The true costs of driving-- how much could you save on transportation?

Could you save money by switching from a driving commute to a transit (and/or carpool/biking/walking) commute? There are more costs to be considered than simply the price of gas, and these calculators will help you figure them out:

• For a simple approach, the American Public Transit Association has a handy calculator which lets you plug in your commute mileage and enter the precise gas prices, MPG, parking costs, and public transit costs that fit your situation. It also includes (based on the size of your car) an estimate of the increased expenses per mile you drive for maintenance and tires, an important addition that often gets left out of back-of-the-envelope calculations. Check it out here.
• This calculator is similar to APTA's, but lets you customize the value for maintenance/tires, and has a field for per-mile savings on depreciation/insurance/taxes/financing.
  
• If you want to get more detailed there's a really cool "Car-Free Diet" website (sponsored by Arlington, VA but it works fine for people anywhere.) It not only explores the cost of driving vs transit/carpool/walking/biking, but also the calories you could burn by walking or biking, and the environmental benefits as well. It's extremely customizable-- from picking the actual make, model, and year of your car, to entering up to 3 different driving routes at a time, to including your weight and age for the calorie-burning calculations! Then you can see numbers and graphs for the money saved, calories burned, and CO2 emissions reduced if you changed each trip to transit, carpooling, biking, walking, or telework (ie "What if I took transit to work twice a week and walked to the grocery store on Sundays?") It's a pretty incredible tool-- check it out here!
• And if you want to take it a step farther and really explore the externalities (costs that are borne by people other than yourself) of your driving, try this calculator called The True Cost of Driving. Not only does it add a few other factors to your personal driving costs such accounting for the average cost per mile of car accidents (health care and property damage), but it also lays out things like how much the government pays for highway maintenance, repairs, and waste clean-up per mile driven; a variety of pollution impacts per mile driven; and a bundle of other effects your driving has on society.

How much does your transprotation cost you? Have you run the numbers recently? How do you do your calculations? Is there anything these calculators are missing?

If you're thinking about switching, check out:

• Paying for transit with pre-tax money
• Free cab rides home in emergencies
• Financial incentives for new carpoolers
  

Work, stress, long hours, and your health-- what's your job costing you?

Do you have a job with high stress and/or long hours? Aside from all the other negative effects it may have on your quality of life (such as having less time with family/friends, less time to spend on hobbies, being less happy and more irritable) and on your pocketbook (like paying extra for conveniences when you're low on time, feeling like you need/deserve to splurge and treat yourself all the time, expressing your love to family through buying gifts in place of spending quality time together), have you thought about the impact your job has on your health? When you take the financial and non-financial costs of poorer health into consideration, are the stress and/or long hours really worthwhile?

Stress levels have been linked to a wide variety of negative health outcomes. Research suggests that, among other effects, stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, speeds the progression of HIV/AIDS, and weakens the immune system and decreases the effectiveness of vaccines. In purely financial terms, one study of 46,000 employees found that health care expenses were 46% higher for people who are highly stressed than those who were not.

There's also a significant amount of research that's been done looking at the effects of work stress specifically:

• A decades-long longitudinal study found that chronic work stress was associated with a 68% higher incidence of heart disease-- partially because of the physical effects of stress on the body, and partially because of the relationship between work stress and poorer diet and exercise habits.
• A Swedish study found that high work stress and low emotional support was associated with women developing Type 2 diabetes.
• A study of New Zealand workers in their early 30s found that participants with excessive workload and extreme time pressure had twice the risk of major depression or generalized anxiety disorder.
  
• And there are indirect effects on health, like the increased likehood and amount of smoking of those with high work stress.

Then there's the long hours:

• A study of over 10,000 Americans found that working 12 hours a day was associated with a 37% higher rate of work-related illness or injury (per working hour) and working 60 hours a week was associated with a 23% higher rate.
  
• A study of 24,000 Californians found a link between hypertension (high blood pressure) and work hours; those who worked 40 hours per week were 14% more likely to be hypertensive than those working part-time, while those who worked more than 50 hours per week were 29% more likely to have high blood pressure.
  
• A study of Japanese men found that the longer the work hours in the recent past, the higher likelihood of heart attack; those who worked more than 60 hours had twice the risk of those working 40 hours or less.
  
• A study of 10,000 Norwegians found that men and women who worked more than 40 hours a week reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Unsurprisingly, these health problems lead to higher health care use. A study by the Public Health Agency of Canada found that over a six-month period:

• Individuals experiencing high levels of role overload (having too much to do in a given amount of time) were
• 1.5 times more likely to have spent at least one night in the hospital
  
• 2.6 times more likely to have sought care from a mental health professional
• 1.8 times more likely to have seen a physician three or more times
  
• Those with high work to family interference (work responsibilities interfering with family responsibilities) were
• 1.4 times more likely to have spent at least one night in the hospital
• 1.7 times more likely to have sought mental health care
• 1.6 times more likely to have seen a physician three or more times

So if your job is stressful and/or has long hours, what can you do to protect your health?

• Learn stress management techniques. These will serve you well to protect you from all kinds of stress.
• Take individual action at your workplace to decrease your work stress level and/or work hours. If you're choosing to work longer hours and/or taking on a large, stressful workload because you believe it'll help you earn more and advance in your career, consider looking at the big picture and opting out. Are the benefits worth the costs?
  
• Take collective action at your workplace to decrease your work stress level and/or work hours. You're probably not the only one feeling the crunch. Rather than an escalating battle of "who can work the longest and hardest," can you work in cooperation rather than competition on the work hours/workload front? Start talking to co-workers about the toll that the stress and hours are taking on your life and get a conversation going about what can be done in your workplace; form a union, get active in your union, organize your fellow union members to make workload and hours a priority if it isn't already; form a health and safety committee that has stress and work hours on the agenda, or get it on the agenda of your existing committee; with your co-workers, make a case to your boss and/or senior management that it's in their interest for you to have reasonable hours and workload since it'll make you healthier and more productive.
• Find a new job-- or a new career. Ultimately, if you can't change the nature of your job, and the stress and hours are hurting your health, it may be time to look for a different job or even a different career. Think carefully about the true costs of your options-- is extra financial compensation worth the short and long-term health costs?
  

Do you think that work stress and/or long work hours have had an impact on your health or on the health of other people you know? How have you/they responded? Share your stories!

(See also: Picking money over time-- are we working too much?)

Search companies' social/environmental records and urge them to improve: visit Responsible Shopper

Looking for information on the social and environmental records of companies? Want to know what you can do to try to change some of their bad practices? Then check out Responsible Shopper, a new website from the ever-helpful Co-op America (the folks who bring you the outstanding National Green Pages, a huge directory of businesses that they've screened for social and environmental responsibility.)

There's a lot to love about the site. Responsible Shopper has info on hundreds of companies-- you can look them up by name, or you can see them grouped into more than two dozen industries. And for each industry, the companies are given letter grades in a range of different areas (environment, human rights, labor, ethics and governance, health and safetey) and are ranked from best to worst within the industry. When you click through to each company page, you can read a quick summary at the top (including the good, if applicable, as well as the bad) and then a list of the problematic behaviors they're involved in, including links to more information.

