The Green Book

I'm glad I borrowed this book from my local library instead of purchasing it (even though it is printed on 100% recycled paper). While the idea behind The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen is both noble and well-intentioned, the format leaves the reader feeling bogged down by the dozens of somewhat meaningless statistics that are strewn throughout the book. Each chapter is divided into three chapters. "The Big Picture" gives an overview of the chapter topic, such as the home, work, entertainment, health and beauty, etc. "The Simple Steps" in each chapter are the three actions that will, as the authors point out in every chapter, "give you the biggest impact with the least amount of effort." The remainder of each chapter consists of "The Little Things", which are simply more ideas for reducing your impact on the earth. There are many good tips throughout the book--although more than a few will seem obvious to anyone who is even slightly environmentally-conscious--but the information the authors are trying to impart to the reader is obscured by the often mind-boggling environmental statistics. For example, in chapter four, "Schools", there is a "Little Thing" about pens. According to the authors, refillable pens are preferable to disposable pens, which are often thrown away instead of recycled and can contain environmentally damaging chemicals--a good point. They then attempt to drive the point home by stating that the 1.6 billion pens that Americans discard every year, if placed end to end, would stretch more than 150,000 miles, which would be the same as traveling across the Pacific Ocean from LA to Tokyo more than 25 times (page 45). Unless the reader frequently flies from LA to Tokyo on business, this statistic is not going to mean anything; what's more, he or she will probably spend more time wondering what that many pens placed end to end would actually look like than internalizing the idea that one should buy refillable pens instead of disposable.

But it doesn’t end with the far-out facts. At the end of each chapter there is an environmental quip from celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Tiki Barber, and Justin Timberlake. Now, don’t get me wrong: it’s nice to know that there are ridiculously wealthy actors, musicians, and athletes who also have a conscience and realize that the earth does not exist merely for their own pleasure. That being said, it’s obviously a lot easier to be eco-friendly when you have an unlimited budget for such things as sustainable clothing, organic food, hybrid cars, and gigantic homes heated by solar energy. While, on the one hand, it makes sense to include testimonials from famous people in order to get ordinary citizens to become more eco-conscious—marketing firms use this strategy all the time—some of their examples are a little hard to follow. My favorite “yeah, right” testimonial is by Jennifer Anniston. I have nothing against Jenn—I would even say that I like her. Jenn unplugs electronics when they’re not being used to save energy and drives a Prius. She also takes three minute showers. Yes, I said three minutes. Not only does she take three-minute showers, but during that short time, she brushes her teeth. In the shower. You’re probably wondering “How can she take a three-minute shower and still be so gorgeous?” I’ll tell you how: all she is doing is washing her body (and brushing her teeth). She is not washing or conditioning her hair. She is not shaving her legs. She is taking three-minute showers because she is having her hair washed, conditioned, and styled and her legs (and probably her bikini area too) waxed at a salon (let’s just hope that it’s an eco-friendly salon). The average woman, however, cannot afford and/or does not have the time to go to a salon every day (or even every other day) to have our hair washed and our legs waxed. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to take shorter showers to save water; everyone could probably shave two or three minutes off the length of their daily shower just by hurrying up a bit. I’m just putting that three-minute shower (and teeth-brushing) into perspective.

Overall, the book’s message is a good one: everyone can—and should—try to do more to make the earth a cleaner and safer place to live. If you can ignore the inane statistics and take the celebrity testimonials with a grain of salt, then you may learn a tip or two about living greener. Just one small piece of advice: get it from the library. You probably won’t be reading it twice.

Companies with a Conscience

With so many companies today claiming to care about the environment and the health of their consumers, it's hard to know who really means it. The best way to find out which businesses are really making an effort to go green and support sustainable living is to do your research. Check out the website of the company making the claims: does it list (in detail) exactly what steps it is taking to ensure the safety or sustainability of its products? Does it disclose all the ingredients in each of its products? If you email the company to ask a question about its products or manufacturing practices, do you get a specific response to your query (or any response at all)? Another way to find out if a company is really as stoic as it markets itself to be is to Google the name of the business; if there have been any news stories, complaints or feedback (good or bad) about a company's business ethics, they are highly likely to show up here.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have spent a lot of time attempting to determine who's telling the truth when it comes to companies that are truly making an effort to go green. Although I have suffered several let-downs by companies that I was certain (or at least hoping) were not just feeding me a line, in some cases I found myself surprised and encouraged by what I discovered. I'm sure--okay, I really hope--there are hundreds of businesses out there that are doing more than their part to help protect the environment, but here are a few of the ones I've been most impressed with thus far:

Burt's Bees - they are really busting their bee-hinds (sorry) to ensure that products labeled "natural" are just that. Check out the section "Burt's Bill" for more information. And, of course, their products are awesome (especially their Lip Shimmers).

