What: Green Wax

Features: Skiers, snowboarders and surfers alike have been known to wax their equipment, which not only enhances their ability and execution, but protects expensive gear against the elements as well. Green Wax, an all-natural performance wax, is made in small batches and then poured in to recyclable tubes, bypassing the need for extrusion machinery and further reducing energy consumption and waste

Green Factor: Unlike most of its competition, Green Wax doesn’t come equipped with harmful toxins. It’s non-toxic, biodegradable, and contains neither PFC’s nor petroleum

Bonus: Endorsed by a third-party environmental research firm based at Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, and made here in the United States

Find It Here: Green Wax

What: Ol’ Macs Story Building Barnyard

Features: Imagination rules with this 95-piece barnyard building set from Sprig Toys! Kids will have a blast building their own farm, and creating a fun storyline to go with it

Green Factor: Made out of recycled Sprigwood, a bio-composite material comprised of reclaimed wood bits and recycled plastic. Sprigwood is free of paint, soluble heavy metals, phthalates and endocrine disruptors

Bonus: This toy is 100% battery-free!

Find It Here: Sprig Toys

What: Bamboo E-Plane

Features: Up, up and away! This wooden toy airplane from Hape is stylish, modern and built to last.

Green Factor: The environmentally-friendly E-Plane is made out of sustainable bamboo and is decorated with non-toxic, water-based dyes

Bonus: All of Hape’s products meet international safety and quality standards

Find It Here: Amazon.com

What: Pupa Pupa dolls

Features: Available at Etsy.com, these adorable, handmade companions (there are boy and girl dolls, mermaids, fairies and a collection of various animals) are stuffed with 100% sheep wool and sport outfits that, in most cases, are made of vintage or salvaged fabric

Green Factor: The material used for the dolls’ bodies is 70% bamboo and 30% organic cotton, made in a facility that uses neither harmful toxins nor pollutants

Bonus: Because each doll is handmade, they’re all completely unique. Also, Gwyneth Paltrow is a big fan and recently featured Pupa Pupa dolls in her Goop web site’s newsletter

Find It Here: Pupa Pupa

What: Wheely Bug

Features: The Wheely Bug is unisex, durable, lightweight and small – perfect for indoor play. Available in two sizes for children up to fifty pounds.

Green Factor: Made with non-toxic materials and is PVC-free. Each bug’s plywood base is made from renewable plantation timber

Bonus: Winner of numerous toy awards, encourages gross motor skills. Also, choose from a ladybug, a cow, a bumblebee or a gray mouse (complete with big pink ears and a tail!)

Find It Here: Prince Lionheart

What: Wooden tea set

Features: Everything about this tea set from Plan Toys is adorable! It’s thirteen pieces include two cups and saucers, tea bags and stir sticks; there are even two lumps of sugar to play with!

Green Factor: Items from Plan Toys are made out of unfertilized rubberwood that’s kiln-dried rather than chemically treated. This tea set was made using water-based dyes, soy-based inks and non-toxic E-Zero glue

Bonus: Exceeds all international toy safety standards

Find It Here: Plan Toys

From Green Toys comes this sweet 15-piece toolset, a must-have for any budding carpenter. Kids can get right to work with the functional box and variety of tools, and will learn along the way because the hand-held tools bear their names on the handles. Not only is it made in the USA of recycled milk jugs— it’s also BPA, phthalate and lead free and is packaged in recycled cardboard without those super-annoying, impossible-to-undo twist ties. In other words, this is a toy that won’t take twenty minutes and a pair of pliers to open. Just open the box and PLAY! Fab green fact:  For every pound of recycled milk jugs used to make the products from Green Toys, enough electricity is saved to run a television for three weeks, and a laptop for four. Wow—plastic you can actually feel NOT bad about buying!

Find It Here: Lavish & Lime

The next time you’re in the market for a board game, check out this environmentally friendly, award-winning board game for kids ages 8 and up—it’s called Xeko Mission: Madagascar, and it’s a great way for children to learn about exotic animals (like fossas, tomato frogs and lemurs), their environment and how to protect them. Kids battle against their friends for eco-points and special powers and the player with the most points wins!

Xeko Mission: Madagascar was made with the earth in mind, literally. It’s chock-full of recycled materials, packaged in recycled stock and game cards are made with recycled materials and are printed with soy-based inks.

