If there is one place to go eco, it's down under.

As today's Daily Tip says in the "Personally Speaking" area, if you tell us about yours, we'll tell you about ours (and who on the team goes commando).

Off to get dressed... first putting on...nope...  you'll have to check back later to see!!

- Toshio

***** BREAKING NEWS *****

I finally tracked (almost) everyone down. Our official picks:

• Krista: "Patagonia Hipsters all the way..."
• Brett couldn't be reached for comment, but if we ever come out with "Biter?" underwear, I'm sure he'd be all over them.
• Jen: "I used to wear total 'grannies,' but now I live in the Deity Aton ones from GreenLoop, which are a big step up." Thumbs up and bums up, Jen!
• Heather won't say what kind of underwear she wears, but she did let on that "If I could get away with it, I'd never wear underwear."
• Personally, I still wear the Fruit of the Looms my mom bought me before sending me off to undergrad. Thanks, Mom!

What's up, Biters? I asked everyone on the team what their favorite green office tips were and here's what they said:

BOZEMAN

Jen: "Put plants everywhere you can to filter the air. We have 8 in the Bozeman office; most were started using cuttings from the offices next door."

Brett: "I've always got my laptop with me, so paper Post-It notes are a waste when I've got Digital Post-Its." Check out http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/digital/digital_notes.html for the full scoop.

The Bite's newest team member, Krista: "I make sure all the computers in the Boz office are turned off at night, instead of leaving them in sleep mode. It increases the lifespan of the computer and the fan doesn't suck in dust all night while it's cooling the machine. In the morning, I've got a few minutes to get the coffee brewin' while I'm waiting for the computers to boot up."

SAN FRANCISCO

Heather: “I use the blank side of one-sided snail mail to print out plane itineraries, boarding passes and sudoku puzzles when I travel on business.”

Sara: "I'm looking into FLOR carpet tiles for our office here. And no, the carpeting will not be green in color. I think it'd be hard to maintain credibility when your office looks like an Astro-turf field. Oh, and by the way, Toshio, we're getting new Peace Lilies and Philodendrons to filter the air in the office, and you're NOT allowed to water them." Good call, Sara - I'd probably drown them knowing my luck with plants...

And my own fave green office tip? I don't care how little energy your CFLs use, opening the blinds and letting the natural light in is always gonna be my preferred method for office lighting.

What's your fave green office tip?

-Toshio, off to look into Tofurkey options for Thanksgiving...

So tonight I told some people about parabens in their cosmetics and plastic water bottles leaching and one looked at me in total disbelief and the other said, "pashaw, something's gonna kill ya." 

It is times like these that I feel that we aren't getting the good word out there quick enough. I mean, if someone wants to do meth and kill themselves, that is their prerogative.  (Okay, so microwaving your Styrofoam takeout food isn't AS bad as doing meth, but you get the point.) However, the health of the planet is a collective concern - no?  It HAS to be in order to right it's course, gawddoggit.

Anyway, so you will have to excuse me if I am not inspired to write novels about all nat anti-inflammatories.  It is true, I like Anica. It worked. It seemed to help stitch back together my top thigh muscles that felt like jerked chicken meat.

Off to research some all natural anti-depressants - JB

Scene: Halloween in Northwestern Montana, circa 1978. One 5 year-old gypsy and one 7 year-old pirate are running around in the dark, no parents in attendance. Each is carrying a pillowcase (the only thing big enough for all the loot expected) full of candy in one hand and a flashlight in the other.They are alone, trick-or-treating, a little excited about the fact that they don’t have to wear snowboots this year and ruin their costumes due to an early winter as they did in previous years.

Later, returning home to unpack their treasures and tell breathless stories to their patient parents (“The grocery store people were giving out two WHOLE big-sized candy bars each!” or “The crazy lady’s house has a stuffed witch out front”), it never occurs to them (or their parents) to check the candy for razors.  They never think it’s weird to eat the homemade caramel corn, even though they couldn’t remember for sure which of their friends’ moms had made it.  They never think a thing about the fact that they (and every other kid in town) were just running around without supervision, in the dark, barely able to dress, let alone defend, themselves.

