Hottest Trends in Weddings--Eco Consciousness Rings A Bell

Take 2.5 million US weddings a year, add half a million commitment ceremonies and multiply it by an average of 150 guests at each event, and you end up with overflowing landfills and toxins soaking into the water supply, our skin, and Mother Earth.

While celebrating your love isn’t supposed to be a downer about the death of the planet, weddings tend to be about stuff—single use, chemically bleached dresses, toxic makeup, rolls and rolls of gift wrap, gem-based jewelry, chemically treated, imported flowers, and lots of garbage. This may be why green weddings made #5 in the global nuptials hottest trends list. Trend #1 is announcing your engagement on Facebook— also eco in that it eliminates paper declarations.

Green wedding planner, Kate Harrison explains, “If every wedding this year used a disposable aisle runner and the runners were laid end –to-end, they would circle the globe twice! Similarly, the amount of paper used to make invitations could cover the island of Manhattan.”

Throwing an earth-friendly ceremony doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style or freak-out your friends with lectures about recycling. You can gently increase people’s awareness with your show of love for one another and the planet with earth and money-saving practices at a celebration that doesn’t poison the planet. Take these simple ideas:

• Clue guests in early to your eco-approach with a page in your program or website highlighting some of the green choices you made and mention choices they can make to green their travel and gifts.
  Example about a wedding menu, “Our menu will offer mostly vegetarian choices. Raising cattle uses much more energy than growing vegetables. And, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Runoff from farmlands is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. Agricultural activities that cause pollution include confined animal facilities, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing and harvesting.
  
• Invitations, place and note cards not only generate tons of trash—the production of paper creates air and water pollution. Try plantable paper and envelopes implanted with wildflower seeds, you buy the paper from a company like Botanical Paperworks and print your own invites. Or order from Plantable Seed Paper which makes paper for you with your own choice of seeds—from trees to herbs or flowers.

Engagement Rings and Jewelry. Gold mining is one of the dirtiest businesses on the planet. Production of just one ring creates 20 tons of mine waste and the battle over diamonds has left over 50,000 dead, half a million refugees, and a thousand amputees. In addition to the human cost, mining creates erosion and flooding. Make a big difference with these choices:

• Buy a previously owned ring from eBay or a reputable consignment shop like Saddlerock Barn in Sedona. Owner, Mary Ann Johnson has these tips for easy eco, “The trend in jewelry sales is for estate and vintage wedding sets. Our customers buy old rings and have the stones reset. A new diamond ring costs about $4,600. With a vintage ring you know you are not contributing to pollution or violence, and you spend around $2,000.”


• Sumiche Jewelry Co. is the only company in the U.S. using Certified Green Gold and Platinum. Their handcrafted jewelry is created from Certified Fair Trade/Eco-Gold and Platinum. All diamonds are certified Conflict Free.

Choose vendors who make an effort to go green. Go with local or organic food catered at a green certified venues like Smog Shoppe—LA’s first completely green event space—100% solar powered. Even music can go green, take Bamboo Beats in Seattle, WA, these DJs use only MP3 files—no CDs—plus they drive to and from gigs in a hybrid, and only print in-house on recycled materials with an Energy Star® rated printer. Other eco-tactics:

• Save money and trash. Photographers can be expensive and if every wedding in the US had 10 disposable cameras, that puts 25 million cameras a year in landfills. Who needs more plastic when there are good alternatives like renting fully insured, digital cameras? Let your guests take quality photos and lighten up the landfill load. Camera Renter ships digital cameras to you and when you return the cameras the photos post to a website so you can share pictures with your guests.


• Save money, book offseason—Sedona makes a good choice with close to 300 days of sunshine a year your wedding can be outside almost anytime except July and August.


• Smaller footprint, bigger rooms, lower bill at check out. Choose lodging for guests or your honeymoon at eco-conscious vacation rental homes like those at EcoLuxury Lodging or a green B&B.


• Choose recycled dresses instead of buying new. Wedding and bridesmaid gowns can use up to 16 yards of fabrics made from petroleum products, bleached with toxic chemicals, and shipped from China. The average cost of a new wedding dress is $1,300, a previously worn gown averages just $200 and no new resources were used to create it.


• Donate gowns after the wedding to The Cinderella Project or The Glass Slipper Project.


• Slow down conspicuous consumption. Let guests know you’re comfortable with reused, re-gifted items on your wish list.

This blog is for bottom-up dispensers of cool who enjoy healthy living. We feel that "the small, the slow, the local, and the personal" will build the new economy. Your comments will help enrich this information for all of us. Please share your tips and experience.

