16 fun ways to celebrate Earth Day this year
Tomorrow, April 22nd, you can honor Earth Day by learning about your ecosystem and contributing to its health. Here are 16 great activities you can participate in to celebrate Earth Day! Get outside Make a bird feeder for your yard Birds are essential to ecosystems. Making a bird feeder is a Read More...
6 ways to have a positive impact while holiday shopping this year
Making sure your practices align with your values can be tricky all year round, but this is especially true during the holiday season. Here are six great ways to make a positive impact while going about your festivities this year. Support indie bookshops Even though bookshops have experienced a Read More...
This app rewards local shoppers and encourages community building
The city of Akron, Ohio, launched a program designed to help support the local businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic and encourage a more circular economy. The program rewards shoppers for shopping locally through a city-sponsored app called Akronite, from which shoppers receive Read More...
Looking to shop seasonally? Here are 16 resources to get you started
Consuming plant-based foods is a great way to cut down on your personal carbon footprint, but it’s not the only strategy available to make your meals more sustainable. Eating locally and seasonally cuts down on the transportation emissions from the food you eat and supports local growers Read More...
Finding ethically-made gifts is a breeze with these tips
We all stress over finding the perfect holiday gift. Will they like it? Is it within my price range? Choosing something someone will love is one thing, but for the ethically-conscious shopper, finding a perfect gift that is also environmentally friendly and ethically-made is a whole other Read More...
Bookshop makes it easier than ever to support your local bookstore
There’s something beautifully calming about walking into a quiet bookstore, but with the convenience of large-scale online retailers and the economic consequences of the pandemic, small stores are facing unprecedented challenges. To survive, local bookstores are banding together and selling Read More...
The case for relocating small businesses back to residential areas
If you walk around some 1920s-era neighborhoods, it’s not unusual to see a tiny grocery store inhabiting the street corner. This used to be normal in residential areas, but as cars became more widespread, businesses relocated to more centrally-located commercial centers such as malls. The Read More...
Demand for community supported agriculture has never been higher
Recently, we’ve highlighted the rise of microgrid food systems and the movement towards buying local to address the resiliency challenges of COVID-19. Farm to table community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs are another aspect of local economies thriving as the pandemic disrupts distribution Read More...
This app is helping local bookstores stay afloat
Last week we shared a story about how Powell’s Books is scraping by and rehiring employees with the support of online book sales. A new app called “Save Your Bookstore” is helping other independent sellers stay in business to make it easier for people to locate and support their local Read More...
A wave of online orders allowed Powell’s Books to rehire 100 employees
The famous Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon is a book lover’s dream and local institution. In the face of COVID-19, the store was forced to close its doors and lay off 300 employees, but now, thanks to a wave of online orders, they have hired back 100 staff members. The rehiring process Read More...