Green Options

1. The steps to take with your big green purse over at igogreen@ivillage are super. The overview encompasses the whole spectrum of how to tread lightly: buy less, read the label, support sustainable standards, look for third party verification, choose fewer ingredients, use less packaging, and buy local.
2. Ecostiletto has some great resources and news from the eco experts. Their definition of “Green” is to consider the word, not as label or a certification, but as a state of mind that means the product is created through environmentally and socially conscious means.

Editor’s note: This week, Eco-Libris blogger Raz Goldenik talks with author Diane MacEachern about her new book Big Green Purse. This post was originally published on February 22, 2008.

Can women make the world a greener and a better place with their purses? Diane MacEachern believes they do and she wrote a great book Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power To Create a Cleaner, Greener World, which is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers (women spend 85 percent of every dollar in the marketplace) to make a difference.

MacEachern’s message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the “power of their purse” and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world.

We covered the book few weeks ago, and since I was fascinated with the simple but yet powerful message of the book, I wanted to learn a little bit more about it from the author itself and interviewed Diane MacEachern. I know that not all of you see green consumerism as the best way to fight global warming and achieve sustainability, but Diane makes a very good case here in explaining how realistic and powerful option it is. you are welcome to read and judge for yourself. The book was published last Thursday, February 28.