We are very happy to announce the launch of our first iPhone Application. The Ecoki Reader is a simple iPhone application that lets you stay on top of all things Ecoki. The application is an easy way to read the latest news on the iPhone. Lots of updates are coming soon!.

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You can view the new Ecoki Reader website here.

A very big thank you to Nicolas Cormier for developing the iPhone Application.  Chacola.com

Also a very big thank you to Aran Seaman for his amazing work on the Ecoki iPhone Reader page!

The Swish Life is a fresh, new lifestyle magazine dedicated to those who love a little bit of everything.

Whether its the latest in culture, up-to-date tech debuts, or the newest cars on the market, we’re there. Regardless of your interest(s), The Swish Life strives to provide you with everything from an ongoing art exhibit to men’s beauty tips (and we know you want them).

Launched in late 2009, we’re on our way to bringing you what you need, love and want: an e-magazine that delivers you everything in one.

Whether you’re tuning in for a news update, perusing the latest sculptors, or seeing what’s the latest on the runway, we welcome you to The Swish Life. With this design we worked with the great Liam at We Function and Derek at Valen Designs.

And suggestions? They’re always welcome. Fire them at us at contact@theswishlife.com

View our latest launches

TheSwishLife.com The Swish Life Magazine
Ecoki.com The Most Active Eco Community
Applereviews.com The site for everything apple
Enviramedia.com Environmental Investment Group
Designslurp.com The home page for Vector illustrators
Tweethawk.com Nature Based Free Twitter Wallpapers

Applereviews.com provides you with up-to-date information, news, reviews, and articles about everything Mac-related.

From the latest news to the most recent obscure app, our mission is to develop a comprehensive hardware and software information destination, with daily published featured articles. We strive to bring you the best information possible, whether its in a detailed review, the newest hardware, or simply a useful tip.

Our passion and drive is based on for bringing you the best of Mac; hatched mid-2008, our goal is to swiftly grow into a top internet resource for all things Apple. Designed and Developed by Studio 7 Designs Inc, with help from wefunction on the Wordpress Design.

We welcome your opinion, ideas, and recommendation; please contact us or visit our contribution page for more information on how you can get involved!

Visit AppleReviews.com

Envira Media is dedicated to funding and managing sustainable business models. We support and fund environmentally sound business models, as well as manage some of the best socially responsible sites online. We have a wide range of socially responsible and trusted brands to help your company gain exposure from initial Branding Statement through to Marketing and Advertising. Our latest project will launch in July, 2009.

With over 3,000 advertisers across dozens of sustainable verticals, we connect socially responsible advertisers and publishers. The Envira Media advertising network has over 6 million unique visitors per month. With the focus on sustainable brands our expertise in advertising solutions can connect the right demographic to your sustainable brand.

Visit EnviraMedia.com

We made the TweetHawk logo available for CandyBar as well as available as an icon pack. All the images are under the Creative Commons 3.0 licence. Basically use as you like other then for commercial use, and a link back to Studio 7 Designs is appreciated but not required if you find a good use for the icons.

We just launched Tweethawk Twitter Backgrounds, a free twitter backgrounds gallery. Since we wanted to make only the highest quality designs, it is taking us some time to make each background image. We hope to have 10 designs in total launched soon.

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DOWNLOAD ICON PACK (PNG)

DOWNLOAD CANDYBAR ICNS PACK (OSX)

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View our latest community site. Ecoki.com

ecoki.com is a fresh, new eco-community, dedicated towards bringing you the best in sustainable living.

Confucius once said: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it more complicated.” We keep that in mind at ecoki, whether it’s within our articles, the items in our shop, or even our layout. ecoki highlights the simple things in life, adds the newest in everything eco-related, and delivers a community to meet your green living lifestyle.

We know that each person has different interests, so we strive to provide information and updates in all areas, from the newest scientific breakthroughs through the latest eco-fashion fad.

