It’s been just over forty years since the first Earth Day and in the last 10 years, the green movement has skyrocketed to great heights. While the world is on it’s biggest green kick ever, it seems that our earth is still in great peril. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time however, it has presented us with the opportunity to build a healthier, more prosperous, clean energy economy now and as well as for our future. Being green has all caused us all to look at the bigger picture but also how to clean up our own act as well. I truly believe that if we start from the inside out, the world will benefit.

Earth Day offers us the chance to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs in addition to learning about sustainable living in our own home and communities. This Earth Day is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy.

I’ve complied some things you can start with this Earth Day Weekend, from events to shopping, that will not only be fun as well as rewarding, but can also be done any time of the year to celebrate Earth Day all year long!

• www.theecoluxelife.com - If you need it, they can green it!
• www.uncommongoods.com – Find anything but ordinary
• www.elsewares.com – They shop the hard way, so you don’t have to ; )
• www.annatarian.com -Eco couture and jewelry
• www.cardboarddesign.com – From furniture to toys, you’ll find a ton of great uses for cardboard
• www.modernecohomes.com – The hub of eco-friendly goods for you and your home
• www.thegreenboardgame.com – The most fun way to learn how to be green!
• www.activeion.com – The safest and greenest way to keep your space clean - just add water!
  
• www.terrapass.com – Buy credits to balance your carbon footprint when traveling.
• www.verterra.com – Dinnerware made of nothing but fallen leaves and water. Super eco-chic!
• www.to-goware.com – Fabulous utensils & containers to take with you anywhere you go!
• www.vivaterra.com - Eco living with style
  
• www.thegreenloop.com - Sustainable style

• Sign up for YourDailyTread’s Go Green Bootcamp!  20 days of daily tips to go from Eco Zero to Eco Hero!
• Join a beach or park cleanup with groups like the Surfrider Foundation
• Plant a tree – visit the Arbor Day site for more info
• Check out a Green Drinks event in your area
• If you have kids, Print out our calendar and draw a green star for each day that you do an activity that helps the earth!
• Get your green thumb dirty and start a garden
• Turn trash into treasure! Refurbish an old sofa, chair or even a garment. Get crafty and creative and you just might produce a work of art ; )
  

• Go Veg!  Check out last year’s Earth Day post on how going veg can be the greenest thing you can do ; )
• Ride your bike whenever you can. If you just need some bread, bike to the store instead of drive, save $, gas and get some exercise in too!
• Swap out as many bulbs as possible with energy efficient CFL’s (compact fluorescent light bulbs)
• Don’t run the water while you are brushing your teeth. That could be a good minute or so of wasted H2O.
• Get a few reusable grocery bags. They have gotten really stylish now so there is no excuse to be piling up the paper and plastic bags ; )
• Get a great glass water bottle (bpa free or aluminum is fine too, but I prefer glass). Do away with buying 1 use, plastic water bottles. I’ve got some great companies listed on my Healthy Voyager Approved Directory so get one today!
• Shop locally and seasonally. Buying seasonal and local products not only helps support the community but also decreases the need for long distance shipping and costs as well as being healthier for you ; )
• Disconnect electronic items when not in use. I know that might sound like a pai, especially if you’ve got your office or entertainment system rigged up just so. But there are great power strips, like DSI Green Power Strip, that have 1 main source so all you have to do is flip 1 switch and the job has been done for you!
  
• Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. As much as 85 percent of the energy used to machine-wash clothes goes to heating the water. Also use a drying rack or clothesline to save the energy otherwise used during machine drying.
  
• Ramp up your recycling! Be more cognizant of what you are throwing in the trash, make sorting bins if you don’t already have them. Take batteries, electronics and other “not-really-disposable” items to the proper disposal facilities.
  

