Green Paige

Looking for a great Valentine’s Day gift that is fat-free and affordable?  This year, get your sweetheart a gift that she or he will love and that will keep on giving long after the last bon bon in the heart-shaped box is gone.

• “Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life” by Sophie Uliano  -  Step two of this eco-primer is all about natural beauty.  This chapter includes simple and healthy tools, tips and insights for becoming a green goddess. The Gorgeously Green website is also a wonderful resource packed with information and product reviews.     
• “Organic Body Care Recipes” by Stephanie Tourles  -  This book features 175 recipes for creating your own healthy and environmentally-friendly hair, skin and nail beauty products.  Tourles has published several great books that would make wonderful additions to your natural beauty library including:  “Naturally Healthy Skin” and “Herbal Remedies For A Lifetime of Healthy Skin.”  
• “The Truth About Beauty” by Kat James  -  The author interweaves her own story of how she changed the way she looked by changing the way she lived with practical advice about diet and nutrition.  James’ site Informed Beauty was launched in 1997 to inform and facilitate better beauty and lifestyle choices.

Last Valentine’s Day, I awoke to my daughter’s beautiful smiling face and a large, pink card printed with the words,

“My mommy is the best beautiful mommy forever.” 

Given that I had dark circles under my eyes and my hair was standing on end, it was quite a compliment.  The truth is real beauty comes from eating healthy organic foods, drinking plenty of water and educating ourselves about the ingredients used in our hair and beauty products.  Here are three tips to put you on the path to achieving natural beauty without harming your health in the process.

1. Always Do Your Research - Only the wicked queen in the Snow White fairytale can get away with asking beauty advice from a mirror.  What can the rest of us do to find out if our lotions contain formaldehyde or our lipsticks have lead in them?  Visit the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics (CSC).  CSC is a coalition of environmentalist, public health and consumer-rights groups calling for the elimination of certain chemicals used in cosmetics that are linked to cancer, birth defects and other health issues.  CSC is responsible for the creation of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, also known as the Compact for the Global Production of Safer Health and Beauty Products.  This pledge acknowledges that all the companies that sign it have replaced the toxic chemicals in their products with safer alternatives.  To date, over 900 companies have signed the pledge and the list is regularly updated to include new businesses. 
2. Be Sure To Choose Your Products Wisely - Individual beauty products made by the same company can still run the gamut from safe to highly hazardous.  This is where Skin Deep comes in.  Skin Deep is the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) cosmetic safety database.  It claims to pair the ingredients from more than 41,000 products with 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases.  Enter the type of item or brand name of the product you are researching in their database and it will give that item a rating on a 0 to 10 scale with 10 being highly hazardous.  EWG created this integrated data resource of products, the largest of its kind, because the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require businesses to test their own beauty items for safety.  To combat the loopholes in federal law that allow companies to put practically any ingredient into their products, the EWG has also crafted a petition to Congress to make personal care items safe.
3. Consult With Beauty and Nutrition Professionals - Before you have your hair colored or your nails polished, ask your beauty professionals if the products they are using contain safe and environmentally-friendly ingredients. Currently, the majority of commercial hair dyes used in salons contain toxins including ethanolamine which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is a substance known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.  My own hair stylist offers her clients alternative products like EcoColors, a hair colorant made from natural ingredients.

Nutrition should also be part of everyone’s beauty regimen.  Natural beauty starts with eating good foods, drinking plenty of water and consulting a dietitian to ensure you are getting the right mix of vitamins and minerals to promote optimum health.  The American Dietetic Association provides a database of it’s members - professional nutritists and dietitians - to individual consumers and businesses.

This Valentine’s Day and everyday, follow the ABCs of natural beauty.  Do your research, choose your beauty products wisely and consult with beauty and nutrition professionals.  Achieve natural beauty the safe and healthy way and you too will be your children’s best beautiful mommy forever.

My new mantra is:

When life throws lemons at you, make lemon drop martinis.

Actually, my mantra should be:

When life floods your kitchen, livingroom and basement with several gallons of hot water destroying your floors, walls and cupboards, remodel green.

