Green Goes Simple

Better for Baby

By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple

Look for Natural Playthings

Babies put everything in their mouths, especially their playthings. Toys made from plastic can sometimes contain not-so-healthy chemicals. To stay safe, skip gear made with PVC and choose toys made from natural materials like wood or bamboo.

Photo: @iStockphoto.com/trait2lumiere

Go With Glass Bottles

When it comes to bottles, glass is usually safest. Just like in toys, many plastic bottles contain potentially harmful chemicals, such as BPA (bisphenol A), which can leech into your baby’s milk or formula. Glass bottles don’t contain these chemicals — plus they can be recycled, which adds to their eco-benefits.

Photo: @iStockphoto.com/burwellphotography

Wash With Cold Water

Laundry is an inevitable part of life with baby. Keep your cutie’s clothes looking fresh and new — and conserve energy! — by washing them on the delicate cycle in cold water. To get the most out of each load, look for detergents that are designed for use in cold water.

Photo: @iStockphoto.com/AndrejaD

Borrow or Buy Gently Used Items

There’s no need to invest in new, fancy furniture and accessories for your tiny new addition. Look into borrowing a crib (you’ll need to buy a new mattress), car seat and high chair from a friend or family member. Visit a secondhand store for gear that’s been gently used, or check out options on Freecyle.org or Craigslist.org. Whether you’re borrowing or buying secondhand, just be sure to check for any recent recalls on CPSC.gov.

Create a Nurturing Nursery

The air your baby breathes is just as important as the clothes he wears and the milk he drinks. When decorating your baby’s room, choose paints with low- or zero-VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and be sure that lots of natural light fills the space.

Photo: @iStockphoto.com/wakila

This Valentines Day, Give Your Sweetie Fair Trade-Certified Treats | Change.org News.

Many folks will surprise their sweethearts today with an assortment of chocolate goodies. While treats like Hershey’s Chocolate Hearts may taste sweet, they often hide a cruel secret — child labor and exploitation.

As The Atlantic reports, the majority of the world’s cacao — the bean from which chocolate bars are produced — is grown and harvested in Africa. One-third of the world’s cocoa beans come from Cote d’Ivoire, while another 30 percent of the global supply originates in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The rest comes from Central and South America. These countries’ six million cocoa farmers churn out about three million tons of cocoa beans every, single year.

That steady stream of beans keeps major chocolate manufacturers like Hershey’s in business. There’s just one problem: Hershey’s profits come at the cost of child labor, exploitation of impoverished farmers, human trafficking, and unfair labor practices.

The majority of the world’s cocoa beans come from family farmers in Africa. Oftentimes these farms rely on child labor, preventing kids from attending school and exposing them to dangers like chemical pesticides and herbicides. According to the American Federation of Teachers, about 3.6 million children in West Africa work on cocoa farmers, some of whom were trafficked illegally. Child slavery is especially prevalent on Cote d’Ivoire cocoa farms, where there are about 15,000 kids subjected to slavery. It’s a situation that has many referring to cocoa beans’ final product as “blood chocolate.”

These kinds of dangerous, unfair conditions are perpetuated by the incredibly low wages farmers receive for their cocoa beans. Like most commodities, the chocolate industry is dominated by a few major players.According to The Atlantic, the world’s top 10 chocolate manufacturers are responsible for 40 percent of global chocolate sales. These companies have a chokehold on the chocolate industry, demanding a steady supply of beans at rock-bottom prices. Corporations like Hershey’s rake in billions of dollars a year, while the most important part of the chocolate business — the farmers — make mere pittances.

Fair Trade certification aims to make the chocolate industry a whole lot sweeter. This third-party certification system ensures that cocoa beans come from farms that don’t rely on forced or child labor. It also mandates that farmers must receive a fair wage for their product, preventing the kinds of extortion and exploitation that have become so prevalent in the chocolate industry.

Companies from Kraft to Nestle to Ben & Jerry’s have made at least some kind of commitment to investigate where their cocoa comes from and work with certifiers to eliminate unfair labor practices in their supply chains. Hershey’s, however, stubbornly refuses to embrace Fair Trade-certified cocoa despite boasting record profits this year. It’s time that the company ditched the dark side of its chocolate empire.Sign International Labor Rights Forum’s petition asking Hershey’s to incorporate Fair Trade-certified cocoainto its supply chain.

Photo credit: Magic Madzik via Flickr

Last week I attended a luncheon to learn more about Smart Grids. In case you don’t know what a smart grid is it is a way for consumers and suppliers to monitor energy demands and reduce cost by being more aware of usage.

I think smart grid system are an awesome tool to help save energy and cost.  I think the electric companies have an uphill battle with gaining the trust of many of their consumers. Many people fear higher costs.

