Gaiam is offering some great discounts on all their products. Here’s how it works: Get 10% off $75, 15% off $100 or 20% off $125. Use the code AFSUN7 when you check out. Expires 7.31.09. Here are a few of our favorites.
This sculptural solar lantern gathers sunlight by day and glows with natural hues by night. This weather and UV resistant hanging solar-powered lantern is printed with a floral patterns to light your deck or garden patio for up to 8 hours without electricity. Buy from Gaiam HERE.
Make bath time more enjoyable with these soft 100% organic cotton towels. Rich colors are created from low impact dyes. Plus, they support the ever-growing organic cotton movement. Buy from Gaiam HERE.
Replace a bacteria-breeding bath mat with this all-natural cork alternative. The naturally antifungal Cork Bath Mat dries quickly because it won’t hold moisture. Buy from Gaiam HERE.
Cork Bath Mat - Small
I’m sure most of people are off for the Holiday weekend, but for those of you in front of your computer, here are some great green reads from this week, from some of the best green blogs. Enjoy and have a safe and eco-happening 4th of July!
- CSX reveals new green goals as an official Climate Leader. CSX has set its sights on reducing carbon emissions by eight per cent per revenue ton mile by 2011. Read more about what this means at Ecollo.
- Inhabitat has a few super simple and practically free ways to make your BBQ, beach bash or rooftop gathering more about celebrating this years 4th of July and less about waste. Head on over HERE.
- Wanna write something? If it’s got anything to do with “the mindful life—living a good life that happens to be good for others, and our planet,” Elephant Journal will publish your worthy subject. Plus, whoever has most popular blog on elephantjournal.com wins a great big thick cool eKo Manduka yoga mat. Click yoga mat image below for all the details.
Head on over to Elephant Journal
- IdeaPaint says it has the most environmentally friendly dry-erase product on the market. If you use dry-erase products you’ll want to read about this cool, eco product. Jetson Green has the scoop.
- If you’re looking to help the environment in a more fashionable way by using products created from used plastic bottles and cans without melting them into some other shape, then Kathy DellaValle is the person you should look for. Check Kathy out over at Eco Friend.
- How do we make green thinking a real part of our daily lives? Is your household filled with green, organic, earth-friendly products? Are you thinking green enough? How much green is too much green? Find out how green you are over at The Green Girls.
- Very interesting development coming out of Las Vegas and now Los Angeles. These two cities are paying residents to have their lawns replaced with more water-friendly options. Find out all the info over at Keetsa.
We love this recycled seven bottle wine rack, which is made from the actual staves of recently retired oak wine barrels. Color and texture varies from rack to rack, influenced by not only the grain of the specific wood, but the wine that the barrel once held.
Recycled Wine Rack
Use it in the dining room before an organic meal, or to strategically place your favorite wines daily. This eco rack truly eye-catching and inventive! Racks like these are not only functional and an eco-friendly product, but are truly works of art. Perfect for our Fabulous Favorites Friday!
You can purchase it HERE from The Wine Enthusiast.
In honor of Office Depot Inc. greening up their website, we decided out eco deal of the day would come from them. I actually have this Realspace Recycled Mid-Back Multifunction Mesh Chair and LOVE it. Since I work from home and am sitting in front of my computer all day long, I needed a good chair. So I went out hunting a couple of months ago and fell in love with this one.
Realspace Recycled Multifunction Chair
The unique elastic mesh fabric adds a contemporary look to your workspace while providing a breathable, comfortable, seating surface. The adjustable armrests help reduce stress on my neck and shoulders thanks to the comfortable armrests. You can change the chair’s positioning with the touch of a finger and the Synchro tilt reclines the backrest increasing the angle between your torso and thighs for ergonomic sitting positions. Best part is it contains a minimum of 60% postconsumer recycled content!
It’s on sale (until July 4th) at Office Depot Inc. as part of their “sitting pretty sale”. Now $249.99 (from $279.99). Purchase HERE.
Autonomie Project Ethletic Flip Flops
Just in time for the heat of summer, the new Autonomie Project Ethletic Flip Flops are 100% eco-friendly and Fair Trade! Produced at the same Fair Trade facility as their sneaker collection, the Ethletic flip flops are made from unique all natural fairly traded FSC-certified rubber. The rubber is 100% natural with no added toxins or chemicals. Each pair comes with a convenient carrying draw-string bag made from 100% organic cotton. Comfy and eco-hip, these sandals are truly the ultimate in ethical summer fashion! Click HERE to purchase.
