If you have a minute, I have 2 new posts over at 5 Minutes for Going Green. Check out “5 Minute Miracles” and “Healthy Green Pets.”
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This week on Green Mamma, I am happy to introduce Forced Green, a new green living web-site started by Laura Rembowski, who says that going green means being “aware of our carbon footprint and . . . mak[ing] changes in our lives . . . [to] make this world a better place.” Currently, Linda lives in a recreational vehicle, or an R.V., which she describes as “bootcamp” for going green. Here’s what Linda has to say about living green when your home’s on wheels:
1. Conserve water and power. Water conservation and power are daily necessities for R.V. living. By reducing the gallons of water used each time we flush the toilet, wash our hands, toss in a load of laundry, or hop into the bath and shower, we are helping to save water, water, water! Ways to be mindful of water use include: installing a water dam into our toilets or purchasing low flush toilets, using energy efficient and high efficiency washers, and co-bathing or timed baths and showers.
As for cutting out power draining habits? Linda explains the way our society’s dependency on power adds up: “Even when powered down, computer desk equipment, entertainment center, coffee pot, hair dryers, and appliances are consuming energy. Use power strips with on/off buttons. Plug all your equipment into them and switch them off when they’re not in use so that they’re not pulling a load.”
2. Grow a young environmentalist. Linda is aunt to several green nieces and nephews. To peak youth interest in caring for nature, Linda suggests that children be allowed to grow a plant or garden. To get started, she explains, “Give them a packet of seeds, let them plant it, and care for it. They will go out each and every day to watch it grow.”
In addition to showing children how to grow and care for plants, Linda suggests taking children for a walk, bringing a plastic bag, and allowing them to pick up debris to help keep the environment clean. One of my own favorite green moments with Annabelle happened on a hot summer morning last August; we jogged down to our bike trail where Annabelle sat in her stroller and observed her passionate green mamma picking up discarded bottles, cans, paper, and cigarette butts for some 500 yards. I filled 6 bags or so, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of things; however, I know that somewhere in my little one’s mind, she’ll understand the value of cleaning up and caring for our earth.
When it comes to teaching our children to value their environment, Linda puts it best, “If they keep the land clean, they’ll learn that [the earth] will take care of them.”
3. Go high-tech! Linda swears by Hy-Tech paint, which incorporates a ceramic barrier into household paint and works to reduce your home’s absorption of heat by reflecting the sun off the walls of a house. And guess who is a major customer of Hy-Tech paint? None other than the leaders of air and space research, NASA! To learn more about Hy-Tech paint and its environmental benefits, visit Hy-TECH Sales.
4. Grow a dirt-free garden. While living in a motor home provides access to wide open spaces and beautiful scenery, Linda’s front yard is ever changing. To stay in touch with nature when out on the road, Linda makes use of aeroponics, a dirt free growing method in which a plant’s roots are suspended in a 100% humidity, highly oxygenated chamber. Aerogrow, the company that provided Linda with her own aeroponic garden, is committed to sustainability for climate protection and employee wellness. Oh, and just in case your wondering, aeroponics is said to produce vegetables that are just as nutritious, if not more so, than traditionally grown plants.
5. Spot the Green Seal. Linda recommends that when shopping for green products, especially suspect items that may be “green washed,” to search for the Green Seal of approval. Based on a life cycle evaluating process, Green Seal evaluates a product from material extraction and its inception to manufacturing and use and ending with recycling or disposal of a product. To find out whether your favorite green products are Green Seal certified, visit Green Seal.org.
Living green on the road has opened Linda’s eyes to ingenuous ways to care for the earth’s environment. Of her unique motor home lifestyle and its influence on her efforts to care for the earth, Linda comments, “I often [think] that if everyone in the world was required to live in an RV for year or two, there would be absolutely no problem[s] living in our environment.”
With the rising costs of gasoline on our budgets and the environment, those living an RV or motor home lifestyle may want to learn more ways to live green on the road, save money, and reduce their overall impact on the earth. And for everyone else concerned with caring for the earth, check out Linda at Forced Green to learn easy ways to live a natural life in an industrial world.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the RV lifestyle is growing. Here’s a few neat facts and stats about RVs from RV-N-Motorhomes:
Typically RVers travel 4500 miles annually on excursions that total 28 to 35 days annually.
Americans in the age group of 35-to-54 year are keener on owning an RV of their own.
The typical RV owner is age 49, married, owns a home and has an annual household income of $68,000.
With nearly 7.2 million RVs on the road in the year 2001, the sales of RVs have steadily increased through the following years: 2002, +21.1%; 2003, +3.2%; 2004, +15.4%.
RV rental has become a $350 million/year business, experiencing a 63% growth rate between 1997 and 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the RV Rental Assoc.