Here are the key points that were discussed -

Why we need the smart grid.

Address our aging infrastructure

• Approximately 60% of the current electric power grid will need to be replaced within the next 10 years.
• Our current electrical grid is built on an aging infrastructure. The average age of a substation transformer is 42, which is two more years than their expected life span.

Save consumers money

• In some recent studies, consumers have been able to reduce their monthly energy consumption by 10-15%.
• There were 41% more outages affecting 50,000 or more consumers in the second half of the 1990’s than in the first half of the decade.
• These outages and interruptions cost Americans $150 billion annually – or $500 for each one of us.
• Increasing energy efficiency, renewable energy and distributed generation would save an estimated $36 billion annually.
• The Norman, OK school district saved $15,000 in just two months after implementing smart grid technology.

Environmental benefits

• Smart grid technology will reduce the need to build more fossil-fueled power plants while encouraging the use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar. This will also lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
• Implementation of the smart grid would reduce carbon from electrical power by 25% or roughly 10% of overall US CO2 emissions. This savings is estimated to have the same impact as removing 140 million cars from the road.

How smart grid technology allows you to take control of your energy consumption.

The smart grid empowers you by making the energy you use and the price you pay for it more transparent.

• The smart grid and smart meters show you how much energy you are using in your home from, day to day, and what it costs you.
• Because energy prices vary considerably during the day because of changing demand, you will soon be able to see the least expensive times to run your appliances, such as washers and dishwashers, which will mean significant financial savings.

The current and future tools of the smart grid technology.

• You will soon be able to receive alerts via text, email, and telephone call as you move through the energy tiers towards higher costs for electricity.
• Smart meter technology will alert your utility company in the case of a power outage so they can restore your power faster.
• In the future you will be able to control the energy usage of the appliances in your home through chips connected to your home area network.

Learn more about Smart Grids here

http://www.silverspringnet.com/

http://www.pge.com/smartmeter/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/ge-survey-shows-consumer-love-of-smart-grid-growing.php

Disclosure:

I wrote this post after attending an informational luncheon on behalf of Silver Spring Networks and Mom Central Consulting and received a gift bag and gift card as a thank you for taking the time to participate.

www.MomCentralConsulting.com,

Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints
Conservation With Kids

By Cynthia Ramnarace for Green Goes Simple

“Mommy, you’re not saving the Earth.” Mira folded her 6-year-old arms at me as I cleaned the stove while the water ran idly in the sink.

She was right. I told her so and turned off the tap.

My kids — Mira and 3-year-old Miles — have turned out to be excellent ambassadors for the three R’s: reusing, recycling and reducing. They know that a pair of scissors, a rubber band and some markers can transform a paper towel roll into a fashionable set of binoculars. And when we’re out and about, we never toss an empty water bottle in the trash simply because a recycling bin is out of sight; Mira, for one, advocates bringing the plastic bottle home and disposing of it properly.

These are great first steps, but I’m continually in search of new ways to encourage earth-friendly activities around the house. After all, just last summer I still fielded requests to fill the kiddie pool daily, and I often caught a little one standing in front of an open fridge leisurely assessing its contents.

So I asked some eco-minded moms for tips on encouraging conservation and reducing waste among the younger set. Here’s what they said.

1. Enlist your kids’ imaginations.
Before you recycle a soda bottle, cardboard box or glass jar, ask your kids if they think there’s a way to reuse it. For inspiration, consider what Sheri Amsel’s kids created with a 2-liter plastic bottle. Amsel, author of 365 Ways to Live Green for Kids: Saving the Environment at Home, School, or at Play — Every Day!, helped them create terrariums filled with plants and the occasional small creature. They also used them to store marbles, rocks and action figures.

2. Give them responsibility.
Looking for the perfect starter chore for your young kids? Put them in charge of recycling. Let them decorate each bin — paper, plastic, glass — with pictures, stickers and designs. Then make a game out of recycling, suggests Morgan McKean, blogger at TheGreenChick.me and mother of 5-year-old Jamil.

“Gather several disposable items from around your house, hold them up in front of your children and ask, ‘Recycle or trash?’” says McKean. This teaches kids about recycling, but it also shows them how much waste winds up in the garbage bin. And that might spark ideas for ways to use less!

As kids get older, they’ll outgrow sorting games like this one. Amsel suggests putting older kids in charge of collecting the redeemable recyclables. Their incentive? They can keep whatever money they make at the recycling center.

3. Make it fun.
To get her 5-year-old son to use less water, McKean uses a game called Beat the Timer. Whenever he’s watering plants in the yard or using the shower or sink, McKean sets a timer and challenges him to finish before the buzzer goes off. “This makes water conservation fun and establishes a pattern for respecting water and our limited supply of it,” she says.

