Something old, something new, something borrowed, something... green? It's really not as out of the ordinary as it sounds—last year, Brides.com estimated that approximately 33% of future brides and grooms in the U.S. are planning an eco-friendly wedding.

Today, The Nature Conservancy is issuing tips for planning a greener wedding or commitment ceremony, with ideas from invitations through the honeymoon to help reduce your celebration’s impact on the planet—and maybe even reduce the impact on your wallet as well.

That’s great for people reading this blog and other green crafting blogs, but large scale change is going to require many, many crafters demanding organic and other earth-friendly products. If all the products are sequestered in little green boutiques, that’s going to be a slow process. What about the crafters who aren’t reading this blog? Do they know these products exist? Have any of these products gone mainstream? I went on a hunt through some of the biggest mainstream fabric shops’ websites to find out.

First up, online mega-shop EQuilter. Doing a plain text search for organic products was tough here, because they also use the word organic to describe some of the designs. Once I found the right category, though it was easy to see their products. ORGANIC Solids, Textures & Threads offers YLI organic cotton thread, Michael Miller organic cotton sheeting, herringbone, fleece, terrycloth, and “fuzzy sherpa” (anyone want to tell me what that is?). They also offer “organically dyed” handmade cotton fabric “dyed by hand with natural elements such as vegetables, berries, minerals, and more.” The cotton itself is not organic, but the dyes are earth-friendly. They have eco-spun fleece in one color, latte tan.

My next stop was Hancock’s of Paducah. They carry the Michael Miller fabrics, including the gingham check that EQuilter doesn’t seem to have, as well as organic cotton batting.

What about Joann.com? They have Lion Brand and Bernat organic cotton yarn, plus organic cotton batting on a roll, but nothing else. (They do have recycled paper cardstock for scrapbooking, which is kind of cool.)

Keepsake Quilting is near and dear to my heart, since I once got stranded there for four hours when a friend and I drove up from Boston on a pilgrimage and then had to call a tow truck to jump her ailing vehicle. Yes, stuck in Keepsake Quilting for hours. It was HORRIBLE. (Kind of. Not really.) I was really hoping they would knock my socks off with organic products. They have the YLI organic cotton thread, as well as two fabric medleys: the lightweight Oasis Canvas Medley in solid colors and the Woodblock Vegetable Dye Medley, which is kind of paisley and stripey and floral. The former is organic cotton fabric, the latter is printed with vegetable dyes.

Hobby Lobby doesn’t sell online; they partner with Crafts Etc. All they have is some recycled paper sketch pads.

Michaels, though, had even less. They had nothing.

So what does this mean for green crafting? Autumn has asked crafters what would be in the green craft store of their dreams, and I have to say that I had no idea we were so far from it. I don’t go to craft stores very much, and when I do I’m looking for one specific thing. I’m more used to grocery stores, and in crunchy Austin, organic products are popping up left and right even at the corner market.

I try to think about the average crafter in mythical Middle America and whether she or he would be interested in greener options. I think so. Crafters are a thrifty lot, and we pride ourselves on using our supplies wisely. So how do we get the word out to them about greener alternatives?

For the most part, the muscle power that comes with large-volume merchandising has belonged to big corporations–Wal-Mart is by far the best example. When these megabusinesses flex that muscle, they often put the squeeze on more than just merchandise manufacturers; they also can squeeze out smaller, local businesses. After all, why would shoppers pay more for products at small pharmacy, grocery, and appliance stores when they can go to a single SUPERSTORE and buy everything they need at one place for a lower price? As these superplexes mushroom in size and number, the local “little guy” may quickly get strangled and suffocate.

In contrast, Earth Aid’s Group Buys puts the power back in the hands of consumers. As far as I can see, this is a great potential resource for consumers who are looking for ways to go green without spending all their hard-earned green. That is, Earth Aid allows consumers to wield the same power as large corporations–and so get those same big-purchase discounts from the manufacturers. Or, as Earth Aid puts it:

This process allows all of us to band our purchasing power together into a formidable force–which we use to drive prices down. And it works because of a very simple proposition–manufacturers can cut prices progressively for larger and larger bulk orders.

Being the wishy-washy shopper that I am, I am glad you have the ability to make “conditional orders.” You can specify certain conditions on the price and so forth that must be met before you agree to buy. Since these are factored in along with confirmed orders, you still help to lower the price by adding your possible dollar to the order.

