Consumer Choice

Do you buy products that are made in China?

October 20, 2010

Just wondering where people stand on buying toys and other products made in China. How important is it to avoid products made in China? Why do you avoid products made in China – or why not? Honestly, I’m on the fence. I do post some stuff made in China, for example water bottles. There’s apparently [...]

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Vote for Green America’s 2010 Green Business of the Year!

September 14, 2010

Before I told you about how you could nominate your favorite green business via Green America People’s Choice Awards – well, now the official nominations are up and you get to vote for your favorite. This year’s ten nominations: Brittanie’s Thyme Digital Hub Ecobunga Faerie’s Dance gDiapers Grounds for Change Hazelnut Kids Stay Vocal Theo [...]

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Nominate Your Favorite Green Business for a 2010 Green America People’s Choice Award

August 10, 2010

Green America has opened up nominations for this year’s People’s Choice Award. If you know of a great green company this is the perfect time to nominate them to win this killer award. When we honor companies that work to help – not hurt – people, communities and the planet, we open the door a [...]

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Parents need to avoid commercialism along with kids

July 13, 2010

It’s true that we live in a super hyper commercial culture. It’s also true (IMO) that commercialism makes it more difficult to raise green kids. BUT not impossible. As I noted previously, many health and child-advocacy organizations feel that we should avoid commercialism at all costs. Turn the TV off, skip junk food, never buy [...]

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Commercialism Makes Growing Green Kids Harder

July 12, 2010

One of the hardest things about raising green kids is that we live in an increasingly commercial culture. Some problems related to eco-friendly living and our current culture include: Excess stuff is not eco-friendly but excess stuff is pushed in our culture. It’s very hard to impress eco-friendly living skills upon kids when all they [...]

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A word about stuff and how darn hypocritical I may seem

June 25, 2010

I’m always saying, “BUY LESS STUFF!” Why am I always saying this? Because I’m a huge Buy Nothing Day advocate; and it would look pretty lame for me to be like, “Hey, the rest of the year buy away!“ Because having a lot of stuff is not eco-friendly. Because too much stuff is not very [...]

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How to afford green living – start by living green

June 25, 2010

Lately I’ve been talking about living green on a budget. If you need to catch up read the following first then head back here for more tips. Is Green Living Worth the Cost? Why green living is worth the cost False: It’s impossible to afford green living I’ve mentioned that even on a limited budget [...]

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Green Glossary: Greenwashing

June 14, 2010

I talk my head off about greenwashing here at Growing a Green Family and yet I recently realized that I’ve failed to define it. That might be helpful, right? Greenwashing is an extremely complicated topic, depending on who you ask. There are die-hard examples of greenwashing I can point out but many people tend to [...]

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Ten incredibly lame disposable products to help trash your footprint

June 14, 2010

There are all sorts of super lame products on the market, some more footprint trashing than others. With this in mind it’s very easy to live a trash heavy life – if you so choose. Following are ten of the best products to buy if your goal happens to be anti-eco. 1. Of course the [...]

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Ditch paper towels and save $1,000 in five years

June 13, 2010

Currently I’m running an experiment here at Growing a Green Family. Can the average family of four save $50,000 in five years simply by living green? So far we found that you can save $6,000+ if you switch from bottled water to tap and filtered tap water in reusable bottles and we also found that [...]