We agree that composting is a win-win: good for our garden soil and its produce, good for the local landfill. And, if you play the Practically Green game, you get 50 points for composting. What’s not to like?

After all, the EPA estimates that food residuals account for 11.9 percent of the Municipal Solid Waste stream (or 29.2 million tons) and are the single largest component of MSW generated by weight. Staggering! Schools, conferences, prisons, and supermarkets are among the highest offenders. We don’t want to contribute our leavings to that disgraceful tally. But when Jack objected to my use of BioBags, an ingenious invention that keeps my sleek kitchen compost crock from becoming an oozing stinking slop pail on our kitchen counter, I had to investigate.

Compost crock with BioBag

Gorgeous clean compost crock

I called the customer service at Gardener’s Supply, where I purchased the Bio Bags. In seconds I was on the phone with Janet. I explained the situation as best I could:

My job is to collect the kitchen scraps; Jack’s job is to take them outside to the compost bin. I like to use bio bags, because they cut down on smell and mess. He thinks an unlined container is better. He says his mom never used a bag; he says the bags don’t break down; blah blah; he says the ones he threw into the compost bin five months ago are still sitting there. Shouldn’t they have decomposed by now, he asks me. And, even if they did decompose, Janet, he suspects these bags might be made of plastic that’s harmful to our soil and thus to our future vegetable garden and us. Is it? Could he be right? He thinks we should stop using the bags and go back to the old way: throw scraps into the compost crock and empty it when it’s full, smelly, and/or breeding fruit-flies.

“I really don’t want to go back to the old way, Janet. Can you please settle this?”

“I really don’t want to get in the middle of it,” she replied calmly, but I’ll try to help.”

I could hear gentle tapping on her keyboard at the other end of the phone: “Yes, as I thought: the bags are made of 100% biodegradable cornstarch. They’re totally fine for your garden. But the bags are apparently not breaking down fast enough. You may need to consider the heat in your compost. The more heat and moisture you have in the compost bin, the sooner the bag will break away,” she said.

“Heat?”

“What’s your mix of browns and greens?”  she asked me.

“Huh?”

Janet directed me to “All About Composting,” a superb rundown of how compost happens, including a primer on browns and greens.

From How Compost Happens:

Organic matter is transformed into compost through the work of microorganisms, soil fauna, enzymes and fungi. When making compost, your job is to provide the best possible environment for these beneficial organisms to do their work. If you do so, the decomposition process works very rapidly—sometimes in as little as two weeks! If you don’t provide the optimum environment, decomposition will still happen, but it may take from several months to several years. The trick to making an abundance of compost in a short time is to balance the following four things:

Carbon. Carbon-rich materials are the energy food for microorganisms. You can identify high-carbon plant materials because they are dry, tough, or fibrous, and tan or brown in color. Examples are dry leaves, straw, rotted hay, sawdust, shredded paper, and cornstalks.

Nitrogen. High-nitrogen materials provide the protein-rich components that microorganisms require to grow and multiply. Freshly pulled weeds, fresh grass clippings, over-ripe fruits and vegetables, kitchen scraps and other moist green matter are the sorts of nitrogen-rich materials you’ll probably have on hand. Other high-protein organic matter includes kelp meal, seaweed, manure and animal by-products like blood or bone meal.

Water. Moisture is very important for the composting process. But too much moisture will drown the microorganisms, and too little will dehydrate them. A general rule of thumb is to keep the material in your compost pile as moist as a well-wrung sponge. If you need to add water (unchlorinated is best), insert your garden hose into the middle of the pile in several places, or sprinkle the pile with water next time you turn it. Using an enclosed container or covering your pile with a tarp will make it easier to maintain the right moisture level.

Oxygen. To do their work most efficiently, microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. When your pile is first assembled, there will probably be plenty of air between the layers of materials. But as the microorganisms begin to work, they will start consuming oxygen. Unless you turn or in some way aerate your compost pile, they will run out of oxygen and become sluggish.

Bottom line: Jack and I will be tending our compost better now. Best of all, the bio bags are safe for the time-being.

The best source of information about compost? Easy: any active gardener will have strong opinions on the subject. You can get major points for composting at Practically Green. And, you might want to curl up with one of these books. Especially, this little brief from one of our favorite gardeners, Eliot Coleman.

Let it Rot! Storey Publishing

Starter Vegetable Gardens has lots of compost info

Water Footprint: Find out how much water some of your favorite products use! Did you know that the “Global Water Footprint” for a single apple is about 18 and a half gallons of water? Reduce *your* Water Footprint with these actions.

Fall is coming, is your garden ready? If you’re a gardening newbie and just planted a garden this summer, here are a couple tips to increase your garden’s longevity. The legendary gardening gurus at Rodale have tips on fall garden cleanup that will have you looking like a pro come spring.

The Happy Planet Index: Nic Marks discuses why we should measure success in terms of happiness in this 16-minute TED Talks video, tracking well-being against the amount of resources we use. Though the U.S. does quite well in terms of well-being, it is one of the countries that also uses the most resources. What country should we emulate? You may be surprised!

Multi-Media Pick:

Cafeteria Man: Chef Tony Geraci is on a mission to make-over Baltimore public schools’ cafeteria food. In this 2.5-minute trailer for the movie “Cafeteria Man,” students complain of “mystery meat” and tons of pizza, pizza, pizza. Geraci plans to swap unhealthy mystery food for local produce.

Get PG points for your healthy food actions!

New and Cool Pick:

DIY mini BBQ for Labor Day Weekend: Recycle a container of Altoids Sours into a mini BBQ. All you need besides the tin are some salvaged computer fan guards and a few nuts and bolts. The kids will marvel at making the little cooker, capable of cooking a full sized hot dog or small hamburger patty. The kids will love to use it for some yummy s’mores too! Don’t forget the organic chocolate.

I was selling real estate at the time. As I talked to my clients about nuts-and-bolts stuff like getting an energy audit and insulating the attic and the basement, I saw they wanted to do these things because they’re money-saving, but they didn’t know where to begin. There aren’t a lot of easy resources for information on how to do it. I realized it didn’t have to be so hard.

As Elmhurst’s first EcoBroker Certified sales agent, she’s “working on a shift from green real estate to green real-estate consulting. My niche is around home retrofit. I found I really wasn’t touching enough families in the one-to-one real estate approach. I’m putting the pieces in place and working it out so my children (4 & 6) don’t notice the shift, and I hope to launch officially in the fall.”

She’s already developed two programs for buyers and sellers: Ready, Set, Green Homes(SM) and the 5×10 Project Challenge:

I created The 5×10 Challenge to help any homeowner take five smart steps towards energy efficiency before the end of 2010.  I recommend a project budget of $5000 because it earns the maximum tax credit of $1500, so the project really only costs you $3500.

