A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s freebie is a copy of Girls Gone Green, a book by Lynn Hirshfield written for preteen girls eager to shrink their own carbon footprints and become environmental activists.

Published by Participant Media, Girls Gone Green’s uber exuberant tone and brightly busy design is really, really meant for upbeat young girls for whom “Green Is the New Black!” doesn’t yet sound trite. Celebs like Alicia Silverstone, Michelle Branch, Mischa Barton, Ellen Page, and other famous women dish out green tips — as do many less famous women with stronger environmental creds. I like how the book goes out of its way to highlight the great work done by women environmental activists, who often get overshadowed by bigger-name male activists.

Comment by Thursday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Friday (more info on freebies here). US addresses only.

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s freebie is a copy of Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning — a book written by Jeff Hollender, president and chief responsibility officer of Seventh Generation itself, along with Geoff Davis.

Lest you think Naturally Clean’s simply a bookish infomercial of sorts for Seventh Generation cleaning products, rest assured that the book’s really about cleaning green and keeping your home free of unnecessary environmental dangers. In fact, you’ll be happy to know that Naturally Clean provides a bunch of make-it-at-home-on-the-cheap cleaning product recipes!

You also get tips for cleaning up indoor air, learning which ingredients and products to avoid, and finding out what the 35 greenest cleaning products on the market are. Yes, many Seventh Generation products are on this creme de la creme list — as are products from Life Tree, Ecover, Bi-O-Kleen, Earth Friendly, and more. Unfortunately, the list’s rated only for safety, not effectiveness — but at least you’ll have a well curated list to begin your search for the greenest and most effective cleaners.

Longtime green LA girl readers already know green cleaning will improve your health; switching to green cleaners has certainly helped reduce my allergy attacks. Naturally Clean’s short chapters will give you a quick grasp of the history and current status of conventional cleaning products, and a handy glossary will give you definitions of chemicals and other ingredients you may have wondered about.

Comment by Tuesday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Wednesday (more info on freebies here). US addresses only.

Earlier: Green cleaning made cheap and easy

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s freebie is a beautiful hardback copy of Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green From Traditional Japan by Azby Brown.

Just Enough takes a close looks at life in Japan during the Edo period about 200 years ago — and draws lessons on how we could live happier and more sustainable lives today. The book’s organized in 3 sections to look at 3 ways of life — for the farmer in the village, the carpenter in the city, and the samurai — illustrated with simple line drawings and described in storybook fashion from the perspective of an imaginary traveler visiting Edo Japan.

Each section’s followed by a number of lessons people today can draw from these lifestyles of the past. Of course, we don’t want a simple return to this past period — when class divisions are extreme and infanticide’s a common method of population control. But other takeaways from the book are valuable and applicable — like the suggestion to “rethink the meaning of comfort”:

Our notions of comfort have led us to expend far too little physical energy in the course of our daily lives and to consume fuel for reasons that are difficult to justify on the basis of health or well-being. Walking and biking are healthier than driving or riding, and they consume little or no fuel. A simple increase in these activities, which would mean increasing the pedestrianization and bikeability of our communities, would go a long way toward reducing our already dangerous obesity levels.

Just Enough offers an interesting and engaging perspective on Edo Japan for those who enjoy reading about cultural history, alongside sustainable ideas relevant today. Comment by Tuesday to get into the drawing for Just Enough, which’ll happen Wednesday (more info on freebies here). US addresses only.

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Thanks to the high price of organic arugula at Whole Foods, green living still makes people think of an expensive lifestyle. In reality though, living green — which mostly means living smartly and efficiency — saves green. Green LA girl readers who pack homemade lunches in reusable containers, vanquish vampire power, and shop pre-loved fashions save money through efficiency, not green sacrifice.

But for those who missed those posts — or simply want all the money-saving green tips in a neatly bound format — there’s a new book called Shift Your Habit: Easy Ways to Save Money, Simplify Your Life, and Save the Planet. Written by Elizabeth Rogers, who also co-authored The Green Book, Shift Your Habit’s basically a book chock-full of money saving eco-friendly tips, organized into neat sections for the green frugalista.

