My first day back at my MBA program after a summer internship in Montana running an ecolodge was great… our Net Impact club had gotten Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield founder and then CEO, to come speak.

He attracted quite the crowd, and he came with not only a presentation in PowerPoint, but also a very down to earth attitude and honest answers to hard questions.

I remember the answer to someone’s question that basically asked him, “why did you sell out?”  And his answer was, “well, we hope to change the way Danon does business.”  I liked that, it was a bottom up approach, and I don’t think big business and good business are inherently antithetical.  If you look at all the advantages that big businesses have, it should be easier for them to go green (in that they generally benefit from bigger profit margins from benefiting from economies of scale, and can make demands of their supply chain - like go green or else we will find someone who will!).

The main reason big business has not been able to “go green” ironically is due to the stock holders, or at least the stock market at large expecting them to squeeze out profits quarter after quarter (the reason why Wal-Mart must keep opening stores or its stock might actually not go up, and whoooa nelly wouldn’t that just be terrible – I say sarcastically.)

So what I hope to have happen is topline growth… ie: they create profits by enhancing their brand and expanding their market share by doing business BETTER, thereby attracting more consumers to their product. 

Off to have my Stonyfield smoothie for a quick breakfast (or “brecky” as my buds in Ireland used to say) – Jen

I grew up in the middle of the Rockies, but I honestly never went hiking until I was about 10 or so. My best friend's dad took us on a hike, and I remember - at first - thinking that it seemed stupid to walk at a slow pace through the woods, no real destination in sight.

But somewhere on that aimless walk, I understood that call to the woods. It made some sort of inexplicable sense to me.

Years later, sweaty Brooklyn summer, I received a heart-wrenching call. My best friend's dad - a dad of sorts to me - had died unexpectedly. My heart broke mainly for my friend. But a little piece of it mourned for me - for that loss of the first person who really showed me the woods.

That first lost Father's Day, I bought a plot of trees from the American Forests in memoriam. To this day, it might be the best money I ever think I spent.

This fall, I'm heading to that best friend's wedding in Italy. And we are doing a hike in honor of her dad.

A little Montana Rockies blending into the Italian peaks, and again, I think it's fitting.

-Heather... off to look at old photo albums...

ScubaYeah, so it is not AS cliché as swimming with dolphins. It was however amazingly cool. Have you ever snorkeled, or scuba dived? It is truly Heaven, just under the water instead of in the clouds.

I was in college, visiting my cooler-than-school surfer boyfriend in Hawaii, and he was - of course - surfing during most of my visit. So I took up snorkeling. It wasn't hard to become an addict. As soon as you immerse yourself, your entire being is transplanted to another world. I would just lie there, floating . . . letting my body become part of the gentle waves while trying to be a silent observer to this incredible underwater world that we so rarely ever think about. The only sounds you hear are your Darth-Vader like breaths, which is actually meditative and relaxing.

One day I took a bag of frozen peas & carrots with me. I was almost scared at the commotion I stirred up, and the volume of fish I had swarming around me. For the most part, they were small, and I knew that those eels liked to be in their little coral caves, so it was a nice adrenaline rush to have swirls of yellow, orange, grey, black, white, green, blue, pink zooming all around me, gobbling up this crazy little snack.

Then,just as I adjusted to having fish touching me, they all vamoosed in a split second. My first thought was that I had done something to make them nervous, like reach for more food too fast. My second thought was that there was a predator in the water. (Did I mention my #1 fear is to die being eaten by a shark?). Indeed there was a predator... or 20! It was a school of tuna. Let me just tell you, they are H-U-G-E. When they swam in to get the peas & carrot mix, I was in a total state of shock. Big bursts of grey torpedoes coming through the water, right toward me, but then glided right past without even a knick.

It was breathtaking. So I had to surface to catch mine. So now when I hear stories of bycatch (all those fish that die for the sake of catching a dinner fish), all I think about is this wet Garden of Eden that we are disrupting down there. In addition to 25% of fish dying for the sake of the ‘target fish' in their nets, dolphins, sea turtles, seals and whales also get caught by accident in fishing gear and drown. I am bummed (an understatement, if ever there was one).

However, our world's population and taste for fish is demanding we invent better ways to harvest them. Trolling for (or line catching) fish is a better alternative to the nasty nets. And so when you go to Whole Foods or Wild Oats or what-have-you, ask them for troll-caught, and revel in the fact that you just saved a Flipper's life.(For a listing of sustainable seafood sources, visit http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_resources.asp#sss.)

