Here are some unconventional ideas for the green dad on your list. For some dads, of course, a home improvement gift is a bit like getting a mixer for mom’s day, but, just like a primo Kitchen Aid mixer is a great gift for a baking mom, these gifts can be killer choices for dads who love to tinker and save. Here’s a cool toy for the energy sleuth on your list: Kill a Watt Electricity Monitor. Monitoring systems for gauging energy use usually require pro installation, but this small device lets you see the effect of plugging in and unplugging appliances right away. A small LCD screen shows you electricity usage, cost, and projections over weeks, month and year so you can decide if...

The Holiday Season is upon us! It’s a time when families and friends get together to enjoy tasty treats and exchange gifts. Here are some green tips to help you get through this season. With all the gatherings and parties going on, cleaning is a big concern. Here is a link to a very practical 4-minute video that demonstrates inexpensive non-toxic household cleaning practices. Made by Jeanne McLaughlin, a graduate of the Institute for Bau-Biologie in Florida. http://www.youtube.com/v/hjCtd1qcU9M If you are seeking BPA- phthlate- and lead-free gifts, check out GoodGuide.com, a BETA-version website being developed to rank “safe, healthy & green” toys and personal care products. http://www.goodguide.com/   For...

There are active ways to go green, and then there are things you can just set up. Growing plants and trees is a good way to help clean the air. Some plants are excellent at cleaning pollution from indoor air. Which ones do the best job? Dr. Bill Wolverton has published the efforts of his team of researchers at NASA to answer that question. His inexpensive, well-illustrated, and extremely practical book is called “How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office.”These plants absorb toxic chemicals like benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene which are commonly used in the production of clothing, furniture, mattresses, carpets, plastics, and printing. One...

Here is more information on eliminating what appears to be the worst plastic in your drawer: BPA or Bisphenol-A. BPA is a chemical compound used to make polycarbonate plastic. BPA has been linked to cancer, infertility, obesity, and diabetes. In animal studies, BPA has been found to cause the early onset of puberty and stimulate mammary gland development in females (Richter et al., (2007) Reprod. Tox, Vol 24(2) p. 199). Common items containing BPA are plastic food containers, reusable water bottles, baby bottles, and the linings of canned foods. These are usually marked with plastic number “7″. The “7″ identifies “other” plastics including all BPA-based items. How...

Something stinks – let’s look at the environmental impact of diapers by Alison Manes According to disposablediaper.net, 96,090,000 disposable diapers are used every year in the US alone. The third largest single consumer item in landfills, they represent about 4% of solid waste.4 In a household with a child in disposable diapers, disposables comprise of at least 50% of the household waste. The instructions on disposable diaper packages advise depositing all fecal matter in the toilet before discarding the diapers, yet less than one-half of one percent of all waste from single-use diapers goes into an average sewage system. *The amount of water used to launder cloth diapers at home averages...

Families are discovering that the new generation of cloth diapers are easy on our babies, our planet, and our wallets. Having evolved considerably from the days of pins and plastic pants, reusable cloth diapers provide a healthy, economical, and environmentally-friendly alternative. A variety of options now include pocket diapers (an attached diaper inner, skin layer, attached to an outer shell that can be customized with “stuffins” of choice) all in ones (which is exactly as the name implies; it has all of the components needed for diapering in one product, including an absorbent inner and waterproof outer); as well as prefolds and fitted diapers (diapering “inners” that need an outer...

We’ve previously reviewed the Soda Club sparkling water maker. For literally $.20 a one liter bottle, versus $1.5 for Pelligrino, you can have sparkling water at home without carting bottles back and forth to the store. If there were any complaints about the Soda Club maker, it would only be that the plastic bottles weren’t elegant enough to bring to the table. Now, Soda Club has the “Penguin,” which carbonates water in glass bottles rather than plastic. The bottles are a fairly nice design with a subtle penguin logo that could be mistaken for a European crest. No one ever has to know that you make your sparkling water at home. The Soda Club’s big promise is also...

There has been a lot of talk about sick houses — houses that actually make you sick because of construction materials, cleaners, paints, solvents and pesticides. It might be hard to change houses, but there are things you can do to to make a house less toxic for you and your kids. 1. Get an air purifier and put new allergy rated filters on your furnace every 6 months. Whole house air filter systems work better than portable units. Ideally, use built-in or window unit air-to-air-heat exchangers in rooms where people spend the most time. 2. Get lots of plants. Experts recommend at least two tropical houseplants for every 12×12 foot area to clean up airborne toxins. Use ferns, spider...

At our house, we don’t drink a lot of Coke or Sprite. The kids know that they can really only get these as an ingredient in a Shirley Temple (or Roy Rogers for my boy) when we’re out for a fancy dinner. The only carbonated drinks they get at home are Root Beer on random pizza nights and Pellegrino poured into their juice when we’re having people over for dinner. An unintentional benefit of keeping all these sugary drinks out of the house is fewer glass bottles to lug up the double staircase of our San Francisco Victorian. And, we have that many fewer bottles to toss in the trash or send to recyclying. The other night though, we saw a no-guilt and no heavy lifting solution to...