Years later – on the other side of years of stories of razorblades and Tylenol-recalls and too many real-life boogeymen – it’s kind of nice to focus on finding organic candies and wines and throwing fair trade parties instead of thinking about how there aren't many kids who get to experience that anymore.

-Heather… off to figure out what on EARTH to be for Halloween…

Okay so I am a huge fan of convenience.  Who isn't, really?  And "they" know it  (here "they" refers to those big brother type of companies that prey on consumer laziness.)

And so yes, I have found myself loving the bagged lettuce when in a jam, and then justifying the plastic "spend" since I didn't have to use water to wash it and saved all this time and in the grand scheme of things, that should be worth some eco points too, since I do spend 70% of my waking time at The Bite.

But that is crap.  I think we are getting so damn busy that we don't realize the shortcuts we are taking might be saving time, but taking away from LIFE, if you know what I mean. 

So I could never wash salad and then lay it all out to dry and delicately press on it with clean dish towels to clean it; however, I could spend the 3 minutes to tear it up and spin the hell out of it. Figured that was a good compromise.

So we go round and round on this wheel of convenience - too busy - need more convience - more packaging (think: take out), and where we stop, nobody knows.  On the salad spinner, my favorite feature is this big red button that says "STOP."  When I press it, I literally pause for a nice deep breath and start a "dinner hour" - whether is me watching a friend cook while I make the salad and pour the wine, or just embarking on an hour without over-stimulation and multitasking... it's good.

Where do you hit your "stop"?

Off to hit "stop" on my IPOD... what the hell song just came on? (okay that was my fake out for the two Biter employees here in the office.. a dirty song just started playing and of course their boss would *never* listen to something like that) - JB

You either are a green closet geek, or you know one.

Heather and I are definitely green closet geeks.  I sent her a copy of Natural Capitalism (aka: Nat Cap) once as a present and she couldn't put it down. I think I saw highlighter marks too.   

Anyway tonight I had the honor of speaking at the Bioneers conference. It was at Bioneers six years ago where I "discovered" Paul Hawken.  He was berating a dude from Dupont for essentially greenwashing. It was such a turn on.

Tonight I listened to his closing speech and was just so amazed. He too has evolved.  He spoke about having no enemies in this environmental mission. And that of course resonated, as we don't believe in finger shaking at Ideal Bite, but clearly he is talking about race, about religion, about life.  He has now become the peaceful warrior.  He did a visionary bit on "imagine if"... and then went into a world based upon Salmon Nation. He asked to be Undersecretary of the Owls.  Such a hoot.

Anyway, it's true. I do have an eco-crush on Paul. He is so stupendously smart, and he puts it to good use, and never yields or settles. But beautifully evolves.  Like nature. ahhhh.

Off to dream of Paul. - JB

OK Biters, now we want to hear from you!

You already know you can purchase Mrs. Meyer's Cleaning Products online,
yet we're also working hard to put Mrs. Meyer's in stores across the
country.  Today, we're available in thousands of places, and are adding
more all the time (Mrs. Meyer's Store Locator has a full list).

So if we're not in
your neighborhood or where you like to shop, please let us know - what
store in what city would you like to have carry Mrs. Meyer's products?

-Posted by the Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Team

I have never had a mouse problem before moving to Montana. But the first winter I was here, I watched one scale down the chimney into the living room, and them scamper across to the kitchen where he was meeting his friends. 

I was house sitting at the time and the people wouldn't let me get a cat (okay, thanks, because I love mouse poop in my kitchen drawers!), so I tried my hand at a few all-natural pest removal solutions.

Well, the first one was barbaric really... the owners of the house got me old-fashioned mouse traps and said that this is what everyone uses.  So I tried it.  And then I ended up needing some medication as I saw one poor little guy get his nose snapped in it, and saw him writhe in pain as he convulsed across the kitchen floor.

I decided to go straight for the best all natural remedy:  a cat.  So I moved.  And when I called my parents to get my cat brought out (they were watching her for me), my cat Maya called back (okay it was my mom trying to impersonate Maya's voice) and asked to be adopted by her grandparents.

So to SPCA I went, and took two cats out and asked them to chase a micey toy.  Froggy was a machine.  And even though he wasn't the snuggly-puss of a cat that I am used to, he has certainly earned his keep... and provided both myself and Cricket lots of laughs.

