News Picks:

Got a hybrid? Zoom to the brand-new Hybrid Scorecard, which rates all hybrids on U.S. roads today on their environmental impact, technological value, and consumer affordability. From the Union of Concerned Scientists. Enter the UCS contest by July 4 to win a 2010 green auto!

From tap water to back-yard playsets: Be safe at home. The Environmental Working Group has created a list of simple ways you and your family can reduce your exposure to potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

Need a green handyman? Peruse the info-rich Green Home Guide of the U.S. Green Building Council. This week: “Are solar windows best for reducing summer heat gain? I live in New Jersey.” “I’m re-doing my bathroom. What’s the greenest choice for showers, tiles?” “What size AC unit do I need for a 1,986 sq. foot house in Texas?”

Multimedia Pick:
Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: We have always liked Michael Pollan but we liked him even more after watching this video. Busy green moms need fast, easy ways to remember what (and what not) to eat!

New and Cool Pick:
Brabantia Wallfix: Who said line-drying laundry is an objectionable eyesore? Not with this sleek drying system. It even collapses against the wall when not in use!

Photo Credit: http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/cleaning/laundry-drying-racks-7-small-space-solutions-119748

We’re fans of Alexandra Zissu at Practically Green and thrilled she’s letting us reprint the following post with her permission. Zissu lives in New York City with her family. She is a writer, editor, speaker, and self-described green-proofer. Zissu has published The Conscious Kitchen and The Complete Organic Pregnancy. She’s expecting “twins” in 2011: two books are due out – one with the co-founder of Seventh Generation, the other with her grass-fed and organic butcher. Her “Ask an Organic Mom” column is featured on TheDailyGreen.com, and you can check her Ten “Conscious Commandments” here.

In The Conscious Kitchen and in The Complete Organic Pregnancy I urge people about a zillion times to “ask questions” when shopping. Being a conscious consumer is a sure fire way to get conscious goods. But most people don’t entirely know how to put this into practice. Or what to do with the answers.

A woman I know who runs a local mother’s group near me in New York has been going through her own green transformation lately. It has been really fun for me to watch and hear about it as she goes greener every day. She has a great methodical approach and is both skeptical and outraged. She’s doing her own research. And she has made a lot of excellent changes that will affect her family and the earth. She has come a long way since I first met her. Her transformation is her own but I’m proud and honored to have influenced her in any way. She emails me from time to time with questions or just to let me know that she’s made big strides. I love these emails.

Last week she wrote me very disappointed. While shopping at her local Whole Foods, she asked what kind of plastic wrap they used in their cheese department. She wrote down their answer and researched it once home — an excellent thing to do with an answer!! — only to find out it is PVC containing the plasticizer DEHA. She wanted to know if I knew about this. PVC is a highly toxic material, from manufacture to disposal, and not something that should be around our food. I do mention in The Conscious Kitchen that some plastic wraps can be PVC while the majority of the ones on store shelves these days are plastic #4 (safer). I don’t use plastic wrap at home, but it can be hard to avoid taking it home from a store when shopping, especially with something like cheese.

The point of avoiding plastic at home is to minimize exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals. It’s also to avoid involvement with the environmental impact associated with its manufacture and disposal. Instead of throwing up her hands and giving up, this mom contacted the powers that be at her Whole Foods, made them aware of her dismay, circulated the information to other local moms, and even got a petition up online asking Whole Foods to stop using the PVC wrap. There is power in (pissed off parent) numbers and I suspect she will get the store to change what they’re doing. I hope so. And I hope anyone reading this will ask their supermarket what they use around their cheese, meat, and other plastic-wrapped items, and demand similar action if it, too, is PVC.

Now the question is how to get this stuff off all cheese everywhere. That’s harder and involves legislation. But concerned consumers can also influence their elected officials. I suspect we’ll get there sooner rather than later, especially with moms like this educating themselves and pushing us in that direction.

Thank you, Alexandra. Yes to being a conscious shopper! Follow Alexandra on Twitter @alexandrazissu and Fan her on Facebook!

Would you like to switch from shower gel to bar soap? Buy organic juice this week? For answers, visit Practically Green. We’ve got dozens of smart, easy ways to make positive and healthy conscious decisions in your daily life.

What’s your first reaction to the words: prefab house?

Cheezy?

Ugly?

Sheri Koones’s latest book, Prefabulous and Sustainable: Building and Customizing an Affordable, Energy-Efficient Home, provides a new vocabulary for prefab construction: beautiful, green, and available in a range of price points.

Completed shingle-style modular house (see assembly below)

“I wish I had more knowledge about building sustainably when I was building my own house,” Sheri says. “Since then I’ve learned a great deal both doing research for my books and attending the Boston Architectural College. I’ve found so many ways to cut down on energy and create a healthy home environment.

“I now try to incorporate sustainability into my life — by driving a hybrid car, growing vegetables, limiting energy use by closing rooms that aren’t being used, and recycling as much as possible. When my preteen son outgrew his cute little ‘cowboy’ designed bedroom, he was also becoming concerned with environmental issues. He requested that when we redo his room, it be healthy and kind to the environment. Because he has asthma, we decided to rip out the carpeting, which can trap dust, and replace it with bamboo flooring, a rapidly renewable resource. We repainted his badly stained walls with no-VOC [volatile organic compound] paints, reused as much of the furniture as possible and replaced all incandescent light bulbs with CFLs [compact fluorescents].”

