What's the big deal about green products?

You may have heard of them over the years, and maybe even seen them popping up in retail stores, online stores, and direct sales companies. I am fascinated by the fact that skin care and household products are finally going GREEN!! 

Some have been there for a while, and some are just coming to the forefront, but the best thing about these days is that people are recognizing the fact that parabens and other toxic ingredients in makeup, skin care and household products are not only bad for you and your health, but there are many alternatives that may cost less and work better for you! From direct sales to store-based companies, here are just a few of the ones YOU should know about that have a commitment to using completely natural ingredients and helping the planet and the local communities -

Retail - Burt's Bee's (http://www.burtsbees.com/c/committment) and Lush (http://www.lushusa.com/shop/about-us/) are my two favorite retail skin care/body care companies...did you know that Burt's Bee's headquarters is right here in Durham, NC? They also do a lot of humanitarian work, including Habitat for Humanity and the Planet Earth Celebration every year, which just happened here last month.  Lush is now all over the country, but only one retail store in NC - in Raleigh at the Crabtree Valley Mall. I just visited there this week, and it is a bit overwhelming - the smells hit you from all sides, and I have never seen so much raw product in my life! Very creative, and very "natural" - they can tell you each ingredient, and how they complement each other.

Direct/Affiliate Sales -  Shaklee is the granddaddy of all natural product companies, and I still use many of their products. Arbonne has just recently reformulated everything - esp their FC5 line to be all natural and plant based - with all those delicious sounding ingredients, you may be tempted to eat them instead of using them on your body! :) Their new catalog looks amazing and I am happy the company is really solidifying its place in the natural market.

And of course, Global Force has their own Ecomart, with specific green products in each of 4 categories - many of which I hadn't considered using before - 100% fully degradable trash bags, waterless car wash and tire shine, a DIY home beer machine (how's that for eco-friendly!) and even actual "soap nuts" from the Indian ritha tree that create "saponin" to wash your clothes with! 

Learn more about these and other innovative products at http://www.ecomart.ws/home.php and learn more about Global Force at www.ecomart.com/bestlifepossible! 

Make it YOUR mission to learn more about natural products and find ones that are right for you, cost less and help the environment!

Water Water Everywhere - but do you wanna drink THAT?

My Blog Talk Radio show this week (Thursday 4 pm est on www.blogtalkradio.com/queenofwellness) is on Water - see the video below to get an idea of what the developing world goes through JUST to have access to dirty water -



Did you know that less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use? So we are surrounded by water - 70% of the earth's surface - but people can't drink in it or bathe in it without getting sick.

So how can we help? I am only ONE person and I can only do so much, right? But if you use the power of social media, you can effect change far beyond what you think is possible.

Global Force's recent newsletter highlights the issues of water - check out these articles for ways you can educate and help those around you - Global Force newsletter.

Here are two examples of ongoing projects that were effective largely through social media -

--one person who wanted to make a difference and brought a community together thru a partnership with Save the Children USA - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJubQzKYMGg

--charity:water - here is the video that shows how they got started and how they have affected over a million lives with clean drinking water - http://www.charitywater.org/september/trailer.html

and 2 more resources from 2 of our Global Force Community readers - thanks Rachel and Lori!

http://www.abundantwater.org/ - great video and such a simple idea! I am now a fan of yours on Facebook!

http://www.onewaterthemovie.org/ - started by the University of Miami and final screening for Earth Day on Apr 24th.

Thanks for watching these clips and thinking about what YOU can do to help globally and locally. Donate abroad, and drink and use clean water sparingly at home. The world will be a better place because YOU cared! :)

BLP has a new green newsletter!

Since this has been my healthy green blog for a couple of years now, I figure the best place to invite new subscribers to my newsletter is here! So if you have just subscribed, and it is taking you to this page, that's awesome! I would love for you to look around at some of my posts, see what is meaningful to me, and see if you agree with anything I say! :) You are welcome to subscribe to my blog too if you like - just click that button over there to join the small but growing group of blog fans I have...I also have readers from my RSS feed on various Ning sites and my Facebook fan page - www.facebook.com/globalforce.

If you haven't signed up for my new "Go Green, Live Rich" green tips newsletter yet, what are you waiting for? :) Check it out at www.laurelsgreenplanet.info and see more of my green world and what I have to say every week. I got the idea from financial planner David Bach's recent book on how it "makes sense" to "go green" and how you can save - and make - money in the process! It will be a weekly newsletter, so look for it every Thursday in your inbox - and thank you! :)

Where was YOUR food grown?

Maybe some of you are aware out there what is happening to our food industry...the almighty dollar seems to dictate everything in the economy and if it sells, then people will make it...from fast food to supermarkets.

Some of you might have seen my green McDonald's post - and I got a lot of feedback that talked about the fact that McDonalds might have built a "green" building....and there was debate about that as well, but I think the fact that they recycled a lot of the old building materials has merit, and they are a HUGE corporation trying to do ONE thing right. Does that make their food any healthier? No, of course not. But it shows that the green movement is even reaching giant corporations and hopefully that transcends into the kind of food they will provide for us. They will never stop giving us fast food until we stop demanding it, though. We vote with our WALLETS - whether it is a fast food joint or a grocery store - whatever we ask for through buying it will be what they supply to us because that is how they make their money.

As a society, we can choose to listen to whatever makes us happy - is it convenience or is it health? There is a movie coming out in June called "Food, Inc" and it will turn the lights on to all that the food industry has been doing for the past 50 years. Do we really need 47,000 products? Faster, bigger, cheaper? At what cost to our health?See the trailer here - if you dare - http://www.foodincmovie.com/

So are we at their mercy? NO. We can choose NOT to eat at KFC if we know their chickens are in inhumane conditions or we can choose NOT to eat tomatoes at the supermarket that are pumped full of fertilizers, picked before they are ripe, and shipped 1500 miles to us in the middle of winter so we can have a tomato.

Buy local - go to Farmer's Markets and local farm stores.. Even chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joes are becoming more prevalent because the public is voting for them through their wallets. We can choose to buy and eat nutritional food and products because we care about our health. What about you?