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What's YOUR next Green Step?
Healthier Food? Healthier Fashion? Healthier Planet?
Autumn is a wonderful time when the air turns crisp, leaves change colors, and for some of us, the brutal heat of summer has passed. It's a time when families picnic and animals actually come out in the daytime. It's a season everyone seems to love. So what better time than Fall to pump up your volume on living a greener, healthier life? What better time to recommit to appreciating Mother Earth and her four seasons, and to a healthier you? Are you ready? If your answer is a resounding, "Yes!" here are some short tips to consider.
- Healthier Food - Think local, think Farmers Market, think organic, think fresh, think making a healthy shake, think less meat. Make a plan to meet someone at the Farmers Market; find out about Local First in your area. Can't do it all? Of course not! Pick ONE, get excited about it, share the joy, and take that step in the healthier you direction.
- Healthier Fashion - The textile industry in general is an unsustainable toxic mess that, for the most part, comes with lots of human suffering. Two little tips on this. #1 - Think RESALE! It's so much fun and the bargains to be had are endless. #2 - Become a conscious consumer when you are shopping retail. Some of the biggest retailers are getting the message that 'Made in the USA' helps sales as does the label 'Organic Cotton.' This is a story for another newsletter. But trust me when I say you probably don't want to know the human cost of making our clothes. I did not but now I do and to know better is to do better. We can do better.
- Healthier Planet - Okay, so I am going to sneak this in AGAIN! Last Friday I received an e-mail from a friend who lives in Tucson, Arizona, with a subject line that read: "Gina - this will make you crazy." She was right. Here is the headline of the article she sent to me: 34 MILLION PLASTIC BAGS GIVEN OUT IN 3-MONTH SPAN. According to the first report released under a new ordinance, about 33.7 million plastic bags were given away at stores tracked within Tucson's city limits. The average number of plastic bags given to customers per transaction was 3.6. Trust me when I say, NONE of them were given to me - not one single one. Want a healthier planet for you, our oceans, our plant life, our children, our economy? Stock on up reusable bags and JUST DO IT! This ghastly stat reminded me about one of my favorite items, the WeBe bag and its creator, Tara McCann. Tara is one of those never-to-be-forgotten human beings, starting with she is deaf and she runs her own business. Tara just reconnected with me to let me know WeBe bags are back! Check them out and see for yourself. GREAT, sustainable gift ideas. Here's the scoop: go to webebags.com and enter discount code WeBeFriend for a FIFTY percent discount.
- Healthier You - Research proves over and over and over again that happy people are healthy people. You will be so happy once you incorporate any of the above steps into your life that you will be walking around with a big, contagious grin on your face and generated by your deep, healthy green heart!
Happy, healthy Autumn!
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Arizona's FOURTH Annual Greenest Workplace Challenge:
And the Winners Are....
WOW! This was our most successful Greenest Workplace Challenge ever! The winner, selected by a panel of state-wide judges, is Manzo Elementary. If you haven't read all about them, you will want to! The judges were blown away by this public school's mission and hands-on curriculum. If you want to see some very happy faces and some hope for the future, check this out.
DIRTT Environmental Solutions in Phoenix earned the People's Choice Award. DIRTT (Do It Right This Time) creates customizable, SUSTAINABLE architectural interiors. I hope you will take a few minutes to learn about this amazing company and their contribution to the planet.
From the entire Mrs. Green team, thank you contest sponsors, prize sponsors, all of the organizations who submitted and YOU, the voters, for making this such a huge success in raising the consciousness about sustainability in a meaningful and fun way. |
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Mrs. Green & New York City
(indulge me, please)
Sometimes there are no words and sometimes there are too many. Here's a small flood of them: From S'well Bottle to Food Tank: Think Tank to Green Spaces to my life changing experience (including meeting Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva) at the IWECC to having dinner with Jacquie Ottman (The New Rules of Green Marketing) to shopping at Buffalo Exchange on the Lower East side, to spending time with two friends from FIRST GRADE to spending precious time with two of my daughters, it was all that. Phew...
And then there was the tour hosted by The Green Bronx Machine himself, Mr. Steve Ritz, who is creating The New Bronx and will be a guest on my show this Saturday. Brace yourself is all I can say. The whirlwind week ended with the Go Green New York conference which was the healthy, organic icing on the entire green cake. We were proud to be a media sponsor of this event and I think I got a year's worth of guests from just this one day. Stay tuned - literally.
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UPCOMING SHOWS
The Unstoppable Green Machine
 Steve Ritz
Somewhere along his journey, I think Steve Ritz might have heard a voice say to him "Feel the Green Force, Steve, this is your destiny." We're fortunate he listened. Steve is a teacher in the South Bronx where he and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery - and jobs. He is changing the world in ways I am at a loss to describe. With others, he is helping build indoor edible walls, roof top gardens, gardens on deserted lots and creating triple bottom-line opportunities for his students. Translation: JOBS - sustainable jobs. His TED Talk website has over 525,000 views; what he is really creating is the most important thing of all, hope for the future. It will be an honor to interview this man. This show sponsored by Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona.
