I was recently the lucky recipient of a gift bag filled with random goodies, and one of the products inside is one that I am really excited about.  They are mini shower gel packs by Pangea Organics, and they came in great scents like indian lemongrass with rosemary.  That isn't the only reason I was excited for them.  There was also a little piece of paper that informed me about Pangea Organics, and that their products are zero-waste.  What is zero-waste?  Well, the cartons that Pangea Organics products come in are made with 100% post-consumer recycled paper, and are mixed with organic seeds.  All you do is take off the label, soak the box in some water, and plant it in the ground, and you've got flowers and trees on the way.  What a unique and eco-friendly idea!

Pangea Organics offers a great selection of products on their website, including skin/body care and lip care.  They also offer gift sets that are incredibly affordable and really fun, with different options to chose from.  One set, the "Harmony" holiday set, includes a bar of soap, shower gel, body lotion and a soap dish in amazing scents.  The box that the set comes in will grow a Spruce tree, and includes gardening instructions.

All the products offered at Pangea Organics are made with organic materials, scents and seeds.  Pangea Organics products don't use any harsh chemicals, and the ingredients are always listed on the bottles and packages so you know exactly what it is made from.  Their website even offers an ingredient glossary, so you can always be sure that you know what you are putting on your body.  They figure that if you are going to care for your body and make it beautiful, you can do the same for the Earth at the same time.

You can order Pangea Organics products online, or find a store near you.  Their products are available at spas, co-ops and natural markets around the world.

Being green and eco-friendly does not have to be an ugly endeavor.  You can look and feel beautiful while keeping our planet looking and feeling just as good.  Beauty doesn't have to mean chemicals, dyes and scents.  There is no excuse for making our planet suffer so you can look good when there are options out there like Pangea Organics that will be good for you, and Mother Earth.

Almost everyone has heard of the phrase "pay it forward." That basically means to do something nice for someone, who will in turn do something nice for someone else, and so on so forth.  Eventually the world will become a nicer, more pleasant place to be in.  There needs to be a new movement, one that is similar to "pay it forward" but with a sustainable twist, and I'm calling it "green it forward."

The idea behind "green it forward" is simple.  The key is to go past living green yourself, and helping those around you make the changes they need to live green too.  You can buy fluorescent light bulbs for your parents and while you're helping them replace their old bulbs tell them about why living green is so important.  You can sign up your best friend to stop receiving junk mail, and when you call to tell them about it, explain how easy green changes can be.

There are so many people out there that want to live more sustainably, but don't know where to start, what to do, or who else is living green to network with.  If you take the step for them and get them started, and share information in the process, more people will see how easy it is to be green.

Knowledge is infectious, and when you spread green information and show people how easy it really is to live green, that will spread from just your family and friends to your neighborhood, town, state, and eventually the whole world.

The time that movie buffs have been waiting for is now here since the Oscars are this Sunday.  There has been a lot of buzz about who is going to win in what categories, and viewing parties around the globe have been planned.  Green Groove has teamed up with I Have My Certainty, a blog that is dedicated to film and the arts, to host a green Oscars party.

I wrote about how you can green up your own Oscar party, and we're implementing those ideas for our party.  Instead of printing out ballot cards for everyone attending, we're printing one ballot that everyone can initial their pick on.  All the treats will be from local shops and grocers, or organically grown and made.  People coming to the party from far away have plans to carpool, instead of all driving separate cars to the event.  Those are just a few of the ways that we're making this Oscar party as green as it can be.

There is still plenty of time to get your own green Oscar party planned, or team up with someone already hosting a party and decide to make it more eco-friendly.

Read more about how to green up your Oscar party right here.

Now that the sun is peaking it's little head out from behind the clouds, and the temperature is slowly rising, garden fever is quickly approaching in the northern hemisphere.  Now, I know it's way too early to actually start planting, but right now is the best time to start planning.

Growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs is not only a fun hobby, it is a great eco-friendly activity.  If your garden yields enough produce to get a few meals out of, at the very least, that's less that you have to buy at your local grocery that has been shipped from somewhere else.  It can give you a sense of accomplishment, too. Gardening is also a great way to teach children about giving to the Earth and having it give us something in return.

