Archive for February, 2008

This New Year, I resolved to GET OFF THE BOTTLE! Watching the Fiji bottles pile up in the recycling week after week, shelling out $2.00 a bottle, and considering the carbon footprint with the distance from Fiji those bottles must travel, the guilt finally took it’s toll. My “conversion kit” consists of PUR faucet mount and dispenser filters and four fabulous, pricey-but-worth-it, Sigg reusable aluminum bottles.
Worth noting, Fiji, no doubt in response to growing public scrutiny, launched Fiji Green this year. Judging by their website, they’ve put considerable effort into this program, pledging to become Carbon Neutral, promote recycling, reduce packaging, and to preserve the Viti Levu rainforest with their Fiji Water Foundation. Now when I do need to buy a bottle of Fiji water on the road, I just might feel a little less guilty!

The Environmental Working Group‘s Skin Deep cosmetic safety database is a great place to start before buying any new beauty products. With 7,145 ingredients and 27,528 products (and counting) documented, you can find what is often shocking information about the toxicity of almost any beauty product on the market. My favorite feature of their site is that you can manually enter product data that has not yet been added and instantly get the EWG calculation of its potential hazard on a scale of 1 to 10. I entered the ingredient list from my fancy, imported, $40 shampoo, Louise Galvin Sacred Locks Hair Cleanser. Boasting “free from SLS, synthetic perfume, propylene glycol, phthalates, silicones & parabens”, I figured my “Sacred Locks” should spit out a squeaky clean “low hazard” report card but was suspicious enough of the less pronounceable ingredients to run it through. My shampoo scored a disappointing 4(moderate hazard). By comparison, Pantene Pro-V shampoo comes up 7 (high), while Burt’s Bees Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Shampoo scored a harmless 1! Check out the site and be sure to sign their petition asking Congress to get cosmetics companies to disclose all ingredients and to prohibit the use of the most toxic ingredients in products intended specifically for children.

When it comes to fashion, there’s nothing more green than swapping “gently worn” clothing rather than buying new but the idea of trading clothes with a stranger is decidedly unfabulous. Inhale. A dank, musky Salvation Army this is not! Teen Vogue’s Style Swap will have a DJ, stylists on hand, mini makeovers, mani-pedis, gifts, contests, refreshments and more! Details for Teen Vogue’s April event in NYC haven’t been released yet but I suggest organizing a style swap party amongst your friends in your own home. Have each guest bring at least 5 clothing items. Set up a table, a garment rack or empty out a well lit closet to hang the items in. Try to have a couple of full length mirrors available. Serve refreshments and offer to donate unswapped items to charity. Remember to take pictures and send them to me!

American Apparel‘s organic fine jersey short sleeve tees now come in 8 yummy colors. I’m not sure about the eco-friendliness of their dyes but at $15 a tee,these make a great sweatshop-free gym & weekend shirt. My wardrobe staple, their long 2×1 Rib U-Neck Tanks and most of their other items are still not available in organic cotton but I hope that changes by the time I go to re-stock later this year!

Eco-chic Footwear? We’ve got a long way to go.
Again in 2007 I found only two green footwear lines to be not entirely offensively repulsive! First, everything Stella McCartney put her name on in 2007 was brilliant from her CARE organic skin care launch to her adidas and couture clothing lines. Her vegan evening and dress shoes were especially beautiful this year. Sadly, although they claim to be eco-friendly, some of her shoes were apparently made with PVC (the single most environmentally damaging of all plastics). Is Stella an eco-frenemy or eco-friendly?!
Another English line, Beyond Skin‘s vegan and eco-friendly footwear deserves an honorable mention especially for their hot Kate slouch boot. The Beyond Skin line has been a favorite of green celeb Natalie Portman for years. I wonder what they think of Miss Portman’s new line of shoes she designed for Té Casan?? Her bio on the Té Casan website states “(Portman) noticed the absence of fashionable animal-friendly footwear and collaborated with Té Casan for her debut collection.” See you in 2008 Nat!