Eight Great Gift Ideas for any Occasion

Natural perfumes from Nantucket Natural Oils with all the good ingredients of your favorite perfumes, but without the alcohol. Beautiful hand blown perfume bottles too!

A luxurious organic cotton Bathrobe, shower gel and ultra-luxurious shea butter cream

Set of Lands' End organic cotton bath towels, green laundry wash and fragrance free biodegradable dryer sheets.

A jar of local honey (visit you farmer's market) and a selection of organic teas in a mug. Wrap it all up in a kitchen towel.

For that teen on your list, a requested CD or a gift card to their favorite music store.

Leather slippers from The Leather Works or Merino wool socks and deep moisturizing foot cream.

A set of glasses and a water purifier.

And a little something for yourself... the book YOU: Staying Young by Dr Oz and Roizen and some Anti-Aging skin care.

Or you can always go with a gift card to their favorite store!

Green Gifts for the Holidays...

Cyber Monday, the day many Americans go online to get the best online deals. So why not make them green as well?

For organic cotton clothes:
Gaiam Stylish natural fibers and save $20 off $100 through 12-21-09
Hanna Andersson Love their stuff... kids, babies Long lasting and washes great!
RecycleATee Certified organic cotton Tees - Wear, send back to Recycle and save 25% off your next Tee.

Just for baby:
Bath Time Certified organic diaper creme, baby wash, lotion and massage oil - parents will love the massage oil's soft lavendar scent!
Child Organics Cloth diapers, covers, and beautiful hand knits - specials till 12-5-09


For home:
Eco Clean When I give a set of bath towels, I always include a bottle of "green" laundry detergent to clean them.
Totally Bamboo Cutting boards, serving trays, bowls and plates - pair with kitchen towels and an Eco friendly dishwashing liquid.

Necco wafers have gone Natural

Necco wafers, that wonderful candy of our childhood are now free of artificial colors and flavors. But don't look for those familiar green wafers, they're not in the new packs as ironically, they were too difficult to make with natural food colors.

So much for green going with everything. :)

The Story of Stuff

Great video (which won't post) on the real story of all the stuff we buy, use and discard. I encourage you, check it out on their website TheStoryOfStuff.com

EPA recognizes top 4 Calif. organizations running on their own green power

Deborah Jordan, the EPA's Air Division Director for the Pacific Southwest Region said "We are very proud of the accomplishments of our partners. They are demonstrating their commitment to the environment by generating green power on-site and purchasing from green power producers. They are setting the standard for us all to follow."

The top four companies are... Intel Corp. of Santa Monica, Shaklee Corp. of Pleasanton, Applied Materials of Santa Clara, and Butte College in Oroville, CA.

You can read about it here: EPA

Being Green has gone to the dogs

These days when we're making healthier choices for ourselves and our family, I'm reminded that just about everything we can buy for our four legged members of the family can be organic or at least eco-friendly.

Looking for a new pet bed for our yellow lab I discovered I really have quite the choice. There are eco-friendly choices made with recycled/reclaimed materials, organic ones made with cotton, wool, hemp and even natural latex, and an array of styles, colors and patterns that made finding the right choice to fit our home, easier than I thought.

Prices run the scale from $20 to $200 so there's a bed for every pocketbook too! You can check out a nice selection at Pristine Planet.

As we send our kids back to school a few thoughts…

According to the EPA, “the air inside is two to five times worse than outside… and we spend nearly 90 percent of our time indoors,” kids included! So while our kids are sitting at their desk listening to their teacher, they’re breathing in toxins released by the fresh coat of paint on the walls, the cleaning products used on the floors, and who knows what that might have been sprayed on their desks or the windows.

Concerned? I am, and it’s time for us to ask our school boards the question… What are they doing to minimize indoor air pollution in our schools?

Schools should be a safe place, where indoor air quality is at least equal to what’s outside, preferably better. We should insist that our school boards make the necessary changes to ensure that all children, teachers, and custodians breathe easier.

GREENing Your Wedding

These days as couples take stock of what’s really important, over the top weddings are giving way to eco-chic weddings. More and more young people are concerned about the environment and have decided that they can be eco-friendly and still have the wedding of their dreams. From the location, to the thank you’s, here’s a few thoughts to green your wedding.

