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.

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Waylon Lewis is a funny guy. Quite funny, in fact, but also a poignant speaker on current events. Take a glimpse into
life
in Boulder, Colorado in this short elephant
magazine video clip of Waylon. Be sure to check out the rest
of their
video series as well.

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Props to Mathew
Gerson at eConscious
Market for supplying Waylon with the Fair Trade soccer ball
to pitch from the stage.

The Spring 2008 premier print edition of The Green Guide Magazine from National Geographic hit newsstands on March 4.

In keeping with their green roots, The Green Guide is made of post-consumer recycled paper with new pulp from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (yes, the same group that certifies our rubber). In addition, the inks are made without heavy metals to keep the eco-footprint even lower. When you pick up your copy, check out Fair Trade Sports featured on Page 12.

Click here for a sneak peek.

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Kellee
Sikes from Pioneer Technologies wrote an interesting article
called Social
Responsibility: Charity Hijacked that featured some kind
words about Fair Trade Sports.

It made the home page for FastCompany
today. Check it out.

alt="Fair Trade Sports on FastCompany blog"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/FastCompany_Sikes.jpg"/>

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For an oft-humorous quick read about green-living
tips, consider checking out Ideal
Bite.

alt="Fair Trade soccer balls on Ideal Bite"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/IdealBite.gif"/>

This week their focus was on green
tips for guys.

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My friend don Miguel was recently out looking for surf in Northern
California when he took this self-portrait. DM is one of the founders
of Guayaki,
the leading company that brings us a fairly traded organic green tea
called yerba
mate which helps me survive these cold gray Pacific Northwest
winters.

alt="Don Miguel with Fair Trade Sports soccer ball"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/donMiguel.Guayaki.jpg"/>

Don Miguel, David Karr, Pierre Ferrari and the rest of their
crew are doing an amazing job with their company, bringing high quality
yerba mate products to the US while generating money to reforest large
areas of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Look for it in your local grocery market, or if you are in Northern
California, stop by their new cafe at 6784 Sebastopol Avenue.

What a great pairing to help survive the winter blues…two
eco-friendly Fair Trade products that get your body moving and
energized - a soccer
ball and a warm
yerba mate drink!

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alt="Your Vegas at Sundance"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/YourVegasPerformance.jpg"/>More
fun from the Sundance
Film Festival with Your Vegas,
an amazing new band from the UK.

They had fun with what they kept referring to as our Fair
Trade “football”. 

:)

The band is pictured here lounging with our
eco-certified
soccer ball and Joe Tomlinson, Founder of RE:VOLVE Apparel Project,
a very cool new eco-company and creator of the Giving Suite.

For more Sundance reading, check out Greenloop’s
blog coverage of the event by Jenn Breckenridge.

alt="Your Vegas with Joe Tomlinson (and a Fair Trade soccer ball)"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/YourVegasWithTomlinson.jpg"/>

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The
Giving Suite at the Sundance Festival
in Park City, Utah is a hopping place this week.

alt="Fair Trade Sports at Sundance's The Giving Suite"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/TheGivingSuite.png"/>

They’ve taken the idea behind a “Gifting Suite” - where celebrities,
VIPs, and trendsetters get handed bags of free stuff - and changed it
to a Giving
Suite, where those folks can purchase products like our eco-certified
Fair Trade soccer balls with all the profits going to
charity. Their tagline says it all: Giving. It’s the New Getting.

The charities featured this year are The Waterkeeper Alliance,
Earth Pledge, The Environmental Media Association, Healthy
Child/Healthy World, Our Future Now, The United Nations HCR,
and the favorite of Fair Trade Sports…Room to
Read.

The concept was created by class="st"> Joe and Amy Tomlinson, the owners
of RE:VOLVE
Apparel Project and executed by Mathew Gerson’s crew at eConsciousMarket.
What a brilliant idea. We’re stoked to be a part of it.

Check out their video
blog.

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Solvie Karlstrom of National
Geographic’s Green Guide recently
featured our eco-friendly
Fair Trade football on CBS as one of her favorite
items this season.

alt="Fair Trade Sports football on CBS"
src="http://www.fairtradesports.com/wp-content/images/GreenGuide.TVspot.jpg"/>

“The other item that I really like this year is this fairly
traded football, it’s lined with FSC certified rubber, which comes from
the rubber trees of well managed forests.” explains Ms. Karlstrom.
Check out the
article and the
video.