We understand that families, individuals, organizations and companies are all moving towards a greener approach – whether we do our best to decrease our paper use, drive bicycles instead of automobiles, or enjoy a Fair-Trade morning coffee.

ecoki knows that sometimes things are easier said than done. You have ideas on what you can do to become greener, but do you really know the steps to get there?  Starting an organic vegetable garden seems like a great idea for fresher produce, chemical-free vegetables, and saving money – but what are the steps to building one? We have you covered – in addition to our many other easy-to-follow ideas  to make your life a little greener.

But we also are aware of “greenwashing”; eco-friendly doesn’t always mean that it’s better. With this in mind, we take the time and precautions to explore our ideas, sources, reviews, and articles before we post them. The ecoki team stands by its reviews, recommendations, and articles.

In addition to our articles, we also are constantly building our shop, delivering sustainable selections of the best eco-products. Using our standards, we choose ones that are truly “green”, often alongside a detailed review, you are aware of how planet-friendly your purchase will be.

We are always looking for contributors, whether you just have an idea or recommendations, you’re a conscious company interested in advertising, or a planet-friendly writer or blogger. Explore our site to see if you fit, and see our guidelines on how to connect.

Our mission is built around the idea of living a simple and sustainable life; we pride ourselves with bringing you up-to-date news, tips and ideas, and the latest in eco-trends. We believe that creating and maintaining our eco-ethos, and delivering to our readers, is what makes ecoki what it is. Many thanks to wefunction for working with us on the design.

A sample of posts to get you started:

Travel
Global eco-volunteerism with GoEco
Offset your next flight with FlyGreen.ca

Fashion
Green gowns for your big day
63% increase in organic cotton

Health
Beware of greenwashing and false claims
How to buy the perfect bike

Food
Steeping and sipping: the tea low-down
Recipe: Mushroom Stew with Kale and Brown Rice

Design
Database satisfies search for sustainable goods: Ecolect
Cork: more than just for memo boards

Technology
iPhone and Palm Pre help the environment: here’s how
How to reduce paper consumption in one easy step

Science
Evidence of cold fusion confirmed
Endangered orangutan population found

Reviews
Review: pack it right with To-Go Ware Action Pack
Review: Siliskins silicone bottle snugglers

Living Green
Rainforest Alliance grows despite economic times
Veganism and the planet

We wanted to start a collection of great eco based companies around the world that are really making a difference. We are starting with 101 companies and will be expanding this list in the future to include some up and coming bright start-up companies. If you have any other suggestions for this list please feel free to contact us with your ideas.

We must also thank PSDTuts for the great design tutorial for the green grass post image, you can view the tutorial here. Thank you and enjoy!

Top Eco Blogs from Around the World

ECOKI.COM THE ECO NEWS COMMUNITY
The best eco news and product reviews community!.

ECOBLE.COM
All about ecological design, innovation and sustainability.

NIGELSECOSTORE.COM
The eco blog of an environmentally friendly clothing and products company.

SOLARKATECO.BLOGSPOT.COM
An environmentalist, who posts about eco news, natural products, food and much more.

INHABITAT.COM
A blog devoted to green construction, green design and everything environmental.

IJDESIGN.COM
News about making a difference, design tips and green Graphic Design.

GDUSA.COM
An online magazine focusing on green Graphic Design and other environmentalism.

ENVIROBLOG.ORG
Public Health concerns in relation to the changing environment.

GREEN-BLOG.ORG
A nicely designed blog with tons of green topics to choose from.

FABGREEN.COM
Fashion, decorating and design topics, with a green twist.

ECO-CAN.CA
Canada’s place for environmental news and product information.

GREENYOURDECOR.COM
All about stylish, eco-friendly decor.

NATURALCOLLECTION.TYPEPAD.COM
The blog of the green clothing company Natural Collection.

Environmental Clothing Companies

GREENLABEL.COM
100% Certified Organic T-Shirts, with tons of great pro-earth designs.

