Natural and Sustainable

1. Use vegetables dyed jute or paint on your walls in your home. There are many options that have low VOCs and always use non-toxic paints in nurseries and in children’s play rooms and bedrooms.

2. Try 100 percent hemp or bamboo curtains in your front room or bedroom.

3. The mango tree is the fastest growing and sustainable product other than bamboo, try to change out your lighting for more sustainable options.

4. Mahogany furniture is a great way to live more green. Try an end table from Palecek (800-274-7730)

5. Soy-based cushions for your furniture or even slip covers are a great way to live more green.

6. Recycled polyester is easy to clean, and a great addition to your other green furniture.

7. Canvas bags to take shopping at the local farmers’’ market or even the book store is a great green option.

8. Try to wrap your food or cover your left over’s with 100% recycled aluminum foil.

9. Try unbleached, undyed, organic cotton cloth tea towels to dry your own dishes off with or dry your hands on. You can even pick the same options up for cloth napkins as well.

10. Add cookbooks to your collection that includes recipes on using local and seasonal foods.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Where does your presidential candidate stand on environmental issues. If you presidential hopeful doesn’t have a strong will for change and helping the environment, then why not find one who does. Find out where your choice for president stands by clicking here.

There is a claim that the diet children are eating, the typical American diet is exposing children to high amounts and sometimes sickening levels of pesticides. Many parents are going for the more organic approach with foods that their children are eating every day. Instead of allowing children to go to the corner shop to get a soda, bag of chips and a candy bar they are opting for the local farmers market and having them grab a locally grown options such as fruits and vegetables.

A common used agricultural pesticides called organophosphorus (OP) insecticides are known to have a negative neurological effect on the body and especially the body of young children and even some babies. In one 2003 study done by the University of Washington a group of 23 children ages 3 to 11 had their urine tested twice a day for 15 days. When the diet was switched to a more organic choice in food the levels of malathoin and chlorpyifos (OP insecticides that are used on fruits, vegetable and even wheat gardens) in their systems. (Source: Organic Gardening 2006)

The bottom line on this study proved that organic diets help reduce your child’s exposure to OP and other pesticides that can ultimately cause health issues later in their young life’s.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Now is the time of year to get your hands on berries, fruits and even certain amounts of veggies at the local farmers’ markets. If you over stock on the produce that is locally, organically, and naturally grown, can it, freeze it and even dry it to help with your winter local produce fix and to eat great and local all year long.

• Convince a friend or even a neighbor family to reduce their water usage.

• Ask your church or synagogue to convert to green power. Get your church to switch to renewable energy and improve their energy efficiency.

• Pick an initiative and lobby in your community. Recruiting just 500 people to recycle their newspapers every day would reduce the impact significantly.

• Support the bike lanes in every town, especially your own. As well as car pooling, mass transit, and green space, then get 50 people to commute by bike or even by bus.

• Volunteer on your community council or for an advocacy group to fight global warming. Conduct a campaign to convert 3,000 homes in your own town to changing to CFL light bulbs.

• Write letters to the editor and express your own opinion in community group meetings in support for action on climate change.

• Give away your old clothes, your household goods, and other items you don’t use to friends in need, neighbors in need and even charities. Post your unwanted goods on Free Cycle or even Craigslist.

• Organize a clothing swap with at least 10 other friends and save yourself and everyone involved some money in the long run.

• Ask your county dump to open a reuse center where you can bring items that another family could use that are in need.

• Plants trees in your community that are in need of a mother earth-touch. Start with your own yard and then venture out from there.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Turn your computer off when you are not using it. Even when in “energy saver” mode computers continue to use a lot of energy.

Not only is having a garden a great asset to your already earth-friendly behavior, picking the right kind of seedlings, seed starts and even some plants is just as important as well.

During my time of searching our seedling packages and seed starts I have come across two great companies that are in the eco-friendly business of bringing you quality plant starts in eco-friendly packaging and the starts are organically grown as well.

Gro’we is a company based in Bellingham, Washington and carries corn starts, zucchini, yellow and green squash and even tomato starts in eco-friendly containers made from rice hulls that can be composted with your compost pile or even through your local municipal composting facility. The company is USDA certified organic and they are also certified organic by Washington State Department of Agriculture as well. I found these potted seed starts at my local Bi-Mart but they can also be found at many nurseries as well as some grocery stores that carry seed starts.

Eco Starts is a company based in Hillsboro, Oregon and is certified organic through the USDA as well as through Oregon Tilth. They carry many of the same variety of plants for your garden needs but their container the plant seedlings comes in can be planted right into the ground,. the plastic sleeve and all. The plastic sleeve is made from a compost able corn product even though it looks and feel like plastic. Eco-Start save your time and your money as well as their companies own resources.

These two companies are in the business of offering you great quality, earth-friendly products that require less work on the environment overall. This growing season or even the next growing season, give these two companies a try and make the change to better eco-friendly garden practices a every day thought.

*Natural and Sustainable Living tip: Make your own compost for your garden instead of buying pre-made compost. You will help save plastic, labor cost as well as give something back to the ground that should be there naturally anyway.

You may think that all the suggestions to change in order to help the planet are too many to change at once or that practicing them all can’t really be all that important, but they are. All of them. No matter what you hear that is “supposed to help the environment”, what could it hurt in changing for the better? And you should change little by little and not jump head first into all the changes within your own household or you will end up over whelming yourself more than you think., this will lead to burn out on trying to change and you may give up. So start slow. One small step you can change the next shopping trip you make is with your toilet paper choices. It’s also the one change that you can make today and keep it for ever. Choosing recycled toilet paper is a great change within your own household and for the better of the environment. It’s a good everyday change that will even come in handy when you just can’t find the right paper.

What is it about recycled toilet paper, you may ask, that is good for the environment. Here are the facts to back up why the change in toilet paper is a great step toward environmentally friendly behavior.

By Recycling 1 ton of paper you save:

17 trees
6953 gallons of water
463 gallons of oil
587 pounds of air pollution
3.06 cubic yards of landfill space
4077 Kilowatt hours of energy

So grab for recycled toilet paper and do one step more to help the environment and your own septic system.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Every cahnge we do to better the planet and our lives is one step closer to stopping rapid climate change. Global warming and climate change is a very real and threatening problem, if you just recycle one can, that is one step in the right direction.

It maybe hard to find a yarn to match your values if you are a knitter. You may want to try working with sustainable fibers., There is no need to limit yourself to organic cotton and wool, as you will also find many yarns made from bamboo, corn, hemp, soy and even seaweed in some areas. Eco-friendly bamboo knitting needles are also available in many place like local knitting shops to name one.

In order to live a more earth-friendly lifestyle and incorporate your beliefs with your hobbies or practices, you first have to change the way you think. A polyester blended fabric is not all that environmentally friendly as would company that sells 100 percent hemp and hemp blended thread or materials needs to knit with. There are many hemp blends that come in an assorted colors and styles. There is also companies that carry unique and recycled silk yarn from saris, made by otherwise impoverished women and children in Nepal. There is also companies that have sustainable yarns, organic cotton yarns, milk fiber yarn and soy and bamboo yarns. These same companies also carry yarns made from corn and hemp.

Try these sources for your next knitting task:

• Blue Sky Alpacas.

• Earth-Friendly Yarns

• Vermont Organic Fiber Company

• Paivatar

Here is also some reading to further your knowledge on a sustainable knitting practice.

1. The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice by: Susan Gordon Lydon

2. No Sheep for You: Knit Happy with Cotton, Silk, Linen, Hemp, Bamboo and other Delights by: Amy R. Singer

There are also many knitting groups that have the same beliefs as you and are more than happy to add another membner that believes in a sustainable world to their ever-growing practice and membership meetings. Try Knitting Meetup.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: To cut down on water waste in your own home during shower time, use a shower timer. Ones from companies like Ripple Products come in fun shapes and designs so they don’t look so much like a timer.

Here are some three strategies to move past the eco-anxiety we all that are environmentally conscious may be feeling in today’s current world.

• Work to slow down the environmental destruction: Join an environmental activism group. Document the overwhelming destruction on some of the ecosystems throughout the world. Attend a protest or two or three on what you believe. Write letters to your mayor or state representative. Lobby to help shut down the biggest industrial polluters. It will ultimately psychologically transform you. The real anxiety reduces is a sense of taking on responsibility and getting active within your own beliefs.

• Get involves in making and creating a more sustainable world to live in: Help build a garden at a school or local church or even a community park in your own area then venture out and help other communities. Start bicycling instead of driving. Hang your laundry to dry. Commit to buying locally farmed food and produce. Implement a grey-water recycling system in your current home or office. Changing your job, or even moving to a place where you can reduce your impact will help. You will be more optimist and happiest when you feel like the work you are doing is the closest to the ideal of designed in conjunction with nature, rather than in ignorance of it. Rise above the “ignorance is bliss” comments.

