Please Vote NOW – Tonight – For My Friend Diane, for Huff Post Hopenhagen Ambassador

December 4th, 2009

The potentially monumental climate talks in Copenhagen are upcoming, and it’s important to have a real person there to represent the interests of “regular” people who care about the environment.

My friend, author, green blogger, fellow Green Moms Carnival member, and environmental activist Diane MacEachern is taking part in the Huffington Post’s contest to send one citizen ambassador to Copenhagen, and I am happy to give her my personal endorsement.  

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If the name seems familiar, it is because Diane is the best-selling author of “Big Green Purse,” a manual all of us should have on our shelves to refer to while navigating the often confusing world of green issues and green business.  As a mother, she is particularly commited to the health of children, and she is a tireless activist and fantastic writer.  Her interest in climate change comes from a deep sense of compassion and commitment to social justice. It would be so great to have one of our own representing the interests of real people among the politicians and “experts” meeting together this month to determine the fate of the Earth.

For more information about Diane, take a look at the following links:
http://greenwoman.typepad.com/biggreenpurse/
http://www.biggreenpurse.com/
http://fakeplasticfish.com/2009/08/personal-changes-do-make-difference/

Interview with Big Green Purse Author Diane MacEachern

More of the Big Green Purse Interview (Part 2)

To vote for Diane — Please vote before 11:59 PM EST TONIGHT:

1)  Please visit this link
2)  You will need to login to the Huffington Post web site or register if you are not already a member.  You can also login using your Twitter or Facebook account.
3)  Please rate Diane’s entry with 10 stars.

As you will see, Diane also needs blogger endorsers.  If you feel moved to write a post in support of Diane on your blog, please email the link to submissions+copenhagen@huffingtonpost.com, saying “Here is the link from xxxx blog endorsing Diane MacEachern for the citizen ambassador to Copenhagen”, along with the link to your post.

FACEBOOK?  If you have a Facebook page or fan page, it would be great if you could mention the contest and provide the link so your friends and fans can vote as well.

TWITTER?  If you’re on twitter, we’d appreciate it if you tweet about the contest using #votehope and @huffpostgreen.

Voting ends tonight at 11:59 PM EST,   so Diane needs as much support from you, your friends and your readers right now as possible. Please help us send this deserving green mom to Copenhagen  by voting now and spreading the word!

Thank you! And thanks to Jennae of Green Your Decor for providing this post for so many of us to re-use!

Greenies in BlogHer Land: SwagHer

July 27th, 2009

I arrived at BlogHer, the world’s largest conference for female bloggers, excited to write a parting post about how to find cheap, eco-friendly gifts to bring back to the kids as souvenirs of our time away in Chicago.

I was going to include this photo of the postcards and maps my husband brings back as gifts from his meetings in far flung places.

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And I was planning to include this picture I took of the many great free maps and guides that could be picked up around Chicago.

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And I even snapped photos of local “Chicago chocolate” in case some greenies just couldn’t resist the impulse to bring back more of a traditional gift for the kids – a little box of something consumable.  Hey, at least it would be local and cheap (although not fair trade).

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I never wrote that post – it didn’t seem appropriate at BlogHer.  And I’m embarrassed to confess that I left the conference loaded down with “BlogHer swag.” (Swag= stuff we all get).

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My children? They’re getting the Chicago maps and brochures I picked up at the train station. But they’re also getting a teddy bear, a DVD about puppies, and a book about Spiderman. My husband? He gets a new backpack (eco-friendly of course, made of recycled plastics). And me? Books, a T-shirt, and a new water bottle.

And that’s considered a “light load” from SwagHer. (I mean, BlogHer).

What happened?

I didn’t really need any of this stuff except for the backpack. My husband’s backpack is hanging by a shoulder thread – he’s been putting off that purchase. The kids? Yes, they’ve wanted to visit Build-a-Bear, but I’ve never taken them. Now we have discount coupons and bears to “dress.” And me? All I really wanted was an autographed copy of my friend Jennifer Taggert’s new book, Smart Mama’s Green Guide. (Thank you, Jennifer!)

