Balmy Goodness

I admit it, I'm a lipbalmoholic. Sometimes I apply the lip balm, wipe it off, and re-apply for no reason at all. Don't hate...I know some of you do it, too.

Yesterday I ran into the drugstore and picked up a fresh new tube of Burt's Bees, my usual. Burt's Bees is a very well known line of natural personal care products, and can be found at just about any drugstore - on or offline. My favorite product is their Honey Lip Balm (simplicity is genius, after all). The .15 ounce tube is usually about $3-4, and is 98% all natural.

Although I'm a completely happy customer, I figured I'd check to see if there are any other balms worth trying. That's when I found Eco Lips.


Eco Lips has several scents/flavors(depending on how you choose to enjoy your balm) - grape, kiwi strawberry, and coconut, as well as a color tinted, medicinal, and hemp based balms. Their products are competitively priced. The simple flavors are only $2, and orders over $15 qualify for free shipping. Best of all, the website gives a run down of exactly what's inside those little tubes and your lips will be happy knowing that each balm is made of 87-99% certified organic ingredients (depending on the product).

There is one other balm you must know about, because it is a life or death matter, after all. All the Better to Kiss You With by the Baby Bear Shop is so good I had to steal it from my sister - don't tell. Five bucks is a small price to pay for these creatively flavored, USDA certified organic lip balms that come in recyclable vintage tins.

Get Productive While Getting Guffly

Whether you work from home, dwell in the typical cube farm, or have a luxury corner office, there are things you can do to make your work experience a little better for the world. Soon I'll be looking for some new office gear myself, so I've been on the lookout for helpful tips and products that have a positive eco-impact. One thing that I plan on doing for my new office, which isn't so simple necessarily, is buying a used desk. I hope to find a funky old desk from the thift store that I can paint and make my own. It'll be cheaper and have much more character then anything I can find at Ikea.

If you're not in the market for a new work station, but just want to incorporate some simple practices for a better workspace, check out this wiki article, "10 Ways to Be Greener and Happier at Work," on Huddler.com. I like this article because it doesn't ignore the basics, like reducing your energy usage by turning off your computer. Likewse, it has some pretty creative ideas, like creating a carpool calendar for your office.

Sustainably Stylish

Since my last post(Eco-Friendly Clothing 101), I've been searching for companies that sell stylish Eco-friendly clothing. I found a company called Livity, and they're based in Topanga CA.

I'd say that Livity is aimed at capturing the young adult, 18-30 year old market with their products. Livity's online store sells clothing for both men and women; unisex products like backpacks, hats, and laptop bags; and a wide selection of belts. All of Livity's products are made from organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, soy, straw, recycled plastic bottles, and vegetable oil-based synthetics (Read Eco-Friendly Clothing 101 for the benefits of using these materials).

Livity's products are stylish, fun, reasonably priced, convenient, and more positive than negative for the environment. And those reasons alone are why I'm writing about the company today. As for the product that I want--I'm eyeballing the white Re-Mix Painter Cap.

Life's Not Fair...but maybe we can help

Growing up, one of the most common phrases to come out of my dad's mouth was, "life's not fair." This was usually after having heard me whine and complain about a rule or situation that I just didn't agree with. Over time, unfortunately, I've realized that my dad was right. However, as someone who cares about the world and the other people in it, I do my best to make things a little bit more fair. That's why I'm on the lookout for fairly traded goodies. And, like many of you, Jordan and I are looking for easily accessible information and products.

We know that we are interested in learning about products and practices that involve more sustainable means of production and benefit the producer equally to the retailer or distributor. I've researched some of the governing bodies of fair trade - including the Fair Trade Resource Network, the International Fair Trade Association, the Fair Trade Federation, and Transfair. These sites are great places to start looking for basic info on fair trade policy and practices. Likewise, if you dive a little deeper, you can find information on the tangible, actionable steps you can take to participate in fair trade.

