All the Green Things Fit To BLOG!

GREETINGS AGAIN, GREENIES!

I feel like I have so much to catch with and share with you after BLOG ACTION DAY took up a whole blog..... SO!
This week it is on with the blogging about all the great green things I have found for you!!

SOAP NUTS
Soap nuts clean your laundry without detergent!

In 2006, Soapods founder Penny Morgan found soap nuts in an ashram in India. They have a natural soap inside the shell that cleans washing without the need for detergent.

And you know how much I love the things that tick all the green boxes....Soapods products are high-quality and completely environmentally friendly. They are 100% organic, cruelty free, not tested on animals, sustainable, renewable, 100% natural and.... they really work!



I met Penny, who is a very persuasive lady, and I believe it when she says that after telling all her friends about her nuts she decided that there was a potential opportunity for an eco-friendly and ethical business. Soapods was born! Check out her website for all the places to find them.

"GREEN PR, SWEETIE! I PR GREEN THINGS!"

My friend Sarah Louise Baulsh’s REVAMPT business of recycling vintage fabrics into lovely new things is going great guns. You can find her at Acton Art & Craft Market & Farmers market most Saturdays and at The Sustainability Show at O2 this weekend.

Sarah tells me she has learnt so much on her green business journey she is now able to share her wealth of knowledge and promote others with similar green business ethics and she has started GREEN PR - an offshoot of ReVampt where she offers PR services. These include help with styling shoots, creating a Marketing Calender, unique press contacts, networking, Press Releases etc and says studies have shown that people need to see your brand name 27 times for it to register and will forget it if not reminded again within 90 days! Sarah's enthusiasm for promoting the green word is infectious. So if you have a green company to promote, give her a call!!

SOYBEAM CANDLES

Liz in LA emailed to let me know that her SOYBEAM candles can now be shipped to the UK and if you and if you type in the word Friends at the checkout you will get 20% discount!

Christmas is coming!! 'Rah!

GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS

THE GREEN HAUS

I recently met Jane Mosely founder of THE GREEN HAUS which is a one stop shop for fabulous green designers and their products. With The Green Haus, Jane has created a unique showcase for the new up and coming designers of our green future.

Designers like Richard Liddle who created the RD (roughly drawn) chair

Made from 100% recycled plastic packaging waste like milk, detergent bottles & food packaging, the chairs are hand made using a revolutionary process, developed by Richard, which take on the appearance of woven metal. I love their funky look!

No two are alike.

Jane also supplies organic cotton bed linen by Amenity. Inspired by nature and committed to preserving it, Amenity makes purely organic, 320 thread count, cotton bedding collection which means it is ssssoooofft!



The fabric for this collection is certified organically grown and organically processed cotton. Each of the large-scale images is printed individually onto the fabric with non-toxic, eco-friendly, water-based dyes.


At The Green Haus, Jane has sourced an eclectic mix of products, some readily available, some made to order but all of them with sustainability at their core, the majority of which has been designed and made in the UK.

Talking to Jane, I couldn’t agree with her more when she says that sustainable design is not just about the end product but the entire product process. She also believes that sustainability should be affordable and she is on a mission to bring these gorgeous green things to us all. I LOVE her!!

IN THE STATES

Based in the Pacific North West, Zola Eco Furnishings make custom hand-made eco-friendly home furnishings. A little over two years ago, they established the goal of eliminating all toxic products from their furniture and adopting eco-friendly and sustainable practices for all of their manufacturing.



ZOLA recently supplied a piece of eco furniture for “Living with Ed”, the eco-friendly home show on HGTV with Ed Begley Jr.

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS

Talking of Ed Begley I have to blog about him again because I got this email from a designer in Nashville Tennessee:-

Alexandra,
Is there a green way to clean granite countertops?
Gloria
Beth Haley Design
www.bethhaleydesign.com

Of course if you are stuck with granite counter tops it is best not to get rid of them just to send to the landfill so my reply was:-

Gloria,
Thanks so much for your email. Granite is a very resilient surface but is still porous and can show a dark stain like red wine, so you have to be careful what you use on it if you are going to throw away your chemical surface cleaners. I would recommend my environmentalist and green friend Ed Begley's fantastic cleaning product called BEGLEY’S BEST. It comes in a concentrate, so needs less packaging. (we first used in on the Prius!! Dontcha know! It was MAR-velous!! fwah fwah!!). I can also recommend Method which is also has a range of cleaners and is economical on packaging too because it comes highly concentrated.