• www.huffingtonpost.com -  Their green section is aces for the hottest eco news!
• www.ecostiletto.com – Daily eco-friendly fashion, beauty, lifestyle and celebrity advice
• www.ecofabulous.com – Sustainable style tips for you and your home
• www.treehugger.com – Eco videos, radio, blogs, news and more
• www.epa.gov – United States Environmental Protection Agency
• www.sierraclub.org- Explore, enjoy and protect the planet
• www.green.tv – All green videos
• www.playgreen.org - A green living wiki
• www.change.org -A social network for activism, including environmental activism
• www.nature.org – Protecting nature, preserving life

Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day and have a very happy Earth Weekend (or better yet, Earth Life!!)

This year, Easter and Passover fall on the same weekend. So while the festivities and dishes may differ, the common thread can be that we all want peace and happiness with our families and friends and perhaps, we can make both green!  Check out some fun and simple tips on how to green your Easter and Eco your Passover!

Easter

• Paint wooden or ceramic eggs. A night out at a place like Color Me Mine is a great alternative to dying eggs at home. No real eggs and no mess! Put them out later for your egg hunt and use them year after year.
• Buy vegan, local and fair trade candies to build the healthiest and most eco-friendly Easter basket ever!
• Look for paper basket grass as opposed to the plastic kind. This “green” paper kind can be used year round for other gifts, packing materials, etc.
• Bake vegan easter cakes in egg and bunny shaped molds. These are great in gift baskets, are healthier and cheaper than ordering stuff online that requires shipping.
• Give children great illustration heavy books like pop-ups instead of toys they will grow out of an create more waste. Books nourish their minds and create wonderful memories.
• Skip the candy and give creative gifts this year. Re-use a basket by covering it in left over, festive fabric. Fill basket with paints and crayons, small sketch books, stickers and blank t-shirts or socks to personalize. Add some seed packets and celebrate spring with a new garden!

Passover

Let’s Start With The Matzah – There are a bunch of options for organic spelt and organic whole-wheat matzah. Like the following:

• Handmade Shmurah Matzah made with 100% certified organic spelt from Matzahonline.com.
• Haddar 18-Minute Organic Spelt Matzah and Matzah Meal from KCKosherCoop.com
• Chicago’s Original Organic Matzah. It’s made in the U.S. and it’s certified organic and free of any GMOs.
• Organic Spelt Matzah from Chabad of greater Dayton

And be sure to keep it green by wrapping your organic matzah in an organic cotton napkin when you hide the afikomen.

Don’t Forget The Wine - Go organic as well as kosher!  Organic Kosher wines exist and here’s the list:

• Yarden Chardonnay Odem Organic
• Odem Vineyard in the northern Golan in Israel has been farmed organically since 1998. You can buy it online at Kosherwine.com for $16.99 a bottle.
• Four Gates Winery. Four Gates, located in the Santa Cruz Mountins in California, produces organic and Kosher chardonnay, merlot, pinot noir, and cabernet franc.  The grapes are certified organic by the CCOF and the vines are not irrigated.
• Baron Herzog Wine Cellars. Ranging from cabernet sauvignon to brut champagne, Herzog Wine Cellars produces Kosher and Mevushal wines.  While not certified organic, many of the wines use grapes that have been sustainably grown.

The Quintessentially Eco Seder Plate

Horseradish for Maror – Check out Silver Spring Organic Prepared Horseradish.  It’s certified organic by Oregon Tilth as well as kosher. Or make your won with all organic, natural ingredients.

Parsley for Karpas – Opt for local as well as organic.

Charoset – Use your favorite charoset recipe and be sure to make it with organic and locally sourced ingredients!

Eggs for Baytzah – For vegans, go for an organic chunk of pan fried or baked tofu instead of the hard boiled egg.

The Meal – There are all sorts of great Kosher recipes for Passover.  From matzo ball soup to vegan gefilte fish, there are lots of ways to green your Passover menu.  But the best rule of thumb is simply to get as many organic and local ingredients as possible, regardless of where you get your recipes. Beyond that, if you’re looking to lower your impact, try serving a vegetarian or better yet, vegan meal! Check out this week’s recipes!

