Posted By: emmaspirit on

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007, 8:05 pm

A Green Day at the Zoo

This past weekend I joined my younger brother and his three perfect children (ages 9, 6 and 3) for a day at the Central Park Zoo. I expected silly monkeys, slippery seals, camera-happy polar bears but I didn't expect to see a bevy of organic options in the Zoo cafeteria!

Organic everything...organic peanut butter and jelly, organic grilled cheese, organic juices, organic bread on all the sandwiches, organic milk...even organic french fries! Here is a pic of my 3 year old nephew showing how much he loves his organic ham and cheese!

I also saw recycled paper products and recycling bins throughout the Zoo. And my 6 year niece was so proud to show me how she knew all about how to sort the garbage from the bottles so we could recycle.

Hats off to the Zoo for going Green. I was truly surprised...but tell me, are you seeing Green in unexpected places? Share your stories and pics!

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Monday, May 28th, 2007, 1:05 pm

Sustainability?

I hear this word all the time and yet I'm not 100% sure what it means. I know it is some sort of an ideal state within the Green lifestyle. I hear about buying sustainable products and living in sustainable housing. I often hear this word when in discussions involving transportation, housing, energy, and food.

During a quick trip to Wikipedia, I found a quote that helped me better understand sustainability.
Lester R. Brown, an environmental analyst, summarizes the situation as "sustaining progress depends on shifting from a fossil fuel-based, automobile-centered, economy to a renewable energy-based, diversified transport, reuse/recycle economy".

So it seems that going green is a process of shifting to a sustainable lifestyle. And being sustainable means creating a lifestyle with a goal towards not exhausting natural resources and favoring renewable options whenever practical.

Green is about making smart, practical, everyday choices...
• Do I walk all the way across town to the nearest farmer's market or do I swing by my corner grocery store to get produce for dinner?
• Do I spend an additional $5 on an energy-saving CFL light bulb that will last longer then a regular $2 light bulb?
• Do I open my windows on a hot, humid summer day or turn on my air-conditioner?

Do I choose the short term easy, comfortable, less expensive option
or
the long term "I'm saving the planet" option?

Sometimes when I have little time, I choose the easier, non-Green option. Sometimes when I'm feeling strapped for cash, I choose to close my wallet on Green. Sometimes when Green feels like too much of an effort, I choose Red instead. Red because I do know Green is the better choice, and I get embarrassed that I gave in.

How do I know that Green is the better choice and my Green sacrifices are actually making a difference? I'm not a scientist so I truly don't know what leads to global warming. But I do know that when I shift and make a Green choice, my whole body feels like it is a good decision. It just sits right with me and makes me smile. And those smiles are quite sustainable.

Tags: sustainability, green, organic, igogreen

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, May 13th, 2007, 12:49 pm

Green Eyes and Greener Face

Sometimes I goof up with Green. I seem to do okay with buying Green food (organic and local natural foods) but I have a harder time sticking to Green stuff for my home. I like to blame it on the fact that it is harder to find Green, non-toxic products like natural carpet or rug pads, but that isn't really true anymore. I know where to find the Green stuff, I just don't always want to make a sacrifice for décor. My home décor matters to me and so sometimes I give in and buy something that isn't Green. And sometimes I suffer as a result.

You see I wanted a lush cream rug for our guest room. The room was all cream and aqua and I wanted it to feel like a private sanctuary...like living on the beach. I placed sea shells around the room and even hung a privacy sign on the guest room doorknob from Shutters - a famous Santa Monica beach hotel. But when it came to the new rug I needed to buy, I was stumped. Where was I going to find a thick, gorgeous, plush, non-toxic, cream colored rug that would make my feet feel like they were walking on sand?

Determined that I couldn't find such a rug, I just went to a local rug store. I looked at nearly a hundred rugs hung from the ceiling and touched them to feel their potential plushness. After 30 minutes, my head ached, my eyes were watering and my throat felt swollen. I left in a hurry, without a rug, and came home to take a shower and get the chemical rugness off my body and out of my head.

Dr. Blue Eyes looked up from his book and suggested that I call Green Depot - a leading supplier of Green products with a wide assortment of natural rugs. I called for samples and they were sent within days. I selected a yummy cream rug and an extra thick rug pad. They needed to be specially ordered (at a similar price to chemical laden rugs) and arrived within a few weeks. I couldn't wait to get them on the floor and complete my dream beach retreat.

