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The Greenwash Brigade

Start 2009 with Heidi's consumer resources list

Heidi’s consumer product posts have always generated discussion among Greenwash Brigade readers. Start 2009 with a list of Heidi’s favorite consumer resource sites. Enjoy, and happy new year!

Vehicles

Personal Care Products (shampoos, cosmetics, deodorants)

Food

  • The Organic Consumers Association has a drop-down menu so you can find local food groups in your state.
  • the Chefs Collaborative is an organization of smart, yummy and ecologically sound chefs and foodies — they first brought contextual farming issues to the table for chefs on a national basis. (Disclaimer: Siegelbaum is a member of the Chefs Collaborative.)
  • The Healthy Eating Advisor is a balanced nutrition and healthy eating site.
  • The Food Alliance offers ecolabels for food, including the unexpected!
  • Buy local food from your farmer’s markets when you can, and organic if possible.
  • Environmental Working Group’s Food News has information on which foods contain the most and least pesticides. Don’t miss the easy-to-download wallet guide to pesticides.

Toys

  • Healthy Toys is a relatively new site. Many toys are laden with lead and other toxics that will wreak havoc on your kid’s development — 2009 is the perfect time to return your toxic baddies!

Energy Issues

Electronics

  • Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or EPEAT® is a program of the Green Electronics Council. Although not applicable to all electronics, it provides easy-to-download information on monitors, laptops and notebooks and is being used by many cities and states to help green their computer purchases.
  • Responsible End of Life for electronics at computertakeback.org: Be smart about exiting your electronics — this site offers tips on putting your computer to rest responsibly.

Healthy Indoor Decor

  • Many indoor products contain toxics that can trigger asthma, allergic reactions and are developmental or neurotoxins. Never use fragrances to mask odors. http://www.greenguard.org.
  • Avoid any consumer product that is labeled with “perfume” or “parfum.”

Cleaning Products

Put your faith in non-profit and government sites that provide 3rd party certification for products. Although not always air-tight, they are almost always better than company-generated eco-claims.

(Disclaimer: Siegelbaum is involved in chemical policy through a chemical policy planning committee by the Product Stewardship Institute and the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association.)

Comments (1)

Jim | Respond
January 5, 2009 7:34 AM PT

These are great, Heidi. Thanks for posting!

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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