Vacation Rental Travel Deals ~ Free Stuff, Super Bowl and More

2009 Red Hot Rate Specials for FREE stuff. Going toxin-free, plastic-free, oil-free, and smoke-free can get you rent free, jeep rides, workshops along with good health in 2009 when you enter our health promotions. Subscribe to this blog by email or RSS feed so you don't miss the offers like the ones below for smokers, women and Super Bowl fans.

Give Yourself the Gift of Health and be our guest. Win a 3-Day Weekend Sedona, Arizona or St. Augustine, Florida. If you quit smoking for New Years or plan to quit in 2009, you could stay for free in one of our healthy vacation homes. We're running promotions this year to encourage people to get healthier, starting with a promotion to support those kicking cigs or whatever you smoke.

Don't smoke? Forward this to a friend who does and get them to take you on the vacation when they quit.

To enter, just write to Dana and tell us two things, 1. What you plan to do to replace the cigarettes (chew gum, call your coach, take a walk) and 2. Why you want quit. If you make it smoke-free for 90 days, you can stay for free at the waterfront treehouse or Red Rocks Retreat in Sedona. Taxes and cleaning not included, based on availability. Entries will be posted on the blog, so let us know if you want your name included or not.

When you quit smoking:

• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will improve.


• In 8 hours the toxic gasses drop by half and oxygen levels return to normal.


• In 48 hours your risk of heart attack drops, nicotine will have left your body and your sense of taste and smell returns.


• In 72 hours your broncial tubes relax and your energy will increase.


• In three to nine months you can win a vacation and your coughing and wheezing problems will go away.

The Gift of Shift, FREE for two women. Two scholarships available to the Sedona Women in Transition Retreat, Jan 31-Feb 1. Scholarship not based on need but on willingness to "pay it forward." $899 fee paid by sponsor. Email Dana for details. $25 registration fee required.

Super Bowl Savings! St. Pete, FL vacation home rental, $333 a night. Smoke free, pet free cottage sleeps four. Email dedeskye at msn.com for details. Minimum stay required.

Top Five for Greening Your Holidays

Reminder: I do guilt-free. You already have enough on your plate this season with money being tight and all the extra socializing without me preaching to you about greening your Christmas. These are just a few things to make you feel good and maybe do a little good for the environment, but only as the icing on the cake.

1. ReGift. See why the second time around can really be the charm. Click this to read the article.

2. Sing. It changes your brain chemistry in healthy ways so you can make good decisions about protecting your health and the planet’s. Click here to listen to the Gnostic Choir singing songs to connect us.

3. Focus. Forget multitasking, it creates mistakes. Click here to read the article.

4. Get Real. A real tree, that is, from a local tree farmer. Skip the toxins in artificial trees or trees shipped from out of state and sprayed with harmful paint. Check my December blog post for details.

5. Put Some Green In Your Pocket. And save energy at the same time with the new tax credits that go into effect January 2009. Click here to read the article.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Going green can help you save--on health care costs, fuel bills, tuition, and admission fees. There's something free for everyone--indoors for culture vultures and outdoors for the more adventurous.

Top 10 Free US Attractions

1. Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
3. Waimea Canyon, Waimea, Hawaii
4. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
5. Angel's Landing, Zion Park, Utah
6. USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
7. Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1, California
8. US Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
9. Freedom Trail, Boston, Massachusetts
10. Central Park, NY City

If you bank with Bank of America your sheck or debit card gets you into 70 museums free of charge. Details at the Bank of America Museums on Us website.

Even the Ivory Towers have opened up and gone green. Try any one of the 2,000 free courses online from MIT. Daredevil, Walter Lewin is an Internet legend for using stunts to demonstrate the laws of physics. Yale, Notre Dame and Berkley offer freebies from Psychology to Nutrition.

What freebies do you like for going green?

Slowly But Surely Green?

American Airlines plans to acquire 42 new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. This shows me the power of the consumer. It's actually a big deal because Boeing designed the 787 Dreamliner from the passenger perspective, thinking that people will book travel based on the plane.

I realize many of you won't fly anymore because it isn't green. But many of us have to fly to see ailing family or conduct business. If you have to, it's good to go as green as you can and as comfortable as this Dreamliner with improved air and water purification systems, as well as new humidification techniques and lower cabin pressure, which are expected to reduce passenger fatigue.

For the environment, the 787 advanced engine design provides a quieter operation, with an expected noise footprint 60 percent smaller than other aircraft of similar size, benefiting those in the air as well as those on the ground. The plane's lower overall weight and improved design means we also will reduce our impact on the environment by burning less fuel. The 787 aircraft also has the largest overhead bins in the industry – approximately 30 percent larger than comparable aircraft bins. The large 19-inch windows are designed to make the cabin feel more spacious.

