You could decide to lose weight—again—or this year you could resolve to lighten the load you leave on the planet. To help, we’ve outlined a series of small changes that add up to big results and divvied them up by time frame—tasks you can complete today, in the next week, during the next month and over the course of the next year. Breaking your efforts into smaller, more manageable tasks isn’t a cop-out: By following this plan, each small step adds up to changes that will benefit the health of the planet—and, yes, even your own health—immediately and in years to come.

Food
Over the course of the year,your goal is to educate yourself about food—where it comes from, how it’s packaged and transported, and what happens to the waste—so you can make wiser choices at every meal.

This week, start at the end: Research your composting options. Throwing food scraps in the garbage may seem innocuous, but decomposing food not only clogs landfills, it also releases methane—a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. And encasing food scraps in a plastic bag or landfill keeps fruits and vegetables from replenishing the soil, increasing our dependence on chemical fertilizers.

The University of Arizona estimates that if every American household reduced the amount of food it throws away by half, we’d cut our entire environmental impact as a country by 25 percent. Aim to do your part by composting your fruit and vegetable scraps. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, check out a no-fuss option such as the Once a Year Compost Bin ($139.99; cleanairgardening.com). Or find local resources that will accept your food waste, such as a community garden, recycling center or farmer’s market, and start storing scraps in your freezer until you can make a drop-off.

Transportation
Vow to take two fewer car trips over the next seven days, replacing them with walking, biking or public transportation. Keep tracking each car trip in your notebook, and start writing down how many gallons of gas you’re buying each time you fill up. And for each car trip you do without, note any other benefits you reap beyond saving gas—such as fresh air, exercise, community interaction or reading time—so you can see the full spectrum of ways that driving less impacts your daily life.

Energy
Schedule an energy audit to get a list of suggestions for reducing your home’s energy use. You can either get a free audit from your local utility— the best choice if you rent since their suggestions tend to be smaller-scale projects, such as weatherstripping—or from an energy assessment professional. The latter is the best choice if you own your home, since they specialize in larger projects such as helping you choose efficient heating and cooling systems.

A professional assessment will run $350 to $550 but will likely pay for itself in energy savings if you end up making a major improvement. To find a certified building energy rater, visit resnet.org. And if you think an energy audit isn’t worth the time or money, think again. “An energy audit will help you focus on the top one or two purchases that will have the biggest impact on your home energy use,” says Josh Dorfman, author of The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget ($14.95, STC, 2009).

Open a savings account devoted to green home improvements. Look at your budget and see what you can set aside toward a new efficient appliance, hot water heater or furnace. Even if it will take a couple of years to get there, it will pay off in the long run.

Everyday Purchases
Create your own personal “Going Green” kit. Small purchases that can add up to a big impact include: – reusable tote bags
- stainless steel water bottle
- travel coffee mug
- BYO-lunch supplies—an insulated carrier, utensils and wax paper or aluminum foil (instead of plastic wrap)
- compact fluorescent light bulbs

By Kate Hanley

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I also find it really irritating (and not just to my skin!) that I need a degree in chemistry to even read the ingredients on most make up or skin care products.  Giving up on all of those chemicals and unpronounceable ingredients, I set out to find products that had natural and organic products that I could recognize and pronounce, and still feel confident that I would get the skin care and beauty results that I expected.

So, you can imagine my excitement for finding a great beauty website that has amazing organic and natural skin care and beauty options.   Makeup.com has page after page of fantastic offerings, many of my favorite organic and natural beauty products all in ONE PLACE! 

Like, Juice Beauty, a company founded to provide organic beauty solutions by a team of women who are completely passionate about organic and healthy lifestyles AND the science behind organic and natural skin care.  They are committed to providing organic solutions for healthy, radiant skin while making it fun to take care of ourselves, and our planet!  One of my favorite Juice Beauty products is the Green Apple Body Brilliance Kit, great for making your skin look fantastic for a special dress, night out, or just to show off your healthy, glowing skin!   This collection utilizes Juice Beauty’s antioxidant technology, which combines alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, DMAE, peptides, fat soluble Vitamin C, and essential fatty acids for optimum age-defying results.

Juice Body Brilliance

Another incredible line that  I use and love is Coola Suncare.  I am a firm believer in using sunscreen to protect my skin from the dangers of skin cancer, as well as the premature aging and damage that the sun can do.  Living in Southern California, and loving the beach and outdoors, I have used so many different sunscreen products, many that again have ingredients that I cannot even attempt to pronounce and were harsh on my face and skin. 

