eco-chic design

Three Tips To Green Your Lunch

Over the last few years, I wrote many posts about individual green products. Lately, I realized that the fun starts once you combine them in your daily life. For example, what goes well as a set if you want to pack an eco-friendly lunch? Being quite systematic, I took small baby steps trying to green my own life and I still have a long way to go. In the meantime, I would like to share some combinations that I picked up along the way. For starters, here’s how can you green your lunch:

1. Food storage containers from Preserve
2. Lunch tote from Built NY
3. Bamboo utensil set from To-Go Ware

Why does the combination work? The food storage containers are made in the USA from recycled #5 plastic, the lunch bag is reusable and washable, and the utensils are made of the renewable resource bamboo. As I have been planning and packing my own lunch, I have also been eating healthier. Please share your tips and ideas for greening your lunch.

100% natural cleaning products for a healthier home and planet

Due to the warm weather lately I’ve been in a bit of a spring cleaning mode. As mentioned before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that the inside air of our homes is 2-5 times more chemically polluted than the outside air. That’s why I’ve been advocating eco-friendly home cleaners for a while. Now might be a good time to replace your existing ones with natural and eco-friendly alternatives. The greenest way would still be to clean your home with natural ingredients such as vinegar, baking soda, and olive oil. And you can with the Home Cleaning DIY Kit from Eco-Me. The 100% natural and chemical free tool kit helps you make your own cleaning products. It comes with reusable containers, pre-measured mixing ingredients and essential oils. The eco-modern kit makes a fun educational project for kids. But I’ve to admit that I’m a bit of a lazy environmentalist as so beautifully described by Josh Dorfman. I prefer the convenience of a pre-mixed bottle like the 100% natural all-purpose cleaner Bill. It contains no colorants or dyes, no chemical preservatives, no synthetic fragrances, no sulfates and no phosphates. This means fewer toxins in your home and the environment since they won’t get washed down the drain. As a big fan of design that makes a greener life-style more fun I like Eco-Me’s colorful packaging and bold silhouettes of people like you or me. The Eco-Me family line of products is a healthy addition to any eco-modern home.

colorful baskets hand-woven in Rwanda to empower rural women

Maybe it’s upcoming Easter but these beautiful and graphic Rwanda baskets caught my eye at Macys the other day. They are part of the Rwanda Path to Peace collection whose sales provide sustainable income to the Rwandan women who create them. The Rwanda Path to Peace project was founded by the socially-conscious entrepreneur Willa Shalit in collaboration with Gahaya Links, Fair Winds Trading and Macy's. It was initiated by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) hoping to develop a market for Rwandan basketwork to provide income for rural women in a sustainable manner. 

The first Rwanda Path to Peace baskets were introduced in 2005. Since then they have changed the lives of many Rwandan weavers and their families. Many of them are now able to afford clean water, medical insurance and education for their children. The beautiful Rwanda Path to Peace bowls and baskets are created  with natural and renewable plant resources. The way it works is that the weavers harvest responsibly grown sisal leaves. These are split and peeled to get to the pure inner fibers that are then colored using natural dyes. Next the naturally dyed sisal is coil-sewn around bundled sweetgrass through an ancient technique used for centuries. In the end the 12-inch diameter bowls will consist of several thousand tiny stitches. What an impressive piece of craftsmanship and every one-of-a-kind bowl and basket is gorgeous. But my favorite is the New Africa Fruit Bowl with its modern and bold design. Happy Easter to all my eco-chic readers!

ECO-CHIC NYC: latest 5 eco-finds at ABC Home & Planet

This is my first post as part of a new column entitled "Eco-Chic NYC" that will be highlighting New York City based stores, designers, companies and tradeshows promoting sustainable design. Of course I had to kick it off with abc home & planet. The store is a sustainable design mecca filled with natural, organic, local, fair-trade, handmade, or recycled home and beauty products. I’ve always been impressed by the amazing job the company does as a curator of sustainable design while educating their customers. Throughout abc home & planet’s store and website you’ll find several icons which identify what’s green or sustainable about their product. It so happened during my visit that my eco-chic finds included several local companies such skinnyskinny and Jan Burtz. Both received the local economy icon indicating that their products are made within a 600 miles radius of New York City. They support neighboring community business while minimizing the carbon footprint of their products from transportation. That’s one of the reasons as well that I wanted to start an ongoing column with a local focus on New York City. Hope you enjoy my eco-chic short list. And please let me know what other local stores or designers I should check out.

