With massive crowds, fathoms of electricity-consuming equipment and a trail of waste left in the wake, music festivals have often been areas of environmental dismay. This summer, however, saw a surge in greening the scene; Rothbury Festival brought artists like Of Montreal and Snoop Dogg together while promoting sustainability and operating as near to zero-waste as possible; Lollapalooza utilized organic local foods, compostables and carbon offsets and even featured a Green Street where festival go-ers could learn take-home tips about green living.

As the festival season wraps up and you move your listening to your living room, do your part by making sure your sound system is great AND green. Click here to read more

Wisteria Lane resident Nicolette Sheridan uses Mrs. Meyer’s products to keep her house clean and smelling fresh – she likes the line because their liquid products are all biodegradeable, and they “make her whole house smell incredible.”

The brand uses naturally derived ingredients from corn, sugar cane, coconut, and palm whenever possible – and stick to synthetics that have been proven safe when there’s no natural alternative. Click here to read more

We all look forward to that moment when our head hits the pillow, hopefully for 8 hours of blissful slumber. But depending on the kind of pillow you’re using, that rest might not be so rejuvenating. Traditional pillows are often filled with chemical-ridden synthetic fibers and covered with conventionally-grown cotton. While cotton may be ‘the fabric of our lives,’ much of it is heavily sprayed with pesticides and insecticides – over half of which are known carcinogens. These chemicals are so toxic that fields become barren after years of this treatment.

To top it off, that cotton is often treated with dangerous dyes and finished with formaldehyde. So not only does the choice to buy non-organic bedding contribute to the depletion of our natural resources, but it also exposes us to unsafe chemicals for many hours a day, every day. The Wheat Dreamz Organic Buckwheat Pillow, however, is filled with organically grown buckwheat hulls, which means your pillow has never been exposed to questionable pesticides or herbicides. Click here to read more

Decorators have long recommended following the ‘Rule of Three’ when accessorizing your home. Grouping items together in threes or odd numbers is an easy, inexpensive way to keep things interesting and polished looking.

The varying heights, rounded shapes, and dimpled texture of VivaTerra’s Recycled Glass Balloon Vases instantly spruces up tabletops, mantles, or windowsills. Plus, you’ll feel a bit better knowing that you’re consuming a product that’s had a past life – you’re supporting sustainability, not disposability.

We think they’d look smashing filled with flowers or something unexpected, like dried branches, pebbles or sand.

’Tis the season for summer power outages. Whether you live in large cities and power usage is at its peak (hello, air conditioning), or thunderstorms and tropical storms bring down power lines, blackouts happen most often during summer months. We all know how frustrating it is to fumble around in the dark for a flashlight, hoping its batteries aren’t out of juice.

But even if you’re unprepared for the lights to go out, the SunNight Solar Task Light has you covered. After being left in the sun for 8 hours (even on a cloudy day), this flashlight is ready for 4-5 hours of LED illumination. And even if its solar charge runs out, it’s powered by 3 rechargeable batteries – no need to keep buying quickly-used disposables, which are not only pricy, but leak toxic chemicals into soil. The Solar Task Light also has a night glow strip, making it easy to locate in the dark.

So what’s with the BOGO? Click here to read more

We don’t doubt for a minute that you keep your home spic-and-span. But even the sparkliest of clean homes is subject to a rogue odor every now and again. There’s been a veritable explosion of air freshening products in recent years, many of which boast their ability to ‘neutralize’ or ‘remove’ odors altogether.

But before you go on your next Febrezing frenzy, consider that the pleasing scents some of these products leave behind have the potential to significantly reduce your indoor air quality. Common ingredients like phthalates, volatile organic compounds, and ethylene glycol have been linked with reproductive health problems, lung irritation, and cancer.

So how to get rid of household stenches without worrying about safety? Enter Method’s Aroma Pill, $9.99. We’d expect nothing less than the sleek, streamlined look of the plug-in from the ever design-conscious folks at Method. But the real perks of this air freshener aren’t its looks, but its contents – the Aroma Pill relies on a blend of natural essential and safe synthetic oils to create subtle fragrance. Click here to read more

Everyone’s hot and bothered. To be specific, residents across the US are finding themselves facing record heat this year. Southern Californians sweltered through a killer heat wave (literally), New Yorkers were greeted in early June with near-record and record temperatures, and even Washington State flirted with setting some heat records.

With situations like these it’s easy (and sometimes necessary) to want to flip on the AC, but there are several benefits to opting out of it, including lower utility bills, better air quality and lighter environmental impact. Ceiling fans, like the Quorum Estate 52″ Ceiling Fan, are one of the best ways to avoid air conditioning. The Quorum Estate fan costs considerably less than many air conditioner units (often about half the cost) and has less of the drawbacks you find with AC. In addition, it tends to add to your home décor rather than detract from it.

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Most conventional wood floor cleaners contain harsh chemicals linked with a host of adverse health effects. Wood cleaners often contain 2-butoxyethanol, which can depress the central nervous system and can irritate; isopropanol, which can irritate the skin and the upper respiratory tract; and ammonia, which can irritate or damage the lungs. Conventional cleaners also often contain synthetic fragrance, which means that they usually have phthalates to sustain the fragrance. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors (also called hormonally active agents) and have been linked to adverse health effects in rodent studies. Elevated concentrations of phthalates in household have been linked with asthma and allergic symptoms in children.

An option to replace those conventional cleaners that we like is Method’s o-Mop Wood for Good Floor Cleaner in Almond, $8. Wood for Good Floor Cleaner is free of 2-butoxyethanol, isopropanol, and ammonia. Click here to read more

Daily Greenz #164

When it comes to bathtowels and washcloths, we look for the fluffiest, thickest, softest ones we can find. Unfortunately, most of the 100% cotton bath linens that fill aisles at bed and bath stores are produced using tons of harmful chemicals - the world’s cotton crop requires about 10% of all pesticides and 25% of all insectides used.  And according to the EPA, nearly half of the 15 most used pesticides are likely to be or known to be carcinogenic. These chemicals run off into groundwater, which supplies half of the drinking water in the U.S.  Cotton production also requires staggering amounts of water, even in developing countries where the water supply precious.  And to top it all off, most towels and washcloths are bleached with chlorine and then colored with chemical dyes, half of which end up absorbing into soil.

Really makes you think twice before you reach for that sparkling white bath sheet, huh? Luckily, VivaTerra’s got you covered with their Hand-loomed Organic Cotton Towels and Washcloths. Just as soft and thick as conventionally-made counterparts, they’re made without unsafe dyes, chlorine bleach, or synthetic finishing agents.

Click here to read more

Daily Greenz #155

  Just because your lawn or garden is lush with vegetation doesn’t mean it’s actually green. The EPA tells us that an astounding 30% of the water Americans use is devoted to the outdoors, and more than half of that is used on lawns and gardens. Save water by fitting your garden hose with a low flow nozzle like Niagara Conservation’s 6 Position Hoze Nozzle, $9.95. But saving water isn’t the only way we can make our own backyards more eco-friendly. The millions of pounds of fertilizers and pesticides we apply to our lawns every year have the potential to pollute water when used incorrectly. And pesticides don’t discriminate – they kill all of the insects in your garden, including the beneficial ones.The National Resources Conservation Service
suggests these natural methods

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