Whether it’s green timber, child labor–free carpets, or fair trade, we do anything and everything to make sure that living the good life doesn’t require some­one (or something) else to pay the price.

Candi and Brian Smucker quit their corporate jobs and opened four stores for Ten Thousand Villages—but after living in four cities in as many years, they settled down in Sonoma to start their own store, Baksheesh, in 1997. Selling an assortment of jewelry, cards, and home furnishings made by artisan members of the Fair Trade Federation and the International Fair Trade Association, the venture proved so successful that the Smuckers opened two more branches, in Healdsburg and St. Helena. Their give-and-receive ethic is reaffirmed with each sale: Customers who refuse a bag get a chocolate instead. 423 1st St. W., Sonoma, 707-939-2847; 106B Matheson St., Healdsburg, 707-473-0880; 1327 Main St., St. Helena, 707-968-9182, vom.com/baksheesh

When Alicia Keshishian created her custom carpet company, Carpets of Imagination, she knew that she wanted to design the distinctive modernist patterns herself. She also knew that the rugs would be crafted in Nepal, and that her company would be a member of RugMark, a D.C.-based nonprofit that certifes the origins of each rug and ensures that child labor was not used in its making. “It was never an option for me to go outside that circle,” Keshishian says of the RugMark-approved weavers she works with. Granted, her rugs are dear—a typical 9-by-12-footer costs around $11,500—but a percentage of the purchase helps fund the schools that RugMark supports. Showroom in Design Center Showplace, 2 Henry Adams St.; Custom order: 707-775-3494, adkcarpets.com

When the California Academy of Sciences opens this fall, its interiors will reveal a piece of the landscape requested by architect Renzo Piano: indigenous wood from Monterey cypress trees. These salvaged woods are being supplied by Exotic Hardwoods & Veneers in Oakland, no Johnny-come-lately to the green scene. Bob Nichols started the company in 1976 by salvaging 19th-century redwoods that had sunk to river bottoms, and since then, the company has become synonymous with creatively sourcing salvaged wood (for instance, from people’s backyards and abandoned walnut orchards). Until recently, few others in the wood business paid attention to whether imports came from a sustainable source, says Nichols, but that’s now changed, thanks to the popularity of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification. 4800 Coliseum Way, Oakland, 510-436-5702, exotichardwoods.com