Tis the Season, Part 2

Yesterday, I found myself lamenting the fact that there were very few options for socially-concious shopping when it came to entertainment purchases, such as books, movies and music. I tried in vain to find a newly released CD (which shall remain nameless- it's a holiday present!) at two different local music shops in my neighborhod, only to find that they sold mostly used CDs and therefore didn't have the CD I was looking for quite yet. It was the same with local bookstores: a lot of local stores sell either mainly used books or tend to be speciality book stores and focus on certain subjects. It's nearly impossible to find a quality book on coffee-roasting in a used bookstore or a bookstore that focuses on women's rights (no matter how much that bookstore rules!!). I found myself sneakily eyeing the local Borders and crying desparately, "There has to be another way!!!"

Well, my friends, guess what? There is! Check out alonovo: a self-proclaimed "intelligent marketplace." Here's the lowdown: alonovo's mission is to "connect the concept of corporate behavior directly to the profit motive." They do this in a number of ways:

• They use data from independent sources like KLD Research and Analysis to provide information about how companies behave and how socially-concious they are. You can "set your values" by rating different types of social responsiblity and how important they are to you, and then alonovo will rate the companies based on your values. They don't have a lot of information about many companies quite yet, but I have faith that this will definitely grow.
• What's even cooler is that alnovo has committed to contributing between 20% and 40% of their revenue to a non-profit organization of your choice. Their list ranges from NOW to the Sierra Club to the National Education Association. I chose NOW, but it was a really tough choice as there are plenty of amazing organizations to choose from.

They do a lot of their shopping through Amazon, so you're still ordering things from a very reliable source, but a good portion of your money is going towards a great cause! So, what are you waiting for?