Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Living Modestly Is Not Uncomfortable

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by Katie Kish · 01/27/08

I hate that living modestly is starting to be equated with disregarding the comforts that we’ve been given… instead of a noble and earth saving way of life.

I have a group of friends who all live together. In a maximum 6 person house (4 “real” bedrooms) there are 13 people. They have no television, only a couple of them have a computer, when I go over there are rarely lights on and they in no way went out of their way to buy new furniture or anything for the house. On top of these smaller things they also bike around – no one owns a car – cook together with vegan, organic, dumpster dived food and they run the house on grey water.

Just a quick summary for those who don’t know – dumpster diving is when you take food out of a dumpster to eat it. A lot of people get a little grossed out by this thought however having worked in a grocery store I assure you there is more than plenty of completely fresh and fine food being thrown out. Before knowing people who dumpstered I often thought “why would those dumpsters be locked???” but now I know that for whatever reason some grocery stores don’t want people stealing their garbage.

Grey water is essentially just reusing water. Most houses that are being built in Guelph are already implementing grey water systems directly into the house by connecting washing machine water to toilets. Said friends put the plug in during a shower and use shower water to flush toilets. And to be honest – the toilets don’t get flushed that often anyway.

For me, this would be an almost impossible way of living. I hate being cold, they never have the heater one. I live on my computer, they don’t have internet. I drink a liter of milk a day, they never drink milk. I will never will with a roommate ever again in my entire life unless I’m getting married, they live with 12 other people. It takes a lot of dedication and passion for the environmental movement to live this kind of lifestyle.

When I told my brother and a friend of mine about this they had the same reaction “that’s disgusting”. … I said that you would just have to get used it, but then they corrected me. Neither meant that it was physically disgusting, but that it was disgusting to see people choosing to live like “the poor”. They felt as though this was a mockery to people who couldn’t afford food, who couldn’t afford to live with just one family in a house and who couldn’t afford to keep their hydro on. Instead you have a household of by no means rich, but by no mean poor… group of kids who are choosing to not work and live like that. They choose to eat “garbage”, to be cold and to stay in the dark.

I brushed it off at the time, but it is now one thing that has been running through my head day in and day out. The only reason grocery stores throw out “almost” expired food is because if they lower the price people won’t buy the higher priced food – so they just keep it until it doesn’t make sense to sell it at the same price point and then toss out the perfectly good food.

Granted, dumpstering started out as a way to beat economic struggling but soon became a haven for “freeganism” (those who want to escape the consumerist life and culture) so it is backpacking off something poor people WERE doing. But with grey water… 50 – 80% of all residential water waste is from grey water.

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cape, car, carbon, carbon footprint, dumpster diving, Food, fur, Furniture, garbage, kids, Lush, Milk, oil, Organic, style, Tea, vegan, waste, water

Is Carbon Offsetting The Environmental Equivalent To Sending Roses?

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by Starre Vartan · 09/16/07

by guest-blogger Craig Platt

Watch this video to understand the situation

As the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. So goes the running argument about whether offsetting your carbon footprint is a useful contribution to our eco-system or just another futile exercise in pretending to be doing good by spending your all-mighty dollar.

It’s in the headlines: NewsCorp and Yahoo have been some of the more vocal companies offsetting their footprints. While Yahoo is quite honest that their plan is for the future, they are very hesitant to point out what they are doing to actually reduce their footprint at this very moment.

The wisecracking people of Cheat Neutral have gone ahead and pointed out the true irony in Offsetting. They’re comparing it to cheating on your girlfriend or spouse and then sending her flowers, chocolates and jewelry.

This UK-based website offers “cheaters” the opportunity to offset their infidelity by supporting a faithful couple. Register as a faithful couple or just a single person and you will receive money to nurture your pure lifestyle, “All you have to do is agree to stay monogamous or single – and if we match you with a suitable cheater, you’ll get paid to neutralise their cheating.”

And if you’re a cheater: “By paying CheatNeutral, you’re funding monogamy-boosting offset projects – we simply invest the money you give us in monogamous, faithful or just plain single people, to encourage them to stay that way.”

