Del Forte Denim

I love Del Forte jeans. Check out this video to hear owner, Tierra Del Forte, talk about the environmental impact of producing regular jeans vs. fancy organic jeans.



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"Summer lovin', happened so fast. Summer lovin, had me a blast."

I just saw Grease the other night, and was reminiscing about how much I loved that movie when it first came out. I think I was in 6th grade. My best friend Karen and I saw it seven times, and, of course, I bought the soundtrack. I loved the 70s -- and John Travolta had the sweetest buns - so tight you could bounce a quarter off of them. Mmmm. Mmmm.

So, Sandy and Danny got me thinking about summer love. And about you, dear readers. Are you ready for your summer love? Don't waste time or gas driving around for your summer essentials: shop online.

First stop: Drugstore.com (see link in right column)

I recommend starting with some natural face, skin, and lip products from Burt's Bees. I love their replenishing lip balm and sunscreen. Drugstore.com has a great selection of BB products. You can also get your natural dental care products here, too. Tom's of Maine toothpaste and mouthwash. If you're going to get all kissable, it's a good idea to order some condoms, too.

Next stop: Online Shoes (see link in right column)

If you're going to be kicking around the beach or cruising the outdoor cafes, you'll need some men's or women's ecoSneaks from Simple or, some eco-friendly sandals.

Last stop: Gaiam(see link in right column)

Stock up on eco yoga apparel, organic cotton bath towels, and more.

Now go out and have some good, clean, eco fun.



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The Most Organic Meal of the Day

I'm not a cereal person. Never have been, except for a brief addiction to Frosted Flakes when I was a kid. I'm too tired and cranky to eat in the morning (well, morning for me is noon - I sleep late); I'd rather drink my food.

So, my standard liquid breakfast/lunch is a soy + banana + strawberry (or mango) smoothie, with Fatigued to Fantastic vitamin-amino acid powder (including a separate dose of vit B12) and a tablespoon of flax seed oil. Yum. When I get hungry a few hours later, I take a break from writing and have a bowl of Bob's Red Mill Muesli with soy milk (unsweetened, organic, fortified). So much better than cereal because the oats, nuts, and raisins don't get soggy.

When I'm on the run, I have a chocolate Larabar or my favorite meal replacement bar, Superfood Slam by ProBar.

Anyway, this is really not about me, it's about you and what you might like to eat for breakfast. Plenty Magazine, one of my favorite eco mags, assigned a breakfast cereal taste testing team to sample more than 40 brands of organic cereals. Click here to read about their top nine picks.

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More Chocolate

My other favorite chocolate: Theo's.

According to an article in E Magazine, they were the first U.S. chocolate company to make fire roasted, organic chocolate. They're located here in Seattle, so I've had the pleasure of gobbling up samples at several social events. My favorite flavor: nib brittle.
But it's not just their chocolate I love -- they're all about fair trade and quality. They buy fancy beans from all sorts of exotic locations around the world, use sugar made from Swedish sugar beets, and roast the beans in a 1930s German roaster. Yum.
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The Fair Trade Chocolate Diet

I never even liked chocolate until a few years ago. My whole life, more than 40 years, I never understood my girlfriends' chocolate obsessions. I was never tempted. Then I discovered dark chocolate, and the pure joy of eating square after square, along with a handful of raw hazelnuts. Now, I get it. And I can't get enough of it. My favorite: Endangered Species Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee. The crunchy little toffee bits give the chocolate some texture and the combined flavor is the best confectionery invention ever. Of course, I still supplement with my hazelnuts (I buy them in bulk now).

There are days when I eat an entire 440 calorie bar (2 servings) with at least 3/4 cup of hazelnuts (that's another 570 calories). There are days when I have two bars, two over-sized servings of nuts. And sometimes, this heavenly combo is all I eat -- and I don't care who knows.

When I first invented the fair trade chocolate diet, which lasted for 10 days, I LOST weight. Even though I was eating a ton of calories, I wasn't eating anything else all day (chocolate and nuts are quite filling). So, I was happy and fitting into my skinnny jeans, too. Bonus.

There's a lot to love about Endangered Species -- They're committed to ethical trade, they donate 10% of their profits to species and habitat preservation, and now, they also make organic chocolate bars. I like their packaging, too. On the inside of every wrapper, there's information about an endangered animal, a conservation tip, and a 25 cent coupon for another bar! Now, if they only made this fancy bar in a spread, I could put it on toast, pancakes, crackers, pasta, fruit, and vegetables. Then it would be a lot easier to maintain a balanced diet.