Best Wishes, Alexandra

For my UK readers, Ecover is a range of cleaning products that is doing very well including laundry detergent and limescale remover - which I like very much. They are available at Waitrose and other supermarkets.

Kay The Cook does not like Ecover washing up liquid so much because she doesn't think it cleans so well. I’d be interested in comments on your experience using these eco cleaners. As everyone has different standards of hygiene at home, sometimes the chemical wins over the natural surfactants. (Oooh, steady on! Big word!!)

And I still want to find out where to find ECOVER Bleach. It does all the stuff a regular bleach does but doesn't harm all the fishes in the sea. Anyone seen it? I can't find it in my local Waitrose but have seen it mentioned on their website.

I use a washing ball for my laundry and that eliminates the need for detergent all together and it's great for everything except I do like something to give me whites a wee boost now and again.

God, I sound more like my bloody mother every day…

BLOG ACTION DAY RESULTS

By all accounts Blog Action Day was HUGE success. 20,603 Bloggers participated, there were 23,327 Blog Posts (according to a Google Blog Search) and there were (at least) 14,631,038 Blog Readers. If you were one of those millions who participated because you read my blog last Monday I thank for becoming part of a Global Awareness to change the World.

NEXT WEEK
THE SUSTAINABILITY SHOW at O2
ETHICAL & FAIRTRADE FASHION - not just yoga pants, Love!
ECO HOUSE BUILDS FROM NOTTING HILL TO DEEPEST HEREFORDSHIRE

FALSE ECONOMY OR ECO-NOMISING

When I talk to prospective interior design clients about all the green things we can include in their new home, I’m often greeted with the notion that it is going to cost more money than they want to spend. Sometimes new technology means that you have to spend a bit more, but often, when incorporated with energy saving elements like solar panels and low energy appliances, you can see a return on that money in your low [or no!] energy bills and in the increased resale value of your home.

You have to see the renovation not just as an esthetic update, but as an investment. Heating our houses and water won’t be getting any cheaper any time soon.

Having said that; did you know that there are also a number of grants available to homeowners and businesses who want to lower their bills and carbon emissions? It is worth checking in your borough or state to see what’s available.

LOFT INSULATION GRANTS
For instance, in the UK, you can apply for a grant to insulate your home, regardless of your income, for up to 100% of the cost. It’s part of a government initiative to get homeowners to lower their energy bills. Losing heat from a ‘leaky’ house can cause greenhouse gases. If your house is well insulated, it keeps heat in during the cold months and the interior cool during a scorching summer. Insulation even stops noise pollution if you live near a busy road or airport flight path. Check it out and see how much you can qualify for.

LOCAL BUSINESS GRANTS
This week I met Sunny Lee. She is a very inspiring woman who works for the Merton Chamber of Commerce and helps businesses in her area recycle properly, lower energy bills and reuse their resources.
She was able to help a restaurant get a 50% grant for a new refrigerator. They were using an old, leaky fridge and the new one is much more energy efficient and pollutes less. Another company saved £8,000 over two years after making the energy saving changes she recommended.
Sunny says there are grants to be found for solar panels and other energy saving additions to your business. The price for her consultation is nominal. A mere £10. If you are in her borough, her email is sunny@southlondon.biz
Her programme is supported by The London Development Agency, so if you own a house or business in London, check online and see what’s available to you.

I encourage everyone to do the research wherever you are. There are schemes and grants for sustainable developers, homeowners and businesses being introduced all over the place so it is always worth checking your local authority/council to see what’s available.

SPORT BOTTLE
My friend, Liza in Gloucestershire, was a victim of the floods last month. Her house was not flooded, but her water supply was cut off and in two weeks she amassed an enormous heap of empty plastic water bottles. Liza said it was the first time she realised how much plastic is wasted when we drink water from a bottle.
Uh Huh!!
Americans add over 30 million plastic water bottles to their landfills – everyday!

Can I also say, plastic milk cartons?
Remember in the olden days when the milkman used to leave glass bottles of milk on your doorstep and take away the empties that were washed, filled and returned in an electric milk cart!
Who ever thought that was a bad idea?