Office Depot Inc. now has a more environmentally friendly product catalog of more than 6,500 green items. Their new, “green” facelift serves as an information vehicle that outlines Office Depot’s overall environmental strategy, including how it sources merchandise, uses green products and operating strategies to run its business, and sells green products along with environmental information for customers.
The home page of the new site includes a link to the “US Greener Office Store,” where visitors can search and navigate among eco-friendly items like remanufactured and recycled ink cartridges, then click directly to the buy page. The site also features an electronic version of the Green Book Catalog, which features more than 2,200 of the retailer’s greenest products and tips on being environmentally friendly, and information on ink and toner recycling services.
Office Depot also linked its North American web site to its European environmental web sites to help customers understand the depth of the retailer’s global environmental efforts, the retailer says. This includes a link to Office Depot’s U.K. site’s UK Green Book Catalog, which has more than 1,000 environmentally friendly products.
Make shopping “green” for the masses easier by offering eco information and products?! I like it!
By day, this very cool, Jaxx Pillow Sac is a super comfortable beanbag lounge. By night, its internal recycled foam is ready for impromptu guests. Kids love to straddle it to play games and grown ups can flip it to make a cozy loveseat for two. The Pillow Sac is your own personal throne of plush recycled comfort where you can watch television, read, or surf the Internet in total comfort.
Jaxx Pillow Sac
The Jaxx Pillow Sac is on sale at the Comfort Market: reg $182.25 now $135.00. You can purchase it HERE.
GreenEarth Cleaning has developed a non-toxic and non-hazardous liquid silicone dry cleaning solvent, which is safe for you and the environment. It’s made of three natural elements: sand, water, and carbon dioxide.
Most people are familiar with the use of hazardous chemicals in dry-cleaning solutions. The primary cleaning solvent used in most dry-cleaners is perchloroethylene or “perc”. The EPA and OSHA, heavily regulate Perc due to its environmental concerns. It has caused the dry cleaning industry damage due to the costs of cleaning up sites that have been contaminated, surcharges attached to buying and disposing of the product, and public policy issues associated with the solvent.
According to GreenEarth, their technology is better for your clothes because it won’t cause fabrics to fade or shrink, allowing your garments to last longer. “Perc” and other hydrocarbons are aggressive when they interact with the fabrics and dyes. The GreenEarth Solution used to dry clean clothes is chemically inert. This means it does not chemically interact with your clothes in any way. Rather, it carries detergent to your clothes and rinses away dirt and oils trapped by the detergent. Dry cleaners who have seen the GreenEarth Solution in operation say the garments come out looking like they have been “in a mineral bath”, with a soft and gentle feel, and with very little wrinkling.
There are approximately 1,500 GreenEarth Cleaning machines being used by dry cleaners today, from single store businesses to large dry cleaning chains. Next Cleaners is a chain of dry cleaners in New York and New Jersey that has been using the new liquid silicone solvent.
I love this dry cleaning alternative made essentially from liquefied sand. That’s so cool!
The Twist European Sponge Cloths is a biodegradable and natural multi-use cloth. It can easily wipe kitchen and bath surfaces like a paper towel and absorb like a sponge.
The sponges are safe for all types of cookware (including non-stick) and can be disinfected in the dishwasher, placed in the microwave for one minute, or boiled. Using a Twist Sponge is equivalent to using 15 rolls of paper towels in an average home. With the high cost of paper towels, (at least $2 a roll), this sponge is the obvious choice for our Wee Wallet Wednesday and the environment.
Twist has set out to turn the world of cleaning products on its head by combining design and environmental responsibility to create functional, beautiful, and responsible alternatives. You can purchase the Twist European Sponge Cloth at Buy Green.
If you use Twist, let me know what you think of their products in our comment section.
Jute is a versatile, natural fiber that has been used for thousands of years to make things such as rope, twine, bags, rugs, and much more. These fibers come from the plant stalk instead of the leaves, so the fibers are softer than some other natural fiber rugs. Jute rugs more closely resemble wool more than the other natural fibers. Jute holds up well under high traffic areas such as hallways, family rooms and entryways, medium traffic areas such as dining rooms and the home office and low traffic areas such as bedrooms and formal living rooms.
Stripped Jute Rug
This Jute Striped Rug from West Elm will bring subtle texture and color to any room in your home. Best part is, it’s on sale from $16.99 to $199.99 depending on size. You can purchase HERE.