Off to dream of snorkeling in a world of no nets,-Jen

There is just something hot about a man shaving with a straight razor.  Makes me weak in the knees, I tell you.  I don’t know if it is the imminent danger, or the deft hand that is required not to kill oneself… all I know is that a guy shaving with a straight razor is completely swoon-worthy.

In the end, I think it might come down to biology – I might just want the masculine, viral guy.  As I said to a friend a few weeks back (about a truly lovely guy I had dated): “He’s just too pretty for me.  He’s never going to be able to run up a hill, start a fire, and kill something.”  (Of course, the pretty guy would be able to buy me perfect shoes, so I guess it’s a trade-off).

In the end, there’s really not a lot of call in my current life for the guy who can run up a hill and kill something. 

But I wouldn’t say no to the dude shaving with a straight razor.

-Heather… off to catch a flight back to Brooklyn…

I'm a terrible volunteer.  Regardless of the fact that it makes me feel really good anytime I do it, I approach it sort of like I often approach working out: complete dread and begrudging participation, followed by an amazing sense of gratitude and overwhelming feeling of goodness after the fact.

Lately, my volunteer time has been curbed by Bite responsibilities.  Thus, I find myself drawn to organizations that let me participate in my off minutes throughout the day, instead of devoting weekly or monthly time.  Some favorites (and you’ll see just how non-volunteery this really is):

Stop Global Warming - we met Laurie David a few months back, and are huge fans.  Sign up for their virtual march and find like-minded marchers in your own area.  Also - for armchair warriors out there: check out her HBO documentary: Too Hot Not to Handle.

NY Cares - NYers: this is the easiest way to find volunteer opps in the city.  You can do everything from walking dogs in shelters, to cleaning up parks, to doing yoga with kids.

Participate.net - Participate Productions has had a good year.  Several Oscar nods and wins for their films (including Syriana and Good Night & Good Luck), their site includes a few solid blogs and links to take action across a variety of progressive topics.

So Biters, what are your favorites sites and organizations in your own areas?  All you guys out of NY… what is your NY Cares-esque option?

-Heather… off to assuage some guilt...

We wanted to say we were boycotting Earth Day altogether today, but somehow, we were acutely aware that we'd get voted off the enviro island if we went down that path.  Earth Day has been a pivotal part of a movement for decades, and it deserves all of our support.  Besides, anything smacking of a boycott kind of flies in the face of our theory that we are going to really going to change the world by being positive.  You get the idea we are espousing in today's tip: more than just once a year, we can all incorporate green actions into our daily lives.

So, no, don't boycott Earth Day tomorrow.  Of course, go do a clean up of a beach or a park.  Cut down any unnecessary consumption.  Plant a tree or twenty.  But do me an additional favor, would you?  Go buy a green version of a product or a service that you have NEVER bought a green version of in the past.  As part of your Earth Day efforts, support the companies that are doing well by doing good. (For ideas of recommended products to buy, check out all our past tips at: http://idealbite.com/tiplibrary/tipheaders.php).

Go on, accuse me of being a crass commercialist.  But you saw those impact statements in today's tip.  I stand by my request: if we all changed out one product per week from a conventional version to a green one, imagine the message that would send to these businesses - imagine the additional time, effort and energy they would devote to the greening of the business (and broader) world.

-Heather... off to prep for an Earth Day of friends, jazz and (most likely) inorganic cocktails...

When I was growing up, we dried all our laundry on clotheslines for at least 6 months of the year.  It was an initial marker of summer... that moment we first "did our sheets on the line."

There is nothing on earth that smells as good as it does when you crawl in between crisply laundered, perfectly sun-dried sheets.  I swear to you... nothing.  It's as if you took every cut-grass, beach-relaxed, spa-sated scent in the world and wrapped it in cotton and coolness.

My first semester of college, I didn't get to go home until the Christmas holidays.  I got home after a day of travel, late at night, and crawled into my bed.

My sheets had been line-dried.  They had "that scent."  My mom had done them at the end of the summer and stored them in the linen closet so that they would smell right when I first came came home.

It was a little sunshine and a lotta love in the middle of a snowy December, and the thought of that - the foresight and care that it took - overwhelms me sometimes still.  My parents have done that for me every year since - wrapped up a little Big Sky sunshine for a cold fall or winter first evening home.

They say that scents are our most powerful sensation for memory recall.  For me, line-dried sheets wrap summer and love into one perfectly green package.

-Heather... off to crawl into satin sheets in San Francisco... a whole different kind of memory...

