Here is the post I wrote last year on the 10th anniversary of 9/11:

Ten years.  Ten years since the most terrifying day of my life.  A day that filled me with fear and shock and horror and unbelievable sadness.  A day that brought loss and grief to so many fellow New Yorkers.  I was one of the lucky ones.  I didn’t lose anyone close to me, didn’t witness the planes hitting or the people jumping or the towers falling, since I was uptown that morning (I was supposed to be at a meeting down on Wall Street at 10, but of course never made it).  I watched it all unfold on TV, like the rest of the world did.  For weeks after, I smelled the smoke in the air, jumped at every loud sound on the street, and was heartbroken when I saw all the ‘MISSING’ signs and photos at the firehouses and churches, and when each day went by and the rescue efforts became recovery efforts and the hope of finding survivors faded away. We were a city, and a country, very wounded and broken.  I was broken.

As a parent and a business leader, I had to pull myself together for my kids and my employees.  But I wasn’t doing a very good job.  If you asked me then what life would be like in 10 years, I probably would have said it would be pretty scary.  I couldn’t imagine ever feeling safe in NYC again.  I had visions of frequent terrorist attacks and bombings and living in a war zone.  For the first time in my life I had a very small clue of what it must have been like for my mother as a teenager hiding from the Nazis in WWII.  I thought life as we knew it was over.  Of course for those families experiencing the anguish of loss, life for them as they knew it WAS over.  But those of us who didn’t lose a loved one were experiencing a different kind of loss and despair.  When I woke up on the morning of September 12, 2001, I didn’t think anything would ever go back to ‘normal.’

Yet the past ten years have been full of the joys and sadness of every day life.   Beautiful celebrations, births, graduations, bar mitzvahs, and proud accomplishments, as well as funerals, hospitalizations, natural disasters and economic hardships.  Life went on.  Things went back to ‘normal’.  I wasn’t even planning on having another child until the sadness from 9/11 (and some very sad family events in 2002 and 2003) got me feeling like I wanted to create something beautiful.  My little angel, my love and joy and bundle of cuteness may not have even existed!  So, while I understand that it is important to take this anniversary as a time to reflect back on that horrible day, I would also like to use this as an opportunity to count my blessings, and be thankful for all that has happened in the last 10 years.

How will you spend this 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks?

This is a collage I put together in the days after 9/11

Professor Meredith Hill and Gia in the CSS Community Garden

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to speak about my career along with some other sustainability professionals at a 7th grade sustainability class at Columbia Secondary School in NYC.  First, let’s take a step back: Isn’t it amazing that there even IS a 7th grade sustainability class?  When I was in 7th grade, I don’t think I knew what the word meant!  Anyway, the kids had been given a budget and asked to go shopping for organic food to make salads for lunch for all the guests.  After eating this delicious lunch, we gave a brief overview of our work in sustainability, and then broke up into groups so the kids could interview us for a magazine they were putting together for the class.   Two of the children asked me some very poignant questions.  I did my best to answer them without cynicism, trying to keep things as positive as possible.  But when ‘Albert’, an intelligent and perceptive young man, asked me this question, I could no longer hide the sad truth about the role of money and power in our daily lives: “Why does organic food cost so much more than conventional food?”

Well, I went on to explain that government subsidies to large agribusinesses help keep the cost of conventional food down.  “But why do these industries get subsidies?”, the kids wanted to know.  I continued, “Because these companies have a lot of money and, well, money can buy a lot of influence through lobbying and other contributions.”  Then I stepped back and listened to myself.  Is this really true?  I should be careful about what I say to 13 year old children.  Do I want them thinking that in a democracy such as ours the power of big corporations and big wallets counts more than our collective voices and their votes?   Is it right for them to think that money can buy anything, including government policy and federal subsidies?

I was, after all, over simplifying a very complex situation. And it’s important to note that the food subsidies originated as a way to support small farmers and protect them from precipitous falling prices, while also protecting consumers from soaring prices in times of drought and bad crops. But somewhere along the way, big business commandeered the subsidies which resulted in making healthy and organic alternative use of that land more expensive.  And while I didn’t mention it, it is also costly for a farmer to seek out Organic certification.  There are no subsidies for that.

