Support verrrde, an eco-friendly affordable clothing boutique project.

Spotted on Indiegogo: a fundraising project for verrrde.com. Michelline Fedele, the woman behind verrrde, is looking to establish a clothing story that carries eco-friendly, but affordable clothing, and she needs some extra help to ensure that every item is indeed eco-friendly and costs under $100. She says on verrrde’s Indiegogo campaign page:

With your generous contributions, we will have enough to buy our merchandise (with a focus on dresses, tops, and accessories) for the first quarter Spring 2014.

I have done a lot of research finding wholesalers who offer clothing using renewable resources, recycled materials, and who are also committed to making the planet a better place to live. All items sold will be under $100, making eco-friendly clothing more accessible to the everyday woman. I have been in the retail business for over 7 years and I am a master at being thrifty and fashionable.

This definitely sounds like a great idea. We could all do with stylish eco-friendly clothes that won’t break the bank, and we need more people and stores that carry them.

There are only six days left to go for this campaign, so go on and lend your support! As of this writing, she’s already raised $3,031, exceeding her $3,000 goal, but a little extra help wouldn’t hurt!

The 100-day shirt

In April, a project called “Wool&Prince: The Better Button-Down. Guaranteed.” kicked off on Kickstarter. The project, the brainchild of Mac Bishop, promised “A wool shirt worn for 100 days straight. No washing. No dry cleaning. No wrinkles. No odor.” The campaign is supposed to end on May 22, but the money it has earned has gone far and beyond its initial goal; right now, it sits at more than $300,000. Bishop launched the 100-day challenge in which he wore the shirt for, well, 100 days; the challenge ended in February and he reported that “The shirt stood up to everything I threw at it—whether it was a five mile run or 72 straight hours of wear during Hurricane Sandy.”

That certainly sounds intriguing–imagine how awesomely convenient it would be if none of us had to wash, say, our jeans, office clothes, and even workout clothes and bras as frequently as we do now. We would save a bunch on laundry, not to mention water.

Read more about the shirt and the project at Wool&Prince.

Have a greener campfire with BioLite

BioLiteMy sisters have been talking about going camping lately, and because I live far away from them, I won’t be able to join them (although I do hope to go camping with them someday). They’ve all been ribbing each other about their concepts of camping: one of my sisters refuses to stay someplace without modern amenities, another expected to stay in a cabin, and another wanted to stay in a proper tent.

I’m not sure what they’ve decided to do, but I’ve been pretending that I’m actually part of the planning process. While checking out camping equipment, I found the BioLite CampStove. The stove promises eco-friendliness because you won’t need any fuel other than the twigs you collected while you’re out hiking, and it won’t need petroleum, either. It works efficiently as well, ensuring that the heat of the fire is concentrated and that none of it is wasted. Gadget-happy people will be pleased to know that the stove can also charge phones because it converts heat from the fire into usable electricity. Additionally, the stove is also great in case of emergencies and power outages. The BioLite Campstove is available for $129.

Ikea to give away cardboard cameras

Ikea's cardboard cameraIt’s always interesting when companies develop ordinary products using non-traditional materials–just look at the BamBike. We even applaud when companies are using recycled plastic in their products. So imagine how much more intrigued we could all get upon hearing that Ikea is coming out with a cardboard camera. The camera is called Knappa and features an cardboard outer casing, USB drive, lens, a circuit board, two plastic screws, and two AA batteries. The camera itself is recyclable.

Because the cardboard camera is being given away as part of Ikea’s promotion for its PS 2012 furniture line, the camera is not for sale. Additionally, one should not expect the camera to perform as well as whatever digital camera you own; read more details at Sustainablog. Nevertheless, we don’t deny that this camera is certainly a novelty–how many times can you say that you’ve seen or touched a cardboard camera after all?

Eco-friendly eyeglasses

I used to break my eyeglasses a lot when I was a teenager. Thinking about how many pairs I ruined and how much money was wasted makes me cringe today, and I’m not forgetting the act that those eyeglasses are now part of the world’s giant pile of waste. Today, my eyeglasses last for years. I just have to get two pairs at a time if I feel like changing up my look every now and then. I still enjoy checking out eyeglasses, of course, and these sustainable ones caught my eye.

Sepulveda by Siempre Verde
Sepulveda by Siempre Verde is made with handcrafted sustainable bamboo. The company also plants a tree for every eyeglass purchase as part of its reforestation efforts around the world.

Model 1079, Eco-OpticsIf I were getting a new pair, these eyeglasses by Eco is what I would be likely to get. The color of the glasses shown here is Wine, but Purple Red looks really good, too. Eco makes all its eyeglasses with 95% recycled materials. Eco also plants a tree for every eyewear sold.

Drift Eyewear eyeglassesDrift makes its wooden frames out of sustainable wood, including bamboo, walnut, and maple. What’s more, they also use VOC-free materials and the travel pouch for their eyeglasses is made from 100% organic linen and 100% organic cotton.

Sires Crown Adamina Rosewood EyeglassesThe pair shown on the left is called Adamina Rosewood and is just one of the many eyeglass models made by Sires Crown. The company uses sustainable wood in its many eyeglass offerings. Sires Crown works with Trees with the Future as well, through which the company plants 20 to 100 trees for every eyeglass pair sold.

Linkskin eyeglassesLinkskin uses recycled plastics and stainless steel in its frames. Its products are accredited by Green Label of Singapore.

Earth Rated PoopBags

Banning plastic bags has been a great way to reduce plastic waste and get people to start looking at other non-plastic options every time they shop. But plastic bags are pretty important to dog owners who need to pick up after their pups. This is an issue that Canadian company Earth Rated considered in light of the plastic bag ban in Toronto.

Earth Rated PoopBagsEarth Rated’s bags are cute, convenient, and undoubtedly eco-friendly. Earth Rated currently offers four products, namely, its standard biodegradable poop bags, a version that has handles, bags that come in a pretty stylish dispenser, and compostable bags. The first three break down into carbon dioxide and water in as little as 24 months and the compostable bags degrade in at last 40 days and are made from 100% corn-based renewable resources.

The bags are also lavender-scented and come in big sizes so you can easily clean up the mess made by your bigger dog.

Earth Rated PoopBags are now available in 1,500 stores in North America, and the company is looking to expand to Europe very soon. Read more about the company here and like them on Facebook.

Samsung Intensity III boasts some green details

Samsung Intensity IIICool, I thought this type of phone design died out already. Phone designs were much more interesting before and they even came in different colors, plus their looks were instantly recognizable. Of course, it’s hard to get crazy with the design of smartphones.

Anyway, this is the Samsung Intensity III from Verizon Wireless. If you’re not keen on all the super-powerful smartphones available these days and still love the feel of buttons under your fingers, this doesn’t look like a bad choice at all.

So what makes it green? The phone is composed of 80% post-consumer plastics and polycarbonate. It also comes in minimal packaging which features recycled paper and soy ink. The Samsung Intensity III can also be a partner in your effort to live an eco-friendlier life because it has an eco-calculator app which you can use to monitor your carbon footprint. Another good thing about this phone is that it complies with military standards and can endure shock, low pressure, vibration, sand, and heat and cold, among others. With a phone this sturdy, there’s little chance of you breaking it and needing to get a new one.