First, I suggest starting with Transfair's 'Where to Buy' database. From searching within Michigan, this seems to be the most extensive list of retail shops with fair trade products. Second, try Coop America's list of Fair Trade Retailers. This list is organized by product type, so you have to search around a bit to see if anything is in your area. Next try the Fair Trade Federation's membership list. If you input your city and state and check the 'retail business' tab, you'll find any businesses in your area who are affiliated with FTF.

One exciting development in fair trade shopping is eBay's latest, Project Good. Like eBay, the marketplace will feature several different sellers with a wide variety of products. What makes Project Good different that eBay, however, is that the products will not be sold through auctions and will have set prices like a traditional eCommerece store. Not so sure eBay knows too much about fair trade? Well, I wasn't so convinced myself. However, the retail giant is partnering with World of Good on this project and, from what I have seen, it appears to be a genuine and authentic endeavor.

These options should give you a starting place for finding great products that are also fairly traded. If you know of any others, please leave us a comment!

Eco-Friendly Clothing 101

I've been hearing a lot about Eco-friendly clothing lately. I'm hearing about clothing made from bamboo, hemp, and even recycled plastic bottles. However, the more that I hear about organic clothing; the more questions I have about . So I did some research and found a great article that answered the majority of my questions. Read "Wear Water Bottles (and look good,too)" by Marisa Belger, a contributor for the MSNBC.com blog.

Food that Moves (Less)

For many people, making the choice to buy organic started in the kitchen. I started buying organic milk before anything else. Soon, most of my dairy items were organic, followed by some fruits and veggies, and then I incorporated some organic grains and snack products, too. Though not all of my food purchases are organic, a decent portion are. Likewise, the more that organic versions of my food staples become more available in my area, the more I'll purchase them.

Not only would I like to incorporate more organic products into the mix, but I would also like to purchase more locally produced products. According to http://www.sustainabletable.org/, in the U.S., the average produce travels 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown and the refrigerator it ends up in. Likewise, about 40% of our fruit is produced overseas.

And going beyond produce, what about the packaged organic brands I know and love? I found this infographic that shows the companies behind some of the most popular organic brand names. By looking up the company behind the brand name, it's likely you can get an idea of where the product is coming from.

All in all, our food uses a lot of gas to get to our plates. "How can I do something about that," you ask. Well, I have two suggestions. First, find the organic grocers in your area and ask them which products they carry come from your state. Second, participate in community supported agriculture (CSA). This is when you buy directly from a local farm. CSA programs vary greatly, but many allow you to pay an annual fee that provides you with a weekly or monthly assortment of fresh produce from the farm - some will even deliver. To find a CSA program near you, just put your zip code into this database.

What Can You Do With An Hour In The Dark?

I found this website that describes a new movement taking place globally. It's called Earth Hour and cities around the world are participating. In short, people are encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm. Check out the video below for an in-depth look at Earth Hour.



Sydney, Australia was the site for the inaugural Earth Hour trial in 2007. In that one hour, the amount of energy that was saved was 10.2%; surpassing the goal of 5%, set by the World Wide Found for Nature-Australia. This year there are 20 cities participating so there's no telling what the "energy saved" number will be.

Earth Hour is guffly because I don't have to do anything to make a contribution. All I have to do is turn off the lights! In that hour I can walk my dog, plan my next day, do yoga, and even have an hour of conversation with a friend. Which is great because I don't have much time for conversation these days.

Good Beer

Happy St.Patrick's Day! In honor of this merry day, I thought I'd research some better options for beer and wine. So, if you have more drinking to do on this St. Patty's Day, or any other day of the year, try out one (or many) of these organic options when they're available.