Wanting to incorporate sunscreen into my every day skin care regimen, I found that Coola Suncare SPF 30 Organic Moisturing Suncare did the job perfectly for me.  This product is not at all greasy, did not make me break out, and even provides a nice moisturizing effect.  It combines antioxidant ingredients like Vitamins A, C, D, and E, zinc, and a select choice of twelve certified organic skin-healing extracts.

This unique SPF moisturizing product, easily integrated into your daily skin care regimen, will protect you from the sun’s harmful rays while keeping your skin lustrous and silky-smooth.  I can easily apply my usual makeup over this product without feeling like I have heavy products on my face, and they make a fantastic body moisturizing sunscreen and sport SPF 45 that I use for swimming or outdoor activities as well!  I also truly appreciate that they have an unscented line, as all too many sunscreens can have a really unappealing scent!

Coola Suncare

Last but not least, I really love it when skin care companies offer kits or products in smaller, less expensive sizes.  I have so many issues with my skin that it really becomes an issue for me to spend $20, $50 or more on a product, or a few products that end up not working out and being thrown into a drawer in my bathroom, or worse, thrown away.   So when I can sample a line, try a range of products in sample or smaller sizes, I am always willing to make a small investment in potentially finding a true skin care gem!

Suki offers an amazing Nourishing Mini Skin Care Kit with a variety of amazing organic products that will completely replenish and protected protect your complexion. Suki offers cutting edge science with 100% pure, high-potency organics.  This is also the perfect kit to travel with, as the mini skin care product sizes will meet airline regulations.

Suki Kramer founded this line to provide high performance professional organics, promoting a beautiful, radiant complexion and good health from the inside-out.  Her lines offer advanced proven, scientific ingredients integrated in 100% pure botanical, results-driven formulas and work systemically, with each individual, creating harmony and balance.  Love, love, love her hair care products as well!

Suki Mini Kit

Makeup.com makes it easy for you to find the perfect organic beauty and skin care products for you.   Ditch those harsh, unnatural ingredients and find a wonderful world of natural and organic products!  They offer an amazing array of beauty products, and you are sure to find the right products for you, your skin type, your skin care and beauty needs, and with great savings on both products and shipping!   Beauty has truly evolved at Makeup.com Boutique. Shop now for all the hottest trends in makeup, skincare, hair care, and bath products.

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BulbAmerica.com makes the transition easy AND affordable!  You can select from a wide variety of lighting options, including Stage & Studio, Medical, Aviation, Automotive, Marine, Outdoor Lighting, General Lighting and many more.  You can find ways to save energy and money at home, at the office, and more! 

BulbAmerica.com offers ALL top, high quality brand names like GE, Osram Sylvania, Philips and Ushio as well as other brands.   Their light bulb catalog contains more than 16,500 products as well as 4,500 lighting equipment.   If you cannot find it here, I am not sure where you will find it!

Why choose BulbAmerica’s product line?

1. NO ONE CAN BEAT THEIR PRICES!  And that is important to those of us trying to SAVE money!
2. NO QUESTIONS ASKED when it comes to returning a product because the customer is ALWAYS right!  (Don’t you love that kind of customer service policy?!)
3. Excellent customer service with more than 28 dedicated knowledgeable agents.
4. Experienced & knowledgeable technical support team
5. ALL items in stock!
6. Shipping order within 24 hours

If you are looking to go green with your lighting options at home, at work, for students or dorm rooms, or at play, look no further than BulbAmerica.com!  Energy Saving Bulbs – 10% off ALL Fluorescent Bulbs – use Coupon Code: 10bacj10005   *Use Coupon Code for all Green Office Home readers!*

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Unfortunately, what also comes to mind are kind of noisy and smelly lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws and more that help to maintain my lovely lawn and garden areas.   I often find myself trying to drive far around the landscaping companies that maintain the green spaces in and around my neighborhood and community as the tools that they are using cause a great deal of noise and air pollution.  While I certainly do enjoy the green spaces and can appreciate the environmental impact that they offer, I wonder about the trade-off in the environmental impact in the nosiy and dirty way in which those green spaces are kept green and lush.

