Eco-Friendly & Green Living Blog

This gorgeous handmade bamboo platter is one of the many treasures you can find on the Rainforest Site. Buy it and you’ll not only get a great-looking bowl, but will save 2,290 square feet of rainforest!

How does that work?

It’s simple: The Rainforest Site works to preserve rainforests around the world. Go to the site daily, if possible, and hit the “Click” button to fund the purchase of rainforest land worldwide by The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, The World Parks Endowment, and Rainforest2Reef. Or buy one of the products from the site’s shop and you’ll also be saving a set amount of rainforest land.

Some 35,500 people around the world click on the site each day, and, to date, their more than 150 million clicks have preserved more than 40,500 acres of land – impressive!

Make The Rainforest Site your homepage, and clicking on it each day will become second nature – a definite feelgood way to start your day – or make it your go-to-site for at least some of your holiday shopping and do a little good in the world while making friends and family happy.

The Midas Touch bamboo platter measures approx. 15″ x 8″ x 2″ and cleans up easily with a damp cloth.

Available at: www.rainforestsite.com

Price: $24.95 US

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Have a room you don’t always use? Running in and out to open and close the vents to adjust the heating and air conditioning? Make life easier and save some energy – yours and the Earth’s – with a Vent-Miser.

This battery-operated, programmable vent has two weekday and two weekend programs. Set it up to turn off the air flow wheneven you want to, without having to always remember to do it yourself!

Best for wooden and darker floors, since, despite my pretty picture, it’s only available in brown.

Available at: The Home Depot

Price: $29.99

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Tired of your cell phones, PDAs and cameras sucking up electricity? Check out the Solio Universal Chargers.

The portable solar chargers are petite enough to fit in the palm of your hand and unfold into a flower shape (very pretty! OK, not exactly relevant, but, still, pretty!). They’re portable enough that you can carry them while out hiking, at the beach, pretty much anywhere, or just use them at home.

Stick a pencil in the hole in the centre and position facing the sun, wait a day (maybe more if it’s cloudy) and you’re good to go! I live in a south-facing apartment in Toronto, and I put it in the window, behind the glass and didn’t even bother to reposition it to follow the movement of the sun, and in a single sunny day, it was fully charged. It holds the charge for up to one year.

The Classic comes with a charging cable; suction cup for mounting on a window (great for your car); female and mini USBs; and Samsung, Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson adapter tips.

Sadly, I couldn’t use it to power my iPhone 3G (the 3G somehow doesn’t recognize the Solio and after a couple of seconds of charging, shuts down, thinking it’s done), so I passed it on to web producer Lauren McPhillips to try out with her Sony Ericsson cell phone.

She says, “It worked quickly and the charge lasted really long. I loved it!” The Solio does work with the older iPhones, and a new tip should be out within the month to solve the 3G iPhone problem.

And, no, they’re not inexpensive, but they’ll last absolutely forever, and come a power outage, you’ll be laughing as your cell phone will be the only one working for miles around. Now if only they were powerful enough to charge up power-sucking laptops!

Available at: solio.com

Price: $99.95 US

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

If you were at the Style at Home Show this past weekend and visited our Dream Master Bedroom, you couldn’t miss the stunning Graham & Brown wallpaper that set off the walls in our feature space (beautifully put together by our senior design editor, Margot Austin, with help from the rest of our super-talented design team!).

Home Depot is now carrying Graham & Brown’s five smart and stylish, environmentally friendly wallpaper patterns. Included: the dramatic Heritage in Charcoal (above left) and more subtle Summer in Oatmeal (above right).

Produced using papers made from FSC-certified wood and printed with water-based inks that contain no solvents or VOCs, the wallpapers are recyclable and cleverly packaged in compostable materials made from corn starch.

Click here for more info on G&B’s enviro efforts. And, if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, check out our handy story on hanging wallpaper.

Available at: www.homedepot.ca

Price: $36 per double roll

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

These Accent de Villes frames made from woven recycled newspapers will snazz up your pics pronto!

Available: at retailers across Canada; call 800-663-2384 for a retailer near you.

Price: approx. $12 (3″x3″), $14 (4″x6″), $16 (5″x7″)

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Style at Home’s design editor, Samantha Pynn, took to the small screen this fall with her very own TV show, Pure Design, and I’m loving it! (And I’m not just saying that because I work with Sam!)

She’s got great taste, is fun and friendly and tackles the show makeovers with an eye to keeping things environmentally friendly – who could ask for anything more?

In the bedroom pictured, which was made over for one of the episodes, the night tables are eco friendly, the headboard has a soy-based foam core to make it cushy, the lamps are old ones made over with recovered shades, the bedding is all organic, and the walls were painted with no-VOC paint.

Watch for episodes of Pure Design on HGTV Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT); for more info, check out hgtv.ca.

Photo, HGTV, John Queenan.

