At Home Naturally is an online green store that sells organic products exclusively. Their product range includes items for the bedroom, the bathroom, the children’s rooms, outside the house and other indoor appliances as well as collections of organic apparel for women and children. You can find plenty of products for an eco-bedroom like the hypo-allergenic mattresses and linens, blankets, throws, Earth-weave rugs, non toxic paint, sheets and pillows. They also have soft and beautiful organic cotton towels and robes. For the best quality of air, At Home Naturally offers Austin air purifiers which are the most effective air purifiers in the market.

One of the best aspects of purchasing products from At Home Naturally is the knowledge that all their products are advantageous not only to you and the planet, but the hundreds of farmers, and manufacturers along the production line as all the products are fair trade made. To place your order call us at 1.800.547.8120 or 818.988.4441 or mail our customer service at cs@athomeN.com

At Home Naturally is an online green store that offers a wide variety of products designed specifically to afford your family and you the safest and healthiest quality of life. From their eco bedroom collection to their organic apparel collections for women and children and products for use around the house like non toxic paint and a garden composter you can find everything you might need to lead a completely green lifestyle. From organic cotton crib skirts, crib mattresses, baby bedding and baby mattresses, special care is taken to protect the health of children.

At Home Naturally protects not only your health and the environment, but also the quality of life of everyone in the production chain as all their products are fair trade made. All their products are organic, safe, healthy, natural, chemical free and free trade made. To place your order call us at 1.800.547.8120 or 818.988.4441 or mail our customer service at cs@athomeN.com

We are still powered by Wordpress, but are operating under our own url on a new host, with lots of new exciting features. For the latest news and information, please visit the new home.

We just posted a terrific series of articles on synthetic v.s natural dyes so come check us out!

Sincerely yours,

Green Cotton

Wouldn’t you like to feel the purity of softness, without the fear of chemical residue next to your skin? We, as a people, are beginning to realize the importance of wholesome, healthful food. Let’s take the next step to choosing organic cotton fabric for our apparel.

Organic cotton uses farming methods that help to sustain the land it is grown on. With organic farming, harsh pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers are not used. Instead, natural compost and crop rotation are used to keep the soil productive. Natural methods, including beneficial insects, help to keep the destructive insects in balance. Why is this important? Well, the more chemicals that are used on crops, the more chemicals remain in the soil that depletes natural nutrients, and eventually seeps into the groundwater. That’s what we support when we make the choice to purchase cotton clothes that are not certified organic.

The next time you are out shopping for some “threads”, take a moment to check for “100% Organic Cotton”. You will be investing in a natural, high quality garment, and also investing in the future. That future is in your hands!

Check out “Brand of The Free” for 100% Organic and Made in America Graphic Tees. A good place to start.

Chris is helping me with some apparel designs, and then we're going to launch the e-commerce end, as well. I am SO excited! This has gone from a vision to actual reality in such a short period of time. Soon I'll have business cards and rave cards ready so the site can actually start to serve the community.

If you have any information or resources you would like to post, or if you know anyone who might be interested, let me know. I'd like to offer listings for events, restaurants, shops, etc., as well as offer advanced marketing and landing pages. You can now email me at info@thewholelife-ar.com. 

Look forward to hearing from you!

To try and diffuse this ethical minefield, Epona's Juliet Bacon has broken down some of the more common terms into an easy to use A-Z guide and looked at why you might, or might not, choose to go for some of the eco options available

A

Azo free dyes. The manufacture and use of synthetic dyes are two of the world's most polluting industries and azo dyes make up around 70% of all dyes used to colour fabric. There are serious concerns about the safety of azos. Most azos are water-soluble and there is the risk that carcinogenic chemicals from these dyes can be absorbed by the body through skin contact. Dye house workers have been know to suffer from asthma, allergies, birth defects and reproductive damage. Alongside the human cost, considerable environmental damage is caused by chemicals from these dyes. GOTS prohibits the use of all amine releasing azo dyes and many companies are choosing to ban azos themselves.

B

Banned substances lists cut out or cut down on harmful chemicals used to manufacture clothes. According to Greenpeace, among the most hazardous substances commonly used in the textile sector are lead, nickel, chromium IV, aryl amines, phthalates and formaldehyde. Marks & Spencer is the first major retailer to set its own standards that ban or restrict chemicals on the products it sells and has an Environmental Code of Practice for dyeing and finishing. Manufactures in the promotional industry have the opportunity to lead the way by introducing their own banned substances list.

