6 Reasons Why You Should Care about the Green Beauty Movement

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6 Reasons Why You Should Care about the Green Beauty Movement

Second post in a 3-part series on Green Beauty

As my previous post on the Green Beauty Movement mentioned, more people have become aware of the presence of harmful chemicals in many commercial personal care products. As a result of that growing awareness, as well as a general increase in public discussions about major climate-related and public health crises, there is more interest than ever in environmental issues. The Green Beauty Movement represents one small aspect of this phenomenon, but it is more important as a bellweather of healthy living trends than you might have realized. Here are six reasons why the Green Beauty Movement matters for the collective, global push towards a greener environment and a healthier you.

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The Importance of Clean Air in Education→

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The Importance of Clean Air in Education

Guest post from Envirotec

Continuing to tackle climate change, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, improving working conditions for millions of people – an impressive list of achievements we’ve all been jointly responsible for over the past few decades.  So what’s the next target? Something that concerns each and every one of us – clean air.

Tackling air pollution will be one of our generation’s biggest challenges.  Increased urbanisation, road, sea, and air congestion along with the ever increasing demand for power impacts the cleanliness of the air we breathe.

Nowhere is clean air more important than in education. Children are particularly prone to the effects of poor air quality and education is crucial for the young to improve their chances in life. It is imperative they are given every opportunity to succeed and are not held back by issues out of their control, of which, unclean air is a major one. Because of the fact that we spend, on average, around 90% of our time indoors (a number which has been on the increase for the past half century), it is more important now than ever before that the quality of the air we breathe in is of a sufficiently high enough level.

(click here to read more)

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The Green Beauty Movement: fad or new direction in the beauty industry?

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The Green Beauty Movement: fad or new direction in the beauty industry?

Last month, actress Olivia Wilde was named “chief brand activist” for True Botanicals, a luxury skin care and makeup line that leverages science and technology to create toxin-free products. She is not the only A-list celebrity promoting green beauty products. Emma Watson, currently on tour promoting her “Beauty and the Beast” movie, is using the opportunity to call attention to the eco-friendly products she uses in her beauty routine. In 2015, Gwyneth Paltrow began a partnership with Juice Beauty organic beauty products as the company’s Creative Director of Makeup and in partnership with her own green venture, Goop. Also in 2015, Jessica Alba and Chris Gavigan’s successful eco-venture Honest Co. which markets to moms and their tots, expanded its line to include skin care, cosmetics, and hair care products.

The significance of these endorsements and ventures goes beyond the usual lamentations about famous people latching onto the latest beauty fads. I believe they signal a major shift in the beauty industry, one that reflects consumers’ growing awareness and alarm about the prevalence of harmful chemicals in most commercial personal care products, chemicals that have contributed to an epidemic of chronic allergies, ailments and diseases. Cosmetics are no exception: the chemicals they contain have been linked to symptoms ranging from skin rashes to cancer.

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Be Power Smart This Summer (infographic)

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Be Power Smart This Summer (infographic)

guest post by Jennifer Adams, with introductory paragraph by Green and Prosperous

Energy waste is a problem that most developed, and developing, nations are guilty of, with the US and UK being among the top 5 nations that contribute most to energy waste. The problem isn’t only an environmental one: it costs businesses and households billions of dollars and pounds each year, consigns millions of homes to fuel poverty, and squanders opportunities to put all that wasted energy to use in the renewables industry to provide resources for domestic, commercial, and industrial markets.

Many people think of winter as the season with the greatest energy use, as people consume more fuel in order to heat their homes and businesses. However, with temperatures in many parts of the world reaching unprecedented highs, cooling structures eats up an enormous amount of fuel, too. Whatever the season, it’s increasingly important to find ways to decrease our energy consumption. The infographic below contains many tips to help you cut consumption and energy costs at the same time.

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Organic vs. Non-GMO Labels

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Organic vs. Non-GMO Labels

Guest post by PacMoore

There was a time fairly recently where you were lucky if food labels listed the ingredients. In keeping with the Information Age, however, today there’s a surplus of information on labels in every aisle of the grocery store. Food labels tell you what’s in your food, how many calories it contains, how large a portion is, and so on and so forth. And, as the food industry and consumers continue to become more demanding, the amount of information those labels contain is increasing.

For example, more people today are apprehensive about eating non-organic foods or foods prepared with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), so organizations such as the USDA and the Non-GMO Project are labeling foods to help consumers make better-informed decisions. For many people, especially people trying to uphold a vegan diet, food labeling has become an important component of their lifestyles.

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Get Ready for Summer with These Organic Non-toxic Sunscreens

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Get Ready for Summer with These Organic Non-toxic Sunscreens

Summer is coming really fast and the sunlight is getting stronger.

Basically, sun exposure is very beneficial for us, especially if we work long hours in an office with artificial lighting. Natural sunlight stimulates vitamin D production in the body. And as we know, vitamin D is extremely important for developing our bone structure, boosting our natural immune system, and even healing from and preventing depression and anxiety!

On the other hand, it is also very important to take sun baths with caution and to always use sunscreen. The rule also applies in winter when the snow reflects the sun rays even more strongly. Unfortunately, most commercial sunscreens contain lots of unhealthy and toxic substances that may do us more harm than good.

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7 Ways to Make Your Campsite Greener

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7 Ways to Make Your Campsite Greener

Camping is one of the most enjoyable things there is. It is the perfect way to bond as a family and allow yourself the luxury of enjoying the fresh air. It’s good for your health and can really help you to disconnect from our social media drenched world and restart your mind a little bit.