“The same can be done with the refrigerator door, I realized. Now my kids count to 10 once they open the door. If they haven’t figured it out by then, they get what mommy picks.”

4. Lead by example.
Last but not least, be a good model. “As much as we want kids to do it on their own, they really model after us,” says Amsel. “So if we reuse things and talk about why we’re reusing them, kids pick up on that.”

Cynthia Ramnarace is a freelance writer in Queens, N.Y. She is a regular contributor to iVillage.com and AARP Bulletin. Her work also appears frequently in American Baby and Kiwi magazines.

Last week I received an adorable Mimi the Sardine Lunchbug. We got the Propeller Lunchbug, a very cool design with helicopters and airplanes on it.

We have used the bag a few times now and I can tell it is going to be our favorite lunch/snack bag from here on out. It is super study and easy to carry.

Mimi’s lunchbugs are easy to clean: just wipe, or machine-wash and tumble dry on low. They are equipped with a sturdy zipper and soft handles, children and adults alike fall in love with the fun and colorful patterns, and everyone appreciates its eco-friendly and safe fabric. They are lined with an adorable complement dot or stripe acrylic-coated fabric.

I highly recommend this product for everyone with a young one(or adults) that need to pack food for on the go.

Buy this awesome lunch bag here.

Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

Transform Your Trash

By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple

The jars came first. Instead of sending my growing collection of empty glass receptacles to their usual fate at the bottom of the recycle bin, I did something unexpected — something wild. I peeled off their labels and plopped them in the dishwasher.

I wanted to see just what would happen if I gave these jars another chance. Full disclosure: I was motivated not only by the thought of transforming trash into something new, something useful, even something cool, but also by the fact that jars were clogging up my kitchen. You see, we’re a jar-centric family, tearing through what I’m starting to believe is an abnormal amount of pickles, mustard (the spicy French and yellow varieties), sauces of both apple and tomato, and jams and jellies.

Bright and sparkling, fresh from a wash, empty jars were exactly what I was missing. Without their labels and sticky contents, these vessels found instant new homes as beverage glasses (drinking jars are big on rustic charm), loose-change receptacles, pen holders, and — my all-time favorite — vases. Nobody can resist a mason jar filled with daisies. Nobody.

Not a fan of pickles? No problem. Jars aren’t the only way to reuse that which you’d otherwise throw out. Paper towel tubes, shoe boxes and detergent bottles are all contenders for a useful second act.

Paper Towel Tubes
Pulling the last paper towel from the roll used to signal the end of something, but now it’s the start of something new. Paper towel tubes in their natural state are the ultimate building blocks for art projects — they provide hours of rainy day entertainment with kids — and they serve practical purposes too. Try these ideas:

1. Glue on a pair of paper wings or a tail, then draw on a face for an instant cardboard-tube animal.

1. Attach two tubes and decorate with paint and stickers for a pair of homemade binoculars.

1. Turned upright and outfitted with orange and yellow paper flames, paper towel tubes make fantastic fire-free candlesticks. Decorate them in orange and black for Halloween, or choose a Christmas or Hanukkah theme.

1. Adults can put paper towel tubes to good use by employing them to prop up droopy windows or to hold silverware and sharp knives when camping or picnicking.

Detergent/Fabric Softener Bottles
Empty, clean detergent and fabric softener bottles can be transformed into hand-held shovels or scoops (simply use a utility knife to cut off the bottom off the bottle). Adults and kids can use these in the garden and at the beach. Bonus: remove the cap and you have a funnel!

Shoe Boxes
Yes, shoe boxes are ideal for household organizing (think: recipe cards, old love letters, office items, sewing supplies, Legos, electric cords and much more). But they’re even more versatile than that. Moving? Shoe boxes are ideal for packing smaller, loose items like tchotchkes, silverware, medicine bottles and the like. Gifting? Cover them with decorative paper, and you’ve got a homemade (and let’s admit it — more meaningful!) present package.

Marisa Belger’s work has appeared in Travel + Leisure Family, Natural Health, Prevention and on the TODAYShow.com. She was a founding editor of Lime.com — which specialized in wellness and sustainable living — and she collaborated with author Josh Dorfman on his bestselling books, The Lazy Environmentalist and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget.

Having a three year old son and being an artsy person myself we make a lot of art in our house. Finding eco friendly art supplies is important.

One of our favorite mediums is crayons on cardboard. I love the way the colors look on the tan cardboard.

Lately we have been going through more art supplies. Crayons get broke into tiny pieces and become unusable. Play doh doesn’t get put away becomes hard. We paint on the front and back of everything possible.

I am keeping all of the bits of crayons thinking someday I will melt them together and make one big crayon or some cool shapes like these.

recycled crayons

I have seen a lot of recipes for homemade play dough but I haven’t tried any yet, Do you have any that you recommend?

