Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation Wrap-Up

Hope you all had fun and learned something while we all took part in the Green Your Routine Challenge from Seventh Generation.

I know I learned A LOT. I will be packing only litterless lunches from now on, and I will definitely be reading labels a lot more carefully when it comes to cleaning products. I will also remind myself to walk instead of drive, and as it gets colder take public transit as often as I can and leave the car at home. I also have started a handy chores chart. Chris and I are only on it for now, but when Hannah is old enough, she'll be added too.

You can revisit any of my Green Your Routine posts by clicking on their titles below:

1. Packing a litterless lunch
2. Switching to eco-friendly cleaners
3. Green commuting
4. Rebranding responsibility

And of course, congratulations go out to Andrea A., the winner of a Seventh Generation Starter Pack!

To get continuous updates from Seventh Generation, please be sure to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Disclosure: I received Seventh Generation products as part of participating in the Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation Challenge. All opinions and language are my own.

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Rebranding Responsibility (#GYR Giveaway)

How do you organize responsibility in your home?

In order to set kids up for success at school, they need to be engaged in the school preparation and planning process. This means that kids must be involved in planning and preparing their snacks and lunches for the week, they should help clean and select their clothing and should also be in charge of creating their weekly schedules (including chores, sports practices, music lessons, etc). This requires a weekly family rally point (Sunday’s after dinner tend to work well) to meet and go through a mealplanning chart on a large chalk board in the kitchen.

In order to organize and prioritize, you can sit down as a family and create some family goals for the year. This can relate to activities, schedules and even performance in school. Be sure to also suggest some sustainable family goals and actions based on what’s important to you. For example, if your goal is driving less and walking more, the action is to map out a walking route, safety plan and schedule to make it to school and work.

A big part of teaching environmental stewardship to your kids is engraining responsibility into the fabric of your household. Think back to your own childhood and the habits your parents may have taught or passed down to you. Whether it’s how to do your laundry, or what kind of brands you stock your cupboards with, you carry on their behaviors simply because it’s what you’ve always known.

How do you organize chores in your home?

Maybe the person in your household who does the cleaning would love to do so with Seventh Generation products (which they probably do already!). There's only hours left to enter the Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation Starter Pack. Enter using the Rafflecopter below. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 24, 2012. Good luck!

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, September 23, 2012.


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 © 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Green Commuting (#GYR Giveaway)

This third post in the Green Your Routine Challenge with Seventh Generation is all about green commuting.

With an estimated 1.6 million children in Canada (26 per cent of children) considered overweight or obese, it’s a wonder more parents don’t look at making healthy transportation options a part of their daily lives. Here’s a few ways to work health, cost and environmentally friendly options into your getting to school routine:

Start a ‘Walking School Bus’

If your children’s schools are close enough to walk to, leave the car in the garage. Walking is the greenest way to travel and does the least damage to the environment. Find ways to either walk with, or ensure your children join forces with other families who travel the same path to school. This arrangement can give you adult company to chat with, or you can split the task of walking with the children to school. If enough children in your area head in the same direction to school, consider setting up a walking bus in which the children all walk together with a parent at the front as the “driver” and another parent at the back for safety. I actually did this back in University as a newspaper article for journalism class. The parents I spoke to thought it was great - you got to know the people in your neighbourhood AND you got to take a few days off from walking the kids to school.

Image: www.kidshavefun.co.uk

Make the investment in two and four wheeled methods of transportation 

Like a bike, new scooter, or skateboard to make the trip to school fun and fit. It could also motivate children to not WANT to take the car.

Create a Carpool

Eco‐friendly carpools are best done with a consistent group of committed parents who organize a set number of pickups and drop offs. Ideally, the families work together to organize the largest number of children that can safely be transported in the smallest car. Carpools are easiest to manage if they involve just two or three families. Find out which days work best (or worst) for the carpool drivers, create a schedule that works for everyone and a system for notifying other members of the pool if someone isn’t riding on a particular day. For safety reasons, it’s essential that everyone involved in the carpool have full contact information for all the children’s parents, along with the children’s addresses, allergy notes, and any important health information.

Although Hannah can't walk yet (nor is she in school), she does get pushed in her stroller a lot of places. Chris takes the TTC to work. We do drive places in bad weather, but I try my best to walk before driving.

Do you green commute?

Have you entered the Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation giveaway? A starter pack of three Seventh Generation products are up for grabs. Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter.

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, September 23, 2012.