1. Hand poured natural soy candles from Linnea's Lights. All eco-friendly candles have lead free cotton wicks. They are packaged in recycled materials printed with soy and water based inks.

2. Grapefruit bergamot soap from Level Naturals. The paraben and toxin free soaps are handmade on a carbon negative, organic farm in Hawaii.

3. Organic grapefruit and cardamom dry shampoo from skinnyskinny. Almost all organic bath and body products are locally made in Brooklyn. The company is 100% carbon-neutral.

4. Handmade porcelain by Jan Burtz. The one-of-a-kind designs are locally manufactured exclusively for ABC.

5. Sustainable pouches from Southern Journeys. The eco-friendly designs are made of up-cycled burlap sacks and hand died fabric from Ghana. A percentage of the sales will support SRBW (Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative).

contemporary glass designs from repurposed Perrier bottles

When in Europe I usually buy recycled glasses by La Mediterranea made in Spain since they seem hard to find in New York. That’s why I was thrilled to discover a US based alternative with the eco-modern glass designs by The Green Glass Company. All glass designs are made in Wisconsin. The bottles for the contemporary glasses come from our waste stream as well as discarded bottles by glass manufacturers.

At NYIGF this year it was the Meadow ice tea tumbler collection made from reclaimed and then repurposed Perrier bottles that caught my eye. The shape of Perrier bottles is already elegant to begin with and I love what The Green Glass Company has done with them by repurposing them into eco-modern tumblers.  Its base makes a perfect ice tea glass and is available as bare, frosted, or with a pretty dragonfly design. The frosting process is achieved through sandblasting without hazardous by-products. I was impressed to learn that The Green Glass Company uses every part of their bottles. In their Mist collection the top of the recycled bottle turns into a wine goblet through twisting and flaring the bottleneck. The result is a playful stem that looks really cool in the ice-blue color of the Mist collection with matching tumblers made from the remaining bottom. Even the shipping materials follow the same green principles of recycle and repurpose. Boxes are either reused or made of recycled materials and cushioned with biodegradable cornstarch peanuts. Good to know since the modern looking glasses make great eco-chic gifts.

organic and fair trade chocolate that’s deliciously good

There’s a cute coffee place in Lambertville NJ called Lambertville Trading Company with shelves full of interesting chocolates. I left the store with a big can of theo's 'chiplotle spice' sipping chocolate since I was really intrigued by the flavor. It’s organic, fair trade and has a gorgeous logo design made out of dripping dark chocolate. The taste is inbetween sweet and savory making it perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up or after dinner treat.

Theo is the first and only organic and fair trade chocolate factory in the US and was founded by Joseph Whinney in 2006. All ingredients are carefully screened for social and environmental practices. Sustainable growing methods include shade grown cacao that allows for biodiversity and offers habitat for many species. The ‘fair for life’ seal on the sipping chocolate ensures that human rights are met at every production stage. Workers are treated under fair working conditions and farmers receive a fair share. It’s quiet eye-opening to hear Debra Music from theo mention during her talk on ted that a lot of farmers have never tasted a chocolate bar. No wonder that theo is committed to support local farmers through education. Another example of theo’s transparent business practices are the factory tours in Seattle as part of their educational vision. I would love to go if it wouldn’t be on the West Coast. But luckily it’s easy for me to support this amazing USDA organic certified and fair trade company by sipping another cup of their amazingly good chocolate.

chic and compostable dinnerware made from fallen palm leaves

It was great to see VerTerra’s products mixed in with reusable dinnerware at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder during the LOHAS Forum last month. I've always loved the elegant design of the disposable plates, bowls and trays but never had a chance to use them. They are made with fallen palm leaves, steam, heat, and pressure only. You can’t get more pure than that. The idea originated during a trip to India where VerTerra’s founder Michael Dwork witnessed a local woman pressing leaves fallen from trees into plate like objects that were used to serve food. Now fallen leaves that otherwise would get burned are collected from plantations, then cleaned and pressed into contemporary looking dinnerware at local factories in India. Over 80% of the water used during the steam process is recaptured and reused. Even the waste products are powdered down into fertilizer that’s returned to the farmers who supply the leaves. I love eco-friendly products that close the loop like that. 

