Here’s a new shop paradigm for you: Shop according to the revealed ingredients of every object. Because those ingredients sure look yummy with a range of products made from sustainable wood, cork, bamboo, organic and recycled materials. Monica Potvin in Barcelona and Anu Suominen in Finland have joined forces and created ‘a new version shop presenting a collection of objects for living made as sustainable as possible’.
Matteriashop is finally a shop that guarantees eco-smartness as well as fabulous design.
Through close collaboration with designers all over the globe, the Matteriashop offers a unique transparency and behind-the-scene information on each carefully selected product, taking into account its entire lifecycle. Monica Potvin explains:...
It is the first of January, which means it’s time to leave the worn-out diary behind and open up a new one. If you haven’t found the perfect agenda to start this New Year yet, here are a few fun and practical eco options. From recycled to social and paperless, there’s an even wider range of treehugger-style diaries this year than any of the previous years.
Starting with the recycled options,
Kara suggested Scribesdelight journals that are made from recycled saddle leather. A
recycled saddle leather agenda/address book is available for $79. If you got one last year, just order your re-fill now and reuse the sleeve.
::Scribesdelight
Another recycled option is the diary by
Bandaderodadura, a Spanish company. The sturdy black
sleeves of these diaries are made from recycled car tire inner tubes and are locally made in Barcelona. The sleeves come with a zip pocket for extra storage space and are guaranteed to last you through quite a few years.
::Bandaderodadura
More diaries after the jump....
If you’re wondering what an inspired 12 year-old can do to help stop global warming, look no further than a 7th grader named Hunter Gross from Long Island, NY. He’s launched a project with his mom and dad dubbed
Project Kool, and it’s goal is to help get kids involved replacing the endless stream of paper and plastic bags they cart their lunch to school in each day by swapping ‘em for The Lunch Sak.
What’s
The Lunch Sak? Well, it’s a reusable lunch bag made of natural cotton that has a Velcro strip to make it resealable. For fun it comes with a pair of markers that wash out easily, making it possible for kids of all ages to redesign their Lunch Sak on a daily basis without harming the environment in the process.
...
Ever wonder how to turn your parents green? Well, author James Russell
set out to answer just that question, and in a most entertaining manner too I might add.
Meet the Greens and the Groans... The Greens being kids who get the problem of global warming and the general environmental mess we're in while the Groans (their parents) are busy causing most of the trouble without a world of care or an inch of interest in solving the problem.
Of course the book is quick to point out there's lots a kid can do...
...
This is a sneak preview of a gorgeous jewellery collection and bags named Jova Design. It’s a joined project between the Ducth fair trade organisation
Tilingo Nepra,
Dutch Design in Development (DDiD) and jewellery designer
Joanne Zwart.
Working with local people in Nepal, designer Zwart decided to use natural and local materials like wood, hemp, cotton and bone. She also found inspiration in the symbolic Nepalese jewellery like the Buddhist and Hindu prayer beads, made from the dark rudraksha berries.
This project is one of many others set up by the DDiD, who specialise in linking Dutch designers and companies to businesses in developing countries. They create opportunities for companies in the developing world, to step into the European market under fair trade conditions. Via
::Design.nl
...
It seems there's a great little book out for the holidays titled "When Santa Turned Green" by Victoria Perla that tackles global warming for kids in a fun way. Santa, beset by a leak in the roof of his North Pole factory steps outside to give it a look and comes to the realization that it's connected to a far bigger problem, global warming.
Now I haven't had a chance to read it through yet myself, but there's not a lot of time left before the holiday and the
3 reader reviews on F.A.O. Schwarz website raved about it. Apparently, Santa is determined to turn things around and sets about doing just that by helping kids see everyday actions they can take to make a difference.
I bet it could make a wonderful gift for kids from 5-11yrs, and it's priced at $15.95.
See also::
The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming ,
Rockefeller Center's Christmas Tree Lights Up Holiday Season with LEDs!
via::
FAO Schwarz...
Ring the bells! Pop the (organic) champagne! TreeHugger’s 2007 Gift Guide is here!
We've made this guide the most comprehensive yet, with 180+ gift ideas in three shades of green, making it a perfect reference while shopping for everyone on your gift list. In addition, we'll be adding organizations to support and useful tips for making your holidays more efficient.
Go to Part II here and
Part III here.
For more great ideas, don’t forget to visit our past guides from 2006 and 2005.