Call it the “herd mentality.”   We follow others’ leads.  And there were very few women at the conference who didn’t participate in the conspicuous consumption.  At times the blow-out parties and swag made me wonder if it was ’99 instead of ’09. It sure didn’t seem like the Great Recession at BlogHer.

Hey, I knew my kids would love those teddy bears even though they already had bears at home.   Everyone else was taking bears back to their kids! And they were blogger bears! And I was right, wasn’t I? Doesn’t Boo look cute cuddling that bear?

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The notion of feting women bloggers, of celebrating their achievements, and of giving gifts to women who may not treat themselves to much in life (especially the Moms) – was heartwarming. But with so many extravagant parties and suites, the evening scene at BlogHer turned into a combination of Halloween trick-or-treating and Mardi Gras. And with so many sponsored bloggers  interrupting others conversations to give a product pitch, heck, at times BlogHer seemed like a crazy reality TV show that was interrupted by sponsored programming!  Don’t get me wrong…a lot of it was fun. Who doesn’t like parties? But somewhere, somehow, things seemed to become a bit…excessive.

Aside from the environmental implications of all “that stuff” we really don’t need, the other major impact of “SwagHer” was that for many women,  all that time lining up to get into swag suites came at the expense of deeper  conversations with the women we commune with online everyday.   It’s sad that so many women left Blogher bemoaning the fact that they didn’t have time to really talk and connect with the women they met.  What were we doing?

I think next year BlogHer will be different…many of us “greenies” — and even those who don’t consider themselves “green bloggers” have been emailing and tweeting  about options for next year – everything from a new track within BlogHer to swag-free conference to a separate online or “in real life” conference. We’re in the brainstorming stages.

Still,  BlogHer was a fabulous experience. Although I personally thought some of it was over the top, everyone is different. In fact, one of the great things about BlogHer was to see how diverse the blogging community is – something you could get a sense for at the “Birds of a Feather” luncheons.   (No, it’s not all about Mom bloggers…And full disclosure, I’m co-authoring a marketing report about the conference with Maryanne Conlin, aka @mcmilker. )

Here are some pix of the fabulous women I enjoyed so much at Blogher .

gmcphotoPhoto: Some of the Green Moms Carnival Members at BlogHer: Top Row, LtoR   – Lynn of OrganicMania; Micaela of Mindful Momma. Bottom Row, L to R: Maryanne of Not Quite Crunchy Parent; Lisa of Condo Blues; Beth of Fake Plastic Fish and Diane of Big Green Purse.  Missing: Sommer of Green and Clean Mom and Jennifer of The Smart Mama.

greenleadershipphotoThe Eco-Leadership Panel at BlogHer. L to R: Diane of Big Green Purse, Siel of Green LA Girl, Sommer of Green and Clean Mom , and Jennifer of The Smart Mama.

My trip to BlogHer was made possible by my sponsors. Last year I missed BlogHer. And as I blogged here, I wasn’t even planning to go to BlogHer until Stonyfield Farm approached me about a sponsorship. Getting to a major conference and back is expensive – especially for someone with a small business still in “upstart” mode. So a huge thank you to wonderful @StonyfieldSarah from Stonyfield Farm. It was great meeting you at BlogHer! And thanks to my other sponsors – my former client Mom Made Foods and Snikiddy, a local Mom-led company based right where I live and work in Bethesda, Maryland. Thanks to them, thanks to Blogher’s corporate sponsors, and thank you to the founders of BlogHer for pursuing an incredible vision of blogging community that has brought so much to so many.

See you in New York!  I think we’ll all be treading a bit more lightly on Mother Earth at the next conference!

— Lynn

Copyright 2009 OrganicMania

SeeJaneDo? Hear Lynn ( OrganicMania), Jennifer ( The Smart Mama), and Lisa (@enviroblog) Talk!

May 29th, 2009

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I’m the worst when it comes to posting press interviews. One would think I would have this down by now since it’s part of what I do for a living, but I always wind up feeling awkward about doing so (only when it comes to me, of course, not my clients!)

