Admit It, You Aren't Sure That Going Green Will Make A Difference

This year, why not make the choice to join the One Million Acts of Green initiative that allows you to watch the difference that small acts make--one by one.

Log in and pick an act of green--like replacing your light bulbs with CFLs--that you can commit to doing and then witness firsthand the difference one small act can make.

So far, in Canada alone, we have passed 1.8 million acts of green that have saved over 410 million pounds of greenhouse gases. You can make a difference, one green act at a time!

Green Is The New Black Volume IV

Here are five more green tips for living a green lifestyle. You can also check out our past tips in Volume I, Volume II and Volume III.

16. Eat locally as much as you can.  The average distance a piece of fruit or vegetable has travelled to get to your plate is 2400km.  That has a heavy cost in CO2 released into the atmosphere.  Check out local farmer's markets or specialty stores to see what is available in your area.  Even your local grocery store will have products grown close to home when they are in season.  In Canada, there are regulations requiring that signage identify country of origin so you can see where your food comes from.  You can also check out the website for The 100 mile diet for more tips on eating locally.

17. Green your renovations. We live in an old farm house (circa 1854) and renovations have become an ongoing part of our life. I love restoring the house while also being able to incorporate some some green principles into what we are doing.  Wherever possible, we've restored the original floors. Not only are they gorgeous, but by refinishing them we were able to avoid chemically treated carpets. In places where we can not refinish the floors because they are too damaged, we've installed bamboo flooring.  Also beautiful, but from a sustainable resource.  The other advantage of an old farmhouse is the big windows.  They allow more natural light into the house which reduces the amount of time our lights need to be on. We've replaced our old windows with low-e glass. They have a higher R value so they reduce heat loss in the winter and keep the house cooler in the summer. Another, less obvious tip is to check out salvage yards and antique dealers for antique building supplies and decor.  Don't cringe. Even the designers are doing it these days. I've had more compliments on some of the antique doors and door handles in our house than you can imagine. It adds character and restores the feel of an older house.

18. Use the car wash.  You may be surprised to find out that washing your car at home can be much less water efficient than going to a drive through. An average wash at home can take between 80 to 140 gallons of water.  On the other hand, water efficient equipment at a car wash can take water usage down to 45 gallons per car wash.

18. Buy rechargeable batteries. This is one of the best investments our family has ever made.  Sure, they are more expensive initially.  However, the shear number of times you can use them, combined with the materials used, make them much more environmentally friendly than disposable batteries.  In a 2007 study by Uniross rechargeable batteries were found to have 32 times less impact on the environment compared to disposable batteries. The members of our family are big fans of gadgets, so it's been ridiculously convenient to have rechargeable batteries on hand rather than having to run to the store every time a digital camera goes dead. Here's my big tip--pick a spot in the house for the charger and keep it there permanently.  Put a small box beside it for charged batteries. Every time someone goes for batteries, the old ones go into the charger, the charged ones come out and go into their device.  Extra batteries stay in the box so they don't get lost.  Losing the batteries defeats the purpose...we've learned that through experience. At the end of their life when they won't hold a charge anymore, you can recycle them through Call2Recycle if you live in Canada or the United States. They have an extensive list of drop off points so most people will be able to find a location that is very convenient to use.

19. Cut your grass less often. Grass that is greener and requires less water when you let it grow to a minimum of 3 inches. Think of those emissions you'll save by running your gas powered lawn more less often.

20.  Get involved.  It doesn't take very much to have your voice heard by the politicians and to take action on climate change. If you are Canadian, there are some quick tips on Climate Action Network.  In a matter of minutes you can send a message to your Member of Parliament to show your support. You can also take less than 5 minutes to send a note to the Prime Minister and the leaders of parliament through the David Suzuki website.  There is a pre-written email that you can use (though you'll want to do a quick change to the lines about Copenhagen now that December has come and gone). If you are American, a quick search of the web will give you plenty of options. Here are a few different ways to contact the President. Interestingly, he even has a Twitter account.

