UPDATE: It’s official, Congratulations to Amanda D., our official winner.  Thanks to everyone for participating.  (original post follows…)

We’re very excited to announce that this Great Green Giveaway is graciously being sponsored by a new, eco chic handbag line, The Hemptress.

Designer Arlene Nilsson recently launched three collections of cool styles and we’re giving one lucky winner a coveted SONJA handbag. Sonja is vegan, made of hemp, styled as either a clutch or fold-over, in 3 hip colorways.

Why do we love Sonja? Both her body and trim are made of natural hemp, lining is a blend of hemp and rPET (recycled plastic bottles), low impact dyes are utilized and zippers are made from recycled nylon. The hangtags and all promotional material are printed with soy inks on recycled paper.

Winner takes their pick of both style and color. Above (L to R) is the SONJA Foldover Bag, ($79 retail) or Large Clutch, ($105).  Prize includes free shipping to residents in USA and Canada.

By the way, Mona was selected from a total of 1000 submissions as one of the Five Best Green Handbag design finalists at InStyle Magazine’s Independant Handbag Designer Awards – and we can’t wait to hear the results on June 16th.

To enter this Giveaway, simply:

• Visit thehemptress.com and check out all the fresh styles
• Then tell us:  What’s the most important thing you look for in a handbag – color, style, how it’s made, etc?
• Add the following address to your email address book: m (at) alternativeConsumer.com.

One winner will be selected in our Random Drawing, and notified by email. Contest ends Wednesday, June 23 at 11:59p (EST). Winner has 24 hours to claim their prize, or offer is null and void. Winner’s name will be included on this post.

*One entry per person, but here’s how to get some extra credit:

• Have your own blog? 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.
• follow us on Twitter and let us know by leaving a complete sentence on this post. Please note : if you don’t leave a complete sentence our spam filter will think you’re just being a nuisance.
• Tweet about the giveaway (once per day), and be sure to refer to @altCon. Leave us a comment on this post by writing a  short sentence with a link to the Tweet.
• friend us on FaceBook (comment by leaving a short sentence.)
• subscribe to our RSS feed – (if you’re already a subscriber, leave a comment by writing a short sentence).

And don’t worry, we do not share your email info with anyone.  good luck!