Some people might call me a chocolate enthusiast…or, a chocoholic. I crave chocolate. And I usually indulge this craving, because after all, dark chocolate has been proven to have a slew of health (physical and mental/mood) benefits.

I have a little bit of chocolate almost every day. Not a lot on any given day, mind you…but since my cumulative consumption of chocolate is considerable, I’ve been very pleased to find that many of my favorite chocolate bars are made by companies that address the social and environmental issues related to the production of chocolate.

The following chocolates are a few of my favorites; and they are all made with organic ingredients and/or their cacao has been sourced through fair-trade arrangements. Some of them also support other types of sustainability or conservation programs and practices, which are noted below. I am not being paid to recommend any of these companies or products.

1. TCHO

• Organic (certified by CCOF)
• Fair trade (certified by Fair Trade USA)
• Started the TCHOSource program “to obtain the best beans in the world while enabling the producers of those beans to earn a better living.” They “partner with growers and coops and transfer knowledge about growing and fermentation to enable farmers to escape commodity production and become premium producers and to create a relationship of mutual self-interest that goes beyond Fair Trade.”
• They also “raise consciousness about the reality of modern slavery in our industry and in the world, and set an example by refusing to use cacao produced by slaves.”
• Manufactured in San Francisco

I recently tried TCHO’s SeriousMilk Milk Chocolate “Cacao” bar (with 53% cacao), and I think this has now become my #1 favorite chocolate bar.  It’s the perfect balance between milk and dark chocolate. I look forward to trying their other bars, as well.

2. Newman’s Own Organics

• 100% organic (certified by Oregon Tilth)
• Rainforest Alliance Certified, which “guarantees that the cocoa in our Signature Series was grown on farms that meet comprehensive standards for sustainable farming, protecting soil, waterways and wildlife habitat as well as the rights and welfare of workers, their families and communities.”
• “We have confirmed in writing that the cocoa products we purchase have been produced on farms that treat their workers fairly, and pay them a fair wage. Our suppliers do not and will not support any farms or plantations that mistreat children and adults or engage in Slave Trade Practices.”

My favorite Newman’s Own Organics bar is: Dark Chocolate (54% cocoa), which is a light/creamy dark chocolate.

3. Endangered Species Chocolate

• Some of their bars are organic (certified by Oregon Tilth)
• “10% of net profits donated to charitable organizations supporting species and habitat conservation in harmony with humanity”
• “100% ethically traded: Cacao used to create our All-Natural and Organic chocolate products is grown on farm co-ops that foster responsible labor practices, community enrichment and sustainable farming… On-the-ground endeavors, like Project Ecuador are helping empower communities in cacao growing regions.”
• “All of our chocolate is shade-grown.  Shade-grown chocolate supports lush forests and the species that thrive there promoting biodiversity, providing shelter for migratory birds, and combating global warming.”
• Information about an endangered species is provided inside each wrapper.

My favorite Endangered Species Chocolate bar (that I’ve tried so far) is: Dark chocolate with Cranberries and Almonds.

4. Seeds of Change

• Organic (certified by QAI)
• “Directly contributes 1% of its net sales to sustainable organic farming initiatives worldwide.”

I’ve had their Milk Chocolate, and Milk Chocolate with Puffed Grains, and they were really tasty. I haven’t tried their various dark chocolate products yet, though I plan to. (One point against this company’s chocolates: I don’t love that they put 3 small, individually wrapped bars inside of the larger package. Though the smaller serving sizes are good for portion control and for keeping the unopened chocolate fresh, using that extra wrapping material seems a bit wasteful.)

You can find many or all of these chocolates at most Whole Foods stores and other natural foods stores. There are a number of other companies that make organic chocolate and/or fair trade chocolate (e.g., Dagoba, Theo, Angell, and Divine, to name just a few; commenters have also recommended Taza and Green & Black’s). I haven’t gotten around to trying all of them yet, but I surely will in the near future…

P.S. Fine chocolate makes a great last-minute gift for any chocolate lovers you know!