My niche is around the boring side of energy efficiency. That is what I call it. I have no problems if you want new windows, geo-thermal, solar, etc. But you have to do your homework first: get an audit, air seal, insulate, etc. It is expensive (even with tax break), so it’s not realistic for everyone. But if you can cut your energy bills by 20-30% by doing 5×10 you can stop there for now and feel great about the green you did do, instead of not doing anything because you don’t have the funds to do geo-thermal.

“I’m Impressively green on the Practically Green Quiz,” she told us. “Our remodel was very green, but it was insightful to see how much better we can do on daily purchases. To be honest, I’m always rushing at the store and never really thought about how easy recycled tissue, etc. would be.  So we’re one step greener now thanks to your site!”

Another fact about Laura: Ray hates air conditioning. Especially, he hates to sleep in it. Even in torrid conditions. “We definitely use the air but when we’ve tried everything else. When it is humid and above 83 or so we will turn on for the day. On some days we run only overnight if temps are not going to drop.” In the interest of a happy marriage, she recently investigated alternatives to not turning on the AC. Here’s an excerpt from the article she posted earlier this week:

The Spin on Fans

Temperatures are heating up for the next week.  With warm days and cool nights, the end of summer in Chicago is a unique opportunity to virtually eliminate your need for air conditioning – and it is easier than you may think!  I think being green is all about doing the most with the least. “Fan Season” (late spring and late summer) is an ideal time to do more with less!

All you need is a couple of fans and a quick check of the weather. My list below will tell you when to use which fan to slash your AC use.

Fan Options:

Ceiling fans - Consumer Reports found good options around $50-250.

1 window fan per bedroom – Window fans like this one recommended on Amazon run about $40 each.    Window fans can pay back in a season!

Fan unit on your AC equipment.

Paying a wee bit of attention to your local weather is key to getting the most out of your fans. Go to http://www.weather.com/, enter your zip code and hit “find weather,” then select the “hourly” forecast. Get a general idea of:

Local humidity

When night-time temperatures will start to drop and how low they will go.

If the winds are going to be breezy or calm.

Don’t forget to factor in neighborhood considerations. Open windows are not good for allergy sufferers or light sleepers!  Be sure to consider allergy levels and sound issues before switching over to fans.  Oh yes, and don’t forget to consider local wildlife too.  Skunk mating season does not work well for using fans, and you could end up discovering a family of sparrows at 4 am that you didn’t know were your neighbors!  If sound is an issue overnight, consider using fans with open windows at dusk and running on high for a few hours to cool the room completely.  Then shut the windows before you go to bed.

Excerpted with permission from Not Yet Green: Solutions for the Not YET Green Home. Click here for the rest of the story.

Everyone knows what NIMBY means: “Not in My Back Yard” (raised-eyebrow alert). So what’s IOBY? “IN our backyards”! IOBY is a website that connects environmental projects in NYC with people who want to donate to them and volunteer. ioby believes that “environmental knowledge, innovation, action, and service begin and thrive in our backyards.” Here’s a post on Seventh Generation’s blog that tells more. What a terrific idea for a Back to School project!

SF’s list of green vendors now available to you: For the past five years, the city of San Francisco has instituted strict standards regarding the products their municipal departments buy: they have to be truly eco-friendly. What sets SF’s list apart is that they require manufacturers to fork over information that commercial guides aren’t likely to get. See which products made the cut!

Food for thought: put salad bars in schools! Whole Foods is teaming up with chef Ann Cooper to help schools switch from processed foods to fresh, natural ingredients. Their goal is 300 salad bars in schools by January. Click here to donate to Project Salad Bar, or simply visit your local Whole Foods. Get credit for your fresh food efforts at Practically Green.

Multi-Media Pick:

“The Majestic Plastic Bag” California is preparing to vote on the nation’s first state-wide plastic bag ban, and Santa Monica-based nonprofit Heal the Bay, filmed this nature documentary-style “mockumentary” to boost support for the ban. The state senate is expected to vote by the end of August (aka SOON!). While the votes are tallied, enjoy this gut-busting four-minute video.

Get PG points for switching to reusable bags at the grocery store.

New and Cool Pick:

You thought only your faucet had leaks: When you turn your electronics off, they’re not really “off,” they maintain a “trickle” of electricity, otherwise known as an electrical leak. This great article not only tells you how to track your product’s energy consumption, but also reviews lots of products to help you manage this. For example, Belkin’s Conserve AV power strip automatically turns off your DVD player, in home theatre and game systems when you turn your TV off. The Belkin Conserve Insight measures the amount of energy plug-in appliances draw. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Martha's Kitchen at her House

You can prowl the archive for hours or make snappy choices. Recipes are organized by ingredient (from A: Apricots to Y: Yogurt) or theme (B: Breakfast Grains to W: Winter Greens) This week’s theme was tomatoes. Next week: picnics. The following: stir-fry (she just bought a new wok). From the intro to “Recipes for Health”:

The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat.

Martha is a prolific author, including co-author gigs with Wolfgang Puck and Dr. Dean Ornish; she’s given classes all over; she’s great on TV; and she co-founded the professional foodie site Zester Daily. Her newest cookbook, The Very Best Of Recipes for Health, comes out this week. In short, she’s a rock star.

It fits that she has a busy cooking school – in LA. I’m scheming to attend…. It was a treat to have a conversation with her recently — about her column, her life, and Practically Green.

The Times column began exactly two years ago. I want the column to demystify healthy eating and empower people to cook, prepare their own food from fresh ingredients, as opposed to eating out or bringing in. The country has gone astray because we aren’t in control of what we eat! If you have an egg and a vegetable, you can make a meal. The recipes are very simple.

Which recipes have been most popular?

One is the Spicy Quinoa Salad. People seem to really love quinoa. It’s fantastic! The week that Obama was elected, that recipe was #3 on the most emailed list of all of The New York Times! Another recipe people really love is anything with beets. It’s always fascinating to me, but any recipe with beets is popular. [Note: I found 14 recipes for beets.] Sometimes recipes get REdiscovered, and I don’t really know how! One of those is one of the first recipes I did, for oriechetti, tomatoes, arugula and parmesan. It’s just a really great summer recipe.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

I took the Practically Green test and I got a 6 out of 10, and part of that’s because I have a landlord. I don’t know what kind of a dishwasher I have, but I do know that the fridge is Energy Star, because I bought it myself. I composted until my landlord freaked out; he thought it was attracting rats. [Sigh/humph.] I have a garden, and everything about it is organic. And I still compost because we have green baskets in LA – LA’s bureau of sanitation has a great recycling program. If you enter “green bin” in the search box on that link, you’ll get a pdf with the 3 different bins and what you can put in them, including a green one for compost. We put kitchen scraps into the bin that’s there with all the rest on the curb and it’s picked up!