Wolaver's Organic Ale is a line of organic beers produced by Otter Creek Brewing. They're a family-owned microbrewery located in Middlebury, VT and have been brewing up organic goodness since 1998. The company prides themselves on brewing all beers "in small batches to ensure freshness and consistent quality." Likewise, they use all domestically grown malt and hops. You can visit their website for information on their selection of beers. But once you decide you want to give them a try, there's a bit of a process to figure out where to find their beers in your neighborhood. You can start by calling up the distributor in your state. You can find a list of the Wolaver distributors here. These places should be able to tell you which retail spots have the goods. I know, not so simple. But, you'll be able to reward your hard work with a nice, cold organic brew.

Another small brewer with a selection of organic beers is Peak Organic located in Portland, ME. Peak uses barley and hops that are grown without toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The company began in 1998 when a group of friends bought brewing equipment and started making beer to celebrate "peak" occasions. Peak's mission is simple - "to make the world's most delicious beers, and to make them in a way that [they] can feel good about."

Another option for organic beer is Butte Creek Brewing out of Chico, CA. They began in 1997 and make several organic beers, including an organic yerba mate ale called MateVeza. "MateVeza was rated as one of the Top 25 Beers of 2007 by Draft Magazine, won a 2007 Veggie Award from VegNews, and received rave reviews from Beer Advocate and All About Beer." You can locate this brew through their website, and if there isn't a store near you that sells it, you can also buy it online.

If you know of any other organic beers, please drop us a line. We'd love to hear your reviews. Happy drinking.

Under My umBrelli...

April showers bring May flowers, and what better way to welcome the soppy spring months than with a better umbrella. Meet the Brelli.

The Brelli is not just any regular umbrella of course. The Brelli is totally guffly. Reason? The Brelli is made of eco-friendly materials. The canopy is made of materials that will completely biodegrade in under 5 years, which is much better than its dark, drab counterparts. The rest of the Brelli is made of bamboo; a renewable, natural resource. What's more about this fab product, according to the designer herself, "...we worked dilegently to use materials that, during their bidodegredation process, release only harmless gases. The gas released by each discarded Brelli in a conditional landfill can be harvested to generate enough electricity to recoup more than 90% of the energy that was used to create it."

The Brelli can be purchased directly from the website at $28 for the smaller (35") and $38 for the larger (52"). For an umbrella that is more durable and better for the world than most, I find these prices completely reasonable. What do you think?

The Brelli was created by Pam Zonsius, an New York based entrepreneur with a clear knack for fresh, fuctional design with a sustainable purpose. The designer is also working on a number of new products that also feature functionality, style, and sustainability.

The next time I am in the market for a new umbrella, I know where to find it.

Clean Your Mailbox!

If you're like most people, you probably spend spend about 20 seconds a day filtering "junk" mail from "your" mail. That's 7,300 seconds or 121 minutes per year spent doing nothing. Your time is extremely important; after all, it's the one thing in this world that you can never get back.

Aside from taking up our precious time, junk mail also takes up valuable space in our landfills. According to Forest Ethics, by 2010 50% of the solid mass that takes up our landfills will be paper and paperboard waste. And each year, state and local governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars collecting and disposing of bulk mail that has not been recycled.

I haven't even gotten to the poor trees yet. It takes more than 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year (Forest Ethics). That's the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.


So I found this guffly little business called 41 Pounds; and what they sell is a clean mailbox. The Ferndale Michigan based business promises to rid you of 80-95% of your junk mail for five years. According to the FAQ's section of the website, they can't stop 100% because some marketers simply ignore requests to stop mailing.

The 41 Pounds service is $41.00 for five years. That $41.00 covers an entire household. So mom, dad, the kids, grandma, and even your crazy uncle Larry can be covered; if everyone resides under one roof. And if you decide to move, 41 Pounds transfers their service to the new address.

There's one more feature of 41 Pounds that makes it special. For each new client that signs up for the service, 41 Pounds donates a third of that $41.00 to an organization--with environmental interests--that the client selects. If that's not guffly, I don't know what is.

To me, $41.00 is well worth it, as long as I don't have to waste my time on junk mail anymore. And the bonus is that I'm contributing toward better health for our Eco-system. I'd pay $8.20 per year for that.

