Practically Green

We're greening the lunchbox!

I have two small children hitting bit milestones:  kindergarten and preschool first days.  For the young one, the big excitement is the backpack.  For my older guy, it's all about the two days a week he gets to eat lunch at school and what kind of lunchbox he gets.  I have to admit that I wax nostalgic for my Hardy Boys lunchbox.  I also think I had Dukes of Hazard.  They were green in the sense they didn't waste a bag every time.  But not so sure about that paint and aluminum...

I'm not crazy about vinyl used in some of the soft lunchboxes so many of the traditional ones aren't an option--even though yes, I know a Phillies one would send him over the moon.  As I've perused lots of *greener* lunch boxes, I think we've settled on the Goodbyn.    

He can make it his own with Stickers (and I'll find some red sox ones to compensate)!!  And mom can try and protect him with the allergy ones!  It's also able to be put in the dishwasher, can be recycled, and made in the USA.  
 

Florida vacation...not so green

It's amazing how travel can take a perfectly eco-friendly family and turn them into an eco-disaster.  And I'm not just talking about the flying.

* cleaning/laundry products at rental house:  not so green with one notable exception:  Greenworks all purpose cleaner.  Never been so happy to see the stuff...

* disposable diapers up to 6 a day: not the 1 a day + gdiapers.  Gdiapers just no so practical when you don't have easy access to laundry.  Yes, if I were hardcore I could wash in the sink.  I'm not hard core.

* lots of take-out and "on the go" foods = plastic, styrofoam plus trash.  Lots.  If I were carrying a trash bag throughout this week, I would be lugging 2 bags home---we normally create 1/2 a bag a week.

* no whole foods = overloads of high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors/flavors, and hormones/anti-biotic laden meat and dairy--except a few things.  We've been able to mostly find organic milk.  And Publix did carry Ian's chicken fingers and stonyfield farm yogurts.  Otherwise pretty much back to conventional.  

And let's not start with the lack of access to recycling.  So far, my father in law is the greenest of the bunch and recycles.  Everything and everywhere else?  Not so much.  

It's good to venture back into "business as usual" land for a while and remember that this is life for most people.  It's not always easy to be green--and definitely less so when you are traveling.  It's a good wake up call though to think ahead.  We could definitely have lessened the impact of this trip with a little advance planning...

Confessions of a Prius Convert

This blog entry was originally posted on BoMoms.com.

Posted by: greenmom on September 24, 2008 at 10:11PM EST 

On June 30th, I blogged about our efforts to find a bigger, but greener car.  It needed to fit, bare minimum, 2 adults, 2 car seats and a dog who goes everywhere plus various athletic gear, groceries, etc.  We looked at nearly every hybrid SUV on the market--the Lexus, Highlander, Escape, and Saturn.  In the end, we debated trying to eke out another year from our Audi, frustrated at the lack of choices, the high cost, and mileage that is much better than a conventional car, but still under 30 mpg. A lack of enthusiasm and inertia took over and we did nothing.

Then I read a review of the Prius on Consumer Reports and noticed they had classified it as a mid-size vehicle.  I had pegged the Prius similar to a Mini-Cooper:  the "perfect for single people or couples, but totally not practical for families" vehicle class.  On a whim and figuring it would just confirm our assumptions, we went to our local Toyota dealer and test-drove one.

I now know what all the fuss is about.  First of all, it is WAY bigger inside than it looks.  It easily fits two car seats and because it's a hatch back, the dog fits even with sports stuff and groceries.  We are both tall and had heard the Prius wasn't great for tall people.  That is true, if you are over 6' 3"-- which neither of us is.  

Second, it is really fun to drive and also feels safe.  It accelerates and manuevers well, the push button start feels very Jetsons, and the on screen "fuel efficiency gauge" is totally addictive to watch.  You don't get that "I could get totally squashed" feeling when you drive next to an SUV due to it's height and size.  While it's light weight, it still feels very solid.

Third, and most importantly, it legitimately gets around 50mpg in a mixed city/highway commute.  That alone will save us about $3,000 per year versus the Audi AND we get to feel good about reduced carbon emissions.

We became total Prius converts.  The only issue after falling in the love with this car is that it is darn near impossible to get one.  The backlog for a new one is running 6 months at many dealers.  We started looking for a used one and noticed that the used prices are HIGHER than the new ones.  It took several weeks, but we finally found a slightly used, fairly priced one and snapped it up---and yes, averaged 51.6 mpg in our first day driving it.

