Curious about what’s already in your stash? Check labels and make an effort to replace items containing synthetic dyes, artificial fragrances, paraben preservatives, petrochemicals, sulfates, triclosan and formaldehyde. You can also plug your products into Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetics database, to find out how they fare. All of the goodies here scored in the 0-2 or “low hazard” range.

1. Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Bar Soap ($2.99 for 4 oz.) Olive oil for your skin? Yes, indeed. People of the Mediterranean swear by its moisturizing powers.

2. Burt’s Bees Miracle Salve ($7.00 for 2 oz.) Slather this stuff on your hands and body or run a dab through dry hair to tame fly-aways. Great outdoors, here you come.

3. Dr. Bronner’s Magic 18-in-1 Hemp Lavender Pure Castile Soap ($9.49 for 16 oz.) As a body wash, shampoo and shave gel in one, this is quite the shower space saver. But three words of advice: dilute, dilute, dilute. Too much magic will overdry your skin.

4. Badger Sunscreen for Face and Body, SPF 30 ($13.60 for 2.9 oz.) When it comes to sun safety, this stuff’s got you covered. It’s naturally water resistant, blocks UVA and UVB rays and moisturizes skin.

5. bareMinerals Rose Radiance ($13.99) Add a sheer, rosy glow with this versatile blush that can applied directly to cheeks and eyelids or mixed with your favorite lip balm.

6. Boots No. 7 Mineral Perfection Lipstick ($7.49) Pucker up; this paraben-free pick contains natural pearl, which smoothes and softens lips.

7. EarthScience Mint Tingle Purifying Facial Masque ($5.89 for 4 oz.) You’ll look a little scary with this cerulean goop on your face, but tighter pores and smoother skin are so worth the 10-minute wait.

8. Physician’s Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Pressed Powder ($13.95) Blend the compact’s two shades together to create a natural, shine-free finish. Makeup? What makeup?

9. Hugo Naturals Red Tea & Ylang-Ylang Shampoo ($10.39 for 16 oz.) If you’ve gone a little overboard with the blow dryer lately, restore moisture and shine with this sounds-yummy-enough-to-drink scalp soother.

10. Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Invigorating Conditioner ($7.95 for 8.5 oz.) With a wake-up smell like this, you might not even need your morning coffee.

But because cats and dogs offer companionship, unconditional love and countless hours of entertainment (cars can’t do that), it’s hard to get mad at a pet owner for indirectly contributing to global warming. Still, that doesn’t mean we should ignore the problem altogether.

As a pet owner, you are responsible for your furry friend’s eco-effect. Keep in mind that Buddy can’t shop for organic dog food by himself and Muffin isn’t going to raise her paw when it’s time to be spayed. Keeping green pets means being proactive. Start by calculating your cat or dog’s carbon paw print then follow these tips on how to live a greener lifestyle with your small menagerie.

1. Opt for vegan vittles

Pet food is the main contributor to a cat or dog’s carbon paw print. Your fur ball could be consuming hundreds of pounds of meat each year if he’s chowing down on a conventional brand packed with animal byproducts and chemical preservatives. As you probably know, raising poultry and livestock puts a huge strain on the environment.

A greener way to feed your pet is to offer a plant-based diet like the dog food that vegan Alicia Silverstone whips up for her three pups. She uses oats, grains, dried veggies, beans and tofu and prepares the food herself. Not only do her dogs absolutely love it, a vegan pet diet alleviates skin and digestive problems, too.

2. Get the scoop on eco-friendly cat litter

Most inexpensive cat litters are made of clay, which is extracted from the ground via strip mining. Need we explain the environmental impact of that purchase? Create a greener place for your kitty to do her business by trying silica gel pearls, highly absorbent particles made from corn, wheat, pine and other plant materials. Or, if you’re feeling extra patient, give cat toilet training a whirl. Yes, it can be done.

