As the holiday season approaches we’re all looking for quality toys for our children. Readers of this blog, and increasingly the world at large are seeking toys that are eco friendly and inexpensive too.

That’s why Eco Childs Play agreed to team up with Goddard Systems, Inc, one of the largest child care providers in the country, to seek out the best green toys we could find for under $30.00.

After a national call for submissions, the Toy Test Committee, consisting of Eco Child`s Play representatives and Goddard educators, evaluated entrants based on a number of criteria, including:

* Affordable price range ($30 and under)

* Appropriate for preschoolers and early elementary school-age children

* Creative, social or engaging

* Eco-friendly

* Interactive, child-initiated play focus

We’re happy to announce the 10 finalists today!

The Top 10 Eco-Friendly Toys are as follows (in alphabetical order):

Read more of this story »

I have a number of ideas for great eco toys this year since being involved with the Eco Toy Test sponsored by Eco Child’s Play and the Goddard Schools. We had over 50 entries from great green toys companies and because we’ve created a Facebook and Flickr, we have an excellent shopping guide if you’re looking for gift ideas.

Every one of these toys is eco friendly. They are made from wood or organically grown cotton or recycled plastic. They teach kids about nature or going green. Many of them I had seen before but there were a few that were great new ideas for infant gifts, toddler and preschool gifts and even some for big kids.

Pass the word along that Eco Child’s Play has a green gift guide site! You can find it on Facebook or Flickr – add your comments to help other parents with their green gift choices.

You can talk about it or follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #bestgreentoys

We’ve made a special effort to encourage toymakers of all sizes to enter as we search for the greenest toys under $25.00. We’re all interested in maximizing our dollars these days and I’ve been surprised to find out just how many relatively inexpensive green toys there are!

We’ve received entries from big companies like Haba and Etsy sellers like Mama K’s. We have trucks perfect for toddlers from Green Toys and infant toys from Under The Nile – a whole range of goodies from lots of great manufacturers. You can see photos of some of the entries on our Facebook page – I’ll be uploading more as we go along.

If you are a toymaker- we’d love you to enter our contest and be featured on our Facebook page, as well as have the opportunity to be named “Best Green Toy”. But hurry – the last day to enter is October 1^st.

Read more of this story »

I’ve been asked this year to judge the Goddard/Eco Childsplay 2009 Best Green Toy Contest. Sponsored by Goddard Child Development Centers and Green Options own Ecochildsplay, it is both a great opportunity and one that has me thinking.

How does a small company compete against the big guys in the toy industry? In particular as pointed out by Wendy Johnson, with Birchtree designs writing on the contest Facebook page:

Hey, how about doing a contest of eco-friendly, local handmade items? There is no way we can compete with large corporate manufacturers. Also, not sure how eco-friendly a product it can be if the materials are coming from all four corners of the earth, is being made in another country, and then shipped to the US?

That’s a good point! And so I thought about and found that, hey- this IS just that kind of contest!

Read more of this story »

Since I’ve been working with Goddard Child Development Centers I’ve become very aware of the ways that a good daycare center can be greener. Goddard (who is co-sponsoring The Top 10 Eco-Toys Contest with Eco Childs Play) has worked hard to green their day care centers. Many of my colleagues in the Green Moms Carnival are looking at ways to green the centers that their children attend. And our editor, Jennifer Lance published some guidelines back in January.

But it’s Back-To-School Time so it’s time to take another look. My list focuses on easy things that you and most daycare centers can do to make life just a little greener.

Read more of this story »

I’ve heard this conversation a number of times at the small-to-medium sized enterprises (SME) I work with:

Green Vendor: “So Mr. CEO, how many of my carbon neutral, biodegradable, BPA-free whoozamacallits would you like to purchase?”

CEO: “This seems like a great product and of course my company wants to protect the environment. So I will give this to my purchasing manager, and she’ll contact you in a few days.”

Of course what the CEO says is not what he thinks. All he hears is “Blah, blah and blah. More $. Blah blah and blah. Politically correct. Blah blah and blah. No budget and no time. Blah blah.”

The big companies have the resources to be more strategic in their decisions to go green. Not so for the SMEs. The vendors that I have seen succeed are the ones that have the ability to translate the benefits of the products they offer into the language that the businessperson wants to hear.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

The sellers are not speaking in the terms that the mainstream executives want to hear. They talk enviro-talk. The executives are still evaluating purchasing decisions based on the only values they have – financial – and regardless of whether that is right or wrong, it is what it is.

Read more of this story »

I recently had the opportunity to speak at The Cool Twitter Conference - a traveling show dedicated to all things Twitter.  The San Diego venue, Croce’s was filled with folks watching and tweeting - the new manner in which we engage in conferences, I’ve noticed. You can view my presentation on Slideshare by clicking above.

What do you think? Anything I missed? Tweet me @mcmilker.

Yup, Goddard’s going green and I’m in support of anywhere that children congregate going green so I was happy to accept their sponsorship. And, I enjoyed seeing all the women who attended Blogher sporting babies in slings, lugging breast pumps and promoting green living, including the Blogher organizers.