The Service – If you can, try to use reusable cups, wine glasses, plates, and silverware. This way, you’ll have the least amount of disposable waste — and of course, make sure you put your dishes in the dish washer!  It’s far more water efficient than washing by hand.

If you are looking to pick up something new for the occasion, check out eco-friendly tableware like glassware made from recycled glass such as trycycle or plates made from bamboo. If you do go with something disposable, look into biodegradable and compostable plates, cups, and utensils.  For something a little less formal, check out the offerings from WorldCentric or the compostable cups from Greenware. For something with some eco-chic to it, check out VerTerra’s plates, bowls, and platters made from nothing but fallen leaves and water.

No matter what holiday you celebrate, make it a healthy, happy and green one!

Looking to hold on to winter just a little longer? Wanna green your last few runs down the mountain? Try Niche Snowboards!

Following consecutive wins in the Eco Responsibility category of the ISPO Awards; Entropy Resins is represented once again in 2012 with the Niche Story snowboard. Niche Snowboards, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, combines a proprietary blend of Entropy’s Super Sap® sustainable epoxy with other recycled and sustainable materials to make the industry’s most eco-friendly snowboard products. “The Niche Story Snowboard is a well thought through product with carefully selected, sustainable materials such as the FSC certified wood core and Hemp Stringers to replace Carbon Fibre. Critical substances have been removed, such as the surface lacquer, or replaced with recycled materials,” states Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart of Erasmus University in Germany, one of the judges for the ISPO Awards.

About Entropy Resins: With a firm belief that there is no better chemist than Mother Nature, Entropy Resins strives to develop materials that strike a perfect balance between performance and environmental sustainability.

About Niche Snowboards: At Niche Snowboards, we’re starting to realize our vision of the future by changing the way we think about the relationships between our materials, our environment, and ourselves. We hope our success will change our industry and lead to good things for you and the planet we all share.

It’s time to get the house in tip top shape! Getting rid of the clutter and cleaning the mess. This includes a full detail of bathrooms, counters and the kitchen. But how to do the eco and healthy way you ask?

Sure, there are tons of great eco products on the market but nothing is as green and chemical free as water. But water on its own can’t disinfect, right? Well, once it’s been “ozonized” it can!

Tersano’s patented lotus® PRO Cleaning System turns ordinary tap water into the world’s most effective chemical-free commercial cleaner by infusing it with ozone. This ‘Aqueous Ozone’ eliminates germs, odors, stains, mold, mildew and other contaminants on any item or surface before changing safely back into water and oxygen.

lotus® PRO Benefits

Fast & Powerful – Quickly kills viruses and bacteria including E.coli, salmonella, MRSA, C-Difficile, and hundreds of other common germs. Removes stains and odors. 3000 times faster and much stronger than bleach and chlorine-based cleaners.

Cost Effective – Eliminate the need to purchase, transport, warehouse, distribute, store and restock multiple cleaning chemicals. No safety training, compliance or reporting required.

Completely Green – 100% chemical-free. No toxins, carcinogens or chemical residues. EPA, FDA, TURI, CSA, UL and OSHA compliant. No wasteful transportation, packaging or disposal.

User Friendly – No multiple guess – lotus® works on any type of surface without a cartfull of chemicals: from UUtoilet bowls to bedspreads, lotus is your one-stop cleaning and sanitizing and answer.

What it can clean

• Clean and sanitize furniture, fixtures, mirrors, counter tops, sinks, food service areas; anywhere you would use a chemical cleaner, with no residues or odors

• Deodorize drapes, bed linens and comforters

• Safely remove stains from broadloom, upholstery and other water safe fabrics

• Clean and sanitize all bathroom fixtures including shower grouting and toilet bowls

• Spray into the AC unit and the air to eliminate musty odors in guest rooms.

