A Self Cleaning Bathroom!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Karen Hanrahan

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?

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Karen Hanrahan

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

Vinegar For Cleaning Is The Same As Water

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Karen Hanrahan

The days of wanting to clean green have many of us considering folklore solutions. While vinegar is a classic alternative, in my personal experience it had me working WAY too hard to get something clean, yes — I thought my elbow grease was my green determination.

One has to suffer to be green and all.

Hey - it just ain’t easy being green.

Vinegar left my home smelling a lot like a salad dressing. I happen to like the smell of a salad dressing, but not as a part of my everyday smells decor. I thought to myself – there has to be a better way. As I experimented with cleaning products on the market, I found myself still applying way too much determination to my green cleaning efforts, seemingly these so called products just didn’t work.

When I discovered my organic cleaner, the signature product from a wonderful very established wellness company. I felt I had finally found something that cleaned beautifully! As a matter of fact it simplified my cleaning tasks dramatically with its ease of use. I was astounded by the mutiple ways this product could be used actually defining multi-use to a new level.

An online discussion thread shared by Sue was very interesting. Sue’s biochemist husband verified the difference between vinegar and this amazing product. Thanks Sue.

Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid, added to water it’s main effect is to lower the pH of water and make it more acid. As a cleaner, it is not particularly effective except that it dissolves soil, which by the way so does water, and /or makes the pH low enough to distress bacteria on surfaces.

The product I clean with is a surfactant. It performs like a detergent to break up soil of various kinds so that they can be washed away. In addition, because of it’s surfactant properties it will dislodge bacteria trapped in residue on surfaces so they can be washed away. Also it disrupts the cell wall of bacteria ( which contains lipids ) and makes them very sick or dead. While we are not clear how it might do on virus’s, it’s fair to say that as effectively as it removes residue from surfaces it stands to say that more virus’s would be washed away than with a less effective cleaner

Our product does everything vinegar does plus WAY more. Without the smell of a salad dressing!

Regulations limit us to say that this product is a germicide, this is also true of vinegar, it is utter folklore that make people believe that vinegar is an effective cleaner/germ killer. In fact, plain old soap will disrupt the germs of any surface.

A reminder of the advertising ploy of anti-bacterial products on the market. Don’t go there.

Note also that all green cleaners are not created equal.

As a matter of fact some are down right harmful.

green beads of clean flickr image credit

Germicide Halts The Spread Of MRSA

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Karen Hanrahan

Each April, in addition to sharing the natural approaches to health via nutritional supplementation, I devote additional advocacy to the wellness of this planet.

I recently read a powerful testimony about the infection MRSA and our germicide.

The testimony was written by a nurse who represents a company who cares for the mentally challenged in group homes.

MRSA (methicillin resistant staphlococcus aureus) was rampant in several of the group homes.

This nurse implemented an alternative cleaning protocol that halted the spread of MRSA.

Let me repeat that – HALTED the spread of MRSA.

At the homes that didn’t follow the protocol another outbreak occurred.

Astounding.

She said, “The important thing we learned from all of this is that an ounce of prevention goes a long way.

That ounce of prevention was our germicide diluted, placed in spray bottles, and used everywhere.

One of the additional testimonies she shared was that folks with MRSA are often instructed to take baths with BLEACH.

Can you imagine bathing in bleach?

germ art flickr image credit

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

How To Make Seed Starter Pots Out Of Newspaper

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Karen Hanrahan

When I went to YouTube to see if there was a video that shared how I was taught to make these newspaper seed pots I could not find the exact version

And while I appreciate many things about YouTube, when I am learning how to make something I have to say a video sometimes frustrates me

so…

here is my version of how to…

Of course. I didn’t have a boo clue how to make these before a few weeks ago when I took this lovely local workshop.

I am going to help kids make these all day tomorrow at the Illinois Sustainable Living And Wellness Expo

Note: I have these images sized small because of the number of them, you can click on the image to make it larger if you care to

Here are the directions:

1. one newspaper sheet, multiple ply

2. fold in half lengthwise

3. fold to make a triangle

4. cut at bottom

5. unfold and count three ply of squares

6. fold into thirds one way and then the other

7. unfold and cut all four corners/use fold lines as a guide

8. gather corners from two sides to form a square and staple

9. complete with other sides

10. fill with seed starter soil ( seed starter soil is not expensive – it’s different from top soil or potting soil – who knew!), use a pencil to measure appropriate seed depth, plant seeds!!

11. water, place in container and cover.