In honour of Mother Earth I wanted to share some of my favourite, earth-friendly, eco-conscious, products, websites and crusaders. Get outside, enjoy the sunshine and commit to doing one thing each day this week to contribute to the health of our planet.
ECO-CRUSADERS
Adria Vasil
Adria Vasil is the Ecoholic columnist in NOW and the Author of Ecoholic, Ecoholic Home and Ecoholic Body. Her books, column and blog are immensely helpful to navigating our planet and our capacity to keeping it and ourselves healthy. I was delighted to share the stage with her at the Green Living Show 2 weeks ago – she is a wealth of knowledge.
http://www.ecoholic.ca/
Dr. Sandra Steingraber
My hero, fellow mother, environmentalist and scientist, Sandra Steingraber chronicles her life with cancer and her efforts to raise her children in the context of a polluted world. You MUST check out her site and watch the trailer for her documentary, Living Downstream.
http://steingraber.com/
David Suzuki & Foundation
Homegrown and top of his game, David Suzuki and his foundation should not be new to anyone reading this blog. Helpful tips, important news and actionable steps to keeping our planet green are all found on his site.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/
Environmental Defense
Environmental Defense connects people to the environment by making environmental issues relevant to people’s daily lives. Their activism and information strikes just the right balance. Check out their Canadian-centric body-care guide as an example of their great work.
http://environmentaldefence.ca/
CAPE
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, also known as CAPE is an organization of physicians dedicated to promoting environmental protection and treating those affected by environmental influences. They do important work in an emerging field and deserve a great big green round of applause.
http://www.cape.ca/
GREEN RESOURCES
Environmental Working Group
Environmental Working Group is an American site with oodles of important content for Canadians. It is a ‘go-to’ site for evidenced based, consumer accessible information about anything from organic foods to safe cosmetics. Bookmark this one for sure.
http://www.ewg.org/
The Green Guide
Practical tips on all things Green and Eco-friendly. Simple, straight-forward and easy to read.
http://www.thegreenguide.com/
Skin Deep
Skin Deep is a comprehensive database of personal care products that include information relevant to North Americans as a whole. Understand the chemicals in your body products and do something about it.
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Just Beautiful Guide
Environmental Defense has produced a Canadian version of the EWG’s Skindeep guide. Check out their up to date information in a Canadian-centric tone.
http://environmentaldefence.ca/issues/just-beautiful
EARTH-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS AND COMPANIES
Huraw
I love love love their raw lip balm. My 18-month old daughter loves (to eat) lip balm too. My rule of thumb is that if you aren’t willing to feed it to your kids, you shouldn’t be putting it on your body.
http://hurrawbalm.com/
Coola Suncare
Finding a healthy sunscreen that doesn’t run rampant through your bloodstream is actually quite a challenge. This is especially difficult when most natural alternatives leave your pastier than a ghost. Coola was rated number 1 by EWG’s suncare guide and goes on like a glove. No messy residue, no streaky white lines. Finally.
http://www.coolasuncare.com/
DIY Cleaning Products
This is not exactly a Green Product, but rather, a comprehensive, do-it yourself cleaning product recipe book. I am always asked what green cleaning products I use around my house – well here you go. And don’t even think about writing in to tell me these don’t work, I ran a cleaning company for 4 years and have very high cleaning standards. These little tricks will cover you and your home for 95% of household disasters.
http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
Mint & Berry
Online eco-shopping made easy. A full-service, personal care product, online SUPERmarket! Mint & Berry carry a variety of products with strict health and environmental standards. (P.S They will ship to Canada… yippee)
http://www.mintandberry.com/
Saving the planet, caring for your health, teaching your kids about health and environmental stewardship…. This is what Earth Day & Week are all about. Get outside, appreciate nature and start to change the world in some small way – I know you have it in you.
Dr. Megs
Want to learn more about how the environment influences our health? Join me for my last talk of the Spring season; Can we Prevent Cancer? Amazing whole food will be included. Check out more information here.
Wow. These are some of the first Millennium Kids’ Environmental Crusaders that I worked with here in Canada. We taught responsible, social engagement for young people. I haven’t kept track of all of them, but a few I know for sure will be graduating from medical and law school next year. Well done, you really are changing the world!