October 19
Smoking Them Out
 Greg Walcher
As soon as I read about Greg it was one of those "I've got to get him on the show." And so it is. Walcher has spent a lifetime working to conserve the environment, while providing the resources needed to sustain a prosperous economy today - a concept that has always made sense to me. His new book, Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take it Back, is an Olympic-level reality check to out-of-control environmental policies that are destroying the economy, costing jobs, and doing little to help the environment."The United States is quickly becoming the first country in the history of the world to adopt policies designed to ensure its own decline," writes Walcher. "Every day we see the growing use of environmental laws not for the environment but against people. It is palpable across a wide array of issues - endangered species, public land management, clean air, wetlands, energy production, and the regulation of water." Bring it on. This show sponsored by The Fairfax Companies.
October 26
Creator of a Salad Revolution
 Myra Goodman, Founder, Earthbound Farm
This is another "just pinch me" kind of moment. I met Myra when I attended the Sustainable Foods Institute in Monterey, CA, this past May. She is the co-founder of Earthbound Farm and a cookbook author. At Earthbound Farm they make the connection between our health and the way we eat. Ready for this? Earthbound Farm became the FIRST company to successfully launch prewashed, packaged salad for retail sale. When they introduced their mixed baby greens or "spring mix" to restaurants and supermarket produce aisles, they literally started a salad revolution. Twenty-five years later, twenty-five years strong. And, I just have to add that the breakfast we enjoyed at Earthbound Farm was delicious, nutritious, beautifully presented and their team over the top welcoming and friendly. This show sponsored by Chapman Tucson.
November 2
The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth
The EWG has had more of a significant impact on my life and the life of many people in Mrs. Green's World than any single organization I have read about, interviewed or written about. They are about safe cosmetics, about removing toxins from your home, about safe sunscreen for you and your children. They take NO government funding. They are 100% transparent. Manufacturers either love them or figure out how to get on or OFF their "safe" lists - like The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen (safe and unsafe fruits and vegetables.) This is such a great organization and I am honored to be interviewing Heather White. This show sponsored by The Fairfax Companies.
November 9
Chipotle: Redefining Fast Food
 Chris Arnold, Director of Communications
When Chipotle opened their doors in 1993, they had one simple goal: to serve high quality, delicious food quickly with an experience that not only exceeded, but redefined the fast food experience. I believe that they do serve food with integrity, with a conscious commitment to people, animals and to the planet and that they are game changers. The chain recently became the first fast-food chain to label the ingredients it uses that contain GMOs; the list is deep in its website, not in stores, but it's a start. I believe Chipotle is standing for something better. Not convinced? Take a look at Chipotle's Scarecrow Game then plan to join us. This show sponsored by Chapman Tucson.
November 16
Focus On Our Future: Biosphere2 Ocean Makeover
 Dr. Rafe Sagarin, Program Manager
Rafe, a marine ecologist and environmental policy analyst, is unveiling GREAT plans for Biosphere2 Ocean. But titles can be deceiving. This innovative scientist and educator has studied responses of marine communities and wetlands to climate change, illegal fishing, pollution, and other human impacts. Rafe uses unusual data sets from writers, naturalists, artists, and gamblers to re-assemble historical patterns of ecosystem change, including reconstructing changes to the Sea of Cortez since the expedition of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. He is the author of a fabulous, well written, exciting book called Learning from the Octopus. Now he's bringing new life to the ocean exhibit at Biosphere2. Got any doubts? I sure don't. This show sponsored by The University of Arizona.
November 23
Are Your Clothes Fed by Threads?
 Alok Appadurai, Fed by Threads Co-Founder
There is such a thing as perfect timing and having Alok on the show at this time has taken on new meaning since my trip to New York City. The Go Green Conference had a series of outstanding speakers describing the horrors of the textile industry and I mean horrors. Yes, I cried and I was not alone. It will be an honor to interview the co-founder of Fed by Threads, the first and ONLY humanitarian, sustainable, US-made clothing line and store in America that feeds 12 emergency meals to hungry Americans from each item sold. They believe the choice is simple. They believe the results are profound. They are making REAL goods for our national economy. They are not outsourcing jobs. They are NOT even harming the environment much less destroying it. They sacrifice profits to feed hungry Americans. Is there a downside to Fed by Threads? I think not. I can't wait to join Alok! This show sponsored by The Fairfax Companies.
November 30
Best of Mrs. Green's World
 Mrs. Green [that's me!] will be in Los Angeles for Thanksgiving with a very long list of things I will be giving thanks for starting with the blessing of family. If you have a particular show you would like us to re-run, would you let us know? Do you know how happy it would make all of us at Mrs. Green's World if you did? VERY!!! If you feel so moved, please email [email protected] with your request.
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Mrs. Green's World
GREEN TALK RADIO Show
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Mrs. Green welcomes your comments and feedback:
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Heather White, Executive Director, 