Shopping for spring sandals? Strap on a classic, stylish pair from soleRebels, a shoe company that’s merging eco-friendly fashion with fair trade business.

Would-be ethical consumers in the U.S. like to support green-minded companies with a mission to help less privileged countries — whether it’s through fair trade, community projects, or charitable donations. Many of those do-gooder companies are led by American entrepreneurs; less common are similar companies led by entrepreneurs in those so-called third world countries. SoleRebels is one of the latter, founded by an Ethiopian entrepreneur called Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu — along with her husband and brother — to create jobs in their village Zenabwork in in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

And soleRebel’s cute shoes are making big strides into the American and European markets! These eco-friendly kicks are made by local artisans in Ethiopia who upcycle used car tires and vintage camouflage fabrics, handloom organic cotton fabrics, and prepare greener shoe leathers through an artisan process and vegetable tanning — all to create fashion-friendly styles designed after traditional Ethiopian footwear.

soleRebels is a brand of Bostex, which stands for “By Our-selves Textiles,” emphasizing the company’s commitment to preserving traditional heritage and creating its own economic successes. Bostex is the first registered Ethiopian member of the World Fair Trade Organization, and is committed to fair trade practices like sustainable production, healthy working conditions, and better wages for workers.

Though purchasing directly through soleRebel’s website’s cumbersome, American shoppers can browse and buy with soleRebel shoes with ease at Endless and Amazon. Some Urban Outfitters and Whole Foods also carry soleRebel designs. Prices range from about $15 for some slip-ons and flipflops to $60 for sturdy lace-up sneakers.

Photos via SoleRebels

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Jewelry made from upcycled glass bottles isn’t exactly new. Kathleen Plate’s turned beer bottles into everything from simple hoop earrings to fragile dresses, and Beca Designs gave Kahlua and Belvedere bottles a new life as chunky necklaces. But Earth Glass Project’s delicate accessories still made me take a second look — because of their smart use of liquor bottle designs.

Wanted to wear a piece of Van Gogh’s art — in upcycled style? Pick up a Van Gogh Vodka pendant from Earth Glass Project, a company self described as “a funky family of Re-claim artists.” I mean, I didn’t even know that a line of Van Gogh Vodkas existed until I found out I could wear a chunk of it, fashionably.

Earth Glass Project’s clever use of liquor bottles’ printed labels is similar to Beca Designs’ work — but the former’s pieces tend to be less chunky and beady, which works better for my own more minimalist style. Earth Glass Project also makes smart use of existing designs in the bottles, cutting off the mouthpiece to create ridged rings, for example. “We use all parts of the bottle from base to neck,” says Kat Ludlow of Earth Glass Project.

Want to wear Earth Glass jewelry? Get them online at Earth Glass Project’s web store, which also sells upcycled glassware and soy wax candles. Simple rings cost just $14.99 each, while earrings-and-pendant sets will run you about $50.

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Originally written on Sept. 2, 2005, this post is constantly updated and occasionally reposted at Siel’s whim.

Put down The Secret. Here’s the green Angeleno’s guide to the good life:

Eat & Drink

1. Get caffeinated. Drink coffee that tastes better and does good. Find your local organic fair trade coffee shop — or if you must go to Starbucks, take the Starbucks Challenge.

2. Dare to eat a peach — a fresh juicy one from a local farm. Enjoy the tastiest, most eco-friendly fruits and veggies possible — without going out of your way.

3. Get your protein. Opt for grass-fed, free range, organic, and local meat, milk, and eggs, stick to sustainable seafood, and go easy on the highly processed veg meats.

4. Do happy hour. Find out how to green your drink — from beer to wine to shots to cocktails and beyond.

5. Indulge in dessert. Eat ice cream, sorbet, and chocolate. Fair trade and organic options are easy to find now –

6. Learn to cook. Take a local, organic cooking class. There’s bound to be one suited to your diet and lifestyle.

7. Treat yourself. Dine out at an eco-friendly restaurant — or get organic meals delivered to your doorstep.

8. Lose the junk. Try an eco-friendly diet — or just get motivated to get the scary crap out of your body.

Get Around

1. Take a walk — It’s sunny out! Easiest way to get walking more often: Live in a walkable spot. But wherever you are, discover one-mile-radius living.

2. Bike it. My pink townie saves me lots of money and parking hassles — and the Los Angeles biking community’s helpful and friendly.

