What: Climate Counts web site

Features: Keep tabs on your favorite companies and their efforts to address climate change with Climate Counts, a web site that scores their impact on the environment. Check the scorecard for a ranking of a company’s grade and the ways they’re reducing their carbon footprint (Kraft Foods, for example, is up 19 points from last year and is listed as ‘Striding’ toward their environmental goals. Sara Lee, on the other hand, is ‘Stuck’, meaning they have yet to take meaningful action on climate change)

Green Factor: The goal is clear (and green): to encourage awareness among consumers, and, in turn, within the companies themselves

Bonus: The site is full of information. Sign up for their newsletter, watch videos, contact companies directly, download a helpful iPhone app and more!

Find It Here: Climate Counts

You probably don’t think much about your old t-shirts once they’ve outlived their usefulness as, well, shirts. I know mine generally go to charity and if they’re not even fit for that, I’ve thrown them away. I know. *shameface* But I was recently introduced to to this awesome resource at Hide Your Arms where they have compiled a frillion different ways you can re-fashion and recycle old t-shirts. Seriously, you can make rugs, quilts, tote bags, pet clothes, yoga pants, cloth diapers, wrist warmers, halter tops, toddler dresses and SO MUCH MORE. I challenge you to NOT find something cool to do with your old tees. Now go…get busy. Gift-giving season is right around the corner.

Find it Here: Hide Your Arms

Ever hear of carpet tiles? How about green carpet tiles? Simply Green’s carpet tile is a great alternative to regular carpeting because each tile is made from recycled, renewable and environmentally friendly materials.

Quite honestly, there’s a whole whack of reasons why carpet tile is worth checking out, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll touch on a few of the ones I thought were the coolest. For one, Simply Green uses domestically grown soybeans to replace 90% of the petroleum based polymers that are found in polyurethane carpet backings. Celceram, a highly-refined material recovered via coal combustion, is used for the tiles’ backing, adding to their durability. The tiles are built to last and easy to clean, and compared to regular carpet, are less likely to absorb moisture by over 80%. Simply Green’s tiles have 30% less petroleum than standard carpet made with nylon, which I think is fantastic—the less reliant we are on foreign energy, the better.

If all of the above doesn’t make you think twice about installing regular carpeting again, consider this: carpet tiles are far easier to install than wall-to-wall. With all of the work that goes in to laying standard carpeting, lifting the tiles out of the box and putting them on the floor is a breeze by comparison. And with less work comes less waste—this method will reduce the amount of waste that a typical carpet install would generate by up to 20%. Plus? You can mix and match tiles to make your own patterns—can’t do that with conventional carpet! Simply Green carpet tiles are, quite simply, a smart alternative from a forward-thinking company.

Find It Here: Simply Green

On Our Blog: Food Inc: The Truth About What We Eat

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

I know there may be a little eyerolling because Nike is this ginormous planetwide corporation and often times, those are not known for their eco-friendly practices but in this instance, Nike deserves props for their Reuse-a-Shoe recycling program.

What they do is collect old, unwanted athletic shoes (any brand) and grind them up to make surfaces for basketball courts, tracks, fields and playground surfaces for peeps all around the world. It’s a heck of a lot better than paving everything with nasty asphalt and certainly makes playgrounds safer for kids.

Additionally, reusing old athletic shoes decreases the need for virgin rubber and other materials which also decreases the environmental impact of using new materials. Since 1990, Nike has collected and re-purposed 23 million pair of shoes!

You can get involved by a) finding a recycling center and dropping your old shoes off (see map)  b) mailing them if you must (not as green) or c) setting up a recycling program in your community. Read here about how one mom, Lena, set up a shoe recycling program at her child’s school.

So yeah, gather up all those tired old shoes that are too stinky for Goodwill, too gnarly for consignment and give them Nike so they can give kids better places to play.

My husband just sent me this link to a short article on Current about how there is no “local vs. organic.” I was glad to read it because when I hear people say that buying local is better than organic and vice versa, it made no sense to me. They’re two completely separate things. Buy organic AND local, if you can, or choose the one that’s most important to you but don’t feel like you’re choosing between two equal options. One is specifically better for Read the rest of this entry »

While I don’t really fish anymore, I used to go fishing ALL the time as a kid. I’d frequently fish in the lake by my house with my friends and my family fished down in the Florida Keys at least once a month for years and years. So now that I’ve proven that I know a thing or two about fishing, let me show you how ignorant I am by admitting that since I no longer fish, I’ve never once thought about the possibility of earth-friendly fishing gear. Well, as it happens, green fishing gear DOES exist and it’s a good thing because a lot of fishing tackle still contains toxic lead or is made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastic. Obviously, lead is a danger because, well, it’s LEAD and all the non-biodegradeable junk being left behind in the oceans and waterways is not just pollution—it’s also deadly to wildlife. Fortunately, companies like Green Tackle are tackling the problem—they carry, among other things, lead free weights, all sorts of biodegradable bait and lures and most awesomely awesome, fishing line that will biodegrade instead of hanging around for the next eleventeen hundred years further damaging our fragile ecosystem. Pssst…keep Green Tackle in mind at Christmas time when shopping for your favorite fishing fanatic.