2006 was a good year for this game – not only did Creative Child Magazine name it the Top Toy of the Year, the National Parenting Centre gave it their Seal of Approval. Recognition like that, coupled with its eco-friendly spin, makes Xeko Mission: Madagascar a favorite with us. The Starter Set comes with an oversized play mat, 50 cards, two guidebooks and a rulebook. To make the package even sweeter, four per cent of the game’s net sales are donated to Conservation International. This definitely isn’t your mother’s board game!

Find It Here: Green Home Environmental Store

Minimal Mercury Marinated Tuna by Small Footprint Family — Like tuna but hate those pesky high mercury levels? Dawn highlights some sources for tuna with much lower levels of mercury and as a bonus, shares a recipe.

Will Your Kid Be Carrying a Pesticide (Triclosan) in His School Supplies? by The Smart Mama — Jennifer illuminates an issue that has been chapping my proverbial butt for a while now… Microban is in/on lunch boxes as well as a ton of other school-related items and it’s not good stuff.

Color My Driveway: Cornstarch Sidewalk Paint by Pink and Green Mama — This homemade sidewalk paint, made with ingredients you can probably already find in your own kitchen, is so cool that I wish I’d thought of it first.

Do I Make You Uncomfortable? by Heather’s Homemaking — Do you ever wonder if your commitment to the environment makes your less-green friends uncomfortable?

How to Clean a Toilet by Oooh Baby Green Living and Parenting — J. Claire teaches you how to clean your toilet the green way.

Cleaning Out Plato’s Reusable Closet with a Stylish Texas Teen by Greenopolis — Consignment stores can help fatten up a teen’s wardrobe at a fraction of mall prices. And? It’s much greener than buying new.

On Our Blog:  Back to School at the Thrift Store

When I got an email from the peeps at Imagine Childhood asking that I take a look at their site, I clicked over and instantly fell in love—like “WHERE have you been all my life”? love. Why? Because their site reminds me of my childhood, of being outdoors, of exploring and learning and playing and life’s simpler pleasures. If you haven’t yet heard about nature deficit disorder, you soon will. It’s a hot topic and one that plagues my mind when I think about my own children’s distinct lack of free time spent outdoors (mostly for reasons beyond my control). Imagine Childhood may not be able to fix nature deficit disorder but damn if it isn’t a great place to start trying because they carry so many things that are geared toward free, imaginative, explorational and outdoor play. And the books they carry? Pure awesomeness. I urge anyone with kids to hop over there and take a gander and also note that Imagine Childhood is not just a storefront. It’s also an inspiring blog totally worth bookmarking.

Find It Here: Imagine Childhood

Win It: We’ve partnered with Imagine Childhood to give away a super cool Nature Study Kit and the amazing book I Love Dirt. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter IC6 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are one of the five questions the folks at Imagine Childhood ask themselves when choosing new products? Enter by 6/22/09. $50 value. Open to residents of US. Winner will be notified by email. Contest closed. Congrats to Steven!

I know…I’m, like, the LAST person on the internet to gush over the coolness of the Color Me Houses and Color Me Rockets but I don’t care because I think these playhouses made from recyclable cardboard are super awesometastic. Why? Well, mainly because you can play INSIDE them and we all know how much kids like stuff they can get inside. And? They can color, paint and marker them them any dang way they want to, as well. The word on the street is that kids TOTALLY DIG these award-winning, imagination-stimulating and creative play-inducing toys. As a parent, I dig that they take no batteries, use no electricity and contain zero plastic. The only thing that would up the DIG factor for me is if they were made of recycled cardboard and who knows, maybe someday they will. Nonetheless, I’m pretty sure a very special soon-to-be 4 year old will be getting the Color Me Rocket for his birthday next month. Don’t tell!

 Find It Here: Color Me House

We’ve mentioned this in the past but it bears repeating…even stuffed animals, which look so cute and harmless, can be toxic. Naturally, I find the idea of my children snuggling up to poison very disturbing but luckily non-toxic and eco-friendly plush toys are out there. and right now I’m quite taken with the Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies from Celery Street. Extremely soft and totally huggable, they’re made and filled with an eco-friendly alternative to traditional synthetics that is made from 100% soy fiber and the stuffing is 100% kapok, a golden silky fiber known for its hypoallergenic softness.  Additionally, kapok is a sustainable rainforest crop that comes from the seed pod of the kapok tree. Green and yet affordable, these adorable bunnies would look perfect in the center of an Easter basket but little ones (and their moms) will love them long after the Peeps tummyaches are but a distant memory.

Find it Here: Celery Street

Win It: We’re giving away two Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter CS4 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are the names of the three colors of Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies? Enter by 4/11/09. $30 value. Contest closed. Congrats to A.