With sections on the home and garden, work, kids, pets, and even fashion and beauty products, Shift Your Habit tries to cover all bases — and to show you the money. Pack waste-free lunches, for example, and you could save up to $400 a year. Grow herbs on your windowsill, and you can shave $50 off your annual grocery bill. Shut off your computer after you finish reading this post — and you’ll see the difference on your electricity bill.

The biggest money-savings tips will be most useful for people who own their own homes. After all, while planting a shade-providing tree can cool off your home sans energy-sucking AC units, most apartment dwellers don’t exactly have the freedom or room to give a fruit tree a place to set down roots. And for renters like me whose utility bills are included in the rent, the money savings from energy-efficient living won’t show up in your wallet — though you’ll still be doing the planet a lot of good.

Longer-time environmentalists will likely be familiar with most of the tips, but a few creative new ideas still shine through — like picking lip colors that can double as blush and organizing collective walk breaks at work for a fun socializing-meets-exercise habit (plus savings on a gym membership). All those tips are interspersed with helpful charts like one that explains different green certification logos, quick tips on everything from picking out green luggage to getting clothing stains out, and recipes for DIY products like homemade green cleaners and organic facial scrubs.

What struck me while reading Shift Your Habit is the fact that green living, in many ways, has to do with shifting away from working so much to living more. Right now, many of us work long hours and skip vacations to earn money — a habit that leaves us so tired that we use the hard-earned money to buy short-term conveniences. Shift Your Habit hints at a different kind of lifestyle where you might work a little less — while doing things you can enjoy that require less cash. Wish you had more time to try new recipes? Then forgo the styrofoam-encased, unhealthy takeout dinners — and the overtime worked to pay for it — and learn to cook a whole chicken — down to boiling the remains for broth — that can feed you for days!

Shift Your Habit lands on bookshelves tomorrow, March 9.

Image via shiftyourhabit.com

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What exactly does it mean to have a green career? That’s one of the first questions tacked in Green Careers for Dummies, a newish book for would-be participants in the new green economy. Instead of simply jumping into how much money you could make in this growing job market, Green Careers for Dummies begins by explaining the nebulous definition of green jobs and careers — since after all, almost any career can be made greener than it is now.

Written by Carol McClelland, Green Careers for Dummies takes a careful eco-minded thinker’s approach, encouraging readers to take a more whole-person approach to the job search. In contrast to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Careers — which mostly focuses on providing a big list of jobs, their descriptions, and expected salaries — Green Careers for Dummies is low on salary figures but heavy on reflection, encouraging readers to reason out why and what exactly they’re seeking in a green job.

Its sections, in fact, are organized by motivating desires, like “managing natural resources” (careers range from wildlife biologist to irrigation engineer to recycling programs specialist) or “rebuilding the infrastructure” (from architects to smart grid standards leader to freight broker) or “shaping the green economy” (from lawyer to urban housing planner to grassroots organizer). Each of those sections include a general description, an overview of the industry’s current status, anticipated future trends and sample jobs — as well as lists of relevant industry associations and web links for further exploration.

With an introductory section explaining global warming, an overview of green job trends based on current policies and emerging fields, and informative sidebars explaining hot green topics like cap and trade, Green Careers for Dummies also gives newly-green job seekers some helpful beginners’ ed on green issues. And for those new to the job market as a whole, the book explains how to organize and conduct a job search, covering everything from prepping your resume to using social media networks.

I did find the extended section on how to use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook too laboriously detailed — but if you’re really clueless about how to use these sites, Green Careers can help. Green Careers for Dummies is available in bookstores now for $19.99.

Image via dummies.com

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>> For the foodie cook on a budget: The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway. Written by a Brooklynite who banned restaurants from her life two years (well, except for coffee), The Art of Eating In sounds like a great read for anyone trying to eat more healthfully and sustainably — while saving money. GOOD has an interview with Cathy, who says her top reason for eating in is “being able to choose your ingredients wisely, having a greater consciousness about your food, where it came from, whether that’s organic, free-range, or pesticide-free.” Cathy’s book’s available now; she blogs at Not Eating Out in New York.

