Green Living Resources

Want to start living a little greener, but aren’t sure where to start?

Where do you find eco-friendly laundry detergent, compact-fluorescent light bulbs, grass-fed beef, or sustainably-caught, minimal-mercury fish?

How do you know if your sunscreen contains toxic chemicals or if your bank supports rainforest clearcutting?

The following list includes companies and non-profit organizations that I believe in and personally shop with often. Whether you are looking for information or products, all the listings on this page are reputable and trustworthy folks that I recommend wholeheartedly.

By shopping with these companies, you’ll not only find some great resources for healthy, sustainable living (and some great discounts, too!), but you’ll also be supporting the Small Footprint Family blog. So, please visit them, won’t you? You’ll be glad you did!

Educational Websites
storystuff The Story of Stuff - Ever wonder where your stuff comes from? This site offers a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. One of my favorite websites ever!
eco_fp_logo2 The Ecological Footprint Quiz – How many natural resources does your lifestyle require? The Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates the area of land and ocean required to support your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy, and assimilate your wastes. Take the quiz today and learn how you can live lighter, and save money too!
calogoheader Green America Go Green Resources – While Green America (formerly Coop America) is an amazing organization, in particular they have a page of resources for being a responsible shopper in any part of life, from banking to supermarkets.
newglobe_red Weston A. Price Foundation – The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit charity founded to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated, non-industrialized peoples around the world established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets.

This site has a wealth of politically-incorrect information about healthy eating, non-toxic food choices, and maintaining optimal health through the nutrition wisdom of traditional cultures whose food sources and lifeways have not been tainted by factory farming or industrial food production. President Sally Fallon has also produced an outstanding book, Nourishing Traditions, that encapsulates Dr. Price’s findings and provides recipes and preparation instruction. A must read!

Books & DVDs
amazon Small Footprint Family Recommended Reading is a comprehensive, must-read environmental book store on Amazon, and includes books on organic gardening, whole food cooking, alternative energy, green parenting and more!
GAPS Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) – Written by a neurologist and practicing nutritionist, this book is a no-holds-barred investigation into the real facts behind why today’s generation of children have the highest incidence of learning disabilities and behavioral disorders ever. Autism, ADHD, asthma, allergies, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, diabetes, celiac are all conditions that are related by similar underlying causes, intestinal dysfunction. The GAPS protocol can reduce severity or heal all of these conditions, as well as other diseases like IBS, Crohn’s, cystitis, colitis and more.

If you or anyone you love suffers from any of these conditions, this is a must-read!

Recipes for the Paleo Diet - Two Cookbooks - 120 Recipes Each! Paleo Cookbooks – If you are a Paleo-dieter, meaning you eat only foods available to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, then this cookbook is great! It is also good for people with allergies to gluten or casein as well, like my daughter and I.

Many people have lost weight, healed many illnesses and gained greater energy on the Paleo diet. This cookbook has 120 recipes in all meal categories for bringing this healthy way of eating to your dinner table.

Raw Recipes Book for Healthy Kids Raw Recipes for Healthy Kids – The healthiest people in the world eat at least 60% of their total diet in raw and fermented foods. Some people have reversed many health problems like diabetes by eating at least 60% of all their food raw.

Eating lots of raw, organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds is a powerful way to get large amounts vitamins, minerals and enzymes into your body, thereby improving your health. With these recipes, getting more vegetables into my daughter is much easier. In fact, getting more raw food into my whole family’s diet is much easier!

Green Smooth Book Green Smoothie Recipes for Kids – If your kid is like my kid, the last thing she wants to eat are leafy greens. But leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale and chard are power-packed foods full of minerals, vitamins and enzymes that are important for growing young bodies (and old ones too!).

These smoothie recipes help make leafy greens much more palatable and digestible for everyone in my family. Plus you can get more of them in your diet by blending them than you can by cooking and eating them—a winning nutrition solution for everyone in the family!

Eco-Friendly Whole Foods
U.S. Wellness Meats – U.S. Wellness is a cooperative of 4 family farms that offer over 55 cuts of grass-fed meats, free-range poultry, and other meats, including organ meats. Humanely raised, grass-fed animals are high in many beneficial nutrients including essential Omega-3 fats and CLA, which fight cancer and arteriosclerosis, and promote weight loss. In fact, grass-fed beef has as much healthy Omega-3 fats as fish! Their delivery is fast and the meat comes perfectly frozen in its own cooler box. And wow, is it delicious!

Get 15% off your first order under 40 pounds plus free delivery by using this link and code AFF15!


Vital Choice Seafood – Because I am a nursing mom, it is very important to me to have a source of fish that is very low in mercury, and to get tuna in BPA-free cans. Wild Arctic fish that is line-caught is not only sustainable, but it has the highest nutrient value and the fewest toxins of all fish.

The seafood from Vital Choice is not only the safest on the market with the lowest tested mercury levels, but it is also very, very tasty. The tuna and salmon are sushi grade, and I feel perfectly comfortable enjoying them both raw and cooked.

