Staying away from the topics of food and transportation, which are probably the biggest daily products you could green, here is a list of products you use everyday.

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We can see the way children imitate their parents, even as adults. Children learn habits (small and large ones), beliefs, likes and dislikes, interests, manners, and even deeply engrained ethics from their parents. It may seem superficial at times, but when you get to know someone closely, and their family, you can get to see how deep what they learned actually goes.

We put a lot into the future of our children. We want them to have a good education, good friends, want them to be polite and respectful. We hope they will learn what’s important in life and what’s not as important, and we do our best to help them learn this.

All of this being said, what do we do to educate them about the environment? We do some things on a superficial level — we might recycle and tell them how to recycle and what recycling is; we might be conservative in the use of lights and water and such resources. We give some passing mention of the importance of the environment. But is this a true environmental ethic and are we doing what we should in this field?

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By contributing guest author Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of Substance 151, a strategic design agency for Green Printer’s “Design Goes Green” series.

We live in a time when “sustainability” is topping the buzzword charts and a wave of greenwashing is flooding the mainstream. We live in a time of intense competition, gloomy economic forecasts and rapidly disappearing marketing budgets, but also in a time when more and more companies and organizations strive to uphold higher environmental and social values, making the shift to the triple bottom line economic model. Sustainability and social responsibility are the forces that drive many of today’s business decisions; they also change the way organizations re-think their branding and marketing strategies. As marketers and business leaders, we are faced with the challenge of finding differentiation by creating empowering and memorable brand experiences for our audiences in the increasingly crowded sustainable marketplace.

So, What are the rules?

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Russ Meyer, the Chief Strategy Associate for Landor Associates tells us that brands will need to integrate their commitment to sustainability into a larger message of efficiency, effectiveness, and value.

What can we expect to see in 2009?

As consumers look to cut spending, buying “green” may be a low priority in 2009; however, achieving sustainability is a long-term trend that will continue through the next decade. According to Russ Meyer, this trend will continue and even gain momentum globally as a consequence of the economic downturn.

Concurrently, President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to sustainable energy may finally ensure the support of the world’s largest economy—and biggest consumer of energy—in the global shift toward green.

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Is your Resolution to Kickstart the Next Clean Revolution?

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

I talked to one of my friend’s yesterday and she told me that the staff Christmas party wasn’t nearly as joyful as in previous years. Half of the people who came to the party were let go. There have been record layoffs since the economy has gone south, and it’s hard to talk to someone whose family hasn’t been impacted in some way.

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For some reason, having my oldest daughter turned eight was difficult for me. I looked at this blond haired, blue eyed, angel and realized she is quickly going to be taller than I am and that she is now becoming an independent being. I was devastated. Then I started sweating… at what point do I start talking to her about PUBERTY? For crying out loud, she is eight. When I looked around our community I realized that some girls need this information by 8 or 9 while others don’t until 13 or later. The last thing I want is my child to enter the world of becoming a woman without being informed.

So, I set out on a mission to prepare her (and myself). Thankfully there are a lot of good books out there, so grab one (or several) that you’ve read through and get ready. Decide on the age and how much you want to cover. We’ve started with the basics and I have the kit on hand to bring out when the time comes.

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Not in my house. We keep a small basket on the back of each toilet. In it we store things like extra rolls of Seventh Generation or Sunrise recycled toilet paper. I also toss in my waiting to be recycled preserve razor handles, toothbrushes and packaging. When a roll of tissue runs out, the empty cardboard roll goes into the basket.

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Somewhere along the way we have been brainwashed to believe we must KILL KILL KILL bacteria and viruses by using toxic substances like chlorine bleach, triclosan and fancy “antibacterial” products. Thanks to mass marketing ploys such as Clorox’s “Essential to a Healthy Home” advertisement.

The truth is simple. Yes we need to keep things clean, no we don’t need super antibacterial products to do that. In reality, over use of bacteria killing products can be counter productive. Clean well, clean naturally, clean often.

A wonderful cleaning solution is the Vinegar of Four Thieves recipe. We’ve been using this for years. It does have a vinegar smell (add more herbs to help counteract), but it works beautifully.

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In the US, accidental ingestion of chemical-based cleaning products accounts for many trips to the emergency room and calls to the Poison Control Center.  Bleach is a strong corrosive and may cause pulmonary edema or coma if ingested, while ammonia can damage the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin.  These aren’t the only harmful ingredients in conventional cleaning products, but manufacturers purposely omit many dangerous ingredients from labels.  Additionally, chemical cleaning products end up in our waterways, soil, and landfills, where they contribute to oxygen-depleted ocean dead-zones, release harmful gases into our air, and poison both humans and wildlife.

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Naturally Clean is written by Jeffrey Hollender, Geoff Davis, Meika Hollendar, and Reed Doyle. The book is divided into seven sections:

1. Case for Change at Home: These chapters are about the chemicals in household cleaners and the negative effects they have on our health, including cancer, asthma, hormone disruptions, and multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS).
   