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Eco lovers rejoice! Pistachio, a new store from Indigo and Chapters’ Heather Reisman, has opened in Toronto just up the road from the Yonge/Eglinton Indigo. (Another will open on Nov. 15 in Yorkdale, a third some time after in Square One in Mississauga, Ont., and Reisman says that they’ll roll out even more in coming months and next year.)

Reisman says the idea behind Pistachio is simple: “Buy less, buy a little bit better, buy forever.” And buy you will! I became the very first customer because I couldn’t resist the Bruce Mau Optimism spiral notebook, and the buckwheat honey.

All products come from local artisans or are sourced from Fair Trade suppliers, and signs tout impressive eco credentials. Example: gift cards are are made in Canada with soy inks and 100% post-consumer waste fibre, using a chlorine-free process and green-e certified, wind-generated electricity to boot!

Masses of great stuff from face creams to throws, all enviro-friendly, all beautiful, make shopping easy and stylish. (And with Christmas coming, gift-giving will be a breeze, too!)

The stores themselves feature formaldehyde-free MDF, reconstituted wood floors, locally quarried stone, non-toxic resins and zero or low-VOC paints.

Some Pistachio products will also be sold at 50 select Chapters and Indigo stores in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver. Check out www.epistachio.com for more info.

This post premieres CHIC CHECK, in which I’ll test products on occasion and let you know what I think about them. I’ll also pick my fave from each batch, so if you’ve tried any out yourself, be sure to comment and let me know what you think!

1 ORGANIC KITCHEN LAVENDER BERGAMOT ANTIBACTERIAL HAND WASH
Green Cred No SLSs or parabens, synthetic fragrances, petroleum products, colourants and animal ingredients, biodegradable.
Scent Great lavender smell with a hint of bergamot (think Earl Grey tea) – pleasant, not overpowering.
Special Bonus Also available as a gift set with a matching lotion and a bamboo tray that’s perfect to use afterward as a key tray on a console table in your entryway or to hold jewelry or coins in your bedroom; $28.
Available at gift shops and department stores across Canada.
Price $12.

2 BURT’S BEES MILK & SHEA BUTTER HAND SOAP
Green Cred No SLSs or animal testing, paraben- and phthalate-free, bottle contains 80% post-consumer recycled material.
Something of a Surprise This soap doesn’t lather the way most do but feels more like a lotion. Not a problem for me, but some might find that off-putting.
Scent A subtle, sweet honey-like, beeswaxy scent, which I find intoxicating.
Available at stores across Canada.
Price $6.

3 ORGANIC SURGE LAVENDER & GERANIUM HAND WASH
Green Cred 99% naturally derived ingredients, no animal testing or animal-derived ingredients.
Scent Lavender, a known relaxant, perfect for those stressful days!
Charitable Work Part of the proceeds from the sales of Organic Surge products funds aid work in Africa.
Available at Shoppers Drug Mart/PharmaPrix across Canada.
Price $4.99.

4 METHOD WATER FLOW FOAMING HAND WASH
Green Cred Paraben-, EDTA- and triclosan-free, biodegradable, no animal testing
Scent Very light and subtle; I think my tween nieces will love it!
Fun Factor Wee ones will love the way the soap magically foams up when it comes out of the pump.
Available at stores across Canada.
Price $5.

♥ CHIC CHECK FAVE: BURT’S BEES!!
I absolutely love everything about this soap, from the way it smells to how it makes my hands feel to the fact that the bottle is made from recycled material. This will be the soap of choice in my apartment from now on!

Looking to find something green, but don’t know where to go? Try www.greenwithglamour.com, a super-stylish U.S.-based online shopping site that’s just fabulous for eco-conscious shoppers.

Emily  Deschanel, star of Bones (one of my fave TV shows, as my Facebook friends would know!), is a big fan of the site and says, “My No. 1 place to buy gifts is Green with Glamour….It’s wonderful to know that you can be eco-friendly, ethically sound, and not have to scrimp on style….It makes shopping so easy! From eco fashion to beautiful furniture, GWG has everything I could possibly want (or need).”

Green with Glamour’s collection of goodies is carefully curated by founders Kathleen Rowan and Deana Bracken, whose ever-growing eco-mindfulness lead the two to create the website in the first place.

The company is also a member of 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet. Members of the alliance (OK, does that sound Star Trekky, or what?) donate at least 1% of their annual sales to environmental organizations worldwide.

Pictured above: The Terrarium by Esque, 18″ high, $600 US.

For more fabulous finds from the site, check out the picture posts below, and if you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog, email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Green Cameo lamp by LightenUp Design is made with natural clays and handmade, nontoxic glazes, 22″ high, $220 US.

Pink Birdcage wallpaper by Woodson and Rummerfield is created using recycled paper and vegetable dyes, 27″ x 162″ per roll, $55 US per roll, minimum 2 rolls per order.

Available at: www.greenwithglamour.com

For more fabulous finds from the site, check out the picture post below, and if you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog, email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!