The retail value of RVs produced was more than $12.4 billion. Combined with the RV rental market, it is estimated that RVs are $15.75 billion a year industry.
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I’m psyched about a new web-site called 5 Minutes for Going Green, a sister site to the popular 5 Minutes for Moms. Not only am I happy to find another wonderful resource about green living, but I’m also super excited that I will be a regular contributor! Click here to check out my latest post on green haircare.
Another bonus is that I’ll be part of a fabulous green team that includes incredible writers such as:
Coming Up for Air
Crunchy Domestic Goddess
Crunchy Chicken
Green and Clean Mom
Green Mamma
Healthy Green Moms
Kerrianne.org
Little Green Secrets
mod*mom
Nature Moms
Surely You Nest
The EcoChic Organizer
The Green Parent
The Smart Mama
To Think Is To Create
Green living is easy, do-able, and good for our families. Take 5 and learn a little bit about greening your lifestyle.
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Caring for the environment and living green is an investment that many individuals are making for their own and their children’s health and wellness. Everyday I meet people and learn about companies who are doing their part to eliminate practices that harm the earth, and inevitably, human and animal life. This week on Green Mamma we meet David Webster, founder of the web-site Healthier-cleaning-products.com.
David’s objective at Healthier-cleaning-products.com is to educate consumers about the consequences of selecting harmful and toxic household products versus those that are not only good for planet earth but are good for your home and family too. Here’s a little bit about David and his family, as well as a few insightful tips on how to clean green for a healthier earth and family:
1. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. David says that the 3 Rs are the “easiest ways” for his family to protect and preserve the earth. He comments, “It’s almost to the point of only buying products packaged in recyclable containers.” Purchasing products in recyclable packaging not only allows consumers to recycle, but it also reduces waste (just think about all those #5 or #7 plastic containers that many waste collectors do not recycle).
Recycling newspapers and plastics are an easy way to get our children involved in saving the planet too. David says that his 8 year-old daughter Marlaina loves to help him and his wife Mary Jo with their recycling efforts.
2. Wear your favorite threads more than once. David’s family tries to wear their clothing more than one time before tossing items into the laundry. In addition, this green family hangs their laundry outside to dry, which minimizes dryer use and saves energy.
3. Plant a tree. Last Spring, David and his family gave Mamma Earth a wonderful gift when they added 12 new trees to their yard. Trees not only keep our air fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, but in a single year, a tree absorbs the amount of carbon produced by a car that has driven 8700 miles! For more fun facts about trees, visit Trees Are Good.
4. Grow, grow, grow organic! David and his family maintain an organic vegetable and fruit garden, which they fertilize with rich soil made from their home compost. Organic gardening is a wonderful way for parents and their children to connect with nature and create beauty together. David’s daughter Marlaina not only helps her parents with their own organic garden but she maintains her own vegetable garden too!
An added bonus to organic gardening? The local soil and water supply is kept clean and uncontaminated by the chemicals that are often used in yards and gardens, which can have adverse effects on the health of children, pets, and wildlife. Visit Mostly Organic Gardening for more information about growing your own organic garden.
5. Eat green. One of the easiest ways that David, Mary Jo, and Marlaina take action on behalf of the environment is to purchase organic, natural foods and to educate themselves about the ingredients in their food. David comments, “[Marlaina] likes to go food shopping with . . . Mary Jo and attempts to read ingredient labels.” Sadly, the wording on food labels is sometimes misleading. For example, a product that claims to be made “with real fruit” is not necessarily a nutritious choice, nor is it one that is good for the environment. To learn more about deciphering food labels, visit Dr. Sear’s “Learning About Food Packaging Labels.”
6. Love your pet and Mamma Earth! David says that his pets Tippy the Cat and Hartley the Dog are not recycling, yet =), but that both pets are going green. Tippy uses a wheat litter, and both Tippy and Hartley eat all natural pet food that is made without unhealthy byproducts.
7. Clean up your green act! David’s family chooses green cleaning products and personal care products. Their favorites include Melaleuca personal care, laundry, and dishwasher soaps. For his carpet cleaning business, David chooses Green Seal Certified products by Procyon. According to the Procycon web-site, their soap and odor free products are hypo-allergenic, non-toxic, with no VOCS and off gassing.
Below is one of David’s homemade recipes for a vinegar cleaner that eliminates pet odors:
Make your own “white vinegar” by diluting acetic acid in water. Dilute 1 ounce with a quart of warm water. Keep this mixture as a cleaner and as a first step to neutralizing animal urine in your carpet. Be very careful of the acetic acid concentrate as it can cause skin burns. Please keep this and all cleaning products out of the reach of all children.
David’s work to protect people and the environment from nasty chemicals is admirable. Here’s a little bit more about how chemicals in cleaning products effect our health, homes, and the environment. David writes:
Let me begin by asking “why should we be concerned about the cleaning products utilized in our indoor environment”? There are a couple of different answers to this question.