   Like almost anything else, there is a good side and a bad side to all the molecular manipulation chemists practice. There are safe chemicals, and there are unsafe chemicals. Our problem today is that we don’t really know which are which.

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There are not a lot of “green” businesses in Flint. Absolutely none listed in Co-op America’s National Green Pages or in any other database of green businesses that I’ve found. Earlier this year there was a green business event for Flint and Genesee county area businesses…maybe five companies were there: CBC Recycling, Office Max (I think), a mobile document shredding company and I don’t remember who else, if anyone.

For years it has been very hard to be green in Vehicle Rust City. Some outer suburbs have curbside recycling but I have to haul mine directly to the recycling center. If I wanted to buy green, any specialty items like cleaning supplies, organic cosmetics, clothing or anything else that I want had to be ordered through catalogs or online (I am sooo thankful for the Internet). Organic food also had to be special ordered or searched for (sometimes to no avail) at the Farmer’s Market.

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Non-toxic cleaners are the far better, safer choice in household cleaning. That said, there is still some danger in any cleaning product. Your child could have an allergy to an ingredient, it might contain an eye irritant or could cause stomach upsets. This is much less of a concern than carcinogens and mutagens in cleaning supplies, but that doesn’t mean we can store our solutions under the sink in an unlocked cupboard and assume that our child is safe.

This topic came up last night with a girlfriend of mine, she is one of the most environmental people I know. She shot me an email saying, “As a Mom who has changed to eco-friendly products, be it Seventh Generation, or Vermont Soap Organic All Purpose Cleaner, or even a vinegar, baking soda and water mix- what if my child were to get into it, swallow it/drink it? How non-toxic is it really, as far as having to call 911, etc…? I mean, you still have to call a doctor, right? Even though it is “non-toxic” you should still follow some sort of instruction in case of eye contact/swallowing?”

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My spring water comes from the roots of an old oak tree and is gravity fed to my home. This may sound idyllic, until you see the mineral stains it leaves on the shower and tub walls.  I scrub and scrub until I get tendonnitis, but those stubborn stains return in about a week.  Like my toilet, I like to keep my bathtub clean for my little ones.  Seventh Generation Natural Tub and Tile Cleaner has simplified this tedious job.  I simply spray it on, let it sit for about three minutes, then gently scrub the stains away with a walnut scrubber sponge.  No more crazy scrubbing until my arms ache, and since it is made by Seventh Generation, I am not worried about my children being exposed to this cleaning product.

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I’ve always professed that every baby should wear cloth diapers; however, with my son wearing one diaper in 24 hours, it takes a long time to make a diaper load of laundry. After a week, these cloth diapers get very rank, and I don’t really want to put them in my washing machine or waste energy and water to wash them more often.  Thus, I’ve resorted to Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers, as it is too late in the game (I don’t plan to have any more children) to invest in gDiapers. I do feel a slight pang of guilt using a landfill, aka disposable, diaper, but I rationalize six years of cloth diapering two kids has earned me the right to one disposable diaper a day.

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Most toilet bowl cleaners are made with caustic acids that can burn your skin, and I certainly don’t want my little one’s bums to experience that!  Seventh Generation’s Emerald Cypress & Fir Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner is biodegradable, safe for septic systems, chlorine-free, phosphate-free, dye-free, etc.  It comes in a cool shaped bottle allowing you to squirt under the toilet bowl rim. Unlike many other natural cleaners who guard their ingredients in a shroud of secrecy, Seventh Generation fully discloses its ingredients.  This toilet bowl cleaner is made from:

Aqua (water), lactic acid (plant-derived demineralizer), polyglucose, coceth-7, coceth-4 and deceth-5 (plant-derived cleaning agents), xanthan gum (natural thickener), essential oils and botanical extracts* (citrus aurantifolia (lime), abies balsamea (balsam fir), calilistris columellaris (emerald cypress). *d-limonene is a naturally occurring component of these ingredients.

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On every package of Seventh Generation’s, non-toxic household products, you can find their corporate motto:

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions upon the next seven generations.”

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Dubbed Change It, the second-year program is recruiting 200 student leaders between the ages of 18 and 24 to take part in a week of grassroots environmental and social justice education. Selected students will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC in July. Participants will learn about topics such as systems thinking, action media, nonviolence, and campaign strategy, and will actually participate in real campaign work.

Last year's Change It participants were responsible for a nonviolent global warming campaign in front of the US Capitol, where participants created a giant human arrow pointed towards the capitol with the phrase "Global Warming Starts Here" and delivered photographs of the event to their respective representative.

Interested in applying? It's all online here. Even those applicants who aren't selected will still receive an action kit with tools to help them become strong campus leaders. Not eligible to apply? You can check out applicants online and even vote for your favorite. Readers can also submit ideas for how they'd change things to improve the environment, which will be published on ChangeIt's website.