with our decision to "go green" came the responsibility of doing more research about ingredients and how they are used. Fine by me, I've always loved doing research. I found a lot of conversations out there about non-gmo oils (non genetically modified). What a sigh of relief when I read the reports from our bulk oils supplier ... we were already on top of things and didn't know it. Our handmade soap, which is the product we are the best known for, contains three base oils: coconut, pomace olive oil and soybean oil. We have already been using the non-gmo pomace olive oil and the non-gmo coconut oil. I found a 100% soybean, organic alternative from the same company, which I didn't even know they offered. Constantly striving for improvement is a great thing and what a relief to find out that we were already using non-gmo ingredients.
Gregory, greenpergola.com
Friday, December 28, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Going Green gets good response
Our recent decision to go green with our company, the Green Pergola has received a lot of positive feedback. We were worried about our long-time customers being upset about some of the products being discontinued but when we explained the direction we were going, everyone seemed really supportive and excited about the change.
I'm going to post our GOING GREEN questions and answers here and will report more about the changes soon.... Gregory
What does it mean to be "GREEN" ?
To be "green" means a lot of things. Green is about making better choices -- ones that impact the environment and the planet in a positive way, such as not littering. Sometimes it simply means taking the time to clean up your local park or school grounds. It can be about refusing to take a plastic shopping bag when you only have a few items to carry. It also means making smart decisions about the products you buy and how their ingredients effect the environment in the long run.
Why the change in Green Pergola?
To be honest, we were always trying to please every consumer that walked through our doors -- trying to be more like one of those "mall bath stores". It came down to being honest with ourselves about what we want and WHO we ARE. So many times we would go against our instincts (always follow your instincts) and include a new "fragrance oil" product into the line. But, over time, we noticed something important.....we didn't try to sell those products to anyone. A customer would come into the store and we'd immediately introduce our natural products, steering them as far away from the shelves that housed those "nasty little lapses in judgment". What dummies!
What products did you get rid of ?
Really, not that many. When we stood back and looked at what we offer, most of our product line was already good, solid products with great ingredients. We recently dropped our: shea lotion, peppermint foot lotion, hand butter and our fragrance oil scented candles.
Why get rid of the lotions and the handbutter?Our shea lotion did feel wonderful and we formulated it as close to natural as we possibly could except for one thing: the paraben-based preservative. Same goes for our peppermint foot lotion and our hand butter. Lotions contain a lot of water and without preservative, spoil quickly. Our solid lotion is a much better choice. It is made from 100% natural ingredients, feels great, has a long shelf-life and does not contain water -- therefore, it doesn't require preservative.
So? What's wrong with parabens?
We'll let the EPA answer that: --The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their report "Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: Agents of Subtle Change?" reported that the chemical preservatives called parabens—methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl (alkyl-p-hydroxybenzoates)—displayed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body´s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body´s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid—virtually every system in your body. The EPA also stated that "continual introduction of these benzoates (parabens) into sewage treatment systems and directly to recreational waters from the skin leads to the question of risk to aquatic organisms." Scientists in Europe found other endocrine-disrupting body care chemicals in the bodies of fish that humans are eating, and in human breast milk. ---In our own words ...... Yuck!
Fragrance candles are everywhere. What is so bad about fragrance?
The short story? They are chemicals created to smell pretty. --- Okay, the longer version: The synthetic fragrances that are used in cosmetics and household cleaning supplies can consist of many undisclosed ingredients and, most of the time, none of them are natural. The chemicals used in fragrances do not have to be listed separately from the other ingredients. For instance, fragrance oils that contain a variety of synthetic chemicals do not list any of them on the ingredient list. The label simply reads “fragrance” or “perfume” or “parfum.” The consumer is being deceived into believing that one harmless ingredient is in their beauty product and not made aware of the cocktail of dangerous artificial fragrance chemicals that they are putting onto their skin and breathing in. The consumer has such negative reactions to cosmetic fragrances because each artificial fragrance typically contains one hundred or more chemicals to produce just one fragrance. Over 5000 aroma chemical are available for creating synthetic fragrances. ----- Naw, we'll stick with real essential oils that came from plants. Simple. Better.
Golly. Why did you ever sell those things in the first place?
The truth is, we did try to make those products as natural as possible. Then, we started listening to our hearts instead of our heads. We became more environmentally aware. 95% good was no longer good enough for us. 5% bad still had the word "bad" in it. It became more important to us to educate our customers about all the wonderful, natural products that we create and the reasons behind why we make them the way that we do. 100% good makes better sense: for the environment, for our customers and for our own peace of mind.
What do you do at home that is Green?
We use fabric shopping bags at the grocery store. We no longer use our dishwasher and wash all dishes by hand. We refuse plastic bags whenever possible in stores. Our store has a trash bin that is specifically for recycling. Everyone can begin at home with small steps and add more as you go.
Okay, smarty-pants. If you're so "green", do you ship using those plastic peanuts?
