The Green touch

As I explained it in a previous article, I came to home-made soap because I wanted to control the ingredients (no palm oil) and their origin (as few kilometres as possible), so as to use the most ecological soap for my laundry liquid . But there are other valid reasons to make soap for yourself: some oils are naturally soft and good for the skin, others you will choose because they give extra lather and foam to the soap, or even because they just give a special colour you like. In a word: home-made soap is very good for the skin (also because it naturally contains glycerine, which is otherwise removed from industrial soaps) and it's even better because it's customized to your needs. Another good reason to make your own soap is the price. Finally, it's a very creative (and addictive!) activity, which may explain why soap makers make more soap than they can use. Soap making is a complex and very rich art. It’s a great hobby, and you probably won't offer anyth...

Initially published on 22/06/11 Why make your own washing liquid?  Conventionnal washing liquid, even with eco labels, are not judged satisfactory: - you don't know exactly where all the ingredients come from, maybe all from differents place. The more ingredients you have, greater the chance is at the cumulative carbon foot-print of all the transport of ingredients is heavy - if you buy a washing liquid, even ecological, you also buy plastic with it (which makes the footprint heavier) - Do you know the criterias of the label you chose? Is it strict enough? Is your vaskemiddel really biodragradable in water? © Dailyllusion When it comes to ecological (clothes)vaskemiddel, there are two schools: soapnuts and  Marseille soap . They both contain surfactants and are biodegradable in water. Surfactants acts as detergents - they pull fat out of clothes or skin -  and are also contained in ordinary washing liquid. If you want to understand how, wiki...

Initially published on 22/05/2011 I felt like showing you these documents. I found the first one on vegetarisme.ch For each type of diet, it gives you the equivalent in driven kilometers, for a year. Bio = organic food Conv.--> conventionnel = ordinary. First diet is without meat and dairy products, second is without meat and last one, with meat and dairy products. This one was published by ADEME (French environment & energy agency) and is about the quantity of carbon dioxyde produced for each kilo of meat. I guess that methan is not taken into acount here. However livestock and especially beef are responsible for a very important part of the methan emissions by mankind in the world. The good point with this document is that it makes me feel good to be fond of bacon rather than beef. But let's not hold out too much hope: concentration of animals has serious consequences on environment, at least because of the excrements and what they c...

Initially published on 12/05/11 Yes, I know that if you really want to "be green", the best you can do is to not fly. Of course you can compensate your carbon emissions (also said "carbon offset") by giving money to an association that will plant trees for you (or will set up solar panels in an african village) but this does not solve the problem; especially since it will take about ten years to your tree to actually absorb your carbon.  A way of getting a clean, not environment but conscience? Maybe, but it may be better than doing nothing at all; let's call it the "less worse solution". Some links from Grønn Hverdag: http://etiskforbruk.no/Mitt%20klima http://www.co2.klif.no/ So no, I do not have miracle solution to turn plane into an ecological transport means, but this article is mostly about not make it worse, and to adopt a responsible behavior in an airport. First of all, you don't need to print your el...