I have a twelve year old. His generation is much more aware. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to eat crap if he gets a chance – he’s a healthy twelve year old. If he’s taking a long shower and I say, “Liam, you’re taking a long shower, it’s time to get out!” nothing happens. But if I go in there and say, “You’re really wasting shower water, Liam,” He’ll get out. They are getting the message.

Aren’t you a little bit hungry now? Motivated? Visit Practically Green for dozens of ways you can make healthy, eco-friendly decisions in your kitchen and at meal-time! Maybe you’d like to start with these three:

• Shop at a Farmer’s Market Each Week in Season (10 points)
• Buy Cereal Without Artificial Colors or Flavors This Week (5 points)
• Eat Meat Only on Weekends (Whoa! 100 points!)

Martha’s website: www.martha-rose-shulman.com Join her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @MarthaRShulman

We’re all about helping to demystify what makes a green building product green and what doesn’t…. I decided it was time to start a blog dedicated entirely to green building materials available in the greater Toronto area, so here it is!

Cathy lives in center-city Toronto “within walking distance to the subway, shops, movie theatres, bookstores, and five (5) authentic French patisseries. Our new location has cut our driving miles in half annually and my teenage boys know the subway system by heart.” Her favorite green product is Concrobium, a mold-control substance. She rhapsodized about it here.

My greenness is of the practical, almost armchair kind. If it’s easy to do and within my price range, I’ll do it. Conservation in particular is one of the rules I live by — it’s probably why our house looks so dark at night! I’m not one to easily part with my money, so a green product has to be something that actually makes sense before I’ll consider buying it…. We don’t live a green lifestyle: we’re not vegetarians, we drive two cars (one is a mini van, the other a Jetta Diesel) and we have three kids — all pretty much environmental no-nos. I am a walking contradiction — like most humans.

Cathy Rust and her family

Cathy discovered Practically Green a few months ago, and she blogged about it this week:

When you first use Practically Green you can take a quiz to find out just how green you really are. It’s a way to see what you’re already doing and what steps you can take to lighten your CO2 load. Unlike other online “green lifestyle” quizzes I’ve taken, this one is quick but accurate. For the most part, when I’ve taken other quizzes, the quick ones are incredibly inaccurate while the detailed ones have you pulling out a year’s worth of utility bills for measurement. Practically Green has done a lot of thorough research behind their quiz, so if it seems simple, it is, but the results are sophisticated. The quiz focuses on your current lifestyle behaviour. Once you’ve completed the quiz you’re given a rating from “Barely Green” all the way up to “Superbly Green.” I hate to brag, but I’m, ahem, “Impressively Green,” second highest level. The quiz gives you points in four categories: Water Use, Energy, Health and Stuff. These are great categories because they basically cover everything from the kind of materials you shop for and put in your home, to what you eat, what kind of transportation to use. Your initial score serves as your benchmark. My worst marks were in water efficiency, something I’ll have to investigate further because I thought I was actually doing well in that area — I see aerators in my future!

Achieving the next level of “greenness.” Once you’ve figured out your starting point, the site offers endless ways for you to advance to the next level of “greenness.” It also gives you the opportunity to commit to different actions and you’re awarded a different number of points depending on the action taken (ie. “carpooling” gets way more points than “using cold water for laundry” which also acknowledges the increased effort level and benefits).

Each time you log in and go to your account you see how you’re doing. You can also share your efforts with your friends and invite them to join in. Doing something in a group can further help you achieve your goals. Practically Green also shows you how you’re doing in comparison to other Practically Green participants. If you’re competitive, this is a great way to push you to do better.

The detailed explanations as to why you should take a particular action are also helpful and all of the information on the site is backed up with authoritative data and more resources if you’re interested in learning more about a subject.

Finally, once you’ve committed to taking a particular green action, the site offers suggestions for the materials you can use and, if possible, where they’re available. Practically Green is still in its early stages so give it a try! They’re always looking for feedback to continually improve the site.

Last year, Cathy earned a LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). She holds a B.Sc. in Biology (specialist, Human Genetics) from McGill University, and an M.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto. Before becoming a mom, she worked as an environmental consultant, in the 90s, “which was pretty much like talking to a brick wall.”  You can find her at http://becgreen.ca

My basement had a bunch of stuff that was perfectly good, but that we no longer needed or wanted, so we started creating a pile to drop off at Goodwill. It got me thinking what an absolute marvel, and how totally green, organizations like Goodwill are.  Did you know that:

Last year, more than 66 million people donated to Goodwill. Goodwill accepts your new or gently used items — like clothing, appliances, electronics and furniture — and sells them in our well-known Goodwill retail stores. There are more than 2,400 Goodwill donation locations in the United States and Canada.

The sales of your donations help fund job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have disabilities, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges.

In fact, donating clothes to a charity is so green that you can earn 20 points for it at Practically Green. But I never really thought much about how much benefit my basement stuff would provide until I got news from an industry friend, Park Howell, about a massive fire at the logistics and operations center for their local Goodwill. Without those donations, the 36 community programs they run don’t have funds so they are doing a MASSIVE drive (if you are reading us from Arizona, please donate!).  I never realized that cleaning my basement isn’t just green, it creates jobs!

Then last night,  I had the opportunity to visit another key player in the re-use market, Gazelle.com. Gazelle gives you cash for your unwanted gadgets (or if there isn’t any value, you can still send them in to be responsibly recycled).  They offer their services directly, but also power trade-in programs at places like Costco and Sears. I got to see part of their “logistics and operations center” and it’s really a marvel (and a perfect home for my box of random electronic stuff). Here are some photos:

First shipments arrive and are packed into bins and contents are verified.

Then each bag is sorted into bins labelled for every kind of gadget.They have bins for everything from Blackberries to iPhones to Camcorders.

Every item is then inspected and readied for reuse or recycling.  The inspection station ensures data is wiped and the product is functioning appropriately.  It then goes into a huge inventory room until someone repurchases the item through eBay or other outlets or it is dismantled and recycled appropriately.

Of course it’s great to get cash for electronics.  But what Gazelle.com has helped create is a way to extend the life of gadgets. This is really green because it combats the issue of perceived or planned obsolescence in technology AND helps keep e-waste from being disposed of improperly. By using Gazelle or services like theirs, you also can get 10 points for recycling your old computer, 10 points for recycling your cell phone, and 10 points for recycling other electronics on Practically Green. The final “feel good” benefit? These services makes technology available to people who might otherwise not be able to afford it.

