Recently in Eco Category

Would more people make good, healthy choices if it were fun to do so?  That's the question Volkswagon is posing in their new "Fun Theory" series of videos in which their stealth do-gooders make everyday healthy activities fun.

This video shows what happens when walking up the stairs is more, um, musical than taking the non-calorie-burning escalator.  Come on...which would you choose?  Right?!



Click "continue reading" to see 2 more "Fun Theory" videos.

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You guys, there comes a time.  A time when you realize that if something is toxic--a food item, a relationship, a town--it's not your job to detoxify it.  A time when you reclaim control of the space where you live, the air you breathe, and what goes into your body.  A time when you send back the new furniture that, while lovely, turns out to be made of headache-and-eye-water-inducing poison.

That's exactly what I am doing this week--sending back the beautiful dining room set that looks gorgeous, but is offgassing VOCs so strongly that a friend reminded me of the time we dissected cats in high school biology class, and I thought, "That!  That's what it smells like!"

This after one week of trying the following to de-pollute my first floor:

1.  Opening both windows in the room wide
2.  Turning Vornado fan on high
3.  Placing big bowls of baking soda in the sideboard
4.  Placing large bowl of white vinegar on the table
5.  Praying

As disappointed as I am that these holistic methods didn't work, and as exhausted as I am at the thought of starting the furniture hunt over, I am empowered by the process of saying "No" to poison and showing it the door.  Thank you, 7-day return policy! 

Won't Thanksgiving dinner taste that much better with my family seated at a table that's only odor byproducts are cinnamon, thyme, butter, and coffee?

Toxins, begone!  Hello Craigslist, antique shop, and vintage furniture store! 

Have you ever battled "new furniture smell?"  Has a store ever given you a hard time for returning an item because of offgassing? 

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My, oh my, the interwebs can be harsh. Though 99.9 percent of you make the best comments evar (and we are so glad you read, and comment--or read and don't comment!), sometimes the trolls come out like they did for this "How to Talk to a Tree" post. The vitriol actually has inspired me to write more about trees, interestingly enough. So I gathered some of my favorite tree-related products and gifts to share. Go trees!

  Tree Hugger Mug by Jane Jenni

I've written about this awesome company before, and have extra love for their tree-hugger mug, which sits next to me all day long--my non-paper vessel for hydration. $15, Popdeluxe.net

 

  Douglas Fir Tip Tea

Want to feel close to a tree when you're not? This stuff is like liquid forest--light, piney, fresh. Just thinking about it makes me happy. And it's wildcrafted by a company called Juniper Ridge that is super-eco and gives 10 percent (a REAL amount for a change!) to charities. $7, JuniperRidge.com 

 

Balsam Fir Tree Essential Oil

Aromatherapists say that fir oil, steam-distilled from the needles--has alagesic properties, making it good for achy muscles, arthritis, and colds. It's also uplifting and stimulating. I take a whiff whenever I'm in need of grounding a reminder of nature. Make sure you dilute this one--it can be a skin irritant. $10 Simplers.com

 

The Treehouse Book

What's more fun that scampering up a tree and getting to be in your own leafy wonderland? The people who own the homes and playhouses featured in this book by Peter Nelson would say not much is better. I've loved this book for years--it even features a monk friend's former Berkshire hermitage. $22.50 Amazon.com 

 

  Branch Hooks

Live Wire Farm carefully hand-crafts these lovely, lovely hooks. I don't know how they're made in terms of earth-consciousness, but I do know the company makes a highly eco honey--and I'm guessing they're not chain-sawing down trees for these. So pretty! $40-$50. LiveWireFarm.com

 

  Travel Hammock

I bought a different travel hammock this summer and haven't gotten to use it yet. I like this one because it's pink--and a portion of proceeds goes to the Save the Tatas Foundation. So while you're doing good, you can let the trees hold you up and sway between them. Swoon. $50 TheTravelHammock.com

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Yesterday was an exciting day--our new dining room furniture arrived.  It's beautiful, and we quickly figured out how we wanted to lay it out and started dreaming about Thanksgiving dinner.  But then we opened the doors of our new sideboard.

Pee-yew!  The "new furniture smell" inside the sideboard's drawers and cabinets is significant.  And it's serious, given the health and indoor air pollution consequences we know come from the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that lurk in the wood glues and varnishes that hold most new furniture together.

I have no desire to spend the next few weeks with headaches, coughing, or worse.  So I'm on a "power-offgassing" program that so far includes opening each cabinet and drawer wide, placing a "Vornado" fan in the room, throwing the windows all the way open, and blasting fresh air into every nook and cranny.

