Posts from — September 2007

Hey guys! I just want to keep you updated on the loads of great things going on here at KIWI. Starting this weekend, we have interactive cooking classes at Whole Foods in NYC. Run by our food editor, Cricket Azima, these classes are sure to be a great (and educational!) time. Whether you live in NYC or just visiting the city that never sleeps, make sure you & yours sign up!

Where:
Whole Foods Market
95 East Houston Street
Between Bowery and Chrystie Streets
New York, NY 10002
When:
KIWI Family Lunchbox (Hands On)
Saturday, September 29th, 11AM-12:30PM
Max of two parents and two children ages 4 and up
Tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch? Join Cricket and learn fun, new, healthy foods that families can include in lunchboxes.

KIWI Family Cooks with Kiwi Fruit (Hands On)
Sunday, September 30th, 1:30PM-2:30PM
Max of two parents and two children ages 4 and up
Ever tried a gold kiwi fruit? Come as a family and learn tasty kiwi-based recipes!

KIWI Cooking Adventures: Food Hopping with Cricket (Hands On)
Every Saturday in the month of October (6th, 13th, 20th, 27th)
Ages 4 to 8
Inspired from her column in KIWI, Cricket Azima teaches recipes from around the world.

KIWI Family Brunch (Hands On)
Sunday, October 4th, 11AM-12:30PM
Max of two parents and two children ages 4 and up
Get the most out of family time by cooking weekend brunch together!

Everybody Eats Lunch (Hands On)
Saturday, October 20th, 2PM-3:30PM
Join children’s cookbook author Cricket Azima and have fun making recipes from her book Everybody Eats Lunch.

Click below for more details!

“Making the decision to have a child– it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.”

-Elizabeth Stone

As a college graduate, I understand the stress of finding THE SCHOOL. It is tough to choose among hundreds of schools which one will suit your academic, housing and extracurricular needs. Now add in environmentally friendly to your already growing lists of “must-haves.”

It is a growing trend among high school seniors to make their school decisions based on their environmental leanings. But how do you know which school is green? How will you be able to tell if the campus is LEED certified? And which school recycles and which school has clean-up days? Does the campus hold regular eco lectures?

Now KIWI has the perfect resource for parents and students looking to broaden their academic, as well as their eco horizons. The KIWI Green College Report is a list of the 50 greenest colleges and universities in the United States. Also, there is no hierarchy (meaning there is no number 1 green school) to KIWI’s list, so each school is as eco-friendly as the next.

Also KIWI has featured each of the schools that signed American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. 300 Presidents of various colleges and universities signed this pledge stating their move toward to achieving carbon neutrality.

Interested? (Well, who wouldn’t be?) To download your free copy, please click here.

Need an excellent school pack for your son/daughter? Loved our eco supply and eco school fashion article in the Sept/October issue? Well, you now have the chance to bid on great supplies left over from our shoots! And the best part? The auction is part of Christie Brinkley’s “Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools, Healthy Environment” and benefits New York Coalition for Healthy School Food and Wellness in the Schools. KIWI’s editorial director, Sara Gragnolati, put together two school packs (boy and girl version) for Charitybuzz, an auction site whose motto is “do good– live well.” The bidding ends on September 27th, so start waving your numbered paddle!

Boy Pack includes:

Patagonia backpack
Patagonia synchilla marsupial
Mimi Sardine lunch tote
SIGG bottle
Wrap-n-Mat
Stockmar beeswax crayons
Smencils eco pencils
Subscription to Kiwi Magazine for you and five friends

Girl Pack includes:

Patagonia backpack
Patagonia retro vest
Circle of Friends shampoo pack
Mimi Sardine lunch tote
SIGG bottle
Wrap-n-Mat
Smencils eco pencils
Subscription to Kiwi Magazine for you and five friends

I think anyone can agree that these packs are perfect back-to-school accessories. Precisely why we made this worthy cause our pick this week, so hurry up and start bidding! Click here to learn more about the auction and all the great items up for bid.

While we here at KIWI prefer canvas bags (like the EcoBags one feature to the right), sometimes you cannot avoid the dreaded plastic bag. What do with them all? They seem to multiple like rabbits!

Thanks to realsimple.com, we now have 10 inventive ways to resuse and not get the plastic bag blues! You can use plastic bags in the following manners:

1. As knee pads.
2. As hand protectors (for those dirty dog deeds!).
3. As paint preservers
4. As makeshift rain hats
5. For easy kitchen clean-ups
6. As wrapping paper
7. As wet umbrella holders
8. As shoe protectors
9. As cookbook protectors
10. As plant fillers

For the more in depth instructions on ways to reuse your plastic bags, visit here.

Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.- Elizabeth Stone

This Saturday I dare you to try something. Go carfree! I mean it– walk, ride a bike, take public transportation. It’s not that hard!

Every September 22nd, the World Carfree Netwrok celebrates “World Carfree Day.” This day urges “people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society.” OOh, we’re on board!

The World Carfree Network is also holding a “Street Conversion Design Contest.” This is a challenge to architects, artists and well, everyone to come up with ideas for all the streets we will not need when we are “carfree.” The deadline is November 15, so get thinking!

What is the “carfree movement”?