While I did my best to have a green conference, I have some tips for myself for attending Blogher next year or for any other trip I take.

Read more of this story »

This is another  in our series of environmentally focused cartoons we are featuring from Seppo Leinonen a cartoonist from Finland. I met Seppo through Twitter @sepponet and loved his business oriented green cartoons - I think you will too!

Being Indoors Can Be Bad For You!

Of course that’s true in many ways – but I’ve become a fan of air purification systems, so when I saw a press release on The Goddard School in Buford Georgia putting in an air purification systems, I started thinking…. Where else does it make more sense to have an air purification system than in a preschool.

A no brainer, really.

Read more of this story »

This is another  in our series of environmentally focused cartoons we are featuring from Seppo Leinonen a cartoonist from Finland. I met Seppo through Twitter @sepponet and loved his business oriented green cartoons - I think you will too!

Read more of this story »

Today the Center for Small Business and the Environment (CSBE) launched a new initiative aimed at the 111th Congress and the Obama Administration, reminding them that the best way to revive the ailing U.S. economy is to think green – green entrepreneurism that is.

With multiple options to explore greening your business, this new initiative gives green entrepreneurs a chance to share their stories and connect with other entrepreneurs. Launched with an eye on social media, they’ve included all of the right tools. You can join the community on their Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter.

Read more of this story »

Now I admit, the economy probably has something to do with that. With even the seemingly most secure job now looking a little shaky, people are flocking to upload their credentials on this site.

But for entrepreneurs and other freelance professional, Linkedin has always been a great spot to be. And there are quite a number of those active in the green world already there. So, if you haven’t yet joined or aren’t quite sure how to maximize your presence, here are a few tips.

1. Before you post a profile, take a look at a few of people you know. Try mine – notice how I feature an award I won for “green” in my professional headline. Other people include their phone number or email. Many in the sustainable businesses include their business name or if it doesn’t connote “green” add key words like “eco” or “green”. Google does pick up Linkedin profiles so including key words in your Linkedin profile means you show up in Google searches as well as Linkedin searches. Don’t’ worry if your profile isn’t perfect, you can update as often as you like and while Linkedin does notify your network that you have made changes- it doesn’t say what they were (helpful if you make radical changes to your job history.)

Read more of this story »

This post is, in Rob’s words, part of a grand social media experiment  to publish the first collective, simultaneous guest blog post from Max Gladwell.  Our goal is for it be published simultaneously on 100 blogs, thus inspiring 100 simultaneous conversations from various points of view. We have more than 70 confirmed with some of the biggest and coolest in the blogosphere.

Enjoy!

Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. They’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment. And they’ll take for granted that a black man is or was President of the United States.

What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the People they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it.

For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments, hence the following list.

Read more of this story »

Now, like popular memes on blogs, a number of Twitter memes have gone weekly. The most well known is #Followfriday. To use it Twitterers simply list some of their favorite folks to follow and add the hastags #followfriday.

My first thought after reading this article was, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if we had a #followfriday like tag for the green community?”

Over the weekend though, while I was playing around with ideas like #sustainable saturday and #greentuesday my blogger buddy and green web strategist, Rob Reed of @maxgladwell fame came up with #EcoMonday, which appeared early Monday morning and spurred hundreds of Twitter fans to recommend their favorite green Twitter streams.

To keep the momentum going, Rob has also set up an @ecomonday account on Twitter, where you can look for the most recommended green Tweople to follow. @Ecomonday will only follow those that follow @Ecomonday and those who are recommended in the meme.

Read more of this story »

Along with Baby bath seats, Crib bumper pads and Sleep positioners were listed two products near and dear to advocates of attachment parenting: Co-sleepers and Slings!

Consumer Reports first blasts co-sleepers saying:

Although sleeping with a baby in an adult bed is a common practice among some cultures, it can be dangerous. The new bassinet-like devices designed to go in between parents or alongside an adult bed don’t necessarily make co-sleeping with a baby safer… Currently, safety standards don’t exist for either co-sleepers or bedside sleepers. Until they do, we think the safest place for your baby to sleep is in a crib.

Then they go on to denigrate slings:

Over the past five years, at least four babies died and there have been many reports of serious injury associated with the use of sling-type carriers. The incidents include skull fractures, head injuries, contusions and abrasions. Most occurred when the child fell out of the sling. As slings grow in popularity, so do the number of serious injuries. No safety standards exist for slings. We think you should skip the sling and opt for other types of infant carriers, which have safer track records.

Read more of this story »

Our focus on natural ingredients was, in retrospect rather laughable as we included all sorts of what we now call, toxic ingredients, but promoted the “natural” additives. We looked for opportunities to tie into events and with charities that focused on green initiatives with an eye toward increasing sales.

In many ways that hasn’t changed.

Brands across categories, but particularly in the natural products industry are choosing charities with which to align themselves. In most cases this is an exercise in determining what the brand will stand for. The bigger the brand, the larger the charity and the more thought is given to this exercise as seen in the almost perfect launch last year of Clorox Greenworks brand.

But many brands have turned this reasoning on it’s head now and are looking at their social responsibility as the primary raisn d’etre for being. Is this a viable strategy?

Read more of this story »