community
Coconut Oil Skincare – Just Coco
The smell of coconut oil always transports me to tropical island paradise, and for good reason- coconut oil has been used as a skin moisturizer, hair conditioner and healing agent by Pacific Islander and tropical natives for centuries.
Just Coco is a sustainable, community empowering business started by my world traveling friend Sara Krosch, and uses all natural cold pressed virgin coconut oil in their products. Based out of her home on tropical island paradise in the Philippines, she runs Just Coco.
Using only all-natural and, whenever possible, organic ingredients combined with virgin coconut oil, they create skin, hair and nail care products. All of Just Coco’s products are vegetarian or vegan.
Their cold pressed, preservative free pure virgin coconut oil contains 50% lauric acid (the highest content possible) with natural antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. › Continue reading
Car Free Vancouver – June 20th
Image: Flickr user Foxtongue
Vancouver’s annual Car-Free Day was officially launched in 2008 following a number of successful smaller events in the years before all building up to this celebration of healthy communities, authentic cultural festivals, and most of all, car-free streets. The 2009 Vancouver’s Car-Free Day tempted over 150,000 people to join in the fun and to take the day to look at their city in a new light. With great available public transportation and pedestrian friendly streets, it’s no surprise that this idea has taken off. › Continue reading
EcoEtsy
Et
sy is one of those sites where you can foresee an obvious and easy transition into the green neighborhood. As an online store where people can set up “shops” to sell their homemade or restored goods, there’s everything from jewelry, to clothes, to housewares, to unique gifts of all sorts. I recently noticed that Etsy has started to set up an eco-friendly section of the site known as EcoEtsy. Last Christmas I found a myriad of awesome gifts for friends and family that were low impact to the environment, and just plain perfect for the people on my list.
When I started looking through the Etsy site, I was disappointed to find that that EcoEtsy is actually really hard to find on their main site. They don’t even have an eco or green category on their main page. It seems to me if you’re going to have an EcoEtsy blog in this green era, it would be in your best interest to advertise that on your main site. The only eco-friendly point of interest on their main site is the ability to search for local sellers. I appreciate the ability to search for goods from sellers that are only in neighboring towns, severely cutting down on emissions from shipping.
Aside from the complete lack of exposure, the EcoEtsy site was still exciting for me. I spent way longer than I should have at work looking through the eco-goods from various sellers. If you want to search for items from the EcoEtsy team on the main Etsy site, simply do a tag search for “TeamEcoEtsy“. They’ve set up a twitter and a Facebook account as well if you’re interested.
EcoEtsy is currently holding an Earth Day Auction on their blog. They plan to donate all the proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund. › Continue reading
Regional Sustainability and Local Community Groups
image: flickr user dherrera_96
An excellent example of just this sort of network is the nonprofit network Sustainable Communities ALL Over Puget Sound, aka SCALLOPS. SCALLOPS was founded four years ago to promote regional sustainability through the provision of resources and education for community level grassroots environmental groups. The network has grown to include all surrounding areas of Puget Sound, from Bellevue to Belltown, Capitol Hill to Carnation and well beyond. SCALLOPS holds regular events in the Puget Sound area, and is recognized as a highly valuable resource for new groups committed to sustainability. SCALLOPS’ mission is to network, support, and advance sustainability initiatives in towns and neighborhoods all over Puget Sound through outreach, education and community-building opportunities.
My local chapter of SCALLOPS, Sustainable Kirkland, was kind enough to let me tag along to a meeting this past week. The small and close-knit group of environmentally conscious East-Siders discussed a number of topics, including a report on public opinion of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), the planning of group events – such as a tour of a local LEED certified building, and possible coordination of volunteers for the cleanup/maintenance of a local park.
› Continue reading
