If you’re in the pouring rain in the middle of New York City right now, you’re probably looking for a nice, eco friendly umbrella.

Here’s a little ditty manufactured by Totes, and available online exclusively at Crate and Barrel.  The Coby Eco Umbrella allows opening at the touch of a button, and folding into a mini.

UPDATE:  July 6, 2009  It’s official!  Our lucky winner of the Kaia House Organic Cleanser and Moisturizer set is Joanna S.  Thanks so much to everyone for your wonderful entries.  Even though you may not have won this Giveaway, I hope you’ll check out Kaia’s products — they’re awesome.  (original post, follows…)

This exclusive Great Green Giveaway is all about clean, green beauty.

One lucky Alternative Consumer winner will get to choose ONE of two fabulous, eco savvy gifts from Kaia House Organics — you may select either a non-toxic, mani-pedi Jet Set Nail Kit (retail value, $28.95), or a safe and effective skincare set, comprised of Anti-Oxidant Cleanser and Anti-Oxidant Moisturizer, (retail value $40). plus free shipping to USA and Canada.

To enter:

• Visit kaiahouse.com.
• Comment on this post telling us how Kaia House would help you go green.
• If you are selected as our winner, in order to receive our email prize notification, be sure to add the following to your email address book: m at AlternativeConsumer.com. (*one entry per person)

Entries must be received by 8p, EST on Friday, July 3, 2009.
One lucky winner will be selected in our Random Drawing, and notified by email by July 4th. Winner has 48 hours to claim their prize, or offer is null and void. Winner’s names will also be included in this post.

*EXTRA CREDIT
If you have your own blog, you can post about the giveaway with a link back to this giveaway post. To make sure we know, you can come back and leave a comment with a link to your blog post. If you Twitter, you can tweet about the giveaway, and leave a comment linking to the status.

You can also receive additional entries 3 more ways: sign up for our RSS feed via email/Feedburner (see right side bar), follow us on Twitter or become a friend on FaceBook. good luck!

We’ve been fans of online beauty e-tailer, Kaia House, from the outset. As “Home to the Purest Skin on Earth,” they offer only brands and products that are not only both safe and effective, but also environmentally and animal friendly.  related:  the beauty of the Web

Here’s a natural toy alternative – a real stick – for urban canines previously sentenced to spending their days chasing a plastic frisbee or a saliva-soaked tennis ball.  These dog toys are fashioned out of Vermont grown and harvested hardwood saplings – each bundle contains three sticks, each measuring a chewable 3/4″ to 1 1/2″ in diameter by 11″ long.   The perfect size for throwing or chewing.  Each set even comes with an instruction manual for those men and beasts who may have lost touch with the basic techniques.

So get out there and start “stickin’ it to the man,” go au natural, and impress your ‘citified’ friends with your own monogrammed set of sticks – one monogrammed stick costs the same as 3 plain ones.  The sticks also make a nice, pooch-personalized eco-gift.

$12.95/includes ground shipping @ fetchstixvt.com

DESIGN 21 – Social Design Network is happy to announce that Swedish furniture designer, Charlie Davidson, is the winner of its Going With the Grain Challenge for his ingenious “Uni Table” design.

The design challenge was developed by The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Chapter of the Forest Stewardship Council to promote conscientious consumerism through responsible design.  Going With the Grain called on designers to conceptualize an object using a single sheet of FSC-certified plywood without the use of hardware or glue.  As the overall winner, Davidson will receive a one-year membership to Material Connexion and a manufactured sample of his design. A prototype will also be auctioned to support The Nature Conservancy’s sustainable forestry work.

• No, this is not an event for amorous singles…National Pollinator Week Marked – npr
• I like this bunch of words…Dolphin ‘Super Pod’ Seen in Firth – bbc
• Can you still get your deposit back after 11 thousand miles? Ship of Plastic Bottles to Send Eco-Message – msnbc
• ‘Happy Hour’ becomes ‘Happy Minutes’ – From the Glass to the Brain in Six Minutes – sciencedaily
• Week in Photos: Albino Turtle, Oldest Twins, More – natgeo
• What about the effect on our Twitter obsessed media? Second Guessing Twitter’s Effect on Post-Election Iran – cs monitor
• I don’t know about a memorial…What Will Happen to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch? – ecorazzi