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

Earthships Take Flight

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 03/31/06

About ten years ago I was in Colorado and one of my friends took me to see some alternative housing structures that were being built in the mountains. The first was an amazing teepee that had a woodstove and the second was an ‘earthship’.

I was blown away by the originality of the design and the ingenious idea of using recycled materials to build the home. The foundation was primarily compiled of recycled auto tires that had been cut in half and packed with dirt. Walls were plaster surrounding aluminum cans and bottles, solar panels were feeding batteries for power, and rain water was being filtered for drinking.

These homes are visually striking in their symbiotic relationship to surrounding terrain and can be completely off the grid. My husband and I fantasize about building one someday and there are seminars you can attend in Taos, NM to learn how to build your own from scratch or even retrofit existing homes.

Earthships are now sprouting up all over the world. Their ingenous co-existence with the earth makes them an intelligent alternative to exhausting the earth’s limited resources.

batteries, car, carbon, design, Eco-Chick, filter, Home, recycle, recycled, resources, water, wood

To Buy or Not to Buy?

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by Ann Benoit · 03/21/06

Two years ago I had the pleasure of attending the American Institute of Graphic Artists’ (AIGA) 2004 Gain Conference in New York. Although the bulk of the conference included motivational speech about a designer’s social and environmental responsiblity, one speaker—Christopher Hacker, the then creative & marketing director of Aveda jumped in and spoke about (among other things) how to make environmentally conscious decisions as a consumer (and as a designer).

In addition to his well delivered talk, Hacker gave everyone in the audience a small, well designed pop-up desk piece (printed on recycled paper) entitled, “The Thirteen Key Questions to Ask Before We Design Specify or Buy ANYTHING.” Although a self proclaimed minimalist, (and keeping in mind this conference was over 2 years ago) I kept that piece and still use it today when I am faced with the question, “Should I buy this”?

The Thirteen Key Questions to Ask Before We Design, Specify, or Buy Anything

01 Do we need it?

02 Can we do without it?

03 Can we borrow, rent or get it used?

04 Is the project/product designed to minimize waste?

05 Can it be smaller, lighter or made from fewer materials?

06 Is it designated to be durable or multi-functional?

07 Does it use renewable resources?

08 Is reuse practical and encouraged?

09 Are the product and/or packaging refillable, recyclable or repairable?

10 Is it made with post-consumer recycled (PCR) or reclaimed materials and how much?

11 Is it available in a less toxic form? Can it be made with less toxic materials?

12 Is it available from a socially and environmentally responsible company?

13 Is it made locally?

AIGA, design, designer, Eco-Chick, epa, liver, local, paper, recycle, recycled, resources, reuse, waste

As Green As Green Can Be?

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by Starre Vartan · 03/18/06

There has been debate here lately about whether we, as “Greenies” should buy anything at all. This is a long-standing issue in the environmental community: Should we shun all consumer products and grow our own food, make our own clothes and educate our own kids (the time that takes tends to limit your ability to do much else, I’ve found)?

Or should we engage in society as “regular” folks and try to change the system by supporting environmentally-friendly companies, products and services? I would guess that most Greenies do both, to varying degrees (since I live in the Northeast, I can only garden for part of the year anyway, for example). 

I’ve always had trouble with the ‘back to the land’ approach as I see many (certainly not all!) communities that are set up that way as having traditional gender roles. I have little interest in cooking and even less in having babies, sewing my own clothes or spending all day canning food.  I love the fact that I get paid for using my brain all day, writing, thinking, researching, asking questions, and interacting with all the other nerds that like that kind of work. At the same time, I realize my existence is predicated on people much poorer than myself doing all that hard (boring!) labor I don’t want to do. OR that some fossil-fueled machine has to do the work. So I try to buy Fair Trade and organic, and I clean my house myself, and I go to farmer’s markets and I grow my own summer veggies and I compost and I adopt rescued animals, and I try not to drive too much, and I recycle and reuse like crazy.  How are we supposed to come up with solutions if we are laboring all day? I need time to think, dammit! 

What about you? What do you do? What tradeoffs do you make, and why?

Animals, babies, clothes, community, Eco-Chick, Fair Trade, farm, Food, garden, kids, labor, Organic, recycle, reuse, skin, solutions, spa, style, summer

London is well-fashioned in many ways

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by Summer Rayne Oakes · 02/18/06

The Crafts Council Gallery will be hosting a show that will house the U.K.’s small, albeit blossoming eco-fashion industry.

Well Fashioned examines the various ways in which fashion designers approach ‘green’ fashion, from materials and processes to concepts and techniques. Some outfits use organic or alternative fabrics like hemp, bamboo, wild silk and ingeo. Other exhibitors consider the ecological value of synthetic fabrics and biodegradable and recycled plastics.

Curator Rebecca Earley comments: ‘We hope that the exhibition will sow the seeds of change for a more ecological and ethical approach to fashion. Given that the majority of a garment’s impact on the environment occurs after the item has left the shop, an important part of the exhibition looks at the role of the consumer. How can a garment be bought, washed and disposed of as ecologically and ethically as possible?’

Some notables that will be there: Terra Plana, Kate Goldsworthy, and Ting.

More information can be found via: The Crafts Council

alternative fabrics, bamboo, Crafts, design, designer, designers, Eco-Chick, ethical, exhibition, fabric, fabrics, Fashion, hemp, London, Organic, plastic, plastics, recycle, recycled, silk

Fave Resource #1

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by Starre Vartan · 10/04/05

I love the Real Goods catalog. I think it’s because I can find both a suitable wedding gift (like recycled maple measuring spoons), a huge variety of solar panels, organic cotton bathrobes and a stovetop water distiller, all in one place. They also have those cool backpacks and bags with solar panels on them that I so want so I can go hiking and power up my laptop while I walk mountain ridges.

bags, bath, cotton, Hiking, Organic, organic cotton, recycle, recycled, water, wedding