Given the thousands of green products being introduced these days, and the vague marketing claims being used to sell them, you don’t want to blow your budget just to keep up with the newest “eco,” “herbal,” or “biodegradable” fad – especially if the claim turns out to be more greenwashing than green.

On the other hand, genuinely earth-friendly products do help minimize your environmental impact. Every organic cotton T-shirt you buy, for instance, helps reduce the use of toxic agricultural chemicals, protecting the air and water. Moreover, the same tee waves like a bright green flag in front of conventional cotton producers, reminding them that your money is filling their organic competitors’ coffers — and giving them an incentive to switch to organic practices if they haven’t already done so.

The challenge is in knowing how to avoid the “greenwash” so you can promote more green. A few clear principles, excerpted from the upcoming Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, will help you identify an ecobargain from a rip-off, while getting manufacturers to transition as quickly as possible to the most earth-friendly practices available.

THE BIG GREEN PURSE SHOPPING PRINCIPLES

1) Buy less.
2) Read the label.
3) Support sustainable standards.
4) Look for third-party verification.
5) Choose fewer ingredients.
6) Pick less packaging.
7) Buy local.

1.  Buy less. This should be a “no brainer.” Consumerism – buying what we don’t need, over and over again – drives unnecessary manufacturing that fuels climate change, pollutes the air and water, and destroys the places in Nature we love. Remember “reduce, reuse, recycle”? It still makes sense. Plus, when you’re not buying, you’re not getting fooled by dubious marketing claims. If you don’t trust the source, don’t buy it.

   2.  Read the label. We read food labels to avoid trans fats, sugar, salt and carbohydrates. We can read product labels to avoid greenwashing words like “natural” and “planet friendly” that aren’t backed up by standards or third-party verification (see below). When it comes to cleansers and other household  goods, avoid products labeled “caution,” “warning,”, “danger,” and “poison,” all of which indicate the item is hazardous to you and the environment.

3.  Support sustainable standards. An increasing number of companies are proving they’re green by manufacturing according to sustainable standards that govern the product’s “life cycle,” beginning with the raw materials and ending with its disposal or re-use. The SMART standard, for example, covers flooring, lighting, building materials, and other consumer products.

  4.  Look for third-party verification. In the absence of universal sustainable standards, if a company says its product is good for the earth, your first question should be, “Who else says so?” Reliable eco claims are backed up by an independent institution or nonprofit organization that has investigated the manufacturer’s claim so you don’t have to. Look for labels from groups like Forest Stewardship Council, Energy Star and the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Organic.

5.  Choose fewer ingredients. A long list of ingredients often indicates the presence of questionable chemicals that may be harmful to you or the environment. This is especially true for personal care products, food, and cleansers. Simplify what you buy.

6.  Pick less packaging. Regardless of the marketing claims a product makes, you can make an immediate impact by buying goods that come wrapped as simply as possible. For starters, buy in bulk, choose concentrates, and pick products in containers you can easily recycle (hint: glass and cans are more easily recycled than plastic). Carting home your packages in your own bags helps reduce packaging, too.

7.  Buy local.  Avoid the higher energy costs involved in transporting goods long distances. Supporting local farmers and businesses also increases the likelihood that U.S. environmental and health laws and regulations will be followed.

Bottom Line: Ignore boasts that a product is eco-chic, earth-safe, or planet-neutral. Stick to the principles above to ensure that your Big Green Purse has the kind of big green impact that will make a difference both in the marketplace and on the environment.

The post Big Green Purse Principles Can Help You Make the Right Eco-Choices appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Not any more.

These days, we women have the whole world in our purses – or we could, if we’d only change the way we spend our money.

Big Green Purse contends that women who shift their spending to environmentally-friendly products and services could have a faster, bigger impact on protecting the planet than most of the legislation and regulations environmentalists are trying to pass on Capitol Hill or in statehouses all across the country.

Why the shift, and why women?

Industries – the planet’s biggest polluters – fight laws and public policies with a ferocity that’s every bit as strong as the category five hurricanes that wrecked the Gulf Coast in 2005. Yet as much as manufacturers oppose environmental legislation and regulation, they embrace what happens in the marketplace. They have to. Consumer dollars are their lifeblood.

Corporate need for profit gives women power. And because women spend $.80 – $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace, we’ve got a whole planetful of power.

Or we would have, if we focused it so that it made a difference.

Unfortunately, until now, women’s spending on “green” products has been haphazard and diffuse. Sure some women are buying organic food, non-toxic personal care products, water-saving appliances, and other eco-friendly commodities.

But overall, do our purchases match the serious level of concern we have for the health of the planet and its related impact on us and our families?

Not by a long shot.

In part, that’s because there’s still a supply and demand problem.

Despite the ballyhoo about organic produce, only 4 percent of food sold int he U.S. is pesticide-free.  Less than 1 percent of vehicles in the marketplace are highly energy-efficient. Only 2 percent of coffee purchased in the U.S. is “shade grown,” meaning it’s raised in natural rainforest habitat, rather than in rainforests that have been clearcut and doused with pesticides.

But there’s something more critical afoot.  Amazingly, few women understand that their demands for greener products can actually help increase the supply – that if a woman intentionally used her purse as if it were a bright green ring threaded through the nose of the big black manufacturing bull, she could pull polluting manufacturers in a greener, more eco-friendly direction, and do it far more quickly than most laws and regulations.

“I can buy wind power not just to meet my energy needs,” she’d say, “but also to protect my kids from asthma and ecnourage other utilities to transition away from fossil fuels that cause air pollution.”

“I can buy toxin-free cosmetics not only for their exceptional quality but to assure my own personal safety and force other companies to clean up their incredients.”

“I can buy no-VOC paint not only so my family won’t have to breathe nasty chemicals for a week or more after we paint the house, but to encourage other paint manufacturers to eliminate VOCs from their products.”

In other words, “I can get what I need… and get what I want, too.”

Does the “big green purse” idea work?

Stay tuned…

The post Leading the Bull appeared first on Big Green Purse.