Green Island: Earth Friendly Goods

A friend of mine has recently gotten married and is prego.  But because I live in the distant north (at least in comparison to my friend) I couldn't make it to the wedding and I most likely won't be able to make the baby shower either.  I wouldn't be deterred. 

Once my winter semester was finished, I booked it downstate.  A two week break from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (aka the UP), was much needed.  These breaks are usually filled with a lot of traveling and seeing people (the rents, high school friends, etc).

To find presents I traveled to Traverse City, Michigan.  Last fall the I attended the Bioneers conference and they shared a lot of local eco-friendly stores.  In one such store I found presents for both the wedding and the baby.  The Green Island is a cute little store that only sells eco-friendly products.  Products such as: bamboo kitchen utensils, organic bedding, a wide variety of washable/organic fabric diapers, etc.

For the wedding present, I found a set of gorgeous hand carved bamboo salad servers.  They were a really deep rich brown with black handles that which have white accents (the pattern reminds me somewhat of a tame African print).

I had some trouble picking something for the baby.  My experience with children is limited.  (That's putting it mildly.)  I didn't know what kind of things my friend already had, what was still needed, what she thought would be helpful.  The reusable organic diapers seemed like a good idea, they had some really cute patterns but would my friend actually use it?  How big would her munchkin be?  Is it any greener buying a green gift for my friend knowing that they wouldn't be used?

I settled on a creamy white onesie with blue seams (a safe pattern that way there would be some chance of my friend actually using it).   A 3-6 month size outfit that way the munchkin could grow into it.

 I also found some green wrapping paper (that wasn't grocery bag brown) that was created from the energy produced by wind turbines and recycled paper.

Overall I was rather proud of my gifts. I managed to get all of this for approximately $40 with tax. 

If you're interested in the store and its products check it out at: http://www.gogreenisland.com/index.php

I forgot to take pics before giving them, so I'm waiting for pics from my friend.  Hopefully I won't have to wait indefinitely.

Help is near at hand!

I stumbled across an article last week about the coming of stricter guidelines for the environmental claims on products. As of January, the U.S. Government requires a third-party testing/inspection on efficiency of the new products versus regular products.  This is true to all products that bear the Energy Star logo.  Apparently before it was only required for some of the products.

According to the article: consumers and retailers are getting frustrated with the products that claim to be eco-friendly but there isn't any proof to substantiate these claims.

Currently a common problem is companies labeling rayon as bamboo on products.  Rayon (according to www.thefreedictionary.com) is any of several synthetic textile fibers produced by forcing a cellulose solution through fine spinnerets and solidifying the resulting filaments.  Not a very green product, hopefully this issue will be addressed.

Hopefully these guidelines/regulations will make shopping green easier and will remove a lot of grunt work for those who want to live greener.