Yuck Mouth

During my workout a few days ago, this big dude-with arms as big as tree trunks--asked me if I'd give him a spot while he bench-presses. I was between sets, so I didn't have a problem with it. So as this guy begins to push the weighted bar off his chest(much like the guy in the picture above), he exhales a huge, typhoon-like breath right in my face. It smelled like the crack of a dead rhinoceros's ass. Not that I've ever smelled one; I can just imagine how repugnant the crack of a dead rhinoceros's ass would smell.

All kidding aside, this guy has to have the worst breath I've ever smelled. I got the gag-reflex almost to the point where I had to walk away. I was kind of offended. I mean, here I was taking time out of my workout to give this lonely guy a spot; and the dude blows a huge breath of decomposition straight up my nostrils. How rude! 10 repetitions couldn't have come soon enough.

That day, I couldn't get the thought of old "hot-breath" out of my head; which got me to thinking: "I need to find a great organic breath freshener." I guess I just needed to get some freshness back into my life. So I began my search and I found a pretty great product.

It's called Breath Tonic and it's made by Herb Pharm, an organic herb farm in Oregon. There's three main reasons I think Breath Tonic is guffly:

1.) It's made from organic herbs: Breath Tonic is made from Cinnamon, Peppermint, Clove, and Ginger. All four have natural antiseptics that kill bacteria that causes bad breath (Health 911 and The Weekly Newsmagazine of Science go deeper into this); instead of just temporarily covering up the odor like some other breath fresheners.

2.) The farm that grows these herbs--Herb Pharm--is eco-conscious: The farm makes monetary contributions, or volunteer services to organizations that are on missions to preserve our environment. Click here for a complete list of these organizations. The Herb Pharm also researches and develops organic cultivation techniques for threatened wild herbs; and cultivate many such as Goldenseal, Echinacea, Black Cohosh, Bloodroot, Wild Yam, and many more. This assists with the survival of each species.

3.) It's cheap and easy to integrate into my life: A .50 oz. bottle of Breath Tonic retails for $4.91 at Amazon. A simple checkout and you're on your way.

Having found all of this out, I decided to buy a bottle. I haven't received it in the mail yet, but I'll be sure to write back and let you know how it works. However, I'm pretty confident that my oral hygiene isn't suffering in any way; so that might be a problem.

Anyone know any guinea pigs?

Good Gossip @ Ecorazzi.com

Not interested in Britney Spears' latest tirade? Or, the details of some politico's kinky sex scandal? Me either. Well, not really. What I would rather hear about are the eco-related things that celebs are doing (and not doing) for the world - and Ecorazzi is just the place to find it.

Ecorazzi is a beautifully designed, firecracker of a blog that caters to the eco-conscious, celebrity gossip lover. Whether you are interested in Natalie Portman's new vegan shoe line or Katie Holmes' alleged CO2 dumping, environment disrespecting, monthly shopping trips to Paris, Ecorazzi keeps you up to date. Plus, the finger snapping, "oh, no she didn't" humor reminds me of one of my dearest friends.

Sure, Ecorazzi appears a bit frivolous on the surface. But, I think they're great because they also support (and encourange their readers to support) organizations that help people and the environment. Some of the organizations they support are Sustainable South Bronx, Kiva, and GlobalGreen - all of which I strongly encourage you to check out.

As you may know, I'm all about action. So, if Ecorazzi helps people make better decisions then more power to "razzing" up the eco-friendly news that goes on everyday.

Plus, who said being guffly can't be fun? That's exactly the point!

Get Your Guffle On At Coachella

A friend of mine told me about this huge music festival in California. It's called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and it's in the middle of the desert in Coachella California. The festival is a three-day event--which runs Friday through Sunday--and attracts over one-hundred thousand people each year. However I have read that one-hundred thousand people were in attendance when Rage Against the Machine performed on Sunday night in 2007; but I haven't been able to find concrete figures on that. Here's the Coachella movie trailer which should help to visualize the event.



