Greenwashing; What Harm Can it Really Do?

Well I admit it…I've become a victim of the greenwashing trend sweeping our nation. You may have noticed little activity on the site as of late. That's because I've been so overloaded with everything "green" that I got disgusted with it all and pulled away. Yes…even the guy who owns SustainableDE.com and wants to take the doom and gloom out of sustainable living has been hit by the negativity brought on by an overload of all things "green". I got to the point where I was throwing out every magazine I had that had anything about "green" on the cover. And I suspect I'm not the only one who has been affected like this. We all need to stand up and fight for true sustainable living, and not buy into all the greenwashing going on. Because sustainable living really is such a wonderful way to live. And we need to spread our knowledge about sustainable living to those around us in order to empower them toward sustainable living. But when we buy into greenwashing – and worse,when we promote it – we make the problem worse, which results in more people going the other way. And that's no good.

This site is meant to be a filter for all the greenwashing out there. I will continue to work to only feature businesses and information that is credible. If something slips by me, please let me know.

Here's to truly sustainable living.

America's Local Foods/Farmers at Risk?

Well I guess you just never know what hair-brained scheme some people will dream up to further their own cause. This morning a friend of mine forward me a link to a story about a member of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut, Rosa Delauro, who is trying to push The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875) through. If she succeeds, it may mean the end of sustainable, locally-produced foods, farmers markets, farm stands, CSAs, and…the American farmer.

We would then be left with but one choice…to buy all our food from one of the handful of huge agribusinesses that could pass the standards implemented by the government. This is scary stuff. Seems as though our government is getting a bit too big for its britches if it thinks it can have this sort of control over our food supply. Anyway, click here to read the article that was sent to me. This is certainly something that we ALL need to sit up and pay attention to, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT. If we don't speak out, it's our loss (and that of our children). Please consider taking action in the form of a letter, phone call, etc to local representatives who can make a difference. If you have other ideas of things we can do to take action, please post it as a comment on this post. We need to help each other. Now.

In the photo above…Jim Mitchell. Farmer and owner of Woodside Farm Creamery in Hockessin.

A New LEED Certified Home in our Midst

So I was at the Great Green Expo a few weeks ago and I met this guy who had a booth at the show. His name was Ave Topel. He proceeded to tell me about how he and his wife, Vicki, recently built a LEED Certified, sustainable home in nearby Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. So we talked some more and I realized I had read a story about this couple and their home in the Community News paper months ago. Long story short, Ave gave my wife, baby and I a tour of his home couple of days ago. The home is gorgeous. A beautiful blend a natural materials, sustainable building methods and modern comforts and conveniences. Turns out Ave and Vicki wrote a book about their journey in building a sustainable home, and they give very thorough educational tours of the home. Although the tours cost a little money, it is absolutely crucial for anyone even casually considering building a sustainable home. It will light a fire inside you and inspire you toward your dream.

So visit the Topel's website, schedule a tour and buy their book. Check out the book and movie reviews and see for yourself. I don't intend for this to be a commercial for them. I absolutely feel that their book and the tour are worth the money to anyone interested in sustainable living. Also read some of the articles published about their home and the LEED certification process.

Here's to sustainable living in Delaware!

(More) Change is in the air...

Well, since everyone else has been promoting change, we figured we had better jump on the bandwagon. Not really, but we have made some changes to SustainableDE.com in order to make the site more user-friendly, useful and, well, better.

As you'll notice, our home page has undergone a bit of a makeover. It now features a blog feed with the photo, title and teaser for each of the 5 most recent posts from our blog. We've done this because the site is now going to be centered around our blog, which will serve as a news feed of what's currently going on with sustainability in Delaware. In addition to reading our thoughts and ideas, you'll also be reading posts from industry professionals and experts on topics related to sustainable living. And as time allows, we'll be imbeding the blog into the site instead of hosting it with Blogger.

You'll also notice that the Sustainable Products & Services Finder down the left side of the page has undergone some updates as well. Our list of sustainable businesses has been growing quite a bit. So to accomodate all those businesses we grouped them into their respective categories and added drop-down menus. We did this because if we didn't do it the page would be REALLY long, leaving a ton of white space in the center column of the layout. And that's no good. So we fixed it. Hope you like it.