So–one eco-friendly basement-cleaning later, and I’ve created jobs, battled planned obsolescence, kept e-waste out of landfill, helped someone access digital technology, and cleaned up our indoor air quality. And oh yes, earned 50 points on Practically Green!  Who knew basement cleaning could be so rewarding?

]]> http://blog.practicallygreen.com/2010/08/how-cleaning-your-basement-can-create-jobs-save-energy-reduce-waste-and-improve-health/feed/ 0 http://blog.practicallygreen.com/2010/08/guest-chef-emily-luchetti-and-a-lesson-in-vitamins-when-all-we-really-wanted-was-dessert/ http://blog.practicallygreen.com/2010/08/guest-chef-emily-luchetti-and-a-lesson-in-vitamins-when-all-we-really-wanted-was-dessert/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:59:40 +0000 Leah Luchetti http://blog.practicallygreen.com/?p=829

Emily Luchetti

During a recent visit, Emily agreed to collaborate on a recipe to suit Practically Green readers: easy, quick, healthy, and appropriate for green living.

I use the freshest, best-quality ingredients available and never mask their basic flavors by adding too much sugar. Chocolate desserts taste like rich bittersweet chocolate; peach desserts taste like ripe, juicy peaches.

My mouth was watering already.

The recipe we finally decided on was Bountiful Berry Compote with vanilla ice cream:

Also try Emily's very berry sodas

To make the compote: Put the orange and lemon juices, sugar, and salt in a large sauté pan. You can add sugar to taste, depending on how sour the orange juice is and how sweet the berries are. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid reduces slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the strawberries, blueberries and butter, gently stirring until the butter is almost completely melted, about 2 minutes. Add the raspberries and continue to cook just until the raspberries are warm, about 30 seconds. Do not overcook, or the berries will break apart.

Scoop some vanilla ice cream into bowls and spoon the berries and some sauce over the top. Or, separately pass the ice cream and compote in two large bowls. Serve immediately.

Strawberries and domestic blueberries are in the “dirty dozen”, and you can get PG points for knowing and for buying organic.

To further explore the notion that this dessert is healthy, I decided to research which vitamins the berries have and why they’re good for you and your family:

Strawberries:
• One cup contains over 100 mg of Vitamin C, necessary for immune system function and strong connective tissue; Calcium, for strong bones; and Magnesium, good for your heart and may protect against some diseases.
Blueberries:
• One cup of blueberries will also give you Vitamin C, a little less than strawberries, but blueberries have fewer calories. They also contain Lutein, important for healthy vision.
Raspberries:
• Have the least amount of calories of the three, and also contain Lutein.

→ Did you know that the pigments that give berries their gorgeous blue and red colors are also good for you? The phytochemicals and flavonoids in them can potentially help prevent certain forms of cancer, and the ones in blueberries may help prevent bladder infections.

Phytochemicals? Flavonoids? Back to researching….

Phytochemicals are natural chemicals in fruits, veggies, nuts, and legumes that positively affect your health. Flavonoids, found in colorful skins of fruits and veggies may work as antioxidants.

Antioxidants protect the cells in your body from “oxidative” damage. As the body uses oxygen, by-products known as “free-radicals” can cause damage to cells. Antioxidants, like the ones in blueberries, are known to repair these free-radicals.

Phew, I need some ice cream after that.

Emily chimed in on how desserts fit into her healthy, practical lifestyle:

Too many people falsely believe that you have to sacrifice desserts to be healthy and physically fit. But the key is moderation, not abstention. Avoid processed foods and enjoy an occasional dessert. I eat well and exercise to stay healthy but also because I want to be able to eat desserts.

You can visit Emily’s website here, check out her books here, and her blog here.

Buy some organic fruit, organic juice, enjoy with a nice bottle of eco-friendly wine, there are PG points for all of that.

Today's blog post by Leah Luchetti

Sheila Hollender

We received a fresh message from Sheila Hollender of Seventh Generation first thing this morning, and we want to share it with you ASAP. Sheila is responsible for Seventh Gen’s global feminine-care initiative, and she directs the corporate-giving program. Under her leadership, the brand seems destined not only to make a difference for women of all privileges, of every nation — but also, to involve women of education and means who can help.

We’re proud and delighted to have both Hollenders — Sheila and Jeffrey, her husband — as advisors on Practically Green.

Here’s Sheila’s blog post, dated August 12, 2010. We have a funny feeling it’s historic, and we hope you’ll share it with your friends and influentials. Thank you.

News alert: Women now drive the world economy. Globally, women control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending according to three recent studies on women and the economy: Women Want More, by Silverstein & Sayre; Why She Buys, by Brennan; What Women Want, by Underhill. All three books underscore the fact that the global market has turned female friendly. This means that by exercising the “power of the purse,” women are able to dictate what manufacturers put out into the marketplace.

It should come as no surprise that a good portion of women’s spending is dedicated to beauty and personal care products. After all, through our collective purchasing power we have made cosmetics and personal care products companies vastly wealthy. We have done this without a lot of public questioning about the ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products. We have failed to demand that the ingredients used in these products be non-toxic.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has been working to spread the word about the chemicals used in cosmetics. This organization claims that many cosmetics on the shelf today contain chemicals that have been linked to a negative impact on human health. In a video titled, The Story of Cosmetics Annie Leonard highlights the importance of knowing exactly what ingredients are used in our everyday cosmetics and personal care products.

Whether talking about the most recent miracle cream to hit the shelf or the tampons we use on a monthly basis, women have the power to change the way business is done.

Empower yourself and only support companies that actively work to make products that are safe for all of us.

Lydia and Brutus

Here’s the best (and green) part of Lisa’s story. Check out the incredible lovely grace with which she delivered this tragic news: she offered three great recipes for healthy, eco-friendly dog treats. And she signed them,

I hope your dogs enjoy them as much as mine did.

Without further ado:

It’s been hard to get motivated this week but we’re slowly getting back on track. This post is dedicated to our puppy, Brutus.

Brutus loved treats (what dog doesn’t?) and Lydia and I had lots of fun together making them for him.

Making your own dog treats has several benefits, they’re healthier for your dog, you know exactly what’s going into them (and into him, or her) you can customize the recipes (making sure to avoid ingredients that are unhealthy for dogs, such as chocolate, grapes, raisins and walnuts), they make a fun project to take on with young children and your dog will love them.

These are a couple of the recipes that we enjoyed making:

1. Basic Cookies (these are the ones we made when we didn’t have a  lot of ingredients to work with, Brutus never seemed to mind though)

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup softened butter (or margarine)

- 3 cups whole wheat flour

- 1/2 cup powdered skim milk

- 1/4 tsp garlic powder

- 3/4 cup water, room temperature, we usually added 1/2 tsp of dried beef bouillon for extra flavour.