The 2008 festival runs from April 25th to April 27th; and the headliners are Jack Johnson, and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters performing Dark Side of the Moon. Tickets for the three-day event are $269.00; single day tickets are also available for $90.00 each. For three days and nights, ticket holders will hang out under the blazing sun and brisk desert night; and enjoy music amongst friends. For $55 Coachella's children are able to purchase camping space along with their tickets, for a Woodstock-like experience. See On-site Camping for detailed information on Coachella camping. On-site Lodging and Off-site Camping are also available.

One of the most interesting facts that I learned about Coachella is the recycle program the venue uses. It's pretty guffly. Anyone on the festival grounds can turn in 10 empty bottles to specified locations; and in return they will get a free 16oz. bottle of water. Genius!

After writing this post I feel like I need to get to Coachella this year. Hopefully I'll be able to hustle some tickets. Anyone else going?

Let the Music Play

I admit it. I'm an iPodoholic. I love my iPod and it pretty much goes everywhere I go. While walking to class and listening to my music the other day, I started thinking about the effect that iPods (and mp3 players in general) must have on the environment. So I started researching. I found this Greenpeace video on the toxins used in Apple's latest, the iPhone:



I've also found some blogs and articles regarding the "obsolescence" business strategy used by Apple and many other tech gadget companies. You can check out this 2006 interview with Giles Slade, author of Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, or the more recent EcoGeek posting on unfixable gadgets, for more information on the woes of disposable tech. To be fair, I think it is also important to recognize Apple's approach to environmental responsibility. Their website explains their methods of reducing their impact through a timeline of taken actions. Regardless of which "side" you take on this one, you gotta love deliverables! However, there still must be something we can do to partially offset the impact of the beautifully crafted iPods we buy. That's when I found Tunes for Trees!

Tunes for Trees is fantastic. Instead of buying your iTunes through the iTunes Store, simply use this site to search for and buy your music. For every 10 iTunes that are downloaded through their site, one tree is planted. The music is in exactly the same format, completely compatible with your iPod, and costs the same as buying it through the traditional iTunes Store. Nice, right? The project launched just under a year ago and over 2,600 trees have been planted to date. This is another small thing we can do that directly effects the bigger picture.

As a wise person once said, "the inches we need are all around us."

I'm Chanell

Hey everyone! My name is Chanell Scott and I like to think of Guffly as my little contribution to this world. I began deeply caring about organics, fair trade, and the "green movement" back in college. Since then, I've always been on the lookout for products that are better for the me and for the world around me. Likewise, I've also found myself fascinated by many organizations, resources, and networks that also care about the world and make it a better place. For example, one of the first places a new Guffly visitor (I want to call them Gufflians, but Jordan isn't sold on that yet :) should begin is Co-op America's National Green Pages. This site lists over 3,000 Guffly kind of businesses and you can sort by type of business or location to make it that much easier.

To me, Guffly is more than just the name of our little blog. I think it's a way life that is better for the environment, my health, and the fantastic people all around me. And the best part of all - being Guffly can be so easy. That's exactly why we are here. We want to make it easy to live good. So, hopefully someone out there will find us useful...and drop us a line when they do. I guess you could say that we are on a journey, and will connect you with all the Guffly things we find along the way. We'll share what we know and hope you'll join us in conversation.

A little about me: I'm 24, I like the color orange, and I love riding my bike.

I'll leave you with a poem I enjoyed when I was a kid:


YOU AND I

Only one I in the whole wide world
And millions and millions of you,
But every you is an I to itself
And I am a you to you, too!
But if I am a you and you are an I
And the opposite also is true,
It makes us both the same somehow
Yet splits us each in two.
It's more and more mysterious,
The more I think it through:
Every you everywhere in the world is an I;
Every I in the world is a you!