A house module is hoisted into place in the dead of winter

“For years I’d heard about global warming without a clear understanding of its significance. It appeared to be such a huge problem that nothing one person could do would ever possibly matter. Now, however, it’s clear to me. Whether it’s driving less, making do with what we have, repairing something rather than replacing it, or even changing out old light bulbs — the impact of our decisions and actions grows.

“Nothing in our lives costs more than our houses. So when we build, we build, we need to ask: what kind of roofing, siding, flooring, paint, construction method, foundation, insulation, windows and doors, cabinets, systems, and fixtures should we use?” Koones argues that prefab construction saves time, reduces waste, and eliminates unnecessary transportation costs. Modular construction can be built under ideal conditions “protected from the elements, sparing of material, conscious of efficiency and waste.” And, these homes are “healthier homes,” Koones says, “without the VOCs, mold, and countless other biological and chemical pollutants.”

“The common misconception is that green is too expensive and only for the wealthy,” Koones writes in her book. “This argument is beginning to lose traction. While a home built with the latest green techniques and technologies may cost somewhat more upfront, the added cost is negligible compared to the investment.” She adds, “many green construction options cost very little, or sometimes nothing. A properly oriented house with properly placed windows will make maximum use of the sun’s energy,” for example.

Inside the modular prefab house

Check out the Practically Green if you’re interested in switching to high-efficiency bulbs or using low-VOC paint. You’ll find many other actions you can take to go green at your house – from changing your toothpaste to using the AC a bit less.

Sheri Koones lives in Connecticut with her family. Visit her website: www.sherikoones.com for more info on Prefabulous & Sustainable and her other books. Follow Sheri on http://Twitter.com/sherikoones

OK, ok: there are worse addictions than cream, right? I’m not even talking ICE cream, or WHIPPED cream. I mean cream for your skin. I mean cream for your legs, arms, face, scalp, lips, and every other bit of myself. I have never once made it through the first floor of Saks without succumbing; I drift toward the Whole Body area at Whole Foods like a moth to wool socks. For me a product must be effective. It must smell nice. It must feel great.

The more I look into this, the more I value pure healthy ingredients. I love Dr. Hauschka. I love Weleda (Skin Food, especially: the name says it all). I love Aubrey. I love Jurlique (even though they changed their packaging and apparently got rid of the divine oatmeal cleanser scrub in a tube, grrr). And now you know it isn’t only cream. I fall for pretty much anything that Origins puts in a tub, especially now that they have Dr. Weil on board with his magic mushrooms. Sometimes I get so carried away that I try something that isn’t 100% all-natural and organic, like Skinceuticals, but there really is no reason to do that.

Which brings me to Leyla Bringas and Lunaroma.

Lunaroma is a tiny shop on an unassuming corner in Burlington, Vermont that can turn your entire life around. Leyla Bringas, owner and holistic aromatherapist healer, is an unflappable expert with a solution for almost any complaint, and she delivers with the customer’s scent preferences in mind. Think orange, jasmine, rose, peppermint, lemon verbena.

Dry skin? Oily skin? Acne? Insomnia? Cramps? New job? Saggy chin? Portfolio crashing? Baby coming?

“Let’s say you have a high-level of stress,” she explains. “Maybe you tell me you have trouble sleeping, you’re working fifteen-hour days, your muscles are tight, you have to drive an hour each way to work, and you’re so revved up it’s hard for you to unwind. So I might come up with a combination of ingredients and products designed to be calming, pain relievers, good for headaches, for skin problems, for boosting immune system. Something to help you sleep. All natural.”

The headache blend works like magic on me. What’s in it? “It’s made up of analgesics and anti-inflammatories,” Leyla says.  “The blend contains a combination of Lavender, Chamomile, Peppermint and other essential oils containing those qualities.  It is a favorite amongst people afflicted with headaches and sinus headaches the like.”

Why are Lunaroma products are so powerful?

“The trouble with synthetic products is that they’re made to be always the same.  The problem is they’re predictable. Well, the bacteria and viruses are made to be resilient as well. With essential oils, plant materials are never exactly the same. You know, during the time of the bubonic plague, the only people who were not affected were the perfumers. They were the ones who were exposed to the pure essential oils on a regular basis.

“I founded Lunaroma to make healthy products. The world of aromatherapy is all about concentrated herbal and aromatic compounds. These pure ingredients are beautiful, precious, luxurious – and they’re also practical. After all, it’s what plants use for their own health, their own immune systems.”

New Lunaroma store in Maui

Anything else?

“You can clean your house with essential oils, too. The only cleaning product I use that I don’t make is Clorox. Sometimes I like to use 100% Clorox diluted for making sure the bathroom tile is really clean. I use baking soda, vinegar. A while back the Swifter came out. Remember it? It was a wet mop. It had some liquid in it. Dogs were dying. Most of these cleaning agents are making your environment more dangerous, not less.”

In closing?

“When I take a shower, I don’t want to have to feel bad about what’s going down the drain. I love working with these ingredients. I am convinced that just being around them makes you healthier.”

Leyla and her daughter

For more information, go to www.lunaroma.com, email Leyla at info@Lunaroma.com, or call the shop at (802) 951-9714.

Next week: Lauren’s product review