Shampoos, conditioners, lotions, oh my.

Do you read labels of the products you buy? Do you understand them? I don't. Someone once told me that you should only by things that you can pronounce everything on the label. Seems like a good rule of thumb. This is true for processed foods, but also important are the personal care products that we use on a daily basis. Some of the preservatives and chemicals used in these products have been linked to causing cancer, disease, delayed development in children, hormone imbalance and more. Aluminum, which causes brain damage, is found in most deodorants. Would you be surprised to know that Petrolatum- a petroleum derived material (YES! the stuff in gasoline) is in most lotions. I was shocked to find it in Aveeno--which I had presumed to be some sort of natural organic type lotion given it's sticker price. So even for those lotions which look to be OK, you have to check the label.

I'm not an expert in this field, but I do know where to go when I have a question. The environmental working group has created a website called skin deep. You can search their database of personal care products. They give a safety rating for the product and explain what the risk is associated with the ingredients in the product.

Black women who treat their hair, beware what those chemicals are doing to you internally. And while I don't know the chemistry outcomes, I do know that your skin is porous. Anything that is liquid that you apply to your skin will get into your system. I don't want us to stop supporting black beauty salons. I'm just hoping someone will create a less toxic solution.

My tips for being safe:
- Avoid all major brands if possible.
- Try using natural oils instead of deodorant. I've often seen these sold by NOI brothers and sisters.
- If you don't want to try that, look for deodorant brands that don't have aluminum or pthalates.
- Try buying in bulk from a natural foods store or co-op. These places usually have natural shampoos and conditioners, you just need to bring your own bottle (which is better for the environment anyway)
- Try using generic brands from larger natural food store chains. Whole foods has their 365 brand which is much cheaper than that name brands, and you can buy big bottles.
- Get over the cost of the healthier stuff and don't overuse what you buy, it pays off in the long-run. This was a huge one for me. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to this stuff, and usually purchased things based on price than quality before I started looking into these ingredients. I thought about it though, and it actually takes me a really really long time to use a bottle of shampoo, or even lotion. One bottle lasts me between 6 and 9 months. I realized its because i'm not only budgeting at the grocery store, i budget when I use the product as well. So even if I buy a bottle at $10 (high end of the cost spectrum for me) and use it for 6 months (low end of the use spectrum), the cost is .055 cents a day. That's not much for staying clear of questionable products.
- Get used to the au natural look. You are beautiful anyway. The less product in your hair, the better off you are.
- If you must, this is a nice how-to to manage black hair for growth more naturally. Tips include eating healthy and drinking lots of water.

The power behind words - Sustainability

Sustainability is an interesting word. Recently a classmate of mine broke the word down into the two words that are inherent: sustain and ability. The ability to sustain--what are we trying to sustain? In Portland, I have heard a community leader often mention that poor people are not trying to sustain their current impoverished situations. But sustainability is not about maintaining. It is about sustenance, the basic nourishment and support we need to get through life. So what do we then define as basic. Of course food, clothing, and shelter fall under this category. but those are outcomes of something else.

I believe that our sustenance comes from healthy community. I am not talking about just a neighborhood or a church or what we usually jump to when we think of community...because they may or may not be examples of a HEALTHY community. In healthy communities, hard problems are tackled with open decision processes. All people interact on an equitable level, because each person's perspective is valuable to the whole. The goal is the betterment of the community, not the individual, and thereby every individual is uplifted. Poisonous behavior and destructive behavior is self-policed. The key to a healthy community is around communication...it is that which must be nourishing and supportive, not judgmental and destructive.

So sustainability is derived from healthy communities, which are rooted in good, democratic communication, where all voices are heard and valued. Healthy communities also seek self-preservation in balance with the natural environment, by practicing stewardship. If one sees their individual responsibility to protect and nurture others and their environment, in return they will feel whole and fulfilled by the gifts they will receive in return.

Brown people have been taught to be dependent on an economy that takes advantage of us. We are disempowered daily through the myth of scarcity. This has been destructive in our sense of community, as we've strived for independent wealth and power, at the expense of those around us. When truly we are abundant. We have talent, skill, ingenuity, compassion. We can choose to not participate. Seeing participation in this vacuum economy (where the money goes up, but it doesn't come down)as a calculated choice, rather than a necessity. But it can only be done in community.

Sustainability is sustaining our ability to thrive, not just survive. And that can only be done when relationships to one's full environment where both nature and people are in balance.

There is power in this, by claiming sustainability as one's own right, you are claiming entitlement to your health and your happiness for today and generations to come.