Bamboo is an innovative ‘eco-textile'. It grows naturally and is sustainable, thriving without pesticides or fertilizers, and reproduces rapidly across large areas where it is known to improve soil quality in degraded and eroded areas of land. It is not really seen as a replacement for cotton, more as an alternative fabric that is particularly suitable for high end garments, due to its silky feel, and sportswear because it has a natural antibacterial quality which means the fabric stays around two degrees cooler in hot weather. On top of this, the garment will biodegrade, so it won't clog up landfills once its product lifecycle is complete.

Biodegradable plastics degrade through naturally occurring micro organisms, such as bacteria, but there is no requirement for leaving "no toxic residue". If you want a more environmentally friendly product, it is better to opt for a compostable plastic. Compostable plastics biodegrade and then disintegrate within a set period of time, without producing any toxic material and the compost left can support plant life.

Bluesign standard is a business-controlled environmental scheme to remove any substances that are potentially hazardous to human health or the environment from the entire textile supply chain. The standard takes into account chemicals from the ‘restricted substance list', water and air emissions, resource consumption and workplace conditions.

C

Codes of Conduct. Most manufacturers now agree they have a responsibility to help improve the labour conditions of their suppliers. Many have developed codes of conduct or lists of labour standards they say they are meeting in their workplaces. The reality behind these codes however, is often still quite grim. Wages are too low to live on, 80-hour working weeks are common, and the health and safety of the workers, the majority of whom are women, is constantly being undermined. Workers have no security of employment, women are discriminated against and harassed, sometimes sexually. Workers are often not allowed to form trade unions. Sometimes this is because the right to organise is not recognised in the zone or country where they work. However, more often obstacles are put up specifically to prevent workers from exercising their right to collective bargaining. Some companies opt to sign up to one of the many multi-stakeholder ethical trading initiatives that oversee the implementation of specific codes of conduct based on the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) conventions. Some of the better known initiatives include:

Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)

This is the largest UK-based initiative and is partially supported by the UK government. The main idea of the ETI is for companies to work in collaboration with NGOs and trade unions to learn the best way to implement codes. The ETI has its own code which is used as the basis for pilot projects. Corporate members must participate in ETI activities and provide the ETI secretariat with annual reports on their progress with respect to the code implementation.

Fair Labour Association (FLA)

The FLA grew out of the Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP), an initiative of US President Bill Clinton, established to address labour standards of clothing sold to US-based colleges and universities. Approximately 1,100 suppliers are taking part in the FLA's licensee program. The FLA is governed by a board of companies, universities and NGO's, but trade union organisations pulled out after disputes over code content. The FLA accredits independent monitors that verify compliance through factory inspections and filing reports that are accessible to the public. Where non-compliance is identified, participating companies are required to implement a remediation plan.

Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) aims to promote humane labour conditions in the garment industry. It is an initiative of business associations in the garment sector, trade unions, and NGOs. FWF was founded in The Netherlands, but is currently working hard to join similar initiatives in Europe.

Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) is an independent labour rights monitoring organisation, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who make apparel sold to the United States.

But does this really work? While it is positive that manufacturers are starting to sign up to these initiatives, it is hard to tell the extent companies are practicing the principles they've signed up to behind closed doors. Primark joined the ETI in May 2006. In December that year, War on Want published a report on workers at factories in Bangladesh that supply to ETI members Primark, Tesco and ASDA/George. These workers were typically paid 5p an hour and worked 80 hours a week. Sam Maher of Labour behind the Label says: "None of the companies can guarantee that all parts of their supply chain implement the ETI Base Code. The main issue is that there is no transparency - the reviews, criteria for inclusion and exclusion in the ETI are all confidential, so as a pressure group it is hard to know what to try to hold them to. However, when there is an urgent issue involving a specific violation, it's much easier to get the companies involved to sit around a table and discuss it."

Multi stakeholder initiatives are clearly a good start in encouraging companies to address problems with their supply chain, but the success of these initiatives is heavily dependent upon the genuine commitment of the company to implement and uphold significant changes.

