Because We Only Have One Earth to Love.

St. Valentine's Day on February 14 is a day for romantic partners and secret admirers to celebrate their love by exchanging small gifts, flowers and candy. Traditionally, red is the color that sets the mood for this day. Is it possible then to "go green" for this holiday? Absolutely! Here are some ideas on how to do just that.

Make a difference for the environment by purchasing VeriFlora-certified flowers. VeriFlora is a sustainability certification and eco-labeling program with the mission of promoting horticulture practices that build soil, conserve water and support healthy ecosystems. For details visit www.veriflora.com. To order certified flowers online for your sweetheart try www.flowerbud.com or www.organicstyle.com.
If you are opting not to give cut flowers at all, consider an edible arrangement. Edible Arrangements, a Fruit and Chocolate Specialty company that has 1013 outlets worldwide, can make chocolate covered strawberries to look like long stemmed roses! You can check for a store located near you by logging on to www.ediblearrangements.com.

Should you be thinking of expressing your heart’s desire with a piece of jewelry on Valentine's Day, try paying a visit to www.tenthousandvillages.com. Ten Thousand Villages is one of the world's largest fair trade organizations and serves as a source for unique handmade gifts made by thousands of disadvantaged artisans in 38 countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Product sales help pay for food, education, healthcare and housing for artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed.

Let’s not forget about our delectable staple for this day: chocolate! Richard Cadbury introduced the first Valentine's Day box of chocolate in 1868. Today, even your purchase of a chocolate gift can be a socially responsible choice. The Global Exchange is a fair trade online store (www.globalexchange.org) by criteria includes fair wages, humane working conditions and environmentally sustainable practices.
You can also surprise that special someone with a Chocoholics gift basket packaged in recycled materials and wrapped in biodegradable cellophane. If your sweetheart is keeping her new year's resolution to lose weight, she may enjoy a CD called Putumayo's Music from the Chocolate Lands (if you’re in Singapore, you can find a range of Putomayo Music Collections in the National Geographic Store in Vivo City). Hoping to set a romantic mood with candlelight? Since you breathe what you burn, make them the natural variety. Bluecorn Naturals offers a selection of beeswax, soy wax and palm wax candles and aromatherapy products. Visit www.beeswaxcandles.com. Pennsylvania Soy Candles is a local supplier of soy candles. They use soy wax produced from the oil of soybeans — a biodegradable and renewable resource making soy candles environmentally friendly and supporting the American Farmers. (Visit www.pasoy.com).

If you don't have a love interest this Valentine's Day, you can still do something to help the environment. According to Wiki Answers, over 250 million Valentine's Day greeting cards are given each year in the U.S. That number tops 1 billion worldwide. Help offset this paper use by planting a tree. The Nature Conservancy launched a "Plant a Billion Trees" campaign — one dollar plants one tree. (For details visit http://plantabillion.org). From their homepage, you can pass on the word about this program via Facebook or Twitter, or send an e-card. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, "trees make a world of difference. They are inspiring people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. Check out their programs too at www.arborday.org and show your love for our great planet.

Happy Valentine’s Day, and remember that every day is an opportunity to spread the love not just to family and friends, but to our beloved Earth as well.

Is there an eco perfume for Valentine's Day?

In essence (distilled, of course), you are asking the question: "What does green smell like?" Traditionally the answer has been patchouli (signature fragrance of Brighton, Camden and the Glastonbury festival, partly on account of its efficacy as a dreadlock conditioner). And patchouli oil uses low-tech production, ie steam distillation, to extract essential oil from patchoili leaves. But there are even questions about the sustainability of patchouli (grown en masse in Indonesia), and besides, your paramour may find the smell repugnant.

Navigating the 600 new perfumes launched last year alongside the classics and an eye-watering array of "celebrity fragrances" is not easy. It means negotiating your way through 2,000 manmade chemicals, which suggests today's perfume is about as romantic as hazardous waste. Today 95% of chemicals used in perfume manufacture are derived from petroleum, and perfume "houses" are really laboratories full of scientists bent on discovering the most profitable apple-smelling molecule rather than artisanal "noses" mixing vats of rose petals. As the nose of Hermès, Jean-Claude Ellena, puts it: "One-third of my collection [of materials] consists of natural products and two-thirds of synthetic products."

But should we be so sniffy about synthetic materials? Traditional perfumes, which used the digestive systems of whales and glands from musk deer, hardly score conservation points either. However, when it comes to toxicity, only 20 per cent of synthetic ingredients have been tested for "safety" - perfumes contain solvents, phthalates and/or possible endocrine disrupters. The cosmetics industry-backed Research Institute for Fragrance Materials contends that things have never been safer, yet ingredients are not listed on the bottle. Some research suggests precautionary measures.

In a Swedish study, published in 2008, women with a high use of perfume during pregnancy had elevated concentration of some polycyclic musks, raising concerns over the safety of musk exposure of breast-fed infants (musks are thought to disrupt the body's natural reproductive chemicals).

The other big stink is over harvesting of "natural" materials. There have been major concerns over Indonesian sandalwood (thanks to deforestation) - and some big perfume houses have switched to supplies from Western Australia. Some houses are now investing in "sustainable"-ingredient plantations.

Instead, look at small brands, such as certified organic perfumes (http://www.florame.co.uk/) carrying the Ecocert label, Jo Wood's fragrances and Patyka (both from http://www.puresha.com/), and scents from Rich Hippie (rich-hippie.com). On a local level, willowbeautyproducts.co.uk, which makes a rare UK-produced eau de toilette, and the wild-crafted, handpicked scents from the Burren Perfumery in Ireland (http://www.burrenperfumery.com/) have an eco-centric ethos and planet-friendly provenance - you just need the nose for them.