I used to be upset when I would get these email "forwards" - reminiscing the good old days.  Now, though, if I peek at them I end up chuckling.

So thinking about hair color always brings me back to when I was 13 -- my worst year ever, for my parents at least. I put holes in my ear at every spend the night party, insisted on having the worst bleached hair ever (with Sun-In + hairdryer), and was definitely up to no good. 

So parents, definitely only go all-natural henna highlights for your children's hair.. as I think the peroxide got to my brain, and by 14 I had a fake-ID and was buying beer for all my way cooler and older friends (they were 16).  Luckily, I kind of lived hard and fast and then burnt out, so I got my brain back.

Off to admire my new non-peroxide Aveda highlights... Jen

If you are like me (and God help you if are you, in general), you can’t resist the urge to speed.  Even when driving non-high-performance cars, I still find myself “accidentally” speeding.  Once I drove someone’s new BMW X7whatever to go look at a horse a few hours away, and everyone in the car kept nervously laughing and telling me nicely that I was going 110 mph and I really should consider cruise control.

I have isolated my main cause for the lead-foot:  good music.  And there is a positive correlation – the better the music, the faster I drive. I think I clocked 95 mph in my old Honda listening to “Missing” by Everything But the Girl. 

So maybe I should just listen to talk radio (Car Talk, but of course), and NPR (Living on Earth, but of course), and save the good music for dance parties.

Why do YOU drive fast?  Or better, how do you keep from driving fast?  (Cruise control is a bit annoying to me b/c you have to keep futzing with it when you run up against a big truck that you have to pass.)

Off to listen to classical and see if that can balance me out.. Vroom! – Jen

Some people rescue puppies and kitties and even spiders. Me? I'm a sucker for all the little potted houseplants that I see at my local supermarket. God forbid I walk into the market at night, post-vino, to get milk for coffee in the morning... I see the little guys (usually African violets) all crammed onto a cart, listless and dying, and I have to save at least one. $1.99, forked over in the name of the greater good of plantkind.

I've taken in at least 10 refugee plants to date.

And it doesn't even matter to me that they are not started in a way that is sustainable or organic. Like little green crack-babies, I can't fault them the sins of their creators. So, I bring them home, and pinch off the sad leaves and repot them and tend them and love them until they start to love me back.

At the moment, 4 of said rescuees are having a party of blooms on one plant stand - lavender and purple and fuscia and white - while the rest are still new adoptees, unsure whether or not they trust me, biding their time until they bloom.

-Heather... who clearly needs to get out more often...

Heather and I are great partners... we barely overlap, hence we are pretty complimentary. However, the two things main things on which we agree:

1. George Clooney is hot.
2. Doing laundry is therapeutic - we love the process, we love the smell, we love the warm clothes after.

Yes,
there are a few more similarities like the obvious (love of cheese,
chocolate, wine), but after that, honestly, we are divinely divergent.

So George..
be prepared to have us go to the mat for you. And then ask to do your
laundry in the case you got a bit roughed-up in the tussle.

Off to stare at this month's Vanity Fair with my pretend Hollywood boyfriend on the cover - Jen

Here’s why you should clean the bathroom naked:

1. You are super motivated to get every nook-n-cranny clean
2. You don’t need to worry about getting your clothing messed up
3. You can jump right into the shower after (and heck, continue cleaning if you are groovin’ on the clean buzz)

Yes, I do clean the bathroom naked. About once a year. Other than that, I just try to clean up a bit while brushing my teeth. Of course while the water is not running.

Off to get naked & clean.. it is that time of year – Jen

Upon occasion we have fallen prey to writing about an urban myth or two (remember rice at weddings, anyone?). 

But oh no not today! We will not tell you to get rid of your Swiffer because it could be killing your dog.  (It is however just one more disposable thing that can avoided, as you know from today’s tip.

Anyway, here is the scoop from Snope.com on how the whole thing got started – 

Reportedly someone had a dog die of liver failure, and in his housekeeper’s cats both died of liver faiure, and they both used Swiffer, and asked people to spread the word that they use a chemical similar to antifreeze in the product. 

Turns out they don’t, and the product won’t kill your dog, or your cat.  But if we can use a mop or broom and not have to throw them all away – maybe a landfill rat will be saved.

Off to sweep... Froggie (my rescue kitty) thinks it is fun, too bad I don't... Jen

I
have to admit that lately, I haven't been cleaning my kitchen at all -
mainly because I haven't been spending enough time in it to make
anything dirty. Having loved cooking for the entirety of
my adult life, I'm a bit embarrassed, and I've decided to make a
concerted effort at changing that. As soon as I return
from an upcoming trip West, I am going to get back to my round of
throwing dinner parties and cooking great meals.

