Tag Archives: Green

Meeting Artist/Author Franke James

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Just got back from a much needed and wonderful road trip to Toronto.

Artist /Author Franke James, whom I admire tremendously,  lives there and had agreed to meet me.

One can’t even begin to imagine my “pinch me” delight at this opportunity!  I say pinch me because Franke’s an inspiration to me.

Prior to my leaving, Franke shared some very alarming news about the canadian government blacklisting her pending european art show. Her post sharing this news was written the night before I left.  All I could do with the time I had was share a tweet about it pointing to her post. Her headline spoke to being silenced.

WOW — I found myself wondering how that would feel?

Imagine having your voice or your art completely squelched!

In today’s day of free speech and expression that just doesn’t seem possible, yet we ALL know censorship happens all the time.

On her blog post I wrote this comment:

Franke James examples creative brilliance, powerful voice and female gumption. Blacklisting her or any artist just isn’t right. Governments rearing their ugly heads like this show who and what they really are. I agree social media will have a field day with this, to your advantage I hope Franke – you deserve better.

Just watch social media will take this ugliness and story to a level not possible in traditional mediums. It will be interesting to see what happens as the situation continues to unfold.

Our time together was amusing.

My getting way lost in Toronto ( ugh ) delayed my arrival terribly.  She, in the mean time, found herself in between a conversation with Huffington Post and a radio interview.

I had all kinds of questions prepared in my head, yet with my late arrival, her flurry of activity, her returning from being out of town the days prior, and everything else. I found myself unfocused and I have to admit a bit star struck.

She told me I looked exactly like she imagined.  I felt the same way  – her big warm smile, giggly personality, cute as a button outfit and her trying to just go with the flow and make it all work was positively endearing. She, her home, her husband, her daughter just arriving for a visit and again the absolute flurry of her life all still had me feel welcomed, treasured and exactly what I might expect from Franke James.

I spoke to her about being famous and what that might be like and she just said …you mean that we might be normal despite being famous??   Uh – I had to agree!!

Franke James green journey captured my attention in 2007.  I was a brand new and very naive blogger.  I left a way too gushy “fan” comment on her post about her giving up her SUV. The truth was I had never been exposed to such original expression or voice.  She impressed me.  Her visual essays exampled the amazing potential and unique opportunity blogging offers.  She also examples a very human and accessible person.   Not often found in fame.

Since, and purely because of the blogosphere I have felt an integral part of her green evolvement and fame!   This speaks over and over to why I love the connecting and power of blogging.

Thanks to social media her recent turn events will not go unnoticed.

I look forward to continuing to be part of the story.

P.S.  Thank you Franke for the signed copy of your book, My Green Conscious!!

Images below taken by karen hanrahan 

 

 

Images below taken by Franke and Bill James 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oprah’s Favorite Things Includes Our Cleaning Products

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Oprah’s recommends! Now that’s leverage! Did you know that our green cleaning products are on Oprah’s Favorite Things List ?  She lists just 283 items, rather select wouldn’t you say after 25 years??  Gosh are we ever proud to be part of that!!  What ways are you seeking to switch to green? I’d love to help!!

image by karen hanrahan

Getting Kids Back In Touch With Nature

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This post is for this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival. The topic is ideas for getting kids back to nature. Green Phone Booth is hosting. You can view the entire collaborative commentary here

Last month I spent a day teaching kids how to make seed starter pots out of newspaper.

I was struck by several things.

What a simple fun project.

How easy it is for all ages to participate. Including myself who since has taken on planting her own seed starts!

The project involves being practical and using leftover newspapers, making something, planting a seed that one can watch grow, and growing something that is either beautiful or good to eat!!

The versatility of the project is also worth mentioning. Once the starts have sprouted a child can either plant it in their garden or in a pot on a porch or in a sunny window!! Very inexpensive also.

I was so struck by the pleasure that younger kids have in making, playing  in dirt and the idea that something will grow and become.  I was reminded of wonder and joy!!

One rather boisterous child exclaimed, “You mean it will grow and become a real flower? For real? ” His toothless grin really warmed my heart.

Make a starter pot out of newspaper or two. Plant a seed and watch it grow.  When it matures let’s say into some snap peas or radishes, or perhaps lettuce.  Eat it! And then do it all over again!!

Nature at your fingertips!

image by karen hanrahan

 

 

 

A Self Cleaning Bathroom!