Anyway, after a month’s delay and with great apologies to Elisa Parker, producer and host of See Jane Do, here is a link to the interview posted about the online green activism practiced by the women at the Green Moms Carnival. Joining me in the interview is Green Moms Carnival Founding Member, author, environmental expert, and XRF-gun wielding lead-toy-tester Jennifer Taggert – also known as The Smart Mama – and Lisa Frack, online parent organizer at The Environmental Working Group. You can click here for a podcast of the interview which was broadcast on community radio station KVMR.

See Jane Do is the newest program program launched by nationally acclaimed community radio station KVMR, which documentary filmmaker Michael Moore calls “the best public radio station in America.” Thanks to a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, See Jane Do is being distributed to a national audience. Their focus is on ”capturing the stories of everyday women doing extraordinary things for the planet.” The producers have already gotten some fabulous interviews archived on line with fellow Green Moms Carnival Founding Member Diane MacEachern, author of The Big Green Purse; Chef Ann (transformed school lunches with Alice Waters), Joan Blades of MomsRising.org and MoveOn.org, Elisa Camahort Page of BlogHer and Anya Fernald, director of Slow Food Nation.

Check it out!

Lynn

Copyright OrganicMania 2009

Green Moms Carnival: The Prevention Agenda

December 8th, 2008

The problem with being an activist Green Mom is that we’re Moms.

Seriously. I mean, there’s no busier time in life than those early years when kids just …need…you…all the time…it seems.

Throw in work,  time spent volunteering with schools, church and community organizations, and the desire to build upon a relationship with a husband, friends and extended family… and well, there’s just not much time or energy left over.

Especially not in the fast paced end-of-year whirlwind between Thanksgiving and New Years.

So that’s my excuse for not participating in today’s Green Mom Carnival over at Diane’s Big Green Purse. A weighty topic: Encouraging President-Elect Obama to Adopt a Prevention Agenda.

What’s a Prevention Agenda? It means that instead of playing “catch up” with environmental problems, we got pro-active about them and tried to prevent them in the first place. Head on over and read more here.

— Lynn

Copyright 2008 OrganicMania

Buy Something that Makes a Difference Day!

November 28th, 2008

Last year at this time, I supported “Buy Nothing Day,” which encourages consumers to abstain from “Black Friday” shopping sales.

This year, it’s a different story. With “Going out of Business” signs all around the shopping centers, we see sad reminders of an economy in tatters.

I’m not suggesting you buy a bunch of useless “stuff” just to help the economy and save a few bucks for the holidays. But what I am suggesting is that whether you’re out and about today on “Black Friday” or cruising the Net on “Cyber Monday,” you can choose to make a difference with your purchases by patronizing those companies that help us to go green – either by saving energy, using organic farming methods, or insisting on recycled paper from well managed forests.

And yes, I have a few savings tips for you – all, I’m happy to say, from some great green companies I’m representing through my consulting business.

Savings Tip #1 – Free Organic Food for Kids (With Rebate)
Is there a SuperTarget near you? I visited for the first time last week and was impressed by their attractive display of organic produce, along with the increasing variety of eco-friendly products Target stocks – all at great prices, of course. The reason for my visit was to check out their new display of Mom Made organic foods. Now’s the best time to try Mom Made — for free. Mom Made will refund the purchase price of one Mom Made for Baby, Mom Made Munchie, or Mom Made Meal purchased at SuperTarget through December 10th. Just download this form for info on where to send your receipt and proof of purchase.

Savings Tip#2 – Free Shipping on Energy Efficient LED Lights
Think compact fluorescents are the latest and greatest in energy efficiency? Think again. LEDs are the wave of the future. Prices are coming down, and the energy savings are enormous. (Check out this comparison chart to get informed on the differences between incandescent, compact fluorescent, and
LED lighting for details). Now you can order that practical someone on your list the latest in LED lighting technology – with free shipping for the holidays. Check out Mr. Beams motion sensor activated SpotLight and StairLight, and read their great consumer reviews here.

