Brand Spotlight | Something Borrowed Blooms

When I got married two years ago, I was determined to find an eco-friendly alternative for flowers, rather than spending a lot of money on bouquets that would only last a few days. I chose recycled wood flowers from a company that has since gone out of business. (My wedding bouquet, however, still sits in my office, looking beautiful as ever.)

These days, there are even more eco-friendly alternatives for your wedding bouquets - and these bouquets look so realistic, you'd never even know they are made of silk.

Kinsley bridal bouquet, photo via Something Borrowed Blooms

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Green Business Spotlight | GreenEarth Cleaning

One area where I don't feel like I have "adulting" down properly is in the world of having clothes dry cleaned. I'm honestly far too lazy to keep on a schedule of bringing clothes to the dry cleaner and picking them up, and I don't own too many "dry clean only" pieces in the first place.

But dry cleaning is an important part of keeping your clothes in pristine condition, especially if their care requires it over regular machine washing. And when it comes to sustainability, ensuring that your clothes last as long as possible helps to keep a lot of textile waste out of landfills.

The drawback is that the conventional dry cleaning process is not very eco-friendly, especially with the chemicals used. PERC is a common dry cleaning solvent that has been reduced over the years, but can still be found, and it's a volatile organic solvent that that can pose serious health hazards, per OSHA. Plus, PERC can be the culprit behind making plush items clumpier, like comforters or stuffed jackets.

Photo courtesy GreenEarth Cleaning

However, there is a greener alternative, and that's where GreenEarth Cleaning comes in.

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Going Green in Style with Paperless Post

When it comes to receiving holiday cards and party invitations in the mail, you typically think of a physical envelope in your mailbox. But you can still send your friends and family a beautiful and exciting card or invitation while still maintaining the spirit of reducing paper waste - enter Paperless Post!

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Green Business Spotlight | EarthHero

As I've written about before, shopping sustainably online can be a little overwhelming. But when there are websites that serve as eco-friendly marketplaces, it makes shopping a LOT easier.

EarthHero is one such great marketplace, selling everything from clothing to home goods to pet products to beauty and personal care. They're a great place for people just starting out on a zero-waste or sustainable journey, because you can pick up all the essentials at once.

EarthHero works with different sustainable brands and carries items that follow strict standards. Each item carried on the site has corresponding icons to tell you exactly how the item is eco-friendly.

So what I did order for my first EarthHero purchase? A pair of shorts and beeswax food wraps, naturally!

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Green Brand Spotlight | Karst Stone Paper

A few months ago, one of my columns for the Times of Acadiana covered how you can reduce your paper usage on a daily basis.

After the column went live on the website, I received an email from Jonathan with Karst Stone Paper, where he introduced himself and the brand. All of Karst's notebooks and planners are made with tree-free paper - specifically, the paper is made from recycled stone.

 

Stone paper is future-friendly, made from one of the most abundant substances on earth: calcium carbonate. What you’re looking at is recycled — we repurpose waste stone produced by the mining industry and construction industry, crush it into a powder, and combine it with a non-toxic, recyclable binding agent to make stone paper. Not one drop of water and not one tree was harmed in the making of these notebooks. 

-Karst website

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repurposed billboards! [link friday, 9.28]

I've been on a major billboard recycling kick lately, thanks to my own crafting ambitions, but that's for a future post... (as in, next week, so come on back!)

Selling bags made out of billboards is becoming more and more popular these days. You can find them in different shapes and sizes, but the colors will always be somewhat of a surprise, since, you know, they're made from whatever billboards the company can obtain.

Photo: Alchemy Goods Ad Bag

• GorillaSacks has just about any kind of bag, made out of vinyl. You can find an iPad sleeve, grocery produce bags, market bags, messenger bags, lunch bags and even curtains (oh, how I am tempted to have a recycled billboard shower curtain...)
• Vy and Elle has messenger bags, wallets and clutches.
• Artecnica makes a stretch billboard bag, which basically has a large open-weave design, making it great for a beach bag or for holding stanky gym clothes.
• Billboard Ecology sells bags and lunch totes in partnership with schools for fundraisers.
• Earth Divas has a very pop-art style bag.
• Alchemy Goods has the above-pictured Ad Bag, which makes a great tote for notebooks or laptops. They specialize in items made from bicycle inner tubes and seatbelts. I actually have an ID holder made of bike tubes from them that I love.

Billboards are such a great working material, and we all know there is more than enough vinyl to go around that can be repurposed!


Have a happy and green weekend, and I'll see y'all back here next week! Where I'm going to talk all day long about my billboard crafting experiences!

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link friday, 9.21

I always enjoy when my favorite things overlap. So, today's collection of links are focused on eco-friendly musical artists and movements! See what I did there?

 

Image: Jack Johnson album recorded and produced using solar power.

• Reverb. Reverb is a nonprofit, started by Adam Gardner of Guster and his wife, that's focused on making concerts and music festivals greener. They achieve their goals through an eco-village, hosting nonprofit groups in the eco-village, setting up a carbon offset program, recruiting volunteer, setting up an eco-concert program and Jumbotron slideshow, hosting a greening website, and providing an online carpooling resource.
• Reverb supporting artists. Check out the different bands who have participated in Reverb's efforts. Since 2004, Reverb has worked with over 40 artists on more than 90 tours.
• Jack Johnson Greening Efforts. Jack Johnson is arguably the most notable eco-friendly musician. A section of his website is dedicated to ways he makes his albums, tours and concerts greener.
• All At Once. All At Once is a social action network started by Jack Johnson to help individuals make a positive change in their community.
• Green Music Group. Reverb started this coalition to bring about widespread environmental change within the music industry and around the globe. The Group is a larger scale movement and is comprised of the collective power of high-profile environmental musicians, industry leaders and music fans.
• Cake. Cake produced their sixth studio album using solar power. They also dedicated a section of their website to the process, and have a video showing the renovation to their studio.
• Paste's 13 Green Bands. For Earth Day 2012, Paste Magazine shared a list of their top 13 green bands. Some bands included are Guster, Pearl Jam, Willie Nelson (I'm trying to keep the jokes there to a minimum), Radiohead and Green Day.