3. Ride easy — whether on bus or rail. Some bus routes will actually get you to your destination faster and cheaper than in a car, especially if you account for the driving time spent looking for parking — and the money spent paying for it.

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Own a designer dress you love — on a hanger — or fashionable shoes just a tad too small? If your closet’s got almost-perfect items too cute to sell at a discount to a consignment store but too difficult to figure out how to wear, a new eco-boutique in Playa Del Rey called Give + Take can help.

Walk into Give + Take, and you’ll feel like you’re in a typical consignment store — except no money’s changing hands. That’s because Give + Take’s all about swapping, not selling.

“One of the important things in the environmental movement is shop in your own closet,” says Give + Take owner Dora Copperthite (above). “That’s the reason I’m doing this. Your closet is suddenly the closet of hundreds of ladies.”

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Whether you’re a sprout-eating vegan or ethical omnivore, most green LA girl readers can agree on this: Eating factory farmed beef’s bad for the environment. A single cheeseburger will put 5.18 kilograms of CO2-equivalent emissions into the atmosphere!

That figure was crunched by Jamais Cascio, futurist and co-founder of WorldChanging.com, who blogs at Open the Future. His Cheeseburger Footprint figure actually became quite popular, used in media outlets around the world and even appearing in National Geographic documentary Six Degrees.

And now, you can wear the figure on your chest. Organic cotton T-shirts bearing Cheeseburger’s uneco numbers in a nutrition label-like format’s available through Open the Future’s CafePress store. For $23.99, you can wear a T-shirt to motivate your own green eating habits, to edify others about their diet choices — or simply to scare people smart enough to know global climate change is real but in denial enough to keep eating factory farmed beef.

If you’re confused as to why the number on the shirt (5.18 kg) doesn’t match the number used in the calculations in Jamais’ blog post (4.35 kg), it’s because the actual cheeseburger footprint figure that Jamais calculated is a range: 3.6 – 6.1 kg of CO2-equivalent per burger. Jamais says the 4.35 figure is just a number within the range used for a sample calculation, while 5.18 is the number within that range picked for the T-shirt “because it looked good.”

Good enough to wear as a T-shirt — but not to eat as a burger! There’s a Cheeseburger Footprint reusable tote bag too, and fittingly, an apron. Those are made with conventional cotton, which has its own gigantic environmental footprint — but may still prove irresistible to eco-foodie cooks who’ve always wanted to ask their eat-anything carnivore friends “How do you want your carbon crime grilled?” — followed by an evil laugh. Mwahahaha!

Image via Jamais Cascio / Open the Future

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Already a fan of recycled glass jewelry? How about sun-and-gravity designed glass jewelry? Harnessing those natural forces is what a cute Minneapolis company called Sundrop Jewelry is doing to delight science geeks and eco-fashionistas alike.

When companies talk about their business being solar-powered, they usually mean their offices have solar panels installed on the roofs. At Sundrop Jewelry, however, the sun-to-product connection’s more direct. A big lens focuses the sun’s rays and heat onto colored glass — which forms a drop-like shape as gravity does its work. Watch how the jewelry’s made in this short, silent video:

Started by Shaun and Tawny Reynolds, Sundrop Jewelry doesn’t stop at solar-powered design in its efforts to green its business. From sourcing recycled silver gauges for the earrings to redesigning smaller jewelry cards made with 100% post-consumer recycled content, Sundrop Jewelry keeps working to continue greening its products and practices, documenting the process in great detail on its blog.

Want to wear Sundrop Jewelry? Shop local at the California Science Center gift shop — or try the Sundrop Jewelry web store, which offers everything from earrings to necklaces to belly rings to wine charms. Pieces cost $18 to $48.

Photos via Sundrop Jewelry

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>> Right now, The Hollywood Sign’s being transformed to “Save the Peak” — a campaign to raise awareness and money for the land to the West of the sign, which the Trust for Public Land is trying to buy so developers don’t build luxury homes on the space.

>> This weekend happens Inspiration, The First Annual Kulture Recycling & Vintage Clothing World Gathering with 35 vintage fashion dealers, 10 designer & artist booths, 8 charity garage sales, and 7 special exhibitions. For $35, you can be part of it tomorrow, Sat., Feb. 13 from 10 am – 5 pm. (via Magnifeco)

>> Bike thefts rose 29% last year — which means nearly 2000 bikes were reported stolen in 2009. The numbers are probably much higher though, since they don’t reflect stolen bikes that weren’t reported to the police. Have you ever gotten a bike stolen? And if so, did you report the theft?

