Product Reviewed: Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent with non-chlorine bleach: “Free & Clear” of perfumes and dyes

Place of Purchase: Whole Foods and other stores

Purchase Price: About $11.00 (for 42 loads worth of laundry detergent)

Product replaced: Purex Liquid laundry detergent

Ingredients: “We disclose all ingredients: water softeners and alkalinity builders (sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, sodium silicate, and zeolites), Coconut and corn-derived cleaning agents (fatty alcohol ethoxylate and polyglucose), Performance enhancers (magnesium sulfate and sodium sulfate), Non-chlorine bleach (sodium percarbonate), antiredeposition agents (carboxymethyl inulin and carboxymethyl cellulose), Enzymes (protease, amylase, and cellulase), and Plant-derived anti-foaming agents (oleic acid and glycerol monooleate).

Use: Because this is laundry detergent, I use it on my laundry!  Big surprise there! 

Results:

We have mentioned the virtues of gardening before, but with spring ending and summer heating up, we encourage our readers to take a look at what can be done.

You don’t have room for a garden? Most living situations, even in tight quarters in the city, provide some opportunity, even a small one, to do a little gardening. My garden last year was two plants that produced several tomatoes and peppers for my own personal consumption. They were planted on a one-foot by three-foot patch of ground behind my apartment building.

Literally no ground to plant on? Try finding a 5 gallon bucket. Drill half-inch holes in the bottom for drainage, fill with dirt, and you have a planter ready for a small tomato or pepper plant.

How does planting a garden green your life? So how does this improve your envirohuman impact? Take a look in your refrigerator. How many pounds of produce did you buy at the store this week? Do you know how far those items traveled? Okay, unless you go full-scale gardener, as many still do (a worthwhile pursuit) you’re not going to replace all of that with your backyard garden.

But what if you replaced three pounds of it weekly for the spring and summer months (potentially a solid twenty or more weeks), by growing a few items: tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, carrots, or cabbage? Even a novice could read and learn to do those items with just a small amount of space. Grow a few herbs in an indoor window box for a year-round benefit.

Again, it may only be one person, that is, you, decreasing the need for tomatoes shipped across the country (among other produce). But sixty pounds (three pounds multiplied by a twenty-week summer) adds up if you get just one million additional Americans to buy back into what once was the norm (that is in addition to current gardeners). That would be sixty million tons of food grown in backyards rather than being shipped across the country!

Imagine if even more people partook, the reduced amount of greenhouse gases released just to put food on the table would be realized.  So start gardening and once you have learned how to do it well, encourage friends, family, and neighbors to take this opportunity.

Gardening can save you money, too!

Use a few packets of seeds, or if you are getting a late start, use seedlings, and watch as sales increase in stores this summer (have you seen how the cost of a barrel is affecting everything we buy!?) and you have produce to help you finish off a great many home-cooked meals.  Don’t buy into synthetic chemical and/or petroleum-based products, either.  You can make your own compost or try such products as Terracycle’s Worm Poop, instead, reducing demand for oil, and improving your envirohuman impact even more!

How do I recycle my CFL Light Bulb?

My compact fluorescent bulbs are still going strong over two years into their use, so I have not tried out the new recycling program at Home Depot, nor have I gone to look.  However, it seems as simple as dropping them off in a bin, perhaps with some sort of box around each one for protection of each bulb, and voila! Home Depot takes care of the rest.

And by doing so, you’re keeping toxic mercury out of our waste stream and recycling it back to the production stream, nevermind the metal, glass, and other materials found in a CFL.

We first discussed the merits of using compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs in, “Greener Under Twenty: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.”  At the time of that article’s publication, we had this to say about the subject of mercury in CFLs:

Ever think of yourself of the CEO of yourname.com?  You are essentially the person who makes the financial decisions of how to make and spend money and where to locate yourself, what to do, etcetera.  Basically, you are your own company, but in addition to being the CEO, you also happen to be the janitor/housekeeper, cook, and secretary.  But what’s a janitor, if not but a steward of the physical space of which he or she is in charge?