- 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and flour together and set aside.

In a small bowl, dissolve powdered skim milk and garlic powder in the water and whisk in beaten egg.

Gradually stir egg mixture into flour mixture, blend well.

Knead dough on a floured surface until it stays together and is easy to work with.

Roll dough to between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack until hard and store at room temperature in a container with a loose-fitting lid.

All-natural dog-biscuit dough

2. Plaque Busters (these we made when we thought his teeth looked like they needed a good cleaning)

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup powdered skim milk

- 1/2 cup cornmeal, stone ground

- 1/4 cup bulghur (bulgar) wheat

- 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 chicken bouillon cube

- 1 1/2 cups boiling water

- 1 cup quick cooking rolled oats

-  1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine powdered skim milk, cornmeal, bulghur and flour in a mixing bowl, set aside.

Dissolve bouillon cube in boiling water. Add rolled oats and let stand five minutes. Stir in beaten egg.

Gradually add dry ingredients, half a cup at a time, until well blended. The last cups can be blended with your hands.

Divide dough into two balls to make it easier to work with. Knead each ball on a floured surface, about 5 minutes.

Roll dough to between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick and cut out with cookie cutters.

Place on lightly greased baking sheet and bake 50 minutes.

Turn off and let biscuits cool several hours or overnight, in the oven.

Store at room temperature in a container with a loose-fitting lid.

3. Liver Treats (we hadn’t tried these yet but we’re sure Brutus would have loved them)

These treats are simple – they are just dehydrated liver. They are good for training because they have no fillers and are absolutely irresistible to dogs.

Cut a pound of calves’ or beef liver into strips. Lay them on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, making sure the strips aren’t touching. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours (using a dehydrator would probably be more energy efficient), rotating the tray halfway through. Cool strips on the parchment paper on a wire rack. Freeze up to four months or refrigerate up to two weeks.

I hope your dogs enjoy them as much as ours did.

Rest in Peace, Brutus.  You were surely one of the best loved – and best fed – pooches around.

For more eco-friendly pet tips,  try Planet Green’s feature on the subject. And if you’re thinking about switching to eco-friendly pet toys, you might like this action on Practically Green (worth 10 points!).

Read Lisa’s blog, Mom’s Green Shopping List. Follow her on Twitter: @MomsGreenList; and find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/momsgreenshoppinglist

Annie Leonard

Can I tell you, I love my Pantene Pro V. Of the dozen or so personal care products I use everyday, it’s the one I can’t live without. Says it gives my dull hair “the ultimate cool shine.”  How does it do that?

I was wondering that, while I was lathering it into my hair one day, so I read the ingredients right here: Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Methyl–iso–thiazo–linone… What is this stuff?

I took this list to some scientists who know how to read it. Turns out my Pantene contains a chemical linked to cancer.  And lots of other products in my bathroom from sunscreen to lipstick and even baby shampoo also contain chemicals linked to cancer or other problems like learning disabilities, asthma and even damaged sperm. Like most parents, I try to keep my family safe but now I find out my bathroom is a minefield of toxins. What are we supposed to do?

So begins Annie Leonard’s newest film, The Story of Cosmetics. Like its viral-hit predecessor, The Story of Stuff, it promises to illuminate a few minds – this time on the subject of the need for regulation of the $50 billion beauty industry.

Last week we caught up with Annie Leonard’s collaborator and Berkeley neighbor, Stacy Malkan. She’s the communications leader for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the author of Not Just a Pretty Face. Stacy told us more about the film, the passion behind it, the potential for improving the nation’s regulations on the stuff we put on our bodies, hair, and faces – and how she became interested in make-up in the first place.

Stacy Malkan

I grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, half a mile from the biggest incinerator in the state. I was crazy about make-up. We never thought about chemicals in cosmetics. At the same time, when I got to high school some of the kids in my class were developing health issues. Some of them had cancer. Later, others had infertility problems. But we didn’t talk about it in those days.

When I graduated from college I worked for a newspaper and covered pesticides applied to grass near a bike path that was heavily used by kids and pets. I began to realize the negative health effects of chemicals, and the fact that often we use chemicals without thinking of the consequences.

My next job was with Health Care Without Harm, where I learned about phthalates. Weird word, I know. Scientists have known about problems with testosterone and phthalates for years – hundreds of animal studies have shown defects to the male reproductive system, especially in the womb. Turns out most hospitals were using phthalates in the plastic of IV bags and tubing. It leeches right out of the bag and into the patient. Most hospitals have made progress since then.

In 2000 the CDC conducted a large bio-monitoring study of blood and urine and found phthalates in every single person they tested. Women of childbearing age had the highest incidence? Why? Because they were in cosmetics. We tested a bunch of body-care products at a lab and found phthalates in more than 70% of them, but the chemicals weren’t listed on labels. After that, cosmetics started to be tested for dangerous ingredients. At this time, Jane Houlihan initiated Skin Deep at the Environmental Working Group. This is the best source for cosmetic safety reviews in the world, the largest database of chemicals, in 60,000 products, gathered from the fifty leading government and academic databases in the world.

With the launch of the film on July 21, Congress announced the Safe Cosmetics Act legislation [on July 20]. This is a real chance to overhaul completely outdated regulations that affect so many people. Johnson & Johnson recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their famous baby shampoo and they said, ‘We’re using the same chemical formulation we used fifty years ago!’ I saw that and I said, ‘That is not a plus! How many huge scientific discoveries have been made on chemicals in the past half century? Why are we still putting carcinogens into baby shampoo?’

Interested in knowing more? Click here to watch The Story of Cosmetics (free, 7 mins.). Afterwards, you might feel like making a change or two in the personal-care products you and your family use. Practically Green can help you figure it out! You’ll find clear suggestions on what to do and why it’s important, from switching to a safe and effective sunscreen to using all-natural floss – and just about everything in between. We have thirty-three personal-care actions for you to consider – and yes, switching to all-natural baby shampoo is one of them.

Eco-friendly cook out: Here at PG, we enjoy a good summer cook-out. But the cook-out has always been one soirée that poses many green problems: paper plates are a must, the kids love hot dogs, and did we just see you reach for that lighter fluid? This article will help you with all of your green cook-out woes, and give you a piece of mind at your next backyard bash.

Green Innovation at its Finest: Freeaire is a refrigeration system that amazingly uses the greatest source of refrigeration ever created: winter. Developed by Richard Travers and based out of Vermont, this system helps save money, energy, and the earth. Brilliant. Check out Freeaire on the Science Channel here.