Also helpful is a buying period of two to three weeks. This allows more and more consumers to toss their green into the pot and so keep on lowering the price of the item in question. It also gives other green wishy-washies like me time to reconsider and grab back that conditional order before time is up and everyone has to pay up!

Since this is new, it is still growing in terms of goods offered and people coming on board. But they do have some cool stuff–electric lawnmowers, portable solar chargers, and solar-charged outdoor lighting, for example. One thing I especially like is the Earth Aid Kit, filled with lots of green goodies such as CFL bulbs, low-flow showerheads, and power meters, just to name a few. These would make great gifts for greenies and non-greenies alike…perhaps a way to introduce a family member, loved one, or close friend to the world of sustainable living. Or it would make a great gift for yourself.

Either way, the Earth Aid Kit and the other products in this first round come at significant savings thanks to the collective capitalist muscle power Earth Aid gives to green consumers. And so the products do end up being great gifts to yourself, saving you money–in the price you pay and in the savings the products themselves can bring!

More importantly, they are great gifts to the Earth. They help us do our part to save the real, living green of nature.

Thanks to Earth Aid, poor old Karl Marx may be rolling over in his grave. But oh, capitalism nowadays rarely feels quite so guiltless…and eco-friendly.

OK, we’re all guilty of this one (and you’ve likely heard it a lot if you’ve got kids!). Thanks to Brad and Peter for another good one. Check out more of their work here at Ecoscraps, and on their Green House website. And, of course, check out good food at Eat.Drink.Better.

Envirosax was founded in Australia in 2004 (now available in the US), and makes eco-friendly bags. Made from a lightweight polyester, they have reinforced seams in order to carry the weight of two plastic shopping bags.

The most striking feature (besides that they roll up really small) is the sheer number of cool designs they come in. The picture is of the one I’ve got, Mikado #5; however they have many designs in the Graphic Series (Mikado, Retro Graphic, Monochromatic, Flora, Amazonia, and Retro Kitchen). They also have a big Kids range (as in a big range, not a range for big kids…). My favorite being the Dogasaurus.

If you prefer your bags plain, they have the Greengrocer series of bags that are all one color. Finally, the Organic series has bags made of Bamboo/linen, just linen or hemp.

At the moment they’re including a free 3-4 minute shower timer with every order. Cool bags, and their brochures are made on recycled paper with soy-based ink - I always like that too. Check them out.

Read more about Reusable Shopping Bags:

• Nordstrom Bags Go Green
• Daily Tip: Just Say “No” to the Plastic Bag
• More Cities and Stores Banning Plastic Bags

Katleen Baum and her twin sister Liesbet run georgette, an online and real world shop in Antwerp which specializes in animal friendly footwear. The website is a delight. Handily written in English, you navigate with a flea circus and clicking on a link can give you a nice surprise. Oh, and the shoes are great too. Katleen spoke to Life Goggles about reconciling veganism with wearing leather.

“Ever since we were kids, we were always fascinated with fashion and shoes. And also with animals. From the moment we realized that the animal we saw in the country, ended up on our dinner plates, we did not want to eat it anymore. So we became vegetarian and evolved to veganism. No biggie, right? But as time progresses, you start to question other things…

Every vegetarian or vegan, some day, will be confronted with the same dilemma: how to reconcile a strict vegetarian-vegan diet with wearing leather?

Especially for fashion and shoe addicts like us, this is quite a hard nut to crack! So at first, you try to ignore the issue. It’s just too hard to find a nice non-leather shoe, right? But your conscience doesn’t leave you alone. So you start to do some research.

Apparently leather, as often stated, is not just a slaughterhouse byproduct, it is a booming industry. Wearing leather shoes contributes to factory farms, slaughterhouses and a lifetime of suffering for the animal. The meat and leather industry is no friend of the environment either. According to a UN report from November ‘06, the livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to global warming and land and water degradation. Animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, fertilizers and pesticides cause serious water and land pollution.

The process of turning animal skins into leather shares all the environmental destruction of the meat industry: dangerous mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, cyanide-based oils and dyes, chrome and other damaging products are used. Also the tanning is an intensive chemical process that causes toxic waste.

Fashion, for us, should be fun, not cruel, nor harmful…so the decision not to wear leather then came quite easily.