• Shift your outlook on the world: Learn about more sustainable practices and how you can change your own living style. Spend more time outdoors in nature. Study traditions and see that is world is an unified whole. Spread the word and get with others to share in your changes. Don’t try to cope with this challenge all alone.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Always recycle your newspaper. Newspaper is one of the most important papers to have in your recycling bin when the collection time comes. Make sure your Sunday comics end up in the right place at the right time. Who knows, you may see them again and again and again.

Getting a green, healthy and eye-appealing lawn takes patience and care. But does it have to come at a chemical expense? No. Here are four ways to get that lawn you want, without going the chemical route and even making it worse for the environment and you wallet.

1. Choose the right fertilizer: Synthetic fertilizers damage the health of the lawn by offering a quick burst of nutrients that quickly dissipate. In turn this leave your grass weak and wanting more, and more. And the run off from this synthetic fertilizers will eventually run off into the water ways and ground water supply. Natural and organic fertilizers like manure, compost, seaweed, however, release nutrients slowly, allowing the grass to take them up over a long period of time. This preserves the quality of the soil and encourages earthworms and healthy microbes.

2. Remove the thatch: Thatch is that brown layer of old grass and other debris that builds up ion the surface of the soil under you grass. If it is left to remain on the grass it can prevent water and even fertilizers from reaching the roots of the grass in your lawn. Be sure and remove the thatch in the early summer or around the end of spring. Be sure and sue a sturdy rake to remove this.

3. Top-dress your lawn: Adding a fine layer of homemade or animal-based composted manure to the lawn surface during the same time you go to remove the thatch will help stimulate the growth of new shoots on the grass shaft. This in turn will help the quality of the soil in your yard as well.

4. Control the weeds in an organic and natural way: Pulling by hand is the best way to combat weed issues, but if your lawn is way to big to be going around and pulling the weeds, be sure and use organic and natural weed killers on the market today. There are ones that are specifically made for crabgrass, dandelions and even other types of weeds such as clover.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Victoria’s Secret is going all-organic in their “Pink” line of women’s clothing. This is just one more way that Victoria’s Secret is still the favorite among men.

1. Buy things in bulk to avoid excess packaging that it takes to make the smaller, one time use containers.

2. Spend most of your time outdoors. And enjoy what the earth provides.

3. Seek out reclaimed solid wood furniture. For one it will last longer than others and for two it is a great way to bring more natural furniture in your home.

4. Try to exercise outdoors when the weather is nice.

5. Always think in the big picture.

6. When you travel, try to stay at a greener resort, hotel, motel or bed and breakfast.

7. Start a compost pile.

8. Go for reusable instead of disposable items such as, diapers, razors, cups and plates.

9. Most dishwashers are powerful enough to remove food, only pre-wash if you have to.

10. Install dimmers and motion lights on your lights inside your home and the ones outside.

11. Use all-natural and organic beauty products. Especially lipstick.

12. Always buy Fair Trade products such as coffee.

13. Never idle in your car, it’s bad for the environment and your car.

14. Carpool whenever you can.

15. Buy organic food when it comes to milk, meat (if you eat meat), fruits, and vegetables.

16. Bring your own coffee mug or thermos to the coffee shop.

17. Collect rainwater. It is great for your landscape and your potted plants.

18. Use all natural fragrances in your own home. Try essential oils on an oil burner.

19. Swap your goods, don’t throw them out. Try Free Cycle or even Craigslist.

20. Use concentrated cleaners. Less packaging means less waste.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Spread the word about saving the earth and your health.

1. Don’t charge your cell phone overnight. Read your owners manual on how long it takes to charge the battery and set a timer.

2. Find out it your city or town has pledged to meet the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets; if they aren’t contact your city mayor and vote for change.

3. Reuse the plastic baggies that sandwiches are packed in.

4. Keep your shades and blinds down in the summer and pull them up in the winter time.

5. Use a push mower to cut your lawn. If you keep it up, you will never need to use a gas-powered mower again.

6. Purify your indoor air quality with plants instead of with artificial room fresheners.

7. Use clean energy in your own home and office.

8. If you buy products that have been made from recycled goods, you have help support the recycling habit and keep the process going continuously.