But the other great thing is that the pages connect you directly to actions you can take to get companies to change their ways. They appear in the profiles and you can jump to an industry-specific list of campaigns from the industry page. (You can also go to a list of all the actions here, sorted by issue category, such as environment or human rights.) There's over a hundred of them-- it's pretty awesome, and I can't wait to start making my way through the list, learning about the campaigns and taking the actions (mostly but not exclusively sending e-mails to corporate decision-makers.)

You can also click through to their "Go Green" section for each industry, which includes tips (i.e. the Fast Food one talks about packing lunch, eating at local restaurants and asking them for local/fair trade/organic choices, and reading books about food and sustainability; the Banking one talks about community development banks and credit unions) and links people through to the National Green Pages where they can find screened socially and environmentally-responsible companies.

The only major drawback for me is that I can't find an account of the methodology they use to do their rankings of companies. I trust the organization so I'm confident that they have a good one, but they need to have it more prominently accessible so everyone can understand it! I'm chalking this up to the site being not-quite-finished (it doesn't officially debut until July), and I bet they'll have that up soon.

But all told, this is a pretty fantastic resource. The company info is great, and I just know I'm going to spend hours clicking through all the actions (and maybe bringing some of them back here to share with all of you!) If you're even vaguely interested in the social and environmental responsibility of companies, I'd urge you to check it out.

What do you think of the site? Do you try to take companies' records on social and environmental responsibility into account? What sources of information do you use?

(Read more on How and why to express your values to companies and other posts about being a conscious consumer.)

World Fair Trade Day is May 10; celebrate with the World's Largest Coffee Break & more!

Tomorrow, May 10th, is World Fair Trade Day, and people across the United States are planning to set a world record by getting together tomorrow afternoon for a giant "Fair Trade Coffee Break." (Although if you're not a coffee-drinker, don't despair; it looks like many/most of the gatherings include other fair trade products like tea, wine, chocolate, and fruit... at least one place is offering fair trade bananas dipped in fair trade chocolate, and I'm totally jealous!) There are over 100 events going on in locations across the country; check out the listing here for one near you.

[If you're asking "What's fair trade and why should I care?": the short answer is that fair trade is about ensuring decent pay and humane, non-exploitative working conditions for the people who grow/harvest/make our products; for the long answer, check out my previous posts on the subject.]

I'm participating, and I think it's a fantastic idea for a whole bunch of reasons:

• Meeting great people in my area who are into fair trade and being conscious consumers.
• Standing up and being counted as a fair trade supporter-- all the gatherings are listing the number of attendees for purposes of setting the record-- and I bet there'll be press coverage that will let people know how many of their friends and neighbors showed up and believe in fair trade.
• Free samples of delicious fair trade foods-- what's not to love?
• Helping inform people and maybe make some converts-- hopefully our events will look like so much fun that we'll pull in people off the streets to ask questions and join in!
• Film showings-- my local event is showing Black Gold (about the coffee industry and the effects of fair trade), which I've wanted to see for a while but haven't gotten around to. Many other events seem to be showing this or other films.
• Fair trade flowers for Mother's Day on Sunday-- it seems like at least some of the events will have flowers either for free or for sale, which is great timing! (If they're not at your coffee break, you may also be able to find them at your local Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or other supermarkets; it's a pretty good bet that some of your fellow attendees could point you in the right direction to find fair trade flowers locally.)

So look for an event near you. I'm going to this one in DC tomorrow from 3 to 5pm, near the U Street Metro, which features coffee, tea, chocolate, cookies, and a movie; if you're in the area and want to come too, shoot me an e-mail so we can meet up and chat while we're there! And if you go to one of these events tomorrow, please do come back and leave a comment about how you thought it went.

(Read more about what fair trade is and why it's important to me, where to find 12 different kinds of fair trade products, and my other posts on the subject.)

How and why to express your values to companies: the new ClimateCounts scorecard & much more

ClimateCounts.org has just released their new scorecard on companies' climate change policies-- the extent to which companies are measuring, disclosing, and reducing their contributions to climate change. This PDF pocket guide gives you scores by sector of 56 major companies. You can quickly see some dramatic differences; for example, in the Electronics category, IBM leads the pack with a score of 77 out of 100, while Apple trails with only 11. Coke (61) beats Pepsi (37). And while McDonalds only scores 27, Burger King and Wendy's are both worse, at dead 0. The highest scorer overall is Nike (82.) You can read more details in these profiles.

This scorecard is just one of the tools I use to understand the social and environmental impacts of the companies that make the products I buy (and the ones I invest in via mutual funds.) Others include the Corporate Equality Index's ranking of LGBT policies (my post here), 100 Best Companies to Work For (my post here), the Better World Shopping Guide, and certifications like fair trade, union-made, certified humane, and organic. (I also try to buy from small and local businesses when I can; not only does this express my values in itself, but makes it much easier to communicate my values directly to the local owners.)

Why's it important to me? When I buy products, I try to be as conscious as possible about the way they were produced. As the end user, they were essentially produced for me-- and so I feel that the items produced in my name should have the most positive or least negative social/environmental impacts possible. It's too easy for everyone down the line to deny any responsibility (the company can say they make their choices because of what I as a consumer/shareholder demand; I could just say "the company makes all the decisions, I just buy things, I can't help it!") So I use rating systems like Climate Counts to be more conscious of what companies are doing, and hence what the effects of my own choices are.

But I also want to tell companies about my values and let them know that there are things more important to me than money, so they don't make choices based on the false assumption that my #1 priority is the lowest prices (or the highest stock returns.) There are a few different ways I try to send that message:

• Buying from companies that do better in the areas I care about. I think this is important, partially just as a principled act of taking personal responsibility, but also because if enough people do it, it can affect companies' choices. The challenge with this strategy, though, is that generally the companies don't know why you are or aren't buying something.
• Investing in mutual funds that push for the things I care about. My retirement money is in socially responsible mutual funds, ones which push companies they hold stock in to act in more socially and environmentally responsible ways. So my retirement savings give those funds more weight to bring their shareholders' values to the table in discussions with companies, and more votes when shareholder resolutions on corporate social responsibility (CSR) come up. Traditional mutual funds are usually pretty bad about CSR resolutions, as you can see here-- many of them pratically never support them (Vanguard voted yes on 5% of CSR resolutions in 2007, Fidelity only 2%) and even those with the best records (like TIAA-CREF which voted yes on 40%, Schwab at 36%, or Goldman Sachs at 24%) are still pretty poor. [See
  When your mutual fund speaks for you, what does it say?]
• Actually directly telling them what I care about! One of the neat things about the ClimateCounts.org website is that on the profile pages for each of the 56 companies, there's a link at the bottom that says "Click here to tell this company you think Climate Counts!" It gives you a form to e-mail the company to tell them that you read the information about their record on climate change, and that you consider yourself a climate-conscious consumer. There are other organized campaigns, like Co-op America's actions (tell car companies to improve fuel effiency! thank magazines for using recycled paper! and more!) Or you can just look up the right e-mail address and tell companies your thoughts all on your own (when it's a local business, it's even easier and more personal.)

