It’s simple, really.

We email the companies and ask them if they would care for us to review their product. They send us a sample, and then we get all judge-y on it. We fully acknowledge that we receive the products for free, but this does not mean we are inclined to like them more. In other words, we are as critical as a new mother-in-law in determining if a product is both great and green.

Once we’re done, we usually donate the product or give it away to a reader (although we admit to holding on to the occasional lip gloss, because sharing would just be gross).

If a company really, really wants us to say something nice, not only is that really expensive – hey, we’ve got a lifestyle to maintain – we also slap a big fat “SPONSORED POST” note on the review. But, bottom line, if the product stinks and doesn’t fit in with what we’re all about here, we’re not promoting it no matter how much green (both the cash kind and the eco kind) is involved. Your trust is the most important thing to us. That and coffee.

EcoSalon is fully compliant with all FTC guidelines governing endorsements and advertising. If you have questions, feel free to email us. You can reach Sara, our head honcho, at editor@ecosalon dot com, or send a note to our general email bin at contact@ecosalon dot com and one of us will be happy to respond in two shakes.

Thanks!

- The editors

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 access to their own medical data via Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, the world’s largest civilian electronic health record.

Not just a handy core tool for patients, the online system is apparently saving thousands of trees annually. And, as of September 2009, Kaiser estimates its members completed six million doctor’s visits without using one gallon of gasoline. Guess they got the help they were seeking by going online.

“We will be entirely paperless by 2010 and these ads illustrate how we are doing our part in some way to help the environment,” I’m told by Lisa Ryan, Director of National Advertising at Kaiser. “Having a healthy environment creates a healthy community that helps individuals thrive.”

In these appealing ads, actress Allison Janney, the KP spokeswoman since 2004, drives home the point in her now familiar, smooth-as-a-surgical-glove delivery:

“By putting an end to paper medical records, we have ushered health into the digital age.”

To paraphrase the tagline: I think that I shall never see, a 62-page medical report as lovely as a tree.

“Our ode to trees talks to the fact that when you have online capabilities and a way to connect, it  does eliminate the need to drive to a facility or to an office visit,” says Ryan.

The Connected spot highlights the convenience of securely e-mailing your doctor, checking your medical records, reviewing test results and booking appointments online. This spares not just trees but the stress of being forced to listen to bad “music” after being placed on hold the second your doctor’s receptionist answer the line.

Kaiser clinicians are digitally connected to each other, which ultimately helps them stay connected to  members. The closing line of the ad summarizes, “At Kaiser Permanente, we believe that if knowledge is power, shared knowledge is even more powerful.”

Personally, I have struggled to attain the elusive power of shared knowledge while advocating for loved ones at hospitals where overworked, impatient doctors seemed agitated when pressed for too much info. Getting them to return phone calls was even harder. Then again, my family doesn’t use Kaiser. Maybe their doctors are more generous.

“Our primary care physicians are at center of who we are and we have great accessibility in person, on the phone and email,” says Ryan. “Ive had great experience with my own doc whom I have spoken to on the phone and through email. All of our new alternative ways to reach out and stay connected really help.”

I was glad to see the green connection extends to its Thrive website, which give readers tips on being “thriving communities” by buying locally-grown food, using fewer shopping bags, making their own cleaning supplies and avoiding exposure to chemicals in the home.

Ryan told me all of this effort, including the ad campaign, has been an extension of proven sustainability practices at Kaiser’s newly-built facilities, such as centers in Modesto and Santa Clara, using solar panels, pavement treatments to recycle run off water and friendly denim material in the walls as green insulation.

“The advertising is a great bridge between the sustainability message and the innovation of who we are,” Ryan  says. “It was a huge undertaking to go digital and to retrain the care staff, but it all speaks to our overall concern with the health of individuals and the community. ”

Prior to the green thrust, Kaiser treated us to daily ads on prevention, reminding our unhealthy nation that the more we exercise, eat well and get screened for diseases, the less we will have to spend on health care.

I think the ads resonate with the radio-listening masses facing poor health along with a poor health care system that has yet to be reformed.

With $50 million invested in the message, let’s hope Kaiser proves to be one of the needed cures.

Images: Kaiser Permanente, Wiki

“It’s funny how new furniture has a way of restoring people,” says the sweet, pastel-coated spread (above) appearing in online and print magazines.

Why the reminder to hug a couch today?

It’s all part of a $20 million ad campaign launched by Ogilvy & Mather to spur Americans to focus on the bird in the hand, namely homes they now own and can play with even if the economy ain’t recovering and we can’t bid on new real estate.

Decor spending is in the toilet with showrooms hurting and closing in all major cities. According to the Commerce Department, sales of home furnishings fell 12.9% over the last year, and they’re still dropping. Sales were down .9% in July from June.

But don’t be part of that sluggish market when furniture can lift your spirits to new heights. A new pillow can make you thinner and an upholstered headboard will make you rich. Remodeling your bathroom can cure halitosis. Don’t even get me started on that imported bidet!

“Things that fill our home also fulfill us. They become who we are. Giving us joy. Providing us with comfort.” That’s what the ad says, which has appeared in Metropolitan Home’s eco edition and other respected journals.