Speaking of Froggy, off to let him back in... he is on the roof, accessed from my second floor porch... it's like his playground.  - JB

Speaking of apples today...

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then AOL is apparently quite sincere in the admiration of both our logo AND our company name...

Check out their "Daily Bite" in their dieting section.  That apple looks sort of familiar, no?

http://diets.aol.com/newsandtrends/  I mean, even the bite out of the apple is shaped exactly the same.

Then again, I suppose everyone from Steve Jobs to Gwenyth and Chris could lay claim to "Apples" of a sort, so who are we to complain?

Me?  I love Arkansas Black apples... sadly, I don't live in Arkansas.  If you do, I highly recommend you go get some at your farmers' market.

-Heather... off to find out what kind of apples grow in the Bay Area...

In honor of my newly adopted kitty, Snack-who-might-get-his-name-changed-to-Harry (stay tuned for photo albums), we are donating all proceeds from our auctioned, signed Biter bottle to the Bozeman Humane Society shelter.

So - get to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300038625070 and bid on the bottle today! Everyone's doing it...

-Heather... off to play with Snack-maybe-Harry. Who knew that laser lights were so much fun???

Do you love the Energizer Bunny?  Come on, admit it - you do. What a great marketing idea.  And maybe down deep everyone prefers the Energizer batteries because of the cute bunny associated with that brand.

I remember back in college my friends would call me the Energizer Bunny.  It was seemingly so easy to party all night, go to classes all day, take a 4 mile jog in the late afternoon, and then grab dinner at the College Deli and do it all again – for at least three nights straight.

Now if I stay up past midnight and drink more than 2.5 glasses of wine, my next day is shot.  How and when did this happen??

Anyway! Batteries are kind of scary..  they do leak all this toxic stuff… I have no idea how they would even be recycled without the people at the plant having 3-eyed kids later in life.  So I have NEVER EVER thrown away a battery.  Sometimes my cup runneth over, and once my movers were like, “uh, yeah, does this have to go?” as they motioned for the trash.  But NOW I am so excited about two things:

Better options for rechargeable batteries
Much more convenient drop offs to recycle your regular, dead batteries.  (Even Costco is installing drop offs.  If you go to Costco and don’t see one, definitely put in a request!) 

So it is different things that make me energized these days, and doing errands while emptying my box of batteries into a recycling bin does give me a bit of a jolt.  Does that make me an eco-geek? 

Off to recharge at an eco-spa.. soon.. someday.. oh yes oh yes…

Jen

Heather’s Must-Have Downloads (aka: I’d put these on a mix for a yoga class - yes a yoga class - if I were still teaching):

• How to Save a Life – The Fray
• Some of them are Nice Days – The Honey Brothers
• All These Things that I’ve Done – The Killers
• The Heart of Life – John Mayer
• Hard to Concentrate – Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Long Way Around – Dixie Chicks
• I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie
• Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol
• Where Does the Good Go – Tegan and Sara
• Flying High – Jem

Go get ‘em, folks!  Downloading is a win-win: avoid songs you don’t want while you throw away your television-I-mean-CD-packaging... (first person to comment in the blog with the right answer - band name - to that italicized music reference gets a Biter tee...)

-Heather… off to BLARE "All These Things that I’ve Done…"

I find the title a bit ironic because after an entire day at the computer I definitely am low energy.  And since the laptop I use is high energy and I use it to warm my lap when the office is a bit nippy, let's talk about ways to KEEP OUR PERSONAL energy up when at the office.

Okay. Ideas? My starter list includes:

1. Coffee
2. Chocolate
3. Repeat both of the both, at the same time.

To be certain, I need to get up and do a little jig every once in a while to not get stuck, both energetically and with a big ol' butt.   

What about those yoga posses you can do?  Heather? Do you still read my blogs, sister-biter-o'-honey?

Just back from a little research- now I am definitely inspired; check it:

Human bodies are made to move. That's why working "mini" activity breaks into your day can really make a difference in how you feel and even how well you perform your job. Even the busiest person can do it. Just five minutes of movement every hour or two can boost your energy and improve your attitude. You'll find that getting your blood pumping and oxygen circulating will help you concentrate better and be more productive, calm, and efficient.