Do you try to express your values to companies, and how? If you don't, why not? What do you think are the best strategies, and are there things I'm missing? (I left out lobbying politically for regulations and/or incentives, which is really important but is more about our roles as citizens than consumers/investors.) Are there other good sources of information that you use to inform your decisions?

Family vs frugality: what would you do?

Background: My Dad went to the University of Arizona and has been a huge fan of their basketball team for as long as I remember. I always root for them because I know it's a big deal for my Dad, but I only follow them casually-- many years (like this one) I don't even know the names of any of their players. Anyway, Arizona made it to the NCAA tournament again this year-- not a surprise-- and their first game was in DC-- which is much more rare. My Dad had never seen Arizona play in the tournament in person before.

Dad: So Arizona's first-round game is at the Verizon Center in DC this Thursday night. I'm looking for tickets-- do you want to come with me and Mom?
Me (thinks): It would be kind of neat to see a live March Madness game, and to see Arizona in particular... if it's reasonably affordable. Like $25-$30 a ticket.
Me (says): Maybe-- how much do the tickets cost?
Dad: I think we can get them for $125 each.
Me (thinks): Yikes! No way.
Me (says): Nah... I'm sure it'd be fun, but at that price, I'm not really interested. Have fun, though!
Dad: Sure, okay.

An hour later...

Dad: It sounds like your Mom has a conflict and wouldn't be able to come to the Arizona game. If I pay for your ticket, would you want to come with me?
Me (thinks): Oh my. On the one hand it would be fun; on the other hand, I'd feel really bad about my parents buying me a $125 ticket, both on principle and because they have credit card debt that they need to pay down. But then again, if my Mom was going they'd be spending $250 anyway... but at least then she'd be getting something out of it; it's not fair to her to spend $250 on something she doesn't get to share. But I don't want to buy a $125 ticket! But if I say no, my Dad might not go by himself, since it sounds like he wants company-- and that'd be a shame, he's clearly very excited and I want him to take advantage of this rare opportunity and really enjoy it. I'm tempted to chip in $25, which is what I was willing to pay anyway, but that feels silly and cheap, and they'd still be spending $100 extra on me. I suppose I could pay a bit more; it's not my preference, but I want my Dad to be happy, and I can certainly afford it. Hmm...
Me (says): Sure, that sounds fun, I'll come. How about we split the cost of my ticket?

What would you have done? Have you been in a similar situation? Have you spent more money on a ticket than you otherwise would because it's a big deal to someone you care about? If they offer to pay for you, how do you react?

(By the way, Arizona lost, but we enjoyed the experience anyway.)

Registering for what matters: Tips and resources for including non-traditional gifts in your registry

Are you putting together a registry for your wedding/committment ceremony, a baby registry, or any other sort of gift wishlist? Do you believe in emphasizing meaning more than "stuff" in gift-giving, but aren't sure how to translate that into gift-receiving?

There are a variety of different ways you can use a gift registry, some quite non-traditional; what it takes is thinking deeply and creatively about what you really want, and then, if you discover that what you'd appreciate receiving is not limited to brand new brand-name items, you may want to find a gift registry website that will help you convey that. One option is the Alternative Gift Registry website (by the non-profit Center for a New American Dream, which means no ads on the site!); it offers the key functions of a gift registry-- letting people know what you want and tracking what's already being given-- while allowing great flexibility in describing what you want.

Here are some traditional and non-traditional categories of gifts to consider including in your registry, all of which can be easily handled at the Alternative Gift Registry:

• You can certainly request specific items you want with a link to any store on the web (or information about the specific item and brand so they can find it themselves at the best price and/or without favoring a specific corporate chain store.) This is especially important if you expect that different people are going to be buying parts of a matched set-- you can link to another registry that includes the set(s) and use the main list at AGR as a hub.
  
• If you're more flexible, you can just list an item or category, giving them the opportunity to be more creative and personal-- and to shop wherever they like ("eight white napkins," "board games; we especially like word games, but we do already have Scrabble and Boggle.")
  
• You can also ask for experiences rather than objects ("theater tickets would be wonderful," "we'd get a lot of use and enjoyment out of an annual National Parks pass.")
• You can let people know you'd accept or even prefer gently used gifts ("good books-- used ones are fine," "a playpen, new or used," "used baby clothes, we'd feel wasteful if you bought new ones!")
  
• You can even ask for non-material items like services ("we need someone to check in on our pets while we're on our honeymoon," "mowing the lawn for us one summer afternoon would be just as appreciated as any item you could buy," "if you could bring over dinner sometime in the first two weeks after the baby's born, that would be terrific") or donations to charity.
  

One thing I really like about this website is that it lets you convey that non-traditional gifts are just as welcomed and valued as the "normal" ones, in a way that registering on a traditional site and then saying "Oh, but X would be fine too" doesn't. If it's part of your life and your values to decrease the amount of "stuff" in your home; if you feel good about getting things used rather than new because it's better for the planet; if you want people to know that you won't think the amount of money they spend on you is a measure of how much they care; if there are favors people could do for you that would really be more appreciated than something they'd buy-- if any of these or similar statements is true, then communicating your desires and values about gifts can be freeing to your loved ones while helping you get gifts you feel good about. (The Alternative Gift Registry isn't the only way to do that; there may be other sites that can be used similarly and/or you may be able to handle it by word of mouth.)

So, what do you think? For those of you who've had a wedding/commitment ceremony/baby shower/etc, how'd you treat the gift registry? Did you welcome non-traditional gifts, and if so, how did you convey that to people? How about as a gift-giver-- have you ever seen an alternative type of gift registry, or otherwise been invited to give non-traditional gifts? If so, how'd it go? If not, how do you think you'd feel about it?

(Disclaimer: Although I'm gung-ho about this approach in theory, I've actually never created a registry myself since I've never been married or had a baby, so I am very interested in hearing the thoughts of those who have. But I've certainly bought wedding gifts off registries and wished I could give more non-traditionally but felt too presumptuous and awkward to do it; I'd really love getting the go-ahead from an alternative gift registry.)

Is your money funding genocide? What can you do about it?

What's happening in Darfur, and what does my money have to do with it?

I'm not going to attempt to explain the situation in Darfur in depth (so please read up about it yourself) but here's a short summary from the Sudan Divestment Task Force:

In response to conflict with Darfurian rebel groups in February 2003, the Sudanese government, working with Arab militias called 'Janjaweed', began sponsoring wholesale ethnic cleansing of non-Arab Darfurians, almost all of whom had NO direct affiliation with the rebel groups. Since February of 2003, over 400,000 Darfurian civilians have perished. 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, nearly 4 million are now reliant on humanitarian aid, and 90% of Darfur's villages have been looted or destroyed. On July 23, 2004, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously adopted a joint resolution declaring the atrocities in Darfur to be genocide.