Luckily, yesterday and today were dry, crisp fall days, so the air is more than welcome inside.  And when we recently did the same project on our bedroom set--which was low-emitting but still smelled a tad--we noticed a significant reduction in the smell after just a few days. 

I just learned of another solution--or a supplementary one if you have the chance to institute Operation Open Windows.  Zeolite rocks are volcanic substances that are seriously porous, which means that they'll absorb all kinds of things.  People use them in gardens to clean up spoiled soil, and they use them indoors to leach the toxins from carpets, furniture, and other offgassing menaces.  According to AllergyStore.com, placing the rocks in direct sunlight for 1 hour allows them to expel the toxins they've absorbed, making them re-usable for years.  Intriguing!  Has anyone ever used Zeolite?

I also read here about the ability of a bowl of white vinegar to remove odors (or does it just make the room smell like vinegar?  Hmm....) including cigarette smoke.  I might have to try that too.

How do you cope with offgassing?  Are you super-sensitive, like me, or do you not even notice "new furniture smell?"

(image--which is not my set!--via: http://www.nikkoshops.com/)

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Call me a hippie, but in my world, it's always tree-communing season--lush summer, earthy fall, brisk winter, blooming spring. Many years ago, I had a mind-blowing semi-mystical experience hugging a crab-apple tree--I was able to connect to it and sense its power as...

It's Foodie Friday, and with the weather all crisp and cool, my mind is my favorite daily drink--tea.  Not the leaves themselves, though, but the vessel in which we boil the water to make this healing, warming beverage.  What is...

Did you see the article in yesterday's New York Times about the clean water crisis in Charleston, West Virginia and around the country?  Here are some of the alarming take-aways from this exhaustively-reported piece:"Most of today's water pollution has no...

When author Colin Beavan embarked on his plan for a new book, "No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the...

Sigh. A while ago, my friend Jenn from the Tiny Choices blog expressed skeptism that SIGG bottles were all that safe, preferring to sip from glass or stainless steel. But I was like, "Oy, really? Another thing to worry...

I see gardens as inherent spiritually metaphors.  They grow, they need nurturing, they are mysterious, they are beautiful, they can feed us, they can break our hearts.I put together a slideshow of images from my garden to celebrate the most...

Did you know that allegedly you can walk into any Starbucks and request free spent coffee grounds to enrich your garden or compost? Me either! I haven't actually tried this yet, not having a garden and all, but the...

  I bought my first pair of Tom's Shoes this weekend and I luff them! For every pair of shoes you buy from the three-year old company, they give one away to kids in need, somewhere in the world....

'Tis the season for outdoor activities....and their inevitable accompanying health concerns.  Mosquitoes come with many, from the plain old itch factor to West Nile Virus and EEE.  How can you protect yourself without bathing in DEET or other crazy chemicals?There...

I'm staring out my window at gusting sheets of horizontal rain. It's cold. The sky is white. And give or take some precipitory drama, it's been like this for more than a month. What day is it? Yep, July...

If you're interested in which foods have the most or least pesticides, check out the new What's On My Food? database created by the Pesticide Action Network. (PAN). It requires a little bit of number-sorting, but it's really helpful,...

A recent study from Britain's Royal Horticultural Society has found a link between women's voices and plant growth. Over a month, tomato plants spoken to by women tenders grew significantly faster than those chatted up by men. Some of the...

Wade Davis has the coolest job title--and job--ever: Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic. He just gave a talk here at the LOHAS conference about all the many indigenous cultures he has studied, lived with, and loves. He talked of their spiritual...

More and more mind blowing stuff at the LOHAS conference today. First we have Hunter Lovins, her real name. She runs a company called Natural Capitalism that helps small businesses go green. She's also a professor, author of nine books,...

I just listened to Ray Anderson (founder of the billion dollar carpet company Interface Global) talk at LOHAS. The entrepreneur calls himself a "radical industrialist" and is my new hero--and already lots of other people's hero. Among so many other...

I'm at the LOHAS conference in Boulder, a green gathering I posted on the other day. And right now, I'm in a session where they're talking about the intricacies of the LOHAS demographic--who buys green, organic, socially responsible, and natural...

Yesterday when I went outside to water my garden, I heard a familiar birdsong.  I looked up, and there, silhouetted against the sun on my roof, was the tweeter!  I think it's the same guy (gal?) that I've been hearing...

Hi all. I just arrived in Boulder, Colorado for this year's LOHAS conference. If you're like LO-what?, it stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and it's the name of an organization and an entire demographic. Basically it covers green...

