Green Toys Inc. – Environmentally Friendly Eco Toys, Safe, No BPA or Phthalates – Made in USA
July 31st, 2010
Check out this “GREEN” toy . I love the company that makes it, Green Toys Inc. – Environmentally Friendly Eco Toys, Safe, No BPA or Phthalates – Made in USA.
One Dress, hundreds of looks.
July 30th, 2010
This is so EcoChic! Amazing idea, one dress worn many different ways to be more eco-friendly. I love it and hope to see more designers follow this theme.
Check out You Bright Young Things.
How to make a dress that’s universally wearable yet individually specific, that’s both sustainable and fashionable? This question is at the heart of fashion designer Eliza Starbuck’s new clothing line, Bright Young Things. In the past, one dress for everyone meant a uniform; but Starbuck sees her dress as a canvas for self-expression: “I’ve seen so many women with closets full of clothes who say, ‘I haven’t got a thing to wear’. I’m giving them one dress that they can wear forwards, backwards, open, again and again, with anything they like.”
Starbuck conceived the little black dress at the heart of Bright Young Things’ collection in 2009 when she met Sheena Matheiken, a woman who was embarking on an intriguing year-long challenge: Matheiken would be wearing one dress every day for a year to raise charitable funds in an experiment she called The Uniform Project. Starbuck’s challenge was to create a dress for Matheiken that would not only hold up to a year-long daily wearing, but would function in any setting – at work or at a cocktail party, at a conference or a concert, on the street or on the beach – and would not just function, but would work.
As soon as the project launched, Sheena, Eliza, and the dress garnered international media attention, including articles and posts in the New York Times Magazine, Glamour, Daily Candy, The Huffington Post, The Guardian and the BBC, to mention a few. With The Uniform Project’s website reaching a daily audience in the tens of thousands, Starbuck decided that her dress had the ability to empower many more women, and to commemorate the end of Sheena’s one-year challenge, Eliza produced a 365-piece Limited Edition of the dress that sold out in less than a week and contributed an additional $10,000 in proceeds from the sales to Sheena’s fundraiser. Now, Bright Young Things is making the dress for the public to buy, style, and reinvent with the hopes that women will be inspired to shop their closets at home the next time they are tempted to buy into the fast trends that make fashion victims of so many.
GreenMyParents- Power to our Youth
July 28th, 2010
GreenMyParents Blog. GreenMyParents is a revolutionary, nationwide program to help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to help the economy, earn money at home, and save the planet through simple, everyday actions. Launched on Earth Day 2010, this movement enables youth to bring their insightful perspective on how to reduce their parents’ use of resources and save money at home to make a huge difference in saving the planet and securing their future.
My Store is Coming Soon, Thank you OpenSky
July 27th, 2010
I am really excited about my store launching and working with the great team at OpenSky. If you are interested in having your own online store or you want to sell your products get in touch with them!
Reusing and Recycling 101
By Dana Goeglein for Green Goes Simple
You want to be green, but it’s hard to know the difference between reusing and recycling. Fortunately, it’s not that complicated. Recycling and reusing have the same goal: to keep items out of overflowing landfills. The two tactics just go about it in very different ways.
Recycling involves reprocessing an old item — such as a can, glass or newspaper — and turning it into something new. Recycled paper products may be reprocessed into toilet paper and old tires may become a compound used to resurface roads.
Reusing, on the other hand, means avoiding the reprocessing plant altogether. Old items like containers, bags and appliances can be used again in their current condition for a similar — or completely different — purpose. Takeout containers can be turned into food storage (think: free plastic containers!), and plastic bags can be transformed into waterproof liners for planters or drawers.
“Reusing extends the lifetime of a product, from the time it is purchased to the time it goes to a landfill [or recycling plant],” explains Janine Kubert, director of operations at iReuse, a company that helps businesses and individuals become better reusers.
When you extend the lifetime of a product, you not only reduce the need to buy something new (which takes energy to produce), but you also save on the energy it would take to recycle that product. “Reusing allows us to get the most out of our virgin products and raw materials, and aside from reducing consumption entirely, it is our best resource for waste reduction,” says Kubert.
Whether you’re an avid recycler or new to waste reduction, here are some simple ways to reuse and recycle every day:
Reuse
- Reuse bags, boxes and containers. For example, turn old shoe boxes into storage containers, packaging for gifts or a treasure chest (have kids cut out pictures from magazines and glue them to the outside of the box for a customized container).