We want to hear from you. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this site, please contact us. We're constantly striving to make this an excellent and fun resource for all of you. And in order to do that, we need to hear what you think.

Talk to you soon!

Our Unofficial Launch @ the Great Green Expo

As most of you know by now, this site has been live for a few months now. What you don't know is what's been going on behind the scenes. We've taken the past few months to work out any bugs with the website, and to make some changes in order to make the site a better resource for all of you. While those changes are still not complete, we're getting there. The next step in this process, which should be taking place this week, is to center the site around the blog, which will be imbedded into the site rather than hosted with Blogger, and it will serve as a news feed of the latest newsworthy developments and topics related to sustainable living in the state of Delaware. In addition, the home page will feature feeds from the 5 latest blog posts, keeping you abreast of what's going on. So please stay tuned for these updates and let us know what you think.

As for the Great Green Expo…if you missed it, you missed out. It was a great event this year, with lots of unique and innovative vendors pushing the envelope of sustainable living, and making it accessible to the everyday Joe as well. We talked with many of you, and it was truly a pleasure getting to chat with you about our project as well as your thoughts on sustainable living in Delaware. We hope to see you all again soon, maybe at an event hosted by Sustainable Delaware in the near future? Hint, hint. We'll see. Enjoy the site, and be sure to stay in contact with us as you strive to live a more sustainable life!

Our Organic Experiment

Well it wasn't exactly an experiment. This is how it went down…

This past weekend we had some friends staying with us from out of town for 2 days/nights. In addition to having to feed them, we had invited another couple over on Friday night, and another on Saturday night, both for dinner. So there we were…faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to buy all the food needed for the weekend from ACME (very few organic foods available), or from Harvest Market, our organic/natural food market of choice. Given that our budget was tight, and that we knew our guests do not go out of their way to eat organics, we erred on the side of cheap sustenance. We went to ACME. Sorry Bob (owner of Harvest Market). And yes, we saved money. And we figured…"what ill effects could eating non-organic foods have on us if we were only doing it for a few days?" And we didn't think much of it. Actually, we were sort of proud that we saved money on this one occasion by choosing to go to ACME. Gasp! I thought I knew better…

As the weekend went on, I began to not feel so great. Not sick or anything. Just not as good as I have been feeling in the previous weeks and months. Then I started thinking. Hmmm…maybe it's all the refined white breads, Tostitos, non-organic non-free-range chicken, eggs and more that I ate over the course of the weekend. So I asked my wife how she was feeling, and she echoed my feeling "off". It's not to say that some of it couldn't be in my head. That was actually my first reaction. The mind is, after all, a very powerful thing. But I could definitely recognize that I felt considerably worse than I had just a day before. And now that I'm back to eating mostly organics, I'm feeling much better, much more like myself again.

My conclusion…organics absolutely make a huge difference in our day-to-day well-being. I'm 100% convinced. Not to mention they're sustainable!

Get Your Green On - Green Networking That Is

OK…the term "green" is WAY overused. We know that. But in this case, it's still cool. To many, the term "Green Networking" is a foreign one. But it's growing in popularity, and many are sitting up to take notice. Green Networking events are generally held at local bars and restaurants, and the attendees are people who are interested in living more green, sustainable lifestyles and/or running green, sustainable businesses. These events are generally held by someone who has a personal interest in sustainability, and/or owns a business in the sustainability industry. Some events have a broad focus, such as Green Drinks. And others are focused on specific topics within the realm of sustainability. We've recently started attending these events, and although we were skeptical at first whether they'd be worth it or not, we were pleasantly surprised. These events were not only productive, they were actually fun! When was the last time you went to a networking event and actually had a good time? That's what I thought.

Check out the Events page on our site for a list of the Green Networking events that we know of, plus some other green events. And if you know of one that we don't have posted yet, please contact us. We reside in Wilmington, so it's tough for us to keep tabs on downstate events. So help us keep this information we'll-rounded. We don't intend to neglect the rest of the state. We promise.