• Fast and easy sanitization for spa and gym areas, saunas, kitchens, dining facilities, day care areas, common use areas and rest rooms.

So just when you though cleaning couldn’t get any greener, it just did! Happy Spring Cleaning!

Green, green, green. St. Patrick’s Day calling card is anything and everything green. Outside of drinking beer, there are a few more things that make up the Irish holiday.  Green clothing, green food and green decor.  So here’s a fun list of was to make this green holiday actually feel eco -friendly too!

• Color me natural – Add a little Patty’s Day coloring to anything on the menu with all natural, vegan, gluten-free food coloring by Seelect. Made of vegetable and fruit dyes, add it to your favorite eco beer for a seriously festive drink.
• Bake up a storm – If you don’t have time to whip up a batch of Irish Soda bread for a yummy St. Patrick’s Day breakfast, try Garvey’s Organic Irish Soda Bread Mix – it’ll give your party a little authenticity (and help soak up the beer!).
• See the world through green colored glasses – Who needs to dye their beverage when you can drink out of naturally green tinted glasses by Trycycle. A large variety of glassware from wine glasses to pint glasses, goblets and more, these lightly green hued liquid containers are made from 100% recycled glass.
• Walk like a leprechaun – Avoid being pinched by rockin’ green shoes by Keds Green Label line. 100% organic, vegan sneaks, while their green as is, you can also get them in the color green ; )
• You can’t top this – The most obvious of St. Patty’s day fashion is the green t-shirt. Be sure that it’s also eco -friendly along with being cute by picking up
• Drink green – Yeah, yeah, we know everything is green on St. Patty’s but really drinking green means supporting local and/or organic breweries. Check out some of these eco friendly and organic breweries: New Belgium Beers (a worker owned co-op run by wind power), Brooklyn Brewery (also run by wind power in NYC), Peak Organic, or North Coast Brewing Company. And remember if you must drink out of the bottle, be sure to recycle!
• Dispose of the idea of disposables – Do your best to avoid plastic decor and accessories. These will most likely get tossed the day after the big party and will fill up the landfills for the next 100 St. Patrick’s Days to come. Put fresh clover in your hair, use fresh greenery or hand craft your own decor instead!
• Eat green – Go for organic, local and vegan foods to chow on this year. It’s the greenest you can get!

Have a fun, safe and really green St. Patrick’s Day!!

Looking to make your tunes mobile as well as loud and clear for all to hear? Enter the Eco Terra radio that is, get this, water proof as it floats in water and adjusts to different altitudes.

Priced at $149.99, this IPX7-certified boombox works just fine even when dunked in water — the two 3-inch speakers will always float upwards to annoy fellow swimmers. There’s no iPod dock connector here as the job’s done using a 3.5mm jack inside the watertight compartment, but much like many iPhone headsets these days, you can use the buttons at the top to control music playback and volume on supported iPods or iPhones; whereas with other MP3 players you can only change the volume after flipping a switch.

Additionally, the Eco Terra comes with an air pressure release valve to allow easy compartment access across different altitudes. We assume this means someone somewhere has a habit of blasting out music while trekking. Of course, you’ll need to install four C Cell batteries to get things started, and that’ll keep you partying in the wild for around 25 hours.

Here’s to summer parties and get togethers, no matter where you may be!

Are you looking to turn over your green leaf but feel overwhelmed on how to start? Signing up for Conscious Box is a great way to dip your toes in the green pool slowly and get you acclimated to the new and exciting eco waters.

A monthly service that delivers a fun box of eco-goodies to your door, Conscious Box showcases the coolest eco products on the market. From health, vegan treats to eco beauty and home decor, everything in the box is good for you as well as the earth. Additionally, the box itself is green as are all of the printed materials.

So if you’re feeling intimidated about taking your first steps into green, sign up for Conscious Box and get introduced to a whole new world. Plus, if you’re racking your brain about what to get a friend or family member as a gift, CB is a great gift idea!

