Did December gifting or a year-end bonus put a new smartphone in your hand? Check out ten mostly-free apps that will help you live healthier, smarter and more sustainably in 2013. Call It Quits is for smokers wishing to quit and quitters who could use some added support. It provides cessation tips, motivations and coaching […]
Regional Etsy shops unite to form old-fashioned collaborative studios, online. Etsy, the online handmade and vintage shopping platform, has done amazing things to help people buy handmade, eco-friendly and local products. Artisans who are marketing their own products can easily set up online shops on the site, and on the buying end, Etsy has made […]
A starchitect from Japan? As Israel’s oldest and leading arts academy, shouldn’t Bezalel be a locavore when it comes to hiring architects? The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, established in Jerusalem in 1906 as an institution that would help form a new visual language for the Jewish people, is now synonymous with Israeli art. […]
Instead of standard apples and honey, put some creative green thought into your Rosh Hashanah gifts this year. The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah 2011 is quickly approaching next week on September 28, and for many Jewish people this is a time of gift-giving in the new Jewish calendar year 5772. Gift giving is […]
Industrial designer Michael Tsinovsky brought together Israel’s many local styles in his ‘asli’ furniture design. When it comes to consumerism, local is almost always better for the environment and for the local economy. Local is better when you’re buying produce at the farmer’s market, when you’re supporting local artisans and craftsmen, and when you’re purchasing […]
Detoxing your lifestyle of non-green habits doesn’t have to be as dramatic as drug rehab. It can be simple and is a great way to start the new year. Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year, is only a few days away and as a time of reflection many of us may be thinking of ways […]
At stake for Oman is the extinction of traditional handicrafts in the face of cheaper, machine made imitations. Man making khanjars (traditional Omani daggers). [image via: v.williams46] Omani handicrafts – such as silver items, woven cloths, and pottery – may have been passed down from generation to generation and faced difficulties such as material shortages […]
At Green Prophet, we often post on organic vegetables and dairy products being grown in Israel; this November two Jewish environmental organizations are offering a heavily subsidized chance to see the farms and produce yourself. Hazon (which runs an annual Food Conference in the USA) and the Heschel Center will lead an Israel Sustainable Food […]
When shopping for gifts for people that we care about, we usually want the gifts to convey a variety of things – affection, devotion, a desire to make the other person happy, and also a demonstration that we care about the other person’s wellbeing. Giving a gift that is more environmentally friendly is one way […]
Speak to an average person in Israel who cares about protecting the environment, and they will cross their eyes will cross when you start speaking with them about carbon offsetting. While Israel does have a few carbon offset providers (the Good Energy Initiative is one — they powered Earth Hour in Tel Aviv, with their […]
It’s always exciting to get farm-fresh organic produce delivered to your door through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme, which have proliferated wildly around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But when I tagged along with a friend to her Brooklyn CSA last weekend, I saw how nice it can be when farmers deliver their vegetables and […]
Guest reviewer Jeremy Zauder relishes two views of ethical development in a special double review this week: part of our ongoing Green Prophet ‘Eco-Reads’ green book summer festival: ‘Spiritual Compass’ and ‘Free To Be Human’: Reading these two fine books in succession, I found that they could be companion texts: though different in style and […]
For the most part it’s usually better to buy local. This cuts out the emissions created as a result of shipping, getting the product to your door. This is an important question: Is it better to buy biodegradable garbage bags that are manufactured in China? Or go with the one’s made a block away, that […]