Pistachio: Environmentally Conscious and Engaged with Life

From their website:

"Pistachio is about creating, using, and reusing things intelligently, about wasting less, and about putting good things into and onto our bodies.

We embrace the idea that being environmentally caring doesn’t mean denying, abandoning or refusing the things we love, but rather designing, developing and using products in more informed, eco-friendly ways."

Amen. And to that end, Toronto based Pistachio carries beautiful products that you will love to use. Pistachio products all have easy to read labels that tells you exactly how their products are good for the environment. They source products that are in some way ethical, local, mission based businesses, businesses that create handmade products, and show an environmental commitment. So when you purchase stuff from Pistachio - and you will - you know that it has been vetted somehow and passed a test as being at least a bit better for the planet than your average product.

Check out their gorgeous Stationery and Invitations, the Apothecary that carries Jurlique, Juice, Pangea and other awesome ecofriendly personal care products, or their Gift Shop that has wonderful, whimsical gifts such as Organic Wool Throw Blankets or Rubberwood Nesting Bowls.

But where oh where can you find Pistachio products? Alas, not online. But you can find them at plenty of locations in and around Toronto, as well as Chapters and Indigo stores across Canada. Yay!

Vert Tendre

From Quebec: Vert Tendre greeting cards. If you're looking for eco-responsible greeting cards, here's the place!

They create cards out of 100% recycled materials which are processed without chlorine, acid-free, and are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC*). In addition, each year, they give part of their proceeds to a local good cause - this year it's Quebec Transplant, who coordinates all organ donation activities in the province of Quebec.

Finally, they reach out to local artists to provide the art, giving the cards a flavour and feel unique to Quebec, as well as providing local artists with more visibility and publicity. You can find out more about being an artist here.

You can purchase their cards online. They will also work with corporations to create bulk mailing cards for Christmas or other events, which will both be ecofriendly and completely unique. Nice!

New ecojot designs

ecojot has a bunch of brand new designs for spring! ecojot creates fantastic paper products including notebooks, workbooks, little notepads, agendas and more, all out of 100% post consumer recycled paper, using vegetable inks and assembled in Canada. They have a range of designs, from simple solid colours to pretty, whimsical patterns. The products are also great - robust and can take the abuse!

They also have a great Designer Blog where you get insight into the designs and the people behind them.

ecojot products are available around the world. Click the "Where to buy ecojot" link on the website to find out more. In Canada, they're available at Chapters and other cool retailers.

Cartolina Cards

Are you in the mood for something fantastically, whimsically unique? Then you are in the mood for Cartolina Cards. There you will find an amazing, intoxicating collection of cards that combine vintage prints with exotic images and bright colours. The designs are evocative of the beautiful, romantic pictures you see in quaint hideaway hotels in the wilds of Scotland - after, of course, you mixed them up with some jazzy retro prints and splashes of lime green and raspberry. These are just the thing to get you moving after this long, cold winter.

Of course, since you're finding this on ecochick, it goes without saying that all Cartolina Cards are printed on recycled paper with Forest Stewardship Council certification. In addition, all products are printed with vegetable based inks.

Cartolina Cards are available at retailers across Canada and worldwide.

Natural Space Sustainable Furniture

Natural Space is an office furniture company with a difference. Their sharp, clean, modern furniture looks great in office space, and you can use it knowing it's a whole lot easier on the planet than most options on the market.

From design to materials to assembly to repair to disposal, the entire life cycle of this furniture is thought through in order to have minimal impact. Simple, practical design means shorter, easier manufacturing cycles. Easy assembly also means easy disassembly, so that when you're repairing or disposing of the furniture it can be easily broken down and each individual component repaired or recycled. They strive to use the most environmentally friendly materials possible, from recycled aluminum to Forest Stewardship Council certified wood. This company has it going on.

Interested? Contact Natural Space to find a dealer near you.

P'lovers

P'lovers has been open in Halifax for many years. With store locations now in Ontario and Nova Scotia, P'lovers has also extended into online shopping, with a wide variety of products including personal care, home office, books, outdoors and more.