Sustainable Furniture - New Conscious Choice

When I attended last year's Co-Op America Conference in San Francisco, I walked away inspired and committed to making choices about where my money goes to help make a difference.

My conscious choice of the week was investing in new office furniture, but not just any office furniture, sustainable office furniture!

I am buying National Office Furniture not because it's a cheap deal (oh noooo!), but because they are a company that cares and I am buying (or should I say investing) in a QUALITY product that I will have forever. Plus, my home office will look really sexy and that's a plus too!!!

If you want to make conscious choices, support companies that WALK THE TALK. Need advice on how to find these companies? Check out members of 1% for the Planet. Three Leaf Cards is a member of 1% for the Planet, a very conscious choice that counts to consumers who want to support companies that put their money where their mouth is!

Ernesto Soy Lube for Bikes

Ernesto is trying to build name recognition with a soy-based bike lube. It’s biodegradable, and you can even send the empty bottle back when it’s gone to get it refilled.

If you’re looking to lower the environmental footprint of your bike, this might be the only way to increase your righteousness while winding a cargo bike through streets crowded with SUVs.

A 4oz bottle of Ernesto Lube is only $6.

Kudos to a Santa Barbara Day Spa Owner for Recycling!

I stumbled upon a Busy Working Moms Blog run by a day spa owner in Santa Barbara. Check out her cool tips about recycling.

I LOVE business people that care!!!

Read the Recycling Made Easy Article from the BusyWorkingMom blog and support conscious business people where you live!!!

Conscious Hotelling

Greetings from the Georgia Tech Conference Hotel in Atlanta (it snowed here today!) I had a conscious moment when I checked into my room...

So much of the toiletries go to waste..do we REALLY need to open soaps in the shower and bathtub?

Help minimize your hotel consumption:

1. Only use one soap during your stay (it won't kill you to pick the soap up from the sink and take it to the shower!)

2. If the hotel has a linens program where you can request that they don't clean your linens daily, opt for that!

3. Turn off all lights when you are not in the room!

Free Envirosax Shopping Bag with a $50 Greenloop Purchase

Need clothes? Buy green! Greenloop has sustainable clothes that look as good as they make you feel AND they are giving away sweet bags with a $50 purchase! Just enter code ENVIROSAX into the Order Comments box under your Payment Method at checkout, and Greenloop will include 1 FREE Envirosax Shopping Bag for each $50.00 of your purchase.

Shop on conscious spender!

Great Site - www.uptownliz.com

Hey Readers,
I wanted to share a new site from my new blog pal, Ramona Russell.

www.uptownliz.com was created in memory of Ramona's 28 year old sister, Liz who sadly lost her life from breast cancer last year. The site that supports giving back through shopping.

Uptown Liz (www.uptownliz.com) promotes products from companies whose proceeds directly give back to charitable organizations.

Check it out and support fellow conscious business people....our dollars can make a difference!

Conscious Spending Tip - Online Bank Statements!

Quick tip of the day - Save time and trees and make a positive eco-decision today.

Set all your financial statements to be online only!

I received several tax statements in my email inbox today and went and changed all my banks statements to be web only...no more papers to file, no extra mail, one step towards saving trees.

What are you waiting for? Go make the change! :)

Confessions of a Conscious Shopper

Sometimes it's tough being a wild web woman. You live behind a computer screen, your only interactions with the outside world are via email or web conferencing and you feel all alone in your little wild web world. Now, don't get me wrong...my lack of commute and work flexibility is great, but sometimes you just have "one of those days"...

...And sometimes when the going gets tough, the tough just has to go shopping....

So I was at a meeting (yes, an actual get in the car and meet people in person meeting) and the shopping mall was on the way home...going back to my home office and sitting behind the laptop was not desirable and since I was already in the shopping area, I realize that it would be less impactful to shop now versus make a second driving trip (you are hearing all the shopping excuses already!) back to the mall, so I make a conscious shopping choice to STOP, SHOP and ROLL....keep rolling with me as I confess my not-so guilty shopping sins....

Let me first pat my conscious spending self on the back for taking my canvas bag with me before I started my shopping extravaganza. Go me...ok, rolling on...

First shopping stab - AVEDA. I love Aveda so much I want to marry them. Their products are amazing, the company is cool and most importantly, they are dedicated to making a difference. I try to consciously support companies that do good and Aveda is top on my shop therapy list. Did you know that they are the first beauty company manufacturing with 100% certified wind power?

So, I walk into Aveda feeling pitiful and tired and I am overwhelmed with a stellar customer service "Welcome to Aveda!" greeting. As I sip calming Aveda tea, I get pampered with makeup help (and honestly, I needed some help in the beautification department) a hand massage and overall stellar service. After I look like a naturally glowing goddess thanks to my Aveda superstar, I use my Aveda points (BTW, I am going to Jamaica on Aveda points, mark my conscious spending words!) and as the women are ringing me up, they thank me profusely for bringing my own canvas bag. Getting shopping support when I try to be green really rocks. Then we proceed to talk about their new wind energy movement, my goal to go to Jamaica (a la supporting Aveda) and I'm off....

