Kaiser Permanente is prescribing big doses of sustainability in the sixth season of its $50 million Thrive ad campaign.

Two new ads – Emerald Cities and Connected – reinforce the health care provider’s commitment to the planet by dramatically reducing paper use – no small task for an industry long married to countless charts and forms. For most of us, being ordered to “Fill this out” is as rote as, “Hop on the scale,” and just as painful.

The Emerald pitch describes how Kaiser is allowing patients …

Tags: advertising , Allison Janey , American health , care , doctor visits , doctors , e-mail , eco , electronic health records , fuel , gas , green , Health insurance , hopsitals , information , Kaiser Permanente , medicine , paper , patients , prevention , radio , reduce , sustainability , television , thrive , trees

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The casting call went out last January, not to big Hollywood agents but to animal shelters and rescue groups across the country.

Looking for four-legged crooners, black and white, who can get along with others on tour, do the old soft paw on stage, and won’t leap off into the audience when they hear the sound of applause.

Dozens of shelter dogs got the parts for the The 101 Dalmatians Musical including Rascal, a puppy with a broken leg found on the side of the road. Like the others, he has …

Tags: animal cruelty , animals , Broadway , Dalmatians , Disney , dogs , entertainment , family , musicals , pets , rescue dogs , shelters , stage , Styx , theater

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Porcelained out? Carve your niche with an alternative sink for soaking up greener materials like certified teak, bamboo, recycled metal and glass and friendly painted ceramics. You can even experiment with poured concrete with 50% recycled fly ash, as seen in the striking orange basin by Jeremy Levine Design.

Here is a handful of other options we rounded up:

From William Garvey’s Fusion Line of handmade sinks from certified teak grown in the mixed deciduous forests of South Asia….

Tags: aluminum , art , bamboo , basins , bathrooms , ceramic , clay , craft , decor , decorating , design , eco , green , home , house , interiors , luxury , metal , poured concrete , powder rooms , recycled glass , rooms , sinks , sustainable , teak

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It may have been published a couple of years ago, but Americans are now catching up to the message of Steve and Annette Economides and are eagerly plunking down their pennies for the hot home economics crash course.

The authors of America’s Cheapest Family have done remarkably well feeding their family of seven on just $350 per month, paying off their first house in nine years and purchasing a second, larger home, buying cars with cash, taking nice vacations, and yes, even socking away …

Tags: American , cars , cash , college , credit , debt , families , fresh , frugal , green , groceries , house , payments , processed foods , recession , reuse , saving , second-hand , vegan

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Getting Purelled is the growing phenomenon of sanitizing one’s germ-infested mitts with the alcohol-based, Johnson & Johnson product known as Purell.

What’s in the name, William Safire students might ask?

Pure, I imagine, denotes the opposite of tainted, which in flu terms translates into ralphing, the runs and the unpleasant sensation of having been poisoned by Satan. Elle is French for she, as in, she is cruel that H1N1 Virus, widespread in 47 states now. Elle also is a swank Fifties ad-on, like ette for dinette. …

Tags: Alcada , alcohol , bacteria , cdc , eco , environment , germs , H1N1 Virus , Life in the Green Lane , plastic , Purell , sanitizers , schools , swine flu , teens , toxins , upcycling , vaccinations , viruses , waste , work

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Organic, textural and highly ornamental, cabbage is an ideal crop to plant in your garden during those fall and winter months when falling leaves can be the only color abundant in the garden.

Planting rows of the cabbage was a great solution for my own raised veggie bed (below), which is very challenging to maintain this time of year. I long for pumpkins but we never seem to get them going in time.

A garden designer friend suggested the purple, low-water use option of the Cruciferea family (from the same family as cauliflower, broccoli, …

Tags: Cabbage , decor , design , fall crops , gardening , growing , healthy , home , house , houseplants , organic , outdoor , plants , raised beds , seeds , slaws , soup , succulent , water , winter crops

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Mmmm. CANDY! Just smell the bowl full of those darling, little bars of CANDY. Just look at those chewy bites of CANDY!

Now, walk away. That’s right. Walk away and no one will get hurt.

Halloween is really one of the hardest nights to stay disciplined, to focus on staying healthy and stick to your local, organic fare and not endorse one night a year when it’s okay for kids to rot their teeth and poison their bodies with sugar and trans fats.

We get hundreds of visitors to our suburban-esque San …

Tags: candy , cheating , Chocolage , diet , fair trade , green , Halloween , health , hydration , organic , pizza , sugar , water , water bottles , weight

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It’s not your grandmother’s wine box!

This 3-liter tube contains a premium, rich and structured California Cab – the first release by winemaker Barry Gnekow, who went looking for a way to drink outside the box and to entertain without the waste.

“My goal was to produce the equivalent of a $25 bottle of wine that could be delivered to the consumer at under $10 per bottle,” he says.

At $40 a tube, The FOUR Cabernet scores many eco points. It eliminates expensive traditional glass-and-cork packaging, cutting wine bottle landfill waste by …

Tags: carbon footprint , cardboard , cork , eco friendly , gas , glass , green , organic , packaging , Paso Robles , shipping , sustainable , tube containers , windpower , wine

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My old college bud, Kenny Scharf, is arguably the original green artist – a brilliant guy from L.A. who began his career nabbing trash from the streets of Manhattan and embellishing old appliances with his phantasmagorical, Fifties-inspired, squiggly creatures and symbols.

Working alongside East Village graffiti muralists like Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat, his uproariously spacey icons were quickly embraced by Andy Warhol and other enthusiasts with clout. He quickly rose to the ranks of artist superstar.

Scharf  conveyed his …

Tags: AIDS , alternative transporation , Andy Warhol , art , bikes , Brazil , Brooklyn , carbon footprint , Cosmic Cavern , East Village , emissions , graffiti , Jean Michel Basquiat , Keith Haring , Kenny Scharf , los angeles , New York City , pop art , recycle , reuse , sculpture , trash art

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