But where to find stylish, high quality shoes without leather? Most non-leather shoes have a bad reputation: they are ‘unfashionable,’ from ‘poor quality’ and made with ‘cheap, exploited labor.’ Encountering ’stylish,’ ‘high quality’ shoes that are ‘completely animal-free’ and ‘handmade in Europe’ seems not so easy!

After a long and unfruitful search for vegan shoes according to our strict demands, we decided to explore the shoe sector ourselves and investigate the possibilities. Many shoe factories believed we were crazy… quality shoes without leather? Impossible!

But after a while we were blessed to meet a few Italian and Spanish, mostly very small and family-run shoe companies who decided to give us a chance. We encountered non-leather materials that have evolved so much: they are soft, durable, absorbing, and gentle to the environment! They had nothing to do with cheap, unbreathing plastic (pvc) that is also highly polluting to the environment. Those new materials could be used for elegant, high quality vegan shoes…and georgette was born!

We named our shoe store after our grandmother Georgette. She always was a true shoe addict. We were always playing dress-up in her fabulous pumps and sandals. Now, she is 80 years old and she still wears ‘over the top’ stiletto-heels in lots of different colors and patterns. Our friends and family were convinced our shoe-obsession was of a genetic kind. Hence the name.

With georgette, we aim to prove that wearing high-quality and chic footwear can easily be combined with a compassionate lifestyle. Together with small family-run companies in Italy and Spain, we work out exclusive collections that are made in the best non-leather and eco-friendly materials, like natural fabrics and luxurious Italian faux leathers. Super-stylish, animal-friendly and 100% sweatshop-free!”

Again the website is http://www.georgette.be and I can’t wait for them to start doing men’s shoes, too.

More Posts on Shoes:

Green Style Spotlight: TOMS Shoes

Green Footing Part 1: Much Ado about the Shoe

Why Can’t Every Product be Sustainable?

Whether you’re working from home or from a downtown high-rise, you can conserve paper, reduce energy use, and produce less waste by keeping the environment in mind for all your office purchases. In this article, I’ll share ideas for stocking your green office and sources of green office products.

Sustainable Paper Options

After trying to reduce your company’s use of paper as much as possible, it’s still inevitable that you’ll need paper to keep on hand at the office. Thankfully there are many green paper options available that don’t involve cutting down a single tree. Even your local office or stationery store probably carries recycled paper. Don’t forget to look for recycled or tree-free envelopes, notebooks, file folders, and even post-it notes as well as your standard copy paper. There’s just no excuse for using virgin paper when there are so many tree-friendly types available. You can order bulk supplies online from many retailers as well. My favorite source for everything a green office might need is The Green Office. In addition to extensive paper choices, they offer all kinds of green office products from furniture to phones to ink.

Office Furniture

When it comes to furnishing a new office, it’s a good idea to start with what you already have. Do you have any old furniture collecting dust that could be re-purposed into a desk or filing cabinet? It’s economical and eco-friendly to buy used whenever possible, so hit up your local yard sales! A coat of low-VOC paint can turn any old piece of furniture into a new fixture color-coordinated to your office. A DIY project can also be a great way to make your office a little more “you.”

If DIY is not your thing or you’re just not finding what you need second-hand, there are many green furniture companies to fit your office needs. Check out The Green Office’s furniture section, IKEA (many of their products are surprisingly green), or modular, 95% recycled pieces designed by Ecowork. And while it may look professional, I don’t recommend a plush leather office chair. There’s some pretty nasty chemicals that go into making leather, not to mention a considerable amount of cruelty.

For ideas on green building materials and inspiration for the interior design of your new office, head on over to Green Building Elements.

Clean and Green

Every office needs to stay clean, and it’s easy to be green and clean with sustainable cleaning products. Seventh Generation and Ecover make a wide variety of cleaners for any purpose, but it’s even easier (and much cheaper) to make your own cleaning products. Green cleaners help maintain a healthy indoor air quality, which is better for you and the planet. Another way to green your office cleaning is to use re-usable rather than disposable cleaning products. Instead of one-use wipes or dust cloths, keep a stock of organic cotton cloths or even old rags for wiping counters and dusting. They can be washed and re-used over and over, saving landfill space and trees.

When it comes to office supplies, there’s no shortage of green choices. And they may be as close as your nearest office supply store. Just make sure to look for a high percentage of post-consumer content in recycled materials, or the use of rapidly renewable materials such as bamboo in office furniture. And if the store doesn’t have many eco-friendly options available, bring it up and let them know that discerning customers demand greener products.