Savings Tip #3 – 10% off Soft Organic Cotton Tees and Note Cards
Got a dog lover on your list? What about an environmentally conscious dog lover who wants to support dog charities? Check out these adorable, soft, whimsical organic cotton tees printed with water-based inks and the matching note cards, printed on FSC certified paper by an FSC certified printer in a carbon-neutral facility. Coordinating envelopes made from 100% recyclable paper, packed in biodegradable/compostable packaging with hemp string. Whether you choose to shake it off or live in the moment, there’s something for you at Fundamentally Dog! Use coupon code 1EM1108 to save 10% on your first purchase by 12/20/08. 

Happy Shopping…and remember, think carefully about how you spend…you can make a real difference by patronizing firms that are working hard to protect and preserve the environment. Want to take it a step further? Sign up for my friend Diane MacEachern’s “One in a Million Challenge,” and commit to shifting $1,000 of your spending to eco-friendly products. As Diane, author of The Big Green Purse, puts it “The more money you spend on green products, the more you encourage manufacturers to reduce pollution, save energy and water, use less packaging and protect natural areas.”

— Lynn

Copyright 2008 OrganicMania

Green and Organic Savings Friday: CVS “Organic” Make-up, Late Night Specials at Whole Foods, Organic Baby Food and More!

May 16th, 2008

Last night OrganicMania discovered an advantage to waiting until the absolute last minute to pick up groceries. Never before had I heard the voice booming across Whole Foods announcing, “Two-for-one Special! Buy One, Get One Free!” Buy what? Where the heck was I? For a second, I thought I was back in Germany, where at Kaufhalle a flashing blue siren goes off before a voice announces “Sonderangebot!”

But no, it was the gorgeous sandwiches in the prepared food section that were on sale. Every night at about 9:55 p.m. you can pick up two sandwiches for the price of one. OrganicMania nabbed two gorgeous eggplant sandwiches for $3.15 each! Can’t beat that…

Well, maybe….we just tried the eggplant sandwich and sad to say, it is a bit past its prime, despite the prepared food manager’s assurances that it would taste just fine. My DH deemed it better suited to a midnight snack, and suggested we keep experimenting “in the name of research” to see if any of their sale sandwiches hold up better than the eggplant. More on that subject another week!

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Isn’t it great to see all these sale signs on organic make-up? Now’s the time to try Physician’s Formula Organic Make-up with the 2 for one sale at CVS. Not only is the make-up 2 for the price of 1, but CVS offers incredible coupon savings through their CVS card program. So savvy CVS shoppers may be able to get their make-up for nothing or next to nothing!

I haven’t tried this make-up yet, but one thing I love about it is the sustainable packaging. The powder is packaged in recyclable paper instead of petroleum-based plastic. That’s one trend we should all hope that the other cosmetics makers adopt.

On the flip side, this make-up is marketed as “organic” when it has many chemical ingredients and is not certified USDA organic. The marketing of this “organic make-up” falls into that “gray area” OrganicMania discussed here with Diane MacEachern, noted environmentalist and author of the eco best seller “Big Green Purse.”

But as with so many other cosmetics lines, you need to be careful about the specific products you purchase. Check out this overview of Physicians Formula ingredients by the Environmental Working Group, and you’ll see that the safety rankings are all over the map. Best bets?

The powder and foundation are both ranked 3, or “moderate hazard” by the EWG, which is actually very good compared to most cosmetics.

OrganicMania considers the eye make-up remover pads and sunscreen “best buys” with EWG rankings of 2, or low hazard. It’s unlikely you’ll find a better choice for your money .

Now that you’re all beautified, what does that lead to? Romance! Love! Babies! Baby food! How’s that for a segue?

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Safeway once again has its housebrand O Organics Baby Food 4.5 ounce baby food jars on sale, 10 jars for $7.00 or 17.5 cents per ounce, saving you 90 cents on ten. Unfortunately, that’s a whole dollar more per ten than this organic baby food sale Safeway ran about six months ago, when organic baby food was priced at a just a penny more than conventional baby food! But 10 jars for $7.00 is still a good deal with today’s rising food prices. Are you planning to keep buying organic for your baby? Leave a comment and share!

Did you find any good deals this week? Please share your tips! And check out these other savings tips here. (Warning: some green, some not so green!)

Happy shopping!

Lynn

Copyright 2008 OrganicMania