Photo via Zach Behrens/LAist

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Planning to buy jewelry for Valentine’s Day? Don’t get get the stuff from Target, you cheapskate. That big retailer got a big fat F from the No Dirty Gold campaign for failing to take even minimal steps to ensure the gold it sells didn’t wreak havoc on the environment.

Since 2004, No Dirty Gold supporters have worked hard to make both consumers and companies aware of conventional gold mining’s huge toll on the environment and people’s livelihoods. From destroyed rainforests to violent conflicts to horrible working conditions, gold’s image has been tarnished by its dirty mining practices — and the vast majority of gold is still tainted by these socio-environmental abuses.

However, the No Dirty Gold campaign’s gaining traction. Today, more than 60 jewelry retailers — representing 22% of the U.S. jewelry industry market and $14.5 billion in sales — have signed No Dirty Gold’s “Golden Rules,” pledging to respect human rights and take environmental precautions.

That said, not all gold jewelry from the companies that have signed on to the Golden Rules can be trusted to be totally clean — because companies need only commit “to switching to cleaner gold sources when available” (emphasis mine) to sign on. This means some signatories are just beginning to look into their practices — while eco-leaders already have clean gold practices in place.

To help you figure out which companies’ gold is cleanest, No Dirty Gold’s put together a new report — “Tarnished Gold: Assessing the Jewelry Industry’s Progress on Ethical Sourcing of Metals” — that grades jewelers on 15 criteria, ranging from tracing their supply chain to supporting third party certification initiatives. Green companies like Brilliant Earth get an A, while even big companies like Tiffany’s that have taken solid steps towards clean gold score a B. Even companies that haven’t signed on to the Golden Rules — like Target, T.J Maxx, and Harry Winston — get graded. As you may have guessed, those companies got Fs.

Keep your Valentine’s Day jewelry purchases as green as possible by consulting No Dirty Gold’s grades — or go a step further and consider sticking to vintage, recycled, or upcycled jewelry to avoid unnecessary mining altogether.

Earlier:
>> Annatarian Seven Wishes jewelry for your green hopes
>> Hovey Lee recycled leafy earrings
>> Real Jewels lets you personalize recycled jewelry
>> Rebekah Green: Recycled gold jewelry made in L.A..

Photo by TylerIngram

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Celebrate Valentine’s Day a few days early in eco-style by sipping organic tequila cocktails, checking out the last green fashions and taking in a provocative dance performance. That all happens at EcoDivasTV’s launch party — and 20 lucky green LA girl readers can get on the VIP list!

EcoDivasTV is a website and web video series that “highlights the fabulous sides of being Eco and Divalicious,” according to its creator, Taryn Hipwell. The party will reflect that fun spirit: Models will walk around in green fashions and accessories, and dancers will entertain with with provocative performances. Plus, you’ll be able to bring in your old, no-longer-stylish shoes to the party for upcycling! Painter Sun Behr will show you how to revamp them with non-toxic paints, glitter glue, and other supplies.

When: Thurs., Feb. 11. VIP only from 7 pm – 10 pm, open party from 10 pm – 2 am
Where: Haute Lounge Night Club, 665 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood.
Cost: Free!

The bar will have specials on organic tequila cocktails all night, but most of the fun happens during the VIP party early in the evening, with free drinks and nibbles served the first hour, followed by a fashion show at 8, dance performances at 8:15 and 9, and a debut screening of the EcoDivasTV webisode pilot at 9:15.

Want to be on the VIP list? [Update, 3 pm: List is now closed!] Be one of the first 20 readers to comment — Include your full name, and mention whether you’ll be bringing a +1. I’ll put up an update on this post once all the spots are filled up. The party opens to all at 10 pm.

Earlier: 10 Green ways to have fun on Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles and Green Weekender: Eco-friendly fun for Valentine’s weekend

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Thousands of tourists flock Santa Monica every year to enjoy the pretty beach, go on a solar-powered ferris wheel ride on the pier, and of course, shop. But while most shoppers head straight to the mostly-chain stores on Third Street Promenade and Main Street, Santa Monica’s home to a bevy of pre-loved fashion stores that offer cute, eco-friendly shopping opportunities for every budget!

So — Here’s a walking guide to pre-loved fashion shopping in Santa Monica! Shop for everything from high-end designer dresses to bargain sweatpants — all while keeping clothes out of the landfill, avoiding the big carbon footprint created by new clothes, and saving money.

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