![The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget](/files/josh.jpg)
consumer products
Book Review: The Lazy Environmentalist on a BudgetSubmitted by SSF on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 12:50am.
Filed in: architecture | beauty | book reviews | consumer products | fashion | interior design | tips
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Lauren SpaSubmitted by Sustainable Sean on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 10:36pm.
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Twist solves sponge dilemmaSubmitted by Sustainable Sean on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 6:56pm.
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Java Jacket JunkieSubmitted by SSF on Tue, 04/22/2008 - 12:02pm.
Filed in: consumer products
Seattle is notorious for its coffee consumption. In the home of such illustrious caffeine pushers as Starbucks, Tully’s and Seattle’s Best Coffee, Seattleites are Buzzed by the Bean pretty much constantly. Walk around the downtown any time, but especially first thing on a rainy workday, and you’ll discover that cups of coffee are as ubiquitous as fleece, as numerous as raindrops. Being the generally eco-conscious city that we are, many Seattleites carry their own travel mug to work and enjoy coffee that stays hotter longer without contributing to global warming. But what to do when you forget your travel mug at home? Or when you forgot to wash it out on Friday, and now, come Monday, you dig it out from the bottom of your bag only to discover that Horton’s Whos have built an entire civilization at the bottom of the cup? Promising yourself that you’ll send a check to Greenpeace, you enter your favorite coffee establishment and order something complicated in a disposable cup. You reach for one of those cardboard sleeves that keep your fingers from roasting along with the beans—but wait! That beautiful, bird’s-eye-maple bangle you chose to accentuate your khaki capris and earth-toned tunic is also a java jacket! Another sustainable brainchild from Vancouver, BC-based contexture design, the coffee cuff is both bangle and friend to the fingertips and is made from reclaimed veneer offcuts generated by furniture makers. Only $68 Canadian, the cuffs are satisfying in both form and function(s), turning the quotidian experience of a double-tall, non-fat vanilla latte into a sustainable, stylish statement.
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Contest - One Good ChairSubmitted by SSF on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 11:21pm.
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A tale of two cardigans and a hankieSubmitted by Cristina Sacco on Mon, 02/11/2008 - 12:17pm.
Here's where I have to confess that I am a knitter and I know how long it takes to knit an adult-sized cabled cardigan. Even at wholesale prices, the yarn is a significant cost, so I have difficulty believing that the people knitting these sweaters are working under good conditions, being paid a fair wage. To be fair, the error here is in the magazine, the manufacturer makes no claims of ethical production, the magazine does. If being hand-made is promoted as an ethical attribute of a product (whether by the manufacturer or by a magazine), think twice about the labor involved and check to see if the manufacturer has Fair Trade credentials. Or, if all else fails, learn to knit or crochet your own cardigans, but I will write more on that subject another time. Ok, I have an addendum this week, so that I don't get renamed "The Skeptical Shopper": Since Ari mentioned disposable tissues in her latest Green Revelation post (Waste Not Want Not), I thought it was a good time to reveal my little-known affection for the handkerchief. Of my small handkerchief collection, my favorite is by Sukie. Sukie hankies are 100% cotton (not organic), printed in the UK, are easy to wash by hand in the sink, and dry very quickly. They are also beautiful and soft, and make having a cold just a little bit more tolerable.
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Livity gives sustainability a BoostSubmitted by SSF on Fri, 02/01/2008 - 2:59am.
Filed in: advertising, marketing, pr | arts | consumer products | entertainment | fashion | music | product reviews | youth
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Bags of Change in BritainSubmitted by Cristina Sacco on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 12:12pm.
Filed in: consumer products | SSF Europe
All the men out there buying organic goods write to Bags of Changeand ask them to introduce more styles, as these bags are clearly aimed at women. Shops in the scheme sell a wide range of products, including food, paint, mattresses, toys, cleaning products, vitamins, and luggage. Wouldn't men enjoy a discount on these things too?
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The End is Upon UsSubmitted by Ari on Thu, 01/24/2008 - 12:39pm.