Now, I do confess that the wagon will remain the road trip/Costco car.  I foreshadow a second look at the Highlander Hybrid 8-seater (hopefully a lot more options are out by then) down the road, when the wagon dies and we are schlepping 10 year olds to t-ball.

But for now, the only debate is who gets to drive it.

 

When the dollhouse is greener than the real house

'Tis the season of catalogs despite best efforts to get them to stop them from coming.  And yes, I reluctantly admit they help with idea generation.  

My favorite eco-friendly kids item so far, both for the creativity and a bit of comedic irony, is the Eco-friendly Dollhouse.  

Yes, now your child's doll-house can have a wind turbine and solar panels, a super-organized recycling center, and rain-barrels.  It's featured in the LandofNod.com site and catalog.  While it doesn't really fit this family's gift budget, it's a whole lot cheaper than the real solar panels and I imagine significantly fewer zoning issues on the wind turbine.  

Cost aside, I do like that it's made of rubberwood and recycled materials and I love that it inspires kids to begin thinking renewable energy should just be a normal part of life and homes, and play.

 

Can TV be Green?

We've all had it drilled into our heads that too much TV isn't very good for us--or our kids.  But how bad is it for the environment?  In addition to the impact of manufacturing and shipping, according to the CEC, TV's account for about 10% of power usage in a household, up from 3-4% before the introduction of Plasma & HDTV's.  Still not the refrigerator, but not a great trend.

As a result, California has just announced new standards for TV efficiency, which will help cut back the energy use over time.

And NBC has decided to do their part for greening up TV by "going green" on 5 shows which will include Al Gore as a guest on 30 Rock and green themes were added to The Office, Heroes, the Biggest Loser, and Community.  Read More About NBC Green TV.

So no--TV just isn't green.  But it can be entertaining, educational, and the best way to get a shower in before work.  So keep the doses small, invest in a power strip and energy star equipment, and watch Planet Green or Al Gore on 30 Rock--- and it's practically green.

Green diaper bag and gear picks + a cloth diaper expert in Somerville

I've recently been back in the market for a diaper bag.   Even as I wrestle with the conflicting evidence about reusable versus disposable diapers,  I'm amazed at how much greener the diaper accessories have become in the last few years.  So far, some of faves include:

1. Re-run Messenger Bag by Fleurville

The bag and changing pad fabric is made of recycled water bottles and the whole bag is PVC and Teflon free.  It's also large enough to carry all the baby accessories without causing serious shoulder pain.  The company has also become a certified green business in Marin County for using overall green business practices.  You can select from some beautiful silk-screen designs in pink, moss green or brown---or go with the minimalist and gender neutral black and red option.  I found the bag on Fleurville.com and at Zappos, but didn't see it anywhere locally.  Let me know if there is a local place to purchase!

2.  Clean and Green biodegradable diaper bags or a Wonderbag

Whether you go reusable or disposable, there are times when you need to carry around a used diaper and need a bag.  You can go with a more reusable solution, like the waterproof Wonderbag which offers two sides, one for clean and one for dirty.  However, for the times when you just want plastic, the Clean and Green bag is biodegradable and claims to disintegrate in less than 3 years.

 

3.  Organic cotton wipes and spray or flushable organic/biodegradable wipes.

If you want to use reusable cloth wipes, Under the Nile sells 100% organic cotton wipes and Mama Roses offers an all natural soothing spray for times when water isn't available.  However, if you want the all in one package option, Avalon Organics offers flushable, biodegradable fragrance free wipes.

 

4.  Finally, diapers.  After reading the recent Globe article about this very debate, I still think I lean towards reusable and cloth as the greener solution.  However, cloth still seems so much harder than Huggies.  Fortunately, a new Boston company has just launched to help moms everywhere determine options if they want to investigate or have decided to go the cloth route.  Diaper Lab offers 1:1 consulting and a retail store for supplies and accessories in Somerville, not to mention a good online retail store for diapers and accessories.    So while the picks above will help you schlep everything around, I'll leave it to the local experts to recommend what's best for the actual diapers.

Raising green kids

In the market of carbon calculators and green tools, most are too complex and hard for moms--let alone kids. 