A week later, I was attending a fantastic panel titled: Green and the 2012 Election: Does Anybody Really Care?  So I asked the panelists: former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and businessman Yetsuh Frank of YR&G, what they would have said to the kids if they were in my position. Yetsuh Frank said he would have told them exactly what I told them.  Even kids should know this sad reality.  The more people who know, the more capable we are of making our voices heard though organized protests, boycotts, petitions and other means.  The Occupy Wall Street movement is just the beginning of people saying “I’m fed up, I’m angry, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know about government subsidies to agribusiness until well into my adulthood.  I mean, I knew that an apple was healthier than a Twinkie, but we didn’t discuss big business affecting the availability of healthy food, or its price.  Had I known, when I was in 7th grade, about the influence of money and power on MY OWN HEALTH and food choices, I probably would have been a little angry at the control these giant companies exert over agriculture, with massive government support**.   It is time to inform our youth.  It is time to make sure good food, organic food, is not more expensive because of massive subsidies to agribusiness. Let’s give the power back to the people!  What do you think?

** Of course I was in 7th grade in 1977 and the policy changes that favored and even encouraged the consolidation and growth of these mega corporations weren’t enacted until 1996.  However, the point is, these types of issues didn’t come up in school or in family conversations…and they should if we’d like to see a change.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are an e-commerce site. We sell stuff. Our tag line is “Where it Pays to Buy Green.” EcoPlum started out as a place to buy eco-friendly products and earn rewards in the process. But it quickly morphed into an educational/informational site. My passion has always been teaching and I come from an academic background, so as I learned more about environmental issues, I wanted to educate as many people as possible: through my blog: “Confessions of a Reformed Consumer”; by bringing on experts to write monthly columns on Green Design, Green Schools, Eco-Friendly Beauty Products, Local and Organic Food, and Green Entertainment and Media; by posting top green news stories every day on facebook, Twitter and Google; and through our monthly newsletter EcoPlum Pie. However, somewhere along the way the fact that we sell products got a little lost. Well I’m here to bring it back.

So, let’s get the obvious part out of the way. Of course buying nothing is greener than buying something. So if you don’t need it, don’t get it. OK? I said it, don’t buy if you can help it. The problem is, most of us need stuff, want stuff, and will continue to buy stuff. Take clothing, for starters. Don’t know about you, but I’m not a nudist, and I need things to wear (plus I live in the North East and I don’t want to freeze my tushy off). So when my workout clothing has seen one too many spin classes and it’s time for a new cycling jersey, why not buy one made of recycled plastic? Or when my son’s backpack falls apart from carrying 500 pounds of books to school every day, might as well replace it with one made 100% from recycled water bottles.

This kind of thinking can be extended to all your purchasing habits. Rather than buying my daughter a new handbag, I got her one made of recycled juice boxes. I stopped buying plastic disposable straws for my kids’ drinks and replaced them with glass reusable straws. Lunches get packed in a reusable folding sandwich container instead of Ziploc bags, disposable coffee cups have been replaced by reusable mugs, we make our own seltzer and have eliminated plastic soda bottles from our waste stream, we use stainless steel water bottles and never buy plastic bottled water, and those awesome Chicobags are with me on every shopping trip. I know there are a LOT of people who could make these small changes towards a green lifestyle. But this will only work if:

1) People know WHY and HOW to go greener, and,
2) People know WHAT the greener alternatives are, and WHERE to BUY them.

So this brings me back to education and disseminating information. While my marketing people tell me I need to focus a little more on the products and a little less on the education, I still maintain that “An Educated Consumer is Our Best Customer.” Sy Syms, can I steal your tag line?

Kids tend to see things in black and white: You don’t like me? You must hate me. He’s not smart, he must be stupid. For many of us, the tendency to present a False Dilemma carries forward into adulthood. Big kid that I am, I often forget the shades of gray in between choices and tend to think in extremes. So when I embarked on my environmentalist journey, I became passionate about minimizing my environmental impact in every aspect of my life and left little room for transgressions. I stopped buying plastic water bottles, started carrying around reusable bags and coffee mugs, switched to organic produce, cut down on my energy use, stopped buying things I didn’t need, reduced my water use, practically eliminated my meat consumption, switched to natural cleaning products, stopped using disposable dinnerware & Ziploc bags, bought a home seltzer maker, and cut down on my water use.

I thought if I could just get everybody else to do what I did, the world would move quickly in a direction of healing and repair. I went on a mission to spread the word about my enlightened way of life and thought that through education and sharing of experiences I could get others to follow suit. I became a green hall monitor, of sorts, and found myself giving the evil eye to all those bottle drinking, plastic bag toting, meat eating planet destroyers out there. Now, while quite a few people have told me that I’ve inspired them to change their habits, so many more have not even thought about changing the way they live. Why? Could it be that my drastic transformation from over-consuming materialist to radical greenie is rare, and that it represents one extreme? Maybe expecting the majority of consumers to give up the majority of their consuming habits is just unrealistic?

