Posts Tagged ‘green consumerism’
Green Stuff We Love for Dad
In honor of Father’s Day … or for any special Earthkeeping guy in your life … check out these green goods to make the most of his day in the sun:

The TING “sling” is a handwoven hammock made of reclaimed and repurposed seatbelt webbing that otherwise would wind up in the waste stream.

Our Earthkeepers™ X-Band sandals feature organic canvas in the uppers and recycled rubber in the outsole and midsole. Burnished nubuck leather comes from a silver-rated tannery (one that has received a silver rating for its reduced energy use, reduced waste and quality water treatment).
Burt’s Bees chemical-free sunscreen provides UVA/UVB protection and helps keep skin hydrated without using chemical sunscreen actives like octinoxate and oxybenzone. Instead, titanium dioxide (a naturally-occurring mineral) creates a micro-fine barrier to reflect the sun’s harmful rays from Dad’s most sensitive spots.
When Father’s Day turns into night, Ikea’s Solig solar-powered lanterns keep the celebration going. These lights run on solar cells that transform sunlight into electricity, requiring no electrical connections and saving energy.

Green Stuff We Love for Mother’s Day
Earthkeepers love their moms and Mother Earth … here are a few gift ideas sure to please them both:
With the Sabertec Blade attached to her car’s tailpipe, Mom can cut 12 percent of the vehicle’s carbon emissions – and get six more miles per gallon.
While dish detergent wouldn’t normally top our gift list, Method’s Smarty Dish tablets smell good (pink grapefruit) and are good for the environment (containing no phosphates or bleach).
Reclaimed glass from old car windshields come back to life in the form of this beautiful multi-purpose bowl from Uncommon Goods (beer and wine glasses, too).
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t suggest one of our own 100% organic cotton t-shirts, printed with water-based inks.
Have another green gift idea you love? Share it with us.
Good Green Reading: Big Green Purse
Editor’s note: The following excerpt is from Diane MacEachern’s book, “Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World.” We like the book for its organized information (segemented by categories from personal-care products to appliances and electronics), product/company reviews and easy-to-follow suggestions for greener living … and although it targets women consumers and readers, we found most of the content equally guy-friendly and relevant.
From the moment we get up in the morning until the moment we go to bed, we depend on energy to maintain our busy schedules. Just flick a switch or push a button. Alarm clocks and coffeepots buzz to life. Toasters and TVs feed us body and (occasionally) brain. Hair dryers and dishwashers whir, computers and Cuisinarts stir.
It’s so easy we probably aren’t even aware that we’re using energy, let alone how it affects the planet. Take electricity. Creating kilowatts is the leading cause of industrial air pollution in the United States. Most of our electricity comes from coal, and it leaves its mark not only on our well-lit households, but also in the smog, soot, acid rain, particulate matter, and other air pollutants that cause asthma and have been linked to increased heart disease among women. When we shift to power-saving strategies at home, we’re standing up for cleaner air and our right to breathe it.
Abating electricity demand also helps moderate global warming. US households produce 21 percent of the country’s global-warming pollution. That’s more than the entire heat-trapping output of the United Kingdom, according to Phillips Electronics and Environmental Defense.
Less is More
Today’s blog entry by Collin Dunn over at Huffington Post reminds us being an eco-conscious consumer isn’t all about buying organic — or hybrid — or energy-efficient “stuff” — it’s also about buying less stuff and making sure the stuff we do buy is more durable than disposable.
Green is good, no doubt about it … but it’s so easy to get caught up in our Earthkeeping desire and responsibility to purchase nothing but the greenest that we sometimes run the risk of buying things we don’t really need. As Dunn points out, “Recycling is great; buying green is great; but they both take energy and resources that can be saved by having something that will last a lifetime.”
For a sharper, deeper dive into the environmental impact of our production and consumption habits — and how we can change those habits – visit Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff website. If you haven’t seen it, Leonard’s Story of Stuff video offers a thought-provoking glimpse at how the consumable goods cycle impacts our lives (including the staggering statistic that 99% of the “stuff” we buy gets disposed of after a mere six months):
You’ll never look at your iPod the same way again.
Do Small Steps Count Toward Saving the World?
We were interested to read this recent post on WorldChanging, which poses a question about the role of green consumerism in creating truly notable environmental change.
The debate centers around a report issued by WWF which suggests that “marketing” approaches to creating environmentally-responsible behavior change are inadequate, and that the consumer-friendly message that small and painless steps can ultimately lead to larger-scale impact is misguided.
The WWF report and subsequent blog post led to a healthy debate on whether small steps can actually save the world. Comments following the WorldChanging blog post ranged from “there’s nothing small about individuals taking personal responsibility” to “the huge problems facing us cannot be solved with the use of ‘greener’ bulbs.” Following WorldChanging’s post, Treehugger also weighed in, stating, “To deride a small step as useless is to deride a single vote as ineffective, but that is what will make change happen.”
Clearly, a hot topic for Earthkeepers everywhere … and we think that’s a good thing. The more voices lending insight and opinion to the discussion, the more we collectively learn … and the more ideas we generate about how to solve the problem. Our thanks to WorldChanging for stirring the pot.










