Clothes

The public relations war waged by groups like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart on the country's largest employer—and for a long time, biggest corporate villain—appears to be entering détente. Nearly half of the staffers at the two organizations have been let go, and Wal-Mart has in turn, scaled back its public relations efforts—which were ramped up several years ago to engender good will in the face of heavy criticism.

Saying that you monitor your supply chain to ensure that labor and environmental standards are followed looks great on a CSR report, but it's how a company goes about this monitoring that really tells the story.

Many things that end up on the curb each week aren't thrown out because they're broken or even obsolete — they're just not useful to their owner anymore and they take up too much space. Five years ago, a man by the name of Deron Beal set out to make us think twice about the value of the stuff we no longer use, through a network of community message boards called Freecycle.

As Banana Republic prepared to open its first stores in the UK last week, new allegations broke concerning the company's use of sweatshop labor. Workers there are said to be subjected to 70 hour weeks at as little as 26 cents per hour, with their overtime wages are routinely withheld.

Anytime a design comes along that improves on both the quality and sustainability of the existing standard, it's worth noting. The Brelli is one such product. Not only is it the world's first 100 percent biodegradable umbrella, it's also designed to last longer. With about twice as many spokes as the flimsy umbrellas you're likely to see littering the streets on a particularly nasty day, the Brelli is designed to resist wind and not turn inside-out.