Happy shopping!

This article is the eleventh in a series called Green Dreams following my journey starting a green design business. You can learn along with me: read the series introduction, see some green business resources, get inspired, learn how to write a business plan, find out how to name your business, learn why sustainability should be a part of your planning from the beginning, avoid commuting by working from home, build green business practices into your daily workflow, work towards a paperless office, and get certified green! Stay tuned for more each week on starting a green business!

Photo credit: K Christner, via Flickr and Creative Commons.

Computers aren’t very environmentally friendly. They contain lead, mercury, cadmium, lots of plastic, and they thirst for electricity. Most people don’t realize that most of a computer can be recycled, so most discarded computers head to the landfill where the heavy metals can contaminate local water and air. Computers and electronics have become disposable in our culture, so the amount of electronic waste generated each year is astounding. Fortunately these are not problems without solutions. Starting from the beginning of a computer’s life to its demise, it can be easy to optimize everything about your PC.

Buying, Building, and Design

With the new popularity of green, critics have been quick to turn on companies like Apple for pumping out so many gadgets. The good news is that companies have been quick to respond with energy-efficient models, recycling programs, and improved design. Many “green” initiatives focus on energy efficiency but ignore manufacturing or end-life issues, so be wary of their “environmental” credentials. If you find a product or company that can vouch for the creation, use, and disposal of their products, you’ve struck gold. The good news is that newer models use fewer harmful chemicals and metals, require less energy, and improve performance. Lean, and mean is the angle many companies are aiming for with “green” patched on to sell. Laptops are the best example of this trend as they become smaller and more powerful simultaneously. So rest easy knowing that if you must buy a new computer, it will probably be more efficient than your old one… assuming you don’t hook a brand new 60-inch flat screen to it.

If you’re extra-nerdy and decide to build your own computer, odds are you’ll know exactly what you want. And you can design with efficiency in mind. This article is particularly helpful along these lines, as the author sets out to build an efficient beast. There’s also the question of the type of PC. If you want the Gamer’s Holy Grail, it’s going to be much harder to keep power usage down. High-end graphics cards and custom cooling systems will give you the best in gaming experience, but you’ll pay on your electric bill and your carbon footprint. (See Using Tips below)

Of course you don’t want to just throw out a computer or gadget that still works. Most of the energy consumed in a computer’s lifetime occurs during production - before you ever buy it. So the longer someone uses it, the better. (See below for donating and recycling programs.)
For a green buying guide, check out iYogi or Computer Shopper

• Laptop use half as much energy as most desktops. Nowadays, they can be just as powerful.

Using Tips

So you have a computer and you want to improve its energy efficiency. Great! New or old, odds are you can optimize your energy usage and save money at the same time. I’d start with the most neglected aspect of computer maintenance: clear the vents. All computers generate heat and heat can damage components or reduces their operating efficiency - they slow down . So computers use fans to cool themselves, and slits in the plastic casing allow ventilation. These vents tend to collect dust and get clogged. To clean the vents, first turn off your computer. If you have a laptop, wipe off the excess dust with a damp cloth. Since you shouldn’t crack open your laptop, you might blow hard into the vents and you’re done. For a desktop, you can open the case (be gentle - don’t force it open) and use that cloth to collect dust bunnies. Ground yourself by touching the metal side. Don’t scrub the hardware. Do this twice a year to be safe.

The life of your computer depends on how long it remains useful to you. So if you take good care of your computer’s software, you might be surprised at how much performance you can recover. Cleaning out your cookies, temp. files, etc. etc. really go a long way. Also, avoid loading lots of little programs all over your computer. That cute little application might amuse you, but it might also come with malicious programs that clutter and slow down your computer. Delete all programs that you don’t use regularly. And with laptops, turn them off before carrying them around. Here’s a handy check list.

Other efficient practices are easy and straight forward: If you’re not using your computer, turn it off. In the old days there was a debate about which was more energy efficient - leaving your computer running or turning it on and off. With the old technology, it was a viable debate. Today the verdict is in: Turn It Off. If you’re only stepping away for a few minutes, set your settings so the monitor automatically turns off (only the oldest monitors need a screen saver) or the hard drive slows down. A lot of people and businesses have downloaded UniBlue’s Local Cooling free program to save money. It easily lets you customize your computer’s power settings, and it calculates how much energy, water, and pollution you prevent. Best of all, you can’t forget if it does it for you.