Multi-Media pick:

The Tip-Tank Game: First, we want to apologize for giving you another way to put off paying those bills/cleaning the kitchen/finishing that report. That being said, you MUST try this game from our new obsession, Water Use it Wisely! In the Tip-Tank Game, you must find all of the matching pictures before the water runs out, learning tips about saving water along the way.

New and Cool Pick:

Chemically Naked: A new line called Chemically Naked by Kaia House not only has all-natural nail polish that comes in a variety of chic colors, but also (drumroll please…….) all natural nail polish remover! A great way to get ten points on your Practically Green profile and fulfill your “use natural nail polish” action.

I kept stewing about Frontline.  Isn’t that the chemical in the flea and tick stuff we stopped using our on dog?  Of course, I couldn’t exactly remember why we stopped. A quick Google search reminded me why.

Fipronil is the main active ingredient in Frontline.  It was originally thought to be an incredibly safe option for killing insects without affecting people and pets.  However, fipronil is messing with bees ability to find their nests and is one of the chemicals blamed for colony collapse disorder.  In addition, it’s toxic to fish, some birds, and has been linked in high doses to thyroid cancer in rats.  Then there were concerns about some animals reacting very negatively to fipronil and data that 40% of homes tested positive for fipronil in floor wipes (I know how much time my kids spend on the floor).  My husband found a very stinky, but so far effective, more natural flea and tick product, Natural Defense and so we switched.

But the ants are eating my house.  Maybe this is one of those emergencies where you deep breathe and say “PRACTICALLY green…PRACTICALLY green”.  Or schedule a vacation when they spray.  But the bees can’t take a vacation. Darn it all.

I decided to spend a few minutes finding out how bad this carpenter ant thing really was and what all-natural options might be. I found inspiration in the least likely of places, an extermination company called Unexco’s website.  Here’s what they had to say:

Lo and behold – a carpenter ant nest!  What happens then? Well, usually, you panic, reach for the Raid, and spray everything in sight….Or even WORSE, you call an exterminator.  Bad move.  Don’t panic and let a wolf in the door.  Not yet.  You need none of that.  The first thing you need to do is NOT spray. You need to clear up the REASON why the carpenter ants are there, and right now, none of that really needs an application of insecticides or an exterminator.

An exterminator company saying not to call an exterminator.  Hmmm.  So–if it is wet wood, then fix the wood and the ants will leave. If it’s something else find it and fix it.  I focused on the dining room convinced it was wet wood from the flooding. Sure enough, the ants were disappearing in a crack in the wood on the damaged wall.  I pronounced that we CLEARLY had an ant nest in the wall and called our contractor to add an ant nest search to the mold test we already had on order as part of the repairs.

Whether sheer accident or the benefit of ignoring my supposed “solving” of the problem,  a few hours later I heard a “oh that’s really disgusting” from the kitchen.  An ant nest (or at least ant swarm) had been located–in a Costco-sized bag of sugar.  Food source located–and removed.  Now what?

It was actually somewhat fascinating to find out what ants really hate:  cucumbers, peppermint, cayenne oil, citrus oil, and coffee grounds.  Put those products near where ants are coming in and they will evidently stay away.  Even more elaborate solutions included commercial clove oil (I think that’s what’s on the dog….), sugar/water/borax and a yogurt container (although I noted a range of opinions on the safety of borax) can kill the whole nest; and even grits?!

We already owned peppermint oil so I rubbed it all over everything–the cracks in the wood where the ants were going in and out of the wall; the threshold to the kitchen, all over the cabinet with the sugar; and for good measure, on the dining room floor.  And crossed my fingers.

By Sunday evening, no ants.

On Monday morning @ 7am, still no ants so I called and cancelled the exterminator.

Two weeks later, we are 99.5% ant free (normal) and we didn’t mess with the bees that love our rhododendrons.  Woo Hoo!  A victory for being persistently green.  And another action worth 50 points on Practically Green!

The other good news? My support beams are verified to be ant-free.  I never did cancel that ant test. Just in case.

But all this Practically Green stuff has got me thinking.

Rings in weekly Windex bath

As I poured Windex into their sweet little ring-cleaning dish I thought – for the first time, I’m embarrassed to say — what’s IN that Windex? I inspected the bottle in vain for ingredients. So I went to the Good Guide and looked it up.

Good Guide rating for Windex

That’s 4.5 out of a possible 10: a C. Turns out Windex includes 2-Propanol, which is “known to be neurotoxic” and which “is suspected of causing respiratory toxicity,” among other concerns. Windex also contains Propylene Glycol, which “is suspected of causing immunotoxicity [whatever that might be], skin or sense organ toxicity, and respiratory toxicity.”

NICE.

My first impulse was to empty the bottle down the sink drain ASAP. But then where would it go? Should I flush it down the toilet? Probably not. Maybe dump it on some rocks out back? Wince.

All this thinking began to give me a headache, frankly. So I reached for my trusty Tylenol container, shook out two capsules, opened my mouth to swallow them, raised my water glass, and stopped mid-air, frozen.

What was in that Tylenol? Acetaminophen, of course! But before I could go look that up, what’s that miniscule expiration date say? 04/07! I took aim to pitch the container into the recycling bin. But wait! Where to put the remaining 230 or so capsules?

Tylenol capsules that expired more than three years ago

Knock knock: It was Kevin the electrician! (Did I mention we’re building a house? Kevin’s been working hard this weekend to stay ahead of the insulators.)

Kevin

“Hey, look at this cool iPhone app I just got,” he said. “It shows you the best sunscreens to use, did you know that sunscreen can sometimes have bad things in it?” I’m impressed. Kevin is an intelligent and worldly person, and if he knows about the EWG’s database of safe products, then maybe millions do. That is good news.

Sunday’s New York Times brought me right back down, however. Eric Schlosser (Food, Inc.) explains the in-limbo food-safety bill to prevent poisoning, e.g.: “… the Peanut Corporation of America knew that peanut butter from their filthy, rodent-infested plant was testing positive for salmonella — but shipped it anyway, for months.” Thomas Friedman says “We’re Gonna Be Sorry” to bag the climate-change bill. “We’ve basically decided to keep pumping greenhouse gases into Mother Nature’s operating system and take our chances that the results will be benign….” All this capped a week of extreme climate weirdness: tornadoes in Maine, strong thunderstorms and record heat in the East, heavy flooding in the Midwest, record cold in California, tornadoes and downpours all over.

Dare I connect all of these dots?

To console myself, I limped up the street to my favorite farm stand, where Karla Young can always make sun from gloom.

