Biome beCAUSE

Organisations we love to support, simply beCAUSE they are turning passion into action...

Gift wrapping at Biome stores is complimentary, but we ask for a gold coin donation to support a special environmental cause each month.   We also hold special events and promotions.

Join our Kiva loan team

To take action on the theme of World Environment Day 2012 "Green Economy: Does it Include You?", we've launched a Kiva lending team to support micro-enterprises that promote a more sustainable way of living and doing business. 

We would love you to join our Kiva lending team by visiting Kiva.org and making a loan.  Our team is called Green Economy Biome.

Right now on Kiva they are also offering new users a Free $25 loan trial!

If you haven't seen Kiva before, this is how it works:  you simply loan a minimum of US$25 to a micro-enterprise in a developing country and it gets paid back over time!  It feels great to provide tangible help and it's special to receive updates when repayments are made.

The purpose of our team: to support a Green Economy, a more sustainable way of doing business - one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.

Lending teams are self-organised groups where members connect with each other and rally around shared lending goals.

How to join our team: when registering your account, you nominate your preferred team.  That simply means that your loan appears on our community page to spread the word about loans that consider resource efficiency, lowering carbon emissions, organic farming, or other environmentally responsible projects.

Right now on Kiva they are also offering new users a Free $25 loan trial -- so it's easier than ever to loan!

Why don't you join our team now and direct your free $25 loan to a sustainable project!

Through Gift Wrapping Donations & instore events we have supported:

Ipswich Koala Protection Society
Ipswich Koala Protection Society receives $1 for every Sare Copeland greeting card sold, plus we have supported the group with our Gift Wrapping donations.

IKPS runs an Ambulance and volunteer carer service for injured koalas, possums, wallabies and fruit bats.

The Wilderness Society
The Wilderness Society is a national, community-based, environmental advocacy organisation whose purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth. Since 1976 they have been instrumental in saving many precious wilderness areas.

Australian Koala Foundation's Save the Koala Month in September
In honour of Save the Koala Month, Biome started sponsoring a wild koala through the Australian Koala Foundation's foster program.

Is the Koala endangered? The Koala is rare and vulnerable in many areas across Australia. In conservation terms, the koala is the 'flagship' species for lesser know parts of the ecosystem.

WWF's National Threatened Species Day
National Threatened Species Day is held on 7 September - commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.

It's all about their habitat.  Around the world, animals are facing extinction because of the pressures of habitat loss and fragmentation caused by hundreds of years of human activity. Land development, introduced plants and animals, grazing, salinity, changed fire regimes, pollution, and a changing climate have placed pressure on our threatened species and their shrinking habitats.

What is a "Flagship Species"? WWF focusses particular attention on a small number of charasmatic and endangered species that can act as ambassadors for Australia's threatened wildlife.

Flagship species are chosen because they are affected by the same threats that also impact on many other species or inhabit places that many other species share. By achieving conservation of that species, the status of many other species which share its habitat - or are vulnerable to the same threats - may also be improved.  Flagship species are: Marine Turtles, Threatened Kangaroos, Albatrosses, Sharks, Marine Cetaceans, Black Cockatoos, Quolls, Gouldian Finches and Migratory Shorebirds. Source: WWF Australia website.

September 2011 ~~ 5% of your online purchases donated to the eco-action group you choose

Tell us at in the Message box at checkout, which of the following Australian environmental-action groups you would like your 5% to be donated towards.  With the help of our Facebook fans, we have chosen:

Rainforest Rescue ::  re-establish rainforests through planting, maintenance and restoration programs, as well as purchasing and protecting high conservation value rainforest and preserving its biodiversity. Projects in Tasmania, Equador, Daintree, Indonesia, Sri Lanka,  the Cassowary in Mission Beach. http://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/ 
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Friends of the Earth :: grassroots community-based activist organization which works towards an
ecologically sustainable and socially equitable society. Campaigns include indigenous land rights, nano technology, safe food, saving forests. http://www.foe.org.au/
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Still Wild Still Threatened ::  advocates for the immediate formal protection of Tasmania’s precious Southern Forests using lobbying, community education, research, exploration and frontline direct action.  Including the longest running blockade in Tasmania protecting the Florintine Forrest.  http://www.stillwildstillthreatened.org/
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Conservation Volunteers Wild Futures program ::  gets volunteers to roll up their sleeves through expert-approved conservation actions to save threatened species.  http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au/wildfutures/
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Borneo Orangutan Survival Australia :: primates helping primates. Working to rescue and rehabilitate orangutans and return them to areas of forest large enough to support a viable population.   http://www.orangutans.com.au/
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The Australian Marine Conservation Society ::  the voice for Australia's oceans. They work to protect our ocean wildlife, make our fisheries sustainable and create places in the sea where our precious ocean animals are safe from harm.  http://www.amcs.org.au/
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