Speaking
of the trip West, Jen and I also took a little trip West about 6 weeks
ago, in order to be part of a photo shoot for this month's "Green
Issue" of Vanity Fair. It's currently out in NY and LA, and will hit the newsstands across the US this week, so check it out.

Aside from the fact that I got a lot of flack in Grist for wearing a sweater belt (as IF they let us dress ourselves), the shoot was a blast.

Green is definitely hitting the mainstream, and you, lovely Biters, are the vanguard.

-Heather... off to see if I can't tease my hair out like that again...

Toss on salads, cakes and cocktails:

• Violets
• Nasturtiums
• Pansies
• Lavender buds
• Sweat Peas

Go on - let us know yours.  If the bizarre US weather of late clears up, just maybe we can all go throw some seeds in the ground this weekend.

-Heather... off to see a pre-screening of Too Hot Not to Handle...

So of course we get scared over bats.  They are not particularly cute, and they fly like some sparrow that has just done a line of coke.  Plus, we usually have some childhood memory of a bat flying too close for comfort. I have had two:

1. I used to sleep in my grandma's hay barn, and I have this vivid memory of her chasing the bats out of our loft with a broom.  It was kind of like this comedic horror movie.

2. I lived in Guatemala in 1997 for a few months, and did this river cave hike, whereby we had to swim through this opening in the earth with only 1 foot of an air opening between the water and the cave entrance.  We frightened the bats that were all sleeping in the cavernous Fourier, and about 20 flew out as I was trying to go in.  I figured if I could get through that without having a heart attack, I could do the 3 mile hike into the center of the earth where this serene underground lake finalized the end of the hike.

Anyway, my bat house isn't inhabited yet, but spring is almost here, and so I am hopeful. Come on bats, promise I won't splat you with a broom or scream if you fly to close to my head. Bring on the bats.

Off to put some bedding around the bat house - Jen

ANYWAY - one of those conversations that stands out: he was telling me about how his mom was this totally all-natural type, and made all his baby food from scratch and how every year, she even made all-natural Easter egg dyes. Of course, this just chalked him up one level in perfection in my estimation (and I promise the guy was far from perfect - even if he HAD trained as a chef - sigh, again), so I probably batted my eyelashes and tried to say something without stuttering - something smarter and more engaging than "C-c-cool. She s-s-s-sounds great."

Needless to say, that crush ended (can't keep a flame like that going for long without it exploding and singeing your eyebrows). But the thought of all-natural Easter egg dyes remained. Thus, we find ourselves with today's tip.

(And here you thought they ALL came from your tip submissions. Sometimes they just spring from old dates and childhood memories).

-Heather... off to boil some eggs...

The thing is - these shoes? It HAD to happen. They'd never been cleaned. For some unknown reason, out of nowhere, that fact started to skeeve me out a little... the fact that I had never washed these sneaks. So - years later - viola! Clean shoes.

I'd like to say that I wasn't the same with my yoga mat, because let's face it: the only thing that I sweat in more than my shoes are my yoga classes. But truth be told, until I discovered Vermont Soap's yoga mat cleaner about 2 years ago, I think I had only cleaned my mat like twice in 7 years. With a garden hose. And ammonia. (Um, er).

Let's just say that downward facing dog breathing in ammonia fumes is NOT exactly what Patanjali had in mind when he put down the yoga sutras 5000 years ago.

-Heather... off to plan what I am teaching in class tonight... April Fools yoga, anyone???

I used to think caring about IAQ was for people with severe allergies, and the rest of us would live.

THEN... when I was in grad school in DC, and I started getting these massive headaches over a period of two days.  It finally culminated with this bout of pseudo-vertigo, where I went to stand up to go rollerblading as a studybreak, and fell to the ground with my head spinning, and feeling like I was going to vomit. I crawled to the bed, and couldn't lift my head without feeling whacked over the head by a 2x4.

I opened the windows, put on the heater, and waited for my friend to come rescue me. Two days later when I could stand I discovered leaky windows, which was letting water and condensation in, and hence growing mold all around the windows and in the walls. 

Now I know first hand how air-quality effects health, sometimes severely.  And I make it a point to reduce particulates (no smoking in my house, animals often brushed, vacuum lots, clean out vents, and yes, use a air filter to keep the good stuff flowing.)

Off to get some very fresh air... a walk in the country... how cliche but freaking fabulous, Jen