Psyched in Stilettos

Australia is a country filled with beaches, bikinis and sunscreen, and we're also pretty good with the old rainwater tanks, Fair Trade groceries and carbon credits. But what happens when sun lovers combine with greenies? Sustainable swimwear, of course! There's not many brands venturing into this Brave New World, but we love

Having just attended a spate of First Birthday Parties, it really is harrowing just how much colourful plastic crap is produced to entertain little kids every year -- considering the fact that a) they usually just want to play with the tags or wrapping paper anyway and b) kids in the olden days (back when Fisher-Price never existed) were amused/educated just as well by ordinary household objects. But if you must attend that obligatory kid's party, we've found the guilt-free answer: the 6 in 1 Solar Robot Kit!

You know that fashion-meets-green handbags have been successfully executed when they're carried around by both Cameron Diaz (who's a total eco femme) and Paris Hilton (who couldn't give a stuff about the environment, but certainly knows her way around a wardrobe). So whether you like Ecoist purses for their environmental bent, or just because they're eye-popping cool, it doesn't really matter: you're doing the world a favour either way. For every recycled candy-wrapper handbag sold, US company Ecoist plants a tree (thanks to their partnership with Trees for the Future), which has already resulted in over 10,000 extra trees now sprinkled throughout Haiti, India, and West Africa.

We'd all love to jump on a private jet with George Clooney and stay in an overwater bure in the Maldives, but with all the environmental guilt we're exposed to these days, private jets just aren't really cutting it anymore. But this Green Travel thing is all a bit of a minefield. Ecotourism, delcares this website, is "perhaps the most over-used and mis-used word in the travel industry", and they're right. As they further point out, "a rafting trip is only ecotourism if it raises awareness and funds to help protect the watershed", which makes my idea of ecotourism (a lovely solar-powered shower in an overwater bungalow made of sustainable palm fronds) a bit of a reality check. And how about this curly one? "When visiting rural communities, don't hand out sweets and loose change, this only serves to corrupt and create a begging mentality where none existed before." Should one even dare to leave one's house?