>> For the do-gooder with wanderlust: Ecotourists Save the World: The Environmental Volunteer’s Guide to More Than 300 International Adventures to Conserve, Preserve, and Rehabilitate Wildlife and Habitats by Pamela K. Brodowsky. Want a vacation that really makes a difference for the environment? Read Pamela’s book for ideas. In an interview with Sierra Club’s blog The Green Life, Pamela says her favorite program is the red wolf program at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Pea Island, North Carolina: “It’s not necessarily meant for people with a family, but they can provide you with a cabin and you can do a three-month stint and learn about the wolves.” Her book hits bookstores April 6.

>> For the crafty bibliophile: Playing With Books: The Art of Upcycling, Deconstructing, and Reimagining the Book by Jason Thompson. Always wanted to turn books into craft projects? Learn how from Jason, who writes the Rag & Bone blog. For a preview, check out an adapted excerpt from the book at Re-Nest to learn how to make postcards from vintage books. Jason’s book will be in stores April 1.

Images via amazon

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How far would you go to prove an eco-point? Would you chow down on a neurotoxin? Guzzle a reproductive toxicant? Fill your lungs with likely carcinogens? That’s what authors Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie did — to show that people are blithely and unknowingly taking in all these environmental pollutants into their bodies on a daily basis.

The two men detail their eco-Jackass-esque experiments — and the more sobering scientific numbers from those physical trials — in a new book dubbed Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the amount of chemicals the men introduced into their bodies was indeed frightening, the scariest part of the authors’ experiments is that for the most part, what the men did wasn’t particularly strange. In fact, most experimental acts were normal tasks — like taking a shower, or eating sushi, or drinking from a reusable bottle.

That’s how Slow Death points out that “normal” tasks are what pollute our bodies these days. While the air we breathe LOOKS less polluted than it did in the 70s, our bodies are getting bombarded with all manner of chemicals we don’t see — or at least don’t see as dangerous.

Each chapter of Slow Death looks at the seemingly innocuous but secretly dangerous items in our daily lives, kicking off, of course, with the rubber duckie, a.k.a. floating hunk of phthalates, chemicals linked to birth defects, hormonal disruptions, and cancer.

Read through the chapters, and the average home begins to feel like a torture chamber full of hidden dangers. Washed your hands with antibacterial soap (infused with Triclosan, linked to endocrine disruption and thyroid problems) before eating a casual tuna dinner (loaded up with nerotoxic mercury) cooked in a Teflon pan (made with perfluorochemicals) and drinking water from a hard plastic cup (made with BPA, a reproductive toxicant linked to cancer, heart disease, and sexual dysfunction) all while sitting on a couch (doused with dangerous fire retardants known to be neurotoxic and linked to thyroid disease)? Your evening probably doesn’t seems so quiet and harmless now, does it?

No, Slow Death isn’t exactly full of light humor — but the authors insist their book is “downright hopeful.” After all, knowledge is power — and knowing what the environmental health concerns of the day are will help people actively work to change them. And in fact, Slow Death tells the stories of many environmental wins, from California banning some phthalates in kids’ toys to Canada regulating a dangerous pesticide called 2,4-D.

Plus, Slow Death ends with a “Detox” chapter that outlines quick actions you can take, from getting rid of products with “fragrance” to nixing Teflon pans — thereby dramatically reducing the environmental pollutants in your home. And the book also points out ways to get involved beyond the home, by writing legislators, teaming up with fellow environmentalists, and supporting nonprofits working to reduce environmental pollution.

To that end, environmental health nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s gathering signatures right now for a petition to get Congress to introduce the Kid Safe Chemicals Act, which would overhaul the U.S.’s chemical regulatory law requiring chemical safety testing, proof of chemical safety from companies, and better EPA oversight for consumer products. Visit EWG’s website to sign the petition.

And yes, I got rid of those rubber duckies I used to own a couple years back –

Image via slowdeathbyrubberduck.com

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My balcony garden makes me proud though all it produces is chard, since I’ve managed to serial kill all the herbs. The sunny Socal weather has my chard plants — which I planted in May for the 100 Garden Challenge — feeding me through the winter, but I have a problem: I want more chard!