What’s your favorite kind of organic or “ethical” chocolate?

The Green Spotlight has begun creating simple, colorful graphics of some of our favorite Quotations. We hope that you enjoy these and will share your favorites with your friends. More of these graphics will be available in coming weeks; check the Quotations page for new additions.

Click on each image to see a larger (full-size, e-card) version.

Please feel free to pass them on! You can use the Share icons at the bottom of the post (for direct links to email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), or just drag a full-size graphic onto your desktop and share it from there.

If you have a favorite quotation (whether it’s one that’s already on our Quotations page or not) and you’d like to see it presented in graphic form like these, please mention it in the Comments section below, or send us a note (email: info[at]thegreenspotlight.com). Thanks.

The following is a partial list of environmental non-profit organizations that have a national (U.S.) or international scope and that take a broad approach to sustainability. These 14 groups address a wide spectrum of environmental issues; they are not single-issue organizations. Due to their holistic perspective, many of these groups do work that—directly or indirectly—promotes greater social and economic equity, as well as environmental sustainability, as all of these issues and conditions are inextricably connected to each other.

Please click on the links to learn more about the work that each of these groups is doing.

• Buckminster Fuller Institute
• Earthjustice
• Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) *
• Foundation for Sustainable Development
• Global Exchange
• Global Green USA *
• Green America
• Green Cross International
• ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability *
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
• One Planet Living (BioRegional)
• Resource Renewal Institute *
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• World Resources Institute

This is by no means a comprehensive list of sustainability-minded organizations.  For a longer list, see this set of links.

In addition, there are many single-issue environmental organizations (and local, state, and community-level organizations) that do good and important work in their respective areas and issues. I have highlighted such groups in past posts (e.g., organizations focused on green schools, environmental education, green affordable housing, green building, sustainable communities/planning, etc.), and will highlight other types of green groups in the future.

If you have a favorite green organization that you’d like people to know about, please share that in the Comments.

* Full disclosure: I have worked on projects for the organizations that are marked with an asterisk.

Take a peek at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily blurbs and links. Anyone can view the page, whether or not you have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, be sure to click on the “Like” button to join our growing online community (if you haven’t already); then you should be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your daily Facebook news feed.

Please visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that are featured. Here’s a sampling of a few of the solutions, efforts, and success stories that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:

• the electric DeLorean, coming out in 2013
• LEED for Homes Awards: this year’s winning projects
• hybrid wind/solar systems
• Reinventing Fire, the new book by Amory Lovins
• Earthjustice
• Global Community Monitor
• Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
• Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing
• Silent Spring Institute
• Arctic Live
• Revenge of the Electric Car (new documentary)
• CleanTech Open: this year’s finalists and Forum
• Brower Youth Awards: videos and info about this year’s winners
• Solar Decathlon home design competition’s winning projects
• DIY solar installations in Ypsilanti, Michigan
• how to size a solar PV system for charging an electric car
• B Corporation legislation passed in California
• quotations from Ray Anderson, Buckminster Fuller, Annie Dillard, and others

This is a listing of green-themed films that came out in the last few years. I have not seen all of these films, so I can’t say that all of them are worth seeing, but many of them have won awards or been critically acclaimed. Click on the links below (or go to IMDB.com) to see previews/trailers, reviews, and descriptions of each film. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see a list of some green film festivals; those sites provide videos and information on even more films.