For printing you might consider GreenPrint (also free) to make printing web pages, documents, etc. more efficient. This program lets you highlight exactly what you want to print - and eliminate the rest of the unwanted page(s). And you can print to PDF, which carries more space-saving options. The program automatically tracks how much paper and money you save along the way.

If you have a desktop with lots of peripherals - monitor, speakers, printer, etc. - an easy tip is to plug them all into a single surge protector. Then in the evening, after you turn everything off, switch off the surge protector. This prevents electronic vampires, machines that use energy even when they’re turned off. It’s more common than you think, and it can really add up. I just reach down with my toe and hit the switch before going to bed.

For a quick glance at your PC energy needs, take this quiz.

RIP, The End for Your PC
Despite our best design, usage, prevention and repair efforts, there will come a day when your computer, cell phone or electronic gadget will die. It might legitimately die - the way my brother’s cell phone met its end in the toilet - or maybe you need to upgrade. I still have two old computers I need to recycle. Where I can take these beasts to greener pastures? Where can you donate or recycle an old electronic device?

• If there’s a used computer store in town, they might buy it from you, even if it doesn’t work. Check the phone book.

• Find local and national donation or recycling resources from the EPA.

• Go through Earth 911, Computers With Causes or United Way to donate.
  

• If you work with a large business that regularly disposes of e-waste, try a disposal service.

• You can also take old phones, electronics and batteries to any Staples store, and Best Buy has a less-direct service.

• You can also recycle your used batteries at some big retail stores.

(Image courtesy of addison.l.s.)

“Our mission is to produce and sell high quality yarns from natural fibers and design classic Vermont patterns. Transforming the many types of raw fibers into luxurious and long lasting yarn. The Green Mountain Spinnery helps to sustain regional sheep farming, and to develop environmentally sound ways to process natural fibers,” says their website.

Using vintage equipment, Green Mountain Spinnery creates yarns that take any project from plain to prodigious. Also similar to Hope Spinnery, GMS will spin yarns from fibers that you provide as well. The company has also released its own book of patterns, called The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book, featuring “30 of their best loved contemporary and classic patterns.”

But what about the yarns!? You’re right - I got off track. While wool is their feature fiber, I’ve always been one for plant fibers. Their Cotton Comfort yarn, with 80% wool and 20% organic cotton, is just soft enough for me to wear without feeling itchy. No eco-yarn company would be complete without some 100% organic undyed wool, and GMS has it in spades. For something a little less traditional, check out GMS’ Yarn Over collection - made from carded wool & mohair left from a range of dye lots is blended to create “once only” muted colors.

Who makes your favorite sustainable yarns?

Which natural fiber is your favorite to work with? (i.e. cotton, wool, bamboo, hemp … etc.)

Let us know what you love to create with and we might feature them in the next installment of Yearn-Worthy Yarns!

“The yarn was developed with the idea to offer a yarn that comes in colours as you find it on the animal on the farm,” says the Farm Yarn website.

What’s so great about alpaca? If you’ve ever used it, you wouldn’t be asking that question. Unspeakably comfortable and versatile, Farm Yarns uses baby alpaca wool - “it is warmer than wool, but has a soft feel like silk,” they say. Naturally available in over 20 shades, baby alpaca wool is not actually from baby alpacas. “It is not a description of the age of the alpaca itself, rather a term that describes the finess of the alpaca wool.”

Farm Yarns started producing yarns from British certified organic sheep wool in just the last few years. Two particular heritage breeds are the source of Farm Yarns wool - Jacob and Llanwenog. By sourcing wool from these two particular breeds, Farm Yarns helps to continue their breeding, keeping their centuries-long history alive.

Farm Yarns’ alpaca and wool yarns are available via their online store in a pleasing variety of colors and weights. “All yarns are natural and organic and are free of any chemical residues and artificial colouring - for your peace of mind.” Indeed!

Who makes your favorite sustainable yarns?

Which natural fiber is your favorite to work with? (i.e. cotton, wool, bamboo, hemp … etc.)

Let us know what you love to create with and we might feature them in the next installment of Yearn-Worthy Yarns!

As luck would have it, this month’s theme for the showcase is all about green:

Here we are, entering our 6th month at poppytalk handmade and we can’t think of a better way to ring it in than as an eco-themed market! As each market starts up, there’s always a bustle going on, and the anticipation to see everyone’s table come to life is my favorite part! We are thrilled to showcase this emerging talent with green spirits!

