Not sure what to get the person who has too much? Kathy’s Climate kit is a great way to get someone started on the whole “reuse” and “reduce” of the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle.) It comes with a bag, fluorescent light bulbs, a form letter to end junk mail and a few other goodies [...]

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The Natural Products Association purports to be making healthy, natural products available to the consumers – and legal to sell. In a nutshell, where OASIS takes on agriculture and NOW takes on food, NPA stakes its flag into the vitamin and supplements territory. It seems as though a great deal of the NPA’s work is [...]

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Apparently the Organic and Sustainable Industry Standards Board is the org that checks out whether no bunnies were harmed by your cosmetics company. They are not an official board and they are not internationally recognized – but as far as cosmetic green regulation, for the moment, at least in the US, they’re it. From their [...]

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Image via Wikipedia In an effort to identify wildly proliferating organizations I thought it might help to identify some of the better known environmental agencies in the English speaking world. They’ll pop up one after another, and knowing which are government, which are privately funded, and which seemingly come out of nowhere. Basically, the approach [...]

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If you’re looking for a gift for the green-lovin’ tree hugger in your life, Starter Kit for Change has some serious potential. Kits include seeds, trees, sudoku and hot chocolate! Share on Facebook

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Image via Wikipedia Tea’s taking over in the US, as yerba matte’ forces coffee to edge aside and as more consumers become convinced of the health benefits of herbal teas. To get the most out of your leafy-drinks, it’s important to distinguish between the two types of tea. In my case, when I say “tea” [...]

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I came across this in my latest issue of Food and Wine and it piqued my interest – since I live in an urban area, on the fourth floor of an apartment building, growing food indoors is an entertaining challenge. While I don’t think my fiancee would care for it – (who knows?) it does [...]

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Image by Danny McL via Flickr In a short-term sort of way, it’s not in my best interests to say this. But, since I would like my field of perfumery to not die of a bad case of nanny-state, and because I for one wish to stick to using natural materials1  I will say this: [...]

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Image via Wikipedia The crux of the problems with cosmetics is that ultimately, all things are chemical – water, blood, vinegar, parabens, any other odd thing you can or can’t pronounce – it has a chemical composition even if it’s air. Too much of anything will poison you. You can explode your brain by drinking [...]

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One of the big worries that perfumers like myself have is that our lovely, lovely plants with their lovey smells will disappear.  Thanks to FairWild, there’s some protection happening kind of – basically, the organization is  laying forth some standards in an effort to prevent overharvesting. I’ve downloaded the standards used, and once I’ve made [...]

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