Companies that enrich the Sudanese government help it fund the violence-- oil companies that have partnered with the government to tap Sudan's oil resources are especially problematic because over 70% of Sudan's oil revenues go towards military expenditures. Many companies which operate in Sudan have instituted policies that recognize the situation and attempt to mitigate their involvement, but some have rejected this and those companies have become targets of activists working to improve conditions in Darfur and end the conflict.

The activists only target companies that 1) do business with and enrich the Sudanese government (mostly oil companies); 2) have no significant benefits for the well-being of underprivileged Sudanese; and 3) have refused to institute corporate governance policies that address their contribution to the situation in Darfur. They are given a chance to respond to shareholder engagement tactics before they are targeted for divestment. (Learn much more about this "targeted divestment" approach here.)

And the government of Sudan is paying attention-- nine companies have left or are planning to leave Sudan since the divestment campaign started, and the government is taking out ads and writing op-eds opposing the divestment movement. (Learn more about the arguments for the efficacy of divestment here.)

Click here for an easy screening tool that will tell you if your mutual fund holds one of the targeted companies. You can also download a regularly updated report that lists the individual companies at this link.

I support the idea of divesting from these companies in principle, but I don't want to switch mutual funds and/or I want to make a difference on a larger scale. What else can I do?

There are many ways you can get involved:

• Vote in shareholder votes for genocide-free investing, starting this March for Fidelity. Shareholder votes around mutual funds' approach to genocide and crimes against humanity are being proposed and scheduled for a variety of mutual funds, and there will be votes for shareholders of dozens of Fidelity funds this spring, starting March 19th. Check this link for the applicable date for each fund and look out for your ballot in the mail. In most cases, the text of the resolution is:
• The Board will institute procedures to prevent holding investments in companies that, in the judgment of the Board, substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egregious violations of human rights.
• Tell major mutual fund companies that you believe in genocide-free investing. Investors Against Genocide has a tool set up to help you e-mail that message to over a dozen investment companies-- if you're invested with them, you can send a message that lets them know that, and you can also send a general message to all of the companies. The list includes, but is not limited to, Fidelity, Vanguard, T Rowe Price, HSBC, and JP Morgan Chase.
• You can also sign this petition that goes to a shorter list of companies.
• Tell your state, city, university, or alma mater that you don't want your tax, tuition, or donation dollars invested in genocide. The Sudan Divestment Task Force has a great tool that lets you see what campaigns are active in certain states, cities, or universities in the U.S. So far, 22 states, 16 cities, and 59 universities have divested. If yours haven't, get involved in the campaigns or start one of your own!
• If you're not in the U.S., check out what's going on in your country. This site has links to what's going on in more than a dozen countries, from Canada to the UK to Japan to South Africa.

How can I find more information about investing in mutual funds which make a point of avoiding genocide and try to be socially reponsible in other ways, too?

Check out this wonderful tool that helps you learn about dozens of socially-responsible mutual funds' performance, screening criteria, proxy voting policies, and more. And you can read some of my previous articles on socially responsible investing (SRI), including:

• What is Socially Responsible Investing (and banking) all about?
• Guide to SRI options
• The diverse motivations for socially conscious financial decisions
• Tough questions on SRI-- and (my) answers

What do you think about the Darfur divestment campaign? Do you believe divesting from these target companies is a good idea? If so, have you taken any action?

Companies with happy employees have better stock returns

Employee satisfaction is correlated with higher stock returns, according to an award-winning paper by Alex Edmans, finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school.

Edmans found that firms making it onto Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list earned more than double the returns of the overall stock market between 1998 and 2005, and also consistently performed better when matched directly against companies in the same industries and with similar characteristics.

The 100 Best list, which is two-thirds based on employee satisfaction surveys, is full of employers who offer high pay, great benefits-- like fully-paid health insurance, on-site child care, and paid sabbaticals-- and a committment to their employees' work-life balance. But while some might expect that these sorts of pricey investments in workers would hurt a company's bottom-line, and urge policies that keep wages and benefits low and work hours high, Edmans' study suggests otherwise.

Workers' satisfaction and well-being is just one of my priorities for socially responsible investing (SRI), but it's an important one. Some of my retirement money is in the Parnassus Workplace Fund (PARWX), which invests in companies with happy, satisfied employees and is advised by the co-author of the Fortune 100 Best list. I chose it for its social returns, not its financial returns-- but I have to say it doesn't hurt to hear that it's probably financially smart as well!

Related posts:

• Socially Responsible Investing series:
• What is Socially Responsible Investing (and banking) all about?
• Guide to SRI options
• The diverse motivations for socially conscious financial decisions
• Tough questions on SRI-- and (my) answers
• Why GLBT-friendly policies are smart for businesses and investors

Fair trade flowers, chocolate, and more for Valentine's Day

It's hard to believe, but Valentine's Day is just around the corner again, and I'm writing my annual post nice and early so you have plenty of time to get in on the sales and specials, and order all the fantastic fair trade items you want.

As most of you know from earlier posts about fair trade, fair trade certification is about letting consumers know that the people who grow/harvest/make their products got a fair price and humane working conditions, which is a big step above the often horrible conditions (child labor, pesticide poisoning, intimidation and exploitation, etc) involved in producing non-certified versions. Valentine's Day is an especially big deal for two fair trade products-- chocolate and the newly available fair trade flowers-- because it's estimated that Valentine's Day accounts for 12% of chocolate and 25% of flowers sold in the U.S.

Luckily, there are a ton of great options for getting great fair trade products for Valentine's Day (and don't miss the action steps to promote fair trade, at the end of the list.)

• Flowers
  
• Online: 1800flowers.com has a pretty bouquet of fair trade roses available to order online. (Sam's Club Online has more options, but they're more expensive, plus ugh, Wal-Mart.)
  
• In stores: According to Transfair, fair trade flowers should also be available at your local New Season's Market, GIANT Food Stores, and UKROPS.

• Chocolate
  
• Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates: From fantastic looking boxes of truffles (Cherry Chipotle or Green Tea, anyone?) to bags of chocolate hearts in a variety of flavors, there are a ton of awesome choices here-- and they're fair trade, organic, and many are even vegan! (Plus, suprisingly affordable, too.)
• Ithaca Fine Chocolates has fair trade, organic chocolate Art Bars that also include a collectible card with a reporduction of a work of art, and 10% of profits go to art education.
• Not all Sjaak's Organic Chocolates are fair trade, but they do have a number of neat fair trade options for Valentine's Day, including heart-shaped cherry truffles, a chocolate heart-shaped shell filled with small chocolate hearts, and a chocolate "nuts and chews" assortment in a Valentine's Day box. (Some are vegan too.)
  
• Equal Exchange doesn't have Valentine's Day-themed chocolate, but they do have plenty of chocolate (and cocoa, and coffee, and tea.) And if you use the the code "valday08" you can get 10% off.

