New Life for Old Fashion

Image via Clothing
So you have those 3 tops, 2 dresses, a pair of jeans, and 6 sweaters that you just don't wear anymore...ever. Instead of throwing them away, you have several eco-friendly options for discarding your clothing.

1. Pass them on to someone in need: Miracle Hill, The Salvation Army, and Good Will are all national and international companies that either donate clothes to the homeless and under-priveleged families. What could be more rewarding than giving new life to your clothing by helping someone else?

2. Try a clothes swap with your friends. Invite a group of 8 or 10 over for snacks and drinks and tell everyone to bring clothing from their closets that they don't wear anymore (in good condition of course). Each guest receives a ticket for each piece of clothing they bring in. Each ticket brought in means you get to take home that many pieces of clothing too. Use this site to give you more fun ideas for the party. It's a great way to have a good time with your friends and lets other people enjoy the clothes you are through with.

Image via Swap

3. Transform your clothes into something other than clothing. With an old sweater you can cover a pillow to throw on your couch. Old undershirts can be used as dust rags and cleaning cloths, and if you're handy with a sewing machine, make a quilt out of your favorite t-shirts.

So before you throw that trash bag of clothes away, think of this blog and help save the environment.

Maybe Furman's Color Should be Green Instead of Purple...

Image via Furman University

Let’s get local here and talk about something close to home (well, at least for Furman students like Lydia and me). The Cliffs Cottage is an awesome building on Furman’s campus that started its life as one of the famous Southern Living Showcase Homes. A huge collaboration led by five principle partners (Furman, Bank of America, The Cliffs Communities, Duke Energy, and Southern Living), the cottage was the first Showcase Home built to LEED (or Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design) certification standards. Special features of the home include a geothermal ground source heat pump, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, rainwater collection for irrigation, native species landscaping, local and sustainably-made furnishings, Energy Star rated appliances, and a quarter-acre organic vegetable garden.

After fourteen months of being shown off to over 25,000 visitors, the building has been transformed to the new home of the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability at Furman. The purpose of the center is to coordinate all of Furman’s academic, co-curricular, research and community outreach activities related to sustainability. According to its website, the Shi Center’s core mission is to coordinate the university’s efforts to enrich the present and enhance the future for Furman and the upstate of South Carolina, and to provide a rich array of opportunities for students and the community to engage in sustainability through coursework, applied research, leadership experiences, and community service.

Rent, Borrow, and Steal the Runway

Image via RTR

Formal wear and designer bags are just a couple of items purchased tha never get the wear and tear for the money spent on them. Hundreds to thousdands of dollars are spent on items only worn once or twice for special occasions. These decisions just don't make sense if youare trying to be financially and environmentally sustainable. Insert Rent the Runway and Bag, Borrow and Steal.

Rent the Runway is a website that gives users access to high fashion designs for a low price. You simply sign up with your email address and can browse hundreds of designer dresses. Pick out your favorite dress and you can rent the dress for a night or weekend ranging in prices depending on value of the dress. RTR then mails you the dress in two sizes to make sure you have a fit and it is yours to enjoy. Then send back the dress in the pre-paid package they provide. They even take care of the dry-cleaning! This means that each dress can get used as many times as it will last so there's no waste of money or clothing.

Bag, Borrow, or Steal is a similar concept except you can rent designer bags and jewelry. as they put it "Why should celebrities, fashion editors, and socialites be the only ones allowed to borrow fashion accessories?" The difference here is you can pay to keep an item for a longer period of time and if you fall in love with a piece, you can "steal" it and pay a portion of the price to own an item for yourself.

While these sites might just seem like online shopping, they are reducing the amount of dresses being made and sold and limiting wasteful spending and therefore reducing our carbon footprint.

The Green Room

Image via Furman University

Lydia and I go to Furman University, where there’s something really cool going on this year on the Kappa Delta sorority hall. The Green Room Energy and Environmental Initiative Showcase Room (or just the Green Room for short) is a dorm room that has been outfitted with numerous environmentally friendly details. According to the website, “The intent of the project is to showcase, and in the process foster, eco-friendly lifestyle choices and product selection among students in an effort to help the university reduce its carbon footprint.”

Here’s what Paige, the current resident of the Green Room, had to say about the project:

“The Green Room is the first of its kind of Furman, meant to showcase how students can make simple lifestyle changes and product choices to significantly reduce their carbon footprint and impact on the environment. It does not look any different when you walk in, but it is fitted with eco-friendly products and sustainability materials. Living in the Green Room has shown me that being sustainable can be as easy as changing a few purchases that you already have to buy, to ones that are better for the environment and help to conserve energy. It is an important showcase to help foster interest in sustainability on Furman's campus.”

Though it looks pretty standard, this “living laboratory” took a lot of collaborative efforts to get off the ground. It was brought about by Furman student Andrea Triplitt, Furman University’s Environmental Action Group (EAG), the University’s Office of Housing and Residence Life, and the Center for Sustainability. It was funded through a National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Grant as well as contributions from the Office of Housing and Facilities Services.

I think that this is a GREAT example of how little choices that we all make in our everyday lives can eventually make a sizable difference to the environment. I hope Furman keeps it up, and that the initiative spreads further on campus!

Running into a Healthy Environment

Image via Brooks Running

If I mentioned recycled shoes…you would most likely immediately think about Toms shoes. The minimalist “Keds-like” shoes that are centered on One for One, donating a pair of shoes to a child in need every time a pair is purchased. But what about those times when you need a little more substance in a shoe? Walking, running, working out? Sacrificing quality could mean sacrificing health in these instances, so eco-friendly running shoes tend to be a final thought when choosing a pair of tennis shoes.

