Alternatives to Amazon – Environmentally and Socially Responsible Holiday Retailers!

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.greenamerica.org/2014/11/18/alternatives-to-amazon-environmentally-and-socially-responsible-holiday-retailers/

The holidays are approaching, and like many Americans, you will probably purchase a gift for a friend or family member online. As a proud Green American, however, you may be wondering how the company synonymous with online shopping, Amazon, ranks in terms of sustainability and social responsibility. We did some research on the issue, and found that by most corporate standards, Amazon does poorly in these fields.

For the past year, Green America and its allies have been pressing Amazon to take action on climate change. In response, Amazon has taken two significant steps: it hired Kara Hurst, the former CEO of the Sustainability Consortium, as its first-ever sustainability director, and it revealed that the company has a goal of 100% renewable energy for its servers. However, unlike competitors that have announced a transition to renewable energy Amazon does not provide a timeline for the transition and has made no real commitments to clean energy. Amazon’s data centers burn an ever-growing amount of energy generated by dirty fossil sources, and Greenpeace ranks them among the worst in transparency, infrastructure siting, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas mitigation, and renewable energy investment and advocacy.

Despite hiring a sustainability executive with an impressive resume this year, Amazon currently has no published sustainability report, at a time when almost every other Fortune 500 company publishes such a report. The company also once again declined to respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project, which provides a system for companies to measure, disclose, and manage environmental information, which would serve as a first step in understanding and reducing Amazon’s carbon emissions.

In addition to their dismal environmental record, Amazon demonstrates a lack of commitment to social responsibility. The company actively fought against state efforts to collect sales taxes in 2012 (Amazon’s brick and mortar competitors all have to pay sales taxes, which put them at a disadvantage).

FULL story and list at link.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K&R. nt

[shenmue]

2. "Compassionate shopping guide"

From the Doris Day Animal League. A list of places with products not tested on animals.

File opens as a PDF.

http://www.americanhumane.org/assets/pdfs/animals/pa-ccic-shopping-guidepdf.pdf

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. I like wingssilverwork.com for Native American jewelry and art.

http://www.wingssilverwork.com - mostly silver based, turquoise and other stones, photography, various sorts of native art - carvings, drums, fetishes, and so on. They're down around Taos Pueblo, and outspoken activists as well as crafters, so I try to help drum up business for them when I can, especially now that sales are down all around the Pueblos thanks to the crappy economy.