Aveda - aside from their commitment to reduce their carbon footprint by using wind energy to power their manufacturing plant in Minnesota, Aveda discloses all of the ingredients in each and every one of their products. Their customer service team was also quick and thorough when responding to my email query as to why they use a certain ingredient in one of their shampoo products as well as what the source of the ingredient is.

Pottery Barn - they might seem like an unlikely candidate for this list, but stick with me. Pottery Barn is pledging to include a minimum of 5% organic cotton in at least half the sheet sets it offers (they also carry sheets which are made from 100% organic cotton). The idea is that using even minimal amounts of organic cotton will increase demand for and lower the cost of growing the organic cotton--exactly the type of mentality we all should adopt when it comes to organics. And while Pottery Barn may not exactly be famous for bargain basement pricing, their organic sheet sets are selling for considerably less than those I found on many other websites.

This list is by no means complete. I could easily add others: Ecover, Equal Exchange, Seventh Generation, just to name a few. But it's late, and the kids will most likely be up before the sun, eager to start another day, so I will have to continue this thread at another time. If anyone out there has their own favorite organic or eco-friendly products, don't be shy--share them with the rest of us!

Kate

The Ordinary Organic

Information Overload?

No matter how interesting or intriguing a subject may be, too much information about any topic can be overwhelming. Not only are we likely to develop a headache from trying to absorb and comprehend as many facts as possible, but chances are that some sources will directly contradict others, making it difficult (if not impossible) for the seeker of the information to discern between truth and myth. My desire to know all there is to know about organic foods and eco-friendly products has prompted me to borrow no fewer than a dozen books from my local library. In fact, I’ve been to the library so often in the past few weeks that when the librarian sees me walking towards the circulation desk, she smiles and immediately goes to the ‘holds’ shelf to gather the most recent books waiting to be added to my impressively lengthy list of checked-out volumes (if there is a limit on the number of books a library patron can have checked out at one time, I am sure that I am rapidly approaching that number). And being no stranger to academic research and conflicting theories, I was fully expecting a fair amount of head-butting between texts. I had decided at the outset that I would assemble my data, pick out the parts that made sense to me, and go from there. My one hope was that I wouldn’t become discouraged and overwhelmed, either by an overload of scientific jargon or by inflexible demands that I throw away everything I own, tear down the toxic dump otherwise known as my house, and start living off the land.

To my immense surprise (and relief), all of the books I have consulted thus far have offered nothing but some gentle advice, a fair amount of common sense, and a great deal of information that is astonishingly consistent. Even the books written or edited by people from different countries—most often the U.S. and Britain—agree on virtually everything, from recipes for concocting all-purpose cleaning products from vinegar and baking soda to the best tasting heirloom tomatoes to the detrimental effects genetically-modified crops have globally on both the environment and the survival of small farms. What started out as intellectual research quickly became pleasure reading: books bearing titles such as The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food vie for space on my bedside table with Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, a rather bizarre yet engrossing novel called The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and, of course, Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Knowing that I only have until next Tuesday to read freely without guilt—after which I will still probably be reading just as much even though I should be focusing my brain power on French vocabulary and verb conjugation—I have been cramming my brain with far more information about organic and eco-friendly products than it can possibly ever hope to retain. But that’s okay, because despite the overload of information, I get it. I understand what it takes to grow vegetables without the use of chemicals—it’s not rocket science. People were growing food this way long before rockets were invented, just as they were keeping their houses clean using little more than, well, vinegar and baking soda. And while it might seem like a waste of time to read a slew of books that all say pretty much the same thing, for me, just the opposite is true. I find it reassuring to know that no matter which text I consult, the facts remain the same, and I am free to enjoy the anecdotes or personal experiences of the author (which are often more informative than the facts themselves). Being a life-long lover of reading and books in general, there is no greater satisfaction than to finish a book feeling enlightened and entertained, and the books I have recently read on organic and eco-friendly living have not disappointed me.

If you are interested in finding out more about organic and eco-friendly living, I urge you to check out your local library before heading to the bookstore—you’ll save yourself some cash (unless you’re like me and never remember to return the books by their due dates even though the library sends out friendly email reminders in advance. Hey, maybe that’s why the librarian smiles when she sees me come in; she’s thinking “Hey, there’s the girl who bought us five new books last month with all her late fees. With all those books she has checked out now, we should be able to buy a new set of encyclopedias!”) Oh, and you’ll save some trees, too—not that I’m a treehugger or anything.

Kate
The Ordinary Organic