 

Yes, last week we awoke at 6:00am to find our walls and windows dripping with steam.  When we rushed into our kitchen, we found it transformed into a hot tub complete with a floating bamboo fruit bowl.  After the initial shock, we decided to make a bad situation a good opportunity for a eco-friendly remodel.  Here is our plan for creating a healthy, environmentally-friendly kitchen on a limited budget:

• Salvage and Reuse - Save money and keep items that have plenty of use out of the local landfill by salvaging.  We updated our kitchen last summer with a new sink, faucet, countertops, cupboard hardware, stove and Energy Star  refrigerator.  Our goal is to reuse as many of these items as we can. 
• Recycle - Before making plans to remodel, devise a plan for disposing of the materials that cannot be salvaged for your own project. Locate an architectural salvage and deconstruction company that will gently remove items that have the potential of being used again somewhere else.  You can also donate items to organizations like Habitat for Humanity.  We checked with both our city and county government web pages and found several listings for local recycling outlets.  
• Consider Your Health - In an eco remodel, your top priority should be your health.  We found that we had asbestos in both our floors and walls.  In order to make this project and our home safe and healthy, we have called in a professional asbestos abatement team to remove the items and dispose of them properly.
• Upgrade - Replace damaged items with good quality, energy-efficient appliances.  Since our faulty faucet caused the flood, we will replace our faucet with a better quality model that will help us save water.  We are also installing a Water Cop automatic water shut-off system to help prevent future water damage.  Most insurance companies will offer a discount for early-warning systems like this as well as energy-efficient appliances like our tankless water heater by Rinnai.  In our case, it worked so well it flooded our house with hot water.
• Plan For The Future - Look at the big picture when you are planning your new kitchen.  Our old, 1970’s kitchen was cozy but it wasn’t very energy-efficient and it certainly didn’t meet the needs of our growing family.  I found it difficult to cook in, dark and lacking in storage.  In planning our new kitchen, we are taking all these things into consideration as well as thinking about the future of our family and this space.  
• Do Your Research - A good eco kitchen should be able to accomodate the ever-changing needs of a family.  Some resources to help you with your own remodeling plans are: “Good Green Kitchens” and “Good Green Homes” by Jennifer Roberts.  Both books are packed with great information from asbestos hazards to remodeling a 1970’s house to keeping on budget.  One of my favorite books is Sarah Susanka’s “The Not So Big House.”  She says, “The kitchen is the heart of the house, and the Not So Big House should have a big heart.  If we acknowledge that the kitchen is where we want to be, then we should make the kitchen accessible and open to all the living areas of the house.”  I love this quote and I love this idea.  I have also found Natural Home and Garden and Mother Earth News magazines to have some fantastic articles comparing Earth-friendly flooring materials and cabinet options.

If you have ideas or resources you can recommend to us as we work through this remodeling project, please comment.  We welcome all ideas.  Here’s to making lemon drop martinis from lemons and a great green space from an inefficient 1970’s kitchen.

 I am thankful for many things in my life-my family, my friends, living in a great community.  I am also thankful for resources like Helen Coronato’s new book, “Eco-Friendly Families“-a family guide to greener living with activities that engage and inspire toddler to teens.  It makes my job as our family’s environmental coach and eco-cheerleader a lot easier.

Coronato was motivated to write this step-by-step approach to green living after the birth of her first child.

“I realized that I needed to live a healthier and more sustainable life not only for myself but for him.  In order to do this, I had to unlearn a lifetime of bad habits,” she recalls.

“All the books I found at that time gave the impression that if you couldn’t do everything they suggested then you might as well do nothing. I didn’t agree. I knew very few parents out there could afford to throw everything out and begin again with new, green products so I decided to write “Eco-Friendly Families” to help other families make big changes incrementally and affordably.”

“Eco-Friendly Families” guides us on a journey from over-consumption to sustainability by helping us to set goals that are attainable.

“In my book, you will find a 12-month calendar that can be used as a map.  Each month has four suggestions to help you get started living more sustainably including hands-on activities and every chapter ends with a checklist so that you don’t miss a thing,” points out Coronato.

Another feature that makes this guide accessible for busy families is the 5-Minute Makeover - activities designed to be easy, affordable and environmentally-friendly.

An example of a Five-Minute Makeover would be to remake your beds with extra blankets and lower the thermostat to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone will sleep comfortably while using less energy.

“As a mom, I know that we are constantly looking for ways to entertain and engage our children.  The activities in my book are designed to encourage kids to make environmentally-friendly choices while using their imaginations,” says Coronato.

