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Green for Life: 200 Simple Eco-ideas For Every Day
With every new day's headlines the world is shifting into a new reality. Freakish weather patterns, widespread smog alerts, and unsafe water advisories are problems that we all need to tackle. But we still have to drive cars, pack school lunches, do laundry, unclog toilets, and throw dinner parties. So how do we do the things we do without making a mess of our world? Green for Life is a practical guide to living the life you want, but with the reduced impact the planet needs. Well known for her involvement in environmental issues, Gillian Deacon takes you through the stuff of everyday life and explains how to do it with minimal environmental impact. Green for Life is a must-have guide for people who know they have to do something, but don't know where to start.
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2008
5 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Deacon
6 books29 followersGillian Deacon is the author of Naked Imperfection, a memoir about the modern woman's struggles with perfectionism and the illusion of control, as considered in light of a young healthy woman's diagnosis with breast cancer.
Gill's last book, There's Lead in Your Lipstick, was a national bestseller as soon as it was released in January 2011. It was ranked #1 on the Independent Booksellers sales list, and was an Amazon Top 100 book.
Her previous book, Green For Life, was also a bestseller, a friendly guide to everyday green living.
Gill is a musician, a keen amateur photographer, and a host on CBC Radio One. She is currently at work on a novel. Gill lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.
Gill's last book, There's Lead in Your Lipstick, was a national bestseller as soon as it was released in January 2011. It was ranked #1 on the Independent Booksellers sales list, and was an Amazon Top 100 book.
Her previous book, Green For Life, was also a bestseller, a friendly guide to everyday green living.
Gill is a musician, a keen amateur photographer, and a host on CBC Radio One. She is currently at work on a novel. Gill lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 9, 2024
Published in 2008. I picked up a few new tips such as e-card and burial options.
April 29, 2010
A good book, well organised, and from someone lining in my area (Greater Toronto Area). The approach in very convivial and easy to read. At 13.50 $, quite an unexpensive practical book.
As I come myself from environmental background, I usually find few informations I didn't already know. But Green for life did bring some new useful information. The book is recent (2009) so that most of the info is up to date.
The book is divided in 30 sections "How to". From How to do laundry, have sex (!), buy a car, get married, unplug a toilet, have a picnic, how to die (!!) etc. In each section, the author passes in review some toxical chemicals involved. We get more acquainted with the parabens, preservatives in many beauty products, and the phtalates in petroleum-derived products and plastic bottles.
The sections How to wash the dishes, how to buy, etc... offer unexpected advices. Instead of washing by hands, she advocates using the diswasher, because "today diswasher uses 95% less energy than the 1970 built ones." The machine also uses less water (less than 3 L by cycle) than washing by hands in a full sink (6-7 L, and refilling it two-three times when the water gets murky).
The beauty product section is, in my advice, one part that would need expanding, since the array of natural skin care products and soaps is growing.
The bio, do-it-your-self, advices don't preclude a fair trade or local provenance.
And in the "how to buy" section, she practices what I usually do, in a steps:
- shop less (really consider what you need)
- shop in your community: your friendly little shop
- shop bio and or locally-made
- package less
- I go to the "big box" mall with China made products at the last resort (and beware of the temptations carefully placed so that you buy more!)
It is a book that can don't have to be read in order.
As I come myself from environmental background, I usually find few informations I didn't already know. But Green for life did bring some new useful information. The book is recent (2009) so that most of the info is up to date.
The book is divided in 30 sections "How to". From How to do laundry, have sex (!), buy a car, get married, unplug a toilet, have a picnic, how to die (!!) etc. In each section, the author passes in review some toxical chemicals involved. We get more acquainted with the parabens, preservatives in many beauty products, and the phtalates in petroleum-derived products and plastic bottles.
The sections How to wash the dishes, how to buy, etc... offer unexpected advices. Instead of washing by hands, she advocates using the diswasher, because "today diswasher uses 95% less energy than the 1970 built ones." The machine also uses less water (less than 3 L by cycle) than washing by hands in a full sink (6-7 L, and refilling it two-three times when the water gets murky).
The beauty product section is, in my advice, one part that would need expanding, since the array of natural skin care products and soaps is growing.
The bio, do-it-your-self, advices don't preclude a fair trade or local provenance.
And in the "how to buy" section, she practices what I usually do, in a steps:
- shop less (really consider what you need)
- shop in your community: your friendly little shop
- shop bio and or locally-made
- package less
- I go to the "big box" mall with China made products at the last resort (and beware of the temptations carefully placed so that you buy more!)
It is a book that can don't have to be read in order.
April 25, 2016
About par for the course for this type of book, I guess. Much that seems scientifically dubious - and not even (hardly) any citations of sources. Suggestions from trivial to (let us say) impractical to (what I, at least, would call) common-sense. But still, numerous worth adopting if you're not already living them.
Worth a thumb-through, anyway.
The writing is decent: Not too dry, with a sprinkling of humour.
I wish it had a summary of linked-to resources at the end, rather than just interspersed among the text.
Worth a thumb-through, anyway.
The writing is decent: Not too dry, with a sprinkling of humour.
I wish it had a summary of linked-to resources at the end, rather than just interspersed among the text.
June 30, 2015
This book is very well organized and gives good tips on how to approach a greener lifestyle. My main criticism comes from the very suburban-middle-class-family view of the author that doesn't always make sense for a broke loner like me.... (Won't buy a new dishwasher and won't wait to fill it to do my dishes....) But the whole how to clean your house part without chemicals was by far the most interesting (I skipped every chapter that was about kids, so basically half the book).
December 28, 2011
Excellent book, lots of tips and tricks for all areas of life. Well organized in sections and sub-section, making it very searchable and usable as a reference book. Would highly recommend to anyone trying to improve their green mark here and there, or everywhere!
May 1, 2015
This book has great eco-friendly tips for practically every aspect of life. It can get slightly repetitive if you read it all in one go, but all of the information is there. The acknowledgements give the reader a sneak peek into what went into writing this book.
July 22, 2014
Contains some good ideas on ways in which you can easily green your life.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews