The kids at the school around the corner from my house are back in session now, and when I talked to my Little Sister on the phone last night I learned she’s been back in school for two weeks already! (I’m a bad Big Sister, I know - I can’t believe it’s been so long since I talked to her last…)

I’ve been following the Back to School Guide over at Indie Fixx and it’s filled with so many amazing finds that I couldn’t possibly even try to repeat or compete with Jen’s compilation of cool stuff. Seriously, you should go check it out if you haven’t already seen it.

I did find out about these neat school supply kits from The Green Office that are offered for different age groups (there’s a teacher kit too). If you’re the kind that hates dealing with the craziness of an office supply store during the first few weeks of the school year, The Green Office has you covered. The kits are filled with necessities like notebooks and pocket folders made from recycled paper and pencils made from made from 60% post-consumer waste recycled newspaper.

The thing that I really like about this site is that they do a good job of explaining why each individual product is green and they show you just how eco-friendly it actually is. Each product has little icons representing if it’s made from recycled or biodegradable materials (it also shows what percentage is recycled). Even though it’s getting easier to find recycled and eco-friendly office and school supplies at the major retailers, sometimes it’s hard to quickly judge just what makes a product green or not.

It seems like The Green Office does a good job of making the whole process a lot more efficient. Because really… who wants to spend forever shopping for boring school supplies like notebook paper when you could look at fun stuff instead, like one of the reusable lunch kits found in the Indie Fixx guide?

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Last year, writer Mark Ontkush argued for a Black Google site. Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors, which account for 25% of the world’s computer monitors, use more electrical wattage on white display than on an all black display (comparably, 74 watts versus 59 watts). By a major website such as Google changing a simple code, they would save approximately $75,000 per year in money and 8.3 Megawatt-hours of energy per day.

As a response, Blackle was created as a customized search engine designed to use a lower energy wattage. For those interested in utilizing lower power wattages on their own personal websites, journals, or computer monitors in general, EcoIron published Emergy-C Low Wattage Palette, complete with coding and the six lowest consuming colors. EcoIron provides additional information on Blackle and other darkly tinted Google alternatives.

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I just wanted to quickly mention a couple of really cool things I stumbled across today:

First, a friend tipped me off to this amazing new site called FreeRice. This non-profit site lets you play a fun game where you can test your word knowledge & build vocabulary skills. For every word you get right, they’ll donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations World Food Program to help end hunger. The donated rice is paid for through advertising on the site…so the more people who visit it and play the game, the more rice they’ll be able to donate. The game is pretty addictive & challenging, plus it would be great site to introduce students to in order to help build vocabulary.

Also, I was reading the blog on Oceana’s website, and there was a great post about eco-friendly alternatives to gift wrapping. I love the idea of using silk scarves as gift wrap. They also mentioned a cool site called Wrapsacks where you can keep track of how your reusable gift wrapping is passed along from person to person. I keep trying to think of more reusable & recycled gift wrapping alternatives as the holidays approach, and I love both of these ideas.

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I spent part of last night watching The Green on the Sundance Channel. It’s a new regular series of programming dedicated to environmental issues. Some of the stuff they had on last night (which I think was a repeat of programs aired earlier in the week) was really interesting. They profiled a recyclable Ford concept car made from soy-based materials, talked a lot about the Cradle to Cradle philosophy and spotlighted Recycline, a company which creates toothbrushes, razors and tableware out of recycled plastics.

I really want to try out the Recycline toothbrushes. They have a program where you can send back the old, used toothbrushes and razors and they will have them recycled into plastic used in the construction of picnic tables and the like. They’re sold at a lot of health food stores, Whole Foods supermarkets, select Target locations and through their online store.

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I have a new obsession. It’s called PaperBackSwap, and I’m totally addicted.

I heard about it fairly recently when I was reading the comments on a post on the Ideal Bite blog about swapping stuff online instead of buying new. I was already familiar with one of their recommendations, Book Crossing, which I’m a member of, although I haven’t actually “released” a book yet.

I love the idea of Book Crossing, but I was interested in some way to both give and receive books more easily. I’ve been trying to buy used on Amazon any time I need to get a book… I feel like it’s a little less wasteful than just running to the Barnes & Noble and picking it up brand new.

But PaperBackSwap is just brilliant… you post the books you have and are willing to send to other people, and then you get to order books that other people have posted. Only the person who mails the book pays for shipping, so when you receive a book, it’s free. There’s a credit system, so every time you mail a book to someone, you earn a credit, which you can then use to order another book. Super affordable and eco-friendly!