3. Try a quick fix for population control

It’s common sense, but an easy way to cut back on the environmental impact that pets have on the planet is to control the sheer number of cats and dogs trotting the globe. The quick fix? Spaying or neutering. Don’t assume that because you have an obedient pup or an indoor cat that he or she won’t sneak away for stud service or come home will a belly full of kittens. Exercise caution and have your pet altered at 6-8 months. Bonus: you’ll have a happier, healthier pet with a longer life expectancy.

4. Get Rover to recycle

Does he really need another squeaky, chewy pet store novelty that he’ll grow tired of in a matter of days? Probably not. Dogs enjoy playing with junk (your lawn mowing sneakers ring a bell?) just as much—if not more—than items you spend money on. Get green and thrifty by crafting DIY dog toys from items you probably have sitting in your recycling bin.

5. Strive for a greener clean

Think there’s no point in trying to green something as dirty and messy as animal waste? Guess again. Cleaning up after your pet at the park is important. Cat and dog waste contains harmful bacteria that could end up in the water supply if not scooped. Stuff a few biodegradable or flushable waste bags into your pocket before your next stroll.

And since we know your furry pal’s bound to knock over a houseplant or cough up a hairball at some point, use organic, plant-based products to clean up after him. Also keep an eye out for eco-friendly grooming products, like pet shampoos and flea powders.

You’re barely through shopping for sunscreen, swimwear and sand castle supplies when you spot it out of the corner of your eye: sprawling aisles of backpacks, folders, crayons, markers and pencil cases.  It’s back-to-school time, yet again. You’re weeks away from busy mornings chock-full of sports schedules, missing socks and, of course, the lunch bag assembly line.

While it’s fast and easy to throw pre-portioned food items into a paper bag and send your child on his merry way, think about all the trash you’re creating five days a week, nine months out of the year. According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, a school-age child generates 67 pounds of garbage each school year—that’s at lunchtime alone.

Plus, do you know exactly what’s in a Fruit Roll-Up or a bag of Doritos? Sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, artificial coloring and flavoring and preservatives with names we can’t even pronounce.

This fall, pack your child a greener, healthier midday meal. And feel free to steal some of these tips when preparing your own lunch as well. There’s no shame in starting a chocolate soymilk or thermos trend at the office.

1.  It’s all in the bag. Don’t send your kids to school with something that will hit the cafeteria trashcan as soon as the bell rings. Opt for a reusable bag or sack, an insulated drink container, washable snack and sandwich bags, cloth napkins and reusable silverware. Leave behind plastic zipper bags and juice that comes in boxes or pouches. It takes kids minutes to enjoy these handy items but hundreds of years for their packaging to decompose. These picks are just as earth-friendly as they are fun to use.

• Laptop Lunches bento-box style lunch containers
• Colorful, reusable Green Street cloth baggies
• Wrap-n-Mat sandwich holders
• BPA-free water bottles

2.  Round things out. Nutritionally speaking, a balanced school lunch should be packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber that won’t leave your child’s stomach growling during his afternoon math quiz. Aim for the following items and buy organic when possible.

• A serving of vegetables
• A piece of fruit
• Whole grains (sandwich bread, cereal or crackers)
• Lean protein (eggs, beans, tuna, chicken or turkey)
• A source of calcium (cheese, yogurt or milk).

3.  What to always buy organic. Not all healthy foods are created equal. Even when you’re avoiding empty calories, saturated fat and sugars, you could be packing your kid’s lunch box with pesticides and other harmful chemicals. When you hit the grocery store, make sure these key items are purchased organic and you’ll be doing Mother Earth a huge favor .

• Milk and dairy: Regular milk comes from cows fed conventionally grown grains. This means that their food contains pesticides and fertilizers, substances that make their way into the cow’s milk—and then into your child’s body. On the other hand, organic milk comes from cows fed organically grown food and those not treated with growth hormones or antibiotics.
• Meat. The organic milk logic applies here, too. Any chemicals consumed by the farm animal can end up in the meat-eater.
• Produce. Fruits and veggies can be a little tricky. Those with thin, edible skins, like apples, berries, bell peppers and lettuce, should be organic. It’s okay to stick to conventionally grown pineapple, kiwi, watermelon or other produce with thick or inedible skin.

