Organic Cotton Yoga Clothes

One of the most important things about doing yoga is to wear non-restrictive clothing.  This is why organic cotton yoga clothes are very popular.  They provide enough breathing room that you don’t have any trouble moving into positions like Downward Dog or Palm Tree, yet they are comfortable enough that you’ll enjoy wearing them for more than just yoga. Read more

Jade Mountain Solar

Living off the utility grid may seem like an impossibility, but while it is a lofty goal, it can be accomplished.  The way to do this is to utilize as many different solar products as you possibly can.  The Real Goods offered by Gaiam can allow you to start transferring your energy usage from your local power grid to various solar devices.  While it may not be quite enough to allow you to fully live off the grid, installing and using these devices can certainly help drop your utility cost and become less of a drain on the environment. Read more

Household Solar

There are many different ways to make your household a bit more solar powered.  Solar energy is a great way of powering your home and dropping your electric bill a bit.  Some of these household solar methods are easy, but some are a bit more difficult and somewhat expensive.  For example, adding solar panels to your entire roof is not going to be easy or cheap, even though it would save on a good deal of power. Read more

The Caboodle Corrugated Cat Habitat Provides Fun for Your Furry Friends

If you have cats, you know how crazy they can get over things like paper sacks or cardboard boxes.  In fact, sometimes it seems like a cardboard box is a much better toy than the more expensive fuzzy mice and other cat treats.  However, you can’t really leave empty boxes scattered around your home for your cats to play in. You can always buy those plastic cat houses, but most of them are not exactly environmentally friendly.  However, now there is a way to satisfy both your desire to be green and your cat’s love of cardboard boxes.

The Caboodle is a three-level cat house that is made from forty percent post-consumer recycled cardboard.  But it’s more than just a few cardboard boxes stacked together.  Instead, it features cut out holes for your cat to go in and out of, contoured grooming edges for your feline friend to rub against, and punch-out passages between the floors.  You can leave these punch-out sections intact if your cat is older and likes to sleep a lot or open them up if you’ve got kittens who love to romp.

Just because it’s made of cardboard, don’t expect the Caboodle to fall apart.  The walls are made out of extra-sturdy material, and they’re double-walled so the whole thing won’t collapse.  The Caboodle can actually hold up to almost 50 pounds without falling down, so even the largest cats can enjoy it.  Of course, there’s one thing it can’t hold up against: water.

The Caboodle sells for $29.95, and each cat play house comes with three Tumblorz, a cat toy made out of manufacturing offcuts.  If you love your cats and the environment, it’s one of the few recycled cat condos on the market.

Buying Green Gifts

It seems like there’s always some occasion we need a gift for.  If it’s not Christmas or a birthday, it’s Mother’s Day, graduation, a wedding, Valentine’s Day, a get well gift, a housewarming…the list of occasions seems to go on and on.  While all of these gifts will, obviously, do some damage to our bank accounts, they can also cause some damage to the environment if we don’t carefully examine the gifts we buy.

There are many different gifts out there that are environmentally friendly, however.  The most obvious is to buy someone a plant, and that’s a very appropriate gift for many occasions (housewarmings, get well gifts, Valentine’s Day).  However, you can only purchase someone so many ferns and violets before they start to wonder about you.  There are many other gifts that you can purchase that are green.  Here are just a few of them.

Buy someone a gift certificate to a spa.  Most spas are environmentally friendly, and they’re very relaxing.

Concert tickets or a pass to an art museum or history museum create very little waste.

For those who love to talk on the phone, the solar powered Bluetooth cell phone speaker from Scosche takes no batteries and works in the car so the driver isn’t distracted by trying to hold their phone and talk at the same time.

For the crafty types, take used paper and turn it into origami.  Make a string of a thousand cranes as a wedding gift (it’s considered good luck in Asia) or create some crafty puppets and other toys for kids.  As a bonus, this type of gift requires your time and creativity but not a lot of cash.

Finally, many places are now selling tumblers and other glassware made from reclaimed and recycled glass.  These tumblers are great for housewarming gifts.

The Heart of Green Awards

The Heart of Green Awards are awards that are given out to some of the top eco-friendly organizations, companies, and people in the world.  These awards are given out by The Daily Green, a website that prides itself on being the consumer’s guide to going green.  They’re one of the most trusted websites for information and news about green products, methods, and just about everything environmentally friendly.  Because of this, they’re recognized as a site that can truly select the best green companies and people out there.  This year’s awards were given out by star (and Heart of Green winner) Maria Menounos at the Hearst tower in New York City.

So who won a Heart of Green award this year?  Well, the website Planet Green picked up the Influencer Award for its educational television programming.  Actress Alicia Silverstone was honored with the Green Gourmet award for her advocation of the Vegan lifestyle.  The author of the Green This! series, Deidre Imus, picked up an award, as did fashion expert Summer Rayne Oakes.  In the food production categories, Kitchen Gardens International founder Roger Doiron was honored.  The President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Frances Beinecke, was also named a Heart of Green winner.

A few other categories were determined by the Daily Green’s readers.  They were given the chance to nominate people from their own communities for the Heart of Green Local Hero Award.  This is a very special award since it goes to those who are making a difference at the local level.  Ohio teacher Greg Perry was named this local hero by introducing his Beachwood High School students to environmentalism.  His students created the ultimate green classroom and held an environmental expo.  eBay, one of the sponsors of the awards, was given the chance to select the winner of the Green Team Community, and they chose Jennifer Canty.  She is the owner of Dyscern, a company that reformats and resells electronic equipment instead of letting it go to waste.