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In the days of yore when all I used were chemical bathroom cleaners and typical soaps and shampoo’s from the grocery store I constantly battled with ring around the bathtub, slimy tile walls and an absolutely discusting shower curtain.

How about you ?

I felt it was a never ending battle. I also struggled with how ill I felt after I cleaned because of noxious fumes from the typical cleaning products I was using. Not to mention how positively itchy I felt after using petroleum derived skin care.

I seriously itched a good portion of my life.

Being able to clean green of course altered the chemical portion of that completely.

Three non-toxic, biodegradable products

A germicide

An all purpose cleaning product

and a scouring paste.

The most remarkable detail of using the above powerful green trio is that I could spray, scour, sanitize and mix all of these things together, without fear of a chemical melt down.

We all know that combining bleach and ammonia and other regular cleaning products is very very dangerous.

Mixing bleach and ammonia releases a gas so deadly it was once used as a chemical warfare agent. It can overwhelm a victim in less than a minute.

Yikes!!

After I was introduced to green cleaning products I was then introduced to a non-soap bar for everyday bathing.

A positively delicious oatmeal, vitamin e, wheat germ oil product that was such a shift from the squeaky clean Ivory soap I grew up with, or the Irish spring soap my husband seemed to enjoy ( gosh I hated the smell of that stuff)

I could hardly believe the difference this product made in my life.

My new non-soap bar was lovely smelling, ph balanced, and non-stripping to the skin. It actually protects the skins acid mantle versus destroying it.  I had horrific dry skin from using every day skin care products that were harsh, not ph balanced and derived from tallow ( animal fat ) and lye (the same thing that oven cleaners are made up of ).

I have introduced hundreds of people to this non-soap bar and they love it as much as I.

Here’s the deal

Soap products make soap scum – no other way to say it, soap leaves a horrific trail.

Use soap products you will have soap scum.

Use non-soap products - bar, body wash, moisturizers, shampoo’s and conditioners derived from plants and guess what?

No more soap scum. Not to mention no more dry skin.

No soap scum and you almost have a self cleaning bathtub.

I have not had a bathtub ring since 1993!

Come over anytime and look!

It’s beeee-aaa-uuu-tiful.

With regard to the discusting plastic liners for your shower?  Forget those.

I stopped using them ions ago.

I buy an all fabric cotton shower curtain – actually I buy 2 and wash one with the towels!

No more plastic touching my body, not more outgassing and no more mold.


vintage claw tub and mirror flickr image credit

How do you celebrate Earth Day?
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you?

 

What Is A Chief Sustainability Officer?

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Do the companies you purchase from, especially companies that tout their greenness, have a Chief Sustainability Officer?

What’s that?

A Chief Sustainability Officer is a CSO.

My company has one!!

Why do corporations have CSO’s?

Because they are up to stuff sustainably.

As a matter of fact our company was the very first in the world to achieve climate nuetral certification.

The very first in the entire world!  How impressive!

Jil Zilligen, whom I was in touch with in 2010 is our CSO,  and she is also very impressive!

Jil Zilligen has more than twenty years of experience creating and implementing sustainability, corporate responsibility, and education programs in both the for-profit and the social change sectors.  ( Twenty Years!!! ) She is Chief Sustainability Officer at our company, where she is responsible for developing and implementing corporate social responsibility and sustainability strategies and partnerships.

Prior, Ms. Zilligen was Chief Sustainability Officer at Nau, Inc., where she helped build a brand, product line and customer experience that minimized negative environmental impacts, maximized equity for all, and set new benchmarks for sustainability, corporate responsibility, and philanthropy.  Ms. Zilligen was also founding Executive Director of 1% For the Planet as well as Vice President of Environmental Initiatives at Patagonia, Inc., where she spent nine years developing and overseeing key programs that defined the values and corporate culture of the company.

Ms. Zilligen was named one of 25 Creative Visionaries by Time Magazine in 2007. She was an inaugural Catto Fellow with The Aspen Institute (2007-2009), an inaugural fellow in the National Committee on US China Relations’ Young Leaders Forum (2002-2004), and has served on numerous boards including the Conservation Alliance.

Nice listings of our company in the news regarding our Climate Neutral Certification

We are listed with the organization Climate Counts - see what other companies take on their sustainabilty!

We have a long history of environmental achievements!

Who would you like to purchase responsibly from?

flickr image credit