H&M in Jeddah

Okay, so it's been open for a while, but I doubt that anyone knows just how awesome H&M is. Not just for your closet, but the planet.



H&M has been green for a while now. They've been supporting UNICEF in Uzbekistan to help children and prevent child labor in the cotton industry since July. They also use organic (no pesticides) cotton in a lot of their products (the labels on each product indicates if it's made of organic cotton). As if that wasn't enough, every year they publish a report with information on how they're being responsible. Check it out here.

Ferragamo Goes Green

According to FashionWeekDaily and FabSugar:

Ferragamo has gone green. In an effort to preserve the Earth, the luxury brand has created a line of eco-friendly handbags named Eco Ferragamo. What makes this collection special is that the bags are made from a nontoxic tanning technique, are lined in handwoven hemp, and use dyes from natural elements such as tree bark. The results, seen below, are luxurious, biodegradable, and water-resistant bags. The Eco Ferragamo collection ranges from small totes to maxi hobos made in hues of tobacco brown, lemon yellow, and grapefruit pink. The bags retail from $1,190 to $1,890 and will be available come February.

Masdar City

Masdar is a definite thing to know about for anyone in the Middle East hoping for big-scale change in the region.

Masdar is a government-funded initiative to bring future clean energy to the region. The city they're building is one that finally caters to all those saying "we're in a desert, why aren't we using solar energy?!". Not only is it apparently going to be the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste, car-free city in the world, they're also planning on building the Middle East's largest solar power plant (I wonder where the others are, if any?). Planned to be producing power by the end of 2009, they're currently testing out solar energy options from U.S., Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and German companies to see which products will work best in the desert climate.
The city will be able to house residents! I'm SO buying a place there. By September of this year, 100 students and professors of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (developed in cooperation with MIT) will be moving into the residences.
The frosting on the cake is that Abu Dhabi hosted the second annual World Future Energy Summit where this was all announced.

Masdar itself is BUSY!
They've already signed a contract with the TDIC to develop a sustainable system for a nature reserve and resort. TDIC are the ones developing Saadiyat Islands which will have a number of iconic museums including a Louvre.
They also invest in a lot of foreign projects, including offshore wind parks to be built in the UK.

The Green Family of Macs

It was just a matter of time until I mentioned it. Check out the greenest family of notebooks.

The longer video.

Green Your Searches

Every nook and cranny can be made more planet-friendly, that's just a fact. Here are a few websites that have taken that fact seriously and are helping all Internet users make the world a better place.

Blackle
Google is awesome, in my opinion. When I found out about Blackle, it became even cooler in my eyes. Blackle is the search engine that allows the monitor to save energy by having a black background instead of the usual white we see everywhere. Read more about how it saves energy, and go here to use it.

Ripple
It probably isn't what you need when you're researching for academic projects, but you should definitely click around when you have free time and are searching for random things. Get this, it's a non-profit website that gives all its revenues to charities. It's also very educational for those who want to know more about how people are changing the world.

Green Maven
This. Is. WOW.
A search engine of EVERYTHING green, sustainable, and awesome. The environmentally-friendly world is at your fingertips and definitely worth a look.

Greener Inboxes

I'm sure there are many Hotmail and Microsoft Messenger users among us, and they can change the world! Well, you know, not so drastically, but the idea's the same.

According to the Green Your Blog:

If you're a Microsoft Messenger or Hotmail user, this is for you ... join the "I'm" campaign and start giving to your green non-profit of choice every time you send an IM or email.How it works:

1. Add an icon to your Messenger display name or a footer on every email. (You can find the instructions here).

2. Select which charity you would like to support from a list of eight -- if you want green-specific, you might choose Stop Global Warming or The SierraClub3.

IM and email as you normally do - the automated system does the rest.The amount is small per message, but it adds up!

Since March 2007, user's actions have contributed close to $2 million.

That's it! Can you imagine? Start bringing green to your life today :)

Dear Effat Environmental Club Lovers,

This is a site to keep you updated on what's happening with the Environmental Club, how to take part in helping the planet, and how to take part in helping us.

To subscribe: Use the "Posts" link of the news feeds on the right. I recommend the "Add to Google" link to be used with your effat email.

To contribute: Email your contribution (be it a link, an article, a tip, etc.) with the subject "Blog" to me at kbundakji@effat.edu.sa



Links to get you started:

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard
A video of a basic story about what's happening to the world today.

GREEN YOUR
I love this website. This link takes you strait to "Five tips to green your campus community" to start you off.
Take advantage of the website, it tells you how to green ANYTHING you can think of.


Questions? Suggestions? News feed problems?
Please contact Khayra Bundakji at kbundakji@effat.edu.sa

Enjoy,
Khayra