Learn Green to Live Green

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Starting a green regimen can be a rather daunting task.  Even browsing the Internet yields so many “hits”, making it  difficult to determine where to begin on this journey.  Attending a green expo is a great way to get educated on green programs and products.  These events feature green commodity manufacturers who showcase their goods in a central location while permitting consumers to view these offerings thoroughly and ask questions.  Demonstrations at these events are both informative and entertaining.  

Green expos can be found in different regions of the country year round.  With a little research, it is possible to find an event in most areas.

One such upcoming event is “Greening Up at the Expo” in Central Point, Oregon this weekend (June 30 through July 1, 2012).  This expo will feature greater than 50 exhibitors and 27 sponsors and will include presentations on many areas of green living, including jobs, financing, entrepreneurship, eco-nature tourism, home building and remodeling, gardening, transportation and energy.  Further details about this expo can be found at theoregongreenexpo.com.  

A second noteworthy upcoming green expo is the “Living and Eating Green Expo 2012” in Cleveland, Ohio.  This event will feature several keynote speakers on topics such as plant-based diets, women, sex and food, food selection and cancer risk, breaking food seduction, and the impact of living green.  There will be several vendors available, who will distribute information and product samples.  Also included is a Vegan Food Fest.  The “Living and Eating Green Expo 2012” will be held on September 8-9, 2012 at Lakeland Community College.  Further information can be found at http://thejourneymag.com/living-and-eating-green-expo-2012/.

A third newsworthy upcoming green event is the Natural Health and Products Expo presented by Green Events LLC.  This expo will be held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in January, 2013.  It will feature organic cuisine, how-to workshops, and health screenings, along with a marketplace of eco-friendly businesses selling a variety of products from natural body care items to organic cotton clothing and Fair Trade gifts.  The venue for this event is the Sunnyview Expo Center in Oshkosh.  Additional information can be found at http://thejourneymag.com/living-and-eating-green-expo-2012/.

There are abundant opportunities to educate ourselves on living green.  There are numerous expos, workshops and demonstrations available to learn all facets of green living.  So, let’s educate green, live green, be green!

Go Green with Eco-Fashion

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Eco-fashion is a term that denotes the commitment of designers to produce and promote the use of sustainable, ethical and environmentally-conscious products.  The term is contemporary; however, a green relationship between fashion designers and environmentalists has existed for centuries.

The major concerns of green fashion are the following:

  • Recycling of materials
  • Origin of material (fair trade concerns)
  • Textile dying and production
  • Quality of craftmanship
  • Fair labor practices
  • Humane treatment of animals

Eco-fashion has evolved further to include reducing consumption and recognizing the need to be stylish while being fashionably green.  This movement focuses on centering a wardrobe around the basics, i.e., the little black dress or basic suit, and then accessorizing with scarves, jewelry and shoes to transition a look for different periods of the day or various events.  Magazines, television shows, You Tube videos now feature helpful money-saving and style-enhancing techniques to look nice and be green.  Also, there are several books available on the market that provide great tips on everyday and specialty and seasonal dressing, all accomplished in a tasteful, frugal and green manner.  An excellent place to start is with Katy Tsui‘s blog on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kaity-tsui/10-fashion-resources_b_1609629.html?utm_hp_ref=stylelist&ir=Stylelist.  Katy provides great multimedia references on the subject of fashion.  Her dialogue on green responsibility is refreshing in its simplicity.

There are so many ways to go green, and eco-fashion is a fun way to get involved.

Let’s dress green, go green, be green!

 

 

Thinking Twice on How We Shower

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While most of us take something as simple as showering for granted, others in the third world live without this luxury due to the dearth of available running water. If only there was a way to adequately shower without expending this valuable resource!. Thanks to South African innovator Ludwick Marishane, the paradigm has shifted in the way we look at showering.

Inspired by his lazy friend who saw too much effort required to shower in his rural village of South Africa, Marishane took it upon himself to develop an agent that would replace the need for showering with running water. His patented invention, called “DryBath, helped him win the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year, Award, and is an odorless and biodegradable gel applied to the skin that creates soap suds. In this way, nations are able to reduce water waste that result from showering.

As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention” and none is more apropos than the example of DryBath. Rural South Africa, with its lack of running water nationwide, facilitated the idea of showering without water. And while DryBath will help similar nations preserve the precious resource of water, it has also revolutionized the way we think about showering here in first world nations. The savings associated with using less water with showering is staggering. An average shower uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute, which multiplied by the average family unit of four people and 15 minutes per shower is 150 gallons of water per household per day. Multiply that number, which is for showers only, by the number of households in a nation and you can start to see the irony in the size of the spring on the Poland Spring water bottle.

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DryBath, if it is safe, which is a pretty large assumption we are making here, would be a huge win for sustainability, and would completely alter the way we maintain our personal hygiene. While not a necessity to adopt such technology, utilizing such an innovation would help to preserve this natural resource, and would be another way where we can both live green, and be green.

How About TVs?

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Dishwashers and refrigerators, washers and dryers… no big deal when it comes to finding environmentally friendly, certified products, right?  Not quite.  How about smaller electronics?  How about TVs? 

Just recently I was shopping around for a 50-55″ television set, and I was sure I would be able to pick out a great quality, great priced TV.  I was extremely surprised at how, even at larger sizes, televisions which are certified as “eco-friendly” are virtually impossible to come by.  I visited several brick and mortar stores and countless websites, and was surprised that there really aren’t any certified green TVs.  Yet.

I was able to stumble across an article, which I have to assume is somewhat breaking news, about South Korea’s major appliance manufacturers’ recent achievements in green certification.  Samsung and LG brand giants both have been able to produce Smart, 3D TV units that have actually been dubbed, by several European organizations, as having energy efficiency and low carbon emissions. 

Well, bravo!  Although it seems only a small step in a long line of strides to come, it is positive progress nonetheless.  Soon, I hope, it becomes industry standard to produce TV sets that are certified as eco-friendly on a worldwide scale.  (That will at least make my shopping selection a tad bit easier!)