Films on energy, fuel, and/or climate change:

• The Last Mountain (2011)
• Revenge of the Electric Car (2011)*
• The Island President (2011)
• GASLAND (2010)
• Carbon Nation (2010)*
• Climate of Change (2010)*
• Powerful: Energy for Everyone (2010)*
• Crude (2009)
• Climate Refugees (2009)
• Fuel (2008)
• The Age of Stupid (2008)
• The 11^th Hour (2007)
• A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2007)
• An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Films on food and/or farming:

• Symphony of the Soil (2011; work in progress)
• Growing Cities (2011)*
• American Meat (2010)*
• The Greenhorns (2010)*
• Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us? (2010)*
• Vanishing of the Bees (2009)
• Big River (2009)
• Fresh (2009)*
• Dirt! The Movie (2009)*
• Homegrown Revolution (2009)*
• We Are What We Eat (2009)
• Food, Inc. (2008)
• Food Fight (2008)
• King Corn (2007)*
• Earthlings (2007)
• The Price of Sugar (2007)
• Fast Food Nation (2006)
• The Future of Food (2004)
• For a list of other food-related films, see this list from Serious Eats.

Films on other topics (e.g., health/toxins/pollution, water, localization, dolphins, etc.):

• The Human Experiment (coming out in 2012)
• The Economics of Happiness (2011)*
• Consumed: Inside the belly of the best (2011)
• Bag It: Is your life too plastic? (2010)*
• Living Downstream (2010)
• WASTE LAND (2010)*
• 180 Degrees South (2010)*
• The Cove (2009)
• Flow: For Love of Water (2008)
• Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives: The Environmental Footprint of War (2008)
• WALL-E (2008)*
• What Would Jesus Buy? (2007)*

If there are other relevant films that you’ve heard of or seen and would recommend to others, please add those in the Comments section below.

* Films that are marked with an asterisk are films that have a more positive or funny bent than many of the others. There are only so many bleak films about reality that people can watch in a row without getting depressed or angry and feeling helpless to make a difference. I find that it’s best to take in some positive stories, solutions, and humor now and then, to keep myself sane and motivated…

Green Film Festivals

These are a few of the annual film fests that I’m aware of. Please let everyone know about others by contributing a Comment! Many of the festivals’ websites feature video clips or entire films (short and full-length films), and they list many additional, new, independent films, beyond what I’ve listed above.

• Environmental Film Festival (Washington, DC)
• San Francisco Green Film Festival (San Francisco, CA)
• Wild and Scenic Film Festival (Nevada City, CA)
• Mountainfilm Festival (Telluride, CO)
• Annapolis Green Film Fest (Annapolis, MD)
• Planet in Focus environmental film festival (Toronto, Canada)
• UK Green Film Festival (5 cities in the UK, including London)
• Possible Futures Film Contest (online short films)

The following resource list provides links to organizations and websites that provide valuable information on green affordable housing. Many of these resources are focused on multi-family low-income housing developments, but some also apply to single-family affordable homes.

Global Green USA: Greening Affordable Housing Initiative *

Global Green USA, Holy Cross project

A few of Global Green’s projects and resources:

• Holy Cross project, New Orleans
• Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing (2^nd Edition), edited by Global Green USA (Island Press, 2007) *
• Solar Affordable Housing Assessment Calculator (for California LIHTC developments)

Affordable Housing Design Advisor

Architecture for Humanity

Energy Efficient Rehab Advisor (HUD / Energy Star)

Enterprise Green Communities *

Green Affordable Housing Coalition (Build It Green, CA)

Habitat for Humanity: Sustainable Building / Construction Technologies

Home Depot Foundation’s Affordable Housing Built Responsibly grant/awards program

LEED for Homes’ Initiative for Affordable Housing

LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation): Sustainable Communities programs

LISC Green Development Center

National Center for Healthy Housing

New Ecology, Inc.

Partnership for Sustainable Communities *

Tiny House Blog

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities , and
HUD Green Homes and Communities information

U.S. Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities (HUD/EPA/DOT)

*  =  I have worked on writing projects for the organizations that are marked with an asterisk. I also used to work for an architecture firm that specializes in designing green affordable housing projects in the Boston metropolitan area: Davis Square Architects.

If you know of other relevant resources, please mention them in the Comments below. Thanks!

Please take a look at The Green Spotlight’s Facebook Page to see our daily green blurbs and links. You can view the page even if you don’t have a Facebook account. But if you do have an account, click on the “Like” button (if you’re not already connected to page); then you will be able to see The Green Spotlight’s posts in your Facebook news feed.

