As a consumer, you can choose products that reduce pressure on the environment or provide eco-friendly alternative incomes. By making wise consumer choices, you can help save animals every time you sip coffee, nibble on chocolate, or write on a pad of paper.

• Drink YUS PNG coffee, available at Woodland Park Zoo and Caffe Vita. Our Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program worked with Papua New Guinea landowners to create the nation’s first Conservation Area. Now farmers earn an eco-friendly living by selling their shade-grown coffee.
• Choose Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper and wood products to protect forest habitat and wildlife.
• Use the Seafood Watch guide to choose ocean-friendly seafood.
• Shop from companies committed to deforestation-free, sustainable palm oil.
• Buy locally grown and produced foods from farmers’ markets to reduce your carbon footprint. Get more tips on how your diet can help animals from Puget Sound Fresh
• Look for Conservation Commerce in the ZooStore to support eco-friendly alternative incomes for communities that partner with our conservation efforts around the globe.

Is Palm Oil in Your Cupboard?

Orangutans, tigers, gorillas, and other wildlife and their forests are threatened by non-sustainable palm oil production in Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa and South America.

Learn more about sustainable palm oil

Enhance and restore habitat in your own backyard by providing food, shelter and water. These are three of the basic necessities needed by every living thing.

Reduce or eliminate lawn and garden chemicals. This keeps plants healthy naturally as well as protecting habitat, including water in our local streams, rivers and lakes. Visit SavingWater.org for tips on becoming pesticide free.

Research real animals in your community through citizen science projects such as the Lost Ladybug Project or the Great Sunflower Project.

Restore local parks and natural areas in partnership with EarthCorps. EarthCorps organizes a number of community-based projects around the area, concentrating on restoring natural areas in parks and removing invasive plants.

Plant native plants to provide food and shelter for wildlife. Find more backyard tips in our Molbak’s Butterfly Garden and Microsoft Pollinator Patio.