INHABITAT.COM
Organic T-Shirts with nice tree designs.

ETIKO.COM.AU
Fair trade sports gear and fashion apparel.

HTNATURALS.COM
A selection of all natural and organically grown textile products.

PATAGONIA.COM
All natural outdoor clothing and travel gear.

MEC.CA
Outdoor clothing, adventure gear and sports equipment from a company that is driven by environmental integrity.

RAPANUICLOTHING.COM
Organic clothing and surfwear manufactured in a factory powered by wind and solar power.

DANDELIONCLOTHINGCOMPANY.COM
Women’s and men’s fair trade and homemade apparel and accessories.

THEOKOBOX.COM
Women’s and men’s fair trade and homemade apparel and accessories.

GREENISBLACK.CA
Fashion for environmentally conscious men and women.

KATEQUINNORGANICS.COM
Organic cotton baby clothes, children’s clothes and bedding.

Green Printers

GREENPRINTERONLINE.COM
An online printer that uses CO2 friendly eco papers and vegetable based inks.

BAREFOOTPRESS.COM
American printing company that uses soy ink on recycled paper.

GREENERPRINTER.COM
Eco-friendly online printing, using 100% wind power.

PRINTGREENER.COM
Green Print provides software to help eliminate unwanted printing.

GREENFIELDPAPER.COM
Hemp paper, handmade paper, recycled wrapping paper, business cards and more.

MARKETSINITIATIVE.ORG
This handy reference tells the truth about different eco-paper labels.

ECOPAPER.COM
Providing tree-free paper made with sustainable and organic materials.

LOVELYASATREE.COM
Helps Graphic Designers to choose paper and printers that are environmentally friendly.

INKWORKSPRESS.ORG
A certified Green Business, by using exclusively recycled papers and vegetable oil inks.

Online Communities and Information

TREEHUGGER.COM
The largest green community on the internet.

EARTHEASY.COM
The informative portion of the Eartheasy website. Discussing how you can make environmentally friendly choices in your daily life.

EC.GC.CA
A Canadian government info site. Providing information on reducing your impact on the environment in your personal life.

ZEROFOOTPRINT.NET
Large non-profit website with information, carbon calculators, green news and an entire community.

DESIGN21SDN.COM
The online community for socially conscious designers of all kinds.

ECOWORLD.COM
Tons of articles featuring green focused technology, nature and current news from around the world.

GREENLIVINGONLINE.COM
A Canadian online magazine devoted to living a green life.

LIGHTERFOOTSTEP.COM
Dedicated to helping you live a lighter, more sustainable lifestyle.

Natural Products

EARTHEASY.COM
The shopping portion of the Eartheasy website. They provide all sorts of great sustainable products.

ECO-COSMETICS.COM
Cosmetic products relying on substances from certified organic plants and innovative combinations.

ECOLOGO.ORG
This site provides information on “Certified” green companies and products.

GRASSROOTSSTORE.COM
A large selection of environmental consumer products.

ECO-HANDBAGS.CA
Fantastic handbags made of recycled materials.

NIGELSECOSTORE.COM
Great environmentally friendly products, wearables and energy saving devices.

ECO-COSMETICSUK.COM
Developers of inexpensive and certified natural cosmetics.

ECOCOSMETICS.COM.AU
A range of skincare products using only the purest plant-based ingredients.

NATURALCOLLECTION.COM
From clothing and accessories to home and office.

ZIAANDTIA.COM
Organic children’s clothing, furniture and skincare.

LITTLEGREENBAGS.CA
Earth-friendly bags, dedicated to being fair trade and biodegradable.

GREENKNICKERS.ORG
Fair trade organic underwear for men and women.

Green Designers

SEGD.ORG
The Society for Environmental Graphic Design.

ZODSHOPCO.UK
Graphic Design company that works with businesses and people concerned about environmental issues.

IJDESIGN.COM
Green web design and Graphic Design.