You are your life’s steward of the physical space in which you live, meaning you eventually have to do your dishes, clean the toilet, and vacuum or mop the floors (unless you have a maid and/or are spending your days in a world of filth).  But I digress.

You likely have thought about ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle during your

I am sure that most of you heard it from time to time from your parents while growing up: “close that refrigerator door.”  I heard just about anytime that I was checking out the snack variety and trying to make a choice.

Sure, I could have and should have gotten an idea for what was available and decided with the door shut, but it seemed pointless at the time to close it, decide for a minute and then reopen the fridge for what I wanted. But, with so many people, this was all too often a staple exchange at my house.

Now I can see how correct my parents were that I was both wasting energy and that standing with the door open “would not make something appear.”  But there’s yet another way you can make your refrigerator and freezer run more efficiently.

Simply, keep it stocked!  The reason my parents did not want the fridge door to be open for very long was that the air was escaping (rapidly).  But if your fridge is full of containers, those aren’t going to flow out of the refrigerator like the air between them will.  They will hold their temperature when you open the door, and over time reduces the amount

Product Reviewed: Method Foaming Hand Wash Soap

Place of Purchase: Bed Bath and Beyond, but also found at most major retailers (ie. Target, Jewel, Pick ‘N Save etc.)

Purchase Price: About $4

Product replaced: SoftSoap, Dial, various petroleum-based hand soaps

Ingredients: (Direct from the bottle) Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamide DEA, Cocamidopropyl Betane, Glycerine, Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Tocopheryl Acetate, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Benzophenone-4, Methychloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Parfum, Yellow 10, Green 5

Use: General hand washing in the kitchen and bathroom. I’ve been using two different bottles of the Method Foaming Hand Wash, each with different scents, for about the last 2 months. I’ve been exceptionally pleased with a few aspects of the product.

• The Good:

Piezoelectric Crystals.  Piezoelectric Effect.  Think about a floor that produces electricity as people walk, dance, and move across it!

This caught my attention for its seeming simplicity but probable complexity.  I first saw an article about this on the new “green” section on huffingtonpost.com.

According to the Wikipedia entry on, piezoelectricity, “the word is derived from the Greek piezein, which means to squeeze or press.”  Electricity is generated from this pressure.

But a dance club that is able to generate 60% of its power from this effect?  Wow!  Clubs use a lot

I face this question whenever I bring up blogging about the environment as well as other, similar, “so what?” questions about bothering to recycle even one sheet of paper.

I like this question because it gives me an opening to discuss habits, psychology, and the responsibility included in our daily practices.

The only drawback of this question is people feeling like you are patting yourself on the back or being a little too proud of being a do-gooder.  In fact, I get that reaction often if the subject comes up (Example interaction: Q: “Why are you using a reusable metal water bottle?  A: Because it’s healthier for me and for the environment.  Q: “So you’re saying that my using of disposables is bad for the environment?  I recycle!)  People can feel as if you’re making a judgmental statement even when you’re in fact just answering a question about a choice you have made.

This post was originally made to our partner blog, Healthascope.com on June 15, 2008.  Beside the fact of cast iron being healthier, there are also some built-in ways that buying a cast iron skillet will reduce your envirohuman impact over the long term.  Enjoy!

I am admittedly a late adopter of the cast iron skillet in my kitchen. This wonderful material has been around for how long and I just recently have discovered its wonderful surface for cooking.

I cook at home which is usually cheaper, healthier, and best for the environment. But since I began cooking, the Teflon coated nonstick skillet has been a mainstay in my kitchen. I’m in my mid-twenties, so I’m glad that when I became concerned about the potential negative health effects of using Teflon

If you’re anything like me and quite fond of all things tech and all things “green” not to mention when they actually work together, then you really should check out CNet.com’s Green Tech Blog. So what’s there to like about this site?