Okay bodacious biters.. I just checked out about 30 sites and this one is the one I am going to book mark... you can do these sitting at your chair.. and the seem to work on the stress aspect as well... Plus I like the little moving stick people. 

http://pages.britishlibrary.net/blwww3/deskexercises/

Be sure to keep me posted (like a post-it note) on how it goes!

Off to see about ordering one of those balance balls to sit on, to really get some ergo-going on. - Jen

Popping up, like corn, get it? Yeah, that was pretty lame.

Anyway, so I am not sure which I dislike more: plastics or monoculture farming. Most of you Biters know about the harms in plastics (in all three areas of their life: manufacturing, during their use, and then at the end of the lifeline). The altnerative to plastics has emerged - bio-based materials that have similar properties but bio-degrade.  But there's a catch:  the soy / corn is usually GE (genetically engineered).  And all GE foodcrops are grown in monoculture settings, which require more pesticides and the soil quality gets trashed.

But.. I like that we are at least trying to come up with solutions.  Here's a review from Wired from the Green Festival in SF last year where I saw this corn-based HP printer prototype:

For starters, HP has already undertaken a program in which it uses a wide variety of recycled consumer goods to build scanners. Now, the company has a prototype of a biodegradable printer made out of corn.

"You can't throw it in your backyard," said HP spokeswoman Lynelle Preston, adding that the prototype on display was a very early version of the printer. But "given the right conditions, it would disappear."

Off to eat my printer. Okay, I won't do that but I am hungry.  - jb

It's time to sound off and cast your vote for which city organic fast-food company Organic To Go should set up shop in next. Here's our team's top picks.

1. San
   Francisco - half the Biter team now calls the city of the bay home
   base. We love the idea of getting our food delivered, but what we really love
   is that you can be lazy because Organic To Go makes eating organic so easy.
   Sara's a big fan of the Thai Style Veggie Wrap and, of course, their
   peanut butter cookies.
2. Bozeman, MT - the
   other half of the Biter team wants in too, but they're not holding
   their breath, considering the town only has about 32K residents.
   However, many of these are green and many are Biters!
3. Portland, OR - the most sustainable city according to SustainLane's recent rankings (http://www.sustainlane.com/article/895).
4. New York City -
   the fast-food capitol of the world clearly deserves organic options.
   Plus, this is the highest concentration of Biters anywhere.
5. Your Town, USA - want quick'n'easy organic food in your town? Let Wendy know by posting in the blog.

Hey Biters,

Toshio here, reminding you that it's the LAST DAY to vote for The Bite for Coop America's People's Choice Award.

Follow this link to fill out their online form - it's easy, and you'll be entered to win some sweet, green prizes just by voting:
http://www.coopamerica.org/greenbusiness/peopleschoice/

Then, if you're in the Bay Area come November, come to GreenFest SF to find out who won, and more importantly, check us out at our table:
http://www.greenfestivals.org/

-Toshio... off to look into recycled paper-based countertops (yep, they exist) for our upcoming Home Improvement week...

Hey Party People -

As many of you know, our whole philosophy at the Bite is that we give props for trying, instead of shaking our fingers for not being perfect.

Enter the Ideal Bite class room.  Let's take Nike as a case study.

Back in the mid-90's they got slapped down for labor practices. They tried to do a little green washing, and got slapped harder. A decade or so later they have definitely built sustainability into the core who they are, and how they operate, and what they produce. Essentially, Nike did a 180.  Was it all reactionary and/or just for profit? Whose to ever know.  But personally I don't care if they were carrot' or stick'ed into it. I am just glad they are doing it, and keep doing more of it as the profit margins and shareholders allow.

But some of you I know will be all, "Nike is a big ugly business that treated its offshore workers like crap! How can you even start to defend them!!?"  Well, weirdly enough amoungst the darker green audience, Nike is the underdog, and I always side with the underdog. Plus, I pretend to think like an economist since that was my major in undergrad, and so I get turned on by the economies of scale that Nike can bring to the supply chain.

So bring it on. Let's go to the mat. Or you can really make my day and just agree that big companies are not perfect, and may just be after marketshare, but if they are taking incremental steps towards being leaders in the world of sustainable business, they should get props.