The animal and human health benefits of taking prebiotics and probiotics, which nurture beneficial gut bacteria, mirror those organic farming practices that benefit soil micro-organisms essential to crop health and nutrient content. Both gut and soil bacteria are harmed by agrichemicals, antibiotics and GM (genetically modified) crops and foods.

As Hippocrates advised, ‘Let your medicine be your food, and your food be your medicine.’ Knowing what you are feeding yourself, your family, and your animal companions, and making informed choices in the market place, are responsible steps toward sound health care maintenance that will help lower your medical and veterinary expenditures. The basic currency of a Green economy as I see it is mindfulness. That includes the duty of care–for one’s own health, one’s animal companions, and the environment. The compass of a Green society is therefore compassion, the moral and legal expression of which is bioethics as detailed in my book Bringing Life to Ethics: Global Bioethics for a Humane Society.

Though the gardening bug bites most people in spring, fall is an ideal time for planting and growing just about everywhere but the frigid north. The warm, sunny days and cool, often damp, nights are comfortable conditions for many garden crops as well as for people working outside. By the end of summer, many common pest insects and weeds have completed their life cycles for the year, so they’re less likely to plague gardens in the fall. Best of all, there’s a unique satisfaction you get from serving a little homegrown food on Thanksgiving.

Spinach isn’t the only vegetable that thrives in the fall. Lettuce, kale, mache, and most other salad greens grow best in cooler, shorter days. If you have a month or so before your average first frost (you can check the date in your area at http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/a/average_frost_dates), you’ll get a nice autumn harvest of string beans, broccoli, beets, carrots, radishes, cabbages and leeks – all of which survive light frost once they are mature.

To get the two-season harvest of spinach, plant the seeds directly in your garden when nighttime temperatures are consistently 65 degrees F or cooler. After they come up and have more than two sets of true leaves (not the pair of embryonic leaves that nearly all plants start with), you can snip them to add to your salad bowl. Be sure to always let at least one pair of leaves remain on each plant so they can continue photosynthesizing and producing new leaves. When your local weather forecast predicts a hard frost, pack straw or shredded leaves in the bed almost as deep as the spinach is tall. That is, you should be just able to see the spinach tops. Let them alone all winter – they’ll even survive under snow. On the first warm days of spring, pull back the mulch. As soon as you see the plants growing again, you can start harvesting and eating your homegrown weeks before the spring planters sow their seeds.

Learn more about organic and gardening in fall at www.organicgardening.com.

Scott Meyer was Editor of Organic Gardening magazine and OrganicGardening.com from 2002-2009. He wrote/edited the chapter on gardening in the Whole Green Catalog.

Understanding the “life-cycle” of any consumable good offers a pretty accurate sense of how “green” it really is – basically, where things come from and what happens to them when we are done with them. There are 5 questions that you can ask about any product to check its pulse of “greenness” and what kind of impact or footprint it has and leaves behind – basically, how things are sourced, produced, used and disposed of.

1. What is it made of (renewable or nonrenewable materials)?
2. How is it made (the impact of manufacturing on people and the planet)?
3. How is it transported (how far and by what means)?
4. What is the impact and effect of use (how safe or harmful to humans and the ecosystem)?
5. What happens to it when we’re done with it (reusable or not, recyclable or not, biodegradable or not)?

These 5 questions will help you make greener choices for your home and lifestyle, whether for food, fuel, cleaning products, personal care products, clothing, paper or plastic, energy, mattresses, furniture, shower curtains, or dog toys. While you might not have a definitive answer to each question for every single product you purchase, with a spirit of adventure and curiosity, you can get a pretty good sense of where it falls on the scale for a life-cycle of eco-friendly greenness. One qualifying element to consider that applies to questions 4 and 5 is: How well is it made? That is, determining how long the product will last and/or how well it works. This qualifier is a key piece to overall sensible consumerism: quality over quantity, buy less stuff that’s made better and will last longer.