Here are a few thing to consider when planning for this year's garden:

1. Where are you going to put it?  If you have an area outside, then measure out the size of the plot that is available to you.  Once you know the size of space you have, you can better estimate what to plant, and how much of it.  If you don't have a space outside, then think about pots that can be put on a porch or windowsill.  These are great for small fruits like strawberries, or herbs.

2. What will grow in your soil?  You can try and grow jalapenos in Northern Idaho and you just may get something for your efforts, but your best bet is to figure out what grows best in the soil that you have at hand.  Do some research and figure out what the best crops in the area are, and plant that.  I found out that our soil is particularly good for Walla-Walla onions, Yukon gold potatoes, and sugar snap peas after planting some of each and having my garden just explode.

3. What do you need to start?  There are some vegetables, fruits and herbs that you can plant with seeds.  There are others, though, that require a "start" of some kind.  To plant potatoes, you need to let a potato of the variety that you want to  plant dry out and start to grow eyes. Then, cut the potato into sections (about 4-8), and then let those new cuts dry.  That is what you'll plant.  Getting prepared by having seeds or starts will save you time when you're actually ready to plant.

4. How can you do this organically?  There are a lot of seed and start growers out there now that offer organic options.  These are your best bet if you want your garden at home to be organic.  Also, start with your own soil and compost mix instead of buying it from elsewhere that may have loaded it down with chemicals.  Figure out what plant foods are chemical free and safe for your food.

Regardless of if you've got a whole acre of land to garden on, or a plot in your backyard that's 3 feet by 5 feet, or just a few pots in your window, gardening is something that is available to everyone.  If you absolutely cannot garden where you live, check into community gardens.  You can pay a small fee for an area of land and plant whatever you want, and then share what you grow with others.  No matter how you do it, gardening organically is a great green hobby to start.

Death is never an easy subject to talk about.  Everyone has experienced death in some way or another, be it a friend or family member, or someone that they know of but maybe did not meet.  Planning a funeral or memorial is also an aspect of death that people have to consider.  Open or closed casket, burial or cremation, graveside funeral or at home memorial?  Not only do those questions loom over the heads of the recently bereaved, but there are also now options on the table to make a funeral more green.

Green funerals are by no means a new thing.  Before embalming, caskets and cement blocks, funerals used to be incredibly green.  In the old days, people were sent off to sea, buried in linen cloths, or set on top of a funeral mound that was then set on fire.  People were brought back to the earth in the most essential way, and the people left behind new this.

Now there is a movement to get back to basics when it comes to funerals.  There are many new green options for caskets, as well as completely new ideas for disposing of a body or ashes.  Eternal Reefs is a company that offers a "Memorial Reef," which is a reef made from safe cast concrete, and it creates more marine habitats for fish and sea life.  They take the cremated remains of the deceased and mix it in to the cement.  Ecopods are another option; a coffin made of 100% recycled paper that will biodegrade with the deceased, and cause no harm to the Earth.

When a loved one passes, it is often a confusing time where a lot of decisions have to be made quickly.  That is why it is a good idea to talk about what funeral arrangements you would want with your loved ones, so they are not left wondering as to what your wishes were.  Writing out a green funeral plan ahead of time will save family members time in the future.

Death is an every day occurrence of life, and the fact of the matter is that people die every day and the Earth is not getting bigger.  Some cities are running out of places to bury their dead, as well as hazardous consequences in the cases of grown shift after a spring thaw.  Having a green funeral, burial and memorial will put off the death of our own planet.  Living green is not just about the choices we make while we are alive, but the choices that we make that extend beyond that.

There are a lot of major book selling websites out there that offer green books, but how many of them donate part of their proceeds to sustainable technologies?  As far as we know, only one.  That website is Sustainable Insight, and they not only offer a wide range of sustainable living books (from agriculture, gardening, and sustainable living), and educational DVDs and books, but they also donate $0.50 of each product sold to ventures that are working towards sustainable living, awareness, and conservation.

The Australian based website also recently accepted applications from organizations that wanted to receive funding from their Sustainable Funding Initiative.  You can go vote for organizations by reading their next Sustainable Insight Newsletter, or you can view organizations that applied by going here.