Who doesn’t like getting packages, especially when they are full of fun surprises!

Teaching our children about the benefits, and even necessities, on going green is of vital importance. I adore toy companies that are embracing greener and healthier versions of popular toys, dolls and games and one company has taken a childhood staple to a whole new level. how about trying eco blocks, shaped like legos, on for size?

Not the overabundance of colored plastic, but a wood based clickable, stackable block set! Made from of a composite of cedar tree bark, compressed dust from sawn cedar logs, and coffee beans — as well as just enough polypropylene to hold it all together — these bricks are the greenest building blocks any green parent could dream of.

While they lack the pretty colors that their plastic counterparts come in, I also endorse the muted colors as black canvasses for imagination! They come in just one shape and size, and you can buy a pack of 50 from the Guggenheim for $30.

Ok, so I didn’t mean to literally run out and buy green colored  jeans, despite their extreme trendiness at this particular point in time. What I meant is to choose green and eco-friendly jeans by way of smart shopping or better yet, recycling and swapping!

Did you know that it takes 2000 gallons of water to make just 1 pair of jeans?? Yeah!!! Talk about a giant waste of our precious resources for 1 person’s fashion addiction. Not to mention the amount of pollution caused by the chemicals used in the denim making process, shipping to stores, etc.

So what can you do to still rock a hot look without pissing off mother earth? Green Your Jeans! Try some of these easy, eco and super budget-friendly tips to keep your wardrobe current without harming the globe.

• Thrift – One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Give a discarded pair of denims a new life by adopting them for a way discounted rate then retail!
• Swap – Clean out your closets and host a swap party so you and your friends can get a whole new look by just doing what you used to do in high school! Gabbin’ and swapping is a great way to spend an evening.
• Re-purposing – Ok, so maybe your favorite pair has a giant tear at the knee that is virtually irreparable. Why not make them your new favorite jean shorts or skirt? Or make a way cute DIY purse or bag out of them ; )
• Cuteifying and embellishing – Not all hope is lost when you break a belt loop, tear a hole in the butt or stain your threads. Get creative and embellish with rhinestones, cool one-of-a-kind patches or even some personalized embroidery. What a way to get true “designer” jeans!

No matter what, do your best to not get sucked into smart marketing that brain washes you into thinking you need to spend your life savings on that trendy new pair of jeans. Find ways to reuse, renew or recycle and you’ll always be ahead of the fashion curve!

Outside of the chocolates, roses and dinner reservations, there are many ways to green your Valentine’s Day. Be it a date spent out in nature, or an eco friendly gift idea, check out some of these ways to show the earth you love her too!

• Make a romantic, organically candle lit dinner at home. It’s cheaper, less stress of finding a reservation at the right place, and perfectly private – ooh lala!
• Make your own cards or support a local artist who hand makes cards from recycled materials. Also shop online at spots like Tiny Prints.
• Buy and give a locally, organic grown plant. Your loved one will be able to enjoy it a lot longer then expensive flowers that will wilt as soon as the clock strikes midnight on the 15th ; ) Or better yet, plant a tree and as your love grows, the tree will be a reminder of when the seed was planted!
• Instead of the usual dinner date, go on a hike and pack a picnic. Get out in nature and enjoy a delicious meal overlooking a gorgeous view!
• Book a retreat in a wildlife reserve, park or natural area. Your business will help support the running of such establishments.
• Ice skating on a frozen lake. Well, be sure it’s safe but it’s a highly fun and romantic way to enjoy the season.
• Volunteer! You and your main squeeze can share your love with others by making a date to help an organization in need. Be it helping out at an animal shelter or habitat for humanity, nothing is more fulfilling then helping others.
• Sow the seeds of love ; ) Spend the day planting an organic garden. This way you enjoy a mutual activity and get to enjoy the health, eco and budget benefits all year long!

No matter if you’ve got a honey or not, be sure to make it a day full of love and fun!