Reusable Options for Bulk Items?

I was wondering what you use when buying bulk items like flour, rice, dried fruit from the grocer. I already use my reusable bags and produce bags but I am at a loss when it comes to the other items. Thanks!
Prisilla Fisher

Clean Power Finance - Making Solar as Easy as Buying a Car

Question: WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE GOING SOLAR?

Well, other than the many hoops you have to jump through (from finding the right installer, rebate applications, net metering ....) I can attest to one big hurdle: MONEY! Even getting a large rebate to cut the cost, trying to finance $20-30 thousand dollars is not very easy or appealing.

Clean Power Finance is a new company started in Silicon Valley that wants to make buying solar as easy as buying a car. When you show up at the dealership, do you expect to refinance your home before you can get the keys? Well, with Solar Dollars, CPF wants to make realizing clean power for you own home a simple and attainable reality. More often than not, you can just divert that monthly check to your power company over to a loan payment.

Earth Friendly Moving

A couple months ago we moved to our new home using the zero-waste packing solution provided by Earth Friendly Moving. Take a look at our videos as we ask Spencer Brown to shed some light on his company.

via TreeHugger

Christmas in July

First, a disclaimer: We at LiveGreen do not discriminate when it comes to religion. Here, we talk about Christmas in the American sense (Santa Claus, Gifts, Big Dinners, Firends, Love). Now on to the blog.

You've all heard of the saying "Chistmas in July"... usually when somebody hits it big or when there is an unexpected windfall of money. Well, we'd like to talk about Christmas in December, the biggest shopping day of the year. As a consumer, you have the power to effect change with every dollar (or euro, pound, etc...) spent...and just around the corner (well, not really) comes the biggest spending season of the year. You can't get away from it! Holiday parties at work, in class, at friend's homes...there's the obligatory card to all of your friends and families. It's a time to spend and a time of waste as well. How many gifts have you returned or given to Goodwill after the holidays? Why do we need all of these gifts?

I'm not saying gifts are bad...it's great to give a loved one a gift showing how much you care. However, it seems that as we grow older, Christmas becomes a nostalic time best spent giving presents when really we just want to spend time with our friends and families. In the next six months we will be blogging about ways to make your holiday season green this year. From sustainably made gifts to no gifts at all.

We start in July with no gifts. My wife and I are in a similar stage with both of our families...a few of our siblings have kids, new Grandmas and Grandpas are just getting their first chances at spoiling, and siblings of long distances have but a few weeks a year to spend with eachother. We both come from large families. So when you add on a neice or nephew here and there the family becomes HUGE. The holidays represent a significant stress when it comes to gifts for people large and small...and then there's the 'Holiday Card' you should send to EVERYONE YOU'VE EVER MET! It's a little insane when you think of it.

Let's make this holiday a ZERO WASTE HOLIDAY. When it comes down to it, my family is not rich, but we can afford to buy some luxuries on our own. It's not like when I was a kid and had to mow lawns for months in order to buy a Super Soaker...I rather spend a lot of my money all the time on things like gas, food, clothes...the last thing I want to do is spend more. So what do we do?

Gifts: Make a pact with your family this season that no one will buy any gifts for anyone (except for kids if you want...and stay tuned for some sustainable gifts). Many cheap gifts are made in deplorable working conditions and are manufactured with earth UN-friendly materials. Think before you shop...can you live without the hassle of shopping in the busiest time of the year?

Cards: Send an eCard or nothing at all. What do you plan to acheive by sending a card? Data Transfer. You're trying to bring the people you care about (or even just acquaintances) up to speed on your life...maybe even bragging a little! Why do you need to use paper, ink, gas for transport, waste? Sending an eCard is a simple and efficient click of the mouse.

Live Earth - Matter of Habits

Amanda and I Tivoed the Bravo broadcast of Live Earth, the 7-7-07 24/7 concert performance highlighting the climate crisis. We were really impressed with some of the tips that the stars helped put a shout out to. Model Petra Nemcova talked about how it is just a matter of habit. Take one thing at a time, such as bringing reusable shopping bags with you to shop, and make it a habit. We also liked Fall Out Boys talking about taking the politics out of it. Helping save the environment is a personal issue that people of all walks of life are turning to. They also talked about making being green more convenient...and that's what LiveGreen is all about. Providing simple solutions everyone can do to help the environment.