Then I started to look back at my own evolution and realized that I, too, was living in a shade of gray. For example: I didn’t completely give up eating meat because I wasn’t ready to stop making my favorite ragout sauce, but when I do eat it I make sure it is grass fed and organic. I still buy paper towels because, for some things, I just want to throw away the mess, but I buy towels made of 100% post-consumer content. I’m pretty good about not buying or drinking bottled water, but if I find myself in a situation where is the only choice of beverage that I have (i.e. it is given out at a conference where there is no access to tap water), I will drink it and make sure I recycle the bottle. So if the (self proclaimed) queen of green herself isn’t living a purely green life, then surely others can do the same? Maybe encouraging this shade of gray will actually rally more people into a greener lifestyle. Maybe I was going about it all wrong with my “green police” attitude. Cast a wider net, my husband likes to say, and you will catch more fish.

So goodbye, black and white, and hello green! If you are not ready to make drastic changes in your lifestyle, then OK, start with little steps. Make a change that doesn’t make you feel frustrated to the point of giving up. Pick something and stick with it. Then pick something else. Here are a few easy things you can take on:

#1: Stop buying plastic disposable water bottles. Carry around your own reusable bottle in your backpack, briefcase, shoulder bag, or purse.

#2: Stop using disposable plastic shopping bags. Carry around at least one Chicobag with you – these definitely fit easily into your pocketbook, briefcase, even pocket.

#3: Recycle at home and at work. Check out our “What do do with your stuff” page for where and how to recycle different types of materials.

#4: Stop using disposable coffee cups. Carry around your own reusable coffee mug. Ask for a ceramic “for here” cup if you plan to hang around the coffee shop to enjoy your coffee.

#5: Stop buying wrapping paper – use colorful newspaper, children’s art projects, reusable gift bags or cloth for your gifts.

#6: Stop using disposable wrap and bags for your kids’ lunches. Instead purchase reusable bags and lunch materials.

#7: Eat less meat. Reducing the amount of meat you eat can have a significant impact on the environment – methane from cows is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

#8: Take public transportation whenever you are in a city. Check this out for a guide of public transportation options in your city.

#9: Ask yourself “do I really need it?” when you are about to buy a new appliance. If you do need it, make sure it is Energy Star rated.

#10: Stop using paper plates and utensils. If absolutely necessary, buy ones made of recycled and biodegradable material.

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the subtitle to this blog is “Confessions of a Reformed Consumer.” Well it doesn’t get much more reformed than this: just a few years ago I was longing for shoes, handbags, and lots of good STUFF for my birthday. Why a perfect birthday usually included a stop at Saks Fifth Avenue to buy something totally frivolous for myself. A Composter??? Growing up, I used to confuse the words “Compost” and “Compote” – I knew one was a fruity jam and the other was a stinky mess. In fact, I was so careful not to use the wrong word because if I said “compost” it would be like saying “toilet” or “sewer” (not that I didn’t already have a huge potty mouth back then, but I didn’t want to use this term in the wrong context). My main association with the word “compost” was with the disgusting pile of food garbage my mom would keep in the kitchen and periodically throw out in her vegetable garden as “fertilizer”. Yuck.

Boy have I changed my tune. It’s not that I don’t still find the concept of keeping food scraps around until they decompose repulsive, it’s that I find the act of creating unnecessary landfill waste even more repulsive. Plus, food scraps in landfills quickly decompose into Methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide. While some waste facilities capture Methane to convert it back into energy, most do not. According to Zero Waste, Inc. “For every 1 ton of food scraps separated from the trash before it gets to the landfill, the equivalent of 6 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) is prevented from being released into the atmosphere.”

Yes, I live in New York City, and I really have no need for fresh soil or fertilizer, and I have absolutely no place to dispense of compost output, but I will find a way. A few months back, I read a review on composters in the Wall Street Journal – of all places. It gave the Nature Mill Indoor Composter a very good rating, especially for an urban environment. (Full disclosure: EcoPlum gets a small referral fee for any sales that result from clicking on the link I just provided). I got very excited about the prospect of being able to know I was doing the right thing with regard to food waste, and still keep my urban kitchen looking chic and smelling great. But the price tag was a bit prohibitive. So, what better time to ask my husband to splurge on this apparatus – MY 46th BIRTHDAY (which is next Wednesday, June 2nd – in case you wanted to know)!

So, Honey, all I want for my birthday is a composter. I promise it won’t bring bugs and smells to our apartment, and I will know that I am doing one more thing to reduce landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Don’t get me wrong, I will probably still treat myself to a facial or some other pampering activity, but the days of shopping just to shop are over. Who thought I’d ever get there??

