4 days til Valentine's Day! This Valentine's Day, treat your skin right with Lather. Since their inception over ten years ago, they have strived to inspire a healthier, more radiant life. Lather takes a holistic approach to skin care and uses natural ingredients and essential oils. Also, Lather draws upon the benefits of aromatherapy. Their products not only care for the skin as well as the mind, but help educate the consumer. As their brand continues to grow, they take this vision to a higher level by seeking out opportunities to give back to the community, educate their customers, sustain the environment, and support endeavors that help others lead a more radiant life. That is just what they have done with Carbonfund.org, developing a unique promotion that helped reduce hundreds of metric tons of carbon dioxide! If you want to support a company that sources effective natural botanicals and never uses synthetic fragrances or colors, choose Lather. To learn more, please visit www.lather.com.

The Mid-Atlantic is yet again being blasted with snow. This current blizzard is going to add up to 16 inches to our standing snow pack of about 2-3 feet, likely making this the snowiest winter on record in the Washington, DC area (and Baltimore, and Wilmington.. you get the point). Federal government offices have been closed for several days. The mail is not going to be delivered. The bodega across the street is closed. And your devoted Carbonfund.org staff cannot make it into the office and need to work from home.

But there is a perception that is held by some that these extreme blizzards contradict evidence of global warming. While one cannot argue with anecdotal evidence it is inappropriate to try and explain global climate variations with weather events. The big difference is that weather is what happens now or this coming weekend, and climate is the long-term trends that take place over years and decades. With that said, there are experts out there that create a pretty sound logic for how global warming can actually make blizzards more common in winter. Dr. Jeff Masters with Weather Underground sums it up well:

...record-breaking snowstorms are not an indication that global warming is not occurring. In fact, we can expect there may be more heavy snowstorms in regions where it is cold enough to snow, due to the extra moisture global warming has added to the atmosphere--an extra 4% since 1970. Snow is not the same as cold, and we have to look at global temperatures, not snowfall, to evaluate whether global warming is occurring.

So there is actually a reasonable rationale for how global warming and blizzards can coexist. Please add your comment on this post.

5 days til Valentine's Day! Zarah Co. is a refreshingly creative jewelry and home decor company that cherishes art. They specialize in providing retailers high quality jewelry with an artistic background. They have four lines of jewelry that are dramatically different but all result from talent and unique styles from a select group of artists. Zarah Co. hasn't lost sight of its purpose - to delight you with adornments that are just plain fun to have! They pride themselves on quality design, production technique, and presentation. As a small business located in the rural town of Topanga, California, Zarah Co. provides jobs to their community and finds talented artists all across America to develop their beautiful designs. Their office is environmentally conscious and they use fluorescent lights and have an active recycling program. Zarah uses as little paper as possible and the paper they do use is either recycled or comes from sustainable sourcing. All of their jewelry cards are printed on recycled paper and their jewelry is made using recycled silver. They also offset all of their business emissions through Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree® Partner program! This Valentine's Day, show your special someone you care by choosing Zarah Co. Visit the retailers listed on the Zarah Co. website to find Zarah jewelry online.

While solar power chargers for cell phones or GPS devices are not new to techies, a new solar technology is now making recharging your phone as easy as grabbing your beach tote. G24 Innovations, the company that is licensing the technology, says that dye-sensitized cells will be used to provide power for various portable devices from e-book readers and cell phones to wireless sensors and keyboards. The solar cells will most likely be made into thin, flexible panels that will then be stitched into various consumer products such as e-book covers, tennis bags, backpacks, golf, shopping and beach bags. Individuals will then be able to plug their phones or music players into the bags using a USB cord. Solar panels on the bags will have 11 cells each, and wiring will attach the panel to a battery pack in the bag. The technology uses a photosensitive dye to start its energy production, similar to the way leaves use chlorophyll to begin photosynthesis. Currently, most photovoltaic cells are still based on silicon or related inorganic materials, not dyes. While the technology works best in direct sunlight (taking six to eight sunny hours outside for the panel to fuel the charger), the cells have even shown to generate voltage from moonlight.

6 days til Valentine's Day! This Valentine's Day, show your special someone you care with a beautiful floral arrangement from Organic Bouquet.  They are a mission-based company that cares about environmental, social, and economic sustainability.  With every purchase, their customers are improving the life of a grower or artisan.  They are also involved in several community projects around the globe and holds partnerships with numerous charitable organizations. With beautiful floral arrangements to celebrate Valentine's Day, Organic Bouquet is sure to have something for you.  They even carry wine to add that special touch to your delivery!  Check them out to make sure it's legal to ship wine to your state, and with their partnership with Carbonfund.org, your shipment is carbon neutral through their support of third-party validated reforestation projects.

The Canadian Government has officially informed the United Nations (UN) that the country is committed to reducing emissions 17% by 2020. The UN requested that all participating countries at the climate meetings in Copenhagen commit to a 17% carbon emissions reduction target from a 2005 baseline. Canada's carbon footprint in 2006 was measured at 544,680,000 metric tons of CO2. Meaning that a 17% reduction would result in about 92,595,600 fewer tons of CO2 emissions every year for the nation of about 34 million. This is not the first time that Canada has made a strong commitment to emissions reductions to the UN. Canada signed on to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, committing the nation to CO2 reductions from a 1990 baseline. In spite of this commitment, Canadian emissions continued to rise to an extent. The US has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, though the commitment is contingent on passing legislation by Congress.

BoardEvals’ web-based evaluation solutions help organizations perform more efficient, effective and thorough board evaluations.  BoardEvals replaces the ad-hoc, manual processes used by most organizations today with an automated, standardized board evaluation process that saves time and expenses, while at the same time improving corporate governance practices.  They enable more thorough board evaluations by incorporating the full range of board evaluation activities, including board self-evaluation, committee self-evaluation, and 360 degree evaluations of individual board members. Not only does this more automated process save time, resources, and expenses, but BoardEvals is a Carbonfund.org CarbonFree® Partner.  They are offsetting their office, business travel, and employee commuting emissions by supporting third-party validated renewable energy carbon reduction projects.  Interested in learning how BoardEvals can help improve efficiency in your organization? Visit BoardEvals now!

7 days til Valentine's Day! Earth Essentials has been making natural body care products for over 25 years. Their products are great for anyone looking for quality products, and particularly for those with skin sensitivities, allergies, or environmental irritants. Many of their products are fragrance free, none of them are tested on animals, and the majority of their products are vegan! A Carbonfund.org partner, Earth Essentials is committed to providing environmentally-friendly skin and hair care products that don't sacrifice on quality or their eco-friendly philosophy. If you are looking for all-natural hair or skin products for your loved one this Valentine's day, treat yourself using the power of Mother Nature with Earth Essentials! Fore more information on all of their anti-aging, face, hair, and for-men products, please visit Earth Essentials.