The greenest products are (1) made with renewable materials (natural materials that can be regenerated), (2) are produced with minimal impact (to the planet and people and with minimal energy and/or renewable energy), (3) are efficiently transported over minimal distances (produced as respectively close to home as possible – locally, regionally or domestically), (4) are nontoxic to humans and the immediate environment to use, and (5) can be reused, recycled, or will biodegrade with little to no environmental contamination.

The least green products are (1) made from nonrenewable materials, (2) are highly polluting and energy-intensive to produce, (3) are shipped from other coasts, countries, or continents, (4) are toxic to use, and (5) persistently pollute the environment or end up in the landfill.

As with most things, this is not a back-and-white exercise. You will not be quizzed at the end of this reading because there’s a learning curve to weigh and balance the pros and cons of a product and it takes a little practice to get the hang of it. If you were being graded, I’ll give you a hint: On the bell curve, most products fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum relative to other products of the same design. It’s a sliding scale with shades of green and a forest of possibility.

• Cork cup sleeves – very cool. Very green, stylish even. Cork is plentiful, so no reason to burn hands with hot cups.
• Fuji EnviroMax Batteries – eco-respectful, high-performance, landfill friendly, only at Target for now.
• Pentel’s Recycology writing instruments. Widely available pens, pencils, markers, at least 50% recycled content, keen pricing.
• Imago Associates – rebuilt, re-tooled, sometimes redesigned old office furniture that is given new, clever looks, by a company that is keeping tons of stuff out of landfills and in offices.
• “I am a paper paper clip.” You read right. These paper clips are made from wood pulp.
• Stride by AllSteel – Smart design, all new, all green furniture from a longtime industry leader. It’s a new line, to mesh with the times. Want more updates? Once monthly (sometimes more often), I’ll update the green office gear blog at this address.

Probably this is a bit much for small and home businesses but reviewing Ricoh’s touchpoints serves as a a good reminder of what matters when it comes to greener document management: Use energy efficient equipment (printers, scanner, faxes). Be mindful about ink/toner recycling. Don’t buy new equipment without knowing the manufacturer’s end of life recycling commitments. All simple, yes – but Ricoh helps put these concepts front of mind.

The smart folks at Ames True Temper® know a legend in the making when they see one, and offer a near-perfect twin of the fabled Monster Maul. The Lickety Splitter, Model 1131500, is a twelve-pound splitting maul featuring the same wide, triangular head, 32-inch steel handle, and even the bright red paint job of the Monster Maul. A search for retailers online pulled up prices from $35 to over $90, so shop around. You can find the Lickety Splitter on the Ames Web site. The site has a convenient store finder.

As we noted in the Whole Green Catalog (page 226), Samsung was already marketing three green phones, two with cases fabricated of bioplastic, which is based on such common plants as corn. The advantages of bioplastics are that about 80% of it is recyclable; it contains none of those alarming pollutants like PVCs and flame retardant chemicals; in the manufacturing process, it also reduces the company’s carbon footprint. The major drawback of those three phones, the E200, the W510, and the F268 is that they are sold only in Europe, Korea, and China, respectively. No more. Now with the mid-August sale date of the Reclaim, Samsung joins the Green Game in the United States.

This is a step up for the cell-phone industry, which—although most major companies operate and promote recycling programs (returned phones usually get donated to charitable organizations here and abroad)—still struggles with consumers who reportedly toss something on the order of 100 million discard phones a year into landfills.

The Reclaim’s other eco-appropriate features include the fact that the packaging is made from recycled materials and printed with soy inks. Its charger is efficient, with a top Energy Star rating. No paper manual comes with the phone; a manual is only available online. It does come with industry-standard features: a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera with zoom, stereo Bluetooth 2.0, expandable storage, and numerous green apps.

The phone is available now for use on the Sprint network, at such major retailers as Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Walmart. And speaking of green good news: List price of the Reclaim is $49.99, and of that, when bought from Sprint, two dollars will be donated to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program to support conservation of natural habitats in America.