Navitas Navitas Naturals – Navitas Naturals is a quality source for organic super foods like hemp seed, raw cacao, goji berries and more. They also carry trail mixes, stevia, palm sugar, and coconut oil.

Navitas Naturals supports fair-trade policies and sustainable agriculture. All of their power foods are certified organic, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, raw, and certified kosher.

Cultures for Health – This company has a nice selection of bacterial culture starters for yogurt, kombucha, kefir, sourdough and more. Their yogurt strain selection is worth a visit alone. Everything you need to get started making healthy fermented foods and beverages can be found here along with great customer service. Plus they have some great books, kitchen tools and more.
Supplements
iherb_logo iHerb.com – If you need vitamins, herbs, or other supplements, this small company usually has the best selection and prices on the Net. (Even better than Vitacost most of the time!) To top it all off, they have great customer service and good discounts for frequent shopping.

For $5 off you first order, use this link and code DAW230 at checkout.

biokult-bottle-small BioKult Probiotic – The healthy level of good bacteria in the gut can be reduced by factors such as poor diet, antibiotics, foreign travel, stress, aging, and infection. A convenient way of maintaining the healthy balance in the gut is to use a probiotic.

Biokult is a therapeutic strength probiotic formulated for the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, but it is outstanding for all your immune-strengthening and digestive health needs.

blueice Blue Ice Royal Blends Cod Liver Oil – Blue Ice Fermented Cod Liver Oil is lacto-fermented and extracted without heat and the fish are wild caught in the Arctic region. This ensures a pure, clean and nutrient rich, sacred food. It comes in great flavors and capsules that will make you forget your taking cod liver oil.

When combined with High Vitamin Butter Oil, fermented CLO is a power-packed supplement that boosts your energy levels and immune system, prevents tooth decay and reduces inflammation. This is a superior product and the only CLO I will give my family.

Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
gglogo3 Greater Goods – This is my one-stop-shop for eco-friendly household items. The store is absolutely packed with cleaner, greener, healthier versions of the things I use every day.They have everything you might need to live lightly, including an especially large selection of green cleaning products for every surface in your home, eco-friendly sponges, brooms, and mops, biodegradable garbage bags and more.

Get 10% off your first order by using this link and code SFF10OFF at checkout!

Eco-Friendly Household Goods
gglogo3 Greater Goods – This is my one-stop-shop for eco-friendly household items. The store is absolutely packed with cleaner, greener, healthier versions of the things I use every day.They have a huge selection of eco-friendly household goods, like BPA-free water bottles, reusable bags, low-flow shower heads and toilets, CFL light bulbs, compost bins, recycling bins, weatherstripping, biodegradable plastic plates and cutlery, and much, much more.

Get 10% off your first order by using this link and code SFF10OFF at checkout!

Kitchen Tools and Appliances
vitamix Vitamix 5200 – This is an essential tool in my kitchen and I use it daily. It makes outstanding, whole-food smoothies, nut butters, soups, fruit pastes and more. With a seven year warranty, it is one of the toughest kitchen appliances I have, and one of the better investments I’ve made in my family’s health. If you’re a raw foodist or a paleo- or primal eater, this appliance is a must!

Get free shipping by ordering through this link and using code 06-004280!

excalibur Excalibur 9-Tray Dehydrator – I use my Excalibur dehydrator weekly to dry my nuts and seeds after soaking them overnight to remove enzyme inhibitors. I also use it to make yogurt, fruit leather, crackers, sprouted granolas and more. Next to the Vitamix, this is probably the second most useful kitchen applicance I own. If you’re a raw foodist or a paleo- or primal eater, this appliance is great to have!
Non-Toxic Baby Items and Cloth Diapers
gglogo3 Greater Goods – This is my one-stop-shop for eco-friendly household items. The store is absolutely packed with cleaner, greener, healthier versions of the things I use every day.They have a nice selection of BPA-free teething toys, sippy cups  and bottles, organic and wooden toys and baby accessories, chlorine-free and cloth diapers, and non-toxic baby shampoos.

Get 10% off your first order by using this link and code SFF10OFF at checkout!

Non-Toxic Personal Care
skindeep Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database – Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group.

Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 42,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety. So doing your homework is essential to non-toxic living.

kabana Kabana Skincare – This small company based in Boulder, Colorado makes the only sunscreen I will use on my family. They also have other great products like skin butters, soaps and diaper cream. Every product they make has 15 or fewer ingredients—all of which you can easily recognize and pronounce.
Toothsoap – When I was looking for a fluoride and additive-free toothpaste, I discovered Toothsoap, a soap-based, glycerine-free tooth cleaner. Toothsoap is 100% all natural, organic and vegan, and made with 100% sustainable, organic “whole foods” and high grade, therapeutic essential oils. It cleans the teeth leaving them ready to re-mineralize from nutrients in your diet.

I also really like this company; they are woman-run, environmentally responsible, pay a fair wage, and have great customer service.