Goodlifer

Slow Money: Sustainable Investing

The speed at which stock exchanges and money markets move these days is astonishing; trillions of dollars are zipping around the world each day, faster than any of us can truly fathom. The big crash and subsequent economic downturn has not done much to slow things down — trading is still very much based on short-term thinking, with little regard to anything but financial yield. continue reading

Small Hand Foods: All-natural Cocktail Mixers

Those cocktail mixers that you find on the shelves of your average grocery store are jam-packed with food additives and all kinds of scary ingredients. You’d be lucky to find even a residual amount of actual strawberries in a typical Strawberry Daquiri mixer. As a bartender in the Bay Area, Jennifer Colliau saw the need for more natural alternatives and started Small Hand Foods. cont.

98.6 and Rising

Regardless of where you find yourself at this moment — in 20F New York… or 81F Miami Beach — may this playlist be your backdrop for a good snuggle by a toasty fire, a walk on the beach, sunset cocktails or a deep meditation in your favorite flotation device. cont.

University of the People

Over the course of this past decade, we have grown to expect unlimited and free access to information, whenever and wherever we want it. Despite this, the cost of college tuition has risen more since 1990 than any other good or service, making it impossible for many to acquire a college diploma.Why should education be different? cont.

Leilani Münter – Carbon Free Girl

Leilani Münter stands with feet firmly planted in two worlds that could almost not be further apart. Münter is a race car-driving environmentalist, she has a degree in biology, is a former volunteer of a wildlife rehabilitation center and a long time vegetarian. Several times she has visited Capitol Hill to lobby Congress in support of the Climate Security Act. She knows that driving 200 mph race cars is by all means a waste of fuel, tires, and carbon fiber. cont.

Max – Climate Conscious Burgers

“We are part of the problem and we want to be part of the solution.” Believe it or not, that statement comes from a fast food restaurant. Swedish fast food chain Max is trying to pioneer its’ industry by labeling all meals with the amount of carbon dioxide they cause in making. cont.

Sourcemapping

“We believe that people have the right to know where things come from and what they are made of.” That is the driving force behind a new opensource website called Sourcemap. Developed by a team at MIT Media Lab, Sourcemap is a platform for researching, optimizing and sharing the supply chains behind a number of everyday products. cont.

Nothin’ but Corn: Farmer Steve’s Popcorn

Wanna see something really scary? Go into your local supermarket and look at the ingredients on a box of microwave popcorn! You’ll find partially hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, and preservatives galore. Even the popcorns flavored only with salt contain oils. Why? I don’t have an answer to that, but I do have a better alternative for you. cont.

Stacey Murphy – BK Farmyards

Only a few New Yorkers are fortunate enough to have outdoor space to call their own; even fewer know how (or have the desire) to grow anything in their garden. This is where Stacey Murphy comes in. Her team of expert gardeners at BK Farmyards will come to your house and grow anything you want for you. How brilliant is that? cont.

Wild Harvest: Northwest Wildfoods Company

Washington State is justly famous for many things — among them, it’s beautiful landscape, including luxuriant woodlands and the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Within these thickly-wooded regions grows a bounty of beautiful berries, including mountain blackberries and red and blue huckleberries. It is these berries (and related products) that form the very core of Northwest Wildfoods Company. cont.

New Beginnings

Take responsibility for your actions, stay hopeful, be healthy, tirelessly strive, love unconditionally, and approach everything with a positive attitude (even the laundry that has to be hauled two blocks to the laundromat and back), those are the goals I want to set for myself in the new year. Resolutions tend to not work out all that well, maybe since they’re commonly bound to guilt — not something we want to carry with us constantly. cont.

Lagier Ranches: Almond Butter, Preserves & Snacks.

It’s a nutritional powerhouse, containing nutrients such as protein, magnesium, and Vitamin E in significant quantities. It’s delicious. And it’s been unjustly maligned for years now for its high fat content. I’m talking about almond butter. It’s true; almond butter isn’t a low-fat food. But when you balance fat content against nutritional profile (never mind possible health benefits), cont.

Silent Winter

It’s not music this time. Sometimes it’s the sweet sound of silence that makes us appreciate the beauty that surrounds. Nature is wonderful and inimitable. Take a walk and listen to the crunch beneath your feet, the sound of your breath and the wind blowing through snow-covered branches. Peaceful serenity. cont.

Environment by Heather Heron

No matter how much we enjoy living in a winter wonderland, the one thing everyone residing in northerly climates does as the cold sets in is California-dream ourselves away to carefree days spent on warm sunny beaches. Heather Heron’s new collection for Environment Furniture celebrates the worry-free art of living minimally, but full of spirit and a sense of adventure. cont.

Food for Thought

I understand that many people don’t want to consume sugar these days, even if it’s organic and/or unrefined. If you’re looking for an alternative to sugar in fruit preserves, well, there are plenty of fruit-juice-sweetened candidates out there. The shame of it is that I almost never find preserves sweetened with fruit juice that taste as good as those containing added sugar. cont.