For the Thanksgiving holiday, she recommends gathering the family together to craft a thank-you chain;

• Using strips of wrapping paper saved from previous holidays, ask each member of your family to write down the name of someone or something they are thankful for.
• Glue the strips together and then link to form a chain.
• Decorate your home with the chain. 
• Not only will your thank-you chain add a festive touch to your home but it will remind your family of everyone and everything they are thankful for throughout the holiday season.

“We have to live in this world and make decisions and choices based on what is available to us at this moment,” explains Coronato. “Just because we can’t afford solar panels or a hybrid car doesn’t mean we can’t make the most responsible and environmentally-friendly decisions possible. The generation who grew up during The Great Depression knew how to live simply, frugally and sustainably because they had to. We must teach our children to think before they consume to live healthier and more sustainable lives because we have to.”

“Eco-Friendly Families” is available where books are sold.

Just in time for the holiday season, “Celebrate Green!” a guide to creating eco-savvy holidays, celebrations and traditions for the entire family is here.  This wonderful resource, written by mother and daughter team Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson, is packed with practical, fun and inexpensive ways to make your holiday events and celebrations healthier and environmentally-friendly.

What makes this book different from all the other “green” resources out there is that it breaks down the common misconceptions that being green is expensive, difficult, time consuming and a fad that will fade away like mood rings and feathered hair.  With their six essential guidelines for planning any celebration, you will be able to:

• Turn Family Traditions Into Green Traditions With Little or No Money
• Make or Find Earth-Friendly Gifts That Everyone Will Love
• Decorate Naturally
• Transform Your Holiday Activities, Games and Recipes Into an Eco-Friendly Celebration

Divided by seasons, “Celebrate Green!”  covers all the usual holidays like Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas in addition to Cinco de Mayo, Passover, Diwali, Hanukkah and Kwanza.  The authors also give you tips on greening baby showers, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, family reunions and parties.  This is the kind of resource that you can use year around.

What’s my favorite part of this book?  It makes me think beyond reusable gift bags and compostable tableware.  It makes me think beyond the 3 R’s - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  It makes me think about the choices I make every day not just during the holidays. 

In “Celebrate Green!” the authors introduce us to the 3 G’s:

• Good For People - Making the healthiest choices for our family, our friends and our planet makes good sense but wait, there’s more.

“Meeting the ‘good for people’ criteria also means good for the people who come into play long before a product reaches your hands (or mouth).  The people who grow, make or manufacture items are often left out of the Earth-friendly equation, and yet what’s good for the planet is often good for them as well.”

Do your research before you purchase a product and find out if the way it is grown or manufactured can cause harm to people.

• Good For The Planet - I buy organic and free-trade so I am good, right?  Maybe.  That is, if you have chosen an organic product that utilizes petroleum-free packaging.

“Petroleum-free packaging is generally preferable to plastic packaging made from fossil fuels because (1) oil is not a sustainable resource; (2) plastic packaging can contaminate products, especially food products with toxic chemical residue; and (3) some plastics are non-recyclable (or are simply not recycled) and end up in landfills where they continue to leach into groundwater and don’t bio- or photo-degrade for hundreds of years or more.”

Not only make smart choices about the products you buy but investigate how the items are packaged.

• Good For The Community - Throughout the book, the authors state that what is good for the Earth is often good for people and for our communities.  Ask yourself if the company that manufactures the treats you will be doling out this Halloween contributes a percentage of it’s revenue to a non-profit organization. 

“Other ways companies can give back to their communities are to contribute large numbers of products to families in underprivileged neighborhoods, encourage their employees to volunteer in the community on company time, or sponsor community-based events and movements such as Green Halloween.”

 

This year, I am not only going to be using the ideas in “Celebrate Green!” to transform my holidays into healthier and more environmentally-friendly celebrations but I am going to be giving copies of “Celebrate Green!” to my friends and family as gifts.  I know they will love it, use it and hopefully pass it on to inspire others to “Celebrate Green!”  To purchase your own copy of  “Celebrate Green!,”  visit the Celebrate Green! site, Amazon,  A Toy Garden or Village Green Gifts. 

If you have suggestions, ideas or your own green holiday traditions that you would like to share, please post a comment.