Karla

We agree that her peaches this year are the best ever – even if they are oddly ahead of schedule. I think I’ll stop worrying and slice into one.

photo

Trash-Free for an Entire Year: Could you live trash-free? We at PG are always trying to find ways to make less trash, and this couple is definitely a prime example. A couple in Oregon found that not only was it possible to live almost trash free for a year, it was “easy.”

Playground Safety Hazard: Please use caution when taking your children to the park for some summer fun. From the 1970s until 2003, some wooden playground equipment was pressure-treated with a substance that (shockingly) contained arsenic.

How Green are Your Favorite Brands: You might want to think before shimmying into a new pair of jeans. A new rating system has been developed for some 100 well-known apparel and footwear brands. Just as appliances have Energy Star ratings, the “Eco Index” will eventually tell consumers the environmental impact of their purchases. The Index hopes to encourage brands to be thoughtful of the environment when designing apparel, and it gives brands that strive to be eco-friendly the credit they deserve.

Multi-Media Pick:

The Environmental Impact of a Pair of 501s: View the life cycle of one of America’s most popular brands of denim. You may be as shocked as we were to find out that to make a single pair of 501s, 3,480.5 liters of water are used. This is the equivalent to running the garden hose for 106 minutes!

New and Cool Pick:

Energy Saving Night-Light: Skip the plug-in night-light to keep those monsters away for the kids and get them a cool, solar powered Sun or Moon Jar! The jar works by being placed in direct sunlight during the day (on a windowsill for example), and automatically illuminates in the dark.

Nancy Mims of Mod Green Pod

Exactly.

Nancy’s a guest expert for the Organic Trade Association. Here’s an excerpt from a recent Q & A with Nancy on the OTA website. If you’d like a clear, calm explanation of why organic textiles and fibers are important, please read on.

Q: Why should people “go organic” when they are buying home decor textiles?

A: It’s a matter of taking control of and improving our indoor air quality. Too many home products on the market are treated with toxic, off-gassing chemicals that are supposedly added to make our furnishings more durable and beautiful. Not only are these chemicals unnecessary (and mostly just convenient or profitable for the manufacturers), they are degrading the air we breathe in our homes and work spaces….

Most home textiles go through a series of chemical processes throughout the manufacturing chain from raw fiber to finished product. One of the most pervasive and dangerous chemicals in textile finishing is formaldehyde. I have been shocked to learn from manufacturers how use of formaldehyde is standard and simply unquestioned, even though we have known for decades that it is carcinogenic. Many if not most apparel textiles also contain chemicals such as formaldehyde, but some of it is washed away in our laundry (which presents a whole other set of issues as the chemicals are added to our wastewater) but most home textiles (and the attached chemicals) go straight from the bolt to the furniture, never to be washed.

GOTS certification labels

When manufactured according to organic regulations (such as the Global Organic Textile Standard or GOTS), organic cotton products are free of formaldehyde and other toxic chemical inputs. Beginning with U.S.-grown certified organic cotton, Mod Green Pod’s textiles are woven in a certified organic mill in the South and printed or dyed using low-impact inks and dyes approved by GOTS. We then finish everything in accordance with GOTS, using mechanical processes in lieu of chemicals such as formaldehyde.

Mod Green Pod fabrics

Q: At Mod Green Pod, you use 100% certified organic cotton to create your products. Why is this your material of choice?

A: When we first established Mod Green Pod, one of our priorities (in addition to creating a beautiful, environmentally-friendly, home-healthy product) was to manufacture our product domestically, using U.S.-grown fiber. As soon as we educated ourselves about organic vs. nonorganic cotton, we were committed to organic 100%. We’ve also been excited to pioneer several supply chains that have helped bring more business–especially organic business–to the textile factories in the United States. We love being able to help the textile industry with business but also help it become a bit cleaner in its practices, one yard at a time.

Q: How can consumers be sure that the home textiles they purchase are, indeed, made from organic materials?

A: Ask questions, read labels and most importantly, call companies to ask about their practices. We field several calls a day from consumers who are curious to know the details of our manufacturing–what we do and do not use on our fabrics–and we’re more than happy to engage in that conversation with our customers. It’s time consuming to have an educational side to the business, but we truly enjoy helping consumers learn about the importance of organic cotton and indoor air quality. Happier, healthier homes result in happier, healthier people.

Practically Green has dozens of suggestions of things you can do to improve indoor air quality and banish toxins from your home. Why not pick one and think about doing it?

We mentioned the video when it was released, in February, and we still love it and think it deserves a wider viewership. So we caught up with the Program Director at Healthy Child Healthy World, Mandy Geisler.

Mandy Geisler

We created the video internally, as an intro for one of our fundraisers. People really loved it. It’s a great piece to raise more awareness very quickly, in a creative, touching, and also strong way. So we made a website around it to do a bigger push and launch.
We like to offer solutions. We don’t want to scare people, but we do want to educate them on toxins and teach them about the steps they can take that lead to prevention. We have a “5 Easy Steps” program. Manage pests properly, use non-toxic products, clean up indoor air, eat healthy, be wise with plastics. Even if you just take one of those steps you’re doing something great. You can get comfortable with that one and then move on.
One of our best programs is called Healthy Home parties. This year we’re close to sending out 1,500 party kits! People are having parties at their houses to share information and ideas on safe products.

The Healthy Child Healthy World website is a comprehensive resource for further research; e.g., on diseases and conditions (allergies, asthma, autism, cancer among them), chemical profiles from aspartame to xylenes, and relevant legislation such as the Safe Chemicals Act.

Don’t forget to visit Practically Green.com to take the Green Quiz and decide on healthy actions for yourself and your family! Switch to all-natural dish-soap, stop using treated cotton fem-care, wear pure jammies or any of the dozens of other healthy actions on Practically Green, and you’ll get points when you do!

FarmVille Goes Organic: Show your green side in the virtual world by “planting” organic blueberry crops on FarmVille. Cascadian Farms introduces an organic feature for your favorite Facebook pastime!

Celebrities for Solar Energy: Even oil tycoons are advocating for renewable energy…well, sort of. Larry Hagman, who played Texas oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on the hit show “Dallas,” encourages people to use solar energy in his new ad campaign for Solar World.

How Honest Tea Stood Up To Coke: Honest Tea lives up to its name by refusing to remove “no high fructose corn syrup” from its packaging to appease its biggest investor, Coca-cola. Well, we at Practically Green appreciate their “honest-tea.”

Multi-media Pick:

Bring your family to an eco-friendly festival: If you’re in the Vermont area this weekend, Solarfest, is being held in Tinmouth. Solarfest boasts over 85 workshops in sustainable agriculture and solar energy for the whole family to enjoy! The festival also includes performances, vendors, food and activities for kids. More information about the festival, as well as where to purchase tickets, can be found at www.solarfest.org.