Linking health to climate change

It's kind of a no brainer isn't it? Reduction in greenhouse gases= less pollution = better health outcomes. Yale just figured this out. http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010812.html

So why isn't pollution seen as a terrorist threat? Unfortunately because those who are disproportionately affected tend to have the least power in society: communities of color and low-income communities.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010812.html

Uh oh, it's that time of year again

Yes, tis the season to go shopping. Or at least that's what corporate America would like us to think. I just read this blog, and I am not religious, but I fully respect the commentary on this blog post. I think the holiday season should be a time for reflection, family, and setting your sight towards the new year. http://blogs.worldwatch.org/transformingcultures/rethinking-christmas/

There are many options that don't include participating in the shopping madness on Friday.
- Volunteer for a day
- Go for a hike
- Have a board game party
- Have friends over for leftovers
- watch a movie
- organize a clothing swap
- make your gifts for Christmas (like a calendar with family photos)
- balance your checkbook
- reasses your budget
- wash your car
- anything but go shopping :-)

African American Outdoors website

Rue Mapp started this website to as a way to feature African-Americans in the outdoors and connect through social media to others of a like mind.

Portland has a similar organization called the African American Outdoors Association. The organization has a similar purpose in encouraging folks to try different outdoor excursions together. Going in a group definitely helps. Their trips have included hiking, biking, horseback riding, rafting, canoeing, camping, and last winter they partnerered with the Ebony Rose Ski Club for snowshoeing, downhill skiing and cross-country skiing. Having participated, it's a great comfort to be able to bring my family, and get to know more black people in the community with similar interests in the outdoors. It's non-threatening, and all about having fun together.

http://outdoorafro.com/

What does an environmentalist look like?

Please watch my short video. The purpose of this movie is to counter stereotypes both within and outside of the black community that we are not environmentalists. It is part of who we are, it is part of our nature:

How I see it. A note on privilege, environment, and race.

To be completely transparent, I am a highly educated woman. I am middle-class, and have lived a life of immense privilege. I shy away from this fact...believing that it in some way people of color will feel that they cannot relate to my life, and vice versa, that I do not understand the pain of poverty, and injustice enough to relate to the experience of many people of color in this world. Further, by me believing in sustainability and environmentalism, I subscribe to the hugs trees, chastize people mentality. To put it more bluntly, it makes me feel that I lack street-cred. I was told once that it takes 21 instances to  break an initial perception. So let's consider this instance 1.

I believe there are two types of privileged people in the world. Those who take it and run, and those who take it, turn around, and share. Privilege for me means a responsibility to make change and take action. Privilege has meant that I understand aspects of our social system and have learned to take advantage of it rather than be taken advantage of. This does not mean in all realms, but I've had the luxury of a family line that has been able to succeed against expectations. And in those realms, I benefit from their experiences. I am privileged to be able to have had parents that believed in me to be a change agent which has created an intense drive to apply my skills and talents to some greater good. Privilege in my world, is a synonym for responsibility.

So what is it that I feel responsible for? I've called it infiltration, I've called it cross-communication, I've called it building bridges, I've called it breaking down barriers. Essentially I see myself as responsible for taking all the knowledge and experience I've been exposed to in life to build power, confidence, and strength for disadvantaged communities, particularly black communities. WHY BLACK? because if we can build social equity for black people in this country, and get to the point where we can talk openly about the systematic subjugation of black people throughout our history...we can begin to heal wounds and achieve equity for everyone. Native Americans are the only other group to have experienced worse. So much so that their lives are often completely ignored in society. I do not want to be an example of exclusion, I acknowledge that there are much more talented people with cultural knowledge and experience to be able to advocate than I can currently. That will hopefully change in time. So for me the starting point is the black community.

My passion for environmentalism starts here. It is rooted in my desire to preserve natural assets because I believe that the core of our culture lies in a balance with nature. And in fact, the destruction that our communities have felt is paralled in nature. We have not yet made this connection. The civil rights movement is the basis for much of what is right in the world today. Unfortunately, those who were most threatened by it (those who have power in this country) were successful in making sure that it did not address the economy --one that in its basic structure is socially and environmentally unjust. The work of civil rights and social justice is not done, and we as people of color cannot be led to confusion that living in abundance materially equates to the freedom we have always sought. We have been taught that convenience, style, independence and material wealth define our value in society, and in return we have chronic health problems, and dysfunction in our communities.

People and environment are not disconnected. We are part of an ecosystem. Let us redefine what is success, what is wealth, and remember what used to be most valuable to us. Then, let's arm and equip ourselves to make strides towards a new vision for our future.