However, ZeroFootprint and WGBH have teamed up on Meet the Greens and their calculator is fun and easy to use, asking questions like how they get to school, how often they shower, whether they have a summer home or a lawn.  It compares their answer to the US Average across four categories:  carbon, trees, water and land.  They can also toggle for the average for other countries.  If you have kids old enough to read, this quiz is definitely a fun way for them to learn about the impact of their lifestyle and decisions on the planet.  Just get ready for them to try and out-green you!

http://www.meetthegreens.org/features/carbon-calculator.html

Our walls are anything but green

I am just wrapping up my second class in the Boston Architectural College's Sustainable Design program.  I learned a ton.  I particularly learned that I should have taken this class BEFORE renovating the house. 

In one assignment, I had to calculate the R-value of our home's wall assembly (note that I had had no idea that walls had an R-Value.  Thought that was just for the windows).  I read that in Massachusetts, the ideal insulation value for the wall is 20.  My first pass at the calculation I got a 4.85 for our walls.  I assumed I just made a mistake.  Reviewed several times, but nope--got it right.  Our walls are HORRIBLE because while we have thick brick and horsehair plaster, no insulation.  And brick just doesn't help much.  The next module required us to calculate the heat loss for the house.  Needless to say, the amount of BTUs lost per hour is simply staggering.

It also explains why the energy audit people gave me kind of a strange look when I said "so--we're pretty green right" and pointed out that old, big homes are rarely that green and we were maybe a 4 out of 10.  I was crushed.

We had insulated the roof and that made a huge difference, but in hindsight, we just should have done all the walls, even if it would have added a complication.  Improved insulation would have made an even bigger energy difference than our fancy schmancy co-generation system.  So if you are trying to be green in a cold weather climate (or even a hot weather one with A/C), make a date with someone who can tell you about your walls. 

New options for recycling electronics

We have a stack of totally irrelevant and useless electronic items accumulating dust in our basement.  A 20 year old VCR.  A digital camera that never really worked well along with several of the film versions.  A Camcorder...no, not the digital kind---but it was used for the wedding video!  

We can't put them in the recycle bins and I find I always miss that "once a year" date when you might be able to.  I finally have resolved to get rid of them, but how to do it in a green, responsible way?

The first place I checked out was Gazelle.com, a website that will buy your old electronics from you.   The good news is that they were willing to take the Camcorder and the broken digital camera for recycling.  The bad news---my items were not worth a penny.  So they will send me the box and everything I need to recycle them, but no money.  They also wouldn't recycle the old cameras or VCR, but had a link to possible recycling centers near me.  It was a nice concept, but those recycling centers wouldn't take the cameras or VCR's either.

That's  when I heard about Best Buy's recycling program.  Anyone can drop off up to 2 electronic items, per household per day, for recycling.  All my items seem to qualify.  And no shiping back and forth.    Thank you, Best Buy!

They say it's part of the Greener Together movement, but I think there is another motivation.  Funny how this recycle trip will probably mean I buy that back up drive I've been meaning to get...

Posted by: greenmom at 1:24PM EST

Hairspray: a hard habit to break

Hairspray: a hard habit to break 

Posted Originally on BoMoms.com 

I just came to the last of my Garnier Fructis XXL volume hair spray and realized that this was probably another bad habit I just needed to kick.  Twenty years ago I had stopped the aerosol version, but I rely daily on hairspray to be able to see easily out of both eyes.  A check on the Cosmetics Database confirmed my suspicions.  It's a high hazard or "red" product coming in at a 7/10.  Mine, in particularly, was off the charts bad.

I know the healthiest thing would be to just pin my hair back, get bangs, or survive with it falling in my face all day. But I'm a creature of habit and I like my hair the way it is and out of my face.  Hair spray stays.  But what to do to be healthier?!  

Fortunately, there were over 15 "safe" options and much to my surprise, not all of them were hard-to-find enviro brands.  Coming in at #2 on the list of "safest" brands was a plain old Clinique non-aerosol.  If you are open to going up to "3" on the hazard list, you will find Clairol and Aveda.  Several brands, including one that I am trying (J/A/S/O/N Naturals) are readily available at Whole Foods.

Even some of the "safe" brands have nasty stuff in them, particularly denatured alcohol.  But a non-alcoholic option does exist by Naturade if you want to avoid any single ingredient that ranks higher than a 2 on the hazardous list.

It's always interesting to try new products and see what works.  So far, I'm not a huge fan of J/A/S/O/N but mostly because I hate the smell, even though it's fragrance free.  I see a Clinique or Aveda test in my future, but any and all recommendations are welcome.  Except one that involves a clip, bangs, or not being able to see.

Note to Readers:  I will be off for a few weeks to adopt a baby girl in Vietnam.  I'll take lots of green travel notes and share either from there or when I return.  Best,  Susan