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Written by Marianne Peters   
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008

Slather on the Sunscreen and Read Green!

Woman Readin on BeachIt’s summertime, time to devour those juicy novels on the beach. Okay, so reading about composting isn’t exactly juicy. But if you are looking for some interesting, easy, and fun reading this summer on ways to live green, I have a couple of suggestions for you. Please remember, though, that though books and magazines are chock full of ideas to conserve energy, make healthier choices, and use less chemicals, it can get overwhelming if you try to do it all at once. I’ve found it’s more effective to build change into my life slowly and not to be discouraged if learning new habits takes time.

Recently I attended the Green Festival in Chicago. While I was there, I met Jenn Savedge, a writer and mother of two young daughters who has just published a book entitled The Green Parent: a Kid-Friendly Guide to Earth-Friendly Living (Kedzie Press). It’s a book for busy parents who are environmentally-conscious, but also busy living life! It’s a small book, but very thorough, and it is divided into chapters and sections to make it easy to thumb through. Savedge covers an amazing amount of topics: green remodeling, natural cleaning products, helping your school or workplace become more “earth-friendly,” composting and recycling—everything parents need to know. Her book also includes interviews with other parents and experts who offer even more practical, easy-to-do ideas.

Living more lightly on the planet is something we have to demonstrate to our kids, says Savedge. “No matter how hard you try to teach your children to do the right thing,” she says, “they will inevitably learn from what you do rather than what you say. If you show your children that you care about the environment by making environmentally friendly choices, they will follow your lead.”

Here’s another book that covers much the same ground as Savedge’s, but with a chick-lit approach. Author Sophie Uliano contends in her book Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life (HarperCollins) that you can be stylish, well-groomed, and attractive and still live sustainably. (Remember, living sustainably means using resources wisely so there’s enough left over for the next generation). After all, she lives in Hollywood, and you wouldn’t want to walk around in shoes that look like loaves of bread, according to her. By the way, actress Julia Roberts penned the foreword to her book.

One thing I appreciate about Uliano is her honesty. Her approach is not moralistic finger-wagging, but practical, humorous, and refreshing, especially for women who want to make better choices for the environment, but who don’t consider Grizzly Adams a fashion icon. This book really opened my eyes to the potential problems with the manufacture and use of over-the-counter cosmetics, which can contain some scary stuff. It also made me uncomfortably aware of the problems in the clothing industry—lack of fair wages for workers, sweatshop conditions—problems that just don’t seem to go away as we buy cheap clothes and toss them after a few wearings.

Like Savedge, Uliano includes a plethora of ideas and resources, but her book stands out for its sections on fashion, cosmetics, and clothing—topics dear to her audience’s heart. To her credit, Uliano seems to have tried many of the products she recommends (or doesn’t recommend) and practices what she preaches. Her book is actually an eight-week plan that purports to help readers make these changes step by step, with a little yoga sprinkled in for good measure.

There you have it—some environmentally-friendly summer reading. Now what we really need for summer is a new Harlequin Romance Series that blends passion with a green lifestyle—a kind of “As the Compost Turns.” I can see it now: “’No, Blaine,’ she cried, placing her sweaty yet immaculately manicured hands against his taut, muscular, and also heaving chest, ‘don’t throw that bottle away! It can be recycled!’”

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