Karen sent a sample bag to Enviromom and she did a nice review and gave us ‘props’. Thanks Enviromom for the link and for all that you do. I also like this link “Could you become a vegetarian to save the planet?”

Enviromom is all about raising green kids in Portland. I think every town needs an Enviromom. It can be so overwhelming to try to teach your kids how to be green, but having great influences like Heather and Renee makes it easy… and they are so inspiring.

With my third child we are using cloth diapers. Primarily my stash consists of BumGenius 3.0 and a few Happy Heinies, and we also use cloth wipes and California Baby Diaper Area Wash. I bought a case of Kirkland Baby wipes from Costco, because I use disposables at night (so far I haven’t found anything that the little man doesn’t pee through). I read a post on enviromom about reusable hankies, and there was a comment about the Kirkland wipes saying that they were washable since they are made out of cloth. My first reaction was that the commenter must have been mistaken. Wash a throw away wipe? But in the interest of being green and trying to create less waste, I decided to try it. The next few times I used the kirkland wipes and threw them in my dry pail with the diapers, then laundered as usual. You know what? It works! I was so excited I told my husband, but he was noticeably less enthused - I guess he doesn’t want to wipe his nose on something that has been used to wipe the baby butt…But it is clean, after all, so why should it matter? At the very least I reuse them as wipes, and sometimes as tissues. Since I am accumulating so many, I need to find a way to organize them - maybe a designated box? I want to get the kids in the habit of wiping their noses on these wipes instead of buying tissues…think of the savings! My mom has also told me that the wipes are good for dusting - but after they are dried out, so I don’t know if they would work as well after being laundered for that purpose. Does anyone have any other good ideas for these re purposed wipes?

*this was not a sponsored post.

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. ~William Ruckelshaus, Business Week, 18 June 1990

Check it out: On Saturday March 29th, people and business’ all over the world are turning off their lights for one hour. Started in Australia by a WWF member, Earth Hour is designed to bring people’s awareness to global warming and the effect that each person can have. In 2007, Syndney turned off it’s lights for one hour. The effect was a more than 10% savings in energy, the equivilant to taking 48,000 cars off the road for one year! Now this year Earth Hour is going global. Try it! Here are 10 Things to Do in the Dark (from the Earth Hour website)

WWF Presents: Ten Things to Do in the Dark
Wondering what to do when the lights go out for Earth Hour? Here are ten fun ideas to help you, your family and your friends make a change and make a difference on March 29.

Host a Green Party

Get your friends together for an Earth Hour eco-party. Fire up the flashlights and battery lanterns, serve organic food, avoid the disposable utensils, use natural décor (like flowers and hanging plants) and have a friend provide acoustic music. Talk to your guests about how you’re each reducing your environmental footprint and share ideas and solutions for saving more energy, money and carbon dioxide.

Give Yourself an Energy Makeover

Use Earth Hour to make your home more energy efficient: Replace your old light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs; install power strips (so you can turn computers and electronics on and off more easily); and change your air conditioner filters. Or go one step farther and install one new energy-efficient item, like an EnergyStar qualified DVD player. And on Monday, call your local utility and sign up for green power—like wind, hydro or solar.

Go Green with Your Kids

Earth Hour is a perfect time to talk to your kids about the environment and why we need to protect our planet from the dangers of climate change. Check out books on the environment from the library and read by flashlight, or head into the yard and have a night picnic. Or how about a night of board games? There are even Earth Hour kids’ activities you can download at www.earthhour.org.

Do a Recyclables Scavenger Hunt

Get your flashlights and scour your cabinets and shelves for cans, bottles and cardboard (like cereal boxes) that you don’t normally recycle. Make a list of all the non-recyclable containers you’re using now (like plastic shopping bags and butter tubs), and figure out ways to reduce your consumption of items that end up in landfills. One easy tip: get reusable grocery bags…and reuse them!

Green That Workspace!

Working the night shift? Even if you can’t turn off all the lights at work, look around and see what you can unplug, turn down or use less of (like consuming less paper by printing double-sided). Every day millions of computer screens and speakers are left on overnight—shut ‘em off! And talk to your coworkers about what they can do to help make a difference too.

Involve Your Local Leaders

If your city or town isn’t already hosting an Earth Hour event, ask your local government to set up a community “green” discussion in a public building from 8 to 9 p.m. on March 29. Help organize attendance by reaching out to local environmental and community groups, and come prepared to ask your leaders what they’re doing to make your city greener.