• Chocolate + Other Gifts (crafts, jewelry, etc)
  
• Global Exchange has tons of Valentine's Day-themed gifts, from fair trade chocolates inside a red box with a heart cut-out, to jewelry, heart-shaped candles, and other crafts. (And they have terrific action kits, too-- see below.)
  
• A Greater Gift features a heart-shaped box of chocolate bars as well as a lot of jewelry plus some really pretty heart-shaped decorations.
• Ten Thousand Villages (which has tons of brick-and-mortar stores in the US and Canada as well as the website option) also has V-Day themed jewelry, art, and crafts.
  
• Taraluna sells fair trade jewelry, and you can get 10% off with the code CoopV07.
• World of Good also has Valentine's Day crafts and jewelry.
• Lucina is another site for fair trade jewelry, and their jewelry is also sold at some brick and mortar stores.
  

• Taking Action
• Click here to send e-mails to five big chocolate and flower sellers, asking them to offer fair trade and organic products.
  
• If you're a teacher or have a school-age kid, and you send in a request by Friday January 25th, Global Exchange will send you a free package of 30 Valentines for a classful of kids, with detachable postcards the kids can send to World's Finest asking them to offer fair trade chocolate options. (There's also a curriculum for teachers to use if they want to talk about fair trade with their K-6 students.)
  
• You can also buy a Global Exchange Action Kit, with the same valentines and postcards but also including fair trade chocolates, decorations, and an "I Love Fair Trade" iron-on.
  
• If you join Co-op America (an organization dedicated to "Economic Action for a Just Planet," including but not limited to fair trade) for just $20 by February 14, you'll get a free gift of fair trade chocolate bars in a nice fair trade keepsake box. (If you're already a member, donate $25 or more and you can get the gift too.)
• For more, here's Transfair's list of 12 ways to support fair trade.
  

As usual, this list is U.S.-centric (sorry!) so please feel free to comment with sources for fair trade goods in other countries. And if you're looking for the whole range of non-Valentine's Day fair trade products (like bananas, rice, sugar, molasses, tea, coffee, vanilla, spices, wine, and more) please check out this post.

Are you planning to make fair trade a part of your Valentine's Day?

Battling the roots of materialism by focusing on happiness

According to a recent study, materialism in pre-teens and teenagers may actually be linked to low self-esteem. The study, which measured materialism by looking at what kinds of pictures young people included when asked to make collages of "what makes me happy," found that when kids read compliments about themselves from their peers before making the collages, the level of materialism they displayed dropped dramatically.

So the study appears to suggest that even though many young people think having consumer goods is what makes them happy, if they start to feel better about themselves their focus will shift to non-materialistic priorities like friends and family. In other words, if a teen you know is begging for pricey items, you may be better off spending more quality time with them-- boosting their self-esteem, and thus increasing their relative appreciation of your company compared to the material goods-- rather than spending that extra time earning the money to buy them what they want.

I wouldn't be surprised if this applies more generally to most of us. I know a lot of people have patterns of turning to shopping when they're feeling stressed or unhappy or lonely; I don't really have cravings to buy clothes or books or electronics, but for me it's sometimes a weakness for fancy overpriced food or drinks that I'd otherwise avoid (but I think it's a money-rooted issue for me rather than a food dynamic-- I'm not thinking "It's okay to indulge in this yummy food because eating it will make me feel better," I'm thinking "It's okay to spend a little money on myself because I feel lousy and I deserve a nice treat to make me feel better.") But after we spend, we don't usually actually feel any better, at least in any permanent way.

The things that actually make us happy, according to happiness research, aren't material items. Having more money doesn't usually make us significantly happier (unless our basic needs aren't being met and it's a matter of getting out of poverty)-- even though the studies find that almost all of us think we'd be much happier if we earned more money.

The things that actually increase our happiness most are things like close relationships with friends and family, good health, a sense of control over our own lives, the "flow" state that comes when we're accomplishing challenging and fulfilling things, and getting enough exercise and sleep. Sure, money and material objects can help us achieve some of those things to some extent. But focusing on money can also interfere with many of those things-- especially if we forget it's supposed to be the means to an end (happiness!) and start thinking about it like an end itself.

In other words, when we find ourselves feeling materialistic, we'd be well-served to wonder if we're like the teens in the study, and if what we really need is to find better ways to feel happy and good about ourselves. But also on the other side of the coin, when we find ourselves spending our precious time on earning more money, maybe we should be asking whether we're making the best investment in our happiness and that of our loved ones. Do we need all that money to cover our real honest needs and feel reasonably secure about the future? Or are we being bad predictors of what will really make us happy?

As for me? I've been feeling more and more like my life isn't quite how it ought to be. I like my job. But I work more hours than I wish I did, I sock money in the bank, and I tell myself it's great because it'll give me more freedom to pursue my dreams in the future. But right now, today, I'm not as happy as I could be. I'm not investing enough time in my friendships, or in the kind of meaningful hobbies that get me in the "flow" state-- I get home tired and stressed and I veg (watch TV, waste time online, etc.) I think I need to realign my time but I haven't figured out yet what my next steps are...

How about you? Do you get caught in patterns of spending and/or working that don't really fundamentally make you happier? How have you succeeded (or failed) at getting that under control?

Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance

Welcome to the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance! We've got a lot of great stuff to offer this month, from turtles to Boy Scouts and from gift cards to gardeners... we hope you enjoy them all!

• Giving/Philanthropy
  
• Ted Stearns presents Random Acts of Self-Control posted at Seasoned TradeLines. (A great post on reasons for giving, even when you're struggling financially.)
  
• Leon Gettler presents Kick the Kringle posted at Sox First.
• PT presents A Better Way to Say "NO" posted at Prime Time Money.
• Joshua C. Karlin presents Why You Need to Ask posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.
• cashmoneylife presents Protect Yourself Against Charity Scams posted at Cash Money Life.
• Mark Runta presents Charity and Learning - What a Combination! posted at Smart Investing & Money Management.
• Priorities/Values
• Jeffery A. Smith presents What do you think about money? posted at YooperSmith.com.
• Storm presents Being frugal posted at Watch Me Become A Millionaire.
• Adfecto presents Life of a Pet Turtle Worth $300? posted at Adfecto Abundantia - Aspire 2 Wealth.
• Pinyo Bhulipongsanon presents Are You Giving the Gift of Consumerism? posted at Moolanomy.
• Annette Berlin presents Frugal Ways Of Having Fun posted at Frugal Journey.
• Dr. Joe Capista presents Can You Really Achieve Total Success? posted at The Success Triangle.
• Business Ethics
  
• Charles H. Green presents Ben Stein vs. Goldman Sachs: Market-Makers, Brokers, and Trusted Advisors posted at Trust Matters.
• Mark Riffey presents Does your business run at the speed of trust? posted at Business is Personal.
• Chris Wondra presents Refinancing with Primerica: A Consumer Report posted at Chris Wondra . com.
• Miscellaneous
  
• Betsy Teutsch presents The Book of the Year: The Earth Knows My Name posted at Money Changes Things.
• Hill Robertson presents Turn Your Passion into Your Profit posted at Hill Robertson.
• Christine presents Finding Your Special Talent posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.