What's your favorite eco-friendly chocolate bar?


(Image source: Endangered Species - www.chocolatebar.com)

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Fancy or Foolish?

I know, I know, it's so exciting to find two shirts for $30 at your favorite outlet mall, but is it really a bargain to find clothing so cheap? I'm not saying being thrifty is foolish...just that super inexpensive clothing only benefits the MAN, ie, the company who sells those cheap shirts. The workers probably aren't getting a fair or living wage. Think about them when you paw through those racks looking for your next "find."

And think about yourself. You're not really getting a bargain because those shirts won't last very long, and if they're that cheap, how good can they look? You deserve to be comfortable and look your best. The time spent searching the racks to find a few acceptable bargain items could have been spent researching solar panels for your house or looking for a new job that's on the bus line. You would have still had time left over to shop online and buy a beautiful fair trade t-shirt from edun or from Of the Earth, or from some other fancy company that's not just all about profit.

If you add the price of gas to that trip to the mall, that'll give you the extra cash to make up the difference you'll need to bump up from $20-$30 t-shirts to $40-$50 t-shirts -- the shirts made out of organic and/or sustainable materials, the shirts that look better on you because they're higher quality, the shirts with funky and original designs, the shirts made with love. I say, in the name of beauty and simplicity, better to look and feel good than have a lot of cheap shirts. Just a thought. Discuss.



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University of Fancy Green

I'm not sure if US News & World Report magazine has started including eco creds in its college ranking criteria, but they should! In the meantime, you can find green colleges and university rankings in Sierra Magazine, Grist, and Kiwi Magazine.

If you're looking for a college (or have a child looking at colleges), check out the March/April 2008 issue of E, The Environmental Magazine.

It's pretty inspiring to see what some schools have done to reduce their dependance on traditional power sources; offer healthy, organic meals at the school cafeteria; and promote sustainability.

Here are a few examples from the E article:

-Yale serves locally grown and organic meals, and even has a student-run farm.
-Middlebury College offers a bike borrowing program for students and is striving to reach carbon neutrality by 2016 by using alternate heating sources. Other schools with bike borrowing programs: Princeton, Utah State, University of Maine, University of California (Santa Barbara), and Davidson College.
-Carleton College, my alma mater, has the first utility-grade wind turbine on campus.
-Northland College and the University of Colorado (Denver), and have solar power programs.

(source: E Magazine)

Check out Pizter College's Green Bike Program




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Goodbye, Nau

We are all sad to see Nau close its doors. In addition to their inspiring business model and dedication to fair trade and to using sustainable materials, their clothes were simply beautiful. Elegantly designed, top quality materials, and best of all, no logos! I fell in love with their sleek urban gear a year ago when I first read about them in Outside Magazine. Since then, I've reviewed several Nau tops, pants, and jackets -- and always felt that their clothes had a special energy and style that I'd never found in other active apparel. Goodby, Nau. We love you, and we'll miss you!!


Here's what one of the gear testers at FitnessTravelGear.com had to say:

WOW! I can't believe Nau is going out of business. The two pieces I recently reviewed were basically the nicest pieces of outdoor gear I've ever worn. What a bummer.

Here's a link to a great article by author Polly Labarre:

From the start I found Nau’s plan almost breathtakingly ambitious—but unimpeachably right-minded. The founding idea at the heart of the company was that business has a responsibility (and a great opportunity) to contribute to positive and lasting change in society and the environment. Nau’s founders were so serious about this, they took the unprecedented move of writing a triple bottom line into the corporate charter. From the start, Nau wasn’t simply interested in producing killer product (although they accomplished that by pushing the boundaries on sustainability, performance, and style further than anyone has before in the outdoor industry—when do Vogue and Rock & Ice ever rave about the same product?), they were also intent on disrupting the economics of their industry, changing the way people shop (in futuristic “webfronts” that I believe contain powerful signals of what’s next in retail), and inspiring a wider movement among businesspeople and consumers.

Read full article here: http://mavericksatwork.com/

Visit Fancy-Green.com to read reviews of Nau apparel. Click here for our search page where you can find all of the Nau reviews from the past year (on Fancy-Green.com and on our sister site, FitnessTravelGear.com).

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