Visit the Page to get a sense of the wide variety of topics that it covers, and feel free to comment on the posts.

Here’s a sampling of topics that we’ve spotlighted on the page in recent weeks:

• new films, including The Economics of Happiness; Bag It; Flow; and Queen of the Sun
• a new environmental news website: This Week in Earth
• videos about the achievements of this year’s Goldman Prize winners (from the U.S., El Salvador, Germany, etc.)
• video about the NRDC’s Growing Green Awards winners
• AIA’s Top Ten Green Projects award-winning buildings
• organic gardening tips for weed and pest control
• driving tips to save gas and money
• a new Green Jobs report, and an interactive map of clean energy companies
• online action to oppose uranium mining in the Grand Canyon
• a summer tour of organic food and farming in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• dog and cat toys made from natural, renewable materials
• new thin-film solar products, and a mobile solar power generator
• the story of a North Carolina farm started by a family inspired into action by the film Food, Inc.
• the story of two 15-year-old Girl Scouts who are calling Kellogg’s on its use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies and other products

The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious annual award for grassroots environmentalists.

Here’s a description of the Prize from the Goldman Environmental Prize website: “The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.”

The Goldman Prize ceremony (which is held in San Francisco) is one of the best events I attend every year. The recipients are models of courage, and their stories are powerful and inspiring. This year’s six prize winners (one from each of the six inhabited continental regions) are:

• Hilton Kelley (Port Arthur, TX, USA)
• Francisco Pineda (El Salvador)
• Ursula Sladek (Germany)
• Dmitry Lisitsyn (Russia)
• Prigi Arisandi (Indonesia)
• Raoul du Toit (Zimbabwe)

Click on each recipient’s name to read about—and watch a brief video about—their remarkable and selfless efforts and achievements.

Here’s the three-minute video about Hilton Kelley, who is leading the battle for environmental justice on the Gulf Coast of Texas:

Last year’s recipient from the U.S. was Lynn Henning, a family farmer in Michigan, who “exposed the egregious polluting practices of livestock factory farms in rural Michigan, gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations.”

Of the many quotations that I’ve compiled over the years, I think that these ten are among the most witty, wry, and clever — and almost all of them have some relevance (directly or indirectly) to sustainability:

“The trouble with the rat race is that, even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
- Lily Tomlin

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
- Edward Abbey

“… Urban friends ask me how I can stand living here, ‘so far from everything?’ When I hear this question over the phone, I’m usually looking out the window at a forest, a running creek, and a vegetable garden, thinking: Define everything.”
- Barbara Kingsolver (from her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life)

“Always do right. That will gratify some of the people and astonish the rest.”
- Mark Twain

“I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”
- Lily Tomlin

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
- Woody Allen

“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”
- Ingrid Bergman

“For every problem there is a solution that is simple, clean, and wrong.”
- Henry Louis Mencken

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
- Albert Einstein

“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”
- Albert Einstein

If you enjoy these, share them with others. And please add your favorite funny quotations in the Comments below.

For more quotations, see The Green Spotlight’s Quotations page.

Before the holidays (and other gift-giving occasions), I sit down and have a brainstorm session to try to come up with thoughtful, meaningful gifts that are well suited to each person on my list. Then, I run those ideas through my budget filter, as well as another set of filters that I consider to be just as important: In an effort to be an environmentally and socially conscious consumer, I strive to choose gifts that meet one or more of the following criteria—many of which also happen to be economical:

1. Non-Stuff: As Art Buchwald said, “The best things in life aren’t things.” Consider alternatives to material things, such as:
    
   • Activities: Doing something special for/with someone or a group of friends or family (e.g., making a fancy dinner or going out to eat);
   • Giving a gift certificate for a restaurant, a service (e.g. spa/massage), an educational opportunity (such as an online solar training course), or music/movie downloads (e.g., iTunes gift code by email); a ticket to a special event (e.g., a concert); or a voucher for a personal favor (e.g., babysitting or a household repair task); or
   • Making a donation (or getting a membership) to a nonprofit organization on someone’s behalf.




