Written by : Ingrid
Hi everyone – Happy Earth Week!
I’ve been researching Earth Week today, and it’s been great to find out what it’s all about. Earth Week started 40 years ago in 1970, in an effort to raise worldwide awareness about our increasingly fragile environment. This year, more than 1 billion people in 170 different countries are expected to take part in all kinds of environmental events and rallies. This year, Earth Week is from 17th to 25th April, and Earth Day is on 22nd April.
This is a great time to raise awareness as well as remind ourselves again about being eco-friendly in our own homes. As individuals, there are so many ways we can improve the way we deal with the environment in our own houses and backyards: everything from using eco-friendly cleaning products, composting, recycling and being energy smart. Other ways we can make a difference (and I’m sure you know and practise most of these already) include:
. supporting local and organic foods that are in season and to eat less meat (healthier anyway!).
. When doing the laundry, we can save a lot of energy by washing only full loads in cold water and hanging to dry whenever possible. Nothing smells better than clothes and sheets that come off the line after being in the wind and sun all day!
. Install ceiling fans and programmable thermostats.
. Vacation, travel and work as close to home as possible.
. Take short showers instead of baths and close the water taps when you are brushing your teeth.
. Walk, cycle, car pool and use public transportation.
These are all common sense things that we have been hearing about for years but sometimes, we just need to remind ourselves about these simple actions and get back into the swing of them again. Sometimes it’s easy to fall back into old habits and ways, and we need a bit of a wake up call! I know for myself, there are some things I’m really good at, and some that I think I get lazy about. How about you? I’m pretty good at putting on an extra sweater and socks instead of turning up the heat in the house; my husband and I are great recyclers; I’ve been composting garden and kitchen waste for years and then using it on my garden, and I don’t keep the tap running when I brush my teeth! I love buying local veggies and fruit and am trying to cut down on meat. However, sometimes my shower is a bit too long; I fly home to Australia every year; and I drive my car to and from work.
We can be eco-friendly about how we decorate our homes too. By buying low VOC paints, we are doing the environment and ourselves a favour. Fabrics for upholstery and curtains are increasingly being made of sustainable materials like bamboo pulp, organic silk and cotton and even from recycled plastic pop bottles. Upholstery foam made of soy has the same quality and longevity as petroleum-based foams.
Some carpet manufacturers are using more natural materials such as vegetable cellulose combined with recycled nylon fibre for strength and durability.
Linoleum is making a comeback! Unlike petroleum-based flooring products, it doesn’t emit harmful gases. It’s made from natural materials like linseed oil, pine resin and wood dust.
At the House Dressing, we have several eco-friendly products that you may be interested in. The Thymes Essential line has a wonderful assortment of beauty products that have no parabens, SLS/SLES, no propylene glycol, no synthetic colours, no petrolatum and no animal derived ingredients. All the girls at the House Dressing have tested these products (aren’t we lucky!?) and we all love them. I use the face polish and face lotion, the Hand Scrub (after coming in from gardening all day) and the body scrub. It makes me feel good to be using an exceptional product that doesn’t have all the nasty things in it.
We have these wonderful bamboo cutting boards too, which are also eco-friendly. Bamboo is an attractive alternative to the widespread cutting of forests. It absorbs very little moisture, doesn’t shrink or swell and is harder than most hard woods.
Our Adirondack chairs are made from recycled plastic – another eco-friendly product! Using recovered materials in manufacturing saves energy and reduces greenhouse gases; recycling produces less carbon dioxide, it lessens the number of trees harvested and lessens the impact on landfill sites.
We also have a large number of eco-friendly fabric samples from Rowe Furniture to choose from, if you order a sofa, loveseat or chairs from them. They are mostly made from 100% organic cotton and the colours and patterns are lovely! You can also buy this fabric by the yard.
I hope you will give Earth Day (22nd April) and Earth Week some serious consideration and like me, try to do better at being a conscientious friend of the environment. How do you do you show that you care about the environment? I’d love to hear from you! In the meantime HAPPY EARTH WEEK!
Ingrid
Life is full of wonderful people that we meet and some of them make the world a better place. They live life to the fullest and embrace the people in their lives with love and sincerity. Peter Shewring was one of these kinds of people and if you were lucky enough to have met him or better yet, get to know him well, you were blessed. He was a wonderful man and I was very fortunate to have enjoyed many wonderful times with him and his family over the last 19 years. His daughter Leslie, her sister Diane and their mother Akiko all worked with me for 3-6 years when I first opened The House Dressing Company. Peter and his family were instant friends and kindred spirits.