Clean Up Your Neighborhood

Grab a flashlight and take a long walk through your neighborhood, picking up trash and recyclables as you go. It’s a great chance to do some stargazing too!

Unplug and Chill Out

Most of our daily activities—like watching TV, shopping online and texting friends—require loads of electricity, but do we really need to do so much stuff all the time? Take one hour for yourself to just chill…turn off the screens, put down the handheld devices and just take some “you” time to reflect, read or talk to your family. After all, why do more when you can do less?

Take Your Temperature

Your thermostat and your refrigerator are responsible for a huge portion of your carbon footprint. If you lower your thermostat by just 2 degrees and set your fridge to 37° F. and the freezer at 0° F., you’ll make a big difference.

Make a Pledge for the Planet

Earth Hour shouldn’t end at 9:01 pm—it’s a chance to take a first step toward lowering your overall impact on the environment. So use part of that hour to make a personal pledge to do more—recycle, drive less often, remember to turn off or unplug electronics, and beyond. The only way we’re going to stabilize our climate is if we make real changes in our everyday lives. That change begins with Earth Hour, and ends with a healthy planet.

Most of us don’t get nearly enough greens in our diet. Greens (think spinach, kale, chard, collard greens, etc.) are a powerhouse of nutrition. They contain calcium, protein (yes protein!), vitamins and essential amino acids. They are fat free, high in fiber, low in calories, and have no cholesterol.
I have discovered a fantastic way to add greens to you diet that is easy and yummy, and yes, even your kids will like it! What is it you ask? “Green” Smoothies! Before you say “ewwww!”, read on. A basic recipe for a green smoothie is this:
1 cup strawberries
1-2 bananas
2 handfuls greens (spinach, romaine, chard, kale, etc.)
2 cups liquid (water, orange juice, apple juice, etc.)
Blend in a high speed blender (vita-mix or blendtec), drink and enjoy!
This recipe makes about a quart of green smoothies, which is the amount recommended by Victoria Boutenko in her book, Green For Life.

This recipe can be customized any way you like your smoothies. Add frozen fruits to make it purple instead of green. Use bananas, mango, pineapple, and coconut milk to give it a tropical taste, or just use whatever you and your kids like. Experiment and discover how good you feel after drinking your green smoothie every day.

If you want more information on the green smoothie, a great web resource is www.greensmoothiegirl.com. On her website she demonstrates how to make a green smoothie. Check it out and start on your path to better health and nutrition.

We now have the new envirosax designs! Check out the new Mikado line - I think it is my new favorite with the calm colors and the slightly asian feel. Also in stock are the new Envirosax Kids line. Choose from 6 very cute designs for the youngest member of your family and get them started on their own path to greenness! The Retro Kitchen 5 pack is another design that we have added to our inventory. Check us out here.

Shaklee’s Get Clean Starter Kit was featured on the always anticipated show of the year, Oprah’s Favorite Things. Here is what they said on the Favorite Things website:

“Regular viewers, like those in Macon, may remember how much Oprah loves cleaning and spot removal—this gift gets things clean and helps the environment. The Get Clean Starter Kit by Shaklee is filled with eco-friendly, high performance concentrated cleaners, stain removers and cleaning supplies. “Get ready to go green!” Oprah says.”

Check it out HERE

Shaklee is the first company in the WORLD to become Climate Neutral certified thus making a net zero impact on the environment. Shaklee is now buying 100 percent green energy or renewable power to meet its purchased electricity needs.

Shaklee will purchase its green or renewable power from San Francisco-based 3 Phases Energy, a renewable energy supplier. Renewable power is derived from a sustainable source such as wind, solar, or geothermal energy.

You can link to the entire story HERE.

I am so happy to know that I am contributing my small part to this company by “Shaklee-izing” my home. I now use their cleaning products (GET CLEAN), their skin care (ENFUSELLE), their make up (MINERELLES) and am now looking into the NUTRITION products.

And the best news yet is that the Green Girl’s are now officially offering these environmentally conscious products!!!

So okay Shaklee is Climate Neutral (TM), but does it work. Here is the story behind how I started using Shaklee.