Going For the Green: Thoughts on Guilt and Greenwashing

"These days, it seems just about every business is finding a way to go green, making it that much harder for well-intentioned consumers to distinguish companies with green products and services." --Entrpreneur Magazine

Green guilt, extreme green, green washing—the over-exposure to green messages leaves me feeling eco-fatigued. Businesses greenwashing in hopes of getting attention has created a backlash of cynicism against the green trend. What's an easy going green gal to do?

I confess, I'm not a purist, I find it to be rigid and confusing. Twenty percent of going green requires expensive, complicated, difficult choices about which most people disagree. I focus on the 80% that has clear impacts instead of giving up because of the debatable and often painful 20%.

The way I see it, lots of people doing 80% makes a bigger difference than a few zealots doing 100%. I set a rational, reasonable example that people can follow, rather than condemn those who are unable or unwilling to adopt a perfectionist’s all-or-nothing approach.

Is that a cop-out? Is that nurturing? Economists say it is the law of diminishing return. The last 20% isn't worth the trouble it takes to go after.

Having said all that, I lose respect for businesses that claim to be green for common sense things like recycling. I find lodgings that claim to be green because they ask guests to use less water or because they switched to flourescent light bulbs laughable.

I give my business to those who assert their green-ness in writing. Certification from third parties that verify eco-friendly practices also offer credibility and I have a few for my business just for that reason. But the field of listings is so crowded, most consumers can't tell one from the other. What it seems we can tell is that it takes a variety of efforts to support local residents and protect the environment and no light coat of green can cover up for lack of substance.

Travel Enthusiasm Still High, Despite Economy

Consumer resilience means 78% percent still plan to travel for the holidays according to a recent Travelocity poll.  Also savvy, travelers can find more deals now than ever before.  The biggest change isn’t that people have given up, but how they will travel—12% percent say they will not drive and 12% percent say they will avoid flying whenever possible due the new fees airlines charge.  Go Southwest.

 

Do "Green" Cleaners Really Work?

After my August 13 post about the dangers of house cleaning, a few of you, including one of our house cleaners, asked me if green cleaning products really clean, can green cleaning sanitize surfaces like toilets and countertops? I say yes, because our homes can't be sterilized anyway, no surface stays santized for long.

If that's not enough for you, consider the alternatives. "Disinfectants can be poisonous--they're regulated as pesticides..." says Lori Bongiono, author of Green, Greener, Greenest.

~Water evaporating--air drying, is actually a good way to get rid of germs. I clean with hot water to increase the odds. Studies show air dried dishes have 74% less bacteria and germs than towel dried dishes.

~A super-hooked microfiber cloth and hot water is an affordable choice that works on 90% of household messes. Rubbing alcohol and baking soda work on tougher stains.

~I confess, I keep a caustic cleaner on hand, outside in the shed, for the remaining 1% I can't remove with my green cleaning methods. But almost all of the time, my house is fragrance and chemical free.

~The toilets get baking soda for scrubbing and vinegar for sanitizing.

Fly and Still Go Green?

Environmental groups say people need to fly less. Sites like Carbon Responsible can calculate the footprint of your trip, plus show you how long it takes to make the equivalent carbon saving by cutting down on car journeys or using low-energy light bulbs. My recent flight from Florida to Arizona has the same impact as driving a Toyota Camry for one year. What's a globe trotter to do?

Some of us use carbon offsetting to ease our conscience, avoiding, of course, the suspect services. Green gurus insist that's not enough.

If business and travel lovers like myself won't give up flying, the least we can do is ease the impact of flying in these ways:

1. Book daytime flights. Flying at night or in the winter is more environmentally damaging. The reasons are complex and to do with condensation trails trapping heat at night, but reflecting it away from the earth in the day. Researchers found that, although night flights only account for 25% of air traffic, they contribute 60% to 80% of the global warming caused by flying.

2. Travel in a lighter plane. The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, for example, is made from lightweight plastic, which supposedly makes it 20% more fuel efficient.

3. Plan side trips by rail or ferry instead of short, commuter flights.

4. Stay in green accommodations. Avoid ones that greenwash. Look for ones that do more than put out recycling bins and switched to fluorescent light bulbs. Ask specific questions about what the lodging does to conserve energy and water and minimize waste. Don't just accept that the use of the word green means they have sustainable practices. The more people who ask, the more hospitality management will listen.

"Already the word 'eco' has lost all power and meaning,' says Guyonne James, senior projects manager at Tourism Concern, a UK charity which campaigns against exploitation. 'If a bed-and-breakfast has a garden, they'll call it an eco-lodge. There has been such a proliferation of claims and green labels that as a tourist you really have no idea what's going on."

5. If you spot someone with bad practices, write a review on irresponsibletourism.info.

6. Take your habits from home on the road. Recycle, turn off lights, take public transportation, bring your own water bottle and maybe even your coffee mug. Use organic sunscreen to limit contamination at beaches and swimming holes.

For easygoing green travel tips, check this list or add your suggestions here with a comment.