First is the issue of detergent residue, the film that is left behind by cleaning chemicals. How often have you spilled something on your carpet and reached for either a commercial cleaning product or perhaps you made your own with a little dish detergent and water. It seemed to clean but within a short time the spot is back, darker and larger than before.
You retreat it and that little spot continues to grow many times its original size. This is detergent residue and it will attract dirt like a magnet. This cycle will repeat unless the residue is completely rinsed. Unfortunately detergent residue cannot be completely rinsed. Let me illustrate with a couple of examples:
The average washing machine uses two rinse cycles to remove the dirt and detergent. Take a washed and rinsed article of clothing and place in a small bucket of clear water. Squeeze and squish the garment several times in the water. The foam that appears is detergent residue.
Similarly, why do hot tub retailers sell defoamer? To control the foam caused by detergent residue from the bathing suits of the hot tub users.
The examples given here involve laundry detergent but it is the same with carpet cleaning products. To clean your carpet and not be able to rinse out the detergent can be likened to shampooing your hair and not rinsing the shampoo out.
Worse yet, this detergent residue is in constant contact with, and it is absorbed into your body through the skin. If you took a fresh moist piece of garlic, and rubbed it on the soles of your feet today, by tomorrow, you would taste the garlic.
The feet are very porous and can absorb pollutants or chemicals. Many people walk around their home in bare feet or allow their children to crawl or play on their carpet. The skin will absorb toxic cleaning chemicals found in the carpet.
To stop cleaning your carpet or remove all carpet from your home is not the answer. In fact, many people concerned with allergies, remove their carpeting with the assumption hard flooring is healthier. I question this thinking. Have you ever noticed “dust bunnies” fly around the room by the air current that closing a door creates. Any allergens are in constant motion.
Your carpet on the other hand functions as a giant filter in your home. It traps many contaminants, pollutants and allergens which can then be removed by cleaning. This in turn helps keep your indoor air quality at its best.
One of the simplest lines of defense to improve your indoor air quality is to vacuum your carpet, hard flooring, mattresses and upholstery often. Have your home furnishings professionally cleaned twice yearly, particularly, if pets share your indoor environment.
As the popularity of the “green movement” grows, it seems that cleaning product manufacturers are labeling everything green whether it’s truly green or not. Until uniform standards for cleaning products are established, insist that your carpet cleaner use Green Seal Certified Products (www.greenseal.org).
This Green Seal certification qualifies a product as green. To further safeguard your health, indoor air quality and the environment, allow only the use of detergent-free, non-toxic cleaning products. Choose those which are odor free, hypo-allergenic and do not contain volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html.
A document to check most cleaning products is the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). This is a detailed informational document prepared by the manufacturer or importer of hazardous chemicals. It describes the physical and chemical properties of the product.
Although this document is geared more for the occupational user, it can benefit the building occupant as well. The MSDS includes the name of the chemical (same as on the label), a listing of the ingredients, a statement of the ingredients that are known carcinogens, or that present other known hazards, and any specific hazards.
I hope this information is of help to anyone in search of the “real dirt” on any cleaning solution that you may consider utilizing for your carpet cleaning needs. The increase in children experiencing allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivities and even comprised immune systems is alarming. Our lifestyle of plastic and chemical based products is a major contributor. I wanted to give the public a tool to help make informed decisions when choosing cleaning products.
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Going green and living in an environmentally friendly way is not only all the rave but makes headlines every day because more and more regular people are finding easy ways to make eco-conscious choices in their day to day lives. This week on Green Mamma we meet such a person: Tabitha, the founder of Organic 4 Baby. Organic 4 Baby is a new website that features healthy, quality, and stylish organic products for babies. On getting started as an environmentalist with an organic company, Tabitha comments on her website: “I feel it is important to be well-educated when looking for products, especially those for our children. Unfortunately, there are too many products that can be harmful, even dangerous, so it is important to be aware. My goal for this website is to find the best organic products on the market.”
Below are a few easy green changes that Tabitha, her husband, and their dog Oscar made for a healthier, more eco-friendly lifestyle.
1. Read, read, and read some more. When Oscar came into Tabitha’s life, she says she researched “everything [she] could get her hands on regarding puppy care.” To her surprise and dismay, the ingredients in Oscar’s food were unwholesome. Tabitha wanted better and sought out quality pet food. To read more about selecting healthy, organic food and products for your pet, click here.
2. You are what you eat. Once upon a time, Tabitha ate a non-organic foods diet that she describes as “whatever was fast and easy.” But after she started paying closer attention to what she was feeding her body, she changed her purchasing habits, eliminated processed foods from her diet, and now sticks to fresh organic foods. Of her healthier, greener diet, she explains: “I am the healthiest I think I’ve ever been!”
