It’s not that sad of news to me. Frankly I was bummed when Whole Foods bought out Wild Oats Market, another natural food market, but with their own brands and lower prices. I’m betting part of the reason they’re doing poorly is because it does cost more to shop at Whole Foods. Consumers can’t take it right now. Plus, once I go into a store and see that their prices are higher I don’t often check back just for kicks in case they lowered costs.

This comes after the general news that organic foods have taken over as the fastest growing segment of the food industry which goes against the issues Whole Foods seems to be having. And just to muck things up more a new report recently called out organic labeling as insufficient and not as useful to consumers as it could be.  The organic food industry is hot news with big problems it seems. BUT people are still buying, I think they’re just making smarter choices. You don’t have to shop at Whole Foods, and consumers know it. Farmers Markets, general grocers, and online food retailers serve up organics for less.

What do you think? Do you shop at Whole Foods or not. Do you even buy organics right now? Why or why not?

[image via morguefile]

Post from: Blisstree

Whole Foods Doing Poorly in Hard Economy

Snack baggies from Plum Creek Mercantile

• Instead of plastic baggies use cloth snack bags.
• Instead of paper coffee filters use a reusable coffee filter.
• Instead of store plastic produce bags use cloth produce bags.
• Instead of plastic water bottles invest in a reusable water bottle.
• Instead of hose water try rain barrel water for washing your car and watering the garden.
• Instead of foil save leftovers in a food container, cover your pot with a lid, and line your cookie sheet with a silicone sheet.
• Instead of paper towels clean with old dust rags or recycled newspaper (for cleaning windows).
• Instead of baby wipes use washcloths dipped in water.
• Instead of ice pops from the store choose reusable ice pop molds and make homemade ice pops.
• Instead of disposable menstrual pads choose cloth Moonpads Reusable Menstrual Pads.
• Instead of paper napkins use cloth napkins.
• Instead of one-time-use batteries use rechargeable batteries.
• Instead of disposable razors choose an electric razor.
• Instead of hand soap in a plastic bottle get a refillable liquid hand soap pump.
• Instead of disposable diapers try reusable cloth diapers.
• Instead subscribing to print editions of a newspaper or magazine try reading it online.
• Instead of new bottles of shampoo, get a refillable bottle and buy shampoo in bulk at the co-op.

How many disposables are you currently living without, or how many do you think you can give up?

Post from: Blisstree

How many disposables can you live without?

Earth-friendly care providers:

When you’re first looking for a greener health care practitioner, your best bet is to check out the natural / alternative health care providers in your area.  NOTE: natural does not equal green but you’re more likely to find a good green provider via the natural providers than you will by looking up traditional health care providers.

• If you live in or near Salt Lake City, Portland OR, or Denver, check the health & wellness category of the ReDirect Guide for tons of natural care practitioners.
• See the health pages (products, services, and more) of the National Green Pages.
• Find an eco-friendly dentist plus learn how you can ask your own dentist to go green.
• Find members of Health Care Without Harm - such as nurses, organizations, and clinics. Health Care Without Harm’s mission is “To transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment,” thus members are in line with green care.
• Read “Selecting a CAM Practitioner” a guide to choosing a complementary or alternative medicine provider.

Green health care tips and extras:

• Talk to your local pharmacy about the green pharmacy program.
• Visit Practice Greenhealth to find eco-friendly medical care products and services.
• Visit Health Care Without Harm to get news updates on greener health care and current medical eco-baddie hazards you should be aware of.  There’s a lot of cool info on this website.

Make smarter, greener lifestyle choices:

• If you’re already sick check out some eco-friendly flu fighting options.
• Exercise daily but make your workout as green as possible.
• Avoid negative health issues from the start by making sure your baby care products are safe and toxic free.
• Make an earth-friendly first aid kit.

[Image © Bob Stockfield Courtesy: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine]

Post from: Blisstree

Greener Health Care Options & Resources

If you’ve got the time and drive, learn how to conduct your own home energy audit by visiting the Home Energy Saver website. First gather your energy bills and then head to the site. At this site, you’ll enter your zip code and a comparison of the energy costs (in $/year) of an average home and an energy-efficient home in your area will pop up as a baseline. You can also see a greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption chart. Then you’ll answer some easy questions about your home. Most of them are off the top of your head questions, but you will need your utility bills for others. The audit will shoot out the amount of money you could be saving if you made such and such changes.

