GAIA – Singapore’s first sustainable living mook

GAIA is Singapore’s first sustainable living mook (magazine book), published by Green Future Solutions. This free publication is for consumers interested in news, ideas, tips and products that benefit people and planet.

The first Sep 2011 issue of GAIA covers:

• NEWS
• FEATURE: Die Die Must Share – The Idea of Collaborative Consumption
• INTERVIEW: Carpooling 2.0 – Interview with MyRideBuddy
• HOME: Give It Away – 10 Ways to Clear Your Stuff
• HEALTH: Choosing a Healthy Dinner – 2 Tasty Vegetarian Recipes
• STYLE: Playful Elegance – Organic Clothing Mix and Match
• LEISURE: Simply Ling Kai – Supporting Local Music
• BOOKS
• DEALS

Download your free copy of GAIA now!

What is Santa’s Carbon Footprint?

While Santa is busy giving out presents this Christmas, here’s a fun look at his carbon footprint:

via Ethical Ocean – eco friendly products, fair trade and vegan shopping.

Die Die Must Share – The Idea of Collaborative Consumption

Eugene Tay, the Founder of Greenstore, is a person whom you would describe as a green maven – someone who reads and knows a lot about environmental trends and ideas, and who likes to share them with others.

Having come across many green ideas over the past few years, there is one recent idea Eugene would claim that he ‘die die must share’ – the idea of Collaborative Consumption.

Collaborative Consumption refers to the idea of sharing that is empowered by technology and social networks, and how it changes consumption and the way businesses operate.

Sharing also covers renting, swapping, lending, trading, exchanging, bartering, and gifting. The advantages of sharing are that fewer resources are used to make and ship products, and less waste are generated and disposed.

The term Collaborative Consumption was first described in 2010 in the book What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers.

Other resources with similar ideas on sharing include the book The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing by Lisa Gansky and the Shareable website. Read more

Wrap Your Christmas Gift the Japanese Furoshiki Way

Do you want to wrap your Christmas gift in an eco-friendly way? Furoshiki is a Japanese traditional wrapping cloth which is used in a creative and stylish way to wrap gifts and things. Watch how you can wrap your Christmas gifts Furoshiki-style.

The wrapping cloth can be reused or can be part of the gift too. You can use a Furoshiki cloth or any suitable scarf, tablecloth or used fabric. This idea is from the RecycleNow website.

Exploring New Green Consumption Trends – LOHAS and Collaborative Consumption

A global green revolution is gaining momentum and changing how people consume and how businesses operate. This generation of business leaders and companies will face new challenges but the green revolution also present exciting business opportunities.

Over the past few years, we came across several new green consumption trends. In particular, there are two new trends that we think would be emerging but important trends affecting businesses and consumers in the coming years. The two new green consumption trends are LOHAS and Collaborative Consumption.

LOHAS

LOHAS stands for ‘Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability’ and is a marketing term that originated in 2000 in the United States to describe a group of consumers who are environmentally, socially and health conscious, and believes in a lifestyle that benefits both people and planet. The LOHAS concept quickly spread to Japan, and then to Taiwan and South Korea.

We believe that LOHAS is an important trend because it goes beyond “green” consumers and looks at the converging market of consumers who are interested in the environment, health and fitness, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice.

In 2009, a Singapore-based social enterprise, Asia-Pacific LOHAS, was set up to promote LOHAS in Singapore and the region. Asia-Pacific LOHAS aims to educate millions of consumers in Asia that consumption can be done in a better way and to help facilitate the growth of the LOHAS business community to serve these consumers. Read more

Choose Products with Less Packaging

Some products come with unnecessary plastic or paper packaging for aesthetic and advertising purposes, and the packaging usually end up as waste. As consumers, you can try to choose products with less or no packaging.

As more companies compete to advertise and promote their brands, they use all forms of media and excessive packaging. These unnecessary advertising and wasteful packaging are used to attract consumers to buy and use more. As Daniel Imhoff quotes in his book, Paper or Plastic: Read more

Buy and Use Only What You Need

In modern society, overconsumption and wastage of resources seem to be a norm. We buy more than what is necessary, use and waste more material, water and electricity than needed, and throw away more waste.

We tend to change our material belongings constantly to suit the current fashion and trend, leaving behind a trail of “old-fashioned” waste. These “old” waste are thrown away although some could still be in good condition.

The Idea of Sufficiency

It is time to ask ourselves whether we should practise “sufficiency” in our consumption. Sufficiency means that as we do more and more of an activity, there will be a state when we feel a sense of enough and too much, and we know it’s time to stop. Read more

Welcome to Greenstore!

We see a growing trend for consumers in Singapore to live green, and choose green and ethical products and services. However, we hear frequent complaints about the lack of green choices and the difficulty in finding sustainable products and services.

So we started Greenstore to make it easy for you to find and choose brands, products and services that are better for both people and planet.

Greenstore is Singapore’s first review and rating guide for green consumers. We curate, review and rate green, eco, sustainable, organic, and ethical products and services that benefit you, the environment and the community.

We are also the first in Singapore to develop and use an internal Green Rating system to help us rate products and services based on their business, environmental and social performance, and to award them a Green Rating. Read more