Here are a couple great websites I have came across while looking for eco art supplies :

Clementine Art -Natural. Fresh. Real. I am going to have to check these supplies out. I am especially curious about the paint(especially for my art projects)

Eco-kids eco-kids is dedicated to offering art supplies for creative play the natural way using only the most natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints

6 Ways to Go Green for Back to School

By April Davis for Green Goes Simple

When I was a kid, the very best thing about a new school year was all the new stuff that went with it: new pencils, new notebooks and new clothes. Come late August, you went shopping for all the supplies — regardless of what was left over from last June.

But times have changed, and so should the back-to-school routine. Maydelle Fason, a green-living mother of two and a former horticulturist, offers some tips for preparing your kids while protecting the environment.

Clothing Swap
About that new wardrobe … skip it! The best way to outfit the little ones is a friendly neighborhood clothing swap. It’s a win-win: The kids get new-to-them styles and parents avoid the madness of back-to-school shopping (and even better, they save money!). If new duds are a must, Fason suggests buying clothing that is made from natural fibers and manufactured sustainably.

My Box Is Metal
Bring back the 1970s by giving your kid a retro lunch box instead of a disposable bag to tote back to school. Better yet, use pretty, insulated lunch sacks made from recycled materials. For sandwiches or snacks, opt for easy-to-clean, reusable cloth bags or sturdy reusable containers.

Getting There
With schools cutting back on bus service to lower costs, many parents are faced with few transportation alternatives. Fason lives in New York City and is able to take her daughter to school via subway. (As a bonus, the two read books on the way.) If public transportation isn’t an option for you, try riding bikes to school or organizing a carpool with other parents.

I’m Thirsty!
It’s important to keep kids hydrated, and sending your child to school with a reusable bottle keeps trash out of landfills. Make it even more fun by letting her pick it out herself!

Still Useful
Resist the urge to buy all-new school supplies. (Junior’s crayons don’t need a perfectly pointy tip to create his masterpieces). Gently used binders and book bags can easily last a second — or third — year. And investing in sturdy, simple backpacks that go the distance means you can skip that hot-today-gone-tomorrow celebrity product (sorry, Justin Bieber!). For supplies that must be replenished — like paper — look for post-consumer recycled options.

Increase Your Impact
Greening your children’s back-to-school routine is a great start. But your best move is to encourage local administrators to reduce, reuse and recycle at school. Ask them to email rather than send paper notes home, and encourage an all-school recycling program. Be the spark that gets your school going!

April Davis is a writer and elementary school teacher. She writes a monthly column for the TriCity News, a weekly paper on the Jersey Shore. She has also worked for CBS News and MSNBC.

Green Goes Simple: The Green Scoop

Green Your Kid: Gardening

By Lynda Fassa for Green Goes Simple

There are many fun things to do in the backyard with the kids: picnicking, jumping through the sprinkler and playing catch-and-release firefly competitions, to name a few. But the most memorable — and possibly the best brain-builder — is gardening.

Scientists and pediatricians have learned that kids who garden do better in school. There’s something magical about planting a seed, nurturing it and watching it grow. The biggest bonus comes when the flower blooms or the fruits (and veggies) of their labor end up on the kitchen table. For my family, the experience of planting one seed that turned into a huge pumpkin — about 6 pounds! — was a thrill.

Try these easy tips to give your kids a positive “growth” experience.

1. Find the right spot.
Choose a small, sunny area of your yard — or consider using a window box or joining a community garden.

2. Pick your plants.
If you’re new to this, you’ll probably want to stay away from hard-to-care-for beauties, like roses. The biggest, easiest wow-factor plants are sunflowers, butterfly bushes and mint (which is delicious in herbal tea or salads).

3. Cultivate a stress-free green thumb.
Gardening with kids should be easy and enjoyable, with minimal planning the first season. If you’re too late in the season to start from seeds, check out your local nursery and let the kids pick a couple of starter plants. Even the youngest children can turn a small plot of soil, dig a hole and replant. It’s a joyous responsibility and a great lesson in stewardship for the kids to take turns pulling weeds and watering every day.

Working in the garden reminds adults and children how connected we all are. When the earthworms, the sun’s warming rays and generous summer rains work together, small and fragile plants can grow to become big, strong and vital — just like your kids. Can you dig it?

Lynda Fassa is the founder of Green Babies, an organic-cotton baby clothing company, and the author of two books (Green Babies, Sage Moms and Green Kids, Sage Families). She is a frequent blogger for sites like Grist.org, ParentsConnect.com, Treehugger.com and PlanetGreen.com. Lynda has also appeared in People, The New York Times, Parents and Parenting, and on the “Today” show, “Planet Green,” “Fox News Happy Hour,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “ABC News” and more.