This is what I have now (extra puny because I just harvested):

And this is what I want (except with mostly chard):

That’s why I decided to pick up Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting after reading a glowing review in Grist. Unlike most gardening books, this slim volume from R. J. Ruppenthal’s written with the city-dwelling organic balcony gardener in mind. Right now, I’m growing enough chard to make a decent side dish about once a month — but Fresh Food says I could be getting 10 – 20% of all the produce I need from my balcony!

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If you’ve watched The Corporation, then you’ve heard Ray Anderson, the CEO of carpet company Interface, talk about the green awakening that led him to radically change the way the company does business. Ray (above right) is now a famous eco-minded industrialist who speaks often about how environmental and economic interests can go hand in hand — and Interface is a highly successful company that’s shrunk its carbon footprint while growing its bottom line.

And last night, Ray was in Santa Monica at the first LEED platinum certified prefab home in the U.S. — owned by Steve Glenn (above left), CEO of green pre-fab housing company LivingHomes — to talk sustainable business and sign his new book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose – Doing Business by Respecting the Earth. An intimate crowd came to hear Ray and buy copies of the book — and were given blue booties to wear to keep the house dry, as you can see if you look carefully at the photo below. Yes, we do odd things here when it rains –

During his brief talk, Ray shared the toughest question he’d ever gotten at a Q&A session:

I got this question from way in the back — “Hey Ray, in a sustainable world, do you think that there will be a place carpets?” I was flummoxed. I had no answer for him. I mumbled something incoherent. And then I thought later what I wish I had said…

What was Ray’s too-late comeback? “Yes — There will be a place for Interface products (laughs) … because we are in the business of selling beauty and comfort to lift human spirits and make people happy. And if we can do that sustainably — and only, only if we can do that sustainably — then yes we have a space for us.”

Didn’t get an invite to last night’s event? Then clear tonight’s schedule to ear from Ray at the Sustainable Business Council L.A.’s event. Register now for the event, which happens Thurs., Jan. 21 from 8 pm – 10 pm at UCLA Korn Hall at the Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles. Cost: $25 — or $60 if you want the VIP package, which includes a pre-event reception, autographed copy of Ray’s new book and a private Q&A.

Photos by Siel; book image via Macmillan

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Why pay a tailor to sew a loose button back on, when it’s cheaper to just buy a new top at Forever 21? That’s the sort of decision would-be fashionistas make these days, ignoring the fact that cheap fashion looks, well, cheap.

So how does a frugal girl afford to look good? By sewing her own buttons, of course. And how does she eat well on the cheap? By making her own fluffy pancakes.

That’s the idea behind How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew, a fun girly DIY book by Erin Bried, a senior staff writer at Self magazine. This book’s got how-to instructions for more than 100 projects, ranging from very specific beauty tips like “How to Wear Red Lipstick,” to financial challenges like “How to Start a Rainy Day Fund,” to more nebulous, lifetime goals like “How to Make Friends.”

I, of course, wanted to start off with the booze-related goals. But “How to Make Dandelion Wine” had this little crazy bit hidden near the end of the instructions: “Set it in a dark closet for about 6 weeks.” What?! I thought “How to Brew Your Own Beer” would be better — but that one still required a 2-week wait. Lacking patience, I started with the very first how-to in the book: “How to Make Blueberry Pancakes.”

Of course, I didn’t have blueberries on hand. Those fruits haven’t been in season for months! Thus, when I read step 1 of the instructions — “If you’ve got the blueberries, chances are you’ve also got everything else you need to make these tasty flapjacks for two” — I knew I was in trouble. No, I didn’t have an egg in the house. Nor milk, canola oil, sugar, or flour. I did, however, have salt — and some old, clumpy baking powder!

So I went shopping — and started substituting. Soy milk stood in for cow’s milk, fair trade organic olive oil from Alter Eco for canola oil, and raspberries that happened to come in my ParadiseO delivery for blueberries.

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