Green Is The New Black Volume III

The "five green tips" series continues!  To see volume I click here.  Volume II in the series can be found here.

It truly is easy being green.  Anything you do to improve your carbon footprint is a win!  You don't need to go "off grid" and become a vegan to live lightly. It's all about making good choices that are easier on the earth. Regular people like you and I with busy lives, children and careers who have been entrenched in a society that promotes consumables and waste CAN make a difference! Here are some more easy ways you can help:

11. Meatless Monday's. Eat just one less meal that contains meat per week and save 300lbs of CO2 per year.  You don't need to become a vegetarian, but if you replaced one steak dinner per week with a meatless alternative, you would not only save CO2, but you'd save 40,200 gallons of water in a year--that's roughly equal to the water used to take 1300 showers. For more information you can visit the Meatless Monday website.

12. If every North American citizen recycled only half of their annual waste, we'd recycle a 280 million TON mountain of trash--the equivalent of 550 Empire State buildings.  Here are some quick stats on recycling to explain the benefit: recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100 watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours or a TV for 2 hours. (EPA, 2008). Glass can be recycled forever.  Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every week to fill both the former world trade centre towers...imagine the impact to our landfill sites.  Plastic is also prime for recycling.  If every North American recycled just one out of every 10 plastic bottles, it would keep 200 million pounds of plastic out of landfill sites. 

13.  Paying bills online saves time, postage and trees.  If everyone switches to online banking, we could cut 2.1 million tons of CO2 a year!

14. Use cloth shopping bags. Over 500 billion petroleum-based plastic bags threaten wildlife, waste energy, pollute oceans, and clog our landfill sites each year.

15. Install ceiling fans to keep you cool in the summer. When winter rolls around, run the fans in reverse to push the warm air down and conserve heat. Remember, a two degree adjustment to your thermostat can prevent a TON of CO2 per year!

Do you have any ideas or tips, leave a comment and let us know about it! You can also tweet with us on Twitter.

Carbon Brutal To Carbon Neutral In 4 Easy Steps

I just posted a new article on Squidoo about living a greener life.  You can check it out by clicking on the title of this blog post. Let me know if you find it helpful!

Gifts That Give Back!

My family is slowly beginning to understand my desire to be a socially conscious consumer and it shows in the gifts I received this year!

I'm a gadget geek and the number one gift on my list this year was an iPod touch.  Not only do I love Apple's intuitive designs and cutting edge technology, but I wholly support their mission to report the environmental impact of their products in a comprehensive manner. I can easily pull up the CO2 emissions created in the manufacture of my iPod and offset accordingly. My iPod is highly recyclable when it reaches it's end of life, has a mercury free display, is PVC free and is made with power-efficient components.  On top of all that, my family gave me a Novothink Surge hybrid solar charger. Not only are these great gadgets, but they reflect a definite focus on respecting the environment on behalf of Apple and Novothink.

Another socially responsible gadget I received this year was a teeny tiny camcorder.  Not only is the Flip Mino HD a hip little gadget, but they have this amazing program called "Flip for Good".  In conjunction with Cafe Press, they've created a crazy variety of designs that can be printed on your Flip in order to support one of 17 different non-profit charities. A portion of the proceeds from my flip ($10USD) will support "Go Campaign" work for orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. Now THAT is something I can really feel good about.

It's easy to find socially responsible and earth friendly gifts that your family will love.  Every choice we make can have a positive impact.

Would you like to share your story about a socially responsible gift you gave or recieved this year? I'd love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment below or connect with us on twitter.

5 Tips for Sustainable Living (That Real People Can Do!)

So often I come across blogs offering tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle, but the tips that they offer are not necessarily realistic for busy moms and dads.

It would be great if we could all ride our bicycles everywhere we go, but that's just not realistic for everyone. Electric cars? Another great idea, but not (yet) realistic for people who have to travel long distances.

I think we would all choose live in a way that is better for the planet provided it's realistic and convenient.  In light of that, I've put together five tips for sustainable living that are practical and realistic even if you have a crazy busy lifestyle.  It doesn't take a significant amount of effort to make a difference for the planet.