9. Decorate your home responsibly by purchasing eco-sensitive goods.

10. If you are moving, use recycle moving boxes.

11. Plant a garden or herb garden. And use what you grow.

12. Use rechargeable batteries instead of one-time-use ones.

13. Bring a lunch to work in reusable containers. You will end up having a no-garbage lunch.

14. Upgrade your toiler to a low-flush-water model.

15. Always fix leaky faucets inside and outside your home.

16. Buy low VOC paint and donate the leftover paint to a local charity or local church.

17. Donate your old cell phone and help save the African Gorilla. Click here to read more.

18. Don’t use paper towels during dinner, use reusable cloth napkins.

19. Fill up your freezer with food. The fuller it is the less energy it will use to keep the food frozen. If you need to fill it up now and can’t place food in it, fill up plastic soda bottles and place them in the freezer to use up the space.

20. Dress sustainable. Wear clothing made from products that are reusable and sustainable.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Recycle your print cartridges for your home printer and your own office printer.

The key to balance is conscious awareness about your financial destiny and yoga is a great way to gain an environmental awareness of your finances. Take these steps to reenter yourself naturally.

• Seek out the truth: Do you know the truth about your financial situation and how much you owe compared to how much you earn, and spend. Many people don’t know the truth. It’s easier to avoid looking than to find out. Tell the truth to yourself as well as to others. It can be challenging, but yoga asks us to face the truth in all areas of life, including your spending habits. The site You Can Deal With It has tools for figuring out what you spend and how best to reduce your debt completely. To find out how much you owe to credit-card companies and other companies visit Annual Credit Report and find out the truth.

• Contemplate: Do you unconsciously tell yourself that you struggle financially, or that you live in abundance? Examine this question thoroughly as it relates to ways to understand you motivations. Unearth what you tell yourself, and you will see a blue print of your current financial life. How is your relationship to your parents and to money serving you? Do you feel you will lose something valuable, like security by changing the way you deal with money? Write down the truths you uncover. Then, brainstorm practical ways to get a handle on your spending and even your large amounts of debt you currently owe.

• Ask for help when you need it: Money is challenging for everyone, especially if you have not been taught the basics. Talk with a professional money advisor who has no products to sell. Consumer Credit Counseling Service offers free assistance. And find fee-only financial planners at The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Burgerville Burger Restaurants are now starting to compost their food waste. Read more about it here.

1. Find some new uses for the old things you are wanting to throw out.

2. Compact your non recyclable within you trashcan, you will end up using fewer trash bags in the long run.

3. Always give your car a tune up so it runs more efficiently.

4. Always spend your money on things that will last instead of things that are a one time use.

5. Invest your money in environmentally conscious mutual funds and money packs. Find one that fits your needs here.

6. Always buy shade-grown coffee no matter what.

7. Take the stuff that is dragging your car down out of the truck. The lighter the car load the less gas your car will want to consume.

8. Seal your house up in the winter and in the summer. Air loss will eat into your wallet and the energy used to produce it.

9. Change your cleaning habits at your own home, by going toxin free in your own house.

10. Use reusable coffee filters or recycled coffee filters in your coffee maker.

11. Always eat what is in season.

12. Start up an eco-conversation wherever you go and spread the word on how important it is.

13. See if your bank offers online banking so that the paper statements stop coming through the mail.

14. Cancel your phone book delivery. Or even if you receive the phone book still, recycle your old one.

15. Install ceiling fans to help improve the air circulation within you home.

16. Get an Energy-Star approved lap top. Desk tops seem to take more energy to function.

17. Replace all your light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent ones.

18. Join a CSA within your own community (Community Supported Agriculture) Program. Start here.
19. Volunteer your time at local conservation agencies within your own town and neighborhood.

20. Use power strips on almost anything. Electronics (some of them) still use energy even when they are shut off.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: If you see litter on the ground no matter where you are, do the right thing and pick it up and place it where it belongs.