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© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Switching to Eco-Friendly Cleaners (#GYR Giveaway)

I was well aware that as soon as I gave birth a lot of things would change in my life. Something somewhat unexpected for me was changing cleaning routines to become safer.

I was completely unaware of what ingredients made up cleaning products. Before, I would only buy whatever was on sale. I didn't care what brand it was, how it smelled and what it was made of. As long as it didn't nudge too much in my clothing/make-up/eating out budget, it was purchased.

Now that there's a little one in my house, that's all changed. I don't want fumes coming from the bathroom. I don't want to clean her clothes in detergent that could make her break out in a rash. And I certainly want to make sure when I clean her bottles, bowls and spoons they are cleaned with the best possible dish soap.

Unfortunately many dish and laundry soaps contain petrochemicals (derived directly from oil). Luckily there are several companies like that have created plant‐based, family‐safe alternatives to ensure we can avoid hazardous toxins in home products.

I was sent Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid (Lavender & Floral Mint) and Seventh Generation Natural 4X Laundry Detergent (Free & Clear).

Both products are plant-derived and work just as well as soaps from other brands that contain petrochemicals. Both products are skin sensitive. They both smell great (even the Detergent which is free of dyes & fragrances). The containers are also completely recyclable (and compostable in the case of the Laundry Detergent).

Now that I have tried them I will most certainly continue to use them.

Seventh Generation products help protect human health and the environment. You can find Seventh Generation products online or at several national chain stores listed here.

Do you use eco-friendly cleaning products?

Would you like some free ones? If so, enter the Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation Starter Pack giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter below.

Look out for my next #GYR post about Green Commuting next week.

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, September 23, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

The Litterless Lunch (#GYR Giveaway)

At the end of this lovely long weekend, many of us will be making lunches for our budding scholars to take to school. Will your child's be litterless?

The average Canadian child throws away 66 pounds of lunch packaging waste a year. If you replace all that disposable packaging with a reusable lunch carrier, you’d be saving an average of $250 a year, not to mention helping the environment!

You and your family will also be healthier - according to Health Canada, avoiding pre‐packaged, processed foods reduces you and your child’s risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney disease. The majority of sodium found in the typical diet comes from processed food products, accounting for about 77 per cent of Canadians' total sodium intake.

Hannah isn't off to daycare yet, and when she goes she will be provided lunch. However, Chris and I always take our lunches in reusable containers for our fruits, veggies, sandwiches and/or left-over pasta. I work at York University, and we are lucky enough to have a green bin (for composting) in our lunch room. I also use a stainless steel bottle for water, so I don't create waste from my cold beverage either. I am bad at getting coffees (even if the paper cup can be recycled at York), and I intend to purchase a travel mug for future purchases when my mat leave is done (and I will definitely be in need of even MORE coffee).

And instead of the traditional brown paper bag, why not purchase a fun lunch pail or cloth bag that your child can reuse over and over again?

How do you pack your and your child(ren)'s lunches? If you have any green tips that I can benefit from, please leave them below in the Comments section.

As you continue to Green Your Routine with me, please remember to enter the great Seventh Generation giveaway below. My next post will be about eco-friendly cleaners. What type of cleaners do you use in your home?

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, September 23, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Green Your Routine with Seventh Generation

Did you know that it only takes two weeks to form a habit (or change a bad one)? With that in mind, Seventh Generation has set out to Green Your Routine during Back-to-School. Over the next few weeks, please join me by:

1. Packing a litterless lunch
2. Switching to eco-friendly cleaners
3. Green commuting
4. Rebranding responsibility

Every step of the way I will post about how my family is changing their habits - and how yours can too. By adopting these four small and simple changes you can save you money, make a lasting impact on
the environment, and positively affect the health of your family.

As part of the Green Your Routine campaign, Seventh Generation will award one YYZ Bambina reader a Seventh Generation Starter Pack. The pack is composed of three coupons redeemable for Seventh Generation products. The winner will be able to choose from any of Seventh Generation's household products or laundry products (Shower Cleaner, Tub & Tile Cleaner, Toilet Bowl Cleaner, All-Purpose Cleaners, Glass & Surface Cleaner, Natural 4X Laundry Detergent, Natural 2X Laundry Detergent, Liquid Fabric Softener or Natural Liquid Fabric Softener).

I was sent some Seventh Generation products and I will review them in my switching to eco-friendly cleaners post next week.

In the meantime, start thinking about how you can Green Your Routine, enter the giveaway below, and look for my first #GYR post on litterless lunches later this week!

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, September 23, 2012.
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.