MORSEBROWNDESIGN.CO.UK
A Graphic Design business with a strong environmental conscience.

FREERANGESTUDIOS.COM
Selling ideas that build a more just and sustainable world.

CREATINGMEDIA.CO.UK
Web design and Graphic Design ethically driven and environmentally compassionate.

ALRDESIGN.COM
Socially conscious and environmentally friendly Graphic Design.

MICHAUD-DESIGN.COM
Environmentally conscious Graphic Design.

CUMULUS-DESIGN.COM
Cumulus is proud to offer you a wide range of eco-friendly printing, paper and packaging products designed to fit all needs and budgets.

COMPOSITE-PROJECTS.COM
Working to minimize Graphic Design’s impact on the environment.

LUNARMEDIA.NET
Graphic Design that uses green printing and wind powered web hosting.

Eco Hosting

AISO.NET
Providers of 100% solar energy web hosting, servicing major clients such as the Discovery Channel.

SOLARHOST.CO.UK
Web hosting powered by 100% solar power.

SUSTAINABLEHOSTING.COM
Powered by renewable wind energy Sustainable Hosting is dedicated to being carbon neutral.

ETHICALHOST.CA
Web hosting services 100% powered by renewable wind power, with 10% of profits going to social and environmental organizations.

DREAMHOST.COM
A carbon-neutral organization since 2007.

GREENHOSTING.ORG
Canadian wind powered web hosting.

GOGREENHOSTING.COM
Certified wind power web hosting from an ethical company.

SUSTAINABLEWEBSITES.COM
100% carbon neutral web hosting.

SOLARENERGYHOST.COM
Solar powered web hosting, by a carbon neutral company.

IMOUNTAIN.COM
A solar web hosting provider, that gives back to the community.

THINKHOST.COM
Providing high quality earth-friendly web hosting and supporting positive social change.

Global Warming

ALGORE.COM
Al Gore’s official website, focusing on his fight against climate change.

CLIMATECRISIS.NET
The website for Al Gore’s famous movie on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

THECLIMATEPROJECT.ORG
Dedicated to raising awareness about climate change.

EPA.GOV/CLIMATECHANGE
The United States Environmental Protection Agency site with extensive resources on climate change.

CLIMATEHOTMAP.ORG
The early warning signs of global warming.

NASA.GOV
NASA’s take on Global Warming.

REALCLIMATE.ORG
A blog dedicated to the science of our climate.

Environmental Photography

BRAASCHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Photography from amazing places all over the world.

IANADAMSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Award-winning sustainable photography.

JMG-GALLERIES.COM
A talented photographer with stunning environmental photos.

WILDSITE.COM.AU
Environmental photos that feel like they are alive.

DANIELALDOGOMEZ.COM
Photography from Antarctica to the Amazon and Argentina.

GARYWHITE-PHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Travel photography from London photographer Gary White.

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Article: Environmental Photographer of the Year winner.

STUARTMEIKLEPHOTO.CO.UK
Stunning imagery by an award winning photographer.

HANGINGPIXELS.COM
Beautiful environmental photographs for purchase.

Articles

TIME.COM
Discussing the new face of environmentalism.

ARSTECHNICA.COM
The results of the new UN environmental report.

DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Save the planet, by eating insects!

SCIAM.COM
What would happen to the world if human’s disappeared?

TREEHUGGER.COM
Americans care more about gay marriage than Global Warming.

ODDITYCENTRAL.COM
A Sea of Garbage in Indonesia.

GUARDIAN.CO.UK
The true impact of Global Warming.

GLOBALWARMING-FACTS.INFO
50 things you can do to stop Global Warming.

LIGHTERFOOTSTEP.COM
Five things that are worse than Global Warming.

NWF.ORG
The effects of climate change on wildlife.

PHYSORG.COM
Major cities turn off power to raise environmental awareness.

ECOKI Hands On Eco Product Reviews
The best eco news and product reviews community!.

TREEHUGGER is an amazing site that one could spend hours browsing through. The articles are very well written and cover a broad range of environmental topics. All of which, are easy to find, due to their well-designed navigation.

Along with Treehugger’s large quantity of articles, the site allows the user to interact by chatting on the forums, commenting on articles, taking quizzes and much more. The site also deserves recognition of one of the only Job Boards that focuses on green jobs.

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View our latest community site. Ecoki.com

ZEROFOOTPRINT (zerofootprint.net)

Zerofootprint focuses mainly on Carbon Offset topics. They have an interactive Personal Carbon Manager that allows you to calculate your carbon footprint and purchase carbon offsets (for home and/or business). As well as downloadable information sheets regarding managing your carbon output.Another feature of the Zerofootprint site is a database of articles, events and initiatives.

Zerofootprint also offers Enterprise Carbon Management (ECM), a method for helping  companies measure, monitor, and reduce carbon emissions. It’s an end-to-end, customizable solution that allows companies to measure and track the environmental impact of their business.

BREATHING EARTH (breathingearth.net)

Breathing Earth is an AWESOME site! It is a real-time simulation of what is currently happening in our world.  The site features statistics on every country in the world, including their population, CO2 emissions, births and deaths.Along with the individual country statistics, the site also tracks the current world population, and various statistics happening since you arrived at the site.

Once you get past the amazing real-time world, there is an entire information section on topics like CO2 emissions, climate change and recommended resources.

BLOGACTIONDAY  (blogactionday.org)

Blog Action Day has been going on for a few years now, you may have heard of it. Every October, bloggers world wide band together to discuss poverty to raise awareness of this issue that effects everyone. This website is the “home-base” for promoting Blog Action Day, and focuses on getting people involved year round through other outlets such as micro loaning through Kiva.org and Twittering about the issues.

EARTHEASY (eartheasy.com)

Eartheasy is a site designed to teach you ways to ‘green’ the different aspects of your life. It is basically a database of articles divided up by topic; Live, Grow, Eat, Play, Wear, Give. A bonus feature of the site is the Eartheasy Store that sells products for sustainable living.What makes the site extremely effective is the ease at which you can find articles, and the relaxed writing style that makes it easy to relate to.

ECORAZZI   (ecorazzi.com)

Ecorazzi is a fun site for those inclined to check out the daily gossip sites. This one follows the same premise, but with a green focus. Articles include: Celebrities Attending the National Biodiesel Conference, The show The Office features a Prius Driver, Sheryl Crow Designs an Eco Grocery Bag. The site is a lot of fun and allows you to easily navigate a variety of topics.

INHABITAT  (inhabitat.com)

Inhabitat is an environmental blog focused on home and lifestyle topics such as: Architecture, Home, Products, Gadgets, Fashion, Packaging, Transportation and Energy. The site contains lots of cool articles and the authors make sure to include lots of visual references and images. The site also features an online shop with a ton of products not available in retail stores. All environmentally friendly of course.

WE CAN SOLVE IT (wecansolveit.org)

We Can Solve It is a community of people petitioning to switch 100% of America’s electricity to clean energy sources – within 10 years. The Campaign was founded by Al Gore’s non-profit The Alliance for Climate Protection. The site features videos, success stories, articles and more. You can even sign up to their green newsletter.

GREEN LIVING (greenlivingonline.com)

Green living is a wonderful site with tons of articles on a variety of lifestyle topics. The site is a joy to browse through due to the well-designed navigation and all of the articles are really interesting. The site also features product reviews, slideshows and  links to related green blogs.

LIGHTER FOOTSTEP (lighterfootstep.com)

Lighter Footstep is a great site with articles on a variety of lifestyle topics. The site is full of really interesting articles and is easy browse through due to the well-designed navigation. Some of the topics include: Family, Garden, Health, Living, News and Recycling.

Ecoki The Eco Community! (ecoki.com)

Ecoki.com is a collaboration between Studio 7 Designs Inc and Envira Media. With well over 200 articles already written on a wide range of subjects, as well as hands on product reviews from some of the best eco focused companies around the world. Subscribe to the ecoki.com RSS feed for updated eco news and product reviews from around the world.

Green Globe Ideas (greenblobeideas.com)

Thank you to Navdeep for the recommendation.

We come across many great eco and nature based website designs through our design gallery cssnature.org. We have decided to do a regular posting of our favorite designs and ethical companies that are making a difference in the world. Below is a great selection of 30 nature based website designs (including a few of our own of course!)
If you have a company that would like to be included on our nature based gallery, please submit your site and thumbnail to cssnature.org/register.
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View our latest community site. Ecoki.com

Discover Borneo

Antidecaf

Sponaar

Dockside Green

4DesignTV

Nebon Media

mikmik

David Hellmann

Viget Inspire

Signature Properties

Arbutus Photography

Carbonica

Longfellow Ranches

Cantera Real Estate

Andrew Gransden

Bellingham Real Estate

Coffeenatic

North Shore Fellowship

Asheville School

Celso Casamentos

Lignarius

Pacific Union College

Berger & Partners

Wiser

Adventure Trakking

Parehua

Brookside

Remedy Coffee

The Lippincott

For more great nature based sites, be sure to check out CSSNature.org.
We update regularly and accept only nature related sites. You are sure to be inspired!

What is the core reason for creating Sprout?
At our core, we want to free people from having to think about how to get information. People shouldn’t waste their time and brain power on where information is and how to find it. So, we created Sprout to give users news and blog articles that they’ll enjoy with a minimum amount of effort. Sprout is just the beginning in our low-cognitive load, information solutions. To find out more, check out our white paper here.

What steps have you taken to bring Sprout to completion?
Well, it’s been a long road these past few months, but we’re very proud of our results. Of course, the first step was to take it from an intangible idea and put it on paper both as a spec and as a business plan. We then got a team of talented programmers together and started the long task of taking a plan and making it a reality. Like any idea, it evolved as we researched and tested our theories with an actual product.

Sprout is our company’s first offering and we’ve learned a lot about what it takes to bring a product to completion. In fact, Sprout is still in beta, with our full launch scheduled for the end of July 2008, so our development is ongoing. We’re certainly learning a lot from our beta testers.

What is next in the development process?
Right now, Sprout is in beta. We’re learning lots and Sprout gets better every day. New features depend on what feedback we get from our beta testers, so visit http://www.yoursprout.ca/sign-up.html to start enjoying Sprout beta now and so that you can give us your feedback.

What we’re really excited about is the official launch of Sprout in July.

What business model did you chose, and why?
We’ll be charging a subscription fee to use our software. We’re avoiding an ad-based revenue model. We feel strongly that people care about what they pay for and that there are too many ad-supported software applications; the market can’t indefinitely support all of them. Instead, we’ve built an application that costs a nominal fee but that provides real, ongoing value to the user.

What advice would you give to a young startup company.
1. Get support from the tech and business communities around you early and tap into them often. We’ve been blessed to have our offices at the Vancouver Island Technology Park (VITP) and are surrounded with helpful, knowledgeable business and technology experts. Being supported by those who have been there and have seen it all has been incredibly beneficial to us.
2. Know that starting a business – especially in software – is fraught with mistakes, errors and oversights. Basically, don’t lose heart and prepare to learn lots from your missteps. We certainly have.
3. Try your best to understand your customer so that you build something people actually want, even if they don’t know they want it yet. Our beta test has taught us so much about our product. It’s been a great experience for all of us.

What future ideas and concepts are coming to Sprout?
We’ve got a lot of ideas floating around about what Sprout could be in the future.
Fundamentally, we want to reach a wide array of people with Sprout and we want to improve our content offerings and our ability to deliver that content. We’re also exploring some other areas where information overload can be addressed by using our approach to information delivery.