3. Ah, push it! The lawn mower, of course! Tabitha and her husband recently purchased a push lawn mower to reduce gas consumption and ware on the environment. According to the EPA, gas lawn mowers represent 5% of U.S. air pollution. An added health bonus? Tabitha says her husband is getting into shape each time he pushes their lawn mower: “[It] takes a little more muscle . . . [and] is a good workout.” To learn more about the advantages of push machine mowers, click here.
4. Recycle. By now, green people everywhere are taking advantage of local recycling services. As Tabitha puts it: “The community makes it so easy and everywhere you go you see the blue bins–it’s just a matter of throwing stuff in there.” To find a recycling center in your area, visit RecyclingCenters.org and Earth911.org.
5. Rub it on right. Tabitha loves all natural beauty products and some of her faves include products sold at Trader Joes. To learn more about the health and safety of your favorite personal care and beauty products, visit Skin Deep: Cosmetic Database and read about another Green Friend of the Week: Abbie from Connecticut who loves to seek out healthy, environmentally friendly beauty care.
Thanks again to Tabitha of Organic 4 Baby for sharing a few simple tips on how she is taking on the environment and going green, one step at a time. And thank you also to her dog Oscar, the inspiration for Tabitha’s eco-conscious lifestyle.
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Bernie presses his wet nose against the front window of our house and meows. His mom, our neighbor, is at work. Bernie visits our house, oh maybe, two times a day to meow, get pet, and indulge in a small dish of milk that Annabelle and I offer him. Bernie’s presence and gentle nature (he doesn’t mind when Annabelle tugs at his fur when she pets him) have made him a favorite around our house. A budding friendship began and now continues from afar since Bernie now lives on several acres of land at his mom’s sister’s house in North Carolina.
With the recent media buzz surrounding contaminated pet food and with raising awareness about our pets’ exposure to dangerous chemicals in the home environment, this week on Green Mamma we feature your pet as the green friend of the week.
A wonderful new organization who is working on behalf of your pet is Eddie and the Pets for the Environment, an extension of the non-profit research and advocacy group better known as the Environmental Working Group. Together Eddie and the Pets for the Environment and the Environmental Working Group conducted research about the chemical body burden of pets and found that our pets carry a higher level of dangerous chemicals like phthlates, fire retardant chemicals, and stain and grease resistant chemicals than 80 to 100 % of humans.
I think about the average day for our feline friend Bernie (before he journeyed to his aunt’s house for new adventures). In the morning, Bernie stops by for a snack of diluted milk, lets us pet him, and then dashes off into our yard, through our grass, and makes his way around to patrol the neighborhood. When his mom/owner returns home from work, Bernie likely plays with plastic cat toys, eats a daily dish of cat food, and uses his cat litter. The day to day events for Bernie involved walking through grass treated with pesticides (our neighborhood association hires landscapers who use pesticides to treat the grass–unless otherwise advised as will happen in our yard this month), playing with plastic toys that are potentially full of chemicals (phthaltes), eating cat food that may be made from questionable ingredients (according to MSNBC Pet’s Section: “The FDA said that it had not found rat poison in the tainted pet food, but melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastic cutlery, and also used in fertilizer in Asia.”), and pawing around in cat litter that if clay based is not only hard on the environment (is mined and often ends up in landfills) but contains silica which can cause lesions on the lungs and throat (click here to read Marina Michaels’ “Alternatives to Clumping Clay Kitty Litters”).
Man’s best friends need some love and advocacy from their human friends. Fortunately, there are a number of ways human moms and dads (or owners if you must) can look out for and take action on behalf of their pets. Eddie and the Pets for the Environment shares a long list of ways that pet owners can help reduce their animal friends’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and potential disease; some notable changes include:
1) Go organic and choose petfood that is free of BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin. Click here to read MSNBC’s “Tips for Buying Safe Petfood.”
2) Take your shoes off at the door. Shoes off is practically a mantra in Green Mamma’s house. Learn more about the health advantages of leaving your shoes at the door, click here and here.
And to read the full list of Eddie and the Pets for the Environment’s healthy pet tips click here.
Greening your pet’s lifestyle and home is easy. Visit the following sites to find out how:
1. Organic Pet Foods:
2. Environmentally Friendly and Healthy Cat Litters:
3. Chemical Free and Organic Pet Toys:
Creating a healthy and environmental home and lifestyle for your family’s favorite pet is an invaluable way to show your animal that you love and care for him or her. To learn more about protecting your pet’s health and the environment too, read Planet Green’s “Detox Your Home: Maintain a Poison-Free Home for Your Pets” by Jasmin Malik Chua.
As always, I’d love to hear from other pet owners and animal lovers about ways to protect and enhance our furry friends’ lives. Please comment or e-mail me at greenmamma@greenmamma.org
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