Find It Here: Green Tackle

Of course you do. We all do—and if you’re like me, you don’t have a clue how so much of it got into your life but you know it has to go. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could exchange some of that stuff for stuff you actually want and never have to set foot in a store? That’s not wishful thinking, my friend. You can actually DO THAT on Swaptree! How it works is Swaptree creates trades by matching items that you have (books, music, movies and video games) with other people who want those items and vice-versa. Best of all? It’s FREE. And because there are a frillion people on Swaptree, there’s a ton of stuff available for trade which means there’s a very good chance you’ll score exactly what you want and that someone wants your stuff, too. Short of just not ever buying another book, video game, DVD or CD, SwapTree is one of the greenest options around so get busy and start writing up your wish list!

Find It Here: Swaptree

Pennies for the Planet is a very cool site from the National Audubon Society that helps kids to make a difference by either participating in local conservation efforts or by saving and collecting pennies (through their schools, for example) for national and worldwide conservation projects. If we want our kids to care about the earth, we have to empower them by giving them a way to help. Pennies for the Planet is one such way!

Find it Here: Pennies for the Planet

When it comes to buying books, I’m all about the cheap and easy. I could be talking about something else here, but, well, nevermind that… Today, I’m talking about Better World Books, which are cheap, easy, and green.  Sure, other people sell used books and that’s cool, but do they offer FREE shipping within the U.S. and only charge $3.95 to ship worldwide?  Maybe some do, but what about that pesky minimum purchase requirement? BWB’s free shipping offer isn’t just a promotional gimmick. It’s for real ALL of the time.  Plus, BWB books are up to 80% cheaper than new ones AND shopping at BWB means you don’t have to use any gas (and I’m sure the coffee is much cheaper at your place—BONUS!) Simply put, I’m all for anything that can be done right in front of this here screen. In regards to being green and socially responsible, BWB has  saved over 6,000 books from landfills and offsets their shipping environmental costs with carbon offsets from CarbonFund.org. They also share revenues with literacy organizations like Books for Africa. Personally, with options like Better World Books, I can’t think of any reason I would ever buy a new book at a store unless I needed it right away or it was newly released. But?  I’m cheap and lazy, so I could probably wait.  Oh, and did mention BWB sells new books, too? Yep. So…if you’re not at all like me (read: cheap, lazy, willing to wait) you can also buy your NEW books from Better World and feel not-so-bad about it. When you’re done with them? Sell or donate them back to BWB!

Find It Here: Better World Books

It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that we, humans, have highly polluted bodies. This pollution in people is the direct result of a statute that does not require chemicals to be proven safe to get on the market, or stay on the market. Under federal law EPA does not have the authority to demand the information it needs to evaluate a chemical’s risk, and neither manufacturers nor the EPA are required to prove a chemical’s safety as a condition of use.

What’s even more shocking than the above is the sad fact that babies bodies are polluted with dangerous toxic, cancer-causing and hormone-altering chemicals before they’re even born. How does this happen? Watch the video below. What can we do? Sign this declaration and tell your elected officials that this is morally wrong and it needs to stop NOW.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have little reminders around the house to help everyone remember to be green? Not for you, of course, but you know, for the kids or maybe your spouse? I can’t even begin to count how many times a week I have to remind my kids to turn off their bedroom lights when they leave the room and well, it does get a bit tiresome which is why I’m really digging Ecominders. They’re these cool little stickers that you can put all over your home and office to remind everyone to “stick” to being green. Reusable and removable, they help you remember to do things like turn off lights, keep the thermostat at a certain level, turn off electronics when you’re not using them, turn off the water when brushing, use less toilet paper etc. They come in Kids & Schools versions, too. My kids think they’re really neato and are already turning the lights off more often than they used to so I’m giving Ecominders two green thumbs up—one for saving electricity and one for cutting down on my nagging!

Find It Here: Ecominders

Win It: We’re giving away a 5 pack of the Home & Office and Kids & Schools Ecominders along with a reusable tote and an Ecominders organic cotton T-shirt. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter EM4 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: Ecominders donates 1% of their profits to what organization? Enter by 4/15/09. $70 value. Contest closed. Congrats to Stefanie!