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

Buns of Steel Don't Come Without Pain

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by Summer Rayne Oakes · 04/12/06

So this is my third day with my Guayanese tank of a trainer named Inka.

I can’t move.

Not sure if my ass is tighter because my muscles are just one big knot or if it actually is tighter. The goal? I really want to see if someone can smack a quarter against my ass and see if they get their change back. (Oh, plus all the health benefits)….but won’t be able to do that if I can’t lift my dead weight out of this chair – My Rx = deep tissue massage (I like it hard…but doesn’t every girl??).

I was looking into organic massage theraphy places and came across an interesting one: Fort Meyers Massage. Though I’m nowhere near Fort Meyers, something else caught my attention: Young Living Essential Oils. They provide essential oils, dietary supplements, and personal care products by developing one of the world’s largest organic herb farms for the production of therapeutic grade essential oils. Rock on.

car, Eco-Chick, essential oils, farm, farms, Hair, health, oil, oils, Organic, personal care products, rape

I (Heart) Tom's

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by Starre Vartan · 02/15/06

I’ve been a fan of Tom’s of Maine since I was a whippersnapping treehugger in tie-dye with a flower in my hair. They make the best natural toothpastes (who else would have thought of gingermint?), and some damn good deoderants and other personal care stuff. They’ve been doing it for years, too- they’re not just another LOHAS-loving capitalist company.

Now, Tom’s is going 100% wind-power. That means that their 100,000 square foot manufacturing plant will be run with energy from wind turbines in Nebraska. Their press release elucidates:

The change will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million pounds per year, the equivalent of planting 214 acres of trees or removing 138 cars from the road.
 

Mmmmm……Tom’s gingermint.

 

car, carbon, cars, Eco-Chick, emissions, Energy, Hair, reduce, treehugger, trees

Fashionable Trend? Hair on the Legs?

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by Summer Rayne Oakes · 01/05/06

Well…not quite. I don’t think hair on women’s legs was ever really in fashion at any given time, though traditional Europeans and hardcore treehuggers may beg to differ.

Anyway, thought I might send this your way: Not 100% Merino wool, but close to it. StockinGirl has extended their Merino wool tights from last year into great wool leggings and leg warmers. Don’t know if you noticed, but this is a hot trend for the winter months – and quite frankly, should be the only hair on your legs…

Europe, Fashion, Hair, treehugger, women, women's

Crazy Capitalist and Enviro in the Same Sentence?

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by Starre Vartan · 11/22/05

Today’s NYTimes has an interesting article in a section I usually ignore. The front of the Business section has “Saving the Environment, One Quarterly Earnings Report at a Time.”

Wal-Mart uses a wind turbine to help provide electricity at a store in Aurora, Colo., as an experiment.

From the story by Dave Weaver:

A few years ago, scientists at Cargill Inc. learned how to make rigid, transparent plastics from corn sugars. There was just one problem: they cost a lot more than the oil-based plastics they would replace.

Plastic pellets derived from corn at NatureWorks. Some producers have adopted corn-based packaging, as the cost of oil-based products rose.

But that was before the price of oil shot up and companies came under pressure from consumers and investors to find economically sound ways to adopt “green” packaging and other environmentally friendly products and processes. This year, Wal-Mart, Wild Oats Market and many other retailers, as well as food suppliers like Del Monte and Newman’s Own Organics, all embraced corn-based packaging for fresh produce.

Sales at NatureWorks, the Cargill subsidiary that makes the plastic, grew 200 percent in the first half of this year over the period last year. “The early adopters were more influenced by environmental concerns than costs,” said Kathleen M. Bader, chairwoman of NatureWorks. “But now we’re competitive with petrochemicals, too.”

Cargill is one of several companies profiting from the concerns – of shareholders, communities and consumers – about global warming, leaking landfills and other potential environmental hazards. Huge companies like General Electric and Chevron now have separate businesses to market what they are calling environment-friendly products.

And new companies and university projects appear each day. Cornell University’s College of Engineering, for one, expects to have a commercial process for using bacteria to recoup energy from wastewater treatment within three years.

“There are a lot of creative types looking for the next big thing,” said Bob Sheppard, deputy director for corporate programs at Clean Air-Cool Planet, a nonprofit environmental education organization. “Well, these days, environment is it.”

That’s what I like to hear.

business, car, Chevron, corn, electric, electricity, Energy, epa, Food, Global Warming, Hair, NYTimes, oil, Organic, plastic, plastics, produce, sales, spa, sugar, waste, water