green n concerned with or supporting environmentalism c: tending to preserve environmental quality (as by being recyclable, biodegradable, or nonpolluting)
swap vb EXCHANGE 2: to take turns in telling stories
I love to ask questions. It's rather remarkable realizing that now, when I remember the painfully shy, awkward girl I was in high school. Somewhere between a couple magazine internships in college and finding a group of friends who fit me so well, I lost any inhibition with interviewing people and fell in love with asking questions. The big announcement: I'm kicking off a series of posts I'm calling Green Swap that grew out of my natural impulse to ask people questions + my desire to be greener in my own life. I wanted to ask how everyone else is going green and find out about some things I've wondered about, like how to compost and where does organic cotton come from.
Let's get some things straight, first: I'm not a greeny, hippie, hipster (I'm not even that hip), treehugger, vegetarian, or green role model. Far from it, in fact. (Not that there's anything wrong with being an herbivore or a super greeny — it's just not me.) I enjoy many individually-wrapped snacks (Welch's Fruit Snacks and Laughing Cow cheese are two weaknesses), I like to take long, hot showers in the winter, and I've never thought about buying carbon points to offset a flight. One thing I am super passionate about are my cleaners though — and I've been buying green household cleaners + laundry detergents for years now. This series is my way of learning what else I can do — and I thought I'd take you along for the ride. At its best, I'm hoping Green Swap opens up a dialogue. I want to learn from you, too. I want to hear from you about what you're doing in your everyday, what you're struggling with, and questions you have. I promise to do my best to find out answers.
I've had my share of marketing green-washing. I'm tired of it, too. A couple years ago, when being green kicked into fifth gear, it seemed that every press event and meeting I went to turned into an orchestrated effort of seeing how many times a company can use "green" in talking about their products. I think that unfortunately turned being "green" into something you could slap on like a clothing label.
Green is our grandmothers. It's a process of being conscious about what you use and where it goes and using materials that last: conserving the best summer tomatoes for winter in canning jars, making home-cooked meals, carpooling because it makes sense, and giving everything a second use. It's not all about bamboo + being organic.
To be clear, I'm not turning the Haystack Needle into a green blog. There are many swell green blogs covering all kinds of environmental issues, and they're the experts. Not me. What you'll find on the Haystack Needle: a couple Green Swap posts a day (one q+a and one special topic) for the month of April. And I'll still be sharing my regular daily finds + inspiration. One final note: I really invite you to leave comments or email me questions (thehaystackneedle [at] gmail [com]) throughout the month about experiences you've had with green products, ways you've gone greener in your life, and things you wish you knew more about. You'll notice that I will not be using a filter — the beauty of a blog is that you don't have to worry about corporate advertisers. For example, I'll come out right and say that Tilex is toxic. But you'll also notice that I'll be honest in saying Tilex isn't bad, in that it does work. It's just not a cleaner I recommend using because it is super toxic. I do ask that, in commenting about products + companies, the voice be kept on that level. I don't want Green Swap to turn into a negative campaign of product-bashing, so know that I reserve the right to delete any mean-spirited comments along the lines of "this product sucks." That's not swapping ideas — that's just a rant.
With that being said, welcome to Green Swap! I've had so much fun working on this, so I hope you find a lot of ideas from this month-long swap of green inspiration.
Your swap coordinator,
Jen
{green swap photograph by charlotte jenks lewis}