It was a great concert...singers like Jack Johnson, Linkin Park, AFI, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police, Sting, Black Eyed Peas, and actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Ray Liota, Kevin Bacon...it was really cool. 2 Billion People!

The Green Guide - Simple Eco Tips from National Geographic

I just ordered a two year subscription to The Green Guide, an environmental magazine produced by National Geographic. There is a paper subscription service...but I was really excited to see a discounted electronic version.

One cool tool that I found in my first issue was a fish shopping guide. If you have Internet access on your mobile phone when you're at the store, you can search each fish for its environmental impact and health issues. I look forward to trying it out tomorrow.

07-07-07 Live Earth

If you have a couple of free hours today check out SOS Live Earth, a 24 hour benefit concert covering all 7 continents. From Washintgon DC, to China to Antarctica with artists ranging from Garth Brooks and Trish Yearwood to Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson.

We were watching early this morning and really liked the "Answer the Call" video clips. They are really simple everyday solutions featuring actors like Namoi Campbell, Cameron Diaz, and Ben Afflek. Some of the clips we saw were recycling, turning off your computer, unplug your phone charger, CFL's, and one we just bloggged about purchasing music online such as sites like tunes for trees.

gDiapers - Making a Difference for Your Baby and the Planet

At LiveGreen we are always on the lookout for new, environmentally beneficial products that people can use in their everyday lives that could take the place of a similar product that harm the environment. Recently, we had a chance to chat with Michelle Schnoor, Marketing Director at gDiapers, about thier innovative, flushable diaper. Stats like 50 Million Diapers A Day and 500 Years peaked my attention.

LiveGreen: Tell me about gDiapers.

Michelle Schnoor: The product was originally invented in Australia by a mom who had two kids and thought of a solution to the drought problem in Australia, so cloth diapers weren't necessarily the best solution due to water usage. She created the flushable diaper and the name of that company is the Eenie Weenies. Kim and Jason, the co-founders of gDiapers, lived in Australia and came across the Eenie Weenies for their Children. They used them, loved them, and thought 'why don't other people have this?', because it's such an easy solution to our landfill problem.

They bought global rights and thought Portland, Oregon would be the best location to launch the company due to how aware we are up here, we're a very green metropolitan area. They moved here three years ago and we launched almost two years ago. We now have national distribution through natural retailers like Wild Oates and Whole Foods as well as in co-ops and boutiques, and our online business is very strong.

ME: I've done a little research about your company, but it's nice to hear a more personal story.

MS: Yes. One thing that isn't on our website is that our children are on site. Kim and Jason believe a balance between work and family is very important. We have daycare on site and our first title around the office is Mom, Daddy, Momma...whatever our children call us, and our second is our work. It's nice to know that your children are with you all day...not necessarily at the desk side, but just down stairs. It's a huge thing, not only for our company, but in trend setting for other companies. We're a start-up and we can do this, but there is hope that other larger companies will follow suit. There's nothing worse than having to drop your kids off with someone while you're at work...having our kids here helps ease the stress of trying to be a full-time mom and a full-time employee. That's what gDiapers is all about...we're a cool company and a cool product.

ME: That's really nice...I think I actually heard your baby in the background.

MS: Yea, he's actually right here...we were actually in the middle of nursing.

LG: How long have you worked there?

MS: I've been here for almost a year and a half...I came from Wild Oats. I met Jason at a green exhibit and fell in love with the company. I had a two year old at the time and knew that I wanted to use gDiapers. I started out in customer service, because that was the only opportunity at the time and now I'm doing marketing. I feel very blessed to be here. It's always great when you work for a company that you truly believe in and not very many people have that opportunity.

LG: Can you tell me a little about the product?

MS: We have a very innovative product. Not only is gDiapers good for the environment, it's also good for babies. The reason we have a positive impact on the environment is that people can dispose of their diapers in the toilet rather than the landfill. 50 Million diapers go into the landfill every day and they will sit there for 500 years. Presently, diapers are the third largest contributor to landfills and the average child uses 5000 diapers before being toilet trained. Even if you chose to throw away the disposable and not flush it, we don't use any oil based materials in our diapers, so it will degrade in the landfill. A positive impact for our babies is that they are not sitting in plastic all day...all disposable diapers are made out of plastic, even the leading chlorine free diapers are made of plastic. By being in gDiapers, your babies are in a breathable pant which eliminates the chance of having diaper rash and the heat that's involved in sitting in plastic.

We are also working on an adult line. I believe it is 2015 that there will be more adults in diapers than babies. So there will be a substantial market then. I don't know if you've ever had the chance to put a plastic bag over your pants and hold it really close for about three minutes. It gets really hot and gross in there...so that's kind of what our babies are sitting in when they are sitting in a disposable diaper.

Basically, gDiapers are a great option for consumers and parents who want to make a difference for their babies and the planet. We like to call ourselves the Toyota Prius of cloth disposable diapers. We're truly a hybrid system. We really hope that parents give us a try...even if they can't use gDiapers full-time, every flushable they use is one less diaper going into the landfill. We encourage parents to do what they can...if the system is too much work or whatnot, even if they can use us on a part time it's one easy way they can have a positive impact on the environment and their babies!

The system itself consists of colorful, washable gPants, there's a nylon snap in liner and the flushable. I forgot to mention that you can also compost the flushable as long as they are only urine based. We don't recommend that you compost feces.

LG: I actually watched the videos you have on your site and thought they were really helpful. I was chatting with a woman on the TreeHugger forum who said she clogged her toilet. I think she might not have read the directions that you have to take the flushable out.

MS: Right, that's been a little tricky for us. There are directions, but we live in a very fast paced society. I honestly didn't read the directions the first time as I was a busy working mom. Then I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I have to do all this work...flush it and rinse it', but now we just do it and it's easy.

The composting component is great. It's not as much impact on your toilet, your garden greatly benefits, the nitrogen in urine is awesome for your soil, and that's what we do here at The Village. We flush the poopie ones and try and compost as many of the urine ones as we can and it's been a great system here for us. We want the flushing and the composting to be the first choice of disposal, but if you chose to throw them away it is still better for the environment.

LG: This is really a cool product. I probably already know the best thing about working at gDiapers, but is there anything else you really like about the environment there at gDiapers?

MS: We are a very small, intimate workplace which has its pros and cons, but overall we all share similar values, especially about the environment. It's great being part of a revolutionary and innovative product. We have an opportunity of being part of this product that can change our world. That's the great thing for me, to be able to work for a company I feel passionate about. Having my two children on site is obviously the biggest part, because being a mom is my first priority and they are only little for such a short amount of time. But being able to promote such a great product...not very many people feel such passion about their jobs.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Many of us have already found that we can effect change in the world by using our consumer choices wisely to support companies we believe in. My wife and I started with our choices of foods we ate - organic, local. This led to other changes in our purchasing habits. We started promoting products we felt could create a big impact when it comes to greening your lifestyle.

We are now looking into other aspects of our lives. Every day you spend money. It's almost impossible not to. Just turn on a light in the morning or hop in the shower. The energy or water come from somewhere...do you know the environmental impact of providing these amenities?

One area I hadn't thought to look was insurance. I was presently surprised when my brother handed me a brochure for Better World Club, an environmentally friendly insurance company. This company provides vehicles insurance as well as insurance for home, travel (eco-travel), and bikes. Yes BIKES! I was hooked right off. If I break my chain riding to work I can call up my insurance for help....that's great. Aside from offering insurance and roadside assistance, they also provide discounts for hybrid vehicles or rentals. Better World Club donates 1% of their revenue to environmental cleanup and advocacy.

So, I'm going to call them up and change over our insurance. Why not? I'll be paying about the same for the same service I get from my other insurance company...however, I will be supporting a company that is more in tune with our families goals. Stay tuned for updates.

Better World Club is dedicated to balancing economic goals with social and environmental responsibility. We support a cleaner environment and alternative modes of transportation. We provide our customers with high quality, good value and environmentally sensitive products and services. We act as an advocate on behalf of the consumer and demonstrate our social and environmental commitment by donating an amount equal to 1% of our annual revenues toward environmental cleanup and advocacy.

LiveGreen Summer Sale!

We're very excited that summer is here. Longer days means more time to spend outside and more energy from our solar panels! We're so excited that we thought to spread the love.

For the month of July, For every $20 worth of LiveGreen products, we'll send you a $5 gift certificate towards your next purchase.