You know we are always supposed to listen to our mom b/c ‘mommy knows best’, but we also know that deep down inside we want to disagree w/ mom… just because. Well, MY mom has been selling Shaklee products for some time now and I’ve always kind of let it all go in one ear and out the other… 1. Not a big fan of cleaning so any cleaning talk was useless to me (ha) and 2. I’m my own woman and didn’t need my mom telling me how to do things…. Ha ha

Fast forward: I’m a wife, mom, home owner and let’s face it I’ve got to start cleaning this house!!! I’ll summarize the story as to how I got to using Shaklee products. Post birth of my babies my skin was a wreck… even more of a wreck than it had been previously… now in addition to my lovely acne I had I now had a not so attractive RIDUCULOUSLY dry patch on my face. Mom and I traveled together and she went on and on about Shaklee and finally I said, “okay.. I’ll try your stuff while we’re on this trip.” (in my mind thinking this SO isn’t going to work) Well, IT DID! The dry spot cleared up in less than a week and I was sold. Mom had talked about the environmental aspects of Shaklee all along, but I hadn’t done the research on my own. Now that I was going to order my own Enfuselle (another post to be done in the future RE: skin care, but if you are looking for info now click here to be directed to the website.) I was going to do my own research. WOW Shaklee is one environmentally conscious operation. This led me to look into their cleaning products.. Mom had sung their praises as well, but I was leary about the shipping cost. After what I read about Shaklee and their environmentally conscious business practices I felt it might be worth it. Not only is it worth it… it’s cost effective because the products are so concentrated. I’m not paying for them to ship a bunch of water. I don’t have to have a bunch of different cleaners. Basic H works on almost everything.

They have named their cleaning product campaign Get Clean – meaning not only get your house clean, but get our planet clean.

The products are safe for you to use.. no harmful chemicals and therefore no horrible odors… no more having to turn on the fan in the bathroom just to do the job. No more rubber gloves or worrying about your kids being close by or following behind and touching before everything has dried and gassed off.

Quoted from the Shaklee website: “Go to your cupboard right now. Pick a cleaner, any cleaner. Does it contain chlorine, phenol, ammonia, or formaldehyde? These—and more—may be toxic. Toxic as in dangerous, as in hurtful, as in not very clean at all.”

Shaklee cleaning products have:

* No napthalene
* No kerosene
* No formaldehyde
* No phenol
* No cresol
* No lye
* No hydrochloric acid
* No sulfuric acid
* No petroleum distillates
* No benzene
* No ammonia
* No paradichlorobenzene
* No sodium hydroxide
* No butyl cellosolve
* No phosphoric acid

There products are also good for the planet.

Quoted from the Shalkee website: “Get Cleanâ„¢ products use biodegradable cleaning agents, which means they break down easily instead of hanging out in the ground for hundreds of years. They also have no phosphates, borates, nitrates, or other stuff the planet doesn’t appreciate. And by making them superconcentrated, we leave you to add water so we can subtract waste. This has tons of implications. Literally. Less weight to ship. Less product to use. Less packaging to throw away. So you can get that clean feeling about your house, knowing you’re keeping the planet clean, too.”

Shaklee cleaning products have:

* Sustainably sourced natural ingredients
* Biodegradable
* No chlorine
* No phosphates
* No nitrates
* No borates
* No animal testing
* Recyclable packaging
* Recyclable wipes
* Recyclable dryer sheets

Some statistics from the website convinced me that purchasing the products on line and paying to have them shipped was worth the cost – and was actually a wash – because it helped me to achieve some of my personal goals for 2007: decreasing the amount of waste the I send to the landfill and decrease my environmental footprint. Here are the statistics that I found astonishing:

“108lbs of packaging waste stays out of landfills when you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit versus conventional ready-to-use cleaners.”

“248 pounds of greenhouse gas are eliminated when you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit versus conventional ready-to-use cleaners.”

I ordered the starter kit and I’ve gotta say I LOVE IT! Not only is it well packaged – hey come on .. I know it’s just cleaning stuff, but the fact that it looks good makes me feel good.. I don’t know why – it gets the job done and only drops of it are needed to perform hard tasks. Basic H rocks my cleaning world. You mix it in different degrees to clean different things… like windows vs. bathroom (all-purpose cleaners). I got my original shipment mid October 2006 and have yet to replace my LARGE Laundry detergent (PS. my mom brought this in June 06 and I just ran out today 10/7/07 - I wash A LOT), scour off paste (love this stuff for hard to clean stuff… the sink, caked on cooked on stuff on pots and pans) or my face wash. I have replaced Basic H, dish soap, hand soap, Nature Bright and fabric softener only once. I did order more dish detergent, but for some reason we run the dishwasher a lot.. how does a family of 4 - 2 of which are only 16 months old - go through so many dishes?

I will stop going on and just direct you to the place to go for all info about Getting Clean and staying Green!!!! It even comes w/ a cute little caddy and cleaning rags… LOVE IT! Click HERE.