Off to go running.. yes, in my Nikes - Jen

So about 4 years ago I went to the Bioneers conference in Marin (seriously WELL worth it if you can go or attend one of the satellite conferences; it's coming up!).  There I had the good fortune of meeting the Guayaki brothers. These two cute, hippy-ish man-boys that were doing a phenominal job of bringing this good tasting yerba mate' to market, and doing it in this amazing sustainable way.

So happy to see they have really started to get "out there" and appeal to more people than just the 20K or so at the conference that were all vibing on the stuff. 

They were nice enough to give me about 40 sample packets of the stuff, so I have tried most flavors, and tend to go for the less-intense, more girly stuff.  But as a coffee-junkie, I was surprised my taste buds responded so favorably to the stuff.

It is a bit of an acquired taste though... don't get me wrong.  I feel like only the truly acquired can sport the mate mugs that are made of ceramic or gourds and have a silver built in filter / straw.

So if you are feeling the need to try something different but are a bit of a girly-girl, start with the premixed stuff from Pixie, and then see if you can reach the acquired state of being with the gourd.

Off to mix up more girly Pixie stuff until I see Dave and Steven Karr and get 40 more packets - Jen

So here at the Bite, we don’t tip what we don’t try, so we can ensure that you are getting good green advice from us.

But it leaves us in a bit of a quandry sometimes, since, well, Jen and I haven’t done EVERYTHING out there under the sun.  Oh sure – we got the city-country, homeowner-apartmentrenter, blah blah thing down.  But here’s the deal: you guys want a lot of tips on babies, kids and marriage, and, well… somewhere along the way, Jen and I forgot to do those things.  Thus, we have no idea what we are talking about.

So we’ve come up with a plan to fix our deficiencies along those lines.  Jen has decided to have a baby so that we know what we are talking about when it comes to kids (stay tuned, since we are thinking we are going to use the right to impregnate Jen as a sweepstakes prize), and I have decided to have a green wedding so that we can speak authoritatively on love issues.

Accordingly, I am on the lookout for the husband character in this little play.  Thus far, 2 people have made it onto my short list:

Gavin Newsom.  No, I don’t know Gavin.  But that has never stopped me before.  What’s not to love?  He’s tall, relatively good-looking, and puts his career in jeopardy to stand up for what he believes in (being an honest, honorable guy willing to lose everything for telling the truth is… well… Just.  Plain.  Hot).  Besides, he’s out there working to save the earth, so you gotta love that.

Mark Morford.  No, I don’t know Mark.  But that has never stopped me before.  I will fall over and worship Mark if I ever run into him on the street.  He is – quite simply – one of the funniest human beings on the planet.  I can’t risk reading his column or blog while there is ANY liquid anywhere in the room, or I will snort it out my nose and onto my keyboard, even if I’m not drinking it.  Let’s be honest: if you wanna make me fall for you, all you have to do is write well.  Really well.  I have no idea if he’s tall.  I’m disturbed by his rampant love of dogs coupled with an apparent inability to get one.  I am also completely put off by the fact that it’s very hard to google a biography of him and find out if he is taken.  Or tall.  But he could just write me love letters that would make me howl, and that would probably offset any possible shortness.  Or girlfriends/boyfriends.

-Heather… off to enjoy my last days in Italy… sigh...

See that little watercolor pic of me in the header up top?  Well, in the interests of full disclosure, I feel I should tell you that I am not that skinny nor that blond.  And I haven’t done nearly enough yoga lately.  I have, however, been drinking loads of Italian wine, because, well, I’m in Italy right now.

If you’ve followed this blog at all these past years or if you know me, well, then, you know that I have a strange and unadulterated love of Italy.  I have spent a LOT of time here.  But I had never before been to Cinqueterra.

Oh people… I might just be in love with Cinqueterra.  It was so hard to leave.  I spent a good dose of last week, hiking the 5 towns.  It was like HEAVEN.

But the tip doesn’t lie.  I needed bandaids to rescue my poor feet after 7 miles of hiking, and I – fortunately – had a stash of Eco Guard ones at hand.

-Heather... off to chase down my second litre of house wine for the day... oh, and a hot stripper named Guiseppe...