The festival will include performances by the Guy Mendilow Band, who take their commitment to the environment a step further by creating some of their own instruments out of recycled materials. See the video below where the band’s lead singer, Guy Mendilow, describes what they’re all about!

New and Cool Pick:

A New Way to Protect Your Family From UV Rays:
Just when we thought the iPhone couldn’t get any cooler, a new app, Sun Alert Lite, calculates how long you can stay in the sun without getting burned. So go ahead, let your kids play in the summer sun and have the Sun Alert Lite app tell you when it’s time to apply sunscreen!

Photo Credit: http://appstorehq-production.s3.amazonaws.com/asunalertlite-iphone-120138.185×185.1262771347.51137.jpg

She says, “My life and my work, it’s impossible to separate the two. There’s rampant green washing out there. I drive a minivan, I have three kids. Sometimes I drive five kids to karate after school. I don’t apologize for this. I’ll bike. We grow vegetables in our front yard. I can do certain things.”

We caught up with Lisa recently and she told us the story of how she became eco-aware:

I had my second child, a daughter. She had a problem with her skin. I got advice from my father, who is a physician, and from the pediatrician, and I also went to a dermatologist who gave me some medicine. I tried it, and it worked. I thought, Wait. Here are serious ointments to be putting on this teeny little thing. This can’t be right: I apply toxic ointment and the rash goes away, it all clears up. But when I stop applying it, she breaks out. I began to feel that I was keeping the toxins locked in this little body.

Meanwhile, I was breastfeeding. I made my own organic baby food. It seemed like the intelligent thing to do. I cleaned the kids’ highchairs with Lysol, with these single wipes. I thought this was so smart! Efficient!  But she still wasn’t getting any better.

Lisa describes her a-ha moment:

So now I started to seriously look into what was in these things I was using in the house. I looked at every single product we used. I thought, I’m up for anything for these children, for my family. There was no amount of money, time, or effort I wouldn’t spend. So I took all those chemicals out of my house. My husband thought I was crazy. My father, same thing. But within a week, my daughter’s skin was clearer. I realized that their bathtub was rinsed out with chemicals. Basically I was having them sit in a warm chemical cocktail every night.

It’s amazing, because if I could be making such horrid errors — me, who is an obsessive researcher, whose friends make fun of her for that — then what about everyone else, people who might not have the time or inclination? Here I was freezing breast milk in a bag with BPA in it, and then putting it into a bottle with BPA. If I was making these errors…. So: I stopped everything. I lost a lot of my business and income stream. I was young enough, and on fire enough — on a business level this was not too good, but I couldn’t do things the same way any more. I watched the success of my daughter. My father and the pediatrician said, you can’t argue with success.

I reasoned that there was no down side – I’m saving time, because I can be cleaning the sink and answer the phone without worrying about spilling something dangerous. I’m saving energy. I’m saving my health and my family’s health. Saving our indoor air quality. And I’m saving the planet! This chain of events was so exciting to me!

You can see Lisa’s video bio and follow her on Twitter @lisaborden

Not everyone takes such an organized (okay, draconian) approach when they shift to all-natural cosmetics. At Practically Green we totally understand that everyone will want to make changes at their own pace, one tube at a time if they wish, and over a period of years if that suits them — and not because anyone beat them around the head about it.

That said, we appreciate it when a major retail outlet lends a hand. It can be very frustrating to try to evaluate all those ingredients on product labels, in their 4-point-font size. As we say in the Practically Green Personal-Care Actions section, the best advice may be to stay away from anything with a long unpronounceable name, such as methylparaben or sodium laureth sulfate.

When it comes to personal care items like toothpaste and body lotion, claims like “made with organic ingredients” or “authentically organic” can flummox even the greenest consumer. No federal agency polices organic claims for personal care items — at least not yet — so manufacturers have been able to use these customer-pleasing terms loosely and liberally.  (The New York Times)

Whole Foods is part of the solution to this predicament. With stores in 39 states, Canada, and the UK, the Whole Foods “Whole Body” section is the most profitable area of this retail operation. Last month, we were happy to hear that Whole Foods would demand stringent standards for third-party organic verification by June 1, 2011. That sounds like fair notice to us.

And we were deighted to read this story in today’s New York Times, which describes how Whole Foods plans to execute on its promise. Excerpts:

As of June 1, 2011, any products that make organic claims and don’t get the certification will be removed from the shelves of Whole Foods stores. (The company will continue to carry nonorganic products as long as they don’t make organic claims.)

“We’re trying to make it so that our customers don’t have to switch standards and expectations when they cross from grocery into the body care aisle,” said Joe Dickson, the Whole Foods quality standards coordinator.

The policy, announced June 18, is already shaking things up among companies that make — or claim to make — organic beauty items. Many of these companies rely on Whole Foods for the majority of their sales, so the new rule will have broad repercussions.

“People aren’t going to have two labels in the market, one for Whole Foods and one for everyone else,” said David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a line of products (most of them soaps) sold in Whole Foods and certified as organic by the Agriculture Department. As a result, he said, the Whole Foods policy could become the de facto standard.

“Right now we’re being drowned out by all these cheaters,” Mr. Bronner said. “But this has the potential to be a game changer.”

Dr. Bronner Products

The Times credits blogger OrganicMania for publicizing the issue, in her recent post about her baby’s first real haircut. Organic Mania is one of our favorite blogs. Bravo to OrganicMania and its founder, Lynn Anne Miller, for helping us and everyone else “cut through the hype and figure out when it makes sense to lay out the big bucks for organic and green purchases.”

Lynn Anne Miller of OrganicMania

The dream scenario for organic activists is that the Whole Foods policy will prompt companies to revamp their formulas. But the reality is that, for now at least, many will simply change their labels.

Such is the case at Aubrey Organics, a 45-year-old company that makes everything from deodorant to dog shampoo. While many of its products have already earned organic certification, others have not — and cannot with their current formulation.

“There are just certain things that our raw-materials manufacturers haven’t figured out how to make organic yet,” said Curt Valva, general manager of Aubrey Organics, referring mostly to abrasive soaps and cleansers.

Rather than compromise the strength of its products, the company is instead creating a second brand known simply as Aubrey. “That’s what everyone calls us anyway,” Mr. Valva said. The new brand — without the organic claim — will be available at Whole Foods and alongside Aubrey Organics.

Ms. Miller, the blogger, said that branding changes like this will only sow more confusion. In an ideal world, she said, ‘Mom just needs to look for a trusted seal. If it’s there, it’s organic. If not, it’s not.’

Whole Foods Flagship store in Austin, Texas