Who says the pantry has to be a catch-all black hole for prolonging that shelf life? That’s what high school lockers are for!

It’s time to take stock in our most commonly used household storage nook, and make it as inviting as a vintage general store (with a modern green twist, of course).

Open pantries offer easy access for the organic gardener and cook, but also should look tidy since they are exposed to your visitors. Mine is en route to the powder room. Yep, that’s country life.

I find it’s easy to arrange …

Tags: apartments , baskets , bins , boxes , bulk food , decor , eco , food , green , home , homes , jars , pantry , preservation , small living spaces , space planning , storage , sustainability , tea

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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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Levi Strauss is just one of many denim lines clothing the majority of the planet so it was great to hear that they’ve wrapped their brains around their  denim’s lifecycle.

Lucky 3P writer Jen Boynton says of her recent dinner with Levi’s and a gaggle of writers: “The Levi Strauss folks came across as down to earth and honest. We talked about the sweatshop labor that plagued their press coverage in years past and how it started the company on the road to sustainability: first socially, with safe working conditions and …

Tags: denim , environmental , EPA , Goodwill , landfills , Levi Strauss , sustainability , triple pundit

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Bianca and Michael Alexander, founders of Vert Couture, had their work cut out for them this past Sunday hosting Chicago’s first ever green fashion show. But with an already established track record in the sustainable field, the couple pulled it off with flying shades of green.

The husband and wife team, who recently migrated from California, have made the windy city more interesting with Conscious Living TV and Soul of Green. So producing Chicago’s debut sustainable design show was just another step in their progression towards sustainable.

Michael …

Tags: eco fashion , Fashion Focus Chicago , Frei Designs , Lara Miller , Macy's , Mountains of the Moon , sustainability , Vaute Couture , Vert Couture

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FarmVille is the green place to be for city folk reaping the rewards of rural relationships and cooperation through good, clean social gaming.

The hugely popular farming sim has my friends and family bragging on Facebook about a season of planting cash crops, helping neighbors grow lettuce instead of lawns and finding new homes for lost little duckies. It quacks me up!

The strategy of the Zynga grainchild: The user is given the chance to start their own farm, build it …

Tags: computer , cows , crops , Electronic Arts , family farms , Farm sim , farming , FarmVille , livestock , Mark Skaggs , milk , Monopoly , organic , social games , soybeans , sustainability , vegetables , virtual reality

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Hot time, late summer in the city!

Except for those dreaded Friday nights when all that’s on your buff arm is your reusable canvas shopping bag.

Lumbering home from your hood’s green grocer, you pass that trendy Indian bistro and spy handsome couples in the window on double dates. They’re nursing ginormous chalices of red wine and laughing up a storm, eyes tearing from the tandoori and terribly clever banter. You feel resentful. You like red wine, too.

Take heart, neo nester. It’s …

Tags: al fresco dining , Annie Somerville , cooking , drinks , entertaining , farmers market , Green's Restaurant , grilling , menus , organic , San Francisco , summer , sustainability , wine

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It’s increasingly difficult to decide what to eat these days. Between factory farming, overfishing, mercury contamination, and issues with soy production, it’s frustrating to figure out how to feed your body in a way that will keep it healthy, without hurting the planet.

It’s a given that we should all be eating lots of fresh, organic, responsibly-produced fruits and vegetables, that we should stay away from processed food and fast food, and that we should eat a varied, balanced diet with healthy …

Tags: best protein for body , best protein for environment , healthy diet , how much protein , meat eating , proper protein , sustainability , veganism , vegetarianism

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The collapse of the economy has had a curious effect on our culture. Shuttered chain stores and denuded neighborhoods have made us realize how unstable and unsustainable a society predicated on constant growth and fueled by the twin demon drugs of easy credit and cheap consumer goods can be. When the Circuit Cities go away and the lesser Starbucks close, we realize we didn’t really need them anyway.

All over the country, people are reconnecting with their communities, saving money, working cooperatively, bartering and living a less consumption-dominated life. …

Tags: bartering , buy handmade , Community , consumption , DIY , extraction , gardening , genuine , grassroots , greenwashing , localwashing , original , slow money , sustainability

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Now that you know all about the Top 10 Green iPhone Apps, here are some creative ways to be eco-friendly with your iPhone.

Instead of writing down your grocery list and wasting paper, record a voice memo.

Look up directions to a vegan restaurant and treat one of your pals to her first taste of tofu.

Shoot a short how-to video of an eco-friendly project and post it on the web.

…

Tags: green , iphone , lifestyle , sustainability , tips

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