Photo by Greg Lepera, St. Augustine, FL.

Going For The Green: Thoughts on Greenwashing and Guilt

"These days, it seems just about every business is finding a way to go green, making it that much harder for well-intentioned consumers to distinguish companies with green products and services." --Entrpreneur Magazine

Green guilt, extreme green, green washing—the over-exposure to green messages leaves me feeling eco-fatigued. Businesses greenwashing in hopes of getting attention has created a backlash of cynicism against the green trend. What's an easy going green gal to do?

I confess, I'm not a purist, I find it to be rigid and confusing. Twenty percent of going green requires expensive, complicated, difficult choices about which most people disagree. I focus on the 80% that is clear and has impact instead of giving up because of the debatable 20%.

The way I see it, lots of people doing 80% makes a bigger difference than a few zealots doing 100%. I set a rational, reasonable example that people can follow, rather than condemn those who are unable or unwilling to adopt a perfectionist’s all-or-nothing approach.

Is that a cop-out? Is that nurturing? Economists say it is the law of diminishing return. The last 20% isn't worth the trouble it takes to go after.

Having said all that, I lose respect for businesses that claim to be green for common sense things like recycling. Lodgings that claim to be green because they ask guests to use less water or because they switched to flourescent light bulbs make me laugh. I give my business to those who assert their green-ness in writing with green policies. Certification from third parties that verify their claims offer credibility, and I have a few for my business just for that reason. But the field of listings is so crowded, most consumers can't tell one from the other so many green businesses don't bother.

Savvy consumers expect socially responsible practices from all businesses and won't just hand over their money because of marketing.

The Latest Trip

The latest guilt-trip seems to be going green. And now it's time for summer vacation--bringing more opportunities to feel guilty about the jet trails from flying, gas prices, and our "footprints," --click to measure yours in a fun quiz, no ads.

If you know me, you know what I say about guilt, "No way!" Here's how I'm making my summer vacation green and guilt-free:

Do what I can to save on gas when renting or buying a car and then don't sweat it. Hybrids do get better gas mileage, but the verdict is still out on how green they really are with their toxic batteries and carbon producing manufacturing. Enterprise Rentals let's you add carbon offsets to the price of your rental at booking. Offsets for my two week rental in Phoenix was just $2.90. Couldn't have been easier. This site has a gas mileage comparison tool and rates the 100 Top Green Cars. I pick a car with great gas mileage and GO.

Fly nonstop and fly during the day. Take off and landing takes most of the fuel used on a flight. Jet emissions do more damage at night.

Try these easygoing green vacation tips (ad-free pdf). Print out a few copies on recycled paper for fellow travelers or vendors who may need encouragement to go green or who may feel overwhelmed by all the environmental bafflegab.

Take FREE tours. I get locals to show me around for free through Couch Surf. This social networking site verifies users at three clever levels and connects you with people offering a place to crash or a cultural education of their area.

Gimme a Break, Coffee Break, that is...

Sometimes I want to throw my hands up at all the contradictory and confusing information out there about what's healthy and what's not. "Eat organic, eat local--vegetarian isn't healthy for you, but it is for the planet--cut fat, eat fat."

I make it easy on myself and hopefully, the planet by doing what I can the majority of the time and forgetting about the rest of it. I'm not 100% anything all the time. I eat organic when I can, but I don't obsess about it. I figure everything in moderation means less stress for me and my traveling companions seem to appreciate it, too.

Organic coffee is one thing I skip, especially given the cost of coffee. Buying organic foods usually means less exposure to pesticides and fertilizers, but coffee is one exception. The roasting at high temps removes toxic residue in conventional beans according to Sandra Marquardt, Organic Coffee Collaboration spokesperson. This means there's no real health benefit to choosing organic over regular. But choosing organic it does support environmentally sound harvesting and farming practices.

Tonic for the Soul--Mothering is our Nature

On Mother's Day, I wandered out on the mudflats of the river to watch a family of raccoons scamper on the shoreline. It was a tonic for my soul. Breathing in the wonder of the outdoors nurtures me. When I am low, I find solace in nature. When I am outside, I am more myself. Nature writer Diane Ackerman describes our need for the tonic, "There are noble reasons for protecting the environment...but we also need a healthy, thriving, bustling, natural world so that we can be healthy, so that we can feel whole."

Right there on the mud flats, I made a commitment to take care of myself as well as I take care of others. "Taking care of yourself is your right and your responsibility," says Vimala McClure. And it is said, she who values her body more than dominion over the empire can be given custody of the empire. I want to value my soil and sea, as much as I do the bodies of others.

And in doing so, I cannot help but wonder how much richer, cleaner, kinder the planet would be if mothers everywhere started caring for themselves in this way--nurturing the mother, the nature in us all.