- Rather than buying a new product, borrow, rent or share items you use infrequently or for a short period of time.
- When babies and kids outgrow toys, books, cribs, high chairs and strollers, sell or donate the items rather than throw them away.
- Invest in quality, durable products. You may spend more initially, but they’ll last longer, which saves you money over time.
Recycle
- Become a full-circle recycler. Buy products that can be recycled; sort and discard them according to your community’s standards; and finally, purchase products made from post-recycled materials.
- For more information about recyclable materials, check out the EPA’s website
Going Above and Beyond
While waste reduction starts at home, communities nationwide are forming around the premise that less is more. Freecycle – started in Tucson, Ariz., before spreading throughout the U.S. — helps people be the best possible reusers. Through the Freecycle network, members are able to donate — or pick up — used products, such as appliances, furniture, toys and bikes.
In need of a reduce, reuse and recycle tutorial? Companies like iReuse give personalized consultations to help you reduce waste, donate reusable products and save money.
If you’re not sure about your community’s procedures or standards for reusing and recycling, check your town’s government Web site or ask a neighbor. Through community boards, donation banks and home and school recycling programs, it’s getting even easier to do more to waste less.
Dana Goeglein received a bachelor’s in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a master’s in food studies from New York University. She is a writer, yoga instructor and whole foods educator in New York City, where she strives to help others create harmonious, connected lives.
How Do You Remember to Bring Your Own Bag?
July 24th, 2010
I am Going to the Women In Green Forum
July 24th, 2010
I just booked my tickets to attend the Women In Green Forum on September 1st and 2nd in Pasadena, California.
There will be some amazing speakers there, check out a few here.
I can’t wait to test drive an Electric Vehicle!
My Favorite Hoodie – Prairie Underground
July 22nd, 2010
“Trust Us” Is Getting Old – Guest Post by Barbara O’Brien
July 20th, 2010
“Trust Us” Is Getting Old
When British Petroleum (BP) applied for a permit to build the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and begin drilling, it claimed to have the technology and know-how to handle any oil spill.
But in the face of an actual spill, BP is much less confident. “This scares everybody: the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far,” BP CEO Doug Suttles said. “Many of the things we’re trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 ft.”
They’ve never been tried at 5,000 feet. Drilling for oil this deeply under the ocean is a relatively new enterprise for our species. Oil has been drilled offshore in shallow water for more than a century. But deepwater drilling is much more expensive than shallow-water drilling. For a long time drilling in deep water wasn’t tried, because it would have cost more to extract a barrel of oil than a barrel of oil was worth on world markets. It took the spikes in oil prices in recent years to make deepwater drilling profitable.
Politicians and oil executives assured us that offshore oil drilling was safe. Those tree huggers who worry about environmental disasters are nuts, they said. Yes, there have been oil rig disasters in the past, but (big wink) we know what we’re doing now. Trust us.
The laws of physics work differently nearly a mile underwater than they do on land, or shallow water, however. By now, it is obvious BP is still trying to invent a procedure that might stop the oil leak, maybe, if we’re lucky. No one appears to have been ready for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Really, this “trust us” business is getting old. How many times have we been told to “trust” some new thing, and then when the dangers surface we find out the “trusted” ones hadn’t told us the whole truth?
In the mid-20th century we humans went into overdrive digging asbestos out of the earth to use in countless structures and products. There is asbestos in navy ships, in shipyards such as Bath Iron Works, asbestos in our homes and schools, asbestos in old car parts, and asbestos in landfills. And eventually, years after medical science had determined asbestos exposure causes terrible disease, industry executives and politicians reluctantly agreed to shut down asbestos production, or at least most of it. And now the cost of asbestos abatement and mesothelioma treatment is an ongoing problem for individuals, taxpayers, and businesses.
And do we want to talk about Vioxx? Tanning beds? And now there are questions being asked about Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in just about every plastic bottle you’ve ever touched. It may be dangerous, it may not. Opinions vary. Just note that the same political and business leaders who deny BPA could be dangerous are the same ones who like to yell “drill, baby, drill.”
Barbara O’ Brien
Rebel Green: Responsibly Made Products
July 19th, 2010
I love the totes on this site. 100% certified organic cotton printed with low impact inks and pure CLASS. Rebel Green: Responsibly Made Products.