Meantime, a product information invoice attached to the sofa in the ad ironically says: “22 percent cotton, 13 percent giggles, 15 percent hugs, 11 percent afternoon naps.”

Okay, so now we know why those ad men make the big bucks. It’s genius to assign the same value to seating as quality family time and showing affection. There’s even a makeover opportunity if you tell your cheap, lazy ass friends to clear out that dilapidated jalopy of a couch from their college years and the hideous side chairs they inherited from a cousin. Don’t you want a hug and tickles, you slob you?

If I entered the sweepstakes I’d get myself out of the laundry room and make a real office in a prefab shed outside. But I’m so unlucky at these prizes. My mom always wins raffles, purses at luncheons, free dinners, you name it. Not me. Damn, and I could get Monica Pedersen to stage my office, whoever she is. I wonder is she is related to the Bret Pedersen who works with my husband. Now he could use a makeover.

According to Fast Company, the story behind the ad is rooted in the maverick Las Vegas way of doing things. While High Point, North Carolina, once ruled as the center of American furniture production and sales, the focal point has shifted to the World Market Center,  a 1.3-million-square-foot showroom and exhibition space in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas group apparently commissioned the ad campaign as a stopgap measure for the hurting industry. It’s a $20 million gamble that just might pay off!

Image: Homeyet Lifestyle, Homeyet Lifestyle, Fast Company

First, a link we’ve mentioned before (what’s that called, a relink?) but worth repeating because it’s a foodie’s treasure trove – it’s 50 of the world’s best food blogs. My personal favorite is Chez Pim, where I first learned how to sun-dry my own tomatoes without using the sun – jolly handy for us Brits.

This is upcycling par excellence: yarn created from the unlikeliest of sources including plastic netting, VHS tape, newspaper and human hair! Thanks to Matt and CraftStylish for this one – but as green as it is, the people-hair thing, well, must dash, bye.

Looking to build a new house for next to no money? Dan Phillips is the man to see. His house is 85% landfill – and as you can see in this Texas Country Reporter video, it looks terrific. So far Dan’s helped 8 families build and purchase a recycled home – could yours be number 9?

If you want a reminder that the wrong types of cosmetics, deodorants and chemical cleaners are causing havoc when they spill into the environment, look at the state of Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound – and that’s 30 years after the Clean Water Act kicked in. (Or take a look at what Luanne discovered last year).

Starbucks continues to play Good Cop and Bad Cop – hot on the heels of this public relations disaster, the company has announced it’s investing heavily in Fair Trade practices, aiming to supporting the development of small-scale farming initiatives with a $20 million investment. Good recovery, guys (and thanks, Treehugger).

Is there anything that looks more shabby than dirty, ripped advertisements peeling off billboards and oozing neglect? Therefore, logic dictates, is there anything potentially classier than advertisements made from natural, temporary materials, such as wheat, sea water and snow? The name of the most exciting thing to hit marketing this year is Curb – and Ecopreneurist has more details.

Obama has just signed a $5.7 billion bill to triple the size of AmeriCorps, touching the lives of millions of people. And every one of them is a starfish.

There’s a word with which science-led types like me are usually uncomfortable. It’s not something you can nail down with hi-tech testing and maths and statistical formulae. But it’s an undeniable part of our relationship with the natural world, so we need to look it in the face and grow comfortable with it. And it’s married with the word “ecology” here, at Green By Design.

Nixon! Sorry to scare you there. The famously grubby-pawed President has become something of a metaphor for monstrous evildoing in recent years (take Futurama’s depiction). Yet it was Nixon’s administration that created the Environmental Protection Agency. Should we be kinder to his legacy? Well, no – but perhaps we should be a little grateful.

Now here’s a vital question: what happens when we start looking long and hard at how rampant commercialism is affecting people during their most impressionable time – childhood? Jennifer Lance at Eco Child’s Play cites the disturbing way that Disney is targeting young boys, apparently enlisting the help of “a researcher with a background in the casino industry”. Where’s the line?

Ugh – celebs. What are they like? Flying their personal trainers back and forth, owning their own private jet fleet, cutting down Giant Redwoods to make toothpicks for their dogs (okay, I made that one up). But while we love to hate celebs, we should also love to love them as well – taking as an example the work of Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), seen here at Razoo. If you need further convincing, take a look at Kaczmarek’s “Clothes Off Our Back” Foundation.

Feel like your brain has been taxed enough this week? Feeling the urge to fling oranges at illegal loggers? Thought so. Well then, here’s how, thanks to some people at Tropicana with an overabundance of time on their hands. Fruits away!

So many new green sites to keep up with. Take GreenDig, which we definitely do dig now that we’ve had the chance to catch up with it, even though it started up last year. Slow down, Internets!

Eco-news isn’t all bad, as Cailtin recently demonstrated – and if you’re looking for an even more epic shot in the arm, read through these 10 truly colossal green projects that have world-changing significance. Guaranteed to replace the spring in your step!

Finally, an important and timely safety announcement. Beware blueberry waffle mix – more specifically, of becoming an ingredient of it. That is all.

Image: Dreamtroll