In the perfect gray-day little thank-me, I just got an order from Zappos, the great shoe gods. This box is making me especially momentarily happy because they contain little sneakers from the eco company Simple that are are a) purple b)...

It's spring, so send those winter red lips packing with these lip treats.You won't find any parabens, petro-chemicals, phtalates, sulfates, synthetic anything on these ingredient lists.  So pucker up, love is in the air. Tarte's 24.7 Lip Sheer: Whether you...

Everyone likes a bargain, right? And in these economic times, saving money -- even a little -- is a satisfying pastime. I was never an avid coupon clipper mostly because the coupons that come in the newspaper are for products...

My new favorite television show is The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The protagonist, Precious Ramotswe, played by the talented Jill Scott, never EVER makes a big decision without first sitting down with a cup of African Bush tea (also...

When you consider that paper products comprise one-third of the municipal waste in the United States, it makes good sense to use cloth napkins. Sure you have to wash them but how hard is it to throw them in the...

The average American Jane gets more than 41 pounds of junk mail a year. That's a whole lot of Victoria's Not-So-Secrets and faux lottery winnings. In case you haven't heard of it, the organization 41 Pounds will help you...

Is it really so eco to buy reusable shopping bags? Especially when you probably have some mismatched totebags in your closet that would do just fine? That's the question Holly asked in her post here on her discomfort with...

One of the sweetest products from Jane Jenni (which Valerie wrote about here) are her adorable grocery totes, and it got me thinking about the different ways we carry our food home from the store (or farmer's market, or...).  There...

My husband and I are preparing for a kitchen renovation, and we are eagerly in search of materials that won't hurt the planet or our health in order to give us a beautiful cooking and eating space.  For countertops, cabinets,...

Our awesome content partners over at Intent.com are running a program on their site and Beliefent for Earth Month--"30 Days to a Greener You." Full of rich offerings all month on everything from green dating to green pet care,...

Louis L'Amour once said, "No school, no matter how excellent, can give you education. What you receive is like the outlines in a child's coloring book. You must fill in the colors yourself."  What an apt Earth Day thought: the...

Happy Earth Day/Week/Month/Lifetime! We have a new feature on the site that we're psyched about: 10 Steps to Making Your Diet Greener--from our partner Intent.com. And nope, kale, collards, and food coloring are not involved. But rather how to...

I really got some Earth Day inspiration from this video on "eco-equity," a call to transform the "pollution-based economy" of the last century into a "sustainable, green, and clean" economy that creates jobs--particularly in urban areas where low-income people want...

What makes you choose one particular brand of cosmetics over another?  Price?  Scent?  Ability to soften hair and clear skin?  Similarity to what your mother used?  There are so many reasons--and a growing one is, "Will not kill me."It's a...

Have you ever had Dancing Deer cookies?  What?  No?!  What are you waiting for?  Tangerine-chocolate cookies have a lovely soft spot in the center of a crunchy treat.  Molasses-clove cookies are chewy every day and twice on Sundays. And the...

Wow, just wow.  Have you seen the news about the "Kyoto Box," a solar-powered oven made from nothing more than two cardboard boxes, black paint, aluminum foil, and the rays of the sun?  The box was just awarded first prize...

What difference can one person make? Ask the organizers of "Earth Hour," who saw their idea to fight climate change by turning off electrical power for 60 minutes spread in two years from a local project in Sydney, Australia to...

Check out these yummy "Green Saver" discount coupons from SustainLane! I immediately covet the beautiful colored pencils made from recycled newspapers (from O'BON), plus I'm loving the Green & Clean starter kits for environmentally-friendly kitchen, bath, and laundry cleaning products...

I'm afraid Gus at A Pagan' Blog mistook my thoughts on his "spirituality and buying local" for criticism.  Quite the contrary, I was admiring and agreeing with his insight on spiritual connection coming from the world around us - not...

You guys are a creative bunch!  You have great ideas for ways to use un-recyclable orange juice (and milk) cartons.  Here are a few, please add your ideas to the combox so we can make this a full-fledged Beliefnet feature!From...

There are environmental, economic, and logistical things to consider when deciding how much of a locavore to be.  But is buying local spiritual?Our Beliefnet blog brother Gus diZerega has a fascinating post over on A Pagan's Blog about this very...

Do you put orange juice cartons in the recycle bin, thinking that they count as cardboard?  Ok, then, maybe I'm the only one....but it turns out that orange juice containers are made of an already-recycled material, and they in turn...