Here are my tips (in no particular order):

1. Buy a programmable thermostat. Did you know that this is one of the easiest things you can do to help fight global warming? They are relatively inexpensive (ranging from $30 to $300) and you can easily recoup the cost in the first year of using it. Create a program to lower the temperature of the house while you are at work and then have it start to warm up the house before you come home. Do the opposite in the summer.  Most will also let you create a different program for weekdays and weekends.  Once programmed, it takes no further effort. You'll not only save energy, but you'll save money too.

2. Buy Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFL).  They are a bit more expensive that normal lightbulbs but this is offset by the fact that they last longer and more than pay for themselves in energy savings. If every North American home replaced only one incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb, it would reduce greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars in one year.

3. Use food grade stainless steel or reusable plastic water bottles that are tested and don't leach BPA.  I started using stainless steel bottles this year and my kids have been using BPA free plastic instead of disposable water bottles from the grocery store for a few years now.  I've found them far more convenient than expected. Not only are they BPA free but they can help reduce landfill.  You may be surprised to learn that North Americans sent upwards of 38 million plastic water bottles into landfill sites in 2006 alone.

4. Buy products that you know are better for the planet.  Fair Trade coffee now can be found in major Retailers at an equivalent cost to other good coffees.  Look for clothing, bedding, decor and other products from Retailers that screen their vendors for earth friendly practices.  You'll find a variety of eco-friendly, organic, fair trade items at EcoStylish Living. Shop smart. Spend your money with Retailers that sell products that are better for our planet.

5. Save money. Save trees. Go paperless.  Do your banking and credit cards online. Have them email your monthly statements to you instead of mailing them.  You could also move your magazine and newspaper subscriptions online.  Most major publications have this option available. The advantage is that you'll actually get your news faster than you did with a traditional newspaper.

I'd love to hear your ideas and tips.  Please leave a comment or chat with me on Twitter.

Welcome to EcoStylish Living!

From Mom to Baby we've got you covered!


EcoStylish was launched for one reason and one reason only.  We want to offer you the very best we can find in stylish Organic, Fair trade, and Eco-Friendly products from socially conscious designers. We want people to feel good about the purchases they make!  Wouldn't it be nice if the dollars you spent on your family also helped the planet?
We've done the research and what we've found is that trendy, fun and luxurious products can also be eco-friendly. Not all our products meet all of the 'green' attributes available, but all of them are good for the planet in some way. We make every effort to provide you with all the information you need on each product to explain why we believe it to be a planet friendly choice, and then you decide based on what characteristics are important you. You can use your purchases to vote for what you believe in.
A few years before EcoStylish was launched, we decided that we wanted to vote with our purchases too.  We went online and were very surprised by what we found.  It was not very easy to find eco-friendly or socially concious products.  We found alot of 'eco' and 'green' blogs that showed products but not alot of places to actually buy the products.  The retail sites that we did find did not have the "wow" factor that made us want to pull out our credit card.  We wanted to be excited by the products and, well, we just weren't that excited by what we found.
That's when the seed was planted for EcoStylish. We decided then that we wanted to provide people with products that were fun, interesting and even luxurious that they could truly feel good about buying.  We wanted the products to be so good that we'd buy them too!  
Truth be told, we wanted not only to find products with that "wow" factor, but we wanted to work with people we could believe in.  We wanted to work with people who believed in paying a fair wage and giving back to their communities. That is what we are doing, and will continue to do in the future.
We welcome you to EcoStylish and we hope you'll love these products as much as we do!  We encourage you to ask questions and give us your feedback. We also encourage you to review our products on our Facebook page. You can now connect with us on Twitter to get the latest news on new products and eco trends.
It's important to us that we stay fresh and continue to bring you innovative, unique and trendy products that you'll not only enjoy but feel good about buying! Let's change the world one click at a time...



*Photo "Hello" taken by D Sharon Pruitt. Photo may not be dowloaded or reproduced.