Let's put it this way. We RE-USE those plastic peanuts. In a perfect world, every supplier would avoid using them. For some supplies we need, peanuts do come in the boxes. We recycle them by using them in customer's boxes versus letting them to be hauled to the garbage dump. To date, Green Pergola has NEVER purchased shipping peanuts. We also encourage our customers to save them and re-use them again to avoid purchasing them when they have their own packages to ship. It would be great if they put their own note into their package, encouraging the same thing. Maybe if everyone just re-used the same peanuts over and over, no one would ever actually purchase them again and the plastic peanut guys would go out of business --- it's a nice thought, anyway.
All this green talk. What are you guys? Hippies or something?Hippies?
Naw, we're just very down-to-earth and aware that what we do and the choices we make can affect the world we live in.
I'm going to post our GOING GREEN questions and answers here and will report more about the changes soon.... Gregory
What does it mean to be "GREEN" ?
To be "green" means a lot of things. Green is about making better choices -- ones that impact the environment and the planet in a positive way, such as not littering. Sometimes it simply means taking the time to clean up your local park or school grounds. It can be about refusing to take a plastic shopping bag when you only have a few items to carry. It also means making smart decisions about the products you buy and how their ingredients effect the environment in the long run.
Why the change in Green Pergola?
To be honest, we were always trying to please every consumer that walked through our doors -- trying to be more like one of those "mall bath stores". It came down to being honest with ourselves about what we want and WHO we ARE. So many times we would go against our instincts (always follow your instincts) and include a new "fragrance oil" product into the line. But, over time, we noticed something important.....we didn't try to sell those products to anyone. A customer would come into the store and we'd immediately introduce our natural products, steering them as far away from the shelves that housed those "nasty little lapses in judgment". What dummies!
What products did you get rid of ?
Really, not that many. When we stood back and looked at what we offer, most of our product line was already good, solid products with great ingredients. We recently dropped our: shea lotion, peppermint foot lotion, hand butter and our fragrance oil scented candles.
Why get rid of the lotions and the handbutter?Our shea lotion did feel wonderful and we formulated it as close to natural as we possibly could except for one thing: the paraben-based preservative. Same goes for our peppermint foot lotion and our hand butter. Lotions contain a lot of water and without preservative, spoil quickly. Our solid lotion is a much better choice. It is made from 100% natural ingredients, feels great, has a long shelf-life and does not contain water -- therefore, it doesn't require preservative.
So? What's wrong with parabens?
We'll let the EPA answer that: --The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in their report "Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: Agents of Subtle Change?" reported that the chemical preservatives called parabens—methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl (alkyl-p-hydroxybenzoates)—displayed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body´s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body´s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid—virtually every system in your body. The EPA also stated that "continual introduction of these benzoates (parabens) into sewage treatment systems and directly to recreational waters from the skin leads to the question of risk to aquatic organisms." Scientists in Europe found other endocrine-disrupting body care chemicals in the bodies of fish that humans are eating, and in human breast milk. ---In our own words ...... Yuck!
Fragrance candles are everywhere. What is so bad about fragrance?
The short story? They are chemicals created to smell pretty. --- Okay, the longer version: The synthetic fragrances that are used in cosmetics and household cleaning supplies can consist of many undisclosed ingredients and, most of the time, none of them are natural. The chemicals used in fragrances do not have to be listed separately from the other ingredients. For instance, fragrance oils that contain a variety of synthetic chemicals do not list any of them on the ingredient list. The label simply reads “fragrance” or “perfume” or “parfum.” The consumer is being deceived into believing that one harmless ingredient is in their beauty product and not made aware of the cocktail of dangerous artificial fragrance chemicals that they are putting onto their skin and breathing in. The consumer has such negative reactions to cosmetic fragrances because each artificial fragrance typically contains one hundred or more chemicals to produce just one fragrance. Over 5000 aroma chemical are available for creating synthetic fragrances. ----- Naw, we'll stick with real essential oils that came from plants. Simple. Better.
Golly. Why did you ever sell those things in the first place?
The truth is, we did try to make those products as natural as possible. Then, we started listening to our hearts instead of our heads. We became more environmentally aware. 95% good was no longer good enough for us. 5% bad still had the word "bad" in it. It became more important to us to educate our customers about all the wonderful, natural products that we create and the reasons behind why we make them the way that we do. 100% good makes better sense: for the environment, for our customers and for our own peace of mind.
What do you do at home that is Green?
We use fabric shopping bags at the grocery store. We no longer use our dishwasher and wash all dishes by hand. We refuse plastic bags whenever possible in stores. Our store has a trash bin that is specifically for recycling. Everyone can begin at home with small steps and add more as you go.
Okay, smarty-pants. If you're so "green", do you ship using those plastic peanuts?
Let's put it this way. We RE-USE those plastic peanuts. In a perfect world, every supplier would avoid using them. For some supplies we need, peanuts do come in the boxes. We recycle them by using them in customer's boxes versus letting them to be hauled to the garbage dump. To date, Green Pergola has NEVER purchased shipping peanuts. We also encourage our customers to save them and re-use them again to avoid purchasing them when they have their own packages to ship. It would be great if they put their own note into their package, encouraging the same thing. Maybe if everyone just re-used the same peanuts over and over, no one would ever actually purchase them again and the plastic peanut guys would go out of business --- it's a nice thought, anyway.
All this green talk. What are you guys? Hippies or something?Hippies?
Naw, we're just very down-to-earth and aware that what we do and the choices we make can affect the world we live in.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
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