It’s summer.  For many people that means bar-b-quing, organic gardening, long bike rides to the park and splashing at the pool.  For us, it means DYI projects. 

We are continually searching for ways to make our 1970s-era house a greener, more inviting place to live.  Currently, that means remodeling our living-room to add storage space and more light.  After experimenting with various shades of orange and red including Hawaiian Sunset and Red Hot Lover, we decided to paint our living-room a combination of Summer Dragonfly and Midwest Spring - otherwise known as blue.  Yes, there really is a paint shade called Midwest Spring.  Who knew humidity had a shade. 

Now, you would think that deciding on a color to paint our living-room would be the biggest obstacle we would have to overcome in this DIY project.  It wasn’t.  Our biggest obstacle turned out to be where to find paint that didn’t produce toxic gases - VOCs. 

• VOCs - To the uninitiated DIYers who haven’t heard of VOCs, here is a quick summary.  VOCs or volatile organic compounds are solvents that most conventional paint manufacturers use to improve resilience and make their paints more functional.  These compounds produce a breathable gas that diminishes air quality and can be hazardous to your health.  Lucky for us, there are paint manufacturers out there that have developed VOC-free paints.  How do you determine VOC levels in paint?  VOC levels are expressed in pounds per gallon or grams per liter.   If your interior paint has a VOC content of less than 50 grams per liter for flat sheen or 150 grams per liter for non-flat sheen than it qualifies as a low-VOC product and earns a Green Seal of approval.

• Green Seal - What exactly is a Green Seal of approval?  Green Seal, Inc. out of Washington D.C. is an independent, non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 to provide science-based environmental certification standards for products and services.  Their goal is to inform manufacturers and purchasers so that they can make responsible choices that will ultimately achieve a healthier and cleaner environment.  They recognize products and services that cause less pollution and waste, conserve resources and habitats and minimize global warming and ozone depletion.  Green Seal began issuing their seal of approval to products that meet approved standards for performance and environmental impacts in 1992.

• GreenGuard -What is the difference between Green Seal and GreenGuard?  You be the judge. Founded in June of 2001, the GreenGuard Environmental Institute (GEI) is an industry-independent, non-profit organization that oversees the GreenGuard Certification Program.  By establishing acceptable indoor air standards for indoor products, environments and buildings, GEI seeks to improve public health and quality of life.  They have an advisory board that consists of independent experts in the areas of indoor air quality, public and environmental health, building design and construction, and public policy.  The GreenGuard test laboratories are widely considered to have some of the most stringent standards of testing in the country.

The Hunt For Non-Voc Paints 

Where do you find these VOC free paints?  Our first thought was to call our local home improvement stores and paint distributors.  When I asked if they carried VOC-free paints, the clerk who answered the phone at the first store I called acted as if he had just received a call from outer-space.  “You want what?” he asked in an irritated and mildly astonished voice that was most likely accompanied by a roll of the eyes and a shake of the head.  After I launched into my brief summary of VOCs and why we don’t want toxic fumes permeating our living-room, he sounded a bit friendlier and thought we might be able to order it but he wasn’t sure.  I called two more  stores in the vicinity that assured me that there was no such thing as a VOC free paint once you added tinting.  I soon realized that I was wasting precious resources - time and patience.  I switched from the phone to my computer and starting doing my research via the Internet. 

My first stop was at The Green Guide where I found a  list of recommended paints including: 

BioShield 

EcoSpec Paint

Old Fashioned Milk Paint

Real Milk Paint

AFM Safecoat Paint

Kelly-Moore Envirocote

Dulux Paints

Glidden Lifemaster paints

Sherwin-Williams HealthSpec® paints

The winner was………..The Freshaire Choice

We based our decision on our own four-point “green scale” rating system:

1. How environmentally friendly is this product?
2. How far do you have to go to purchase it?  (I.e., how much fossil fuel would you have to use?)
3. How expensive is it?
4. How many color options do you have?

