Green Options

Emma, who helps run the Internet’s numero uno fashion recycling website, contacted me to ask if I could imagine opening my wardrobe and choosing from over 10 million outfits? Of course I replied with enthusiasm and she said “welcome to the future of Bigwardrobe.com.”

Emma explains that it’s like a small environmentally-friendly version of eBay. Yet the merchandise is strictly apparel with three categories of men, women, kids. Love the tailored coat offering pictured.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” says Michael Pollan. While I’m pretty good at eating real, non-processed food and basing my diet on plants, I struggle with the “not too much” part.

I love food. I probably love it a little too much. Although I’m very active, I carry around 10-20 extra pounds from being such a big eater.

Part of the problem is that, as a grad student, I don’t get nearly enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can make you fatter by increasing levels of appetite regulating hormones and eroding your ability to make good decisions. I also spend an inordinate amount of time in front of my computer doing work that I don’t really want to do, so I snack to stay awake and make my work more enjoyable.

So what’s a food-loving, sleep-deprived gal supposed to do? I have enough experience training animals that I know I can’t simply tell myself to stop certain behaviors. (Ever try yelling at your dog to get it to stop barking? Usually doesn’t work, does it? Distracting your dog with a game works much better.) Instead of telling yourself that tomorrow is the day that you will stop overeating, you need to replace a bad habit with a good one to be successful.

Here are some strategies for replacing habits that lead to overeating with healthier habits:

With all of the attention being paid to the platforms of foodies like Jamie Oliver and Michael Pollan, you would think that Americans would cook more and rely less on fast- and processed-food.

The misperception that cooking is too time consuming turns out to be a major roadblock on our path to a sustainable national food system.

Cooking is not time consuming. Shopping for groceries, however, is.

One strategy for making cooking a part of your daily life is to maximize your cooking to shopping ratio.

Here are some tips on how to cook more and shop less:

Millions of Americans are declaring financial sustainability, even if they don’t exactly call it that. After all, we can’t borrow our way out of debt.

We’re paying down or paying off credit cards. We’re getting rid of our mortgage or putting an extra payment toward the principal balance (which has huge cost savings advantages). Or we’re practicing other frugality rules. According to data from the Federal Reserve, the amount Americans owe on consumer loans and credit cards plummeted $21.6 billion in July of 2009 – the largest monthly drop in consumer debt since the Federal Reserve started to track it in 1943. The “cash for clunkers” will, no doubt, alter the outcomes for August and September, but the trend continues to be less appetite for debt, not more.

People are working to get the bankers out of our lives, demanding that we become someone other than a “consumer.” So while the Federal government continues to re-affirm their “wise” decisions to bailout bankers and big finance, Americans are choosing to fire their credit card companies and break their “death pledge” (aka mortgage) by paying it off early. Of course, there are also many Americans who are in so far over their heads that unfortunately, personal bankruptcy and home foreclosure are the only remedy.

I am, however, focusing on those who thrive in abundance, simplicity and sustainability when it comes to community, lifestyle and, yes, financial intelligence. As my wife and I write about in ECOpreneuring, you cannot have ecological sustainability without a large degree of social and economic equity. The ECOnomy is not about “free trade” but fair trade; it’s about commerce that restores the planet, not destroys it or exploits people.

You can join these financial freedom-seekers too, by practicing financial sustainability. As most of us intuitively recognize, the best things in life are free (or close to it).

PACT underwear launched this week with a campaign that demonstrates choosing wisely doesn’t have to accompany images of melting ice caps and flooding deserts

In a previous post, I listed five of the best things I think you can do in order to live a sustainable lifestyle — #6-10. Now, here is the top five list.

A good thrift store is an asset to a community equal to that of a mom-and-pop hardware store, a locally-famous ice cream/snowcone/frenchie stand, and a rockin’ adult co-rec softball team: in other words, it’s crucial.

In my hometown, we’re lucky not only to have all of the above and a library that stocks just released feature film DVDs, but several excellent thrift stores—thrift stores small and quirky, thrift stores large and conglomerate, thrift stores frequented largely by the college students, thrift stores frequented mostly by the townies. As an avid crafter whose Crafting Manifesto dictates that I work primarily with recycled materials, I have throughout several years’ worth of projects figured out a way to use pretty much any kind of thrift store junk to make awesome stuff. Here are some of the possibilities:

“Empower people in the US to realize that they have power to influence the global economy through their purchasing choices.” That isn’t some pie-in-the-sky wistful, unrealistic dream. That inspiring vision forms the Earth Mission, that driving force behind World of Good as they aim to transform how we shop by connecting us directly that individual who made our product, even if they are half-way around the globe.

Fostering an economy based on social and economic justice, World of Good, launched by co-founders Priya Haji and Siddharth Sanghvi — just after they graduated from University of California Berkeley Business School — features unique gifts and handcrafts from artisan communities around the world. By selling through an ever-expanding distribution network of retailers nationwide, they are building a whole new economy based on Fair Trade.

Ten percent of their profits get funneled to their sister non-profit organization, The World of Good Development Organization, which helps support artisan communities and works to strengthen international fair wage standards.

“Our aim is to make it easy to help customers make a good choice — not to buy more, but to buy differently,” explains Priya. “They can expect quality, convenience and style — yet the products can be made in a way that actually helps the people who make them. Right now, our products are women’s accessories and housewares. As World of Good grows, our aim is to make the choice for people-positive products easy to find in every category of daily life. We want every human-made product to be a tool of relationship and empowerment for the person who crafted it. Imagine every product not as a material thing but as a bridge of connection and transformation.”

I’m becoming a coupon junkie… you know, the slightly crazy lady who gets to the check-out with a cart full of groceries and 30 minutes later hands the cashier $15.78.  Yep, I’m there.

As such, I ALWAYS pick up the Sunday paper… two or three if there are a lot of valuable coupons inside. (I always recycle the paper after using it for art projects, wrapping, cleaning windows, etc…).

This week I was surprised at the number of coupons for “natural” or “green” products.  While I would dispute the green-ness of several of this products, I am pleased to see the mainstream corporations finally making steps in the right direction.  (But listen up Huggies, there is a LONG way to go yet).

For years, green activists were “anti-technology”, claiming that technological advances were largely responsible for the polluted state of Mother Earth. This was a fair claim, as yesterday’s technologies only looked at the bottom line, and not the resulting mess. In today’s reality, the words “green” and “technology” no longer constitute an oxymoron, as technologists have turned their attention to cleaning up the mess previous generations have made.

Cosa Verde is a new marketplace where green crafters can showcase their goods to eco-minded shoppers.

Liz Grotyohann and her fiance, Jeff Fein-Worton, launched Cosa Verde to focus on green crafters, and they’re committed to “not just walk the walk, but talk the talk.” They donate 10% of their profits to charity and plant ten trees for every new shop that opens on the site. Liz says that means they’ve planted almost 1000 trees already!