World Carfree Network uses the term “carfree movement” rather broadly, to refer to:

• those promoting alternatives to car dependence and car culture, including alternative modes such as cycling, walking and public transport;
• those promoting carfree lifestyle choices, within either a car-dependent, car-lite* or carfree local context;
• those promoting the building of (usually mixed-use) carfree environments^# on either brownfield or greenfield sites (usually sited to ensure easy access to a variety of non-automotive transport modes);
• those promoting carfree days, using the events as tools to bring about long-term on-the-ground change in infrastructure and priorities (example: Bogota); and
• those promoting the transformation of existing villages, towns and cities (or parts of them) into carfree environments.

To learn more about the Carfree Network and the World Carfree Day, click here.

“Kids are so powerful, and the biggest power they have is access to and influence on their parents. They can say, ‘Hey, what kind of car are we buying next– a hybrid?’ ‘Why are we driving an SUV, Dad?’”

-Laurie David, when asked “What can kids do with information about global warming?” in the latest issue (Sept/Oct 2007) of KIWI.

I think it has been made abundantly clear that I love TV and movies. And I love it even more when TV (like NBC) and movies (like Evan Almighty) go green. But lately I have been viewing all the green hype with a little bit of skepticism. Sometimes I feel like the “green” label is slapped on and there is no real environmental effort behind it. For instance, what exactly made the Emmys green? Well, like any good blogger, I did my research. This year’s Emmys were chock full of recycled paper, hybrid cars and bio-diesel fuel. Yay!

My favorite efforts of the green Emmys can be seen here, in a FOX in-depth look into the eco-friendly Emmy Awards. It’s a short video, but very cool inside look into the eco backstage of the awards. A couple of things the small screen did to help reduce the footprint of the golden statues.

1. Solar panels were used to power the whole red carpet.
2. The red carpet will be recycled.
3. The stage’s blue rug was made from recycled plastic bottles.
4. The wood room where the stars went to relax (“the green room” haha) was made from old high school bleachers.
5. The coveted swag bags were made of canvas.

Of course, there were more green efforts, but these five are so cool. I love that the green room was made from high school bleachers. That is just too cool. And just because we all need a little more of The Office in our lives…

I really hope that environmentally friendly practices become a way of everyday life! Let’s keep it coming!

-Stacey

Everyone knows the three r’s of the green movement- reduce, reuse, recycle. One question that arises from this mantra is what can I actually recyle, reduce and reuse? Sure, we all know paper and glass, but what else? Thanks to Co-op America, we now know more! Co-op America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982 whose mission is to harness economic power to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

According to Co-op America, here is a list of of “21 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle” (or reuse!).

1. Applicances
2. Batteries
3. Cardboard boxes
4. Cds/DVDs/Game disks
5. Clothes
6. Compact fluorescent bulbs
7. Compostable bio-plastics
8. Computers and electronics
9. Exercise videos
10. Eyeglasses
11. Foam packings
12. Ink/toner cartridges
13. Miscellaneous
14. Oil
15. Phones
16. Sports equipment
17. “Technotrash”
18. Tennis shoes
19. Toothbrushes and razors
20. Tyvek envelopes
21. Stuff you just can’t recycle– Co-op America recommends that when practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

For complete instructions on how to recycle and reuse these 21 items, go to Co-op America’s site right here.

For real. Free snacks. What makes this even better? Free, non-guilt snacks that are good for you!

As part of their “Snack Drive,” Kashi wants to “rid the world of a million bad snacks.” And we’re totally on board. In true KIWI fashion Kashi believes that “one good snack makes a big difference in a world of bad ones.” We couldn’t agree more.

In a simple 4 step process, Kashi determines which healthy snack you would enjoy the most. For giving up a chocolate bar, I got Kashi TLC Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookie in return. Yum! You could also receive either Original 7 Grain TLC Crackers or Trail Mix TLC Chewy Granola Bar. I’d say this is a win-win-win situation.

You can get your free snack in two ways, by registering online or attending one of Kashi’s live Snack Drives in the following cities (check Kashi’s site for details).

1. San Diego, CA on Saturday, September 15th
2. Chicago, IL on Friday, September 21th
3. Boston, MA on Friday, September 28th
4. New York, NY on Sunday, September 30th

I already registered for my free snack! Hurry up and get snackin’!

Who doesn’t love a good movie night? The whole family sits in front of the TV, curled up on the couch, eagerly awaiting the cinematic adventure that will surely follow. And what movie night would be complete without a bowl of delicious popcorn?

But, apparently, repeated exposure to the chemical in microwave popcorn can result in a lung disease known as bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn lungs.” What are we home movie watchers to do? I thought popcorn was a good snack!

Don’t worry. There is a simple, inexpensive way to make your own microwave popcorn! From the site Instructables.

1. You buy a pack of brown lunch bags. (Recycled, of course.)
2. You buy a scoop of loose kernels from the bulk section.
3. Take a paper bag, open the bag, and pour in your serving of loose kernels.
4. *If you want your kernels flavored, smeer butter on the inside of one of the flaps and put this side up when you microwave. Or wait till later to add flavor.
5. Fluff out the bag and fold over the flaps like the standard brown bag lunch at least three times, small folds are better.
6. Place the bag in the microwave and nuke for about 4 minutes. Stop the microwave if you don’t hear more than a pop a second.

Do you have any fun, creative and homemade snacks you like to make instead of buying? Let me know!

We all wish we could be a super hero from time to time. (Captain Planet anyone?) That’s what makes this video from Sienna Miller and Global Cool extra funny.

Just a little laughter to end our summer holidays and start Autumn off right! Not only is it funny, it’s environmentally friendly. We should all try and be environmental super heroes, but we’ll keep our underwear on the inside, thanks!

Welcome back to work and school!