Thanks for reading! Submit to the February 7th edition of ethics, values & personal finance using our form here, and read up on past editions here. Also, we need hosts for future months, so let me know if you're interested.

Technorati tags: ethics, values & personal finance, blog carnival.

Greener shipping for online shopping

I was looking around Global Exchange's fair trade store online and came across some tips for greening your online shopping. Two of them were things I'd never really thought about before, but will be keeping in mind from now on, and hopefully you will too:

• Choose ground shipping. According to Global Exchange, air shipping generates five times the emissions as shipping by truck. (Six, says the Natural Resources Defense Council.) And according to this New York Times op-ed, overnight shipping is especially bad because nighttime flights cause twice the pollution of daytime flights.
  
• Ship your packages to your workplace. If you're in an office of reasonable size, there are probably other deliveries scheduled every day, which will mean less emissions than a truck making an extra trip to your house.

And as to whether it's worse for the environment to shop online in the first place? Apparently it depends-- the physical warehouses for online "stores" use less energy than traditional stores, and many cars driving to a mall can be worse than one truck hauling goods a couple hundred miles. On the other hand, many of these products will be traveling quite a distance. According to one study, if the package is coming from more than 750 miles away and/or your brick-and-mortar alternative is less than 2 miles away, it's better to drive the store in person. (And if you can walk, bike, or take public transit, that'll increase the in-person advantage.)

Something else to keep in mind: online purchases tend to use more packaging than similar products at your local store, which means more energy and resources to create the packaging and more waste in the end. So try to look into the packaging practices of online retailers (many socially conscious online stores are better about it), and be sure to reuse or recycle the materials you receive-- for packing peanuts, there's even a hotline you can call (800-828-2214, or visit the website) to find one of 1,500 sites nationwide that will accept the peanuts for reuse.

Socially Conscious Online Shopping Guide: Sites and Sales

Disclaimer: If you're looking to order gifts online, please take a good long moment to consider if you can substitute one of a dozen other ways to give more meaning and less stuff-- which will almost always be more socially conscious than ordering new stuff online.

However... if you're going to end up buying new stuff anyway, there are a growing number of great sources online for gifts that are socially conscious and can connect with your values, whether those values are about the environment, fair trade, local business, etc. Read on!

• Click here to jump to a list of almost 40 sites currently offering holiday sales, out of the almost 3,000 businesses listed in Co-op America's National Green Pages.
  
• To be listed in the Green Pages, businesses must demonstrate that they: "Actively use their businesses as tools for positive social change; Run "values-driven" enterprises that operate according to principles of social justice and environmental sustainability; Are socially and environmentally responsible in the way they source, manufacture, and market their products and run their offices and factories; And are committed to developing and employing extraordinary practices that benefit workers, customers, communities, and the environment." To browse the whole National Green Pages, click here. You can use it to find both websites and brick-and-mortar stores.
  
• Click here for sites that focus on workers/producers rights-- sites selling products that are fair trade, union-made, sweatshop-free, made in worker cooperatives, etc.
• Rather than Borders or Barnes and Noble, why not buy from local bookstores? If you can't do it in person, you can order online at BookSense.com, which links small local bookstores, and even offers a gift card that the recipient can use at any of the hundreds of participating stores. (Or if you really must shop corporate, at least install Rovr so 4%-10% of your purchase goes to charity.)
  

[FYI: Out of the 50+ links on this page, there are four that I have affiliate codes for, and those links will use my affiliate codes. I hope you don't mind!]

What's On Sale

• Food and Drink
  
• A Wild Catch: 15% discount thru Dec. 15th. Use code: coop07
• Dagoba Organic Chocolate: Give the gift of sustainable chocolate. 15% off with coupon code coop2007w.
• Endangered Species Chocolate: Endangered Species Chocolate organic stocking stuffers and all-natural gifts. Co-op discount: 10%!
• Equal Exchange: Limited time discount of 10% on the Equal Exchange online retail store. Use code “ggholiday07” during checkout.
• Glee Gum: Spread the Glee! All natural chewing gum and candy kits. 15% off code: CAHOLIDAY
• Grounds for Change: Save 15% on everything through January 9. Coupon code: HYA7
• Children and Baby Products
  
• Earth Mama Angel Baby: 25% Off All Online Orders - Enter Coupon Code: "greengifts"
• Nubius Organics: Eco-friendly toys, Kid's SIGGs, Kate Quinn Organics, Speesees, UTN for baby & toddler. Use coupon code COOP15 to save 15% .
• Progressive Kid: Free shipping on all orders over $75 with code COA07.
• Beauty and Body Care
  
• A Wild Soap Bar: Natural Soaps. Get real. Get wild. 10% OFF online only. Code COOP07.
• Blooming Lotus: Indulge yourself and those you love with high vibration bodycare. 10% off with code greenholiday
• Dropwise Essentials: FREE Dropwise Trial Size Gift Bag plus $10 OFF your purchase!
• Eco Lips: Great stocking stuffer! Don’t Panic, It’s Organic! 20% until January 31st Code: CABN07
• Essential Wholesale: Gifts from vonNatur! Get 15% off your order. Vegan Skincare. CouponCode: vncoop07
• Good Clean Love: Give the gift of Sustainable Love.15% off all on-line orders. Use Coupon Code COOPAM07
• Gifts, Art and Accessories
  
• Acorn Designs: Notecards, Journals, Stationery & More...10% off all online orders...Code COOP2007
• b.happybags, bags for the planet: big, strong, fabulous, domestic reusable bags. 15% discount thru Dec. 15th. Use code: coop07
• Bright Hope International: Save 15%, Fair Trade Christmas, jewelry & home accessories. Use code "green" in instructions.
• Brilliant Earth: $100 off earrings over $2000, enter code GREEN, expires 2/28/07
• Buygreen: Gifts for everyone on your list - free shipping over $50 (Code COOPSHP).
• Circle of the Sun: Fairly Traded Gifts, 10% discount, use Code COOP07 during Checkout
• Dreams on Looms: Free shipping above $50 on fairtrade handwoven textiles & other unique gifts. Code: COOP08
• Eco Bags: ECOBAGS®, the original bring your own bags. 20% off on all sales with code: Coop08
• EcoExpress Gifts: 10% off first order. Use code NGP-Holiday10 at checkout.
• Global Crafts: 10% off entire order, type COOPAM in the comment section during checkout!
• Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store: Fair Trade Gifts Galore! 10% OFF all Online Orders Use Coupon Code: coop07
• Kates Caring Gifts: 20% Discount - Earth Friendly Gifts for All, Treats for You
• Lucuma Design Folk Art Gallery: 10% off natural Christmas decor & original fair trade gifts. Code: GOGREEN
• Mother Tongue Ink: Buy over $50, get 5% off! Buy over $85, get 10% off!! Buy over $105, get 15% off!!!
• Nubius Organics: Save 15% on useful, unique and always stylish Green Gifts for everyone on your list! Use coupon code COOP15 to save 15% on all purchases.
• Organic Bouquet: 10% of any holiday wreath, bouquet or gift basket will be donated to Co-op America.
• People of Hope Crafts: Give a gift of hope. 10% off any order over $20. Coupon code: coop9
• Shanti Boutique: Fair Trade Jewelry. 12% off stock-on-hand with code: SBCA07
• Taraluna: Taraluna - Fair Trade, Organic & Green Gifts Save 10% on ethical, gorgeous gifts. Toys, accessories, décor, chocolate, jewelry & more. Code: CoopX07
• World of Good: Get 10% off orders over $50: Enter COOP07 at checkout
• Clothing and Accessories
  