Featuring fantastic fashion, accessories, art and home accents in all shades of verdant glory, this month’s Poppytalk Handmade is not to be missed. This particular showcase is running from March 10th to April 11th, so make sure to stop by and browse today because once it’s gone, it’s gone.

At first glance, I was instantly drawn to sellers Louelle Bloom, Ecojot, Gaia Conception, Susan Schwake, and Black Sheep Heap. Which are your favorites?

Wikipedia explains fair trade quite clearly as “an organized social movement and market-based approach to alleviating global poverty and promoting sustainability. The movement promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production.” Based in Oneonta, New York, the Da’vida Fair Trade Store sells its own line of hand painted and hand spun yarns made from alpaca, wool and yak fibers.

Painted by Lisa Meriam, a sheep farmer who lives in upstate New York, Da’vida’s collection of yarns come uncolored from Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru. All of the yarns are certified by the Fair Trade Federation, ensuring an extensive number of trade and development points are met. Upon arriving in New York, Lisa then paints the yarns by hand with all natural dyes. Also available are hanks of yarn hand spun by Lisa from her own sheep’s wool. Currently, every hank of yarn is unique, though Da’vida is working on a more predictable line of colors.

“Da’vida, the ‘giving of life’, or ‘the life of giving’ reflects the basic philosophy of Da’vida, that of receiving a gift, and then passing that gift along to other,” says the store’s website. When it comes to creating knitted or crocheted creations, these concepts go hand in hand (no pun intended).

Who makes your favorite sustainable yarns?

Which natural fiber is your favorite to work with? (i.e. cotton, wool, bamboo, hemp … etc.)

Let us know what you love to create with and we might feature them in the next installment of Yearn-Worthy Yarns!

But where do you buy from? I’m all for promoting local businesses and buying from small stores right in your own town. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, you may have little to no options in that category. The easiest thing to do is log on to the internet (and you already have since you are reading this) and partake in the massive variety it has to offer.

After the runaway success with their first thepurplebook: the definitive guide to exceptional online shopping in 2000, authors Hillary Mendelsohn and Ian Anderson have released a number of specialized editions. Hitting book shelves in January 2008, thepurplebook Green: an eco-friendly online shopping guide is the latest of their incarnations.

Whether you’re new to the eco-lifestyle or so sustainably settled that you have a composting toilet and solar panels, thepurplebook Green Edition has something to offer everyone. Though the book is about shopping, it continually reminds readers to reuse what they already have. “The greenest thing you can do is to extend the lifespan of the products you already own,” says Hillary in the book’s introduction. “When it comes to shopping, it’s usually a matter of buying eco-friendly versions of the same products you already use.”

A simply worded, yet somewhat extensive, chapter on The Green Lifestyle covers everything from buying organic and conserving water to renewable energy options and avoiding petroleum-based products. The next chapter, Eco-Shopping 101, gives an informative overview of what it means to buy green in all areas of life, including food & drink, household goods, health & beauty, apparel, babies, pets, furnishing, gardening, home improvement and more. As a fashion maven, I was impressed with Hillary’s coverage of sustainable fabrics by including their drawbacks and lack of regulation.

After the useful introductory chapters, we come to heart of the book - the Green Shops. Listed alphabetically by the shop’s online URL, each listing includes the website’s customer service number, an amusing yet useful review, and a collection of applicable icons relating to the store’s customer service and green options. If you are looking for a particular product or company, you can check one of the three indexes included at the back of the book.

Personally, I think the book is great and an ideal resource for all eco-minded consumers. Of course, being a website directory, thepurplebook Green Edition will need to be updated and republished now and then - I already spotted two or three new online green shops that weren’t in the book but are great resources. I think that very reason is why there are notes pages included in the book, so hooray for that.

I can only imagine how long it took Hillary and Ian to put this green edition together but I must say kudos to them for doing such a good job. I look forward to seeing future editions that continue to help consumers find more sustainable options for their daily needs.

Syncopation Company was founded by two women who found that staying at home with their kids meant reevaluating their consumption patterns. The challenge of balancing budgets led to the realization that often, things we would otherwise throw away could become the raw materials for creativity.

In addition to the bottlecap necklaces, Syncopation has jewelry made from watch faces, watch gears, spoons, mah jong tiles, hardware, rulers, bottle openers, rain gutters, vintage tape measures, marbles, phone buttons, and much, much more.