This ridiculous idea (argued here) is essentially the equivalent to the mindset that we can offset carbon wastefulness by paying to plant trees, or investing in the development of clean industry and research for a greener world. Further, many of the offsetting organizations misrepresent themselves, wasting equally as they raise funds that will not be put to carbon offsetting until funding has been satisfactorily raised, which could take up to ten years. Even when they do get to the work of carbon offsetting the ecosystem will likely not begin to feel its affects for another 50 to 100 years.

Why not stay faithful to your beliefs? Because that sweet looking, Styrofoam-encased smoothie was just too hard to resist, that’s why. So you just wrapped you lips around its non-decomposing edge, blissfully engaging in the excitement of it’s lusciousness.

If we’re told it’s okay to misbehave, so long as we pay the tax, it sends the wrong message. We do not need to be offsetting our disregard for the environment. We need to be correcting it. And CheatNeutral is simply putting it into terms that the layperson can understand. Keep it in your recycling bin. For more information on organizations involved in carbon offsetting see Native Energy and ICF.

car, carbon, carbon footprint, eating, Energy, fur, Jewelry, mom, News, Recycling, reduce, spa, style, trees, video, waste

Toggery Collection by Kate D'Arcy

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by Starre Vartan · 08/22/07

Kate D’Arcy with some of her Fall designs

Designer Kate D’Arcy, 26, is a new up and coming ecofashion designer, and I was lucky enough to get to check out her line in person last week. Kate’s debut line for her label Toggery, is made up of basics with flair, and as you can see from the pictures, tons of color too! All fabrics are super-soft, and for autumn I particularly loved the organic cotton fleece cropped jacket (not shown below) and the soft and comfy cowl-necked dresses. Her designs look great and are flattering to the female figure, yet all the pieces I checked out seemed versatile enough so that I could see wearing them to work and for hanging out on the weekend.

Kate says that she wants to make clothes for people who are from all walks of life, including but not limited to treehuggers and environmentalists. She says that by creating a line of fashions that are both fun, affordable and gorgeous, even non-eco chicks will want to pick up her stuff, just because it looks great. It’s that kind of attitude that is bringing ecofashion out of the ‘green’ corner, and will get lots of people into organic cotton whether they do it on purpose or not!

Kate uses organic cotton and sustainable dyes, and all her fabric is made, dyed and sewn in her home state of Pennsylvania, which I think is super-impressive since fewer resources are used to ship fabric around (reducing Toggery’s carbon footprint). Also, by having her designs sewn in the U.S. D’Arcy is supporting American seastresses, who are paid a fair wage.

Check this page for info on where to buy Toggery near you!

autumn, car, carbon, carbon footprint, clothes, corn, cotton, design, designer, dress, dyes, eating, ecofashion, fabric, fabrics, fall, farm, Fashion, Home, Organic, organic cotton, pictures, resources, sustainable, Toggery, treehugger

A Royal Statement Indeed

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by Danelle Brown · 12/08/06

Prince Charles is elegantly using his power to make a powerful statement. The NYT reported that the Prince had made the choice to travel like his ordinary country men. No more excessive fuel devourers, aka private jets and helicopters. Instead he will be utilizes the energy conservation method of public transportation such as commercial flights, trains, and biodiesel cars.

The Prince emphasized that the carbon footprint that we make today directly impacts the future generations. Now the royal style sense will not be thrown away. In fact, the prince is taking his existing Jaguar and Land Rover converted so that they run on 100% biodiesel. He will be upgrading his current residential electrical system so that it is more energy efficient. Even his charitable corporation, Duchy Originals is getting a eco-revamp. The food company will soon be measuring the emission levels of its greenhouse gases.

Wouldn’t it be great if our country’s leader would take such initiatives and create a statement, a commitment to his country and the environment? That would definitely make the papers. His eco-friendly ranch would make for a great cover on Architectural Digest.

biodiesel, car, carbon, carbon footprint, cars, conservation, diesel, Eco-Chick, electric, Energy, Food, gas, NYTimes, paper, sport, style, Tea, transportation, travel

What's Your Footprint?

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by Starre Vartan · 03/19/06

 

car, carbon, carbon footprint, driving, Eco-Chick, resources, spa, style, vegetarian