• Equita: Get 10% off + free shipping on all holiday orders over $50. Enter coupon code: coop2007
• Jonano: Designer of signature bamboo ecoKashmere clothing, 10% off at checkout: sstyle10
• All Around Green
  
• Greenandmore.com: SAVE 10% OFF hundreds of Eco Friendly Gifts. Enter code: COOP10
• Greenfeet: Save 10%. Enter code COOPHGG07 at check out. Not valid on mattresses,sales or memberships.
• Wedge Worldwide: Come explore your better life. Orders over $100 receive FREE SHIPPING. Coupon Code: CoopAm07

Justice for Workers/Producers

• Fair Trade (just a few of many, many options)
  
• Craftsbury Kids
• Etica (fair trade wine)
  
• Equal Exchange
• Global Exchange Fair Trade Store
• A Greater Good
• Tees For Change
• Ten Thousand Villages
• World of Good
• Worker Co-ops and/or Union-Made (via SweatshopWatch):
• DeMoulin Brothers is an all-union manufacturer who makes band uniforms, as well as formal menswear, including tuxedo pants, jackets, shirts, and bow ties. Their workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 546.
• Fuerza Unida was founded by former Levi's workers in San Antonio, Texas. They formed a unique women's sewing cooperative that makes shirts (huipiles), pillows and canvas bags.
• Fair Trade Zone/Nueva Vida is a worker owned cooperative in Nicaragua, which produces t-shirts and camisoles. You can buy their women’s wear products through Maggie Organics
• HatCo's workers are members of UNITE HERE Locals 128H and 129h
• Just Shirts sells “quality thoughtfully–designed clothing produced under sweatshop free conditions.” Just Shirts sources all of their products from a worker-owned cooperative in El Salvador.
• Justice Clothing is a one-stop shop for union-made and sweatshop free apparel. They are constantly on the hunt for new lines, styles, and manufacturers who meet their strict criteria, and hope to add an expanded line of house ware products in the near future.
• Kenneth Gordon makes men's dress shirts. All with Made in USA labels are by members of UNITE HERE Local 2647.
• Leather Coats Inc. is your home for leather outerwear and accessories. Check out the USA Union Made section. Their workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 73.
• Protexall is one of the only union-made uniform companies around. They also carry a line of casual men's wear, including pants, shirts, and jackets. Their workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 920.
• Rage Baby, ALL of Rage Baby's t-shirts are made by the Fair Trade Zone/Nueva Vida a worker-owned cooperative in Nicaragua.
• Sterlingwear of Boston makes Navy style pea coats. All products are union made by members of UNITE HERE Local 1.
• Traditions Fair Trade is based in Olympia, Washington and sells men’s dress shirts, sneakers and leather shoes made in four worker-run factories in Argentina.
• Union House sells union-made clothing made in the U.S., and offers hundreds of clothing items, from denim, golf shirts, jackets, overalls, sweats, underwear, to socks. Screen printing and embroidery available.
• Union Jeans has a wide selection of your everyday needs including denim shirts. Their workers are members of UFCW Local 1099.
• The Working World sells buttoned shirts, shoes and other products made in democratic cooperatives in Argentina.

Want other options, including a wide, wide variety of eco-friendly, organic, recycled, etc products? Please search Co-op America's National Green Pages. And if you have great recommendations for other sites, list them in the comments!

Holiday Gifting: 14 Ways to Give More Meaning and Less Stuff

Now that we're in the middle of Hanukkah, and Christmas is right around the corner, it's the time of year when gift-giving is on everyone's mind. I don't know about you, but it drives me nuts to give and receive so much meaningless stuff, just out of tradition. It's bad for the environment, it's stressful to have extra clutter in the house, and it emphasizes material objects as the way to show people you care about them. Ugh!

So I keep trying to figure out different ways to keep the good parts of holiday gifting-- the spirit of generosity, the expressions of love and friendship and appreciation to those we care about, the desire to make others happy-- while trying to decrease the commercialism and materialism and excess "stuff" as much as possible. (Which often goes hand in hand with a more frugal, less costly holiday, too!)

Here are a wide variety of different approaches:

Give to fewer people

• Make no-gift agreements: If you and a friend or relative are on the same page about not wanting gifts, you can take the simple approach of crossing eachother off your gift lists. (This can also be adapted into a pact to take any of the approaches below, like agreeing to give to charity on eachothers' behalf, exchange favors, or share an experience.)
• Give gifts to fewer people in your circle: In a family circle or a group of friends, you can pull names out of a hat so that everyone gets and gives one gift each, rather than shopping for everyone. This cuts down on the number of gifts dramatically, while still maintaining some of the traditional gift-exchanging feel.

Give to a good cause

• Give donations in others' names: If there are causes that are important to your gift recipient, how about making a donation in their name? Often you can get a card sent as an acknowledgement of the donation. Sometimes your donation can translate into a gift membership to the organization. And an increasing number of non-profits are set up so that your donation is the equivalent of a tangible "item" like a cow, a stack of blankets, a water treatment kit, etc-- try standalone organizations like Oxfam (one of many!) or check out the multi-organization site Changing The Present, just for starters.
  
• Give a charity gift certificate: If you don't want to pick the cause, you think your recipients would rather select the organization themselves, or you just want a gift certificate to hand over, try Just Give, a pretty TisBest charity gift card, or other sites where you pick the amount and your recipient picks the non-profit which benefits. (Be sure to shop around to check out the fees and administrative costs at each place, so you know how much of your money's actually getting passed on to the organization.)
  
• Give a product connected to a donation: You just know that some of your intended gift recipients won't be satisfied with a "look, I made a donation for you!" card or receipt. But you can still buy them a product where the proceeds go to a good cause, or make a donation that comes with something as a thank you. The World Wildlife Fund is a great example; you can make a donation and in exchange your recipient gets to "adopt an animal," complete with cute stuffed animal, photo, and certificate. A number of places like UNICEF sell gift items and use the proceeds for their organization's mission.