Buy Now from Gaiam.com

I’m competing in the Just Means “The Emerging Voice” Sustainability Blogging Competition. Winners get to go to Amsterdam and blog from the Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency. I’m not talking about Amsterdam Avenue, folks, but Amsterdam in The Netherlands! That would be fun!

Do you like The EcoPlum Blog? Would you like to see me cover breaking news from overseas? Then VOTE FOR ME (and comment) at:

http://www.justmeans.com/contestidea?ideaid=NDIw

Thanks so much!!

Well it’s no secret that shopping is not green. You may have seen my “Stop Shopping” rants or my attempts to go “No Impact.” This is something I’ve been personally conflicted with since I started EcoPlum – I don’t want to encourage consumerism and the completely wasteful purchase of unneeded items. At the same time, if people are going to buy products ANYWAY, they should consider buying products that are kinder and gentler on our environment, and buying though a company that gives back through educational and charitable efforts.  The mission of EcoPlum has always been to get people to switch from buying products that have a huge environmental impact to buying products that minimize their environmental impact.

This is our first real Black Friday/Cyber Monday since we launched EcoPlum (we went into live Beta just before Thanksgiving last year). Here is our offer for our readers and customers for the holiday:

EcoPlum’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday Special

Shop from Green America Approved Retailers and We’ll donate 1% of Gross Sales (that’s up 25% of our net proceeds)

to the Environmental Cause of Your Choice (see list below)

And there’s more: while these following retailers are not necessarily known to be “green”  and we only sell certified and approved green products through these retailers on EcoPlum, for Black Friday we are offering the following deal:  If you are going to shop through these retailers ANYWAY, do it through EcoPlum, we will donate 1% (that’s up to 25% of our net proceeds) to the environmental non-profit of your choice (from the list below) and you will help a small for-profit company that’s trying to do good.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and meaningful Thanksgiving.

Environmental Causes for donations:

Beyond Pesticides

The Conservation Fund

Climate Counts

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Working Group

GreenPeace

The Nature Conservancy

Pesticide Action Network

Rainforest Alliance

Sierra Club

Union of Concerned Scientists

For the donations to go through, you must click through to the retailers’ sites using the links in this post (or on the EcoPlum site).  Once you have made your purchase, please forward the retailer’s confirmation email to support@ecoplum.com and let us know the cause you want us to donate to.  Thanks!

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know that I’m all about helping people become aware of the impact they are making on the environment and helping them to reduce that impact. So I try to live the whole “No Impact Project” lifestyle every day. OK, who am I kidding? Let’s call it the “reduced impact” lifestyle – that’s more like it. But, just for the goof, I joined the Huffington Post’s No Impact Week Experiment. This Experiment is based on the movie/book/blog by Colin Beavan that chronicles his family’s year-long experiment. They lived a ZERO-WASTE lifestyle in which they:

1) Produced no trash
2) Unplugged from the electrical grid
3) Traveled exclusively by foot or bike
4) Bought nothing (except for food)
5) Only bought food that was locally grown (within 250 miles)

Apparently they came out of this much “healthier, happier and richer in ways they never expected.”

Alrighty! I haven’t seen the movie or read the book yet, so it would not be fair for me to comment on the Beavan family year-long experiment. But since I participated in the one week experiment, I’m totally qualified to talk about that.

So first I filled out a pre no-impact survey – it asked me questions about my happiness levels and my consumption habits. Being the neurotic self-deprecating depressed Woody Allen type that I am, I rated my happiness level as lower than it probably is. Then I tooted my incredible reduction in consumption and waste production.

Sunday was Consumption Day in which participants were asked to refrain from shopping for material goods. Unfortunately I signed up for the experiment Sunday afternoon, and I had already spent the morning doing something I had not done in a very long time – I had gone on a small shopping spree on Broadway and bought a brand new pair of sweat pants and some undergarments from Victoria’s Secret. I justified it by telling myself that I really needed the stuff and that I hadn’t bought myself anything in a long time and I deserved it – yada yada. So when I filled out that evening’s survey, I lied and said that I had not bought anything that day – since it really was technically BEFORE I signed up for the experiment.

OK – so Monday was Trash Day – no problem – reducing trash is probably the area in which I have made the most progress and come closest to having “no impact” as possible (although I shamefully admit I’m still not composting – but plan to VERY soon). But of course THIS Monday, as I ordered my Decaf Grande Americano in a Personal Cup at Starbucks, the barrista pulled one of those let’s make it in a paper cup and pour it into your personal cup and throw away the paper cup stunts. Don’t get me started. So my impact went up on Monday too.