Carbon Reduction refers to finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your company. If your organisation spends more that £50K per year on energy, the Carbon Trust will send out agents free of charge to suggest ways of reducing the amount of carbon you produce. The aim is to become as energy efficient as possible by using renewable energy, shipping rather than flying goods and cutting down on energy intensive processes.

Carbon Neutral: Once you have done this and worked out how much carbon you are still producing, you can become carbon ‘neutral' by offsetting this amount. One way of doing this is to work with an organisation that funds projects to prevent other companies from producing carbon. To give an example, you might help a school in Africa to put in a wind powered generator rather than a diesel one. By preventing carbon from being produced, you are balancing out the carbon your company produces.

D

E

Eco-label is a European voAndyary certification scheme, represented by a flower logo, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of products, taking a ‘from the cradle to the grave' approach. Products and processes are independently tested according to ecological criteria that includes: reducing the amount of toxic residues found in fibres, water pollution in fibre processing and the use of heavy metals and formaldehyde.

Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is a campaigning group that makes a direct link between the need for environmental security and the defence of basic human rights. They are responsible for the ‘Pick your cotton carefully' campaign that encourages manufacturers to state where they buy their cotton from; White Gold, which highlights the plight of cotton farmers in Uzbekistan; and reporting on child labour throughout the world.

Environmentally Friendly? It takes around 8,000 chemicals to turn raw materials into clothing. Many of these cause irreversible damage to people and the environment. The bleaching, dyeing, sizing and finishing of textiles all result in large quantities of effluent, often containing highly toxic heavy metals that pollute the soil and water and damage aquatic life. Each year, the global textile industry discharges 40-50,000 tons of dye into rivers and streams. Add to that the carbon emissions and impact of growing non-organic cotton, which uses petrochemical fertilisers and leads to reduced soil fertility, soil erosion, water pollution and reduced biodiversity. Then there's the high-energy manufacturing process and the clothes miles in transporting the fibre/textiles/garments around the world. Once bought, how an item is cared for and disposed of also has an impact on the environment. Manufacturers of promotional clothing have started to take these environmental factors into consideration by producing clothing that is both kind to the environment and to the garment workers.

Continues next month

For more information contact: Juliet@eponaclothing.com or go to the Epona website: http://www.eponaclothing.com/

Published: 01 May, 2008 Printwear and Promotion magazine

Now before you jump all over me for being an ignorant, materialistic, and greedy American, let me share my thoughts with you.

Many of us are trying to fill our lives with a bunch of “stuff” to make ourselves happy. I am talking about electronics, cell phones that can do just about anything but walk the dog, “mansions” instead of modest houses, designer clothes, too many clothes, spa/salon treatments, suvs, multiple vehicles, sportscars, partying with alcohol/drugs, vacations, etc etc. It seems to me that most of the “global awareness”, “green” and “you are evil because you are causing global warming” kind of people usually are the ones who are the biggest offenders. Have you ever noticed that? They are the ones who explain away the fact that they are living in luxury while they could probably feed an entire community, if not an entire starving country!!!

Here is my plan. Make small decisions that will affect the earth in a big way. Change yourself…be a better person. Be good to friends, family, coworkers, and everyone that you come in contact with in the course of your day. Focus on where you can help with money, food, or your time. Be a good steward. Instead of using your hard earned money on a night of partying, why not use it to buy food for a food pantry. Start noticing how many paper and plastic bags that you are trashing…such a waste! Get a few reusable organic tote bags for shopping and use them religiously. You would be surprised how many bags you are saving. Personally, I used to waste about 15-20 plastic bags at the grocery store every week. I feel so responsible and happy as I carry my canvas bags into the store when I shop. All it took was learning a new routine. You can do it!

Make conscious decisions when you make a purchase. How can you seriously talk about how the country needs to change, and then not be willing to change yourself? You see pictures of starving people in other countries, and you are overwhelmed into doing nothing. Be responsible with your money. You can’t help “everyone” but you can choose to help “someone”. Do some research and find a charity that you believe in. Give up some of the electronic and glitzy garbage in your life and use the money toward helping someone in need. Stop texting or surfing the net long enough to realize that there is a world full of people all around you. Open your eyes and ears to them.

Realize that everything you purchase and each personal interaction that you have is a personal decision that will affect you and the ripple that you create in the world. You have many choices ahead of you. Choose wisely because there is much that depends on you.