Milk paint and Safecoat received three out of four stars because they were completely VOC free but they were both relatively expensive too.  We found that we could order the milk paint through the mail for additional shipping costs which beat the 50 mile drive to pick up a gallon of Safecoat paint at our nearest distributor.  Still, we opted for The Freshaire Choice.   Why?  Even though the price, at $35-38 a gallon, was high and the color selection limited to muted Earth tones, we chose The Freshaire Choice  for the following reasons:

1. Being available through Home Depot made it the easiest to obtain.  Living within biking distance of a distributor meant we weren’t wasting fuel driving 50 miles to a dealership or having the paint shipped to us from another city or state.   
2. We felt that it was the most environmentally friendly product that we reviewed.  Besides being VOC free, The Freshaire Choice  container is made from  100% recycled materials and can be recycled again when you are finished.  The product’s label is made from 75% recycled fiber and printed with soy ink.  The paint chips are also completely recyclable as well as being made from recycled materials.
3. It had great word-of-mouth reviews by friends and family members and is GreenGuard certified meaning that The Freshaire Choice meets acceptable indoor air quality guidelines and standards shared by those of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Review:  The real test of this product was how it did in our at-home laboratory.  Both my husband and I agree that there was no smell associated with this product.  I had heard that The Freshaire Choice can have a Play Dough-like aroma but that wasn’t our experience with the primer or the two shades of blue that we used.  Our one complaint was that the paint consistency seemed a bit thin.  The final verdict:  we like this product and will probably use it again.

Our family recently came to a decision. 

Our 1970’s house, which we love, isn’t working for our growing family.  It seems to be shrinking, aging and falling apart before our eyes.  For the past three years, we have been repairing, replacing and remodeling it here and there with the dream that soon we would sell it and move into a green-built home with more space, radiant heat floors and recycled glass counter tops. 

Then my daughter asked the inevitable question, “Why?”  Why, indeed.  That simple question made us realize that no ecobroker in the world could help us find a greener home with as much love, sweat and memories as we have imbued this one with. 

Is it more environmentally friendly to buy a green-built home than to remodel using green materials?  I am afraid that experts in the field seem to differ on their conclusions.  For us, we have decided to stay and continue to repair, replace and remodel using green materials. 

To document our family’s efforts to make our home a more sustainable place to live, I am launching a new section of this blog called The Green House Chronicles or GHC.

In the meantime, we are doing a bit of research to help us plan future “green house” projects.   Here are some books and websites that we recommend:

• “The Not So Big House” by Sarah Susanka - This book sends a simple but vital message  - quality should come before quantity. My favorite chapter is Rethinking The House pg. 28 where she proposes the concept of rethinking our houses to let them become expressions of the way we really live. 
• “Good Green Homes” by Jennifer Roberts - The author says that “Good Green Homes” is for people who believe in the power of one person - or one home - to make a world of difference.  With resource information and green home profiles, this book can help us repurpose our home into a beautiful, livable, more environmentally space that makes a difference.
• GreenandSave.com - This informative site full of product reviews and money saving tips is the result of over three years of research by Charlies and Cynthia Szoradi who transformed their inefficient 1950’s house into a ground breaking eco-sustainable home. 
• ReGreenProgram.com - What makes the Regreen Program different from the LEED green building certification?  Regreen is a set of guidelines designed to help consumers and green building professionals evaluate green products and energy systems.  You can download their guidelines and 10 case studies that document various in-home remodeling projects at ReGreenProgram.com .

Have some resources that you would like to share?  Please leave a comment.

These days, our Sunday evenings are all about playing games.  My four year-old daughter loves Candyland, Chutes & Ladders and Mah Jong which teach her reading and math skills as well as concepts like cooperation.  My husband and I love turning off the television and spending time together as a family.  So when my husband discovered an environmentally-themed version of Monopoly, we were all thrilled. 

Earthopoly challenges participants to become eco-savvy stewards of the Earth.  The goal, like the original game, is for players to become caretakers of various properties around the board and to then earn funds for conservation efforts by collecting rent when another player lands on their property.

Unlike the original game, Earthopoly  allows players to purchase carbon credits in order to take personal responsibility for carbon emissions.  When a player has earned enough carbon credits on their properties, the credits can be returned to the bank in exchange for clean air. 

The makers of Earthopoly, Late For The Sky Production Co., use recycled paper, soy ink and natural game tokens including a shell, a bamboo ring and a giant corn kernel.   Their goal in making this game is to have as little impact as possible on the planet while at the same time, creating a game that is fun and educational.

Our family loves Earthopoly.  It has given my husband and I an opportunity to teach our daughter about environmental issues and how to care for the Earth while having a great time together.