Review of Gorgeously Green
A Book of Eight Simple Steps to Living Earth Friendly
Sophie Uliano provides a guide to become more earth friendly without giving up the comfort and convenience of modern life. Gorgeously Green (ISBN: 978-0-06157556-3, Publication Date 2008) addresses environmentally friendly tips for personal care, home maintenance, and shopping.
Personal Care
Uliano discusses the ingredients in most commercial personal care products including soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, and tissues among others paying particular attention to the dangerous ingredients. She then provides alternatives and places to find those alternatives.
Recipes are available for those who like to make their own personal care products. Uliano provides tips for exercising in an earth friendly manner including step by step instructions and a workout plan to get readers started.
Resources for earth friendly recreation include personal fun, entertainment, and travel. Exploration of eating earth friendly takes up an entire chapter complete with definitions of labels such as “natural” and “organic”. Earth friendly recipes for dining are also included. Uliano covers personal care fully in Gorgeously Green.
Home Maintenance
Gorgeously Green explores how people can maintain clean, eco-friendly homes. The side effects of commercial cleaners on humans, wildlife, and the earth are discussed. Earth friendly solutions and resources that are healthier for humans and wildlife are provided.
Uliano discusses trash disposal and recycling in depth. Cutting back on utilities, use of alternative energy solutions, and eco friendly home renovations are also explored. She moves outside the home to discuss the benefits of gardening, lawn care, and composting in an earth friendly manner. Uliano promotes creating a healthier environment where we live and beyond.
Shopping
Uliano provides tips for cutting back on shopping that are both eco and budget friendly. She encourages being mindful when shopping not only of what an item costs but what it costs the environment by way of production, transport, and disposal. She explains the benefits of only buying what one needs as well as buying products made of organic materials. She talks about earth friendly gift giving. She discusses buying new electronics.
Gorgeously Green also explains the importance of minimizing trips and combining errands to minimize the impact on the earth. The author also encourages the use of reusable materials such as cloth bags for shopping and stainless steel coffee mugs for stops at coffee shops. She explores the pros and cons online shopping and physically going to stores. Each chapter in the book provides resources for buying earth friendly products or finding earth friendly services. Gorgeously Green acknowledges that people are shoppers and points them toward earth friendly shopping resources.
Gorgeously Green is an interesting, fun guide to going green. Uliano’s sense of humor and practicality make going green simpler than may be expected. Her personal examples make the reader smile and sometimes laugh out loud. She makes her point with understanding that each individual’s circumstances are different. She often points out ways going green will save money.
While her passion shines through, the book is rarely preachy. She encourages making changes over a period of time so as not to be wasteful while reducing the impact on the earth. She divides the book into an eight week process complete with a group of simple choices to continue on the path toward green living each week. Between the resources, explanations, and recipes, Gorgeously Green is a book to keep on hand for reference.
For information on other green living resources, read my review of Easy Green Living.
Gorgeously Green
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