

So far they’ve handpicked 400 companies - like Fair Trade Sports - representing more than 20,000 green products and services. From hybrid vehicles to home furnishings to sports balls, their goal is to make it easy for you to make greener choices every day.

While government and big business have major roles to play in the rapid shift necessary to bring our delicate ecosystem back into balance, each person’s daily choices multiplied by 300 million people in the U.S. (and billions worldwide) can add up to a major collective impact. EVO’s goal is to make it easy for individuals to make greener choices every day.

If each of us chose locally grown organic produce, changed at least a single light bulb, made sure our next car got more than 40mpg - we would go a long way toward decreasing the demand for wasteful, harmful products and increasing our quality of life now and for our children. Check out EVO.

When in doubt, I like to encourage less consumption, not more. But if you cannot find a good used version of what you are looking for, check out this video of cool green products from Green Festival Seattle, just in time for Earth Day.

LifeGoggles has launched what might turn out to be the world's biggest green competition on the web!

The contest is simple: There are five different actions you can perform which each earn you entries to the contest such as blogging about the contest on your own site and leaving feedback about recently reviewed green products on LifeGoggles.com.

Obviously the more actions you complete, the more times you can enter and the greater your chances of winning one of 72 (and counting) eco prizes, including a "Right to Education" Soccer Ball from us.

The contest runs through April 30th. For entry details, visit the LifeGoggles Great Green Giveaway page.

I've never had such fun that included so little sleep and losing my voice. I believe that is my new litmus test for how successful a show is.

Our team had a wonderful time seeing old friends from Guayaki and Grounds for Change, making new friends at Better World Books (Go Irish!) and ChicoBag, while being fueled by massive amounts of acai smoothies from Sambazon.

We did a fair number of interviews with journalists regarding our world's-first eco-certified sports balls. Look for the coverage over the next week or so. It's fun to see a journalist's eyes widen when you describe your product line; it's not often they get to see something really different, especially a completely new entry into the world of Fair Trade and green products.

And many thanks to Coop America's Chip Py the photo guy, for the use of this shot.

Warning: This is my blatant sales pitch for a hip new shoe company out on the East Coast. While I normally believe in controlling our consumerist tendencies, you really need a pair of these shoes!

If you still lace up a beat-up, worn-down, just-plain-falling-apart pair of classic Chuck Taylor sneakers, then I've got news for you.

Before you hand $50 over to a corporate machine brand like Nike (they bought the financially-ailing Converse in 2003), check out the ultimate ethical alternative from my friend Anne at www.autonomieproject.com...the new Ethletic brand (ethics + athletic = Ethletic!).

These kicks are Fair Trade and eco-friendly so your feet, social conscious and green lifestyle can now all get along!  Made with the same FSC-certified all natural and sustainable rubber that we use in our Fair Trade soccer balls, they are also moving to Fair Trade certified, organic cotton canvas and shoelaces in the coming months.

Ethletic shoes are made by adult workers - not children - in Fair Trade environments, which means the people who made your shoes are being paid a fair wage, have access to health care and micro credit loans. Each pair is stamped with the FSC logo on the sole so you can rest easy that your carbon footprint truly is green! (Sorry, bad joke, could not resist.)

So be ethical.  Buy Ethletic.

...in anything. What was once a touted as a wonder substance is now proven to be poisoning ourselves and our planet.

Many low-end soccer balls are made with PVC - it's much cheaper to use than other materials - by companies who give no warning to the consumer. Our soccer balls are made of synthetic leather from polyurethane; more expensive but significantly safer than PVC. You can read more details on the environmental impact of our eco-certified soccer balls from this previous post.

You can learn more about ridding your own life of PVC from the folks at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice in New York. Here's what Mike Schade, their PVC Campaign Coordinator, had to say:

"Sports balls made from PVC pose an unnecessary and preventable threat to our health and environment. PVC is the poison plastic, using and releasing highly hazardous chemicals that foul our air, water, and soil. There's no safe way to make PVC. That's why many leading companies are phasing it out in favor of safer and healthier alternatives. We commend companies like Fair Trade Sports that are promoting and selling PVC-free sports balls."

Sign up for the PVC Action Network with their Be Safe program, and help protect our families and communities from dangerous chemicals in consumer products.

Green your tailgate party for the Big Weekend with our eco-certified football.

More more easy tips on guiltless ways to go green this season, check out the The Lazy Environmentalist.

Enjoy the game!

Shymala has high hopes for her granddaughter Roopa, and for her future. Roopa is 14 years old and is in the 9th grade, along with her best friend Mahalakshmi.

Shymala and Roopa live in one of the rooms of New Ambadi Rubber Estate, where we source our eco-certified Fair Trade rubber for our sports balls. These rooms are small, but quite comfortable. They have electricity, an individual water supply, separate toilets, and a small space for keeping chickens and growing vegetables. In fact, there is a waiting list for this type of accommodation. Most workers have to rent houses or flats in nearby villages.

Shymala works in the latex factory of New Ambadi. She is a trade union leader, not just representing the workers of the plantation, but also rubber workers throughout the district. She is also a member of the joint body, which was started when FairDeal Trading (our sister company in the U.K.) began buying rubber under Fair Trade conditions. Our group (FDT in the U.K. and Fair Trade Sports in North America) is the only company in the world that pays a Fair Trade premium for latex, which is then processed into components for soccer balls and other sports balls in Pakistan.

The joint body meets regularly and keeps meeting minutes. It has decided to save the Fair Trade premiums into a fund, which will be used to pay for the children of the plantation workers to go to college. Even though education in India is free, in principle, only children who can afford to go to private schools have a chance of getting a decent job after their schooling. The joint body told us that we need to buy at least 90 tons of rubber in order for the fund to have enough money in it to start paying out stipends.

Shymala hopes that her granddaughter will be one of the first to benefit. She would like her to train as a nurse. The three -year course costs quite a bit, which she could never afford out of her salary.

The second benefit of our buying is that we paid for the registration of New Ambadi into the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) initiative for responsible forest management, helping to make rubber production more sustainable.

The positive effects of Fair Trade (and your participation) just seem to multiply...thank you!