2. Homemade, handmade, or homegrown stuff: e.g., baked goods, jam, art, crafts. Or, if you have been growing herbs or have saved flower or vegetable seeds from your garden, I think that fresh or dried herbs (like rosemary, thyme, or lavender) and seeds (like cilantro/coriander, which can also be ground for use as a spice)—or flower bulbs or seedlings—can make really nice gifts.




3. Locally-made or Fair Trade goods: You can help support your local economy/community by buying locally-made goods from small independent businesses in your town, or you could support a sustainable enterprise in a third-world country by purchasing Fair Trade goods. Whatever you do, try to avoid buying cheaply made (low quality, low durability) stuff that was manufactured with toxic materials in an overseas sweatshop; unfortunately, that description applies to a lot of the stuff sold in Big Box chain stores these days.




4. Products with green attributes or purposes: e.g., a solar charger for cell phones and gadgets; gardening supplies or non-GMO seeds (e.g., Baker Creek Heirlooms or Botanical Interests); organic cotton clothing; organic food; soaps or bath products made with entirely safe and biodegradable ingredients, etc. (Beware of “greenwashing,” of course. Look for third-party assessments/eco-labels that verify manufacturers’ environmental claims.) Find stores in your area that specialize in green products. Or shop online to minimize your driving; many green companies have online stores, e.g.:
    
   • Patagonia: Recreational clothing and gear
   • Organic Bouquet: Eco-Elegant Flowers & Gourmet Gifts, including organic chocolate
   • Only Natural Pet Store: On Sale Now at Only Natural Pet Store
   • Gaiam: Eco-friendly and organic lifestyle products
   • Viva Terra: On sale at VivaTerra. Save up to 70% on natural home décor, organic gifts and more.
   • Powell’s Books: Books on sustainability topics




5. Re-gifted items or lightly-used finds: When I receive an item for which I don’t have any use, I don’t have qualms about re-gifting it (or donating it) to someone who would enjoy having it more than I would. In fact, I get great satisfaction out of redirecting things to the right recipients. You can also sometimes find a perfect and perfectly lovely gift for someone at a vintage/antique shop, yard sale, flea market, thrift store, or Craigslist. Some “pre-owned” items are treasures just waiting to be found.




6. Eminently useful things: There are certain things that almost anyone can put to use, such as consumables (favorite specialty foods or spices), cozy socks, a mini-LED light for a keychain, or a good book about a topic of interest to the recipient.




7. Small stuff: Try to choose items that don’t use a lot of resources, don’t require a lot of packaging/shipping material, and won’t take up much space in someone’s home.  Sometimes the best gifts can fit into a stocking.

And if you still just can’t think of anything good to get for a certain person and you decide to get that person a gift certificate for a store, get one from a store that offers electronic/email gift notices (or else paper certificates) rather than disposable PVC plastic gift cards.

Lastly, minimize your use of store-bought/new wrapping paper. Some people like to use the cartoon section of their newspaper as wrapping paper. I keep a stash of reusable gift bags and ribbons that have come to me over the years. If the contents of a gift don’t need to be covered up, putting a nice ribbon or bow around it (sans wrapping paper) is an elegantly simple way to adorn it.

NOTE: See our newer post, Green Gifts (2.0), posted November 2011, for more tips and suggestions.

For additional info on green gifts, products, and consumerism/over-consumption, take a look at these sites:

• The Story of Stuff (and The Story of Electronics): short films/web videos
• Green America: click on the Green Gift Guide, Responsible Shopper, and Fair Trade links
• Center for a New American Dream: Simplify the Holidays
• SustainLane: green product and service reviews
• Good Guide: ratings of natural, green, and healthy products
• Simple Living Forum

Please share your own green gift ideas and suggestions in the Comments section below.