I can honestly say that the rug looked and felt great on my bare feet. But it stank to high heaven. Not a chemical smell exactly but a wooly, natural, animal-type smell. Like we were putting our guests up in a barn.

After 6 months of convincing ourselves that we just needed to ride it out and the smell would go away...that Green is a bit of a sacrifice...I broke down and called Green Depot. They sent out an expert right away and sure enough, we discovered that the manufacture had sent us the wrong rug pad. I'm not sure where the goof happened...but it wasn't non-toxic and when we replaced it with one that was.

So I learned that even when buying Green, I need to be vigilant and I need to think of my family's health first over my lofty décor ideas. Fortunately, this time it all worked out in the end, and my beach dream has been completely fulfilled.

Since you asked, here are some photos! 

Tags: nontoxic, green, natural, decor, rugs

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, May 6th, 2007, 10:49 am

Easy Going Green?

Is it easy to go green? Well I think it is getting easier every day. When I started about 6 years ago, it wasn't nearly as easy as it is now. Today, information about Green is blooming everywhere...which is good and not as good. I'm pleased that more people are being exposed to the importance of being eco-friendly -for their own personal health, their family and the health of our planet. This increase in Green demand has made it much easier to find Green products. Yet I'm concerned that some people think Green is just a trend. Since this level of media attention cannot sustain itself, I'm worried that folks will drop Green like a hot potato for the next big thing. I hope that through our sincere efforts here in this Green group, people will see the value of going Green for themselves and make it a conscious lifestyle choice.

Here are a few examples of how I knew that going Green was the right lifestyle choice for me:

- My apartment didn't smell anymore. Seriously. When we got rid of the synthetic carpets, the chemical cleansers, the NYC unfiltered air, the scented candles, I felt I could breathe clean air inside for the first time. This was most noticeable when I fell off the wagon and brought something toxic into the apartment.

o In need of a TV/computer home entertainment cabinet, I explored various stores in NYC with an eye for what would go best with our décor. It never occurred to me that the nice looking and already off-gassed sample furniture at the store wasn't the same piece that would be delivered to my apartment 6 weeks later. So when the piece arrived, I signed for it with a smile thinking just how beautiful it would look in our study. I thought the initial smell was from the kinda sweaty delivery men...so I spent the next 2 hours setting up all our TV/Computer/Stereo/DVD tech equipment into the new home entertainment cabinet. And then my husband came home. He went right up to the wooden piece the size of a queen size bed and gave it a good long sniff. Then he turned to me and said "Baby, I think it is beautiful but it has to go. It smells of toxic stain and chemicals that they use to seal the wood and keep out bugs. It will make us sick." Definitely not the reaction I was expecting. And marriage being a series of compromises, we just closed the door to the study and opened the windows...for 6 weeks...and then after the cabinet off-gassed, we used the room again. (In fact, now I know that it can take from 6 weeks to 6 months (!) for products to off-gas from all the chemicals manufacturers use.) Now I only buy non-toxic furniture, floor samples or antiques. Lesson learned!

- I sleep better at night. In bed I was a tosser and a turner with a perpetual runny nose and dry cough at night. Not the prettiest sight or the best way to start off a marriage. After we purchased our organic mattress (just $1100 for a custom made organic cotton mattress at 7th Generation at http://www.seventhgeneration.com), organic sheets/pillowcases/pillows, I was a new woman in bed. I now sleep soundly without Kleenex or a water pitcher nearby.

- My cooking doesn't make people sick anymore. I could write a book about my cooking mishaps... like when too much smoke from my cheap rental apartment oven led to us shivering all night due to the open windows... but I would rather share the lesson I learned from when I poisoned my husband with soy sauce. It seems that conventionally Soy Sauce has MSG - one of the more allergenic substances used in everyday cooking. Pleased with myself over my new, soy sauced, stir fry concoction, I watched as Dr. Blue Eyes ate and then his eyes turned red...his throat swelled up...his temperature soared. Now I grow and buy organic spices and turn to Sally Fallon's expert cookbook Nourishing Traditions for all my healthy recipes. Sally does a wonderful job at explaining why foods can make you sick and how to prepare healthy home cooked meals. You can read about her popular book on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735.

What have been your experiences on trying to go Green? Please share so we can all learn how to make it easier for each other.

Tags: organic, doctor, nontoxic, green, healthy