Choosing to have your wedding and reception in the same place saves time and usually some money, to say nothing about the gas to get from one location to the other and the convenience for all your guests.

With the busy lives we all lead, a Save the Date announcement is a must. For many, an Evite will work, but for those you don’t have emails for, a simple Save the Date postcard is perfect.

When choosing a caterer, ask about locally grown and/or in season fruits and vegetables, and organic choices. Often times this menu is just slightly more than their non-organic menu, yet the taste difference is worth every penny. And choose 100% cotton napkins and tablecloths.

For the truly green bride, search Ebay or in consignment shops for a wedding gown you can call your own. For the groom, purchasing a dark suit that he’ll be able to wear again and again, costs not much more than a tuxedo rental he’ll wear for just the day.

For invitations, choose recycled paper or non-paper alternatives such as cotton, bamboo or hemp, and print them with soy based ink. Plus you can skip the response envelope if you ask guests to RSVP via email. Better yet, create a wedding website where guests can RSVP and you can share photos of your bridal party and family.

When selecting flowers for the bridal party, choose organically grown and if possible in-season varieties.

As your guests enter the reception area, skip the placecards and instead have a member of the wait staff locate the guest on a list.

For your tables, consider potted plants or a basket or bowl of seasonal fruit, or perhaps a few soy candles in glass holders as your centerpieces. Select organic wines and local beer where available.

In lieu of wedding favors, make a donation to an environmental organization. The Heifer Organization is one of my favorites.

At the end of the day, encourage your guests to take the centerpieces home, or donate them to a local senior residence. Ask the caterer to wrap up any leftover food and take it home or donate it to a homeless shelter!

Have you heard?

CVS is going green -- perhaps just a shade or so, but it's a great start. They've just introduced CVS Earth Essentials and with it have joined a growing number of retailers who have discovered that green is what their consumers want, and that they don't mind paying a little extra for it.

The Earth Essentials line includes eco-friendly bowls and plates made entirely from sugarcane. They're designed to biodegrade in less than three months, plus they're fully compostable, yet they can withstand hot food up to 200°F. All in all they're perfect for traveling or other times when real dishes just aren't practical.

The Earth Essentials line also includes paper towels, napkins and toilet tissue made with post consumer recycled paper. To learn more visit cvs.com

Is Your Pediatrician Green? 5 Questions to Ask

This article has some excellent questions. Enjoy.

Food, Inc. a new documentary

I recently saw the documentary Food, Inc. This scary and eye opening film has left many looking at their food very differently and questioning the regulatory effectiveness of the FDA and USDA.

The film points how our nation's food supply is controlled by a handful of large corporations who make decisions based on the bottom line rather than on consumer health, the safety of workers, the environment, or even our farmers.

The film also has interviews with authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), plus Stonyfield Farms' owner Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin.

As they say in the close "you'll never look at dinner the same way." And as you checkout, thanks for voting.

A Company that Walks Their Talk

First company in the world to be Climate Neutral(TM)certified receives prestigious awards for environmental leadership


PLEASANTON, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Shaklee Corporation, the leading natural nutrition company in the United States, is pleased to announce two new environmental awards for 2009 that honor the company's sustainable business practices.

In April, Breathe California presented Shaklee with the Clean Air Award for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions. And, on May 28, the company was awarded with the 2009 Acterra Business Award for Sustainability.

"Shaklee has been committed to environmental stewardship for over 50 years, and we are honored to be recognized for our efforts," says Shaklee Chairman and CEO, Roger Barnett. "Our company was created with a mission to make people and the planet healthier -- values that are more relevant now than ever before. Today, this mission remains deeply engrained in the 750,000 Shaklee Eco-Entrepreneurs(TM) around the world, guiding them as they positively impact the health of our families and planet through our sustainable business model," he adds.

