Local Wool Products & Community – Echoview Fiber Mill

sustainable wool products

At 17,000 square feet, the Echoview Fiber Mill, which opened in April of 2012, is an unexpected find in quiet Weaverville, NC. It took two years to build, a process that was made a bit longer due to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification process. The building attained the first Gold LEED certification for a manufacturing mill …

5 Eco Friendly Denim Brands Pushing Fashion and Sustainability

sustainable denim jeans

What makes denim eco-friendly? Since the definition can be very broad, we want to be as transparent with our choices as possible. This is how we determine how eco-friendly and sustainable: Materials Cotton can be very intensive to produce, and some alternative fibers are finding their way into denim. The various materials used have a direct environmental impact through farming …

Eco Friendly Home Insulation – From Farm to Walls

natural insulation

Most of us are aware that adding insulation to our home’s walls, roof, and attic essential in reducing energy usage and associated costs. But, the insulation materials we choose can also have a direct impact on the environment as well as on our home’s indoor air quality. There is much more to insulation than its R-value (how efficient the material …

Is Your Hamburger Destroying the Amazon?

Beef is not the most environmentally friendly food, as meats go- but things potentially just got a whole lot worse in August of 2016. This is when the US opened up beef imports from Brazil following an earlier import ban after concerns over Mad Cow Disease in 2012. The Amazon Rainforest in Brazil has been taking a big hit- since …

Trader Joes Red Palm Oil – Is it Good or Bad

Trader Joe’s recently came out with an Organic Red Palm Oil (also known as African Palm Oil), which seems to have replaced their popular Organic Coconut oil, but it poses the question: is this a good thing? Palm oil has been under fire (and rightly so) for some time now because of the association with rainforest destruction, and by association …

Cork, Cats and a Panda

As many of you know, I am a big fan of the multiple uses of sustainable cork. Beautiful, versitile, and sustainably grown and harvested, cork really is a super material. I recently was contacted by some great folks at the World Wildlife Fund charity regarding a crowdfunding project on Earth Hour. Put on by WWF Portugal the project aims to …

tonlé – Waste Free Ethical Fashion

You may not realize it, but a lot of clothes these days are made in Cambodia. Take a look at your clothing tags, and I’m sure you will find quite a few naming this South East Asian country. With all of those textile factories in such a small country, you are probably wondering what’s the deal? The perfect storm of …

Glenwood Garden Specialty Food Market

The other day I received a wonderful gift box from Glenwood Garden, a social issue focused market carrying local handmade and sustainably produced foods. Kind of like a modern and sustainable alternative to the Hickory Farms style gift baskets, except with small specialty produced artisan foods and goods. My gift box was a delightful collection of California and Bay Area …

A Study in Sustainable Systems – Voices of Transition Documentary Film

Voices of Transition is an inspirational look at problems and solutions to the food security challenges we face as a society. A perspective into a movement from three different angles: agroforestry models in France combining orchards with diverse agricultural fields; permaculture and transition town community initiatives in England; and the abrupt, but necessary, organic farming revolution in Cuba. How can …

Local Organic Produce Delivery CSA Box

In an ever expanding world of home delivery, produce is making a comeback. It is a common occurrence here in the San Francisco Bay Area to see Amazon Fresh and Safeway delivery trucks. On top of that, there are many organic and local produce delivery services popping up in urban areas (see a previous review of SPUD delivery service), but …