Does the Earth really need so much plastic? I think not.
There are (still) no mineral water regulations, so chances are, tap water is as healthy as any water you can buy. It’s fresh too. A lot of bottled water can have been in storage for weeks on end in hot warehouses growing all sorts of bacteria.
Then there’s the theory that the plastic from the bottles can be harmful and so we shouldn’t be refilling the bottles we do buy. Something I used to do, thinking I was recycling/reusing as much as I can. Tests have found traces of antimony, a chemical used in the making of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, used by most mineral-water sellers. Also studies into the safety of water stored for too long in plastic bottles showed that small doses of toxins can leak into the water from the plastic. It was discovered that the toxin levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months. Something to think about…
Solution: Don’t keep buying your water in plastic bottles. Drink water from the tap, which is quite tasty here in London. Unfortunately, all Los Angeles water still tastes like a swimming pool, so I suggest you filter it. Use a Brita water filter or some other sort and carry the water around in a cool and trendy SIGGS bottle made from stainless steel. The SIGGS bottles come in lots of colours and fun designs. Check out the website.


NOW IT’S TIME FOR
GORGEOUS GREEN THINGS
Here are some of the fun and stylish 
Eco Things 
I have come across this week

REVAMP IT
STOP! Don’t throw away or take to the charity shop all that fabric you have had lurking in the back of your cupboard because when you bought it three years ago you were going to make it into…oh…something, you’ve forgotten quite what... Or those old doilies and napkins and antimacassars...or that dress with the vintage print that doesn’t fit you anymore. Give them to Sarah Louise Baulsch.
Sarah is one of my friends from the Enviro Entrepreneur School. She takes old jeans and vintage fabric and revamps them into fabulous new cushions, bags and doorstops. My favourite are her cushions made from jeans incorporating the pockets which are perfect for holding the elusive TV remote! (see photo above). I have put her in touch with my friend who has a wedding dress shop in Essex. Each season, Laura is left with a room full of her samples, some of which she sells, but some of which she bags up in mothballs. I can’t wait to see the gorgeous lavender scented pillows and ring bearers cushions that Sarah can make from all those reams of beaded silk! I have another designer friend who hangs a lot of curtains and always has a lot of the wooden curtain rings left over. I’ve asked him to start saving them. Yes, he throws them away – Eco Warrioress isn’t having THAT - so I’m giving them to Sarah and she is gong to use them for hanging Christmas decorations.

She sells her wares at markets around west London (Acton) and also on line. Please, if you have any vintage tea towels, fabric or clothes that you can’t put to any use, contact her through her website www.revampit.co.uk and send them her way.


ORGANIC UPHOLSTERY AND WALLPAPER
This week I spoke to Lisa Harland, an upholsterer whose company, Harland Organic Furnishings does what it says on the box. She uses organic and ethical fabric to cover her furniture. Hers is another company that scores high on the how-many-green-elements-can-you-include-in-your-business-practise scale and she has many to be proud of?

Some of her philosophies include using only organic cotton, hemp and organic British wool from a sustainable source. All the fabrics are biodegradable and the dyes are non-toxic. All the woods in her furniture are recycled or sustainable, she only uses non-toxic, formaldehyde-free, water-based glues and her wood finishes are non-toxic. She doesn’t use leather, only works with peace silk, where the moth has been able to mature and leave the cocoon to complete its natural life cycle and instead of using feather down, she uses organic wool balls. That’s a high eco rating if you ask me!!

We had a long chat re sourcing eco design elements like hemp and organic cotton. It can be a challenge. As a designer I need someone like Lisa to do that for me – otherwise I would never sleep!

Lisa also sells wallpaper that contains no vinyl and has no harmful chemical finishers. By law fabric has to be flame retardant and many companies fall down at that particular 'green' hurdle. However, Lisa uses naturally flame retardant fillings that comply with regulations. She says, "The nearest we get to FR's is natural borax. All of the fillings are from ethical sources, and several of them are Soil Association certified."
Wow! This is great.
Often, when you say you are ‘green’ people expect you should follow every single element to the eco letter. My philosophy is that every little bit helps and we don’t have to be as ‘Catholic as the pope’ when it comes to being green. Harland Organic Furnishings is ticking nearly every green box, for the rest of us, if we do what we can, the accumulative effect is enormous. Lisa’s company scores big points with me, not least of all because her fabric and wallpaper are so blimmin’ GORGEOUS!!
Photos of fabric and wallpaper from Mod Green Pod www.modgreenpod.com

GREEN LIFESTYLE CONSULTANT
Don’t forget, if you need me to facilitate your green makeover, give me a call. I will advise you on all things eco and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll go and find it for you. I’ll create a 'greenprint' for you and do the simple things like changing your light bulbs to the curly low energy ones, arrange for your solar panels to be installed and everything in between. You may not be able to implement everything at the beginning, but I will leave you with a list of “can do’s” to work towards for future reference. You will end up with a folder full of green solutions and websites to help you lower your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint.
Go on, you know you want to!
You know you should do!
Email me. ecowarrioress@gmail.com