I grew up in New York City and, as a result, for most of my life the most New Age-y thing I did was drink tea. Let me tell you, New Yorkers don’t know their chakras from their asses.
Now, after five years in California, I go to acupuncture, own a pair of Birkenstocks and my boyfriend’s mother is a healer. Fancy that.
The older I get the more my sensibilities change and things that used be squarely in the crazy-old-hippy corner I now find very appealing. Take, for example, the Awakening Consciousness for Girls and Awakening Consciousness for Boys by Robin Marvel, two workbooks designed to encourage spiritual growth in children and to guide them on a path of self-awareness. These are books you’ll want under your tree this Christmas.
The High Line, located on the lower west side of New York in the Meatpacking district, is the latest way Manhattan shows itself to be an innovative player on the green scene. The park is created from ‘found’ material—abandoned elevated train tracks.
The original Art Deco structure was built in the 1930s as a way for dangerous freight trains to circumnavigate the metropolis. Green aspects of the High Line include a focus on the planting of native species of grasses, trees, shrubs and perennials. Inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the out-of-use elevated rail tracks during the 25 years after the trains stopped running, many of the species that originally were on the High Line’s rail bed are incorporated into the park landscape. At night, the park’s pathways are illuminated by energy-efficient LED lights.
The greenway currently runs through Chelsea but is expected to travel into Hell’s Kitchen when complete. Check out my video of the High Line and see for yourself.—Michelle Zaffino
p.s. No more peepshows in the park. We hear that guests at the Standard, that hotel with impossibly large windows located atop the High Line, now have to sign waivers at check-in that they’ll close the room blinds and promise to keep their exhibitionist tendencies in check.
Does even your hair get stressed during the holidays?
If the thought of a gluttonous Thanksgiving, followed by a decadent Christmas, followed by a sauce-heavy New Year’s Eve has you frazzled, you need to relax. I suggest you start with your hair follicles.
Designed for dry and stressed hair, Lavera’s Rose Milk Repair Shampoo contains organic rose flower water to support tired hair. Organic oils of macadamia, avocado, and jojoba replenish moisture to overextended follicles, while wheat protein helps replace elasticity and prevent breakage. The shampoo is SLS-free and, like all of Lavera’s products, meets BDIH Certified Natural Cosmetics Standards, the world’’s strictest certification process.
This holiday season lather up and breathe deeply. The scent of this shampoo will do just as much for your well-being as it will do for your hair.
Rose Milk Repair Shampoo is available on the Lavera website and retails for $14.
What’s the fun of monkeying around if you don’t have the right duds?
This 100 percent certified organic cotton onesie by APEricots will make your kid top banana in the style department. Available in nine colors, it features a lap-over neckband designed for easy on-and-off. The onesie comes with a 3-snap system that is nickel-free and safe for your baby.
The cotton itself is dyed with non-toxic azo-free dyes and our designs are printed with eco-friendly inks that are safe for your baby and safe for Mother Earth.
We are approaching the end of Eco to the People’s Kickstarter campaign and so far we have had great success. As of today the project is 76 percent funded, or $485 short of the goal of raising $2,000. With just one week left to go we need to raise the money fast, otherwise we lose it all.
Think about it this way: If 10 more fans donate $50 a piece Eco to the People will have reached its goal and can undergo its much needed makeover. And, I’ll shut up and stop begging for money. It’s really a win-win for everyone.
If raised, the $2,000 will help ETTP create a weekly newsletter and hire a professional to handle its web maintenance. (Trust me people, you do not want me to be in charge of this aspect of the blog.) Down the road I hope that this better-than-Brittany makeover will allow me to eventually grow Eco to the People into a business.
So if you have been waiting to make a donation, the time is now. The minimum donation is $5 and, for a project this size, every little bit truly does help. If I meet my goal by next Monday I will get the money and be able to make the improvements. If I can’t raise it, I get nothing.
Please take a look at the proposal and decide if you think this is a valuable project.