Filed in: consumer products | events | food & restaurant | Green Revelation | news | non-governmental organizations | tips | urban planning
(Ari, Seattle, WA) First, welcome to my new blog, "Green Revelation". This is my first entry to I hope you enjoy. Now, on to business... I have a confession to make: I am a terrible person. Now, I don’t produce child porn, I’m not in charge of a human trafficking ring or anything--I don’t even honk my horn when I’m driving (which I don’t do very often). See, these things are all obvious, big terrible things in which to partake. My crimes are much more slippery. I commit them in thousands of tiny decisions each week—decisions I make because I’m tired, or broke, or late and unorganized. It’s only after a while, when I’ve realized how far I’ve slipped from my original intentions that the guilt of my sins begins to weigh on me. It’s only then when I start feeling like a hypocrite, when the guilt makes me clench my jaw at night and I get defensive over every little thing, that I know I need to make a change. I am a young, well-educated, recently graduated 22-year-old woman. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. My best friend has convinced me that the apocalypse is coming, perhaps related to peak oil, rapidly approaching in 2012. Last year I wrote a paper on the true state of organics, where I investigated how good organic farming really is for the environment. For the first time in my life I am living on my own and I have total control over what I do with my money and myself, but I am not upholding my beliefs. It is time for me to try harder. Last night my roommate and I got in a fight over some vegetables. On the way home, we happened by this fruit and vegetable stand with awesome looking stuff at dirt-cheap prices. We stocked up, and I was thrilled at the giant load and the tiny bill. Later, he lamented over all the pesticides we’d be eating, all the guilt he felt for not buying local and organic stuff. It’s not fair trade. It’s genetically modified. It’s covered in pesticides. It’s from so far away. Think of all the oil! And the workers! And your body! I got mad. We can’t afford all organic food! It’s so privileged to be able to! I’m not a yuppie! Fine, let’s just throw it all away, would you like that!!?? It’s a tough thing, to be criticized for the way you live. It’s tough, after making all these rationalizations as to why, at this particular store, at this particular time, it’s okay to buy conventional. It’s especially hard to see the all the milks, side by side, ranging from $2.99 to $5.99 and picking the more expensive one. But the thing is, regardless of all the ways in which I think it might be better for me, when I make the decision to buy conventional, I am not alone. If I can’t make the change, as a young, educated person who believes all the hoopla and searches “apocalypse” and “2012 peak oil” just to freak herself out on a regular basis, what does that mean for the rest of the population? If it’s so easy for me to make it okay not to buy local organics and other green products, many other people must be making the same decisions. For me, it all comes down to this: If you type “peak oil” into wikipedia, it will tell you that depending on how quickly supplies become scarce, and depending on how much we have prepared alternative energy sources for the occasion (which isn’t much), the chain reaction might cause a global depression that may lead to the collapse of global industrial civilization as we know it. Now, regardless of whether all of this actually happens, things have got to change. It might already be too late! In any case, I want to start trying to live differently now. I want to save energy, reduce my impact on the planet, and stop benefiting from the exploitation of workers worldwide. And if that means buying milk for $5 instead of $3, well, that doesn’t seem too bad anymore, does it?
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Beyond the "Stuff"Submitted by Rebecca Luke on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 1:44pm.
Filed in: beauty | consumer products | fashion | food & restaurant | garden & landscaping | interior design | tips | travel
In today’s world, we are hearing the word “green” and “sustainable” alot. We are hearing these words attached mostly to what we can buy to save the world. While this is a terrific start, there is more to be considered. Recently, a client of mine forwarded an email of a video that had been shown in her grade school child’s classroom “The Story of Stuff”. It is a fabulous and entertaining way to check out the production of “stuff” and how it impacts us socially and environmentally. In 2008, I plan to devote a majority of my blogs to what we can do to save the world and keep it consistent with our personal “style”. Our fall interns, Anne-Marie and Olivia, worked hard on creating fantastic list of Sustainable Style Living Tips and I am going to put their work to great use. Stand by for a new tip every week. Also, there are several books out there to check out as well; if you do a quick search for “ways to live green”, a good collection of books and other blogs will come up. For us at SSF, it’s about looking at the big picture, beyond green. I look forward to your comments and an on-going dialogue about how we can continue to save the world in style.
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Book Review - Green is the New BlackSubmitted by Cristina Sacco on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 12:09pm.