...
If you can’t get enough of your online social networks like Facebook or Linkedin and you’d also like to see more trees on this planet, then it’s time for you to join
Tree-nation. The goal of this ecological project is to plant 8 million trees in the Sahara to fight climate change, desertification and poverty. With their project, they support
UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign.
8 Million trees in the desert, a unique mapping technique and a growing online community is what makes this project stand out. You can buy your own tree online: choose one of 5 tree species (prices range from 10-75€), personalise it and plant it. A GPS allows you to spot your tree online anytime. ...
Why not shut down your email for an hour or two and write some notecards to catch up with your correspondence? This is what Mike at
ReadyMade suggests while putting the old issues of their bi-monthly magazine to good use. ReadyMade, for people who like to make stuff, have turned their surplus back issues into beautiful funky envelopes they sell in packs of 10, together with 10 cards of recycled paper and white labels for $12. Because of email, snail mail has become even more appreciated but imagine, if on top of writing a real card, someone does it on colourful recycled material- it’d definitely impress me, whatever it said on the card! Find the notecards
here and more great ready ideas on
::ReadyMade...
One hilarious way from
The Onion to stand out while you shop at the local store. But seriously, despite the fact everyone knows a reusable tote is a good idea, I can still feel the eyes of people looking at me- I pretend it's envy. In the words of Mark Twain:
Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution -- these can lift at a colossal humbug -- push it a little -- weaken it a little over the course of a century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
We often
post on paper or plastic, but when it gets down to it, just bring your own tote- make a statement without saying a word. It also comes in black. ::
The Onion...
That’s right, shea butter. Ya know, as in that wonderful lotion that clears even the driest skin. (Perfect for all of you girls new to the west coast who are still getting acclimated to living in the desert. Ahem.) Shea Terra Organics offers products free of fillers, artificial fragrances/colors, sulfates, parabins and 99.5% natural, and if that wasn’t enough, Shea Terra was formed in part to offer local cooperatives in Africa a way to earn steady income without depleting resources or harming workers.
...
This year Santa was good to me and brought these Anders Natural Soaps, which I just love. The company is based in Raleigh, North Carolina and has been around since 1999. The soaps are made with extra virgin olive oil instead of pomice olive oil and are made of 100% biodegradable ingredients. All soaps are vegetable based, but for you vegans out there, be aware that they do use honey and goat’s milk in some of their some of the soaps, and beeswax in their lip balm. Other wholesome ingredients include kelp, oatmeal, and stone ground grits. Yum! They come in wonderful flavors like rosemary mint, and, my favorite, Kristen’s pear berry soap. They even have soaps to clean your four-legged friends, like the urban dog soap, which I use on my devil dog.
But don’t stop there, Anders Natural Soaps has expanded to include aromatherapy candles, dead sea salt scrubs, shea butter products, lotions and soap dishes to hold your new soaps. For more information, you can visit them online at
http://www.andersnaturalsoap.com...
Picture: Stickeen Photography - Guest Post By: Wendy Dembo, Cool Hunting
A few years ago college kids started to use colored hard-plastic bottles to carry water as a more eco-friendly alternative to bottled water. The plastic in deli water bottles is not stable for multi-use purposes and never degrades in landfills. Now there are concerns about
hard-plastic bottles leaching toxins, especially into hot water. The hip kids in college have recycled their plastic bottles and replaced them with
Klean Kanteens, which are made out of ultra-light stainless steel.
The “Kanteens” are sleek, non-leaching and durable. They come in a myriad of sizes from 12 OZ ($17.95) which is perfect for little hands, or your purse, 18 OZ ($15.95) which is great for the gym and the jumbo size 40 ouncer ($23.95) when you are really thirsty....
The Japanese "furoshiki," or "cloth for the bath," was first used in the 14th century as a way to wrap one's clothes while taking a public bath. Over the years, its
uses were limited only by imagination and technique. That is, until the plastic bag went big in Japan (and everywhere). As Yuriko Koike, Japan's Minister of the Environment
points out, this seems like a pretty good time to bring wrap back on a global scale. It's reusable, durable and versatile--and it makes wrapping and carrying stuff a
heck of a lot more stylish than your typical sack of polyethylene. Many can be found
here, but Koike has released her own version, its gorgeous birds-and-flowers motif on fiber manufactured from recycled PET bottles, apparently available only in Japan for now. She adds the word "mottainai" to indicate how shameful it is to waste something that hasn't fully been used. And how wonderful it would be to use the furoshiki (or any big, durable and pretty cloth) this holiday as both wrapping
and present.