The good news is that you can create lush, green spaces for your home or even your community, without worrying about the environmental impact of the tools and equipment used in maintaining and grooming the landscaping.  Now, of course, many of us have not-so-fond memories of push mowers, right?  That is certainly one way to cut your lawn in a “green” manner.  However, Green Garden Tools offers a variety of lawn mowers and other landscaping tools that are truly “green” and incredibly easy to use.  I was amazed by the following information on the Green Garden Tools website:

“Every weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns and tend to their gardens while using more than 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants.

Don’t let the fact that their engines are small lead you to believe that they don’t pollute. In most cases, they can be worse the automobiles when it comes to pollution. In fact, ONE lawn mower can produce as much pollutants equivalent to driving 43 new cars 12,000 miles every year!

Even smaller garden equipment engines such as trimmers and edgers can be detrimental to the environment. Having had unregulated emissions until recently, gas-powered lawn and garden tools emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. To put this in perspective, according to the EPA, lawn and garden equipment produces up to 5% of the nation’s air pollution each year.

By shifting to eco-friendly lawn and garden tools, you can help reduce the impact that lawn and garden equipment has on the earth. Electric, battery-powered, and even propane-powered equipment helps fight pollution, reduces our dependence of foreign oil, reduces outdoor water consumption, and eliminates harmful fumes from being emitted into the atmosphere.”

Green Garden Tools makes it easy to not only impact the earth with green gardening equipment, but they also help you keep more “green” in your wallet with money-saving and eco-friendly garden tools!  Many of these tools are also far more efficient than their gas-guzzling counterparts, saving you time on tending to your lawn and garden as well.  Saving the earth, saving money AND saving time…what more can you ask for when it comes to tending to your green spaces and enjoying your lawn and garden?!  Visit Green Garden Tools today to “Go Green” with ECO FRIENDLY landscaping tools from Green Garden Tools and the LOWEST PRICES on the Internet!

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Did you know that live, green plants in the home or office can actually help to purify the air? Houseplants can help to decrease the presence of volatile organic
chemicals (VOCs) in the home and office,  including formaldehyde, benzene,trichloroethylene and xylene by absorbing the VOCs and breaking them down. Live plants can be a wonderful gift for a new mom who wants to ensure a healthy home for her baby and family! Such a joyous time calls for a special delivery. Celebrate baby and pamper mom (and dad) with a beautiful plant gift!

I recently read that a Norwegian study that found that office workers whose spaces had plants reported 23 percent fewer complaints of fatigue, stuffy noses, coughing and eye irritation than workers who had no plants nearby. Isn’t that amazing?  What better gift for an office manager who needs to run an efficient office and for fellow co-workers who cannot afford lost time due to getting sick?!

Did you know that indoor plants can help to create a more calm, serene and quiet atmosphere? If your home or office is located on a noisy, busy street or intersection, you can use plants to block that noise! You can create a natural “hedge” of plants in a window well, or in front of windows and significantly reduce noise pollution. This makes giving life plants a great idea for the home office, or for a student. Think of those loud dorm rooms, and how a few live plants could help your student create a more quiet study space!    Show your appreciation for a favorite teacher or professor with a green gift of a live plant, and help them to create an ideal calm learning environment! Signal your gratitude with a plant that conveys your heartfelt appreciation. Shop GivingPlants.com!

Did you know that indoor plants can help you reduce levels of stress, increase your productivity at home or in the office and even aid in recovery and healing? There is something about capturing the outdoors in your indoor environment that helps reduce stress and create a more positive and productive environment.

Hospitals that have live indoor plants that patients can enjoy, even small indoor gardens that they can help to tend, find that patients spend less time recuperating from illnesses than patients who do not enjoy live green plants in their rooms, recreational centers, etc.    While flower can brighten up a hospital room, or the day of a patient recuperating at home, the gift of a live, green plant can not only brighten their room and day, but also positively impact a loved one’s recovery. Plants are healing. They enliven a space, add positive energy and express your good intentions for recovery. A beautiful way to say “get better.” Shop GivingPlants.com Now!

Finally, did you know that indoor plants can work as a natural humidifier in your home or office? A home or office that has proper levels of humidity and is not too dry is a healthier home, and a healthier and more productive office!  Add plants to do the job for you, and use plants to help detect when a room or office is getting a bit too dry.   You will easily detect if humidity levels are too low in the foliage and health of the plant.