The U.S. Department of Energy offers a good DIY energy audit how-to as well, although it’s a checklist, not a fill-in audit. But it’s a good resource and shows you all the areas that could be losing energy in your home.

If you’d rather have a pro conduct your audit, there’s a directory of available energy audit services by state is available at RESNET. RESNET also offers RESNET Green Raters who have been trained and certified to inspect and verify the green features of your home in addition to your home’s energy performance.

Before choosing a home energy auditing pro, you should read the U.S. Department of Energy’s guide to choosing a home energy audit professional. There are excellent tips about where to find one, how they should function, and how to prepare for your audit.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Schedule a home energy audit

1. Pay you bills online - why have mail come to you? It’s a waste of gas and paper plus costs more.
2. Take your reusable bag to the pet shop. Or video store, or mall, or even the library. I know many people who remember to take their bags when they hit the grocery store, but why pick up plastic bags elsewhere. Take your bags with you no matter where you’re headed.
3. Switch to a more eco-friendly toothpaste.
4. Buy a refillable hand soap pump - actually buy one for each bath and one for the kitchen. Get hand soap from the local co-op bulk soap section OR buy the largest bulk bottle of hand soap you can find at a regular store. This cuts down on massive packaging waste.
5. Wipe out your microwave. A dirty microwave has to work harder to heat food. Why waste the energy?
6. Reuse your shower towel at least twice. I use mine all week - if you showered you should be clean, and this cuts down on water and energy waste used to wash clean towels.
7. Carry a reusable coffee mug to your fave coffee shop.
8. Save some shower or bath water this week and use it to water your houseplants.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Eight small green steps that add up

Then there are the most amusing green items. These are ideas or products that aren’t super practical, but you know, kudos to the folks who sat around and thought them up because something new is better than something in a landfill. Here are three amusing ideas with a DIY slant…

The first time I saw the DIY cardboard desk I thought; genius! Then some folks said stuff like, “My cat would jump on it” and “Hey my toddler would eat it.” Um, maybe not so genius, but cool all the same. Sadly, this used to be on Instructables, and now the instructions are gone, so maybe someone else thought it was impractical as well. I’m betting you could figure it out without the actual instructions though. Go you!

DIY eco eyeglasses made out of a Sprite bottle - The look is so not me, but I do like the clever use of a bottle. However, I’m not sure they’d last too long, and the fact that they won’t block the harmful sun rays makes them sort of a summer not. But, they are fun, and maybe a good way to entertain college kids at a party. Actually kids might like to makes these too.

Outdoor furniture sans fabric, plus grass. For the super enthusiastic greenie, a grow it yourself chair, bench, table, or counch might be in order. It’s like a home-based Chia Pet but a little more sleek. You don’t need it, but holy, you want one.

What kooky green DIY projects have you seen around?

[image via Instructables]

Post from: Blisstree

Three Questionable Green DIY Ideas

See the video - A Message from the Alliance of Direct Mail Marketers

Laughs aside, this is a funny take on an actual real issue. Junk mail is not as funny when it comes to your door and truly does have an environmental impact. The Center for a New American Dream has some comprehensive facts and figures posted about junk mail, among them.

• More than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail accumulates in U.S. mail boxes each year – which is the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. Gulp right?
• In 2001 alone, 5.4 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream.
• Only 32% of all bulk mail was recycled in 2001.
• The country needs about 290,000 garbage trucks to haul all the unrecycled Junk mail to landfills and incinerators each year. That’s not just materials and energy used that’s also a load of emissions let go just to cart junk mail around. And that’s without factoring in mail trucks.

AND if you don’t give a care about the environment, maybe the costs will get you…

• It costs more than $370 million per year to collect and dispose of all the bulk mail that doesn’t get recycled. Consumers and government pay for this.
• Sponsors of California’s ‘Return to Sender’ bill estimate that California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year just to collect and dispose of AOL disks.

See all the junk mail facts - and when you look, keep in mind these are older stats, as the years go by junk mail actually has gotten worse, which seems funny considering we’re supposed to be the digital age.