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My friend Crosby (a freelance lifestyle publicist who works with The Winning Pitch) recently told me about a new client of hers, a great woman-owned company called Srina Teas. She’s become super passionate about their work, and I’ve got to say, her enthusiasm is infectious.

Srina produces 100% organically grown green teas, which are plucked, produced and packaged at Paradise Farm, which sits on a 90-acre rainforest in Sri Lanka.

They take care to grow the teas using environmentally friendly farming practices, and by purchasing Srina green tea, you’ll support the Paradise Community Project, which provides small-scale farmers above-average wages, a clean and safe working environment and training toward sustainable development using local natural resources.

Srina currently offers two kinds of green tea, Oolong and Young Hyson, though flavored green teas are on their way soon.

The teas are all packaged using natural fibers (either hand wrapped in recycled paper bags or placed in a hand woven basket made of natural cane wreaths). Srina also sells gift packs and glass teapots, and they’re currently offering free shipping on all orders over $15.

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Ideal Bite has been dedicating this week to talking about green weddings, in honor of Valentine’s Day. I was really happy that in yesterday’s tip, which was about eco-friendly wedding dress options, they mentioned Faernyn’s Grove.

I got a chance to work with Rene Geneva, the designer behind Faernyn’s Grove, last spring when I was running the fashion shows for Convergence 12. She is possibly one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and I truly respect her work.

One of the pieces that she showcased in the fashion show, which created a spectacular grand finale, was a fiber optic wedding gown. As the stage lights faded, the model wearing the gown made a big impression on the crowd in her light up dress. How amazing for an outdoor, evening wedding would this gown be?

Rene designs a beautiful range of sustainable corsets, dresses, and separates. Find them all at Faernyn’s Grove.

Or, if you’re interested in planning an eco-friendly wedding but find it a bit too overwhelming to do all by yourself, you could try a full service event planning company that specializes in green weddings.

ZahZoom is a company based in San Francisco that does just that. Eco-friendly wedding planners can take the hassle out of planning a wedding or event that will leave less of a footprint on the earth than a traditional wedding.

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I like Ideal Bite’s tip for today: use reusable chopsticks instead of disposable wooden ones.

We have a couple pairs of reusable chopsticks here at my house, and even though I’m a total klutz with chopsticks, it feels nicer to attempt to use the fancy reusable ones rather than the throw away wooden kind. At the very least I’m not worried about getting a splinter.

According to the tip, in China alone over 25 million trees are made into chopsticks each year. Each year! That’s crazy talk.

The tricky part is to stop the waitstaff from sneaking those pesky chopsticks into the bag with your takeout order. Although if I can just remember to bring my own bag, I think it would make things easier, plus save one disposable plastic bag AND one pair of disposable chopsticks.

Look! The Ideal Bite tip has a link to these “Cheater Chopsticks”. Just what I need! (I seriously cannot properly use a pair of chopsticks to save my life.)

You can sign up to get more free daily tips like this one at Ideal Bite.

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Gigoit is a pretty promising new site I just found out a couple of days ago via a Green Options post at Hugg.

The name comes from the acronym G.I.G.O. (Garbage In, Garbage Out). Basically, the site is a free and easy way to recycle your unwanted stuff.

The idea is sort of like Freecycle or even Craigslist, but since it’s a search driven database, it should be much easier to find what you’re looking for, without having to go through tons irrelevant listings. I love the idea of Freecycle, but I’ve found it frustrating to use in the past.

Gigoit is still very new, so unfortunately there appears to be no one in the New Orleans area using it yet, but hopefully that will change soon! Apparently there is already a pretty strong community on the site for St. Louis, Missouri, which is where the Gigoit founders are from. Right now the database only works for US zip codes, though they’re planning to expand to other countries as soon as they’re able.

I hope Gigoit catches on, because I think this could be a really great recycling community.

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Instead of making a “Blogs We Love” post, I thought today I’d spotlight a different kind of online reading, one that combines daily email deliveries with classic literature.

DailyLit is a brilliant free service that delivers small, easy to digest chunks of classic books to your inbox each day. The service also works for PDAs such as a Blackberry or Sidekick, so you can read on the go. You can choose to receive emails every day, only on weekdays, or simply on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Plus, if you decide you just can’t put your book down, so to speak, you can opt to immediately receive and read the next segment, so the pace you read at is entirely up to you.

There are currently well over 100 different books offered, and authors range from Aristotle and Nietzsche to Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’m currently reading Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott. There’s a lot to choose from, so to make it a little easier, you can browse by genre, author or title.
I love this service because:

• A. It’s free.
• B. Reading books online means less wasted paper.
• C. I get to catch up on classic lit I’d normally convince myself I don’t have the time to read.

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