1. Line dry your clothes whenever possible.

2. Find a greener dry cleaners and bring your own garment bags.

3. Don’t use your dishwashers’ drying cycle.

4. Shut your computer down at night and when you leave you office on Fridays.

5. Always vote for change within your own community.

6. Drive a hybrid if you can, if your in the market for a car, try to find a hybrid.

7. Join a local food co-op.

8. Swap your paper back books over the internet. Try Paper Back Swap, and get fee books in return.

9. Take your own water in a reusable water bottle instead of plastic water bottles the stores sell.

10. Remove your name from junk-mail lists by registering here.

11. Purchase a shredder and use the shredding for packing instead of Styrofoam peanuts, or bubble wrap.

12. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

13. Be sure and always check your tires on your car, under inflation will cause low or even poor gas mileage.

14. Buy recycled toilet paper and paper towels.

15. Print and write on both sides of the paper.

16. In the winter months, after you are finished baking, turn the oven off and leave the door open to heat your kitchen.

17. If you eat fish, only eat sustainable harvested fish to help protect the ocean, read more here.

18. Always go carbon-neutral, no matter what.

19. To save on gas, don’t speed. And cut back on driving.

20. Never use pesticides on your lawn. Never use grass killer on your lawn as well. Nothing beats a good physical activity of pulling the weeds by hand. You not only save on chemicals in you lawn but get exercise as well.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Prolong the life of your stuff. Keep your things out of the landfill by taking care of them.

1. Recycle your magazines, all of them.

2. Bring your own bags to the supermarket.

3. Support your local economy and curb excess fossil-fuel consumption by shopping close to your own home.

4. Install the Energy-Star approved double-pane windows in your home for better insulation.

5. Take the bus or train whenever you can and give your car a break.

6. Buy energy-efficient appliances that carry the Energy Star label.

7. Go for bamboo when you are looking for new flooring, cutting boards, towels and even sheets and curtains.

8. Clean the refrigerator coils on your own fridge. It will help you refrigerator gain better productivity.

9. Turn off all the lights when you go to exit a room, even if it’s the garage.

10. Install low-flow showerhead in your own showers and take shorter showers. This will help, especially when you are pressed for time. Pretend you are always in that same rush and it will help shorten your shower time.

11. Eat more vegetables and cut back on the refined sugars.

12. Get yourself and your family their own library cards.

13. Ride your bike regularly. Take a ride for fun and ride to the grocery store if you are close by and live in a town.

14. Don’t let your faucet run while you wash the supper dishes. Better yet, don’t le the water run when you and others brush your teeth as well.

15. Leave only your actual footprints when you take a trip somewhere and never harm plants or wildlife when you visit the state, county or city parks.

16. Unplug the electronics such as your VCR, DVD players, TV, and even your cell phone charger when you are not using them. Place everything of this nature on a surge protector and flip the switch.

17. Use better-for-the-environment, greener cleaners in your own home and talk to others about changing their cleaning habits as well.

18. Baking soda is the best cleaning agent on the market. It is all-natural and will remove just about anything. Use it for your teeth as well. Instead of the harsh and chemical, dye-laden toothpastes on the market. It will even remove soap scum from the shower.

19. Wash your clothing in the cold water cycle. Only use hot or warm water to wash your bedding and heavily stained clothing.

20. Cover pots on the stove when you are cooking to prevent losing excess heat and wasting the energy the stove is creating to heat the food in the pot.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Support Green. Support people, politicians and companies who work to make the world a better place.

• CFLS: The Philips Soft White CFL comes in a recyclable packaging and according to Philips, they claim that it contains the lowest mercury levels of any CFLs on the market. To find a CFL disposal site near your own home, visit Earth 911

• Local Eating: You can’t get anything better than something that is organic, locally grown and even purchased from your neighborhood farmers’ market. So Support them. Do it for yourself, your family and your local farmer. Find farmers’ markets in your own area by visiting Local Harvest.

• Hybrids: The Toyota Prius (48 mpg city/ 45 mpg hwy) leads for a fifth straight year in a row as the best hybrid purchase anyone can make. The Honda Civic Hybrid (40 mpg city/ 45 mpg hwy) also places high with U.S. News, and CNET.

• Biofuels: Not everyone knows how to make up an alternative fuel in their own garage, but there is help. By going to Biodiesel America you can find someone that can and has. You can start today in converting your own vehicle to take an alternative fuel source.

• Bioplastic: Opt for a durable, reusable carryall like the compact Chicobag or Baggu tote. And some markets now offer their own, like Safeway, Fred Meyer, Whole Foods, and even Wal Mart now.

• Bamboo Clothing: Bamboosa and Certaintees are tow of the most environmentally responsible brands that carry the best clothing line from bamboo materials. Their clothing is soft and durable and will last a lifetime if they are taken care of.

• Mineral Makeup: Companies like Larénium Mineral Makeup and Afterglow Cosmetics, they are both free of nano-particles and bismuth oxychloride. Companies like Avon and Mary Kay also have their own line of mineral makeup that is great for your skin. Just be careful when picking a mineral makeup product and read labels.

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Save water all the time. Take shorter showers and if it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down, when it comes to your toilet that is.