Source: Eco-Watch

“Trashed is a documentary featuring its executive producer, actor Jeremy Irons. It examines the encroaching problem of global waste.

Director Candida Brady, who describes herself as a childhood asthmatic and a concerned mother, builds a trajectory that illustrates the impact of waste on land, air and water. We see how marine life is impacted after ingesting toxins from billions ofplastic items that do not breakdown after being discarded. Humans, in turn, eat the fish—retaining these contaminants in their systems.”

Read more here. 

St. Patrick Center, one of the largest providers of homeless services in Missouri, has been assisting veterans with finding employment placement and training in the green sector.  Learn more about the Veterans Go Green! program on the video below:

Source: HEC TV

A new film by Annie Leonard, creator of the popular short animated film “The Story of Stuff,” looks at building a new economy that puts safe products, a healthy economy, and happier people first.

From Annie Leonard’s blog:

“In my upcoming movie, The Story of Change, I talk about how deep, lasting social change – the kind of change achieved by the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the early environmental movement – always starts with a group of people committed to a Big Idea for how things could be better. Not just a little better for a few people, but a whole lot better for everyone.

And yet, these days, when we’re faced with huge threats—from growing wealth inequality to disruption of the global climate—we seem to get stuck in small-bore solutions that fail to get to the root of these problems: an economy that puts short-term corporate profits ahead of everything else.

The fact is that many of us already share a Big Idea for a better world. Instead of a wasteful, growth-at-all-costs economy that fails both people and the planet, hundreds of millions of us want a new economy that puts safe products, a healthy environment, and happy people first.

Today, three-quarters of my fellow Americans support tougher laws on toxic chemicals and more than 80% want clean energy laws. 85% think corporations should have less influence in government and more than six in 10 Americans say the government should attempt to reduce the gap between the wealthy and less-well-off. Maybe that’s why a 2011 Pew Research Center poll found ‘progressive’ to be the most positively viewed political label in America.

Now sure, we may not know exactly what a better future will look like – in many ways, we haven’t invented it yet. But every day we’re making remarkable advances in renewable energy and safer chemicals; more and more businesses are figuring out how to do well for themselves and their workers; and more and more citizens are standing up for themselves, and their neighbors, in their local communities and at the state and national level.

So, where are we headed? What’s our destination?

• Safe products. “Safe” goes beyond seatbelts and airbags (although they save thousands of lives a year). I mean products that don’t trash the planet, the people who make them or the people who use them – products made without toxic chemicals, manufactured under safe and fair conditions, powered by clean energy, and that can be reused, repaired or recycled.This may seem like a no brainer, but our economy has been headed in the opposite direction for decades now. And while there are great examples of companies both making products responsibly and making responsible products, the trend is still toward cheap products manufactured in ways that harm the people who make them and the planet. We can do better.

• A healthy planet. Currently we’re living as if we have more than one Earth – each year we use 1.5 times the resources our planet can produce and generate 1.5 times as much waste as the planet can assimilate. In How Much Is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Future of the Eart, Alan Durning says that in the last 75 years, Americans alone have used up more of the Earth’s resources as all previous generations combined.To prevent further damage, we have to start living within our means.
• Happier people. Stuff and happiness have an odd relationship. Up to a point, more Stuff does add to happiness. If you don’t have a roof over your head and food on the table and some other basic necessities, more stuff can make you happier. But after a point, after our basic needs are met, it gets more complicated. At some point, the value added by more stuff is outweighed by the added costs – the sales price, maintenance, storing, upgrading, insuring – of all that Stuff.We have more and cooler Stuff than our grandparents, but less of what really makes us happy: leisure time with friends and family, meaning and purpose in our lives, a sense of community and connection to society. More than 70 percent of Americans earning a median income or above say they would give up income in exchange for more time with family and friends. Imagine that!

Setting our GPS correctly – toward an economy that supports safe products, a healthy planet and happy people – is important because there are going to be lots of bends in the road to that future, and sometimes, the road itself may not be entirely clear.”

Are you interested in having fresh healthy produce growing right at your own home, facility or restaurant? The Tower Garden® is a new way of growing more efficiently and set you apart with fresher, healthier and tastier ingredients. Through this practice use less water saving resources.

Here is a brief video showing a wonderful rooftop garden in New York City and another video of the gardens in Ohare Airport.

Tower Garden® is making aeroponic tower gardens available to the public. The yield is surprising! One tower garden yields the same amount of produce as 2 to 3 8′ X 4′ raised planter beds. It takes about 5 to 10% of the water; shaves off 25-30% of the growing time; there is no dirt, therefore no weeds, no soil amendments to buy, no fertilizers apply. The Tower Tonic™ is what provides the plants with all the minerals they need. Developed by leading world experts in plant and human nutrition, Tower Tonic™ is an all-natural, earth based mineral solution specifically designed to promote the rapid growth of all types of food and flowering crops.

You can grow fruits & vegetables, herbs and flowers such as lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, eggplant, strawberries, melons, basil, parsley, edible flowers, marigolds and sunflowers.

If you click the link MEET THE INVENTOR you can watch a 4-minute video where you will meet the inventor, Tim Blank, and understand how important this concept is. He worked for Disney for 12 years to perfect this concept and then went on his own in 2005. Tim partnered up with NSA about 6 months ago.

It is perfect for rooftop gardens, patios, balconies, decks, green houses, restaurants and schools or where ever you have access to the sun in or outdoors.

For more information go to greensideup.towergarden.com

Ken Gilberg was our guest on the StLouisGreen.com Precious Earth Segment on Fox 2 News discussing Herbaria Soap, which he founded 10 years ago.

Get to Herbaria on the “The Hill” to experience naturally made soap and scented products. The main ingredients of Herbaria soap are olive oil, rice bran oil, soy and palm kernel oils. Depending on which of our forty varieties you choose, the soap may also contain exfoliating oatmeal, seaweed and emollients such as shea butter, jojoba oil and hemp seed oil.

Herbaria Soaps are made with only natural ingredients and includes scents and essential oils. Ken Gilberg, the owner discussed the various types of soaps he makes an carries and the benefits of natural soap for your body.

Herbaria Soap is located on The Hill
2016 Marconi Ave
St. Louis, MO 63110