Help Plant Trees + Enter to Win A Reusable Shopping Bag

Today is the 39th edition of Earth Day, an international event created to celebrate that blue planet of ours, and raise awareness about environmental issues.

As I explained in this recent Q&A, I have grown more and more environmentally conscious over the past few years: without being completely obsessed with the topic, I do my best to educate myself, make informed choices, and limit the impact of my actions on the environment. I hope this reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy comes through year-round in my writing, and I wasn't really planning anything specific to mark Earth Day on C&Z.

But then Eva, the young co-founder of flip & tumble, the California company that makes the reusable shopping bags I use and love to use, contacted me about partnering to raise funds for Ripple Africa's reforestation campaign in Malawi, and I said yes.

Here's the deal: for every person who leaves a comment* at the bottom of this post, flip & tumble will fund the planting of a tree in one of the community nurseries that Ripple Africa is working to build, and I will match that donation with my own. So just go to the comment box, type "Plant trees for me!" (and whatever you want to add) and two trees will be planted.

In addition to this, Eva is offering to give away ten reusable shopping bags, and I've decided to turn it into a little contest. I'd like to invite you to submit your best green tip -- especially one that's food- or cooking-related -- through this form. I'll pick my ten favorites, and their submitters will receive a bag each in the mail. You can participate regardless of where in the world you live -- this is Earth day after all -- but be sure to enter your email address correctly so I can contact you if you win.

You have until the very last seconds of April 22 -- until midnight GMT-12, i.e. until 1pm Paris time on April 23 -- to leave your tree-planting comment below and to submit your best green tip for a chance to win a lovely and handy reusable shopping bag.

Update: The comments and contest are now closed, and the results will be announced next week.

Thank you for participating!

* To prevent abuse, only one comment per IP address will be accepted.