I love the Apricot & Nut flavor, which is made completely of organic ingredients like rolled oats, brown rice flour, evaporated cane juice, dried and roasted hazelnuts and coconut. The bars are wheat-free – great if you are on a gluten-free diet – and have low sodium and zero trans fats.
They are also 100 percent vegetarian, produced without using any ingredients sourced from meat, fish, fowl or eggs, in accordance with the company’s philosophy.
Oh, and they are delicious, for kids and adults alike.
We all remember the chilling images of Hurricane Katrina: flattened houses, people stranded on rooftops, a dog floating down the street, alone in a rowboat. The pictures and newscasts told a thousand stories, but did any of them actually tell us the true story?
The carnage was blamed on a natural disaster, and Katrina was one for sure. But what the authors of Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow point out is that the devastation was caused as much by human hands as by an act of God.
“What happened in New Orleans is not a story about the way natural forces sometimes hammer us. Rather it is a story about the way humans can rearrange the contours of the land they settle on, doing so in ways that make it, and themselves, more vulnerable and exposed—inadvertent authors of their own demise.
That, in a nutshell, is the theory of Catastrophe in the Making, a book that recognizes Hurricane Katrina not as a “perfect storm,” but as a tragedy of created by the collision of man and nature.
The authors content that the problems in New Orleans ran far deeper than faulty levees and inadequate emergency response to the disaster. They write that in an effort to grow the economy of Louisiana and other parts of the Gulf Coast, wetlands—a natural buffer against storm surges—were replaced by a canal that all but invited the hurricane waters into New Orleans and adjacent communities. Chillingly, the authors warn, other areas of this country are headed for a similar fate.
I was given a copy of Catastrophe as part of the Green Books Campaign, in which 100 bloggers help support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books. Organized by Eco-Libris, this campaign aims to promote “green” books by reviewing only books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper.
I found Catastrophe in the Making to be a fascinating look into how thoughtless over-development sacrifices the natural integrity of the land and how violating nature’s plan will ultimately make man a victim of his own crime.
Catastrophe in the Making is published by IslandPress and is available on Amazon.com for $17.95.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, several weeks ago I attended the Justmeans Social Media for Sustainability conference in San Francisco.
Justmeans is a social utility where you can talk about your good work with the companies and people who matter on the sustainability scene. Unlike other social networks, Justmeans is a more targeted audience of people who share your interest in the environment and sustainability.
The conference, which hosted seven moderated panels on a variety of topics related to social media, helped attendees answer questions about social media from the simple to the complex: How should my company be using social media to engage our customers, employees, activists, and other stakeholders online? What are the best tools and platforms? Should I be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Justmeans or all four? How does one develop the right incentives for building community and keeping your community engaged? What is the ROI of social media and what metrics should my company be using? How do I build a quality online following that will actually be of value to my business?
As a relative newbie on the social networking scene – I opened both my Facebook and Twitter accounts in the last 18 months – I was afraid that I might be lost in the lingo. (Beyond “LOL,” the majority of the acronyms used online are over my head.) But this was not a “tech” conference and the information offered was accessible to social media users of all levels.
A highlight of the event for me was the panel on “Redefining Corporate Activisim,” which included John Friedman, senior director of public relations for Sodexo; Kitty Taylor, senior advisor and head of social media for the U.S. Chamber Business Civic Leadership Center and Laura Adams, digital advocacy director for sustainable business and innovation for Nike, and moderator by David Witzel, director of Innovation Exchange.
The panel explored how social media is changing the way that companies are engaging with their employees, and learning what their stakeholders and other advocates want to see from the company.
Jimmyjane is a company that makes many sexy products, but when I planned a romantic getaway recently I knew that there was one that would really put a fire under my man.
The company’s Ember massage candles are hot in every sense of the word. Made of 100 percent soy, as the candle burns the room is bathed in candlelight and the melting soy turns to a liquid that doubles as scented massage oil.
Hello Eco Peeps:
Sometimes this girl just needs a healthy snack, and when I need it I need it now.