Environmental Justice Resource Site

To learn more about the history of environmental justice, and definitions: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/

Full Spectrum Economy

Riane Eisler, author of the Real Wealth of Nations, is an advocate from what is called a caring economy--an economy that values the contributions of care to our society that is not measured in our traditional measurements of wealth and prosperity. For example, "The addition of Household enterprise and Volunteer service sectors makes possible new ways for accumulating “real wealth” beyond the markets. This brings the people into the equation while taking the pressure off the markets to be the sole creator wealth." (from http://www.partnershipway.org/caring-economics/full-spectrum-economy-blog/triple-bottom-line-full-spectrum-economy). The household enterprise consists of the work traditionally done by women (but increasingly men) in caring for children and elderly parents. Child rearing is not a remunerated job, but extremely valuable to society. She argues that if these sectors were given more equal weight, the triple bottom line would be much easier to accomplish.

I like Riane's thinking, in rethinking the sectors of our economy. Were we to value the contributions made in the care industries based on impact, they would compete strongly with any other sector. Unfortunately, it still remains unclear to me how feasible it will be to move for this kind of change on a policy level. It is still an individual choice for those in power to allow for these sectors to be acknowledged. How can we as people make the cultural shift necessary to counter the predominate view and social structure that devalues the care we provide to our children and elderly? Social determinants of health seem to be a potential source for data to support this argument. But how long will it take for the data to prove what we know to be true? It's situations like these where I wish our political system allowed for female intuition, cause mama knows best.

Definitions: Triple Bottom Line

The triple bottom line is a term that I learned on my first day in class at Bainbridge Graduate Institute. And now I hear it as a buzz word. What does this mean? The triple bottom line goes beyond what we know as just the regular bottom line of profit by adding two more legs to the metaphorical three-legged stool of Sustainability. It is known as the three E's: Environment, Economy, and Equity, or three P's: People, Planet, and Profit. In order for it to stand upright, hence for a business/institution/organization to really be sustainable, all three legs must be present.

The problem is that most people understand the profit and planet part. Business is growing well in the green industries and markets. The problem is when we get to "people". What does it mean to make a business sustainable for people?

A good start is a review of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Articles 23-25 outline basic rights for employees:

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

So now, we must go one step further. How do these rights translate into our business practices? How can we measure success in each of these components? And how can we ensure that these priorities assist the development of the planet and profit sides of a sustainable company? This will be a topic we will explore further.

Who's the granny driver?? What? You mean me? No, I'm hypermiling.

I've been introduced to a term called "Hypermiling". I have come across various articles in the past describing how to drive more efficiently, and found surprisingly many of these things I already do. This came to light as I was recently test-driving a Nissan Sentra. (my last car died). As a drove off the on ramp onto the Freeway, the car dealer told me I could accelerate if I wanted to...thinking I might be nervous about really testing the car. I said "No, it's ok, this is how I drive." I then went into my little speech about how driving slower is more gas efficient, this brother looked at me as if I was crazy and said he was sure glad he wasn't my husband-we'd have to drive separately.

So now I have a word for it for my craziness--which sounds WAY cooler than granny driving. The tools on the website or much more organized then my rambling with fuzzy facts too. In summary, meaning things that we could all do:

1. Try driving 5-10 miles slower on the Freeway
2. Avoid sudden stopping and accelerating.
3. Drive slower in the morning when your car is cold to allow it time to heat up. Cars run more efficient warm.
4. Get regular tune-ups and keep your tires inflated properly.
5. Avoid excessive idling.

The last is my favorite actually. Just think, waiting in line for fast food, or at the bank, or for me, at the really really long red arrow light turning into my neighborhood. You could be saving gas, and doing something for the enviroment. Makes cents.

What does it mean to be brown and green?

Essentially, like a tree: with strong roots and arms that extend reaching to the sky with hope.
Or maybe like an avocado: with a solid core surrounded by mushy stuff
Or maybe like a kiwi: with a rough exterior, but a sweet inside

In my experience, it's been a bit complex.

Its interesting to see a city so green be so divided culturally. Portland is very innovative when it comes to Environmental Sustainability, but it has a lot of work to do in the realm of equity. The history of the city is one of exclusion, gentrification, and discrimination. However, in addition to that, there is positive movement towards making Portland become a leader in the triple bottom line approach to sustainability as well. It is important to recognize that we as people of color must also be ready to change and adapt to the new times that are coming. Climate change is real, and we must prepare ourselves to not be left behind once again.