Still wondering why you should bother recycling your aluminum cans? Just ask Greg Wittbecker. He’s the director of Corporate Metal Recycling for Alcoa and a big proponent of boosting the paltry amount the U.S. recycles (52% of cans) to 75%. What’s the big deal? Greg says it’s all about energy and waste disposal. “If […]
Marketing to Women Key to Protecting the Environment
Lest anyone doubt that marketing to women is a fast-track way to protect the environment, just review the presentations made at last week’s M2W (Marketing to Women) conference in Chicago by Frito-Lay, Motorola, Glam Media (the fastest growing women-oriented site on the Web) and more. Women have the clout to put companies on notice: when […]

A Mother’s Day Question: What Do You Have in Common with Your Daughter…or Your Own Mother?
The words, “You look just like your mother!” have taken on new meaning in the chemical age in which we live. According to the nonprofit research institute Environmental Working Group (EWG), we mothers pass the pollutants that have built up in our bodies along to our daughters while they are still in the womb. Consequently, […]
Will New Eco Clothes be on Target?
One of the biggest complaints women have about “going green” concerns the challenge of dressing “green,” and that means more than the color. Apart from the occasional organic cotton nightgown sold at Wal-Mart, or the jackets and vests Patagonia remakes from recycled soda bottles, it’s been hard to find eco-friendly clothes at an actual store […]

Put Breast Cancer on Your Big Green Purse Agenda
Dr. Janet Gray, a scientist at Vassar College and director of the school’s Science, Technology and Society program, recently collaborated with the Breast Cancer Fund to issue a report on the dangers women face from environmental factors that cause breast cancer. I interviewed Dr. Gray and reviewed the report; here are the highlights: * Breast […]
California Business Women Go Green
As a guest speaker at the annual Conference of the Professional Businesswomen of California, I shared the stage today with Gary Hirschberg. Gary’s the “CE-Yo” of Stoneyfield Farms, the organic yogurt company that revolutionized the making and marketing of organic dairy products. Together, we talked to hundreds of women about becoming “CEOs” – chief environmental […]
Green Pet Care How-To
My cat Midnight has been suffering the last few years from an over-active thyroid. The vet could never tell me what might have caused her condition. A new study suggests that pets like mine and maybe yours are being contaminated with high levels of some of the same synthetic industrial chemicals that researchers have found […]

Earth Day 2008 Wish List
With climate change on the upswing and even dogs needing to worry about exposure to toxic chemicals, I’ve come up with five things I’d ask Mother Nature for this Earth Day 2008 if I believed wishes really came true. * President Bush signs a bill that will cut U.S. greenhouse gases 50% – starting tomorrow. […]