I'll even help you get started. Celebrate Earth Day all month long and you can save 30% on Organic Apparel at 'Brand of the Free'.

Go to www.brandofthefree.net and start making positive changes now.

]]> http://rhfrog.wordpress.com/?p=5 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:42:10 +0000 Sam H. http://rhfrog.wordpress.com/?p=5 Red Headed Frog is a design studio focused on designing and developing eco-friendly apparel and home decor products for the design savvy individual. This is our first blog post, and I wanted to properly introduce this new and exciting company to the world.

Red Headed Frog started out as an idea my fiance and I had one evening while discussing our future goals and plans as a couple. We definitely knew we wanted to start our own company, but we weren’t quite sure how to go about it. I am a designer by trade and he is a computer scientists. We are two professionals frustrated with our industries here in Arizona, and we were looking to fill a creative void that kept growing larger and larger as the years went by.

On November 2007, while on an afternoon hike, my fiance let me know that he had received a job offer in the United Kingdom. He asked me what I thought, and if he should take the position. I, of course, thought he was bluffing. After I realized he was serious I immediately said yes. He took the position and we were scheduled to leave on the first week of January. Little did we know how long it would take to prepare for a move this large.

January passed us by and we still didn’t have everything in order. Since the move was going to take a few months longer than anticipated, we mutually decided to use this time to get our company started.

We decided on starting up a design studio that specialized in creating apparel and home decor products inspired by the colors and patterns used in Latin America.

Additionally, we wanted to incorporate organic materials in our products and slowly build our apparel and home decor lines this first year.

We are still learning quite a bit about organic and sustainable materials, but we hope to improve our designs and material choices as we learn more about what is available out there. If anyone has any information on sustainable, organic and eco-friendly sites, books, articles, materials, etc. please let us know by posting below. We will greatly appreciated any information we can get.

Currently we are only offering t-shirts, hoodies, and bags on our website, but we plan on expanding our products and designs every month. We are currently located in Scottsdale, Arizona, but we plan on relocating our studio to the United Kingdom in a couple of months.

Until the next time...I hope as the months go by our friends and supporters can find inspiration on this site.

Much has been abuzz about how "green is the new black" and yet, greening your personal style still ain't easy. Over the next few weeks we'll post some reviews of sites where you can find a range of designer brands offering "look good, feel good" fashion. You can also recommend us your favorite fab green shop here.

The Shop: EcoTobi

The Bottom Line: Nestled inside the Tobi website, EcoTobi is a micro world of high style for Sex and the City or Entourage types. Personal stylists are virtually on hand offers a boost to help your answer style questions.

The Skinny: Easy site navigation on both women's and men's sections. Excellent selection of organic beauty and skincare products, with a smaller but well-edited, established list of designer labels. At this posting, store leans more skincare than fashion for now, although we expect that will change.

We'd love to see fashion and skincare categorized separately to make shopping easier. Prices are high end, but occasional deals can be found in their sale section.

Brownie Points: Props to EcoTobi for pushing a skinny, zero carbon footprint in partnership with Carbon Fund, and for its use of packaging made from recycled materials, and soy ink printing.

Best bets for guys: A pretty deep selection of graphic tees. Organic, non-toxic denim options a plenty too, though price tags still run high.

Best bets for gals: Some cute dresses, tops at various prices.

For Fabulously Green Readers
Fab Green readers save 20% off your next purchase. To redeem it, just enter FASHION20 at checkout.

• Gifts
• Housewares
• Jewelry
• Cards and stationary
• Handbags and other bags
• Cosmetics
• Books and magazines
• Urban cycling accessories
• Toys and games
• Things for baby
• Energy efficiency improvement items
• Natural cleaning products

The store sounds like the 'Target' of green products (though not as big, which is kind of nice). Greenward appears to be an all around environmentally and socially conscious store that aims to do well for consumers, the environment and the community. I will be checking out the store in November-- so stay tuned for a real-time review after Thanksgiving, but in the meantime, if you are in the area and are also looking for eco-apparel store, you might also want to check out Envi located on Newbury Street in Boston.

clipped from www.greenwardshop.com Welcome! Located in Porter Square, Cambridge, Greenward is an independent boutique specializing in eco-modern goods.Our hours: Monday-Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 11am-6pm Thursday: 11am-8pm Sunday: 12pm-5pm For directions, click here. To read our latest newsletter, click here.