Their blog has all of these items, so take a look for inspiration or to pick out a gift or two. Every item is one of a kind, but if something you want is marked “Sold” you can always ask them to create something similar.

Remember, if you start your holiday shopping NOW, you won’t be panicking (as much) in mid-December.

www.FreshBaby.com

By weight, a baby will eat more, drink more, and even breathe more air than an adult. This means what you feed your baby (or child) has a much greater impact than it would have on you.

Most people would love to go “all organic” with their food choices. Who really wants the pesticides, hormones and preservatives in their food anyway? But going organic can be a pricey proposition. If your family is like most, your budget cannot afford 100% organic, so why not consider buying organic for some foods. Here is some simple advice on prioritizing your organic food purchases:

1. Eat organic at the top of the food chain: Purchasing organic dairy, egg and meat products is a great place to begin organic food purchases. Livestock eat pesticide-laden feed, are often dosed with antibiotics and hormones, and all of this ends up in the package at the super market. Even though produce is often associated with organic food, many of the residues on these foods can be eliminated or greatly reduced by properly cleaning and peeling them. There is no way to remove or reduce the contaminants in the meat, dairy and egg products.

2. Buying organic for produce with the highest levels of pesticides: Pesticides levels vary in produce. Foods that take a long time to grow have higher pesticides levels and foods that are high in sugar content tend to attract bugs and insects, and as result are sprayed more frequently.

The Environmental Workers Union analyzed a large number of foods and found that you can reduce risks of pesticide exposure by as much as 90 percent by avoiding the dirty dozen, or the top 12 produce items with the highest pesticide residues. Here is the list:

• Apples
• Bell peppers
• Celery
• Cherries
• Grapes (imported)
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Red Raspberries
• Spinach
• Strawberries

On the flip side, these fruits and veggies have the lowest levels of pesticide residues:

• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Corn (sweet)
• Kiwi
• Mangos
• Onions
• Papayas
• Pineapples
• Peas (sweet)

3. Buying organic for children’s favorite foods: Babies and toddlers are notorious for having some strange eating habits. One of them is eating the same foods day in and day out. This is a perfectly normal development step for your child. Buy organic foods for what your little one is eating the most of at meals.

4. Be flexible. Buy what is on sale: Organic foods are like all other foods products, there are always specials on foods that are in season and there are always coupons. Keep your menu-planning flexible to take advantage of supermarket deals and remember the savings from one coupon can often equal the price difference between organic and conventional.

5. Buy private label: If you think your family budget can’t afford the prices at the fancy natural products stores, think again. Wild Oats, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s all offer a private-label brands of juices, soups, sauces and other processed edibles.

6. Explore the bulk aisles: If you thought the bulk bins were only for hard-core hippies, think again. Many common kitchen staples like pastas, cereals, nuts, and spices are offered in the bulk section. The foods are in large containers and are priced at a per pound rate. Bulk foods are more affordable than the pre-packaged foods. If you are intimidated by the bulk food aisle, ask for help. The people who work in the bulk food section are extremely helpful and very willing to support new customers.

In Portland last weekend, I had the chance to visit two single-manufacturer boutiques in their home town, and I am happy to report that, at least when sales are on, store traffic was bustling.

My favorite brand in terms of creative styling and wow design is Nau. The brand started by an idealistic but experienced team, many of whom met while working at Patagonia, is all about sustainability whether in sourcing, distribution or retailing. Using fabrics created from recycled polyester and plastics, as well as organically grown cotton and cashmere, Nau’s clothing is surprisingly and pleasingly hip for a company focused on outdoor wear.

Nau isn’t just focused on its own efforts to green the world, it also raises awareness of the efforts of a number of local and international nonprofit organizations, by asking customers to select from among them for a donation of a percentage of purchase. Donating to environmental organizations is almost a must for sustainable businesses. (See my recent post on Brilliant Earth.) But Nau does something I haven’t seen anywhere else and that is they pay YOU to have them ship your purchases to you, to the tune of 10% of your purchases. It’s a great incentive to help Nau cut down on store sizes and product transportation costs.

My only complaint about Nau is that the store I visited is in a high-end mall, which requires driving to get to from anywhere, as far as I can tell. However, we can all shop at Nau.com.

In my next post, I’ll tell you about my visit to another Portland-based clothing line that came highly recommended and didn’t disappoint.