Blanchard’s excitement for the topic is endearing and effective, however, Green is the New Black is not without flaws. Blanchard makes a few irritating errors, such as referring to Shirley Manson as the singer of the band Rubbish instead of Garbage, and saying that apple cider vinegar is an alkali (it’s an acid, just like every other vinegar). Also, the section on skincare should have been better- researched for a number of reasons. Firstly, it fails to mention exactly which chemical ingredients are to be avoided in skin and hair care products. Secondly, the discussions of specific different skin and hair care brands is full of vague marketing language like "natural ingredients" lacking in legal and scientific value. Finally, Blanchard and her guests' passages mention brands which do sell products containing parabens and other nasty chemical preservatives against which she had previously cautioned. It's frustrating that this chapter is so substandard as there are good British skin care brands out there, and many international brands are also available here. Faults aside, this is an enjoyable read, and will certainly tempt those who love to shop and are looking to do so more responsibly this year than last.
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Product Review - Solio Hybrid ChargerSubmitted by SSF on Sun, 12/23/2007 - 12:22pm.
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The miracle on the Han river could repeat againSubmitted by Pier Paolo on Sat, 12/08/2007 - 5:26pm.
Filed in: architecture | arts | beauty | consumer products | entertainment | events | fashion | SSF Europe
(Pier Paolo - Torino, Italia) The recent appointment of Seoul as World Design Capital in 2010 could be interpreted in two different ways at least. From one hand we could read the attempt to free South Korea from the stereotyped image of the ICT Nation above all. On the other hand we could consider the effort to include a lot of design Korean actions under the same umbrella named Design. In short, the attempt to boost quality and exports of Korean car district well represented by companies such as Hyundai, Kia or Daewoo, considered worldwide as the second regional business segment after IT (with two Korean pillars: Samsung and LG). And giving authoritativeness to international events such as Design Korea, founded in 2003 and now arrived at the third appointment. This event (International conference, exhibition and so on) very attractive for the international design community, has the cultural objective to put together ideas, design policies, associations, institutions, designers, critics and students. And they do it very well under the coordination of KIDP (Korean Institute of Design Promotion), the real motor of all these events. Therefore the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-Hoon, last October (when the city was named World Design Capital 2010) mentioned the so call “miracle on the Han river”. This is the period between Sixties and Seventies in which there was an extraordinary and rapid economic and industrial growth in Seoul, the city in which the river Han flows. So Seoul triumphed over cities such as Dubai, Singapore and Toronto and it is really worthy of this appointment beacuse of all the efforts to support a real international culture of industrial design at different levels. The Korean city and its area (which has about 20 million of inhabitants) will be for one year backstage and background of the design events. However my feeling is that Seoul is already an ICT and design international capital. It seems that WDC nomination is going to move rapidly from cities that consider design as an instrument for transformation and social-economic change (this condition seemed to be really important at the beginning of the award WDC), to capitals already known as design or ICT cities. In short, from an award to virtuous cities with their processes of transformations to an award to industrial districts and companies. Of course this nomination is a positive message for European cities such as Barcelona, London, Milan, they will have more chances to get this award. What about other fizzy and interesting cities such as Valencia or Gwangju? (picture by Sergio Corsaro)
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Build Your Own Green Child!Submitted by SSF on Thu, 12/06/2007 - 1:22pm.
Filed in: consumer products | youth
According to the story in the Power House Experiment Manual, a group of people live on an island with no phone, no pool, no pets. They have only the resources nature and the island provide, so they must use what they have carefully. The kit teaches you to live sustainably: you build a model house that has solar panels, a windmill, a greenhouse, a desalination system, a solar cooker, a solar hot water tank, etc. Robinson Crusoe would have given Friday up to the cannibals in exchange for one of these kits. There are 70 experiments and 20 building projects designed to educate about the basic principles of natural energy sources. Get your kids ready either for a science fair or to survive on Gilligan's Island, or just teach them some nifty, hands-on, sustainable science as they build an electric car and make their own sauerkraut. Some of the projects include: build a sail car and discover how wind can be harnessed by sails and wings to produce energy. Bake bread in your own solar cooker. Get energy from sunflowers. For ages 12 and up. Prices on the Internet range from $119 to $149.
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Book Review - Auto ManiaSubmitted by Sustainable Sean on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 6:40pm.
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