HOW TO STOP JUNK MAIL COLD:

• Contact companies who send you junk mail. Tell them to take you off their list. If they don’t listen, gather up a nice big bundle and send it back to them - I know sort of passive and not a great use of emissions, but it feels good.
• Join Tonic Mailstopper.
• Register at Mail Preference Service.
• Try the Stop the Junk Mail Kit.
• You can also learn how to Cancel Your Random Catalogs.
• If you’d like to put the junk mail you already have to work, save it up for holiday wrap.

Does junk mail make you nuts or what?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Funniest video ever - junk mail fun

The chosen states: Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, and Oregon.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan notes, “Green means healthier learning environments for students and adults, plus lower energy costs and a stronger economy… green programs of study support the administration’s goal of expanding a green workforce by preparing students for high-skill, high-wage jobs in a clean energy economy.”

I wasn’t too shocked to see Oregon on the list - but it still made front page news here in Portland, OR, where I’m located. The other states I don’t follow as closely when it comes to green issues, but green career training program development is good deal no matter which state it starts in. According to the NRCCTE, the states chosen have proposed the following areas of study and development…

• Georgia - energy, construction and transportation.
• Illinois - energy, utilities and waste management.
• New Jersey - various industries. (huh)
• Ohio - energy, biotech and agriculture.
• Oregon - wind, solar and construction.

All five participating states will be participating in a 14-month process to develop “green-focused” programs. Also, each state will work with a facilitator who will provide ongoing assistance and consultation from content experts.

With all the ongoing pushing by the current administration to use green careers as a vehicle to help the country, it’s good to know that some new  training and courses of study are being developed. It makes it seem less like just talk, and more significant.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

5 States Chosen for Green Career Program

In case you’re thinking that 600,000 lbs of recycled junk is good for not much more than saving our landfills, the house above is a great example of an alternative. This 3,400sf house is made, in part, of steel and concrete discarded from Boston’s Big Dig and saved 600,000 lbs of salvaged materials from being trashed. Not only did this project turn one one amazingly bling house, but the home demonstrates a huge untapped resource for deconstructed buildings and other infrastructures. This is a great way to save money and go green at the same time.

To learn more visit Inhabitat - they’ve got the whole scoop on this green home, the architects and theory behind it, plus an amazing image gallery. If recycled building sounds like it’s right up your alley, visit the following links to learn more. Who knows, maybe you’ll have the next amazing recycled home!

• Maison IDEKIT Container Home
• Reclaimed & Salvaged Home Building Material Use
• 11 Recycled Homes
• The Ultimate in Recycled Homes

[image via SINGLE speed DESIGN]

Post from: Blisstree

600,000 lbs of recycled materials = a…

The post got sort of long so I didn’t give my opinion, which is…

I do like Trader Joe’s and I really like Greenpeace. One thing making me uneasy about this whole situation though is the fact that Greenpeace notes, “Of the 20 largest supermarket chains in the United States, nine have made no visible effort to increase the sustainability of their seafood operations and continue to ignore scientific warnings about the crisis facing global fisheries and the marine environment. These include: Aldi, Costco, Giant Eagle, H.E.B., Meijer, Price Chopper, Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Winn Dixie.” So other major supermarkets also aren’t doing well on the fishy front, but the attack seems to be mainly been focused on Trader Joe’s.

Partially I get this because Trader Joe’s, unlike some other stores on the list, tends to spout off about the advantages of better food at their stores and on their website - i.e. organics, genetically engineered crops, cage-free eggs, and so on. That makes you think they’d take this whole sustainable fish issue more seriously than other stores on the list.

Another reason Greenpeace may be focusing so much attention on Trader Joe’s is because they’ve done so before (regarding genetically modified foods) with positive results. This is actually a score for Trader Joe’s because it shows they’re listening to the issues and are willing at least to make changes. The same can’t be said for all other stores.

We’ll see how this all pans out - maybe Trader Joe’s will cave to the pressure and only offer sustainable seafood (good for humans, the oceans, and the store). I’m hoping so, because I like them overall, and would like to continue shopping there. Maybe Greenpeace will focus their attention on another store for a while, I mean there are lots of baddies on the new scorecard not just Trader Joe’s.

If you’re looking to buy sustainable fish without a big old hassle read: How to choose eco-friendly seafood

If you want to learn more about why saving our oceans and protecting our fish matter visit the Greenpeace oceans issues section of their website.

You tell me, will you dump Trader Joe’s if they don’t ban unsustainable seafood?

[image courtesy of ©Greenpeace]

Post from: Blisstree

Would You Dump Trader Joe’s?