A
cute instructional video and diagrams
here and
here explain how to dispatch waste and put a cloth to all its uses.
: : Japan Ministry of the Environment via
Lifehacker....
Since a cyclone (hurricane) devastated the vast bulk of Australia’s banana crop earlier this year, prices have been through the roof. There’s been a running joke that if you really loved someone you’d buy ‘em a hand of ‘nanas — only a cheapskate would resort to cut flowers. Now that the bendy things are slowly returning to a value that doesn’t require a mortgage, attention might turn to other impressive indulgences. How’s about a $15 AUD bar of soap? Not just any soap, of course. No artificial fragrances, colours or preservatives. In fact, it only has two ingredients; 98% biodynamic olive oil and two % Elmswood honey. Both ingredients grown on the same farm in the Hunter Valley of NSW. The extra virgin olive oil is apparently from the olive varieties leccino, frantoio and correggiola, and is hand harvested, as well as being certified ‘biodynamic’ by
Demeter. Read more about the property and it’s farmers
here. Biodynamic is a form of holistic organic farming, developed in the early 1900’s by Rudolf Steiner (also of
Steiner education fame). One of it’s tenets is soil fertility, which is largely premised on taking cow manure, stuffing it in a cow’s horn and planting this under soil for the winter. The resulting decomposed humus, known as ‘500’, is mixed with water and applied to fields, with results, scientifically verified, often better than conventional synthetic chemical farming.
::Patrice Newell’s Virgo, available via
Biome....
New for 2007: Be sure to check out TreeHugger's new
2007 Green Gift Guide!
What's All the Talk?
Welcome to TreeHugger's Holiday Gift Guide for 2006! This time around we've included 10 categories with 10 ideas each - all things TreeHugger from this past year. For more ideas, visit our
2005 Gift Guide and be sure to check out
TreeHugger's "How to: Green Your Gifts." Happy Holidays!
...
Here’s a wacky gift idea that guarantees to be a topic of conservation; the
Global Warming Mug! This ceramic mug shows you the consequences of global warming as you sip your coffee in the morning, changing the world back to normal just as you finish it. When you pour hot beverage into the mug, you simulate global warming as the map of the world heats up and shows the oceans rising and land vanishing. A pleasant reminder to take better care of our planet and reduce that CO2. Prices vary around $15, available at
::Wacky Planet and others. Thanks Roger for the tip!...
• Learn basic First Aid
• Spend time with someone from a different generation
• Put your gum in the bin
• Grow something with a child
• Have a bath with someone you love
• Decline plastic bags whenever you can
• Learn to be friendly in another language,…
50 actions like these to change the world and make you feel good and all just for £5 in
We Are What We Do’s fantastic book
Change the World for a Fiver. We Are What We Do is a
Community Links project and they believe in acting local and thinking global. They are not a charity but ‘a new kind of movement - a movement with attitude.’ Their mission is not to raise money but to shift attitudes and day-to-day behaviour. And that’s exactly what this book does to you, it charms you and makes you feel good by making you do good. Plant a tree! Learn one good joke! Shop locally! Don’t overfill your kettle!
Buy the book!
Tell them your ideas!
::We Are What We Do via
::Camí del Canvi, thanks Roger for the tip!...
In the middle of the forest of craft tents at the Maker Faire, we found
TreeHugger favorite Blissen sporting their usual funky handmade recycled paper and fabric goods, such as this "
necklace noteset." As we have come to expect from Blissen, the noteset is made from recycled paper with vegetable-based ink. And, when your pen pal receives your note, it doubles as a craft project/fashion accessory, "the recepient can cut out along the dotted lines, add a favorite ribbon, and wear their note as a necklace." Be sure to swing by and check out their new and improved website to find a plethora of cool recycled and sustainable goods. ::
Blissen...
Last week, Isabella Haas from Finland came to visit Barcelona and with her, she brought some truly quirky
treasures from wasteland. She was for example wearing a ring made from an old type-writer key, her note book’s cover turned out to have been the inside of a keyboard and her handbag was made from recycled car tyre inner tubes. All of them are
SECCO products from Finland. ...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
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"I recycled all my old plastic and paper bags then bought a dozen "eco" bags and haven't..." [read]