Give non-"stuff" gifts

• Give experiences: There are all sorts of experience-based gifts that will be just as appreciated as physical items, or even more so. From tickets to concerts, movies, and plays, to admission (one-time or yearlong) to museums, national parks, and theme parks, to spa visits, to gift certificates for restaurant meals, and more, your options are only limited by your creativity. And these kinds of gifts are often especially meaningful if you plan to share the experience with the gift recipient, because you're giving the gift of quality time together as well.
• Give favors: From babysitting to cooking to back massages to crafting lessons, offering your skills and assistance is a great way to give something that will be truly appreciated but that doesn't involve buying physical stuff. And since it costs you your time rather than money, it has the bonus of being super-frugal.
• Give expressions of your love and friendship: It really depends on you and your recipient, but a heartfelt letter, poem, song, etc can be profoundly meaningful and appreciated, expressing your thoughtfulness and caring directly rather than trying to do it indirectly by purchasing something.
• Give food and drink items: Consumable items may be "stuff" when they start out, but eventually they're used up, leaving less clutter and less waste. This is one of my favorite type of gifts as a recipient, especially when it's in the form of treats that I wouldn't buy for myself. A nice variation on stand-alone food and drink items is the "package-the-ingredients-for-a-recipe" route, which can be really fun and creative. And of course, you can bake or cook items yourself.
• Give online/electronic gifts: To give credit where it's due, I never would have thought of this if I hadn't read it at Unclutterer.com, but it's an interesting idea. Gifts like a Flickr pro account, iTunes songs, or access to subscription-only websites don't involve any clutter or waste.

Give non-purchased stuff

• Give used: Whether it's toys and clothes for kids, outfits that don't quite fit you, books you've read and are done with, video games you've beat, or anything else you've already used but others would appreciate, give a thought about whether it's an appropriate gift. Obviously the condition of the item will make a big difference, but we have these cultural ideas about the importance of ripping open the packaging of something brand-new, and that could use a lot of debunking. For example, there's no reason that the holidays have to be about new store-bought gifts for kids, with hand-me-downs relegated to backroom exchanges. And one of my favorite sweaters was passed to me by a relative who it didn't fit anymore; if it had been an official holiday gift, it would have been just as appreciated as any new sweater I've gotten.
  
• Re-gift: As long as you keep good records so you don't give gifts back to the people who gave them to you (or were there when you got them), there's no shame in re-gifting. Why should you buy something new while perfectly good gifts waste away on a back shelf somewhere (or worse, get tossed in the trash)? Of course, you shouldn't do it if you think it will be as unwanted by the recipient as it was by you, but people's tastes differ, and some people will use things others find useless.
• Give homemade: Okay, so homemade gifts often rely on a certain amount of purchased materials, and can be just as clutter-y as any other gift, but they usually involve less waste and less expense than other items and have a lot more meaning attached to them. And there are some great ways that the crafty can actually recycle products into homemade gifts, too-- This Recycled Life is one place to get some ideas.
  

Give better stuff

• Give fair trade, organic, recycled, sweatshop-free, green, non-corporate, etc: If in the end you do decide to buy new things to give certain people, why not try to give items that fit your values (and those of your recipients)? Take a look at this post, which links to a ton of great websites where you can find these sorts of gifts, including discount codes for holiday sales!

What am I missing? What are your favorite ways to give greener, saner, more frugal gifts during the holidays? Please share!

Socially Conscious Gas Guide, Part 3: Human Rights

Without further ado, I'm finishing my Socially Conscious Gas Guide by compiling some info for you on the international human rights records of some gas companies. This adds onto the info in Parts 1 and 2 on workers' safety and rights (which are also human rights, of course!) and the environmental records of the companies.

Here are human rights incidents involving various companies, in no particular order:

• Shell
• Nigeria: More than 10 years after nine local activists involved in protesting Shell's environmental and human rights violations in Nigeria were framed for murder (allegedly with Shell's assistance) and executed, Shell continues to contribute to violence in the Niger Delta. For example, Amnesty International documents how in 2005 the Odioma community was burnt to the ground and many community members (including children and the elderly) tortured and/or killed; the violence was over the disputed ownership of oil-rich land which Shell had purchased from one community while bypassing the other.
  
• Chevron:
  
• Nigeria: Chevron is also involved in violence in Nigeria. In one example from 2005, locals came to a Chevron oil terminal to protest (apparently peacefully) Chevron's failure to live up to their agreement to provide jobs and development projects for residents; in response, government security forces killed one and injured 31 others, while Chevron did not report the incident or provide medical aid. Chevron is also being sued for an earlier incident in which security forces fired on and killed protesters.
  
• Burma (Myanmar): While most U.S. companies do not invest in Burma because of U.S. sanctions, Chevron was grandfathered in. Chevron is a major investor in the Yadana pipeline project; Unocal (which is now part of Chevron) paid $30 million in 2005 to settle claims of murder, rape, and forced labor as part of the pipeline's construction. Chevron continues to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to the brutal regime for its share in the project.
  
• Ecuador: Chevron is accused of intentionally dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon over several decades; aside from the environmental damage, illness and cancer are increasing, and some indigenous groups from the areas where the dumping occured are on the brink of extinction.
  
• Chad and Cameroon: Along with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron is a key stakeholder (25%) in the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project, which is causing environmental damage and increasing poverty along its path, while enriching the cruel and corrupt government of Chad. Not only that, but the legal agreements signed between the companies and the governments of Chad and Cameroon provide financial disincentives for the governments to intervene if the human rights of their citizens are being violated.
  
• Exxon-Mobil
• Chad-Cameroon: Exxon-Mobil is the largest stakeholder (40%) in the pipeline project mentioned above.
  
• Indonesia: Exxon has quite a history of human rights violations in Indonesia; it's currently being sued by villagers in Aceh province on charges that its hired security forces tortured, sexually abused, and killed villagers, sometimes in Exxon buildings, and even provided the equipment to dig mass graves. "In August 2001, the Asia edition of Time Magazine reported that ExxonMobil paid the soldiers that protect its sites and that local people would eagerly 'line up to tell stories of abuse and murders committed by the troops they call Exxon's Army.'"
• BP
  
• Colombia: BP has a partial stake in the Ocensa pipeline; in the late 90s it allegedly helped arm a notoriously brutal army unit to defend its interests.
  
• Indonesia: BP's Tangguh project is being developed in West Papua, which was annexed by Indonesia in the 1960s and whose people generally do not support Indonesian rule; BP's dealings have been with the Indonesian government, and human rights groups worry how the project will effect the already violent and volatile region.
  
• BP also previously owned a portion of PetroChina, which was involved in human rights violations in Tibet; it sold its shares in 2004.
  

The case of Venezuela and Citgo:

• This will depend on your perspective; Citgo is owned by Venezuela, which may be a good thing or a bad thing in your book. Its profits go to the Venezuelan government/the Venezuelan people (depending on how you look at it), which could be seen as good, bad or mixed for human rights-- I personally think it's mixed but on balance a good thing, but make up your own mind (based on reading as much as you can about Venezuela from a variety of different perspectives, I hope!)

Am I missing anything? Please comment and I'll add it to the post. This research has taken a lot longer than I expected, and yet I still feel like I'm missing stories. Sadly, there are probably all sorts of human rights violations out there that I haven't documented, but I think I've done a pretty good job at compiling those generally thought of as the most egregious...