Green Options

Big bags are in and the bigger the better!  Find yours here:  

1). Thrush Bag by Ashley Watson $345 (Recycled Leather) 

Made of soft, worn leather rescued from leather jackets found in charity thrift shops, celebs have been spotted toting these fab bags.   

2). The Market Bag by Moop $113 (Organic Cotton)

Handmade, sweatshop-free bags made to order.  This company prides themselves on quality craftsmenship to be sure you’re bag will last.  Their newly launched ‘Organics’ line offers a midnight blue bag with more colors promised soon.  

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Brian Base, the creator of RideSearch.com, was at the Green Dallas event held this last weekend here in Dallas, Texas. Proforma Green runs the t-shirts for RideSearch.com and both RideSearch.com and Proforma Green had been asked to participate in the event by the City of Dallas.

Well Brian was wearing a shirt we ran for him for the 2008 Plano Green Living Expo back in April (another event we both attended as vendors) and I noticed something.

The RideSearch.com shirts are natural cotton shirts. This means they have no dye in them, they are the color of untreated, undyed cotton.

What I noticed was that these shirts fade, although I am not sure fade is the correct word. As I mentioned the natural shirt, whether organic or regular cotton, are called natural because they have no dye in the shirts. So really there is no color (dye) to fade from the shirt, it is just the natural wear of the cotton.

And it seems that over time these shirts go from a sand tan color to more of a lighter parchment color.

I never really thought of it before but because the shirts have no dye in them they just act like what they are, natural cotton, and the “fading” is a result of their nature.

This morning as I woke up to my clock radio, the one minute Project Green segment came on the Rush Limbaugh leaning KNCO AM. It reported on a recent meeting of California wine growers, all 26 of which are talking preliminary to major efforts to green their operations, product, and packaging.

Somehow this doesn’t surprise me. Vintners are acutely aware of the health of their environment, their plants, and the resulting product. With the refined and particular tastes of many of their consumers, a lackluster wine will lead to lackluster profits. Beyond that though, their customers are, I would venture to guess, more likely to be of the LOHAS mindset, choosing what they consume based on more factors then simply the cheapest available. They want everything they touch to have thought, consciousness, and a lighter impact on the planet factored into them.

How can a wine be green? The grapes themselves can of course be organic, the growing method biodynamic. But what else?

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

SanMar, one of the largest shirt manufacturers in the US, just got into the eco-friendly apparel game in a big way.

The SanMar green site at http://www.sanmar.com/Green.html boasts 27 items, many that are eco-friendly versions of their very popular Port Authority band.

Port Authority is normally ranked #1 or #2 in the promotional market industry for sales. It is the shirt most Proforma offices recommend to clients.

SanMar also is offering bamboo shirts but as yet does not seem to have a product to go up against the e.c.o. Fleece items from AshCity, however I suspect they will come out with something to compete in this area.

AshCity offers in-house embroidery services. SanMar does not (of course Proforma Green can embroider any item from any supplier).

What does all this mean for the Ecopreneurist?

So there I was, looking through the HempTraders website.  Ah yes, I said to myself, they have all kinds of hemp and hemp blends.  Hemp knits, hemp stretch fabrics, hemp linen and muslin, hemp canvas, and even hemp / silk blends and satins.  They have hemp upholstery fabric too.

Some of the fabrics are as low as $7.25 per yard, some as high as $20, and as I’ve come to expect with hemp, I’m seeing mostly solid colors.  HempTraders has a wider variety of fabrics all in one place than some of the other online shops I’ve covered, and the photographs of the fabrics are exceedingly clear.

“But what’s a specialty weave?” I thought, and clicked on that link.

Now I am obsessed with the idea of sewing up little boy pajamas.

Fair Trade Coffee. Certified Humane Raised and Handled Chicken. Organic everything.

Anyone not living under a rock in a remote, sandy location for the last five years has seen the prodigious rise to prominence of eco-labels at their local grocery store. You may not pay these little badges much attention, or if you do, you may be wondering what the heck they mean.

Read them or not, the badges of virtue on everything from cereal to chicken to laundry detergent are bound to get more prevalent, and represent an attempt by many companies to find a niche in an ever-expanding food and food products market. Join me for a stroll down the aisles as we try to decipher what these insistent insignias truly stand for.

Let’s start with an easy one (please note the sarcasm, as it is surely merited) after the jump:

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Non Woven Poly bags are great but many of our clients don’t like non wovens and keep asking when an inexpensive organic cotton tote would be available.

Well the new Econo Tote Bag from Debco seems to fit the bill at 14.75” W x 16.5” with runs under $2 for orders over 1000 units and starts around $3.50 for a small run of 50 units with one color imprint included. These bags are 100% natural organic cotton processed AZO-Free with no hazardous chemicals.

Massage has many important health benefits as it reduces tension and anxiety, increases blood circulation and helps with pain. Massage greatly reduces stress, which leads to most major diseases. When it is integrated into your wellness routine, massage can help you maintain physical, mental and emotional well being. Learn to treat yourself once in a while, just like you do when you go out to dinner, and remember to tip.

Major health benefits of massage include:

• Calms the nervous system and allows a sense of relaxation and well being to set in.
• Massage reduces held tension in the body and eliminates anxiety.
• It Improves blood circulation, and improves how oxygen and nutrients go to the cells, giving you enhanced immune function.

My daughter likes to make cornbread (and eat it too).  She thinks it is fun to make skillet corn bread, and the whole family enjoys it too.  Adding fresh organic corn from the garden makes a nice end of summer treat.

Vegan Organic Skillet Corn Bread

Place an oiled 10 inch iron skillet in a oven heated to 400 degrees.  Mix together:

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon honey or sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

What is an former LA chef and B&B owner to do when midlife crisis hits?

Move to southern Oregon, buy a two-acre, defunct berry farm in need of lots of work and start a boutique, hand-made chocolate company of course.

First, you need to plant some fruit - gold raspberries, marionberries, boysenberries, purple raspberries, red raspberries, three varieties of strawberries, blueberries and four varieties of grapes - farm organically, make deals with a nearby sustainable-certified dairy,  and source top-quality ingredients like organic chocolate couverture.

Then you start with amazing fruit preserves and work your way up to making chocolate truffles out of your home kitchen (legal in Oregon) and sell them at local farmers’ markets out of the back of your pickup truck. The rest is history, as they say.

One of the smallest rooms in your house is also the easiest to green.  But for many people, their bathroom is a sanctuary, a place they go to relax in a hot bath or shower.  You might not want a spartan existence for this place.  That doesn’t mean you can’t go green.  You can make your bathroom eco-friendly without sacrificing luxury by knowing a few tricks and where to shop.  Find out how, after the jump…