My seond shop therapy stop was lululemon athletica. I had a gift certificate to the store burning a hole in my pocket and there was no better time than now. Conscious spender note - lululemon has great shopping bags I use as a gym bag or lunch bag and they give you $.50 off when you bring in any shopping bag. I love stuff like that!

I find some great workout wear that is in line with my gift certificate amount and I bought basic black so I can wear this stuff forever. Suggestion for conscious fashionistas - buy classic and the shelf life of clothing will be super long...saves shop time because you have the basics you need and you don't have the trend factors that kill clothing shelf life. lululemon has a great manifesto
that is very pro balance, health and what really matters. Another cool company that I am happy to support.

Once my canvas bag had new workout clothes and Aveda goodies, I was consciously shopped out and wanted to call it quits. I supported two great companies, felt good about my choices and now feel some redemption from my conscious shopping confessional......

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

Win a free trip to the Seattle Green Festival!

One of Three Leaf Card's nonprofit partners, Co-Op America, wants you to join them at their newest Green Festival this spring in Seattle.

They are giving you a chance to win a trip for two during the weekend of April 12 and 13, to enjoy visionary speakers, hands-on workshops, green shopping, live music, fun family activities, and more at our famous two-day party-with-a-purpose, co-produced with Global Exchange.

The Green Festival shows you what a truly green economy would look like – Fair Trade, renewable energy, organic food, sweatshop-free clothing, recycling and composting, and much more.

For your chance to win, simply answer their short survey about your green living steps and you'll be entered for the getaway. Tell three friends about the getaway and you'll get three more chances to win. (See rules and restrictions.) The survey questions help COA plan the articles for their e-newsletter, print newsletter, and magazine for you all year long, so don't hold back.

The Seattle Green Festival Getaway prize includes airfare for two to Seattle, two weekend passes to the Green Festival, a weekend stay at a green hotel, dinner at a green restaurant, public transportation passes to help you get around Seattle car-free, and carbon offsets to make the whole trip totally carbon neutral!

Visit http://lists.coopamerica.org:8383/t/1534122/315554/42248/0/ for more information about the contest or click here to answer their survey -- and to enter for your chance to win the Seattle Green Festival Getaway.

Conscious Gifts for Valentine's Day

Heyheyhey Conscious Spenders!
I hope you are well. I'm loving this shiny new year...we can all start the year out right by making wise spending choices and STICKING TO THEM!

Although I am normally not one to be a big "Hallmark holiday" supporter, I do have to share some conscious gifting ideas for those of you who honor Valentine's Day so you spend consciously!

Need great Valentine's Day gift ideas? Shop Co-op America's Green Businesses for conscious companies so your gifts give back and make a difference.

You all know how giddy I was over my gifts from the holiday from Organic Bouquet - I'd support them again ANYTIME. Other great Valentine's Day gifts can be found too!

And for those of you who actually want to be really conscious with spending on the day of love, take your loved one for a walk and have a picnic and save resources and moolah!!!!!!!!

OrganicStyle.com Offering 10% Discount!

Don't Panic - Organic Style is offering a 10% Discount! I got an email from them today - follow this link to get 10% off (they build the discount in and you see it in the shopping cart.

Organic Egg Whites From Eggology

As a conscious spender, I always want to buy products that are healthy, safe and make me feel like my money is well spent. I found a good one this week!

I went to Lazy Acres, a local store in Santa Barbara, Ca where I discovered Eggology.com's organic egg whites.

Eggology's egg whites are 100% fresh egg whites - NOTHING else added (unlike some of the not-so yummy egg beaters-type egg whites that give egg whites a bad name).

I have been making egg white omlettes, adding low fat protein to my smoothies and baking with Eggology. I never thought I'd like the taste of egg whites, but I do!!

Go to www.eggology.com - you can order online and get GREAT healthy low fat recipes

eco-friendly acne treatment - tea tree oil

It's a shiny new year (YAY!) but my shiny new blemish is not rocking my new year world. I am a HUGE advocate for tea tree oil, an extraction from the Melaleuca tree.

It is a natural antiseptic and antifungal and it kills my blemishes! You can get
tea tree oil at any health food store and it lasts forever.

Tea tree oil is one of those great must-have items to use on cuts, when you make all natural cleaning products for the household, to kill zits and more!

Super Cool Holiday Gift from Brad Pitt

Yep, I got a Christmas gift from Brad Pitt. Okay, it came from my parents though Pitt's foundation Make it Right, but what woman is not going to pass up the opp to make a statement like that? (sigh)

I did a post on conscious holiday shopping where I talked about trying to get my parents off the "thneed" holiday gifting and I was so impressed and excited when my mom and stepdad make a donation to the Make it Right Foundation in my name this year!

The mission of Make it Right is to be a catalyst for redevelopment of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, building sustainable homes and preserving the spirit of the comunity's culture. They want to move fast and I love that Brad Pitt is exercising his celebrity visibility to help a great cause.

And my mom and stepdad rock for 1. giving a conscious gift and 2. supporting a good cause, embracing the real meaning of the giving season