Brooks running shoes have been known throughout the running world to be supportive and have a great fit. Building off the momentum gained by our 2006 Runner’s World International “Best Innovation” Award for our environmentally sustainable development projects, Brooks has introduced the first-ever biodegradable running shoe midsole: BioMoGo. Most of the performance running shoes are produced using BioMoGo and even the shoe boxes are printed using water-based inks. From a sprinting flat, to a trail-walker, Brooks gives you choices to help find the perfect shoe for you. And now that is much more easier knowing that the company is making your running that much healthier for the environment too.

If, in fact, you cannot find that perfect pair of running shoes that is eco-friendly, Nike has an amazing program that recycles every part of the shoe, from the fabric to the rubber, to create running tracks and basketball and tennis courts.

Upcycling

Image via Liz Lineback

Ever heard of upcycling? I only recently came upon this term when exploring my favorite eco-fashion site, Ecouterre. The fashions that they feature very often highlight designers who “upcycle” non-clothing items and make them into stylish apparel. The online dictionary of sustainable management defines upcycling as “the process of converting an industrial nutrient (material) into something of similar or greater value, in its second life.”

Upcycling is easier than it sounds. You can start very simply: instead of throwing away or recycling glass bottles, use them as vases for flower arrangements. (Or for a more chic version, check out these designs made from old wine bottles.) Here in the south, it’s also common to use old glass Mason jars as drinking glasses.

If you’re a looking for an easy do-it-yourself upcycling project, try making a bowl out of an old vinyl record. The end result can be used as a chip bowl or fruit bowl, for holding a potted plant or even as wall art.

If you enjoy entertaining, and/or really like wine, here’s a way to use your old corks and make a unique serving tray.

This website gives you great, step-by-step instructions of how to turn things like coffee cans and umbrellas into lighting fixtures for your home.

Here’s one final upcycling idea that, though it’s not something you could use for your own home, is one of the best concepts that I have actually seen in practice. When I went to Africa last spring on a study abroad program, we visited an after-school program that converted donated cargo shipping containers into classrooms (seen at top of post). Philanthropic upcycling? That’s what I call a sustainable idea.

Patagonia's not only in Chile

Image via Patagonia

So what happens when you need quality, high-performance gear and don't want to put your green efforts aside? If you like to hike, or mountain climb, or just walk to your car when it's pouring down rain, Patagonia has you covered.
Patagonia is one of the world's leading designers and producers of outdoor gear and clothing and has been committed to great quality and environmental efforts since the seventies.
Patagonia is a member of the Conservation Alliance which supports 1% for the planet, which encourages businesses to donate at least 1% of their annual net revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. On top of that, Patagonia provides wildlife grants and is even planning to create a national park.
So clearly they're doing some great work for the environment, but what makes their clothing so unique?
Time and effort are put into their designs that make then not only look good, but last forever. Some would say they look better with age. Their capilene garments are the first of their kind to draw sweat away from the body while maintaining warmth or coolness depending on the level made and come in a variety of bright and neutral colors. These garments are recycled and recyclable through the Common Threads garment recycling program.

Image via Patagonia

Patagonia may not be your cheapest option for finding a rain coat, but you can be sure that you are getting a quality product that may outlast you and some of that extra money spent will be going to environmental efforts across the globe. Seems worth it to me.

From Wall to Wall

Image via Nendo

Today, I’m focusing on how to liven up your walls. So far I have given you some pretty sensible advice on how to decorate your home in a more eco-friendly and economical way. To mix it up a bit, I’ve decided to make this post part practical, part whimsical.

Firstly, here’s an article on the Inhabitat blog about the elements of environmentally-friendly wallpaper. They highlight Mod Green Pod wallpaper, a line that is very bright, bold, and colorful—which I love!

Here’s a great website for the everyday decorator. Velocity offers not only eco-friendly wallpaper, but also many other types of eco-friendly wall décor, including flat prints, stretched canvases, wall decals, wall hangings, and wall panels.

For those of you who are a bit more adventurous, check out this crazy idea. Think you are living "green"? Well, the architecture and design group Nendo Studio in Japan made a house that is literally green. The Moss House located in Tokyo features moss on the interior walls shaped into a pattern that looks like a modern wallpaper. The pictures of the home are amazing.

Want art that is also functional? Take a look at Mark Kinsley’s amazing graphic wall shelving. Half wall mural, half shelving unit, this guy’s invention blows me away. Form plus function… what’s more green than doing double-duty?

Eco-tees

Image via Good-Tee

On college campuses, t-shirts tend to make up the majority of students’ wardrobes. After a late night of studying or avoiding studying, t-shirts and jeans are the easiest choices to throw on for class. With campus organizations and Greek-life creating a new t-shirt design for every event imaginable, there are no shortages of these cotton comforts. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way to stop wasting old t-shirts and to have options to buy organic and recycled cotton t-shirts?

Well Graphic Cow has made our decision to go green that much easier. While making designing online and shipping around the country easy, they also provide t-shirt options from Anvil, a leading apparel brand, who was recently ranked the 6^th largest organic program in the world by the Organic Exchange. While they use everything from organic cotton to recycled PET bottles, through graphic cow you have the choice of 100% organic cotton t-shirts and recycled cotton shirts as well.

Graphic cow offers t-shirts from American Apparel, which is not strictly advertised as a green company, a little background on the brand can help your mind rest at ease when purchasing these well-made and unusually soft shirts. American Apparel recycles old t-shirts to make yarn for new ones, uses non-toxic dyes, prints catalogues on 100% post consumer recycled paper, and even uses energy efficient lighting in their factories.

So when that fraternity formal or Relay for Life t-shirt needs to be made, consider the companies that can help you create a shirt that will help the environment.