So, the next time you want to give the generous gift of nature, give a live plant. While cut flowers and floral arrangements can be quite lovely, that beauty is fleeting. A live plant is a green gift that keeps on giving! Send Gifts that Grow – Living Plants for the People you care for. Buy Now!

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So what is the solution?  SCE suggests unplugging consumer electronics when they are not in use.  A stunning energy fact: even when turned off, CD players in the U.S. consume enough energy in one year to power the Las Vegas Strip for six months.

As a consumer, you do have choices.  You can select consumer electronic items with the “Energy Star” rating, as these products use less energy, and this has a direct impact on your ability to create a greener home and impact your wallet by controlling soaring energy costs!

You can also select items with fewer “bells and whistles”.  For example, I have a clock in my kitchen, and I do not need redundant clocks on my kitchen small appliances.  I try to buy small appliances that do the same job, but have fewer features, and they also use less energy.   I am also not setting dozens of clocks around the entire house anytime there is a brown out or power outage!

And, as someone who LOVES to cook, I strive to use fewer electronics in my cooking, and more of my own personal energy.  I rarely, if ever, use my hand mixer any more, I prefer to do that work myself (and give my arms a great workout!).  Ditto with the food processor.  While it saves time to quickly “chop” veggies in my food processor, I can save electricity and money by taking a few more moments to chop them myself.   There is something really enjoyable about chopping veggies and other foods and putting that care and love into the meal I cook for my family.

Do you have any special energy saving tips to share?  We would love to hear from you!

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In fact, the retailer with whom she had registered had very little selection of green baby, or green mom, products.  I knew that there had to be a green solution for this soon-to-be mom…and I found it!

Green Office Home has found a solution for soon-to-be green couples or parents:  The “Ultimate Green Registry” from the Ultimate Green Store! 

The Ultimate Green Store offers a Green Wedding Registry, in which the green couple can select toxic-free bedding, organic linens and towels, home accessories and more!     Create the “Ultimate Green Home” by creating an easy and convenient online Wedding Registry of all of your favorite eco-friendly items for your new home and new life together.

The Ultimate Green Store also offers a Green Baby Registry.  New parents can register for natural and organic baby bedding, bath and skincare products, toxin-free toys and more.  How wonderful to bring a new life into a greener world! 

The Ultimate Green Store makes it easy to register your favorite items and convenient for you to share this information with your family, friends and colleagues.  You can begin a green life together, or bring a new life (or lives!) into a greener, healthier environment and share your commitment to the environment with your loved ones.  Simply click on the “Gift Registry” link to get started!

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However, we have truly found a solution, beyond taking all of the allergy medicine available over the counter.   Our allergist has recommended that we look into air purification, and we have our eye on two air purifiers from Alen:

Desktop Air Purifier by Alen

T100 Desktop HEPA Air Purifier:  The Alen T100 air purifier combines a HEPA air filter, an activated carbon filter with an ozone-safe Ionizer to in one tiny package that packs a powerful punch! The HEPA filtration in the T100 air purifier eliminates pollen, pet dander, mold spores, dust and dust mites, while the Ionizer in the T100 air purifier promotes a healthy environment and the built in carbon filter in the T100 air purifier eliminates odor. Yes indeed this is a small but mighty air purifer!  Perfect for a home office, or to keep your your office area at work free of allergens and even those funky office odors. 

Even great for college students and dorm rooms, keeping your students healthier!

And our true favorite, a GREEN air purifier!

Paralda, Green Air Purification for Your Office or Home

Paralda HEPA Air Purifier:  The Paralda air purifier has multi-filtration technology contains HEPA filtration, an ozone safe Ionizer and a long-lasting ultraviolet light.  The HEPA filter in the Parlada air purifier has been tested to remove 99.42% of airborne particles like dust, dust mites, pet dander, mold spores and pollen.  The long-lasting UV light in the Paralda air purifier has proven to eliminate 98% of airborne bacteria and viruses.  The Paralda air purifier combines the ozone-safe ionizer which promotes an environment of health and rejuvenation.

The Paralda air purifier is green – literally.  The translucent exterior poetically suspends the bamboo green interior portraying a feeling of freshness.   The Paralda air purifier is also green, in design; it’s RoHS compliant, Energy Star qualified and ozone safe.

