We all know that recycling is important and that we should turn off the lights when we leave a room and public transportation is better than driving, so I don’t need to tell you that as we approach our annual celebration of Mother Earth. April 22 is Earth Day and I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some chic products and easy ways you can change your lifestyle. Not all of us are going to run out and get a rain barrel or live off the grid, but there are plenty of simple ways that you can make a difference and decrease your carbon footprint. 

Quality over Quantity

Style comes and goes quicker than you can say bell bottom blues and that’s all well and good, but to limit your waste stick with the classics for your major purchases and throw in trendy items in small doses. For instance, invest in a Veronica Beard jacket from The Hive that will last you a million years and throw in a blouse or small accessory that may be the trend du jour to stay current.In interiors, I preach the gospel of buying the best sofa you can afford in a neutral fabric and change pillows as your tastes change. A good, quality sofa can be passed down as an heirloom if you buy right. Naturally, I would recommend Cisco Brothers upholstery. They are made with hardwoods harvested in North America from FSC-certified companies. All the metal used in the sofas are made from recycled materials. They wash all the fabrics in phosphate-free detergents. And, they do not use any flame-retardant chemicals in their upholstery. And that’s just the regular sofa. You can go even more sustainable than that with their inside green options that I described in this post last April. 

Replace Your Disposables

 [four_sixth][/four_sixth][two_sixth]This can be an earth-friendly and stylish way to counter your carbon footprint. Do away with plastic or paper grocery bags and use one of our colorful Baggu bags from Penny Post. Or skip the grocery store all together and head out to the farmers market with our market tote from Red Barn Mercantile. By trading the grocery store in for Saturday’s farmers market, you eliminate the need to truck in food from increasingly far regions.For dining, consider buying bulk and parsing out the food instead of buying individually packaged items so as not to contribute to the land fill. We love our bento boxes in lieu of paper bags for lunch, and Corkcicle insulated bottles instead of plastic ones. And you can replace paper napkins with cloth and use phosphate-free soaps when washing them.Finally, use a beautiful pen with replaceable cartridges instead of disposable pens and a quality chrome razor instead of cheap disposable ones.[/two_sixth][divider height="30" style="default" line="default" themecolor="0"]

Donate

This is the easiest thing you can do to help. Become a sustaining donor to a worthy environmental cause like Rainforest Alliance, Earth Justice, Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation International, or my personal favorite, The Nature Conservancy. These organizations are doing the heavy lifting and could use your help.To learn more about how Alexandria is helping us all to do our part, check out Eco-City Alexandria here.Happy Earth Day, all!!