Tuesday was Transportation Day. I live in New York City and use public transportation ALL THE TIME. Should be easy. Of course I forgot about the field trip to a farm in Queens with my daughter’s first grade class on a diesel spewing school bus in the morning, meetings back in the Manhattan all afternoon, and an event at the city’s first LEED Platinum certified building – the Queens Botanical Garden – in the evening. By the time 8:30 rolled around and I had to leave the event to get home to my kids who never go to bed cooperatively with a babysitter, let alone a new babysitter – a one hour subway ride to Grand Central, the shuttle to Times Square, and the #1 uptown just didn’t seem too appealing. So I took a cab home. At this point I decided to give up the whole no impact experiment. My survey results would either be untruthful or unrepresentative of my “reduced impact” life.

The next No Impact Week Experiment is November 15th. This time I will try to plan a little better. I invite you all to join me and share your experiences. Hopefully my impact will go DOWN this time. Ah, the challenges, I tell you!

I’m not talking about the Incredible Hulk, the Green Lantern, or even the Lone Ranger’s grand-nephew the Green Hornet. Nope. I’m taking about Tina Hess and Emily Fano. Who?

Tina is the manager of the green team at St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital in Queens, NY. Just the fact that she works at a hospital for severely disabled children makes her a huge hero in my eyes. Every day she sees children struggling with the most basic daily activities and helps provide a loving, caring environment for them. Pretty amazing. But she is my green hero because of what she has accomplished while leading her green team:

• Founding member of St. Mary’s Hospital Green Team in 2005 – the team was formed in response to employees  complaining of health and respiratory issues due to the floor cleaning practices common in all healthcare facilities.
• Eliminated 90% of the styrofoam used in the facility.
• Reduced waste in the cafeteria by replacing the paper plates with ceramic plates for all the children, and plates made of recycled paper for the employees
• Got the hospital to  join an energy curtailment organization (ECS) that required the hospital to go on energy backup (using the generator) quarterly resulting in $25,000 in reimbursement from the ECS and reduced electric bills.
• Replaced all their mercury containing light bulbs and joined a lightbulb recycling program.
• Instituted a horticulture program – a mini farm in the backyard -that serves a dual purpose: therapy for the children and a farmer’s market of fresh (very) locally grown fruits, veggies, and herbs for the staff!
• Instituted a paper and cardboard recycling program in which they replaced a paper shredding vendor with  a vendor that picks up the bails of cardboard and shredded paper and sells it for re-use.  This resulted in saving the hospital about $7,000 a year in waste removal expenses, and – check this out – reduced their annual waste by about 20 TONS!
• Joined recycling programs for computers and electronics, bottles and cans, and batteries.
• Instituted an annual Earth Day educational program for employees (this year they brought EcoPlum in to increase awareness about environmental effects of plastic shopping bags – good move Tina!).

Emily is the co-chair of the Green/Wellness Committee at PS-166 in Manhattan (where my daughter is in 1st grade and my son is a graduate).  Emily has been working tirelessly to make our school healthier and safer for our kids, while teaching them to be budding environmental stewards.   Here are some of the changes she and the team have been instrumental in implementing over the past few years:

• In 2009, PS 166 joined 94 other New York City schools in the five boroughs to become a No-Idling Zone.  Children learned about the health hazards of smog from idling vehicles, performed an air quality survey, and participated in a No-Idling poster contest. Official No-Idling and No Smoking signs, provided by Asthma-Free School Zone, are posted outside the school.
• In September 2009, PS 166’s Green/Wellness Committee distributed green cleaners and alcohol-free hand sanitizers to every classroom in the school.
• On Saturday, October 24th 2009, PS 166 will host the “Big Green Halloween,” its first green fundraiser, featuring biodegradable tableware, recycled crafts, local and organic foods, a composting demonstration, compost bins for food scraps, and green information booths.
• In the Fall of 2009, as part of a Kindergarten play yard renovation project, Pre-K and K children will get 2 composting bins, 3 rain barrels and 16 small recycled plastic planters that they can use for gardening.  An additional 14 large cement planters, that will be filled with plants and flowers, and 4 benches, will form part of a green, quiet zone on the perimeter of the play yard.
• In the Fall of 2009, PS 166’s PTA, will issue a PTA Green Policy that will ask parents, staff and children to work together to create a culture of environmental responsibility in the school. The PTA also plans to launch a line of PS 166 canvas bags and stainless steel water bottles to reduce waste.

Thanks, Ladies, for being my Green Heroes!  Who are your Green Heroes?  I’d like to hear about them!!