The Greenliness Blog

At Greenliness.com, we strive to have a lighter touch on the earth with the products we sell, and one of the ways we do that is by offering products made with recycled plastic bottles. The Container Recycling Institute states that 60 Million plastic bottles are thrown away each day! This is a valuable resource that ends up in landfills or pollutes the oceans if it is not reused or recycled. One company that turns bottles into fabric is EcoFi. Their product called Eco-fi®, "is a high-quality polyester fiber made from 100% certified recycled plastic PET bottles. It can go into any textile product such...

I just got back from a tour of colleges on the west coast with my son, which included several University of California (UC) schools. I was intrigued when our guide at UC Santa Barbara mentioned they had been selected as the second most green campus in the United States, with only the University of Washington ahead of them. It motivated me to do some research once I got home. I couldn't find a list putting UC Santa Barbara at number 2, but I did find their recent Award for going "Green". It was very exciting to see how many campuses have embraced sustainabillity...

I got turned onto TED.com last week, which has an incredible store of inspiring, fascinating and amazing talks that have occurred at the TED conferences over the past years. The video here is of William Kamkwamba describing how he built a WIndmill in Malawi using parts from the junkyard and by following diagrams he found in books from the library. It is an inspiring story. After watching this video, go to http://www.ted.com and check out the other stuff they have there. In the morning it's gotten me away from reading the recycled news on the internet and instead having a productive...

I decided to start Greenliness.com with my friend Art Arquilla to take a strong interest of mine – making the world a better place and having less impact on the environment – and help others do the same. I knew from just cursory reading of books and web resources that there were simple things you could start with that could make a big difference. And I thought a website dedicated to educating people about this would be of great benefit. I can be lazy when it comes to being green – lots of good intentions, but many times a lack...

With the holidays approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at what is available today for someone wanting to stay green for the holidays. Help Someone Else My first thought every holiday season is to give a gift that honors the recipient but is actually a contribution that helps someone else in the world. My first choice for this year is an organization with a unique program for making the world a little closer through classroom art projects. Class Act (www.classactarts.org) has been in existence for 11 years, and in 2008 started a global outreach program which is designed...