Shaklee received the 2009 Business Award for Sustainability from Acterra. During Acterra's rigorous three-month judging process that involved 25 regional environmental and sustainability experts, Shaklee presented the panel with highlights from its 50 year sustainability portfolio which includes pioneering leadership in greenhouse gas emissions reductions, long term commitment to environmentally friendly products, environmental advocacy through partnerships with leading NGO's, and through community advocacy through Shaklee's 750,000 eco-entrepreneurs.

"Shaklee emerged as the winner in a field of very fine and qualified
candidates due to its exceptional achievements in each Business Environmental Awards category, the combination of which forms our top award for sustainability," says Norm Ploss, Business Environmental Awards judging team captain. "They lead in corporate environmental awareness, proving green and sustainable is a successful business model; Shaklee Corporation is a standout on all accounts."

Breathe California awarded Shaklee the 2009 Clean Air Award for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions because of Shaklee's pioneering leadership in achieving a net-zero carbon footprint. In 2000, Shaklee became the first company in the world to be Climate Neutral(TM) certified to totally offset its greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a net-zero impact on the environment. Achieving another first, in 2007, Shaklee became the first consumer products company to offset 100% of its greenhouse gas emissions through the U.S. EPA Climate Leaders program and use 100% green power.

As part of an active and continuous environmental mission, Shaklee has celebrated the following recent sustainable accomplishments:

-- On Earth Day, April 22, 2009, California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, Global Ambassador of the Shaklee A Million Trees. A Million Dreams(TM) campaign, took part in a tree-planting ceremony with Shaklee CEO and Chairman Roger Barnett at Shaklee World Headquarters in Pleasanton, Calif., to commemorate the company's monumental achievement of planting 1 million trees in just 3 years.

-- The EPA Green Power Partnership named Shaklee to the EPA Top 20 Retail Partner List in 2008 to recognize the company as a top purchaser of
green power.

-- Shaklee's partnership with Millennium Promise, an organization that
prototypes ways to implement United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, facilitated direct emissions reductions by providing sustainable solar energy to electrify villages in Malawi, Africa.

-- Sales from Shaklee's best-selling Get Clean Starter kit eliminated
88 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions this year.

"Fifty years ago, Shaklee's founder defined a new market space around natural, non-polluting products. Today, environmental thinking is embedded in everything Shaklee does, from sourcing biodegradable ingredients to offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions from sales conventions," said Dan Esty, co-author of Green to Gold & Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy and Director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale University.

About Breathe California
Breathe California is dedicated to fighting lung disease, advocating for clean air, and advancing public health. For more than a century, Breathe California has addressed the most serious health threats of our time through grass-roots programs that empower individual, institutional, and community change for better breathing and healthier living. For information about Breathe California, the Clean Air Awards, or the award recipients, visit www.cleanairawards.org.

About Acterra
Acterra is a nonprofit organization with a 38-year history of environmental leadership and programming in and around Silicon Valley. Acterra's events, resources, and programs involve and educate individuals and communities about a broad range of environmental issues. For information about Acterra, visit www.acterra.org.

About Shaklee Corporation
Founded more than 50 years ago, Shaklee has been a leading provider of premium-quality natural nutrition products, personal care products, and environmentally friendly home care products. In 2000, Shaklee became the first company in the world to be Climate Neutral(TM) certified to totally offset its greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a net-zero impact on the environment. With a robust product portfolio, including over 50 patents and patents pending worldwide, Shaklee has more than 750,000 Members and Distributors around the globe and operates in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and China. For information about Shaklee, visit www.Shaklee.com.


SOURCE Shaklee Corporation

Sloane Magny, +1-212-598-4400, Ext. 179, smagny@lippetaylor.com, for Shaklee Corporation © Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

12 Years Old and he's created a Solar Cell that could revolutionize the market

A 12 year old Oregon boy is on a mission to save the world - well maybe not exactly, but his science experiment could have a dramatic impact in the green sector, and it's already won him a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute.

William Yuan, a 12-year old boy from Oregon, who has already studied nuclear fusion and nanotechnology, has designed a 3-D Nanotube Solar Cell which could revolutionize the solar power market - it absorbs 500 times more light than existing solar cells. He said the idea came to him one day and that he worked on it for nearly two years while encouraged by his middle school science teacher.

Here's a news clip on William