One thing I really like about Sustainable Insight is the huge range of books that they offer.  Most bookstores have their "obligatory green section" and it rarely has anything to offer but they want to look like they've tried.  That is not the case here at Sustainable Insight.  I found books on ecotourism, native plant gardening, sustainable housing, and renewable energy.  They also offer DVDs and educational resources, which is a lot more than I can find at other bookstores.

Another aspect of Sustainable Insight that I was drawn to was the Children's section.  They offer books about raising your child in an environmentally friendly way, but they also have books to read with your children that teach them how to make green choices.  Everyone knows that we're handing our children this planet, and they'll have to pay for the choices we have made.  We need to prepare them for green living as soon as we can, and Sustainable Insights sells a lot of great resources for doing that.

Regardless of if you're in Australia, Africa or America, Sustainable Insights is an amazing resource for green living books and materials.  Be sure to check them out and browse through their books.  I can guarantee that you will find something there that interests you.

If you use your phone frequently, you'll know how important it is to keep and maintain a charge on your battery.  Phone batteries can hold longer charges than ever before, but if you're using a PDA then sometimes your charge doesn't last as long.  Constantly charging your cell phone increases the carbon footprint of your household, and it may seem to be a necessary evil.  Well, not anymore.

Samsung has created a handset called "Blue Earth" and it could be the new wave of sustainable phones.  Not only is the casing made from PCM, which is plastic recycled from old water bottles, it also has a number of great green features.  It lets you calculate how much CO2 you are not emitting when you decide to walk to work instead of drive, and you can also adjust the settings on your phone to keep a charge longer.  On top of all that, it features a solar panel on the back.  It will charge the phone enough to sustain a phone call if the sun is at its peak brightness.

The "Blue Earth" comes in recycled packaging, which is also a huge benefit.  Hand-held phones come in huge packages, set inside Styrofoam, and hardly any of it can be recycled.  Not the case with "Blue Earth" which boosts its green capacity even higher.

Unfortunately, "Blue Earth" isn't available for sale right now, but the UK will see this phone after the summer.

(Engadget original article)

While you go about your daily routine, there are some things that you choose to do over others that are obviously more green.  Replacing old light bulbs with compact fluorescents is a choice that is obviously greener.  There are others, though, that require a little bit of research.  That's why we're here to help.

I was recently loading my dishwasher, and I stopped to think about how green that really is.  I tried to remember how much water was used when I hand-washed dishes, and if that was more or less water than my dishwasher.  I decided to do a little research, and now I'm passing that research on to you.

According to the EPA, the most energy efficient way to do your dishes (imagine a full load, or full sink's worth) is a dishwasher that does not use an initial rinse-cycle.  They figured this by thinking of annual gallons of water (g) used, and then annual energy consumption (kilowatt-hours, or kh).  Here's the quick breakdown:

1. An efficient dishwasher uses, on average, 868 g and 276 kh.

2. By hand, in a two basin sink, uses 1,419 g and 295 kh.

3. A standard dishwasher (rinsing first) uses 3,473 g and 735 kh.

4. Washing by hand, with water running constantly, uses 5,974 g and 1,243 kh.

So what does that mean if you have a dishwasher, but you are renting or are not in a position to purchase a more efficient one?  Make sure that you always run a full load, and turn off the initial rinse cycle.  Open the washer door during the "dry" time, and let everything air dry instead of using the heater that some dishwashers use.  Find out the minimum settings needed, that will still get your dishes clean, and run those instead of the max of everything.  

If you are looking to purchase a new dishwasher, be sure that you get one with an Energy Star label on it.  They are made to run less water and electricity per-load, and if you use extra green steps, then you can save even more than what is expected.

If you don't have a dishwasher, there are still things you can do to save water and energy.  Don't leave the water running constantly.  Run enough water to rinse the dishes, and then clean them with your soapy sponge and set aside.  Rinse everything together at the end.  Don't waste by running the water while you're waiting for it to warm up.  That would be a good time to do your initial rinse.

There are still many choices out there where you may not know the obvious answer when you think which is greener.  Always take time to do research before you assume one way or another.  You may be surprised at the answer.