The results are organic looking plates and bowls that are non-toxic, biodegradable and even compostable. The great thing about being compostable is that these sustainable products will not only break down within 2 months after use in home or industrial composting but also release valuable nutrients into the soil. VerTerra’s dinnerware is intended for single-use and a green alternative to plastic and paper plates. Something that certainly comes in handy these days for eco-friendly BBQs, beach parties or rooftop gatherings.

the perfect blend of sustainable cuisine with green decor

One of the advantages of spending summer weekends in the city is that hard-to-get reservations at restaurants are available. That’s how I got a table at ABC Kitchen without reservations. And not just any table but a table made from salvaged wood since ABC Kitchen is committed to sustainable décor as much as sustainable food. All food is prepared with organic and local ingredients whenever possible. None of their produce uses pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, insecticides or GMOs and most meat, fish and dairy is locally sourced. The same commitment to sustainable cuisine can be found in their selection of beverages such as tea, coffee or wine that are organic or fair trade. The restaurant’s location close to the farmers market at Union Square doesn’t hurt either. 

The restaurant was co-created between ABC Carpet & Home with chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Phil Suarez. It perfectly fuses a pre-dominantly white and sustainable décor with seasonal produce to create a pleasantly airy atmosphere. I’ve always loved the sustainable products at ABC Home & Planet and it’s great to see them utilized in a restaurant. The food is served on handmade porcelain dinnerware by local artisan Jan Burtz. Each piece is hand-built and hand glazed. The bread baskets are handcrafted by the indigenous mapuche people of Patagonia and are part of the ABC Goodwood Collection that also includes Jim Denney’s dining table made from salvaged wood. If you happen to be in town I can highly recommend the peekytoe crab toast appetizer.

green your lunch with hand embroidered reusable snack bags

Packing my own lunch for work has been an ongoing battle for me since there’s great take-out in the city everywhere. But when I look at the statistics that almost 1/3 of waste in the US is produced through packaging there’s really no excuse. Especially if there are such cute lunch bag options as BleuRoo’s reusable snack bags with hand embroidered designs. I had discovered them on Green Depot’s website and finally bought a bird design after seeing them in person. Of course I love the fact that the outer shell is made of 100% unbleached cotton. But what really won me over was that they are really well-made with their inner liner of water and stain resistant nylon and the double stitched side seams. The velcro closure sealed the deal for me. All eco-friendly designs are hand embroidered and you can choose your own colors.

The designs for BleuRoo’s reusable snack bags include birds, stars or even customized lettering. You can choose from several different typefaces and then create your own personalized message. I’m toying between my first name or “mine” since it’s my snack after all. Or simply “bon appetit”. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions.

nature inspired water filtration design

On my annual trip to ABC Home & Planet before the holidays I saw the stylish OVOPUR by AQUAOVO that was part of a special display about sustainable living. The contemporary egg-shaped design stuck with me since every year I make the resolution to drink more water. And the sleek design of the OVOPUR water filtration unit gives water the central role in any eco-modern home or office that it deserves. After all the average human body is about 60–70% water and needs plenty of hydration.

AQUAOVO was founded in 2007 by brother-and-sister team Manuel and Noemie Desrochers in Montreal with the goal to keep plastic water bottles out of landfills. Taking some inspiration from nature the egg-shaped design combined with the thermal properties of porcelain allows the filtered water to move freely and naturally. This movement prevents stagnation and revitalizes the water. The actual filtration happens through the multilayer AQUACRISTAL filter cartridge that removes chemicals and organic pollutants through a 4-step filtration process. It’s reusable for 4 months and 100% recyclable. OVOPUR by AQUAOVA comes in white or black lead-free glazed porcelain as a limited edition. Either one holds 11 liters of water. I love that these eco-modern water filtration units are a stylish alternative to traditionally unattractive water coolers. Plus they make it easy to stick to my resolution in green style.