Eco-friendly Shopping, Thanks to Etsy Earth


Courtesy of Etsy Earth

Think shopping and saving the planet can鈥檛 go hand in hand? is out to prove wrong all the naysayers.

An offshoot of , the online marketplace where you can purchase just about any handmade good imaginable, Etsy Earth and its sellers take green products up a notch. As the group鈥檚 mission clearly states: 鈥淲e consider our supply and chains both up and down stream; how things are made and where they end up. We strive for gentle ways through natural and renewable materials and ingredients, kind and safe production methods, and low-impact packaging and shipping. Our items are handmade, enduring, and cherishable.鈥

If you鈥檙e still not convinced of these sellers鈥 commitment, check out the mission page itself (); it鈥檚 got a list of beliefs and goals鈥攂roken down by product category鈥攄ozens of items long.

In general, it seems like awareness is a main guiding principle for these greenies. On the Etsy Earth blog, for example, bloggers pose questions to the members, like this one:

So many of us ship our items. What are your thoughts about the global movement of goods and how you fit in? What do you feel about express shipping? Do you have helpful guidelines to put the shipping issue into eco-perspective?

Cate Robbins of responds with a creative, out-of-the-box solution (no pun intended): She turns inside out old cereal boxes, then recycles them to ship her stuff. It鈥檚 a small step鈥攁nd no, it doesn鈥檛 prevent the need for shipping鈥攂ut at least it鈥檚 a conscious move.

Right now Etsy Earth, which has been around since 2009, has 56 members. To find the products of these sellers on , search 鈥淓tsyEarthTeam鈥 and up pops more than 1,000 items to choose from. (The theme for the month of October is 鈥楾he Child in Us.鈥) Happy shopping!