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Last Spring, we announced the launch of the national “Green Your School” contest, funded by NBC Universal Foundation and in connection with Green is Universal.

The panel has received lots of qualified entries, but there is still time if you haven’t submitted yours!

If you’re a high school student in the U.S., submit your school’s best green-related project for a chance to win a $5,000 grand prize.

The contest is awarding prizes for conservation service projects designed by high school students that improve, restore, beautify and/or conserve their school’s environment. Project examples include transforming a school parking lot or yard into a community garden, implementing a recycling or compost program in the school cafeteria,
using reusable and recyclable products on campus or establishing a system to
reduce water and power usage.

A panel of qualified judges, including NBC News’ Anne Thompson and environmentalist Simran Sethi, will award a Grand Prize winner with $5,000 and two First Prize winners
with $2,500 each.

The “Green Your School” contest runs from April 1, 2009 until 11:59 p.m. EST on
October 9. Entries may be submitted online by visiting www.thesca.org/green-your-school or a registration form may be requested by mail and sent back to SCA headquarters at 689 River Road, P.O. Box 550,
Charlestown, New Hampshire 03603. Winning schools will be notified by email, phone or mail by mid-November, 2009.

For most budding imaginations, gardens are a magical place. Curious George expanded my childhood imagination by bringing experiences in new ways through play and research of the world. Now, he is jump starting your children’s curiosity and creativity through your garden.

George, The Man with the Yellow Hat, and all their friends will investigate the planet through a variety of escapades with the concepts of recycling, composting, solar power and the weather patterns. Children will learn about the planet, its elements, and the environment. I am back into watching Curious George and telling everyone because children get to see how the earth nurtures them, and in turn it inspires them to nurture the earth. Children have to really love something before they can protect it and serve it so begin cultivating that tiny gardener’s curiosity and green thumb now!

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By Anne Chertoff, author of From “I Will” to “I Do”

Can you believe it’s April? Where did the time go?

Earth Day is today, and I thought it would
be important to highlight eco-friendly wedding sites and products throughout
the month. It’s quite common for today’s bride to look for organic and
earth-friendly products for her wedding. From eco-favors and details to
organically grown flowers, planning a “green wedding” is not
difficult to do.

I think the best places to look for eco-wedding advice and
ideas are from eco-bloggers who specialize in wedding content. I’ve written
before about Emily Anderson’s useful book and blog, Eco-Chic Weddings, but I’ve come across another great eco-blog that I wanted to share with you.

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By Grist.org
You caaaaan … but do you really want to? Our book, Wake Up and Smell the Planet addresses all sorts of choices you might face in your daily life, things like what to eat, what to wear, and, yes, how to dispose of pet waste. So if you really do want to compost your cat’s poop, we’ll tell you how to go about it in a safe and clean way. Yep, that’s how much we care.

And if that topic is purr-fectly up your alley, you’ll be glad to know you can get more green tips if you sign up for one of our free email lists to have green living tips delivered directly to your inbox.
Grist.org
http://www.Grist.org/

Obligatory Back to School Post Warning! But I assure you, this is not the same as all the rest. While you can find tons of info on green school supplies and clothing that you can buy, this one is for the kids and it doesn’t cost you anything. You just have to point and click (and offer your positive encouragement, of course!) and the rest is up to them.

The Green Squad – a project of the National Resources Defense Council and the Healthy Schools Network – sets out to educate children about the impact that their schools have on the environment and their health.

Makes sense, right?  We adults spend the majority of our time in our office building, but for most of the year kids will predominantly be at their school.  The site offers a slew of tools like this poster of 3 things to do today, a tour of the Green Squad’s virtual school highlighting some key hot spots to check for at their own school along with a progress report for keeping track of their findings along with tools for teachers to involve more of their classmates.

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By Nicole Ohebshalom, Radiant Living Wellness

Who doesn’t want to raise healthy kids and give them the best possible start in life? If you are a new mother you are probably beginning to make many new decisions. A very important decision is to decide what environment you want your baby to be raised in. Adequate nutrition is vital to keep your babies growth and health on track. Babies need more nutrients than adults because of their growing bodies. The best choice for your baby and the environment is to live consciously.

Take the plunge and begin pureeing all sorts of food!

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With all the talk of green living in the media, having a green wedding is something many couples are considering. And it’s not as difficult to plan as you may think. Here are a few simple ways that you can have an eco-friendly wedding:

• Tell your florist that you only want to use organic and locally grown flowers
• Order your invitations on recycled paper – Oblation Papers offers a beautiful line of invites on recycled cotton handmade paper
• In lieu of traditional wedding favors, make a donation to an environmental charity – The I Do Foundation has a list of a dozen green charities and organizations you can choose from
• Have the caterer and baker create your wedding menu and cake from organic and locally grown ingredients

Visit From “I Will” to “I Do” for more wedding planning tips. Or post your eco-wedding questions on the Eco-Friendly Weddings message board to learn how you can have an eco-chic wedding from our eco-expert.
Anne Chertoff
iVillage, Producer
http://www.ivillage.com

We are happy to announce the winners of the national “Green Your School” contest, funded by the NBC Universal Foundation and in connection with Green is Universal.

The contest, which we launched last spring, challenged eco-conscious high schoolers to submit their school’s best green-related projects. After receiving hundreds of thousands of entries from classrooms nationwide, a panel of distinguished judges, including NBC News’ Anne Thompson and environmentalist Simran Sethi, selected West Geauga High School in Chesterland, Ohio as the grand prize winner of $5,000. Two runner-up prizes of $2,500 were also awarded to Boston Latin School in Boston, Mass. and Amphitheater High School in Tucson, AZ.

We would like to extend a huge congratulations to the winning schools and thank all of the students who participated!

The “Green Your School” contest engaged students in conservation projects that improved, restored, or beautified their school’s environment. To be eligible, entries had to be student-led and have been started after August 1, 2008. Projects were judged on their environmental impact on the health of the school, sustainability, and the involvment of other students, teachers, administrators and/or the outside community.

By Mary Beth Gonzalez, iVillage.com

Bamboo made some new best friends this weekend. Yesterday, my niece, the new mother-to-be, unwrapped a living room full of baby gifts: little pink dresses, tiny dollies, a baby bathtub, diapers, a car seat and virtually all the other things a new mother and her first baby girl “need”. For those of you who have attended a baby shower before, you know the prerequisite “oohs” and “ahs” that accompany every newly unwrapped gift. Well, yesterday, we took “ooh” and “ah” to a new level.

Hands down, the hit of the party was the smallest gift of the bunch. Inside a beautifully wrapped, small 8 ½ x 11 box lived the softest, the tiniest, the most elegant, the most pesticide-free, most sustainable and most bamboo baby clothes and woven baby blanket from Dreamsacks. Within seconds of opening the box, women were standing and squealing as hands reached across the room to touch the silky soft, natural fabric.

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