Yet another great idea for college students, dorm rooms, office areas and more.  If you are a traveler, you can use this in on your travels, in a variety of ways, keeping you healthier and able to fully enjoy your travels.

So, we have our plan in place to get fresher, purer, cleaner air to improve our health and wellness…and still GO GREEN!  For more green home ideas, check out our Green Home Cleaning page, our Green Home Decor page or our Green Home Entertaining page.  Click here for Green Health and Wellness suggestions, tips and resources.

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Go Green Reminder!

I love the idea of using a financial reward system to land a habit.  Here are some ways you could help your friends and family go green with financial inspiration:

*  Every time you catch a green habit, put a quarter in the piggy bank.  At the end of the month, you may have enough to buy a pizza, go out for ice cream, or put aside for a fun family event. 

*  Every time you catch someone NOT behaving green, they need to pay a “fine” to the piggy bank.  Maybe leaving the lights on costs a quarter, forgetting to put a full load in the dishwasher another quarter, leaving the TV on after they leave the room, etc.  This can still be fun, and certainly a way to get friends and family members to remember to go green!

*  Every time someone at the office forgets to act green, they also have to pay a “donation” to the communal green piggy bank fund!   You can appoint a “Green Captain” to remind fellow office mates to put their glass bottles or aluminum cans in the recycler, turn off lights behind them, power down their computers, etc.  An office can go green very quickly, and save a company a great deal of money by making small changes.  At the end of the month, you can use the funds to help pay for an office party, or buy green office supplies!

The possibilities are endless, and this can become a very fun and inspirational way to remember to go green every day.  To have a financial reminder truly becomes a reward system when you can find fun ways to spend that money, even investing it in more green home and office products!  VivaTerra – Eco Living with Style.  Find natural home décor, unique women’s accessories, elegant dinnerware, organic gifts and more.

Going green is a reward in itself, but to share that reward with friends, family or collegues can make it even more fun!

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O'Bon Green Binders

Gorgeous, colorful, fun and GREEN binders! O’BON’s  Birds Series 1” 3-Ring Binder features a different elegant, colorful cover design of exotic bird feathers. Each binder comes stamped with O’BON’s Protect Wildlife logo in the bottom right hand corner of the front cover. Choose from 8 different designs – Crimson, Emerald, Granite, Iridescence, Medallion, Pearl, Platinum, and Violet. Cover constructed from 100% recycled cardboard.

Green, gorgeous notebooks!

Check out, these lovely green notebooks! O’BON’s Birds Series A6 Spiral Notebook features a different elegant, colorful cover design of exotic bird feathers. Each notebook comes stamped with O’BON’s “Protect Wildlife” logo in the bottom right hand corner of the front cover. Choose from five different designs – Auburn, Crimson, Granite, Pearl, and Porcelain. Every notebook comes with 80 pages of O’BON’s own environmentally-friendly bagasse paper. Cover made from 100% recycled card stock.

Animal-inspired Green Pencils

And how incredibly cool are these animal print style green pencils?  Animal prints are hot in fashion this fall, who would have thought that “green” pencils could also be so very chic?  O’BON’s pack of Wildlife Series includes 10 2B pencils. The Wildlife series, O’BON’s most popular series, features 10 different popular wildlife animal designs in Each box. Along with the painted on animal design pattern, each pencil comes branded with the O’BON logo and name of the animal. The barrel is made from 100% recycled newspaper.

Colorful "Green" Colored Pencils

Finally, these OBON’s green colored pencils left me drooling…Each pack of O’BONanza Series Color Pencils includes 12 color pencils, each representing a different color. Fruits and colors contained in the set are – Apple (green), Raspberry (black), Strawberry (red), Watermelon (dark green), Banana (yellow), Orange (orange), Pineapple (light brown), Kiwifruit (dark brown), Grape (dark blue), Dragon Fruit (pink), Blueberry (light blue), and Mangosteen (purple). Each pencil comes with its own distinctive painted-on fruit design and O’BON logo. The top inch of the pencil displays the name of the fruit on the pencil’s solid color. The barrel is made from 100% recycled newspaper.

Back to School and Back to College can be green AND fun!  These would be perfect items to help teach your kids about recycling, and perfect gifts for teachers who can use these items as teaching points for their students.  Get green-inspired by these cool supplies, get your Home Office and School products at www.ExclusivelyGreenMarket.com

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