The only problem is that camping tends to be rather detrimental to the environment. We tend not to think about places that we are only inhabiting temporarily; this is a malaise that affects pretty much all of humanity.

Thankfully, there is a way to be a little eco-friendlier while camping. Listed below are seven ways that you can make your campsite greener, so pack your tent and your tree climbing harness and get ready to have fun that won’t impact the environment in a negative way!

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How to Build a Sustainable Garden

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How to Build a Sustainable Garden

Guest post by Matthew Smith

According to the Brundtland Report, created by the United Nations back in 1978, sustainability or sustainable development includes design, construction, operations and maintenance practices that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In other words, being sustainable means being able to recognize the importance of thinking ahead, not looking for and applying short-term solutions for benefit.

Nowadays, it is becoming even more important to be aware of the exact impact of your actions on your community and ways to minimize the possibility of further, unnecessary damage.

Even though humans are becoming well aware of the terrible influence they've had on the planet, green solutions are usually expensive. There are, though, solutions which are cost friendly.

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Tackling Food Waste Starts in Your Kitchen→

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Tackling Food Waste Starts in Your Kitchen

Today’s guest blog post tackles the subject of food waste, which is a major problem around the world. It is an issue that many people don’t think about, or associate primarily with farms, which experiences a loss of about 30% of their produce annually, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. In the US and Europe, much of this waste happens because the food on farms is considered “unfit” for consumer markets.

Did you know, however, that much more food waste occurs in individual homes? This means that each person has the ability to address this major environmental problem by making a few changes in how they handle the food they buy and eat. Click here to read the full article and find out more; there’s also a helpful infographic in the article, and included on this page, that also breaks down what you need to know!

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How to Jump Start Your Spring Planting

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How to Jump Start Your Spring Planting

This is the first in a 3-part series of posts on gardening

Are you excited about the idea of unplugging for a while and getting in the garden to grow delicious fruits, herbs, and veggies, but still haven’t quite gotten to the point of translating that enthusiasm into action? Or maybe the weather hasn’t quite cooperated – if you’re living in a climate like mine that’s cold one week and hot the next, rainy for two days in a row and boiling hot afterwards, then you may have to take a few extra steps this growing season. But there’s certainly plenty of time to still have a healthy, abundant harvest in as little as a few weeks.

If you want to go beyond planting just a thing or two to eat, or need detailed advice about how to grow food you can eat every week, even if you don’t have much space to work with, you can find out a lot more information in my second green guidebook, Go Green without Going Broke.

On the other hand, if you just want a few bits of advice, read on...

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Boosting Your Brain with All-Natural Vitamin Supplements

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Boosting Your Brain with All-Natural Vitamin Supplements

guest post by Amy Trotter

Ever been asked how your mental faculties are? Probably not, or at the very least the question was likely posed in a more commonplace way of asking. But let’s take a look at the question just exactly as it is here, and start by weighing the meaning of the word ‘faculties’ in this context.

Merriam-Webster - the world’s premier online dictionary - provides 4 definitions for faculty. Definition 1b applies here, ‘an inherent capability, power, or function’

  • Capability
  • Power
  • Function

Does that sound like you and your brain? If so, great: your mental faculties are going strong. If not, perhaps you’d like to learn more about natural supplements to boost brain power. They do exist, and more than likely they can be found at your local pharmacy or health and wellness store.

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The Brutal, Honest Truth about Indoor Air Quality at Work

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The Brutal, Honest Truth about Indoor Air Quality at Work

guest post by Todd Simpson

I recently had the opportunity to test the air quality in a building. This building does light fabrication and the owner wanted to know if the inside air is a problem to their employees. Does breathing 10 trillion particulates sound like a problem? Let me explain.

I use a Dylos machine to check the indoor air. There are two important numbers you need to know...

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Eco-friendly cleaning? How to do it without the “greenwashing”

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Eco-friendly cleaning? How to do it without the “greenwashing”

This is the second post in a 3-part series on green cleaning

A quick survey of store shelves these days will tell you that there are more options for purchasing “green” cleaning products than ever before. In North America, Europe, and Australia, the options for buying eco-friendly products reflect regional and class disparities: the coastal areas of the US tend to reflect current trends in eco-conscious lifestyles with greater ubiquity than the southeastern belt and Midwestern heartland, while generally, wealthier neighborhood stores offer more options for “eco-conscious” shopping than stores in poorer neighborhoods. With few exceptions, the cheaper the product, the more likely it is that the company that manufactured it will have engaged in “greenwashing.”

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Picnic Tables That Help Solve a Plastic Problem

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Picnic Tables That Help Solve a Plastic Problem

guest post by Mike Copsey

When consumers buy groceries, clothing, fast food or practically anything else, it almost always involves plastic. I don't mean the kind of plastic that has value like a credit card, but plastic that is worthless once used. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) or even polystyrene (PS) are some of the most common types of plastic that you will buy, or have handed to you because of your purchase. We have become dependent on plastic. Plastic straws, plastic plates, plastic cups, plastic milk jugs, bottled water in plastic bottles, plastic laundry soap containers, plastic siding, plastic insulation (polyurethane), plastic equipment cases, plastic coated cardboard containers for liquids like milk, plastic coated furniture and wood to make it last longer and even plastic trees. Try to think of purchases that didn't involve plastic! Manufacturers are designing products made of plastics that must be thrown away, which is a huge design flaw. Plastic is a great material when it is used in the right kinds of products -- like recycled plastic picnic tables.

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