Posts Tagged ‘tips’


The Green Wedding:
Simple Do’s for I Do

by The Green A-Team

It’s wedding season but did you opt for Green instead of white?

These next few months cast an amorous spell over the millions sharing their eternal devotion to one another. Religions and cultures lay down their differences to honor friends and family members in an epic celebration that, unfortunately, can be costly and wasteful if not planned properly.

But you don’t have to be an environmentalist to plan a Green wedding. The main objective is to throw a memorable affair with minimal waste in a special place. St. Louis native and Green event planner Rachel McCalla of Lucky You Productions panned her own Green wedding in and has a simple method for achieving the loveliest possible results:

1.) Pick a LEED certified location. Botanic gardens are a definite while most newer and recently renovated theaters and event halls have undergone the rigorous LEED Green building standards.

2.) Food is vital for your health and for making your wedding truly memorable. Organic caterers are in plentiful supply where the difference in freshness, locally grown, and smart choices with flatware can do a world of good.

3.) Decorations, invitations, and gifts can be a snap with resourceful planners like Rachel. You’d be surprised how many recyclable products are available to beautify your wedding environment while preserving the natural one.

and 4.) Forging your own flowers and having your bridesmaid dresses sewn of organic silk by fair trade seamstresses (eco-designer Starr McCaleb), as shown in the photo of our close friends Gemma and Andrew Ingalls‘ wedding last summer in Vermont, can make a huge difference both aesthetically and environmentally.

Photo by Anna Wolf

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Memorial Day Weekend:
Sustainable Travel

by The Green A-Team

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, the travel bug is biting. But does Green travel have to involve a backpack and a zip line?

Travel and tourism is a 1.3 trillion dollar industry in the US, according to the Travel Industry Association of America, and globally provides 200 million jobs or about 8% of total global employment. The way in which we travel and how this industry operates demands as much sensitivity, if not more, than how we go about our everyday lives.

To generate awareness, the World Tourism Organization adopted a few simple strategies for sustainable tourism.

1.) Make optimal use of the environmental resources afforded to you. Proceed with frugality in your expenditure of resources and you may notice some life left in your wallet by the end of your journey.

2.) Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities. As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Everyday customs that may seem unfamiliar or downright intolerable may be vital to the survival of the host ecosystem.

and 3.) Provide socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders. Just because things are cheaper in some places abroad, shouldn’t stimulate the need to penny pinch more. Travel can be the best form of philanthropy so acknowledge your role as a guest in a foreign land.


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