Here are some things you can do around the house to “green up” the place.

1. Switch from your plastic food storage containers to glass (as the plastic wears out of course - don’t just throw perfectly good Tupperware in the garbage - creating unneeded waste - b/c you want to replace it.) Here are some resources for glass food storage containers: Crate and Barrel, Cooking.com, Kitchen Etc., and Wisementrading.

BECAUSE: Not only does glass not leach harmful toxins into your food it is made with out the use of petroleum and can be recycled easily into more glass again and again and again.

2. Use cast iron (the original non-stick) instead of non-stick coated pots and pans. You can get cast iron pots and pans at any good retailer. Check out Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel. And for those of us that are a bit more thrifty - JC Penney also carries some really nice looking cast iron. The good news is that when cast iron is cared for properly it lasts forever. My mom has plenty of cast iron that is much older than I!

BECAUSE: The use of non stick coated pots and pans has not yet been proven to cause problems for humans, but the development and application of these coatings does create perfluoroocrtanoic acid which has been shown to cause developmental problems in lab animals. Cooking in cast iron can increase the amount of iron in a food by around 80% - good news for all of us veggies out there. Plus it cooks things very evenly and can go from stove top to oven.

3. Purchase some reusable bags. Envirosax, good size w/ nice handles that fit over your shoulder. They come in awesome prints (b/c you want to look good carrying your bags) and roll up nice and small. And the lady that developed them is SUPER COOL. At Cafe Press, you can get one w/ your Green Girl splashed all over it! This one is large w/ long handles that will go over your shoulder as well. It doesn’t fold up as small, but it says GREEN GIRL on it! Come on!

BECAUSE: Decrease the amount of bags hitting the land fill by using yours over and over again!

4. Switch to non-toxic dish washing detergents such as Shaklee or Seventh Generation, or Bio-Kleen

BECAUSE: Conventional detergents pollute the water supply with chlorine and phosphates.

5. As your incandescent bulbs burn out replace them with compact fluorescents - CFLs.

BECAUSE: They last longer - about 10x longer - and will cost about $30 less over the life of the bulb. Yeah, less energy therefore less money leaving your pocket! One CFL can save 450 pounds of emissions from a power plant over its lifetime.

6. Use recycled toilet paper!

BECAUSE: According to the Natural Resource Defense Council we are destroying valuable habitat to make our disposable paper products - “But if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of 70-sheet virgin-fiber paper towels with 100 percent recycled towels, 544,000 trees could be saved.”

7. Change all of your household cleansers from conventional cleaners to either natural “around the house” cleaners (see below) or to a non-toxic environmental variety like Shaklee (have I beat that horse enough yet? Can’t help it … it’s what I use and I believe in their products.) Some natural cleaners you could use around the house include vinegar, baking soda and good old fashioned elbow grease.

BECAUSE: Conventional cleaners contain many harmful chemicals that are not only introduced to our water system, but are released into the air in YOUR HOME while you use them.

8. Install a rain barrel to collect run off water. Here are some options: The Rain Saver: Quite a pretty option as rain barrels are concerned. Clean Air Gardening: This site has ALL KINDS of barrels.

BECAUSE: m The more water you can conserve from rain water the less fresh water you use on your lawn and the less water that has to be processed in a water treatment plant!

Ever since I started using reusable bags (before we even started selling our great Envirosax here on Green Girls Guide), my husband has jumped with both feet on the bandwagon. Now he is even more gung-ho than me! If he forgets his bags or if he is just getting a few things, he will hand carry them out of the store after paying. The checkers, however, seem determined to thwart him in his endeavor to not take any plastic bags. Woosh - across the scanner and PLOP into the plastic bag before he has a chance to say, “I don’t need a bag”. Usually by the time he says it, his items are already in the bag and the checker suffers him a look as if to say, “it’s way too much work to take your 1 item out of this plastic bag, but I guess I will do it since you have asked….” The other day, the checker took his one item out of the plastic bag, takes the plastic bag off the stand and THROWS IT IN THE GARBAGE! Needless to say, my hubby was pretty incensed. After all, the goal is to keep them OUT of the landfill as much as possible. Here is the exchange:
Hubby: Is that the garbage???
Checker: Yes
Hubby: Well at least give it to me and I will put it in the plastic bag recycle OUTSIDE!
She did, grudgingly, but I think from now on when she sees him come through the line she will run the other way! Luckily we don’t shop there all that often…
I laughed so hard when he told me that story, but I was so proud. My husband the bag warrior! Good job!