Responsible Fundraising

If you are a gardener, you probably already know that worm “castings” or vermicompost is a “nutrient-rich, natural fertilizer and soil conditioner”¹. What is it exactly? Well, as the title of this post hints at, it is basically worm poop. That’s right. It’s refuse from our wiggly little friends. The best thing about vermicompost is that it is completely natural and uses organic material such as kitchen waste (coffee grounds, moldy bread, leftovers, etc.) or even, in the case of commercial operations, brewery jetsam.

At the forefront of commercially available worm casting products is a company called Terracycle. It was started by a young guy by the name of Tom Szaky. While attending Princeton, he noticed his friend running a vermicomposting bin to create fertilizer for plants. He and his friends decided to recreate this on a large scale. After initial funding issues, they finally were able to get their company up and running. As a testament to their business savvy and great products, they are still around. And since they are committed to being a sustainable organization, they package all their fertilizers in used soda bottles.

If you want to learn more about vermicomposting or would like to build your own setup, visit this wikipedia article. You can learn more about terracycle and find places to purchase their goods by visiting their site, www.terracycle.net.

Earth Day 2008 is fast approaching. Some events that are happening locally are:

Dallas EarthFest, Friday, April 18th: “The premier Earth Day Celebration for Dallas’ Downtown Community”

Oak Cliff Earth Day Festival, Sunday, April 20th: “Promoting awareness of the environment and our place in it, and environmental conservation in our government, neighborhood, and ourselves.”

Earth Day at the Amon Carter Museum, Sunday, April 13th: “Be creative with recycled materials, listen to lively stories, and see how American artists have used their art to advocate for the earth.”

Tandy Hills Prairie Fest, Saturday, April 26: “An outdoor festival to celebrate our connection to the natural world through Music, Art, Dance, Environmental Stewardship & Wildflower Tours.”

To find Earth Day events in your area, you can visit the Earth Day networks search tool.

How are we celebrating? By giving away $1000 to the organization that has sent in the most phones between January 22nd and April 18th. To find out more, visit our Earth Day competition page here.

Algae? It’s green, it’s everywhere. New technologies are being developed to capture the oils that Algae naturally produce. This oil has already been proven able to be used as biodiesel. The only unknown is if this technology can be recreated on a large enough scale to be reliably used as a fuel.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/17/greenfuel-technologies-signs-deal-to-build-algae-fuel-plant/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/22/upstart-solazyme-promises-to-make-fuel-from-algae/

http://www.oilgae.com

Water purification for the other 90%. A low cost ($2) water purification device for those living in third world countries.

(image borrowed from flickr user Nieuwslicht)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/lifestraw_versi.php

http://www.lifestraw.com/en/high/maincont2.asp

We will be announcing Phoneraiser’s current promotions on the blog. We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to take advantage of these.

Phoneraiser’s current promotion:
Send your shipment in before March 23rd and you will:

1. Receive a 15% bonus. No coupon needed!

2. Be entered to win $1000 in phoneraiser’s Earth Day campaign. Visit www.phoneraiser.com/earthday for more details.

If you need free FedEx labels to take advantage of the offer and have already signed up, call us at 1-800-873-8908. If you have a printer, you can also print out them out using our FedEx prepaid label form.