Hope y'all have a wonderful and green weekend!

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link friday

So, here's the first iteration of Link Friday. Yippee!

I'm currently in the process of researching and making snazzy little business cards for this here site. But of course, I won't be getting standard, cheap business cards. I must promote my eco-friendly site on eco-friendly paper. Today's collection of links is websites I've found through this research! Unless otherwise noted, I haven't used these sites for orders – just come across them in research.

 

Image: Fiverr handmade business card with address label, rubber stamp and corrugated cardboard.

• Moo. Moo's recycled paper stock is 100% recycled and recyclable. It's also made with wind power and free of harmful chemicals. (Side note: I've used Moo to make custom Christmas cards a few years, and I always choose their eco-paper envelopes. They're a lovely, grainy unbleached-paper brownish shade.)
• Eco-Swag. Eco-Swag features seed paper business cards. These puppies are printed with water-based inks and have uncrushed seeds in the paper fibers. They are fully plantable!
• Botanical Paperworks. They've also got seed paper business cards. And a super-cute website.
• Greener Printer. Greener Printer has FSC-certified, recycled paper for their business card printing. I'm loving their kraft board style paper, since it reminds me of a bulletin board. They also use only vegetable and soy-based, zero VOC inks.
• VistaPrint. VistaPrint's recycled paper is 100% post-consumer recycled.

Happy Friday! Be sure to do something green this weekend! I'll be taking my new bike out for a (16-mile-ish) spin tonight and can't wait! 


http://www.ecocajun.blogspot.com/2012/09/link-friday.html

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shopping time

When it's time to shop for a gift for whatever occasion, I like to focus on two sources: shopping locally and shopping eco-friendly websites.

Especially when it comes to Christmas and those seemingly countless random gifts you have to get, eco-friendly websites are a great option. One year, I got the majority of my miscellaneous gifts from eBay's World of Good shop, and I felt great about giving gifts that also helped other people.

• World of Good is a huge online store that categorizes every item by the good it provides - from supporting artisans around the world, to being eco-friendly, to being animal-friendly, to supporting causes. They sell clothes, jewelry, accessories and home items. Around the holidays, there are a lot of great unique and handmade ornaments and decorations.
• Buy Green is another site that has a great selection of recycled and eco-friendly items. I bought my first Klean Kanteen from the site and I was thrilled when it arrived in a used Verizon cell phone box with newspapers for stuffing.
• TerraCycle is an amazing company that collects materials from everyone and makes upcycled products. You can participate in the project by sending in your waste! They make purses out of candy wrappers, and clocks and coasters out of vinyl, for example. They also make items out of old advertising billboards. They've worked with major retailers to distribute some items. I got a set of coasters made out of vinyl from TerraCycle at Target.
• While I've never used HipCycle, I've perused the site and found so many things I'd love to buy myself. They've got unique and classy upcycled products.

 So when the shopping bug hits you, whether for yourself, or for some gift-giving occasion, think green! You can easily find something different, awesome and recycled that is sure to spark a conversation.

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reusable water bottles

Oh, hey! How are you? It's been a little while. You look fabulous! Hope you've been recycling.

One of my favorite and one of the easiest ways to be more earth-friendly is to have a reusable water bottle. And there are plenty of those available. And many of them are plastic. While they do help cut down on disposable water bottles, they're still not the best solution. It's known that BPA is a harmful substance and is present in a lot of plastic packaging. According to the Mayo Clinic, the harmful effects of BPA aren't proven, but DHH says the substance is concerning and can have an effect on our brains. So many people switched over to steel reusable water bottles from plastic ones. But even some steel bottles can contain BPA in the interior bottle lining, still exposing you. And one popular "custom logo" product these days is a steel mug. But, if you are paying a few dollars a bottle, you can kind of guess that you're not getting a BPA-free steel water bottle.

Even if BPA's effects aren't proven, would you really want to expose yourself to it when there are alternatives?


My favorite green products are my two Klean Kanteens. Kanteens come in so many different sizes and colors, and they're all BPA-free. (Side note: I recently noticed Kanteen makes a cup now and I think they're pretty fantastic.) I've had one orange bottle for almost four years now and one silver insulated one for a little over two years. My orange bottle has seen better days, and many different tops. I broke one sports top and lost the other (still upset about that) and I've got a regular flat top at the moment. The bottle itself is dented and losing paint in a few places, but it's still functional and it comes with me almost everywhere. I take it to work almost every day, and I take it to the gym every time I go. I wouldn't even be able to estimate how many plastic bottles this thing has saved me over the years. My insulated Kanteen has worked well for transporting coffee, tea, beer and margaritas - but not all at once, of course!

I wasn't sure what I really wanted my parents to get me for my birthday this year (selfish shoutout, it's tomorrow!), but I realized that another Klean Kanteen would be perfect. I chose one that's larger than my orange one with a new sport top. This way I can make myself drink more water and be healthier, and that sport top will help me not look like a moron on the treadmill at the gym. (Try drinking out of the wide opening while walking 3.8 miles an hour. You WILL spill. Or maybe that is only me.)

I almost feel like getting a new Kanteen is like getting a new member of my little family. I'm excited to have a little more variation and convenience while having something safe to drink out of and something that helps cut down on trash. 

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