(Mary Ann Hoberman, 1994)


peace.

Things That Make You Compost

I stumbled upon this really cool blog called Things That Make You Go Green. I read an article that discussed the benefits of composting.

The article entitled "Composting Benefits" recognizes that there are two main benefits to composting:

• You reduce the amount of waste you send to the landfill, which takes up much needed space.
  

• Compost allows the soil to retain more water. This saves money you money on your water bill, and adds more nutrients to the soil; which promotes healthier plants. Finally, healthier plants decreases the need for fertilizers, which saves you money and reduces the risk of water contamination.

Also read "How To Build A Compost Bin" for simple instructions on how to build a bin.

After reading Things That Make You Go Green's take on composting, I'm convinced. Composting can be an easy and cheap practice to integrate into my life and business. With that being said, I find composting to be worthy of becoming a Guffly practice, and the folks at Things That Make You Go Green are some Guffly kind of people.

What The Filter?

The other day I was working out in the health club that I'm a member of. I noticed that a woman working out near me was drinking water from a bottle that looked different. So I approached her and asked what was up with the bottle. She told me that the bottle was Eco-friendly, and contained a built-in filter to ensure fresh water on every fill-up.

I was intrigued. Could filtered water bottles be the first Guffly product? When I got home I rushed onto the Internet to learn more about it. I found a company called Pure Water 2Go, that sells multiple styles of filtered water bottles. I learned that the company sells one 16oz. filtered water bottle for $7.95. Each bottle can filter 80 gallons of water, allowing itself to be reused many times. Assuming that the national average cost of bottled water is $1.15, and you drink one 16oz. bottle a day; then you would spend $8.00/week or $419.75/year on water. Needless to say, it is much more cost-effective to go with the reusable filtered bottle.

Filtered water bottles are also great for the Eco-conscious consumer because it allows them to greatly reduce the amount of plastic bottle waste they create in landfills. Using the numbers from the above paragraph, drinking one 160z. bottle/day will create 365 bottles/year accumulated in a landfill by you alone. That's 1825 bottles after five years; and 3650 after ten years. According to MSNBC, it generally takes about 1,000 years for a plastic bottle to degrade in a landfill. Can you believe that? I'll let you do the math on that.

Simply put, if I can reduce that much landfill waste by buying an $8.00 bottle--I'm in. It's easy to purchase, fairly inexpensive, easy to integrate into my life, and positive for the environment. So for that I find filtered water bottles worthy of being called Guffly.

What do you think?


Blog carnival

I'm Jordan

My name is Jordan Contreras and I'm writing about a promise that I made to my friend Chanell Scott. I promised her that I would take initiative and become a more Eco-conscious person. I can't say that I've ever been grotesquely wasteful or hurtful to our environment; but I also can't say that I was Ricky the Recycler Extraordinaire either. Just a guy going through life with a blind eye toward a very important topic--the environment.

I hate the word "Green"! It literally sickens me to hear the Oscars referred to as the "Green" Oscars; and when I see the new "Green" marketing campaign for Walmart I have to shake my head in disgust. What posers! Does anyone really think that Walmart cares about the health of the environment or the people that inhabit it? According to the Center for Environmental Health, Walmart sold vinyl baby bibs with extremely high levels of lead as recent as May 2007. And now they decide to stick the new, money-making buzz word "Green" in front of their name with the hopes of getting in on the action too. It just doesn't seem genuine to me.

I don't want to be like that. So from this day forward I'm not using the word "Green". Instead, I'll be using a much more genuine word; I'll use "Guffly"(see post labeled "About Guffly, Intro" for in-depth description of Guffly).

This blog will be about the experiences Chanell and I encounter, on our journey to becoming Guffly. We'll talk about all of the guffleicious products that we find, and the interesting Guffly practices that we choose to instill into our lives.

So leave me comment about anything you think is worthy of being labeled Guffly.

Wanna be friends? Check out my Myspace profile.

TTYL